Young And The Restless Discussion Group

Topic: What made you watch Y&R?

To answer the question, I'd always loved the idea of soaps, the style and duration, but every time I tried to watch one, I'd just get bored and fed up with it. Finally, in my 20s, a girlfriend suggested Y&R. She said the production values were the best. I tried it and got hooked almost immediately! She was right, the modeled lighting, hypnotic rhythm and pacing, and dialogue suited me much better than any other soap.

This was in the early 90s ('91?). I loved the Abbotts, and soon the Hope story grabbed me, then Nick, Sharon, and Matt Clark.

As Signy said, it was promoted before it came on.  Before that soaps were called The Guiding Light, Search For Tomorrow, Another world.  This new one, The Young And The Restless, sounded provocative and enticing.  They still basically used the same family dynamics but a little more of the ''Young'' and a couple years later they came out with a companion show, The Bold and The Beautiful.

However to answer your original question I watched my first Soap because I was standing there ironing or tending kids or babies.

My mom used to watch it when I was growing up.  After kindergarten it's on in my area, so I started out little. 

I've loved Jess Walton's Jill since I started watching.  At first I think I was probably attracted to the big hair and sequins she used to rock.  Then I fell in love with her fiesty character and take-no-crap style.  And for the record, she's just as wonderful an actress today as then.  When she decides to leave Y&R that will be the end of watching for me.

When I was four my mom used to be a janitor at the courthouse and she watched YR with another worker, she also watched it with my grandmother when she was off, anyway, I thought they were so boring, but then I saw Sheila Carter.  It was the episode where Sheila had her mother and Lauren in the farmhouse, I got so into it, and thought Sheila was so cool. Then she died and I got sad, but as time went by my mom told me that Sheila was on another soap, I didn't understand how that was possible at the time.

Over the years I saw glimpses of her on BB, but started watching soaps full time in 2002, I had not thought of Sheila in years, but when my mom told me she was back, the memories returned and I started watching.  I came over to YR in 2005, and have been hooked since.

The only soap I had watched was The Edge of Night.  I was at my mother's place one morning and she was watching Y & R.  The first scene that I watched was Snapper Brooks and Chris Foster talking in their tiny apartment.  In those days it was not as easy to keep up with soaps.  There was no VCR and certainly no DVR, so I watched the show here and there for the next several years.  I did manage to keep up with the story line.  I started watching full time in 1984 when we bought our first VCR, and I could tape the show daily. 

I used to pay medical claims & to ward of boredom and to refrain from too  much talking to others,  many of us  used walkmans. 

I could pick up CBS and found that listening to talk shows like Phil Donahue, Sall Jessy ( this was back in the late 80's ) was more interesting than music.  I just kept listening to Y&R when it came on.  I became intrigued enough to start taping it so I could see what these people looked like and have been watching ever since.

I suffered through All My Children for years and complained about it all the time.  A few years ago some of my friends recommnded Y&R and so I switched and never looked back.

As much as I complain about it it is still way superior to anything on ABC so I'm pretty satisfied.  Y&R features their vets like Jack, Victor, Nikki, Katherine and Jill front and center and ABC soaps backburner them. 

So on days off and Holiday breaks I would try to watch the show. I think I watched it more so I could participate in the conversations. I don't remember having that great of an interest in the show at that time.

Right after I graduated from high school, I was flipping through the channels and Nikki and Greg were getting married. I stopped to watch the wedding and I have been hooked ever since.

I worked in a retail store. This is when the show was only on for a half hour. I still didn't have a VCR. I am not too sure what year they came out with them. I would go over to the TV department and watch the show on my lunch break. Boy did I lose some weight. Then wouldn't allow me to eat a sandwich on the sales floor. My co-workers probably thought I was a snob because I never had lunch with them, except on Saturdays.

That's my story.