On a Momentous Young & Restless Anniversary, the (Former Co-)Stars Align: ‘As Fate Would Have It… ’

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On a Momentous Young & Restless Anniversary, the (Former Co-)Stars Align: ‘As Fate Would Have It… ’

Where does David fit into the grand scheme of things where Nikki is concerned? Find the answer in the below photo gallery .

On Twitter, Braeden seconded that emotion, adding that “[I] always have respected you as a professional!” In conclusion, Irizarry cheered, “Here’s hoping we get to play make-believe together again someday.”

“In the 32 years I’ve known the man,” added the soap-hopper, “I can confidently say that we clearly have the same dining tastes, given that I’ve run into him many a time throughout all those years at several local spots.”

Irizarry and Braeden actually go back further than the soap. It “was the second time Eric and I played opposite each other,” Irizarry explained, “the first being in 1990 in Jackie Collins’ Lucky/Chances.

And that was big enough, considering that the character managed to out-louse even Irizarry’s infamous All My Children alter ego, Dr. Evil — David Hayward to his friends. But that was just the beginning of his story. “So as fate would have it, it was the perfect time to run into my then-time castmate and on-screen adversary, Mr. Eric Braeden, at a favorite Santa Monica wine-and-dine restaurant.” He even had a picture to commemorate the moment.

On January 10, Vincent Irizarry shared with his Instagram followers the occasion that had just come and gone — a significant one in his career. “It was brought to my attention,” he wrote, “that yesterday was the anniversary of my first airshow on The Young and the Restless back in 2007, as the deadly gambling addict and swindling husband to Nikki, David Chow.”

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Believe it or not, Melody Thomas Scott didn’t originate the role of The Young and the Restless’ naughty-by-nature Nikki Reed, Erica Hope did, in 1978. Despite getting to act opposite future Emmy winner Doug Davidson as Paul Williams, she lasted only a few months before Scott (then just Melody Thomas) was brought in.

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The Hollywood vet, who’d already worked with everyone from John Wayne to Alfred Hitchcock, thought that she was just signing with the soap for three years. But she was such a hit as Casey Reed’s impetuous kid sister that three turned into six, and six turned into nine, and… You’re not actually going to ask us to do the math, are you? ’Cause that won’t go well.

3 / 23

Nikki and Paul’s relationship wasn’t really what you’d call deep. At the time, she was just a mixed-up kid, and he was a libidinous beach bum. She finally gave him the heave-ho — emphasis on the “ho” — after he gave her VD. From there, she moved on to a guy who was really going places — places besides the free clinic, we mean!

4 / 23

Although Nikki took the first of her many husbands when she married young lawyer Greg Foster, she by no means settled down. Rather, she got suckered into signing with Rose DeVille’s modeling agency prostitution ring and joining Ian Ward’s commune cult, where she bore Paul a son that she put out of her mind for decades.

5 / 23

In 1981, Nikki was taken home to meet Mother by a besotted suitor named Crazy Edward. Yes, that was his real name, and in a second, you’ll understand why: Mother was long deceased, her remains kept in an urn like so many Oreos in a cookie jar. “He wanted to marry Nikki,” Scott told TV Guide, “or kill them both in a murder/suicide.” And they say romance is dead!

6 / 23

Strapped for cash and a natural at undressing, Nikki began stripping at the Bayou, which was kind of a deal-breaker for her hoity-toity subsequent boyfriend, Kevin Bancroft. Or at least it was for his even hoitier and toitier Mommie Dearest (whom she might have preferred in an urn). But ya know who didn’t have a problem with the way that Nikki worked the pole?

7 / 23

Megabucks Victor Newman was smitten from the moment he laid eyes on Nikki. But he insisted to anyone who would listen that he didn’t want to make her his woman, he simply wanted to transform her into a lady. Mm-hmm, suuure, Victor. Finally, after Nikki had given birth to his daughter Victoria while married to Kevin, Victor put a ring on it — a huge honkin’ one, we probably don’t need to tell you.

8 / 23

Everyone who was anyone — and OK, a few people who just wanted to be somebody — attended the lavish 1984 nuptials that united Nikki and Victor in holy matrimony. And it seemed at first that the couple really was in it for the long haul. But only at first; the long haul proved to be much shorter than either they or we expected.

9 / 23

Victor’s attraction to business foe Jack Abbott’s sister, Ashley, turned Nikki green with envy. But she wasn’t about to just cry into the buckets of money that she now had and work extra hard to get her hair bigger than her rival’s. Oh no, the supervixen used her vivid imagination and began hatching plots. Well, that and the hair stuff.

