The Young and the Restless

Infobox_Television_Soap_Opera
show_name = The Young and the Restless|

network = CBS
genre = Soap opera
creator = William J. Bell
Lee Philip Bell
executive_producer = Maria Arena Bell
and Paul Rauch
head_writer = Maria Arena Bell,
Hogan Sheffer
and Scott Hamner
senior_cast_members = Jeanne Cooper
Doug Davidson
Melody Thomas Scott
Eric Braeden
Eileen Davidson
Kate Linder
Don Diamont
Jess Walton
Peter Bergman
distributor = Sony Pictures Television (Columbia TriStar Television 2001 until 2002, Columbia Pictures Television 1974 to 2001, and Screen Gems until name change in 1974)
Bell Dramatic Serial Company
Corday Productions
first_aired = March 26, 1973
last_aired = present
run_time = 60 minutes (30 minutes from 1973 to 1980)
official_website = http://www.theyoungandtherestless.com/index.php
num_episodes = 9,000 (as of October 14 2008) [ [http://www.tv.com/the-young-and-the-restless/show/100/summary.html Episode Confirmation] ]
imdb_id = 0069658
tv_com_id = 100

"The Young and the Restless" is a 39 time Emmy Award winning American television soap opera, first broadcast on CBS on March 26 1973.cite web | url=http://www.cbs.com/daytime/yr/about/faq/ | title=CBS Daytime: The Young and the Restless - FAQ | accessdate=2007-05-05] "Young and the Restless" was created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell, who set their show in a fictional version of Genoa City, Wisconsin, a town near their annual vacation home in Lake Geneva.cite episode | title=The Young and the Restless | series=E! True Hollywood Story | network=E! | airdate=2001-05-20]

When it debuted, the show originally focused on the personal and professional lives of two core families in Genoa City: the wealthy Brookses and the poor Fosters. After a series of recasts and departures in the early 1980s, most of the original characters were written out and the show shifted to the Abbotts, the Newmans, and the Williamses. One basic plot that has run throughout almost all of the show's history is the rivalry between Jill Abbott and Katherine Chancellor.

The series was originally broadcast as half-hour episodes, five times a week. It was expanded to one-hour episodes on February 4 1980. "Young and the Restless" is currently the highest-rated daytime drama on American television. As of 2008, it has appeared at the top of the weekly Nielsen Ratings in that category for more than 1000 weeks since 1988. [cite web | url=http://community.tvguide.com/blog-entry/TVGuide-Editors-Blog/Daniels-Dish/Daniels-Daytime-Emmy/700001052 | first=Daniel | last=Coleridge | title=TV Guide Editors' Blogs - Daniel's Dish | publisher=TV Guide |date=2004-04-26 | accessdate=2007-05-06]

"Young and the Restless" has won seven Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Drama Series; only "General Hospital" has won more times (ten).

Production

The show's healthy ratings are often attributed in part to the tight-knit writing and production staff.Fact|date=May 2007 The show was groundbreaking for daytime serials in its lush production values. When it premiered, in 1973 "The Young and the Restless" stood out from other soaps on the air for its visual darkness. Soap operas at the time tended to be comparatively brightly-lit in tone. The show lighted primarily the actors and not the background settings, so as to focus the attention of the viewer on the emotions of the actors. Also, its glamorous sets utilizing fresh cut flowers, and wardrobe and hairstyles were a huge contrast to existing soap operas, which often set the action in a simple living room or kitchen set, where characters would discuss their world over a cup of coffee. It should also be noted that "The Young and the Restless" is one of the only soaps that used an actual orchestra for the background music (its sister soap Days of our Lives also used, and pioneered the use of in American soap operas, an orchestra for background music), a lavish expense for a soap in the '70s.

When the show began as 30 minutes in 1973, it was shot in what is referred to as "Live To Tape", meaning it was basically like a stage play that was filmed, with actors freezing in place during the "Black Space" where commercials would later be inserted by the network and affiliates. Later, after the show went to 60 minutes in February of 1980, the taping style changed, and it was shot scene by scene, and edited, with which the format stands to this day.

