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THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS: Neil’s Loved Ones Mourn

April 26, 2019

Photo: CBS

What viewers saw on Thursday’s and Friday’s episodes of The Young and the Restless was in essence beloved castmates and friends going through cathartic moments themselves as the lines blurred between reality and fiction, and how could it not.   Y&R lost Kristoff St. John back in February and promised the audience that it would honor the character of Neil, and his portrayer in fitting tributes for all he has meant to the daytime drama series.

Neil’s memorial service aired on Thursday.  In it, St John’s longtime friend, Stan Shaw, presided over the service as the reverend.  One by one the key characters in Neil Winters life gave their eulogies and paid tribute to this man.

As Lily (Christel Khalil) tries to get up to speak, she breaks down as she cannot bring herself to address those in attendance.  So, Malcolm (Shemar Moore) steps up and reflects on how different his brother was then him, and brings up their rocky relationship.  Malcolm wishes he could tell his brother how much he helped him become the man he is today. As he cries, he tells Neil he misses him, loves him, and prays to God that he knew.

Photo CBS

Then, it was Victor Newman’s (Eric Braeden) turn.  He struggles to contain his emotions and hold back the tears, but it’s no use.  Victor loved Neil and respected him.  He saw him as a son, and said that Neil was one of the few men he trusted.  Victor said that Neil was a good man, a good friend, and member of the family.  With tears streaming down his face, Victor says. “I shall miss you my friend.”   Next, it’s Jack’s (Peter Bergman) turn to speak and he talks about the lives Neil saved which included his own.

When Devon (Bryton James) takes to the podium he poignantly says that Neil was his father, the one he never had, and was also his best friend.  Devon reminisced how when he came to Genoa City he had a chip on his shoulder, but Neil never gave up on him and it meant everything in the world to him.  In heartbreak, Devon says he doesn’t carry Neil’s DNA, but he can hear Neil’s voice calling him “My man.”  When he finishes, he turns to Neil’s picture and casket and signs “I love you” to him.

When Lily still cannot get up to speak, she asks Cane (Daniel Goddard) to please go up to the podium.  Cane speaks to his regret for the times he let Neil and Lily down more than once, Neil was a role model for Cane on how to be a father, he confesses. Cane brings up Neil’s strength when he lost the love of his life, Drucilla.  He says Neil passed that spirit and strength to Lily.  Cane encourages Lily to speak.  Lily finds the strength through her tears, as she cries, she says how she has now lost both her parents and she feels so alone.  Lily cries that Neil should have had more time on this earth.   She looks to all Neil’s friends and family and says they all have to be there for each other now to honor him, and that they owe him that.  She turns to his casket in tears and tells her father she loves him.  As the service ends, Devon thanks everyone for coming.  At the end of the episode, Lily and Devon hold hands and look at the portrait of their father.

On Friday, Neil’s family and friends gathered at Devon’s penthouse and try to lighten the mood through their tears to celebrate Neil’s life.  Ana sang, everyone joined in, jazz records (Neil’s favorites) were played, Malcolm toasts his brother, and Sofia mourns the father of her child.  Nikki (Melody Thomas Scott) tried to figure out how she will go on without her good friend, who shared her addiction and understood her.  Jack embraces Malcolm and says “We both lost our best friend.”  As friends exit the penthouse, it eventually ends up just being the family. Malcolm sets up a photo with everyone as a family memento with Neil’s photo in a frame with them.  Sofia (Julia Pace Mitchell) and Malcolm announce they need to head to the airport to get on their flights, but before he leaves Malcolm hugs Devon, then Lily.  Later, back at her home with Cane, Lily tells Cane that she is ending their relationship, while Devon is sitting and crying at the penthouse when Elena (Brytni Sarpy) arrives.  He breaks down.  The episode featured retrospective clips of characters illustrating the traits of Neil featuring St. John.