10 / 23

One of Nikki’s more hilariously harebrained schemes involved a fantasy in which she played dead just long enough for Victor to realize that without her, life wasn’t worth living. Rather than go through with it, though, she remembered that there were other fun things to do while lying down and took up with the last person that Victor would want her to!

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When Nikki’s affair with Victor’s archrival Jack didn’t bring her husband back to her, she faked a terminal illness (minus the coffin) and gave birth to their son, Nicholas. Finally, after Victor offered to give Jack back his family’s cosmetics company in exchange for Nikki — then pulled a double-cross! — she went ahead and married into the Abbott family, all but saying, “So there!” instead of “I do.”

12 / 23

Following Victor’s “death” in 1993, Nikki did a good bit of her mourning in the bed of younger man Cole Howard, which wound up being super awkward on not one but two fronts: First, Victoria (then Heather Tom, Katie on The Bold and the Beautiful nowadays) decided that she was in love with the would-be author, too. Then, after Nikki’s lover made her his mother-in-law, it was feared that he’d actually just married his half sister!

13 / 23

After Victor came back from Kansas — alive, but with eyes only for blind farmer Hope Adams — Nikki enjoyed a rebound romance with Brad Carlton (Don Diamont, now Bold & Beautiful playboy Bill). It could have turned into a rebound marriage, too, were it not for the fact that mad, mad Mari Jo Mason took aim at the Mustache on the day his ex-wife was to become another man’s next one. Hearing the news, Nikki ran from the altar right to Victor’s side.

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Though daughter-in-law Sharon wasn’t Nikki’s favorite person — or even one of her 100 favorite people — she still teamed up with ex-con Larry Warton to help the damsel in distress dispose of the body of her abusive lover, Cameron Kirsten. Mind you, not only wasn’t the villain really dead, he was so alive — and twisted — that he then murdered Sharon’s babydaddy Frank Barritt and left his corpse where his own had been dumped.

15 / 23

One year, Nikki married her “widowed” gynecologist. The next, she flirted with the brother of a childhood friend that she’d… wow… accidentally killed. Soon after that, she became a business mogul and ran for the state senate with the help of campaign manager and future husband David Chow. We don’t want to imply that she was blind to his scheming, but thanks to this photo, it can probably go without saying.

16 / 23

After a car accident killed both David and Victor’s wife-of-the-week, Sabrina Costelana, Nikki tried to be there for her ex. He, in turn, tried to be anywhere that she wasn’t. So, rather than take a minute and get her head screwed on straight, the widow threw herself into an engagement to old flame Paul. Presumably, she was happier about it than she appears.

17 / 23

Nikki was all set to remarry Victor for the umpteenth time in 2010 when conniving Meggie McClaine recruited Bold & Beautiful bad guy Deacon Sharpe to give the once and future Mrs. Newman a nudge off the wagon. He not only did so, he managed to blackmail her into becoming his unhappily-hitched sugar mama. Note: This is not a photo of them reciting their vows to one another… but it might as well have been!

18 / 23

Even after Nikki was extricated from her marriage to Deacon, she and Victor couldn’t get it together for longer than a commercial break. So she decided to remarry Jack, who at the time was using a wheelchair thanks to bonkers ex Patty Williams having used him for target practice. But, since Nikki considers marriages as easy to end as phone calls, she and Jack split up before they’d even sent thank-you notes for their wedding gifts.

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As soon as Victor got done marrying and remarrying ex-daughter-in-law Sharon Collins, he became engaged again to Nikki, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Never a dull moment with those two! Even their wedding was fraught with drama, as Newman family black sheep Adam (then Michael Muhney) took a bullet that was meant to make him an orphan.

20 / 23

Following the death of her dear friend and mentor, Katherine Chancellor, Nikki confided in Paul that she’d had cult leader Ian Ward’s child back in their New World Brotherhood days. Only, much to their relief, Dylan McAvoy turned out not to be the Machiavellian predator’s offspring but Paul’s. Bullet, dodged!

21 / 23

When contractor Arturo Rosales’ bid to turn Rainbow Gardens Apartments into low-cost housing came in higher than was acceptable, Nikki did what any sensible do-gooder would and slept with him. Although ya know, now that we think about how hot he was, we have to wonder; maybe altruism wasn’t the only reason that Nikki carried on that particular May/December affair.

