This Is What The Young and the Restless Gala Was Really Needing

The Young and the Restless on-air gala to celebrate 50 years of broadcasting….er, the Genoa City bicentennial…offered pretty people in pretty clothes. We got several dramatic confrontations, a couple of kindled romances, and even a marriage announcement. But you know what we didn’t get?

Young and the Restless: A Missed Opportunity

Flashbacks! And there were so many places where it felt like the perfect lead-in, for one. When Gina (Patty Weaver) said Jack (Peter Bergman) and Diane (Susan Walters) were picking up where they left off at Gina’s Place…When Nina (Tricia Cast) was forced to admit that she’d just sounded a lot more like Jill (Jess Walton) than she would have liked when confronting Abby (Melissa Ordway) over Chance (Conner Floyd)…when Ashley (Eileen Davidson) and Leanna (Barbara Crampton) rehashed the past…

Y&R: Unique Selling Proposition

Soaps are one of the few genres that, when they want to talk about something that happened thirty years ago, don’t have to drag out old actors in young makeup or hire body doubles. When soaps want to talk about something that happened thirty years ago, they can actually show it happening thirty years ago!

Young and the Restless: The Perfect Spot

Where was Victor’s (Eric Braeden) first day in town? Where was Devon (Bryton James) getting adopted by Neil (Kristoff St. John)? Where was Kay Chancellor (Jeanne Cooper) lording it over them all, and where was the Brooks family? If it’s a matter of viewers being confused by recasts, trust us, we can take it.

We loved the late Terry Lester as Jack, and it would be no swipe against multi-Daytime-Emmy winner Peter Bergman for us to relive Lester’s early days – especially since it was his Jack who slept with Diane (then-Alex Donnelley) on his first wedding day. We’re already invested in today’s stories. But yesterday’s only add layers and depths so that we can enjoy it more!

The Young and the Restless airs weekdays on CBS. For an in-depth look at the show’s history, click here.

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