Trivia / The Young and the Restless

• Acting for Two: Kimberlin Brown simultaneously played the infamous villain Sheila Carter and another character named Sugar from 2005 to 2006.
  • Melinda Cordell played Dorothy Stevens (a character she previously played from 1980 to 1982) and Madame Estelle Chavin (which she began playing in 1990) at the same time in 1993.
  • Michael Tylo played twin brothers Blade and Rick Bladeson from 1994 to 1995 (the former character was introduced two years earlier).
  • Stacy Haiduk played Patty Williams and Dr. Emily Peterson from 2009 to 2012. However, neither character was related; in fact to explain Haiduk playing both roles, Patty was written to have had plastic surgery to look exactly like Emily, who was her psychiatrist.
  • In addition to his role as Jack Abbott, Peter Bergman played Jack's criminal lookalike Marco Annicelli in 2015, as part of a storyline in which Marco takes over Jack's life.
  • Jeanne Cooper played both Katherine Chancellor and greasy spoon waitress Marge, who was recruited by Clint Radison and given a makeover to resemble Katherine as part of a plot to swindle her for all she has. Clint's two accomplices, Lil and Morey, hold Katherine hostage while Marge is doing her masquerade.
• Breaking News Interruption: On October 31, 2022; Mobile, Alabama affiliate WKRG interrupted the Halloween day airing at its very begenning to report the Downtown Mobile shooting.
• Career Resurrection: After a period of obscurity in his career following his Star-Derailing Role in Colossus: The Forbin Project, Eric Braeden's acting career is given renewed prominence following his Long Runner of role Victor Newman.
• The Character Died with Him:
  • Occurred when Jeanne Cooper, the actress who played Katherine Chancellor, died in 2013.
  • And again in 2019, when Neil Winters' actor Kristoff St. John passed away.
• Completely Different Title: Known as Les Feux de l'amour ("Fires of Love") in France.
• The Danza: Sharon Newman is played by Sharon Case, and Billy Miller played Billy Abbott for a number of years. Interestingly, neither was the first actor or actress for those characters.
  • Lilyan Chauvin and Morey Amsterdam played Katherine Chancellor's kidnappers (from the first kidnapping attempt), Lil and Morey.
• Fake Nationality: German-born actor Eric Braeden as New York-born, Wisconsin-based businessman Victor Newman, His thick German accent is never fully explained.
• Friendship on the Set: On the series, Katherine Chancellor and Jill Abbott were basically arch-enemies for decades. In real life, Jeanne Cooper and Jess Walton were best friends, and Walton was so saddened by Cooper's death she had to take a brief hiatus from filming.
• He Also Did: Meg Bennett, who plays the character of Julia Newman, was also a member of the Y&R writing staff from 1981-87 before leaving the show's staff (which coincided with the end of Julia's appearances as a regular, though in the years since she had appeared sporadically) and becoming better known as a soap opera writer.
• Hostility on the Set:
  • It's been reported that one reason Michelle Stafford (Phyllis Summers) left the show in 2013 (she returned in 2019) was that she refused to work any further with Michael Fairman (Patrick Murphy), because of a dispute concerning their involvement with the Church of Scientology (Fairman had left the group and spoke out publicly against it, while Stafford was still an active member).
  • Peter Bergman and Eric Braeden got into a vicious fight on the set over who had the last line in a scene, a brawl so vicious the cops had to come and break it up. Both men filed criminal charges against each other. The case was eventually settled, with the proviso that neither man ever mentions the incident again.
• Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Sofia Pernas was introduced in the recurring role of Marisa Sierras (the ex-girlfriend of Jack's criminal lookalike Marco Annicelli) in 2015 as part of the storyline involving Victor's plot to take over Jabot by having Marco assume Jack's life. Her character originally had a Latin American accent ^note Marisa is supposed to be Peruvian, although this counts as Fake Nationality as well, as Pernas is Morroccan, but over time Pernas continually slipped out of that accent, increasingly Not Even Bothering with the Accent by using an Americanized one.
• The Other Darrin: Quite a number, but it's a soap, so that's to be expected. Among the notable ones, Peter Bergman replaced Terry Lester as Jack Abbott in 1989 (Lester took a role in a TV movie that would serve as a backdoor pilot that never got picked up to series), and Amelia Heinle took over from Heather Tom in the role of Victoria Newman in 2005.