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After Victoria (now Amelia Heinle) broke her engagement to ex-husband J.T. Hellstrom, Nikki saved her from his subsequent attack by whacking him with a fireplace poker. Afterwards, Nikki , along with Nick’s most frequent wives, Sharon and Phyllis Summers, buried the body. Which, it bears mentioning, still had a pulse.

Watch Young & Restless’ Eric Braeden Slay as ‘the Cruelest Man I Have Ever Seen’ — and Steal Betty White’s Heart in the Process

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Jill Johnson/JPI

And we thought Victor Newman was ruthless!

To think that we missed its anniversary! January 8 marked 44 years to the day that Eric Braeden guest-starred on classic comedy The Mary Tyler Moore Show as a critic whose first appearance on the WJM newscast makes a lasting impression.

As you’ll see in the clip below, as anchorman Ted Baxter (the late Ted Knight) becomes ever more flustered, Braeden’s Karl Heller wonders aloud why “no first-rate art has ever been created in this big but intellectually famished and sterile city” of Minneapolis.

More: Leading man’s departure riles Young & Restless fans

Behind the scenes, the WJM gang is beside themselves, rightly anticipating the complaints that are about to start pouring into the station. But one member of the team has an altogether different reaction to Karl’s diatribe — or at least to handsome Karl himself. Hot-to-trot Happy Homemaker Sue Ann Nivens (the late, great Betty White) marvels that he’s “the cruelest man I have ever seen.

“I think I’m in love,” she adds. Classic White as Sue Ann. You can watch the scene unfold below.

The station manager of WJM hires a renowned critic who verbally attacks Minneapolis and its people when #EricBraeden and #DavidOgdenStiers guest-star in #TheMaryTylerMooreShow episode “The Critic”, airing on CBS this date 1977. pic.twitter.com/87LdKiN0sw — Silver Age Television 📺 (@SilverAgeTV) January 9, 2022

When White died recently at 99 years old, Braeden tweeted that, in essence, she’d taken the cake. “A sweet lady passed on,” he wrote. “You have entertained millions for many decades.

“What a life!” he continued. What a life, indeed!

A sweet lady passed on! You have entertained millions for many decades! What a life!🙏🙏🙏 pic.twitter.com/Uj7kyJSnVP — Eric Braeden (@EBraeden) December 31, 2021

Now then, though when you think of Braeden, you’re likelier to think of The Young and the Restless’ Victor Newman and heavy drama than sitcom mischief, the Emmy winner has never been a one-trick pony. In fact, back in the 1970s, he was switching lanes on the regular, going from guesting on Westerns (Gunsmoke, Bearcats!) to tackling superhero fare (Wonder Woman, The Six Million Dollar Man) to showing us the funny (Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo).

While you’re here, maybe missing White anew, pay your respects to all the greats that we lost in 2021 with the below photo gallery.

Y&R Spoilers Recap for Jan. 13: What Victor Giveth Victor Can Taketh

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The Y&R spoilers recap for Thursday, January 13, 2022, is a Newman versus Newman versus Newman versus Newman showdown, as Victor Newman lays down the law with his son, and Nikki Newman speaks up for their daughter. Also, Lily Winters worries about Billy Abbott, so it’s…a day ending in a Y.

The Y&R Spoilers Recap Highlights

When Nikki (Melody Thomas Scott) congratulated Victoria Newman Locke (Amelia Heinle) on buying ChancComm from Jill Foster Abbott Atkinson (Jess Walton), Victoria revealed that she’d gone to Victor (Eric Braeden) and asked to buy Newman Media, too. Victoria saw Daddy turning her down as proof that he cared more about keeping Adam employed than about giving Victoria what she wanted.

So Victoria told him that Billy (Jason Thompson) was about to bring Adam Newman (Mark Grossman) down – but Victoria cleverly stopped him. Victor should keep a better eye on his prodigal son. She tells Ashland Locke (Richard Burgi) that she’s going to make sure Victor cuts her little brother loose, once and for all.

Y&R: I’ll Be Watching You

Victor, who prides himself on never being manipulated, then, completely on his own, decides to head over to Adam’s office, relay Victoria’s accusation, and inform Adam that Victor will be taking a more active role in their business from now on.

Adam pouts, but then Chelsea Lawson (Melissa Claire Egan) flounces in to remind Adam that she is always on his side – even when the world, and Victor, are against him. (That must have been what Chelsea was doing when she framed Adam for attempted murder. Being on his side.) Does Adam want to go get a drink with her? Yeah. Sure. Why not?