Y&R brought all of its viewers to tears with his send-off for Neil Winters; which in turn honors Kristoff.  The eulogies delivered with such emotion, sadness and heart by Eric Braeden, Bryton James, Christel Khalil, Daniel Goddard, Peter Bergman, and Shemar Moore were heartbreaking.  As we watched Genoa City mourn, we mourned.   Neil was such a part of our viewing life, as much as Kristoff was part of so many of our personal and professional lives.

So, what did you think of the funeral episode and its aftermath on The Young and the Restless?  Were you moved to tears and then some? Share your thoughts via the comment section below.

 

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Okay, I have really enjoyed these tear-jerking episodes, but one critical observation…

There was no scenery left after Shemar Moore’s performance: he chewed it ALL up!

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Jamesj75
He was great. I swear, this man gets better and better. Do you watch him on S.W.A.T? It’s a really good show. When not in “cop” mode, it shows his loving and compassionate side that Malcolm was known for.

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Hi Violet: I haven’t seen him in S.W.A.T., but I do know what a great actor he is. One thing I will never forget about him: He is the one who presented/announced the Emmy Award to Susan Lucci for her lone win, and he was so classy and so enthusiastic for Lucci.

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Having watched Thursday’s funeral episode, where I’m sure I’m not the only one that cried my eyes out and then watching Friday’s episode where I couldn’t help but remember all the times and stories of all things Neil, I was grateful that Y&R did this.
These shows were much more difficult to watch and get through, more so than when Jeanne Cooper died.

Here’s what I’m really hoping: that Y&R will submit these episodes for Outstanding Drama Series Emmy next year. While these episodes are not typically what a show would submit when going for a Daytime Drama Emmy award, these episodes were so well done from the writing, to the camera work, the directing, the producing and lastly, the acting, which was something that the cast didn’t have to work hard at when these shows were taped. They were so eloquently done and sublime, something you rarely see on TV anymore.

Kristoff got his start in this business when he was a young boy from being on ‘Roots: The Next Generation’ to ‘Bad News Bears’, a show that I vividly remember watching back in the 1970’s (as a side note, I remember a conversation that I had with Kristoff years ago when I had a twitter account and I told him that I remember him from that show), to his many other roles on TV and in movies to his breakout role on NBC’s ‘Generations’ to the role on Y&R as Neil Winters that really catapulted him to fame. A role that won him two Emmy’s and numerous NAACP Image Awards. But those accolades almost didn’t come to fruition after he and Victoria Rowell (Drucilla) made a huge statement and stink about there needing to be more diversity on daytime television. His and Victoria’s stance could have easily destroyed their careers but it didn’t. It actually helped the industry to become more diverse on camera as well as behind the camera.

I remember when Shemar Moore came on to Y&R as Malcolm as an absolute unknown having only been in the modeling industry before starting his acting career. I truly believe that Kristoff made him understand that being humble along with understanding that respect is earned, not given. With that sage advise, it propelled Shemar into a movie and primetime career having starred on CBS’s ‘Criminal Minds’ and currently on ‘SWAT’. Shemar has no ego and I believe that Kristoff had a role in shaping who Shemar is as a human being and as an actor today. Shemar made that clear in the two episodes he appeared in this past week.

Kristoff is well respected in this industry and you certainly saw that with the many tributes that came in after he passed away. But most importantly, Kristoff was a husband, brother, uncle, friend but more importantly, he was a father to Lola and Paris as well as his late son Julian. Kristoff was never able to get over the loss of Julian when the demons of mental illness took a hold of Julian.

I am certain that Kristoff is running through the lily fields laughing, joking and smiling with his son Julian.

As Kristoff as Neil would say, ‘My man’, be at peace and run with Julian. You will be remembered fondly and you will be sorely missed. Rest well, my friend, rest well.

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Thank you Michael. Your review is so kind and well received!

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Very well said Michael…LOVED all the shows featuring Kristoff…

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Recaps

Y&R’s Eileen Davidson Delivers the ‘Power Performance of the Week’

April 14, 2024

Taking on a DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder) storyline on the soaps can be extraordinarily challenging for the performer who is tasked with making a clear distinction and delineation between the various alters of their character.

