‘The Young and the Restless Star Peter Bergman on Throwing That Chair During the Jack and Ashley Fight: ‘Just Pure Animal’

Victor Newman (Eric Braeden) and Jack Abbott (Peter Bergman) are two of the most-known enemies not just on The Young and the Restless, but in all of soap opera history period. One of the most iconic scenes in the show’s history is when Jack threw a chair out a glass window in a fight with Victor. The scene was redone in a way more recently, with Jack throwing a chair through glass in an argument with Ashley. Bergman spoke about the chair-throwing scenes in an interview once.

Jack Abbott and Victor Newman have had a decades-lasting feud

Over the years, Jack and Victor’s professional and personal lives have been deeply intertwined, resulting in a bitter feud between the two. They’ve often shared love interests, like Victor’s wife, Nikki (Melody Thomas Scott) and Victor was once married to Jack’s sister, Ashley (Eileen Davidson).

To make things even more complicated, Jack has a long romantic history with Phyllis, the ex-wife of Victor’s son Nick. Jack has also had some romantic history with Sharon, who was the longtime wife of Nick and was also involved with Victor’s other son, adam.

From the business side, Jack has had dealings in Newman and Victor has had dealings in Jabot, which is the Abbott family’s company.

Peter Bergman on those chair-throwing scenes

In a 2019 interview with Michael Fairman TV, Bergman talked to the outlet about those notable chair throws, the first being the one from the Victor fight in 2005.

“The first one was with Eric Braeden,” he said. “My favorite part of that story is Mike Denney was directing it, and I pulled Mike aside as we were blocking it.  I said, “Wouldn’t there be just crazy wind at that level, that high up?   Wouldn’t the wind be nuts?” and Mike had like three fans brought in, and I looked over, and Eric Braeden’s hair was everywhere.  Mine had blown from one part of my scalp to the other [laughs]. It was this wind storm that made it all the more dramatic.  I loved the finished product of that, and I got to have a little hand in it.”

The second chair came in more recent years during a fight he had with Ashley. Instead of a window through to outside, the just threw it through some glass.

Of this instance, Bergman said, “The second chair throwing through a window with Ashley was just pure animal, anger, disgust, revulsion, everything black in Jack coming out that way, and that stupid glass shouldn’t have been there in the first place, but we put that in [laughs].”

The Young and the Restless airs weekdays on CBS.