Y&R Recap: Checking In

Lily (Christel Khalil) has every confidence that Billy is crushing it at his meeting in Chicago with Jill. So why does she call to check up on him?

The Young and the Restless (YR) airs weekdays on CBS. Check your local listings for airtimes. For more about what’s coming up in Genoa City, check out all the latest that’s been posted on Y&R spoilers, and for an in-depth look at the show’s history, click here.

Happy Birthday To Jane Elliot!

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Jane Elliot was born on January 17 in New York City. Photo credit: ABC

She became friends with DAYS’s Deidre Hall (Marlena) when they met on the set of ELECTRA WOMAN AND DYNA GIRL in 1976. Photo credit: ABC

In 1965, she made her acting debut as Linda Skerba on the short-lived soap A FLAME IN THE WIND. She has also appeared on GUIDING LIGHT, ALL MY CHILDREN and DAYS OF OUR LIVES. Photo credit: JPI

In 1981, she won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her portrayal of Tracy on GENERAL HOSPITAL. Photo credit: JPI

News Roundup: Casting Shockers, Relationship Warning Signs and Storyline Fixes That Can Be Made Before It’s Too Late

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CBS, Howard Wise/JPI, T Arroyo/JPI, ABC Screenshot, Paramount Network

Plus, previews of what’s coming next!

We get it. You’re busy. Every now and then, some of the latest breaking news is going to slip under the radar. But that’s why we’re here — it’s literally our job to catch you up on the latest happenings in the daytime! Whether you love The Bold and the Beautiful, Days of Our Lives, General Hospital or The Young and the Restless — or all of the above — this is your one-stop shop to find out what’s going on.

The Bold and the Beautiful

Would a single person be surprised if Taylor, against all common sense, made another play for Ridge? We didn’t think so. But what if that’s not what happens ? There is one thing she could do to completely upend her relationship with the Forresters and change how everyone sees her!

Bold & Beautiful seems to have accidentally created a mystery around Zende that we’re dying to explore. Hopefully they can answer our burning questions — and if not, maybe you can.

As we look back fondly on the late, great Darlene Conley, John McCook shared some memories of the woman who played the original, incomparable Sally Spectra.

Did Jacqueline MacInnes Wood just reveal the sex of her next baby? It certainly seemed like it when she shared this photo!

Amber may be a so-so parent, but Adrienne Frantz is an incredible mom. After nearly dying following childbirth, all she could think about was her kids. And now, she couldn’t be more excited to welcome her third “miracle” into the world! This week’s Bold & Beautiful nearly drove Richard to drink (although granted, that’s a very short trip). Check out what he’d much rather Steffy be doing than pushing her mom to reunite with Ridge. Plus, find out which character he’s pretty much heard enough about. What Went Down Last Week: Brooke continued to question what could have pushed her to drink again. Ridge stood by his wife, but got angry when Hope mentioned Deacon. Hope asked Steffy and Taylor to stay out of Brooke and Ridge’s marriage. Steffy later encouraged her mom to fight to reunite their family. Deacon declared his love to Brooke. Paris’ mom, Grace, came to town. Zende wondered if Paris might be interested in another guy, never realizing that Carter — to whom he put this question — was the other man.

Days of Our Lives

Days of Our Lives has a serious Hope problem, but we have an idea of how they could fix it. Unfortunately, while it might give fans what they want down the road , it could very well enrage them in the short term!

We’re barely into Possession 2.0 and JoDevil already feels like a breath of fresh air to Lori. Now, if only the rest of Days of Our Lives felt the same! Mostly, it feels like the other stories are busy building up to something else. Find out which plot threads hit and which were just spinning their wheels in this week’s Soapbox!

What Went Down Last Week: As EJ’s trial got under way, Chad planned to help clear his name… but that was before JoDevil got involved. Chad believed he was seeing Abigail kiss EJ when clearly, it was a transformed JoDevil. Nancy showed up in Salem to tell Chloe that she suspected Craig was having an affair. Steve and Kayla went undercover as Father Nichols and Sister Mary Elizabeth as they searched for Kristen. Ava conspired to frame Rafe and later received a call from Kristen, who offered her help.

General Hospital

Willow and Michael had a good run, but we’re pretty sure the writing is on the wall — in big, bold letters — that their relationship will soon come to an end . Yes, we have our reasons for thinking that, and no, you probably won’t be happy after reading them!