I started watching the show faithfully when I was in grade 8, but I actually started watching it when I was in grade 6 on occasion, when I was living in my adoptive family home and their paternal grandmother had moved in. She was a fan of the show and was the reason I got into the show and became faithful leading up to this day and this day’s anniversary.
When I first started watching the show, I was constantly being asked what characters I liked. I always replied that I liked Nick Newman and Sharon Collins Newman. My first favourite storyline was when Nick cheated on Sharon with her best friend Grace Turner in Denver, Colorado. I also loved the way the writers portrayed Sharon and her long lost daughter Cassie when they both found out that they were mother and daughter and Grace had been keeping Cassie from Sharon. The fact that Nick was so willing and accepting of Cassie was amazing to watch given my own experience with being adopted and not having my biological family in my life. I realize that my situation is different than hers was but the thoughts and feelings were somewhat similar.
I loved watching Cassie turn into a teenager and watching her parents raise her. Unfortunately rebellious ways robbed them of their time with each other when Cassie died tragically after getting behind the wheel to drive a drunk Daniel home even though she was still too young to drive. I also loved that up until this storyline, the actress who played Nick’s older sister Victoria was B&B’s Katie, Heather Tom. I loved the sibling relationship between Heather and Joshua (Joshua Morrow played Nick) that poured out on-screen and was at times comedic. The relationship both characters had with parents Victor and Nikki was also very enjoyable but for Victoria and Nikki’s relationship, I did at times struggle with the more emotional scenes that they shared because of my own longing for my own mother daughter relationship.
This brings me to the Newman family business, Newman Enterprises. I loved the board meetings and the employee bantering sessions. I loved the camaraderie between Neil and Victor. There once was a genuine respect for each other. Newman Enterprises has always had many divisions and in those divisions came many different interactions between the characters and the dynamics of those exchanges was enjoyable to watch especially when it came to board meetings and outside scandals that would lead to firings, resignations and new leadership battles. The storyline that comes to mind for this scenario is the one that involved Brad whom was married to Victoria (Heather Tom) but had a fling with Sharon whom was struggling in her marriage to Nick and eventually Brad and Sharon were caught (I believe by Phyllis or Victoria)
Another storyline that I loved was the Clear Springs collapse (Clear Springs was a division of the company that Nikki, Victor and Phyllis started and called NVP)
Watching Brad and Jack/Brad and Victor and Brad and Sharon or Phyllis was comedic relief especially when sandwiched between romance or a feud or business interactions.
Although sad, I can’t do this blog post without mentioning the tragic death of Cassie, which I briefly mentioned in paragraph 3. While I loved the concept of parenting, raising a teenage daughter and the consequences of drinking and drunk driving because it involved many of the other characters and resulted in stories within those families, the only time I can now watch the scene where the machines go silent and Cassie is officially declared deceased is when I am in need of a good cry. I’m unable to conceive a child so watching the couple parenting their teenage daughter was my way to show myself that those hard conversations do happen and helped me to process in my mind what my own conversations with my parents and later children might have looked like if I were able to experience them. It helped me to learn to let go of the fantasy that would never happen and be okay with it. I was not a fan of the fact that every year around the anniversary of her death the date of her death seemed to change but regardless of that confusion we were reminded of it year after year after year for what felt like forever. Thankfully it has since changed although I like to believe that it’s partially because of the return of the actress who played Cassie whom returned years later as Cassie’s twin sister discovered years after Cassie died.
I’m usually not a fan of recasting but for Billy Miller’s portrayal of Billy Abbott, I was upset when he left and Jason Thompson took over the role. He is currently starting to win me over especially with the storyline Chelsea just had with her mental health. I’m not publishing what she was intending on doing, out of respect for survivors. When everything came out about Michael Muhney being fired from his role as Adam Newman (my favourite Adam by the way) and how it related to interactions with Hunter King (ex Summer Newman Abbott) I was instantly Team Michael and Anti HK. Although lately I’ve been disgusted with every Newman and Newman character with Abbott also part of their names, with Nick Newman being the only exception. The earliest recast that I can remember aside from Heather Tom’s Victoria vs Amelia Heinle’s version of Victoria, is the recast of Ashley Abbott, once briefly played by Shari Shattuck during the time of the Ashley/Cole/Victoria love triangle. I have loved some of Eileen Davidson’s portrayal especially when given comedic lines in heated altercations. I’m refusing to comment on the recasting of characters in the Winters/Hamilton family (Lily/Nate) and bringing in Jed and Ana and so many others involved in Devon’s story. I’m saying this because it just kept growing family members and not enough story for them to grow into something worth watching. And it pretty much came after backlash from viewers expressing their opinions on not having enough POC characters and families after the headline made firing of Drucilla Barber Winters actress Victoria Rowell (and that’s all I’m going to say on this subject because it seems to have been resolved behind the scenes with the actress)
My favourite villain is Sheila Carter and I love that they created Daisy and she is Sheila’s daughter. The fact that Daniel and Daisy are parents to Lucy, making both Sheila and Phyllis grandmothers is hilarious!
While there are some things similar to real life families lives to what we see on the Young and the Restless, the things we don’t endure in real life being played out on screen is the much needed escape from our own everyday problems and lives. The fact that their homes look immaculate day in and day out is insane to me especially if we see them constantly at the office because even the offices look immaculate. When in real life would that even happen?! We used to see the office of Dr Olivia Barber Winters but now everything health related goes directly to the hospital, Genoa City Memorial. Not even to the supposed clinic that they installed around the time they created more family for Devon. In Ontario we’re lucky if we even get to do that!
I have always loved the catfights especially between Sharon and Nikki (especially when Nikki is inebriated) and Sharon and Phyllis, or in earlier years between Victor and Jack. I loved the rightful feud between Billy and Adam whom was responsible for the hit and run accident that claimed the life of Billy’s firstborn daughter Delia, whom he shared with ex Chloe Mitchell Fisher, and the granddaughter of Esther and Jill. But after a while the grief fades so the fact that they keep reigniting the flame of this feud is starting to get annoying. Yet somehow I still manage to keep coming back.
I started watching on my own willingly when I learned more about the show’s history. The theme song, Nadia’s Theme, for example, was one of the reasons I kept getting drawn back into it. The theme, originally named “Cotton’s Dream” was renamed “Nadia’s Theme” after becoming associated with Olympic gymnast Nadia Comăneci during and after 1976 Summer Olympics. After becoming associated with Comăneci during the 1976 Olympics, it was released as a single in August of that year. The fact that my name was affiliated with the show I enjoyed watching and the way that the creators made it worth watching because of the level of comfort being portrayed which made viewers comfortable enough to keep watching was powerful in my mind. William J Bell knew how to captivate the viewers with romantic storylines, and creative business related stories mixed with a few feuding characters that made us especially me constantly tune in. Minus the tragic death of character Brad Carlton, the father of the late character Colleen (sister of Abby and daughter of Traci) and a few other big storylines, I have tuned in to watch the lives of Genoa City citizens for 25 years. I remember the 25th anniversary special (although I had previously been gaslit into believing that it never happened) and I remember the book (see image) that at one time I had but my abusive adoptive father tossed it out and I haven’t been able to afford a replacement.
Here’s the link to the 25th anniversary special episode that led me to this 50th anniversary:
