Question: Leslie and Brad (?)
In reading about the early days of Y&R, it seems a leading couple was Leslie Brooks and Brad (last name escapes me. the first night might be wrong as well). He was the doctor that came to town under an assumed name and started to work for Stuart's newspaper. He and Leslie fell in love, married, and he later went blind (that may be out of order). I know that later Leslie would be in a triangle with Lauralee Brooks and Lance Prentice. Whatever happened to Brad?
Matt for the life of me I can't remember what happened to Brad Eliot. I think that Lauralee, Leslie's sister, had an affair with him, but I can't remember now why it is he left or was written out of the show.
You bringing up the Brooks sisters (Leslie, Lauralee, Chris, and Peggy) made me think of something that has bugged me over the years.
Young and the Restless is the first soap I have ever seen to completely wipe out just about all of his roots and survive. The only real roots to the beginning of the show are in the characters of Jill, Katherine, and Mac. Every once in awhile now they bring back Brock, Kay's son. He was involved with the Brook's sisters too. All the Brooks family is gone. Jill's mom and brothers, Snapper and Greg, are gone.
I never have seen this and this fan of the show left when all this happened. I just had never seen Bill Bell do this with any of his shows. He seemed to always depend on the history of the soaps.
The Brooks sisters have so many children who would have been perfect to have brought in for roles. Snapper and Chris have children. Snapper has a son from his affair with Sally McGuire. Leslie has a child with Lance Prentiss named Brooks. All of these would be of proper age to bring in.
Also 2 of the Brook's sisters have ties with 2 male characters on the soaps. Lauralee was engaged to Victor and Peggy had the affair with Jack while dating Paul's brother Steve at the same time.
I one am rooting for the return of what put this show on the map -- the Brooks' and Fosters.
Rick
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Re: Question: Leslie and Brad (?)
From what I've read, Bill Bell was upset that so many of the actors who were portraying the Brooks and Fosters were leaving that he was frightened that completely recasting all of the major roles would totally turn viewers away. He had the foresight to start a gradual shift away from those two families onto the Abbots and Williamses (in a demographic set up nearly identical to the original). He planned everything out for a long time so that viewers slowly got to know the two new families and they gradually moved to the center while the original two slowly faded away. I think Bell is the only writer to ever successfully completely change the focus of a show from the original families to new ones. IMO, there are clearly 2 distinct periods in Y&R's history, before the early 80s and after the early 80s when it all happened. Most of the goings on today (except for the longstanding Jill/Kay feud) are focused on the show's history from about 1980 on. I wonder if Bell would ever consider revisiting Y&R's original roots or would be just leave it all in the past, thinking that it might be too jarring for current viewers.
Re: Question: Leslie and Brad (?)
First off,this is my first post here.Second this is a great site and fantastic forum concerning soap history.Matt,you are to be commended for this.
When one talks about the history of the soap The Young and The Restless one is amazed,indeed,how Bill Bell has forgotten or set aside the past of the show and its' richness in terms of characters and history so readily.
In truth,the only character on the show today that goes back to the early days is Jill Foster.Not using the soap's history hurts its' characters as we can use Jill as an example.Jill,in truth,is rather lonely now.She has an horrible relationship with a former husband and a son by this former husband both of whom are members of a new family of the show in the post early 1980's,the Abbotts.
Jill currently has a relationship with a younger man named Sean of who I call a one shot character.A one shot character is one who has no relationship with anyone from the show's core families,and Y&R has so many characters like these right now,Sean,Isabella,Alex,Larry Warton,Brittany,Diane,JT,Micheal,
etc.If any of these characters left the soap tommorow would it make a world of difference?No.It hurts the show because the characters are so meaningless and interchangable,viewers could care less about them.
Far from jarring,I think it would be great for Bell to reintroduce some of the show's history to the current audience today.Jill has a niece in Jennifer Elizabeth Foster that would be a good young character to bring in right now to bring into Jill's life.This would be a fine start to bring the soap back to its' core families,past and present.
Re: Question: Leslie and Brad (?)
You know, I agree! I think there is so much little stuff from Y&R's first 10 years that could be tapped into so easily. I'm a little vague on a lot of it (I only watched Y&R from the mid/late 80s to about the early 90s) so I don't know what other children the Brooks or Foster siblings might have had. Didn't Nikki date one of Jill's brothers? What if he returned and actually gave Victor a run for his money where Nikki was concerned? How would Jill react to all of this? Maybe a Prentiss son could arrive and be a devil-may-care playboy out to seduce all of the young girls. Also, what if they aged Paul's daughter Heather (heck, she might be this age already anyway) to early 20s and threw her into the Nick/Sharon mix. Would be interesting considering that Paul and Nikki were once involved. There are so many possiblities that I'm disappointed that Kay Alden hasn't thought of them. But, then again, I hear that many fans aren't doing cartwheels over her current stories either. LOL
Re: Question: Leslie and Brad (?)
I take it that Snapper Foster was the one who had a relationship(and I believed he married)a young Nikki way back when.Snapper was such a tremendous character when he was on the show,Bill Bell's cutting of the show's early roots is proof how much the fans,old and new,are missing the substance that started and made The Young and The Restless.
The young characters that have been eluded to in this interesting thread ,some no doubt,have come of age and ready to be brought onto the show's fabric.Jennifer Elizabeth Foster,a niece of Jill's,is one example.As is Pierre Charles "Chucky" Roland ,he being a newphew of Jill's.Katherine Chancellor's longtime maid Esther has a daughter,Katie Valentine,who could also be brought in.If you brought back Nina McNeil,you could bring in the long lost abducted son of hers and bring him to the show.
Of course Heather,Paul Williams's first and only daughter should be brought on to the show either as a high school or college age young girl.But I have read rumors from several people that Lauralee Bell does not want to be portrayed as some old woman or mother even now in her still young years presently.Such is the case one might understand why Heather has never shown up after all these years in Genoa City.Lauralee Bell's possible distain for the character of Heather matches that,possibly,of her disdain for the character of Danny Romalotti being back in GC,but for different reasons.
The dictates of CBS have probably made it so that big families are kept to a bare minimum while such "one shot" characters keep showing up on Y&R.The Newmans,Abbots,Chancellors,Williams,and Winters have only the main characters shown while the one shot characters fill up the air time and have something(Sometimes a lot) to do with the current storylines.What a shame,I mean does one really care what Larry Warton thinks about on a certain subject?Will anyone miss Rianna Loving now that she is gone?Care to take a guess?
The writing and presentation of stories by Kay Alden have been the source of ridicule in some circles,this is sadly true.Her ideas seem stale,you see old storylines run over and over and over again.Certain characters ,to her,become indespensible while other have lost what made them so special in the first place.She has ruined what could have been a special storyline between Brad and his young daughter Colleen Carlton you get a feel Alden doesn't have a feel for the richness of history that a show she is a part of,The Young and The Restless,has.I believe if she needs to refresh herself on what that history is,she should come to this special site and get clued in very soon.
Re: Question: Leslie and Brad (?)
I heard a rumor on the internet a few months ago that Nina was going to return and it would be discovered that Raul was actually her child that she gave up for adoption as a teen. IMO, that would be an excellent use of history and would tie in at least one of the stand alone characters to a long established character.
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