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Fans Celebrate 35 years with Y&R Favorites
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Fans Celebrate 35 years with Y&R Favorites

On April 10, 2008, a few fans had a chance to participate in a very special event at the Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills, California, celebrating the 35th Anniversary of The Young and the Restless moderated by Entertainment Weekly's Lynnette Rice. Jeanne Cooper (Katherine), Melody Thomas Scott (Nikki), Doug Davidson (Paul), Peter Bergman (Jack), Michelle Stafford (Phyllis), Joshua Morrow (Nick), Kristoff St. John (Neil), Christian LeBlanc (Michael) and Jess Walton (Jill) formed the Y&R panel. The Bell family were seated in the audience with the fans. It was an intimate setting with 140 fans in attendance. The evening began with a montage of highlights from the beginning of the show which included an array of classic scenes and famous alumni. The famous Jill and Katherine fight, Katherine driving off the cliff, Nikki stripping, Snapper's goodbye scene with his son, Isabella trying to kill Christine, Christine and Paul's famous love scene on the beach, Cassie's death with Nick and Sharon by her side and Michael and Lauren's wedding were all included in the clips. Famous alumni such as Deidre Hall, David Hasselhoff, Eva Longoria Parker and Shemar Moore flashed before our eyes. Lynette got the ball rolling by admitting that she is a huge fan of the show and a big fan of Phick (Phyllis and Nick). The audience broke out in laughter when she said their love scenes are "HOT"!

Highlights of the evening:

Joshua Morrow commenting on Phyllis and Nick's love scenes on the couch. Josh said he feels like he should tell people "Dude, you might not want to sit there..." Joshua thinks that it might be easier to issue every guest visiting the tact house a hazmat suit so that they could feel free to sit anywhere. He also said they're "eyeing the couch in the new office."

Jeanne Cooper hates that the writers made Jill her daughter, "She stole my husband!"

Christian LeBlanc drew a huge laugh from the crowd when he announced that "Michael is the smartest person in the dumbest town" and he added that he is a brilliant lawyer.

Melody Thomas Scott confessed that she was embarrassed by her stripping scenes because she's a "horrible dancer."

Michelle Stafford thought that the soaps are more conservative now than they used to be and the panel agreed. Peter Bergman felt the internet has changed the world of soaps. The audience is more sophisticated about all the information out there and with that comes spoilers. The panel agreed.

An audience member pointed out that the summer storylines seemed to be written to entice younger viewers with "teen storylines" and Doug Davidson responded that Paul and Nikki started on the show as a teen storyline with Joshua chiming in that's how he was brought in as well.

Peter shared a touching moment with the audience when he shared that he was sad about the break up of the Abbott family. He missed the interaction with Ashley, Tracy and John. He added that at first he didn't like John's "ghost" storyline but started to see it as Jack's conscience.

Joshua followed this with comments on Cassie's death. He shared that he was devastated that the writers were going to kill her off because Cassie and Camryn Grimes, the actress who portrayed her, was like a daughter to him on screen and off. But her death resonates even today on the show. Michelle added that Sharon Case did some of her best work during those scenes and the audience applauded. Morrow revealed that he is really happy that Camryn is in college now and getting the chance to be a "normal kid."

Another comment that drew a huge laugh from the crowd was Joshua saying he likes to think of John and Cassie playing "rock, paper, scissors" in Heaven to see who is going to come down to haunt Genoa City.

Kristoff St. John and Doug had a running gag throughout the evening about paying each other to say nice things about the other which was very entertaining.

A 5 year old girl from Georgia claimed she was a huge fan of Jack's and wanted to know if Peter remembered her and he did. She had came up to him while he was shopping for his nieces!

Everyone on the panel applauded the writers and the Bells for creating and sustaining the groundbreaking show. The evening was brought to a close and the audience was able to take pictures and get autographs. It truly was a magical evening.

;-)