In 2001, "The Young and the Restless" became the first - and, so far, only - daytime soap opera to be broadcast in high-definition.cite news | title=Finding the art in HDTV | first=Karen Anderson | last=Prikios | url=http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA90337.html?display=Special+Report | publisher=Broadcasting & Cable |date=2001-06-25 | accessdate=2007-05-13]

The April 2 2008 episode of "The Young and the Restless" was the first and only episode aired in a film look.

The show's budget is $1.25 million (USD) per week.Fact|date=June 2008

Executive producing and head writing team

For the most part, the writers and producers of the show have stayed unchanged since the 1980s. Throughout most of the show's history since its inception, creator William J. Bell served as both the Executive Producer and head writer for the show. He also had a number of executive producers over the years including John Conboy, H. Wesley Kenney, Edward J. Scott, David Shaughnessy and John F. Smith. Starting in the mid-80s, Bell was credited as "Senior Executive Producer".

As the show continued to reach new, record heights in 1987, co-executive producer H. Wesley Kenney defected to network television's #1 mainstay in the soap ratings, "General Hospital". This was rather ironic, since the following year it was "Young and the Restless" that surpassed the longtime champ for the Nielsen ratings top spot, with Kenney not being able to be a part of his former show's ultimate success. However, Kenney did keep "GH" near the top of the pack during his two-year tenure as executive producer there.

Kay Alden took over as head writer after Bell stepped down in 1998. After Bell died in April 2005, Smith served as the sole executive producer. In late February 2006, Lynn Marie Latham was promoted to head writer, while Alden and Smith served as co-head writers. In late August 2006, Latham was announced as the new executive producer (in addition to her writing role) by CBS Daytime Senior Vice President Barbara Bloom. More behind-the-scenes shakeups continued into September 2006 when Smith's contract as co-head writer wasn't renewed. Kathryn Foster, a long time producer and director since the 1980s, resigned in October 2006.

Alden quit the show in November 2006 and was hired by ABC Daytime in December 2006 to consult on "All My Children" and "One Life to Live". After her consulting contract ended, Alden joined "The Bold and the Beautiful" as an Associate Head Writer. Lynn Marie Latham, the show's former Creative Consultant, was named its new executive producer shortly after the departure of Smith. In June 2007, former supervising producer Edward J. Scott was chosen by Sony Pictures Television to join "Days of Our Lives". Anthony Morina, episode director and husband of former series writer/story consultant Sally Sussman Morina, was named as producer shortly after Scott's departure (and later promoted to Supervising Producer).

The show had been known in the industry for its close-knit team that rarely changed; however, with Latham's ascension, many crew members that had been with the show since the '80s were fired or quit: Joshua S. McCaffrey, Marnie Saitta, Trent Jones, Mike Denney, Janice Ferri Esser, Sally Sussman Morina, Jim Houghton, Marc Hertz, Sara A. Bibel. New crew members were hired: Neil Landau, Darin Goldberg, Brett Steanart, Valerie Ahern, Shelley Meals, Phideaux Xavier, Karen Rea, Cherie Bennett, Jeff Gottesfeld, Bernard Lechowick, Scott Hamner, Christian McLaughlin, Lynsey DuFour, Vincent Lechowick, James Stanley, Jenelle Lindsay, Tom Casiello, Paula Cwikly, Rick Draughon and Chris Abbott.

As of 2007, only four writers from the pre-Latham era: Sandra Weintraub, Eric Freiwald, Linda Schreiber and Natalie Minardi Slater, remain with the serial. Josh Griffith took over the executive producing duties after Latham was fired, but his tenure ended in September, when it was announced that Paul Rauch will took over the duty, with Maria Arena Bell taking over the Co-Executive Producer duties. His episodes began airing on October 3, 2008.

