The Young and the Restless
The Young and the Restless is an American soap opera that takes place in Genoa City, Wisconsin which first debuted on the CBS television network on March 26, 1973.
Since late 1988, the show has been the highest-rated serial in the daytime ratings. Like all the other soaps, however, The Young and the Restless has seen the ratings decline steadily since it first ranked #1. From 1988 to 2004, the show has lost more than 50% of its audience, from eight million viewers to less than four.
The Young and the Restless, created by husband and wife team William J. Bell and 1980s. The writers, in turn, have involved the same fan favorite characters (with few exceptions) in the storylines du jour. The writers of the show found their niche in the stories surrounding the Newman and Jabot conglomerates, and focused on the problems in the relationships stemming from the business deals and love lives of its principal members.
The Young and the Restless is also one of the few soaps to have successfully integrated a number of African American actors into its cast. The introduction of the Winters family and the Barber sisters in the early 1990s interacted fairly well with the established characters when given the dialogue and the situations to do so. The new characters were created after Generations earned critical acclaim for casting an entire African American family from the show's inception. Established hits like The Young and the Restless were criticized as the show had a low number of minorities (the Barber sisters, for example, were tied to one of the two black characters on the show at the time: the Abbott maid, Mamie Johnson, played by Veronica Redd. The other character, Nathan Hastings, was married off to Barber sister Olivia).
Critics of Y&R continued to deride the show even after its integration, noting that, most of the time, the core black characters largely interacted with themselves only. In the case of Winters siblings Neil and Malcolm, and Barber sisters Olivia and Drucilla, they were shown to usually just swap partners when a "shake-up" was needed in the romantic scheme of the story. Later actions have proven that this choice was due to the supposition that it was ostensibly "too controversial" to have an interracial pairing. Indeed, a pairing in the late 1990s between Neil Winters and Victoria Newman was axed by CBS executives, who were rumored to have received many angry phone calls and letters by viewers in the South.
Longtime characters
The Newmans
- Victor Newman (played by Eric Braeden) - wealthy, powerful and brooding industrialist
- Nikki Reed Newman (Melody Thomas Scott) - Victor's on-again off-again wife and one great, true love
- Nick Newman (Joshua Morrow) - Victor and Nikki's son
- Victoria Newman (Heather Tom) - Victor and Nikki's daughter
- Ryan McNeil (played from 1991 to 2001 by Scott Reeves) - Victoria's "one true love". At the center of a love triangle between Victoria and Nina and later Victoria and Tricia (Sabryn Genet).
- Sharon Collins Newman (Sharon Case) - Nick's wife
The Abbotts
- John Abbott (Jerry Douglas) - Aging patriarch of the Abbott clan. Jabot co-executive
- Jack Abbott (Peter Bergman) - Victor's greatest rival and enemy, Jabot executive
- Phyllis Summers Abbott (Michelle Stafford) - Somewhat-reformed wife of Jack Abbott; previously married to Danny Romalotti
- Ashley Abbott (Eileen Davidson) - Jack's chemist sister, board member of Jabot, and one of Victor's ex-wives
- Brad Carlton (Don Diamont) - a Jabot executive, Ashley's current husband
- Jill Foster Abbott (Jess Walton) - Jack and Ashley's stepmother
- Billy Abbott (most notably played by David Tom) - Jill's husband's son
The Chancellors
- Katherine "Kay" Chancellor (Jeanne Cooper) - Jill's longtime rival
- Brock Reynolds (Beau Kayzer) - Katharine's long-lost son
- Mackenzie Reynolds (most notably played by Ashley Bashioum) - Katharine's long-lost granddaughter, Brock's daughter
- Nina Webster Chancellor (played from 1986 to 2000 by Tricia Cast) - unwed teenage mother, was married to Katherine's grandson Phillip, who died in a drunk-driving accident. Best friends, later adversaries, and friends again with Cricket.
The Williamses and Others
- Paul Williams (Doug Davidson) - Chris's former husband, a private investigator
- Mary Williams (Carolyn Conwell) - Paul's meddling, judgmental mother
- Christine "Cricket" Blair (Lauralee Bell) - Legal aid lawyer and former model. Wife to Danny, then Paul.
- Danny Romalotti (Michael Damian) - Former breakout rock star. Husband to Christine and Phyllis.
- Gina Roma (Patty Weaver) - Danny's older sister. Used to run Gina's, a much-frequented restaurant in Genoa City, but Kevin Fisher burned it down.
- Michael Baldwin (Christian LeBlanc) - lawyer and former lover of both Chris and Phyllis
- Lynne Bassett (Laura Bryan Birn) - Paul's secretary, who insisted on referring to Paul only as "Boss".
The Winters/Barbers
- Malcolm Winters (Shemar Moore) - photographer for Newman Enterprises
- Olivia Barber Hastings Winters (Tonya Lee Williams) - was Malcolm's wife, doctor
- Nathan Hastings (most notably played by Nathan Purdee from 1985 to 1992) - Olivia's husband, eventually died from AIDS.
- Neil Winters (Kristoff St. John) - Malcolm's brother, Newman Enterprises executive
- Drucilla Barber Winters (Victoria Rowell) - Neil's tart-tongued wife
External sites
- Warning: At this site, there are spoilers for non-American viewers. Your current airdates may be behind those of America's.
