The Young and the Restless Fun Facts
– The very first scene of the very first episode of Y&R was shot on location in the San Fernando Valley.
– Over the years, Y&R has tackled a wide range of social issues including alcoholism, teen pregnancy, breast cancer, eating disorders, sexual harassment, AIDS and cyber bullying.
– Jill (played by Jess Walton since 1987) is the longest-running character on Y&R.
– Jeanne Cooper (Katherine) and Doug Davidson (Paul) are the longest-running female and male cast members. Jeanne joined the show in 1974; Doug in 1978.
– Tom Selleck, David Hasselhoff, Eva Longoria, Shemar Moore and Paul Walker have all been members of the Y&R cast.
– Victor Newman was originally a short term, non-contract role.
– Victor Newman’s real name is Christian Miller. He gave himself the name because he rose above his grim beginnings and created a “new man.”
– Nikki and Victor have been married three times, although one of those unions was invalid. They are slated to wed for a fourth time in March 2013.
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– For Nikki and Victor’s first wedding in 1984, Nikki wore a gown created by a top L.A. fashion house that used 70 yards of imported French silk-faced satin and organza and took more than a dozen seamstresses 500 hours to produce. Her dress, 10-foot train and royal crown were hand-beaded with more than 20,000 small beads and pearls.
– In 1993, Jeanne Cooper (Katherine) became the first daytime actor to be honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
– It took five weeks to get ready for the 1991 masquerade ball, the backdrop against which the David Kimble storyline culminated. The two-story set built in the studio, which featured a huge chandelier rented from Warner Brothers, took 24 hours to set up.
– The first really big Y&R remote was in 1990. The show traveled to Bermuda for the denouement of the George Rawlins murder mystery.
– Michael Damian was spotted on American Bandstand by Y&R producers who created the role of rocker Danny Romalotti specifically for him.
– Kate Linder (Esther) has continued to work as a United Airlines flight attendant during her entire 30-plus-year tenure on the show.
– Y&R is set in the fictional town of Genoa City, Wisconsin, which is unlike and unrelated to the real-life town that shares its name. The show’s creators, the Bells, set the show here because of its proximity to their Lake Geneva vacation home.
– Y&R was the first daytime drama to be broadcast in high definition (2001).
– Y&R has won more than 50 Emmy Awards. In 2011, the show won its first-ever Emmy in the Outstanding Achievement in Hairstyling category.
– Wayne Gretzky, Pat Benatar, Little Richard, Enrique Iglesias and Katy Perry have all guested on the show.
– The Y&R theme music is a re-scored version of “Cotton’s Dream,” composed for a 1971 movie. After ABC used it for a 1976 Olympics montage of gold-medal-winning gymnast Nadia Comaneci, it was re-named “Nadia’s Theme” and released as a single, reaching #8 on the Billboard charts.