However, the other trick to playing this kind of story, is often having the various alters trying to hide the fact from those they know and love of what is truly going on with them, so as not to tip them off, as to what is happening to them as they battle for control of a person’s psyche.

The gold standard is One Life to Live icon Erika Slezak’s (ex-Viki) Emmy-winning and gut-wrenching and riveting DID storyline where we met Tori, Niki (although we met her earlier in the life of the show), Tommy, Princess, Jean and even her father, Victor.

Photo: JPI

Now in 2024, The Young and the Restless’ Eileen Davidson is playing out a new DID storyline for the first time as Ashley Abbott. We knew decades ago that Ashley had a breakdown and has suffered psychological issues, but this has taken it to a new level. And, let’s be real, if you are going to give someone currently on a soap a DID story, who better than Davidson, who is used to playing multiple characters at one time as she did on Days of our Lives. Although on DAYS, each of the characters were their own distinct person, while now on Y&R, Ashley’s alters are fighting for control of her being,

Last week, on the Thursday, April 12th episode of the CBS soap opera, Davidson truly got to shine, as in front of the Abbott family and through what was supposed to be an intervention (they hadn’t figure out what the hell was happening to her), Ashley was flipping from alter to alter. We know there is Ms. Abbott, and Ash thus far, but there is said to be one more alter a-coming.

Photo: JPI

In the key scenes, Davidson’s internal struggle was played pretty masterfully in a scene where she literally is in a tug of war with her alters and flings herself on the couch, while Jack (Peter Bergman), Diane (Susan Walters), Billy (Jason Thompson) and Traci (Beth Maitland) look on. Of course, there are the soap trope scenes of alters in handcuffs while the other is on the loose. And leave it to Billy to figure out Ashley is suffering from DID from his past experience.

Photo: JPI

While this all seemed to spring from Ashley’s messy relationship with Tucker (Trevor St. John) and a throw back to an old car accident where she lost her unborn baby, is there some other underlying issue in Ashley’s past that was even more traumatizing that will be revealed as another trigger for this massive personality split? We shall see.

Photo: JPI

In the meantime, Michael Fairman TV names Eileen Davidson’s work the Power Performance of the Week, and rest assured, come 2025, Davidson will find herself going for the third Daytime Emmy win as Lead Actress for this storyline.

So, let us know, what did you think of Eileen’s performance? Are you enjoying Ashley’s DID storyline? What do you think will happen to her next? Comment below.

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Recaps

THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL: “Sugar Sugar! Oh, Honey Honey”

April 13, 2024

The Bold and the Beautiful revealed at the end of the Friday April 13th episode what many viewers had guessed, that it wasn’t Sheila (Kimberlin Brown) who died when Steffy (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood) stabbed her, but it had to her doppelgänger, Sugar, or at least it seems that way.

Deacon (Sean Kanan) has been beside himself since seeing what was supposed to be Sheila’s body being cremated, but revealing the body had ten toes and not nine, and we all know Sheila had cut off her toe, so she only had nine.

While explaining his thoughts that she is alive to Finn (Tanner Novlan) and then trying later to explain to Ridge (Thorsten Kaye), Deacon is more convinced that something is wrong here. Meanwhile, Finn went to talk to Steffy about Deacon’s theory, which stuns her, as she believed she killed Sheila in self-defense.

Courtesy/CBS

At Il Giardino, Deacon looks at his phone then slams it down. He flashes back to the body going into the crematorium oven saying to himself, “Maybe I’m not going crazy. Maybe that wasn’t you. And if that wasn’t you, maybe you’re out there. Maybe you need my help.”

Deacon gets on Sheila’s laptop and tries to find something that might help him figure out where Sheila has gone. He looks at her text message communications and sees a section from an unknown number. He opens the messages, and Deacon reads that they’re from someone named “Sugar.”  That person said she was going to find Sheila. In the messages, Sheila made it clear she wanted no part of her. But it could be that Sheila met up with Sugar, or was forced too?

