Last month, we got the joyous news that Josh Griffith was stepping down from The Young and the Restless. His replacements, Jamey Giddens and Dan O’Connor were announced mere hours before this column went live. So I’ve decided to write this month about 10 things I want from this new team. I don’t expect everything I want to happen. Even two things on my list coming true would be great.
10. Acknowledging Sam’s Existence
Y&R famously didn’t acknowledge Keemo Abbott for years except for one joke reference in 2015 until he was killed offscreen in 2022. Josh Griffith decided Cane’s youngest child Sam, also a Wasian like Keemo, should suffer the same fate. He hasn’t been mentioned once since Cane returned to Genoa City. It feels very pointed and racist.
Even if the new head writer isn’t interested in bringing Sam back to Genoa City at this time, it would be very easy to acknowledge his existence. They could just put in a few lines of dialogue about Sam loving his boarding school. It is a Y&R tradition for kids to be at boarding schools. Victoria, Nick and Billy spent more of their childhood at boarding schools than they did at home. This solution stops fans from picturing Sam eating out of a dumpster and stops this issue from festering for years to come in a way that hurts Cane as a character.
9. Focus More On Genoa City
Sometimes stories on soap operas take place in cities around the world. There are times when it can get excessive like it has on Y&R for the past few years. Josh Griffith was clearly bored with Genoa City so he had stories where most of the town sat around shrubbery in France for a month and then there was the stupid L.A. story with Matt Clark. These stories weren’t popular. Maybe the new head writer could focus more on the town the show is set in instead of wasting money on train sets and a L.A. bar set.
There’s stories that could be set in Genoa City and they don’t need to be business stories. What if a character ran for mayor? What if they actually had teens on the show that were written for? What if the show had romance or a juicy affair? All of that sounds more interesting than inventing reasons for half the cast to be somewhere else in a bad story.
8. Be More Thoughtful With Standalone Episodes
I’m not against bottle episodes or standalone episodes. They can be a great way to save money and spotlight a story. Josh Griffith has had a few that were very well-done like the episode where Nikki and Jack were in that hotel room together. It felt like a play in the best way and Melody Thomas Scott and Peter Bergman were amazing. However, a lot of the standalone episodes have been idiotic time fillers like all of the dream episodes including Nikki’s recent nightmare episode. I hope the new head writer cuts that shit out.
7. Hire a New Breakdown Writer or Two
I know that this is a matter that would need to be approved by Sony and CBS since it involves the budget. Yet I think it is worth the new head writer asking for it. The quality of the scripts went down after Josh Griffith fired multiple breakdown writers. If they want the show to be better, hiring one or two new breakdown writers would be worth finding money in the budget for.
6. Give Mark Grossman Something To Do
Mark Grossman is a great actor, but he has been utterly wasted for the last few years. Adam is just Victor’s lapdog and stuck in a chemistry-less pairing with Chelsea. It is insulting material for a man who came in with no soap opera experience playing the fourth adult version of a character and became a fan favorite. He should be a leading man on this show, but he is not treated that way.
5. Stop Having Billy’s Love Interests Mother Him
Billy is 50 years old. I am tired of watching his love interests have to be both a girlfriend and a mother to him. It isn’t cute or interesting. His current love interest Sally has had rotten luck when it comes to love, but at least her past love interests treated her well initially! With Billy, she has to constantly fret about his feelings and she’s pregnant so she’s stuck with this manchild in her life permanently.
I think it would be fine to let the character grow a little. They’ve played the same beats too many times for me to care anymore. Frankly, I’m at the point where Billy could drop dead and I wouldn’t be upset. It would be a shame to lose Jason Thompson, but Frank Valentini would probably call him and bring him back to GH as Patrick.
4. Bring Back Charlie & Mattie
I’m grateful Charlie and Mattie haven’t been onscreen under Josh Griffith’s regime. They would have just talked about life goals in Crimson Lights until they were fired to pay for a soap vet to play a tycoon or psycho in a story that would make you embarrassed for them. The utter disinterest in having them around was a true blessing for the characters and the audience. Now it is time to bring them home.
I know the age thing was likely a factor in them not returning since Billy Flynn is 41 years old and Christel Khalil is 38 years old so the show probably wasn’t eager to have 25 year olds next to them as their children. I don’t think that should stop them anymore. Billy is middle-aged and Christel is about to be middle-aged. They can handle playing the parents to adult children. If they want it to look less weird, they can just shave a few years off the characters and hire actors that are around 21 years old.
3. No Kidnappings For a Year
I’m not the only one who wants the show to take a break from kidnappings. It feels like every other week there’s a damn kidnapping on Y&R. Mariah kidnapping Dominic, Victor kidnapping Jack, Matt kidnapping Noah and Sharon, Patty and that random quack kidnapping Diane. Not to mention Cane kidnapping half the town last year and all the other times Sharon has been kidnapped in recent years. It is exhausting and has made what should be exciting moments into something tedious and lazy. Having characters get kidnapped is not a replacement for well-plotted stories!
It sucks that if the new head writer has a character get kidnapped, it will be met with groans, but they need to work within that limitation because Josh Griffith overdid it. They just need to tell stories that don’t involve it. Maybe do one big kidnapping story in 2028 once fans are ready to have a character in chains again.
2. Focus More On Personal Stories and Less On Business Stories
Companies have been shuffled around so much that it has no meaning anymore. They could have had Adam and Chelsea trying to get a Taco Bell franchise from Sally instead of Newman Media and it wouldn’t meaningfully change anything. It is all just “Haha! I have your company!” “Well, I used A.I. to take your company!” “Give me back my company or I’ll shoot your loved one into the sun!” It is all insulting to the intelligence of the viewers.
1. Focus More On Young Characters
For a show with the word young in the title, they surely don’t care much about young characters. And if you are one of the few young characters they care about, your storyline is dependent on old characters. They have Kyle feuding with 85-year-old Victor and about to romance 50 year old Victoria because they want a retread of Victoria’s romance with Billy. Kyle should be feuding with someone under the age of 50 and romancing someone who doesn’t have an adult daughter he already banged.
Y&R relies too much on the veteran cast members who are severely elderly. It doesn’t make sense to have the storytelling engine of a soap opera focused on an 85 year old man! They act like Eric Braeden is an immortal being and not a man who is very close to the end of his life. If everything is about Victor Newman, what happens to the show when the inevitable happens?
I’m not saying that Victor and the other elderly characters should be taken out back and given the Old Yeller treatment. They just need to be featured in a way that makes them still important to the show, but allow for the young characters to be more prominent. It is time to focus on the future and less on the past.
Dispatches From Soap Land
*I am so happy Dylan on B&B isn’t taking Electra’s shit anymore. If you dump a man, he’s fair game.
*GH should have just brought back James Ryan as Ethan when they needed to recast. Christian Howard just feels like a man they pulled off the street and handed him a script and told him he was playing Ethan Lovett now.
*I am happy that Deanna on Beyond The Gates has a love interest, but did they need to cast someone who is almost 40 years old?
