Editorial | The Young and the Restless’ 50th Anniversary
About the Project
On the occasion of The Young and the Restless’ 50th anniversary in 2023, I had the opportunity to collaborate with Global TV and Sony Pictures Television to interview long-standing cast members of the hit television series for The TV Watercooler.
“I’m super grateful. I love being one of the few characters on TV who has been played by the same person. I hear from some women who share that they started watching me on the show when they were in college and now their kids are going to college!”
— Lauralee Bell (Christine Blair)
That’s when Bill Bell called me up to his office and said, “Michael, could you please do me a favour?” “Yeah, what is it, Mr. Bell?” I replied. “Could you just get a haircut?” I was like “Oh, is it too long?” And he said, “Yeah when you’re doing scenes with Traci and Lauren, you guys can’t even fit into a close-up because the hair is so big!” I was like, “Why don’t the girls cut their hair?”
— Michael Damian (Danny Romalotti)
“The support we have for Nick and Sharon is very important. They’re not like Victor and Nikki in the same identical sense, but they symbolically stand for the same thing and were written that way. It means a lot to me that people still view us as that because that is what they are – they are a core couple on the show in a certain respect where it doesn’t really make a difference so much that they aren’t together.
[Sharon and Nick’s] story is about their relationship and their relationship with their family. A lot of times, relationships within families are rough where you can spend years apart. I think the main message [here] is about family and that true love does conquer all – or that it’s trying to answer the question – if it can conquer all. So, we hold that hope that it is!”
— Sharon Case (Sharon Newman)
“I also used to love Jill’s fights with Mamie (Veronica Redd) and the arguments with Katherine (Jeanne Cooper). I never did really like the physical fights with Jeanne because I was always afraid I was going to hurt her. After all, she was a bit older than I was. But she always ended up hurting me!”
— Jess Walton (Jill Abbott)
“I love working with the rest of the Abbott family. I get excited about working with every single one of them, whether it’s stepping into that Jabot office, or the Abbott family living room. You can feel it when you walk into the living room.
You know the history and you can feel it [there]. It looks exactly the same as it did back in the day.”
— Jason Thompson (Billy Abbott)
“When I first came onto the show, I was portraying a kid who grew up in the foster care system. I knew it was an important story to tell and it was not only important to all the people in the world who dealt with that but for Victoria Rowell herself because he brought that storyline to the show. It was very important to her.”
— Bryton James (Devon Winters)
“I remember all the tension and fighting that went on between Jill and Katherine — Jess Walton and Jeanne Cooper. Those are some of my favourite scenes that I remember from when I was younger. They were so funny. I always remember the weddings! They were all so memorable. Nikki (Melody Thomas Scott) and Victor (Eric Braeden) got married over and over again. It was like this love story that would never end.”
— Mishael Morgan (Hilary/Amanda)
“I just remember that it was never a chore or taxing to come in to work. It was always something that I look forward to and I credit that to the people who very quickly become like a second family [to me].”
— Camryn Grimes (Cassie/Mariah)