Courtesy/CBS

In a quick history lesson about the character of Sugar: she was originally played by Robin Mattson on B&B, and was a former prison warden who helped Sheila escape and then joined her in kidnapping Ridge Forrester to hold him for ransom. A twisted plot ensued, where flames engulfed the foundry they were at and Ridge was presumed dead. Meanwhile, Sheila and Sugar disappeared with Massimo and Sheila’s baby, Diana.

Photo: JPI

Fast forward to 2006, Sheila returned to Genoa City to go after Lauren Fenmore (Tracey E. Bregman) again and was arrested for attacking Scott Grainger (Peter Barton). In a shocker, when Lauren went to visit Sheila in the slammer, she learned that the woman behind bars was actually Sugar, who had been given plastic surgery and now looks exactly like Sheila.

Now the questions become, did Sheila know that Sugar was going to attack Steffy? Did they have a plan and it went awry, or was Sheila hoping she could get rid of both Sugar and Steffy, by having her daughter-in-law sent to prison for her “murder”? Or, is Sheila out there somewhere in trouble?

Share your theories via the comment section below, and if you knew all along that it would be revealed that Sugar is the person who actually died and not Sheila. But first, check out next week on B&B where Deacon gets a visit from Lauren.

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General Hospital

GENERAL HOSPITAL: Drew and Nina Get Physical; Were You Surprised or Did You Expect it to Happen?

April 9, 2024

On the Tuesday, April 9th episode of General Hospital, Drew (Cameron Mathison) and Nina’s (Cynthia Watros) explosive relationship just turned up the heat another notch.

In story, Nina who was responsible (although she doesn’t see it that way) for Drew being sent to prison for insider trading when she tipped off the SEC, let out her feelings to him about how to get back in the good graces of her daughter, Willow (Katelyn MacMullen) and Michael (Chad Duell). In doing so, she asks him for his help with it.

For months, the two have had nothing short of contentious moments, where Drew has not let Nina off the hook for what he did to him, or to his ex Carly (Laura Wright). Fast-forward and when alone in the Crimson office, Nina brings up wanting to stick it to Carly again.

Photo: ABC

As they banter back and forth, Drew can’t figure out why he should help Nina at all with any of her manipulations. Suddenly, as he tried to exit, his shirt rips and exposes his bare chest and abs, and Nina get quite an eyeful. From there, things become physical and before you know it, Drew and Nina are making out and having their version of hate-sex.

Courtesy/ABC

Cameron Mathison spoke to Soap Opera Digest on the shocking turn events, sharing, “I didn’t see it coming at all. I really didn’t. I think the audience did. Cynthia did some appearances and I guess the audience was ‘You and Drew, there’s some sexy chemistry there.’ I was like, ‘Wait, what? Really?’ I didn’t even get it. So I love it that it was very unexpected. The writers saw it, too. And, I love that it’s not a typical way for two people to be … physical. I was gonna say intimate, but there’s not a lot of intimacy there. And then as soon as it’s over, it’s back to arguing and giving each other crap again. It was really cute and really well done.”

As the fallout for their office room romp will air on the Wednesday April 10th episode, just how will the two deal with the fact that they had this fiery passionate moment in the weeks and months ahead? Will this be Nina’s new plot to get at Carly to be seen with her ex? Will Drew and Nina never speak of this again? (Well, this is a soap opera, after all, that’s pretty doubtful), or is this part of a major reset for some of the characters on the canvas now that Patrick Mulcahey and Elizabeth Korte are co-head writing the show?

Courtesy/ABC

Speaking on the aftermath of the tryst, Mathison added, “The two of them are both like, all right, let’s forget about that and move on. It’s like a weird kind of aggression attraction. There’s obviously attraction there, but I don’t think either of them expected it, and I think they’re both totally shocked and surprised by it. I think Drew gets a kick out of it whereas Nina is a little embarrassed by it.”

Now let us know, did you see this coming? Did you think Drew and Nina would have sex? What do you think of the story turn? Comment below.

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