  • Another notable recast got a Hand Wave to explain the change in actors. When Justin Hartley took over the role of Victor's son Adam Newman in November 2014, his character (previously played by Michael Muhney, who was reportedly let go from the show after claims of some intimidating behaviour... and improprieties with other cast members) – who had apparently faked his death in a violent car crash, while being held at gunpoint by Billy Abbott^note A character that was recast twice between that storyline and Hartley's recasting, first with original actor David Tom (replacing Billy Miller), and then with Burgess Jenkins after only a few months – was revealed to be recovering from multiple facial reconstruction surgeries, and later assumed the identity of Gabriel Bingham, a wealthy young businessman who died trying to save Adam.
  • After Jill Farren Phelps became executive producer of Y&R in 2013, she decided to recast the roles of Noah, Abby and Summer Newman with actors from Hollywood Heights^note a short-lived teen-targeted telenovela that aired that same year on Nick at Nite, which was created by former Y&R head writer Josh Griffith, who executive produced HH with Phelps: Robert Adamson was cast as Noah (replacing Kevin Schmidt), Hunter King was cast as Summer (replacing Lindsay Bushman) and Melissa Ordway was cast as Abby (replacing Emme^note then known as "Marcy" Rylan). For anyone who watched both shows, it's pretty jarring to see Adamson and King playing (half-)siblings, given that they played lovers on Hollywood Heights, and King's character Adriana even was impregnated by Adamson's character Phil.
  • This is more of a case of The Other Becky, but Faith Newman (Nick and Sharon's youngest daughter) has been played alternatingly by two actors since 2011. Alyvia Alyn Lind has played Faith in most episodes, but to accommodate other acting Lind has taken, Mckenna Grace has basically served as a de facto understudy, playing Faith several times beginning in 2013 whenever Lind is unavailable. Despite the fact both are about the same age, blonde and totes adorbs, neither actress looks much alike.
• Outlived Its Creator: The soap opera is still on the air even after the passing of its co-creators William J. Bell in 2005 and his wife Lee Phillip Bell in 2020.
• Real-Life Relative: Lauralee Bell (Christine Blair) is the daughter of show creators Bill Bell and Lee Phillip Bell.
  • Thad Luckinbill (J.T. Hellstrom) and Amelia Heinle (the second Victoria Newman) are real-life husband and wife.
    • David Tom (who played Billy Abbott for a time) and Heather Tom (the first Victoria Newman) are real-life brother and sister.
• Real Song Theme Tune: Hired to provide theme music, composer Perry Botkin Jr. decided to resurrect and re-record a piece called "Cotton's Dream", which he co-wrote with Barry DeVorzon for their score for the 1971 film version of Bless the Beasts & Children. It was later renamed "Nadia's Theme" after ABC used it in footage of Nadia Comăneci's 1976 Olympic gymnastics routines.
• Separated-at-Birth Casting: A lot of viewers are surprised to find out that the actors cast as Mattie and Charlie Ashby aren't actually related, since they really do look like twins.
• You Look Familiar: Carolyn Conwell played Marion Reeves in 1977, and then returned in 1980 as Mary Williams, mother of Paul, Patty, Todd and Steven Williams; she continued in that role until 2004.
  • Cindy Eilbacher originally joined the show as Jody Conway in a short-term role in 1977; Eilbacher came back two years later as April Stevens, remaining in that role until 1982 and reprising it from 1992 to 1994.
  • Kelly Garrison originally played the short-lived role of Rebecca Harper in 1990, then returned in the role of Hilary Lancaster the following year, before leaving for good in 1993.
  • Veleka Gray played two characters in two years: she first played Ruby Collins for a few months in 1983, then returned as Sharon Reaves later that year before leaving in 1984.
  • Marisa Ramirez originally played Carmen Mesta for four months from 2006 to 2007, when the character was Killed Off for Real; she then had a short-lived role as Ines Vargas later in 2007.
  • Quinn Redeker tops all of the actors who have played more than one character on the show, appearing as three over 25 years. He originally played Nicholas Reed in 1979, and then began playing Joseph Thomas later that same year for several more months into 1980. Redeker then returned seven years later in his longest role on Y&R as Rex Sterling, which he played until 1994 with a brief return in 2004.
  • Camryn Grimes, who originally played Nick and Sharon's daughter Cassie Newman from 1997 to 2007, returned to the show as Mariah Copeland in 2014. This also counts as a twist to Always Identical Twins, as Cassie was Killed Off for Real in a car accident (appearing as a ghost in guest appearances from 2009 to 2010 and 2013 to 2014), while Mariah was brought to the canvas as part of a plot by Victor to have her pose as Cassie's ghost to torment the mentally troubled Sharon, before being revealed as Cassie's long-lost abducted twin that Sharon never knew about.
• Working Title: The Innocent Years.

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