A prolific soap opera writer, William J. Bell (1927-2005) scripted dialog for “The Guiding Light”, “As the World Turns” & “Days of Our Lives”. In 1964, he co-created “Another World” with his boss/mentor, Irna J. Phillips. In the early 1970s, Bill Bell, together with his wife, Lee Phillip Bell, holed up in the famous Polo Lounge at the Beverly Hills Hotel and created a 65-page document with two years of storylines, characters, and back-story tentatively titled “The Innocent Years.” On March 26, 1973, with a new title, the Bells’ groundbreaking half-hour daytime serial, “The Young and the Restless”, debuted on CBS. Years later, they offered their devoted fans an unusual element of glamour with the glitzy costuming on “The Bold & The Beautiful”, which debuted in 1987 & uses the fashion industry of Los Angeles as its backdrop. Like Agnes Nixon before them, the Bells attracted an increasingly young audience by injecting topical issues into their plotlines, including an especially notorious Y&R story about breast cancer in 1975. According to the Museum of Television and Radio, “Shadowy, sensuous lighting, intriguing camera angles, and Hollywood production values supplied a lavish romanticism that not only appealed to its female viewers but also influenced the way other soaps were photographed.” Not merely relying upon rapturous presentation style & sex appeal, however, the Bells’ soap opera included the typical structure of two intertwining families – the rich but troubled Brooks family and the struggling, middle class Foster family, who resided in the fictional town of Genoa City, Wisconsin. Banishing forever the twin beds & shy sensuality of its predecessors, the Bells infused their avant-garde scripts with frank sexuality, including “conversations about premarital intercourse, the carnal needs of an engaged man, impotence, and the trauma of rape, (which) far exceeded anything seen on daytime before.” In the late seventies, many of the original Y&R actors gradually abandoned the show, so the Bells added more characters to their canvass. By the time that Y&R was extended to an hour in 1980, the last of the Brooks and Fosters (except Jill) had left town. In the meantime, the Williams family, the Abbott family, Victor Newman and (ex-stripper) Nikki Reed had already been firmly established. Having successfully shifted away from Y&R’s original core families, the show seamlessly refocused on an entirely new set of characters. In 1984, when 56-yr. old actress Jeanne Cooper decided to have cosmetic surgery, the Bells wrote it into the Y&R storyline & Kay Chancellor underwent an on-camera facelift using footage from her real-life procedure. Since the early 80s, Victor & Nikki’s relationship has been a dominant force in the show, with the two having married & divorced several times. A tough and extremely confident showman, Bell ignored focus-group research and tolerated no interference from the CBS “suits”. Thus, his writing team achieved remarkable consistency in its story, style, and character. Although Bell passed away from complications of Alzheimer’s Disease at the age of 78, he wrote and produced some 15,000 soap episodes THROUGHOUThis extraordinarily successful, four decade-long television career. During his lifetime, Bill Bell was awarded nine Emmy Awards, including three for his writing on “The Young and the Restless.”
This collection of color coordinated fashion fabrics is from the Winter 2011 issue of Vogue Fabrics By Mail. Order a subscription to this swatch club catalog service to receive home delivery.
This collection of color coordinated fashion fabrics is from the Winter 2011 issue of Vogue Fabrics By Mail. Order a subscription to this swatch club catalog service to receive home delivery.