With Maria Arena Bell at the helm Y&R has seen the return of a few longtime writers and directors most notably Mike Denney who was part of the directing team for nearly 20 years before Lynn Marie Latham had him relieved, as well as writer Janice Ferri Esser who was also relieved of her duties by Lynn Marie Latham.

Current main crew

Upcoming cast members

Latest Ratings

"Week of September 15-19, 2008" (Compared To Last WK/Compared To Last YR)1. Y&R 4,763,000 (-332,000/-776,000)2. B&B 3,498,000 (-13,000/-191,000)3. GH 2,932,000 (-5,000/-451,000)4. ATWT 2,637,000 (+158,000/-360,000)5. OLTL 2,560,000 (+5,000/-499,000)6. AMC 2,530,000 (+65,000/-272,000)7. DOOL 2,323,000 (-282,000/+11,000)8. GL 2,030,000 (+6,000/-572,000)

Cultural references

"The Young and the Restless" has been referenced in several movies and TV shows. For example, many TV programs use a variation of the "Young and the Restless" name in some of their episode titles, including "The Jung and the Restless" from "Charmed" and "The Young & The Tactless" from "Will & Grace". In the 1976 film "Taxi Driver", Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) kicks his TV while watching a scene from "Young and the Restless" between Jill Foster and Brock Reynolds.

In "The Simpsons"' episode "Pygmoelian", the opening sequence of the soap opera "It Never Ends" parodies that of "Young and the Restless". The titles have also been parodied on the Australian sitcom "Kath and Kim".

In Weird Al Yankovic's film UHF one of the shows on the U62 line-up is "The Young and the Dyslexic", an obvious parody of the Young and the Restless.

"Young and the Restless" is also parodied in the 1983 film "Mr. Mom". After unemployed automotive engineer Jack Butler (Michael Keaton) becomes a regular viewer, watching actual footage featuring the characters of Victor Newman, Nikki Reed, Kevin Bancroft. Eventually he and his newfound friend Joan (Ann Jillian) engage in a spoof of soap operas in general with music from "Young and the Restless" playing in the background. The parody gradually includes Jack's wife Carolyn (Teri Garr), who shoots him, his former supervisor Jinx (Jeffrey Tambor), who was going to give him his old job back, and Carolyn's boss Ron (Martin Mull), who leaves with her.

The set of "Young and the Restless" and the show was used in Entourage for the character of Mrs. Ari to show her as a possible return to acting as she used to be a regular on the show in her early acting career.

On the game show The Price is Right, which airs before "Young and the Restless", if a contestant spun the Showcase Showdown wheel hard enough to go around several times before stopping, host Bob Barker would quip that CBS would have to "cut into "Young and Restless"." The show itself was the theme of a 1992 Showcase to celebrate its 5,000th episode.

ee also

*List of "The Young and the Restless" cast members
*List of "The Young and the Restless" characters
*CBS Daytime

References

External links

* [http://www.theyoungandtherestless.com/ "The Young and the Restless" Official Website]
* [http://www.cbs.com/daytime/yr/ "Young and the Restless"] at CBS Daytime
* [http://tv.yahoo.com/the-young-and-the-restless/show/34853 "Young and the Restless"] at [http://tv.yahoo.com/ Yahoo! TV]
* [http://www.wchannel.com.au/tvshows/synopsis.aspx?s=21 "Young and the Restless"] at the W. Channel
* [http://video.aol.com/video-category/young-and-the-restless/3190 Full episodes of "Young and the Restless"] Available only to U.S. viewers
* [http://www.thesoapshow.com In depth audio interview with Eric Braeden (Dec 2007)]
* [http://theyoungandtherestlesswiki.cbs.com/ "Young and the Restless" Official Fan Wiki] at CBS Wiki
* [http://www.theyoungandtherestlessblog.com/ "Young and the Restless Blog" Unofficial Blog]
* [http://www.wchannel.com.au/microsite/TheYoungAndTheRestless/default.aspx "The Young and the Restless" Australian Fan Site and Daily Blog]