Melody Thomas Scott Didn’t Expect ‘The Young and the Restless’ to Last 50 Years
The Young and the Restless is celebrating a significant milestone with its renewal. The show first aired in 1973 and has since been giving its viewers drama, intrigue, love, and betrayal. Actor Melody Thomas Scott who has played Nikki Newman for decades, said she didn’t expect the show to last 50 years. Find out more.
Melody Thomas Scott didn’t expect ‘Y&R’ the would last 50 years
Scott began her acting career as a child star in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1964 film Marnie and followed it up with gigs in nighttime shows like Charlie’s Angels, The Rockford Files, and The Waltons.
Scott left her recurring role on The Waltons in 1979 at 23 years old and took up a small part in the daytime soap The Young and The Restless. Scott took over from the previous actor who’d played Nikki for only six months.
As time passed, Nikki became an integral part of the story, and Scott’s presence on the serial grew. However, the star didn’t expect the show would last this long.
In an interview with Michael Fairman, Scott said that when she started playing Nikki, she was “too green” to predict how long a show could last. The actor said she expected she’d be on the show for a total of three years.
“I don’t think any of us really stopped and thought, ‘Well gee- can we get to 50?'” Scott said. The star called the show’s ability to last 50 years “a blessing,” stating that it’s not often that actors get to hold on to a job for this long. In 2019, the show honored Scott with a standalone episode to mark her 40-year history on the show.
Michelle Stafford and Eileen Davidson share a similar sentiment
In the joint interview, Michelle Stafford, who plays Phyllis Summers, and Eileen Davidson, who plays Ashley Abbott, echoed Scott’s sentiments saying they also didn’t expect they’d be with the show for this long. Stafford said her role was supposed to be minor, explaining she was initially contracted for six weeks.
Davidson, on her end, had some hope for the show’s longevity, given other soaps like Days of our Lives had already had a lengthy run. However, like her cast mates, she didn’t expect to still be with the show for its 50th anniversary.
‘Y&R’ celebrated its 50th anniversary with an epic crossover
Y&R and its sister show, The Bold and The Beautiful, have been connected since their inception. Several characters have appeared in both shows over the years, facilitating the connection between the two shows that fans love.
In January 2020, the show was renewed for another four years, and come next year, the show will have officially reached its 50th year on the air. When the new season began, the show knew the best way to celebrate this milestone would be to have a crossover between B&B and Y&R.
Since the beginning of 2022, Nikki Newman has had much to worry about after her lifelong rival Diane Jenkins seemingly returned from the dead. Nikki joined forces with Phyllis Summers, who also harbors a deep hatred for Diane. The pair tried putting out a scathing piece on the former vixen, and when that didn’t work out, Nikki set out to learn about Diane’s secrets from one person who knew her well, Deacon.
Fans can recall Deacon was the one who delivered the fatal blow that led everyone to believe Diane was dead. Nikki flew to Los Angeles to have a face-to-face interaction with Deacon to compel him to tell her the truth about Diane, hoping to use the information to bring the former vixen down once and for all. The crossover episode aired on September 20, 2022, kicking Y&R‘s 50th season in full gear.
