As The Young and the Restless marks its 48th birthday, it's easy to see that the CBS soap opera just gets better and better. Don't believe us? Well, during the series debut on March 26, 1973, waitress Sally McGuire (Lee Crawford) declared that Genoa City was a really dull place to live! Obviously, she didn't have psychic powers, because the past 48 years in the small Wisconsin town have been anything but dull.
The action all started with the introduction of the well-to-do Brooks family and the struggling Foster family, whose worlds collided when sexy William "Snapper" Foster Jr. (William Gray Espy) began a fling with Chris Brooks (Trish Stewart) at the same time he was hooking up with the aforementioned waitress, Sally. This upstairs/downstairs love triangle was accompanied by an upstairs/downstairs duo that kicked off several months later, when lowly manicurist Jill Foster (then Brenda Dickson) was taken under the wing of the wealthy Katherine Chancellor. Longtime viewers know that this unlikely early 70s friendship evolved into one of the soap's longest, bitterest rivalries... and it was a love-hate relationship that fans enjoyed up to (and even after) the death of Katherine's portrayer, Jeanne Cooper, in 2013.
Speaking of rivalries, the early spats that took place in Genoa City began to look like child's play upon the arrival of the formidable self-made millionaire Victor Newman in 1980. He showed the town what rivalries are really made of and continues to make waves in Genoa City to this day. Fortunately for Y&R fans, portrayer Eric Braden recently announced that there's no stopping Victor Newman, and in a cast-filled 48th anniversary message to fans (below), the actor promises that when it comes to stories for his alter ego and the rest of Genoa City residents, "the best is yet to come."
For 48 years and more than 12,000 episodes, the #YR fans have been by our side. Thank you for your loyalty and making our 48th anniversary happen! Please join us in celebrating and tag a fellow fan in the replies. ❤️ pic.twitter.com/RW8A54UwhG
- Young and Restless (@YandR_CBS) March 26, 2021
Would you like to wish Y&R a happy 48th anniversary? What are your favorite storylines from the past 48 years that Y&R has been on the air? We want to hear from you -- so drop your comments in the Comments section below, tweet about it on Twitter, share it on Facebook, or chat about it on our Message Boards.
