Remember When: The Bold and the Beautiful's 38th anniversary (Part One: 1987-1991)

This week is The Bold and the Beautiful's 38th anniversary! Yes, on March 23, 1987, the Forresters, Logans, and Spencers of a new, fictionalized Los Angeles were all introduced to fans of daytime, and starting with this article — plus all through the week — we'll be celebrating B&B's nearly four decades on the air with a look back at highlights from each year in this soapiest of time capsules.

The Forrester fire was set in 1987 on The Bold and the Beautiful

Eric pretty much emerged fully formed on the show's first day; he's still the suave, sensitive, even-tempered guy he's been all along. Ridge is still consistent 38 years later as a hothead (with a different head to match), but back then, he was a full-on playboy – he only proposed to Caroline so he could have sex with her! At least now, he only cartwheels between two women. And Brooke, "The Slut from the Valley?" She started off as an ingenue who was nearly sexually assaulted while walking home from college — maybe her eventual hypersexuality came from feeling like she needed to take her power back?

Let's jump in and see how things started for the characters you love...and love to hate!

1987: First time on the runway

The Bold and the Beautiful appropriately started with a fashion show, letting us know what line of work these new characters were in. Viewers met Ridge, who thought his dad's collection needed to be sexed up; we didn't even get Eric's name in that premiere half-hour! Also, Stephanie wouldn't appear until the second episode! The first Logan that people saw was acne-stricken Katie, not Brooke, who had a much older cop for a boyfriend. And, while the waiting-for-marriage Caroline gushed over Ridge, Papa Bill (the O.G., not the Dollah) ordered the womanizer to stay away. So what did Ridge do? Ask Caroline to marry him, of course, but only to fast-track the wedding night. It was all a part of establishing this world that balanced sophisticated socialites and regular folks. And everything since sprang from that episode.

1988: Number one with a bullet

Did we mention Ridge was a womanizer? After he lost Caroline to brother Thorne, Ridge thought he'd pull a funny and slip into Caroline's bed while she was drunk. Whoops, they did the do. The ex-lovers mostly managed to keep it a secret, but as the clued-in Stephanie and Eric discussed it, Thorne overheard and downed a truckload of booze on top of the pain meds he was taking following an appendectomy. The furious younger Forrester bro was so out of it that he grabbed Stephanie's gun and shot Ridge “the hell in the head” (which is how Ronn Moss jokingly referred to it many years later in an interview). Thorne couldn't remember a thing the next day, and when the 5-0 started sniffing around, Stephanie let herself be led away in handcuffs to protect her boy. Many months and a recast later, Ridge and Thorne settled their differences, but for real — how come this never comes up at family reunions?

1989: Masking, decades before it was fashionable

Amazingly, the Ridge/Thorne saga continued, but not through anything they did. Stephanie had hidden away a catatonic daughter, Angela – except the kid was an imposter; the real Angela had died long before. The fake escaped but got into a car accident, which horribly disfigured her face. Going around as the veiled “Deveney,” she wanted revenge on Stephanie, whom she blamed for her burns. “Deveney” got herself into the Forrester/Spectra fashion show on the Queen Mary and planned to drug Thorne again in the hopes of getting him to put another bullet in Ridge. It almost worked, but when Stephanie caught on, “Deveney” took off and was never heard from again. All this because Ridge couldn't keep his hands off his brother's wife!

1990: Don't fear the Reaper

After Caroline finally was able to divorce Thorne and marry Ridge, all seemed right in the Forrester world. Until, just months into her marriage, Caroline discovered she had terminal leukemia. She didn't want Ridge to suffer with her, so she chose not to disclose her illness – and, in order to keep it from him, Ridge's family couldn't be told, either. Caroline's only confidante then was – surprise! – Dr. Taylor Hayes, who, before treating psychiatric patients, was treating cancer patients. Caroline worked to push Ridge back toward Brooke and threw a big party to convince everyone to be good to each other, not knowing that all in attendance already knew she was going to die. Not meaning to, Caroline set in motion a triangle that's still triangulating today. Wonder if her flowers still grow outside the Forrester guest house?

1991: We're not gonna take it anymore

Only veteran fans will remember Jake Maclaine, but he was the focal point of one of B&B's most innovative stories. Jake was a tennis pro who was dating the youngest Forrester, Felicia, but there was a problem – he couldn't make love to her. Jake had no idea why at first, not until he finally remembered that his father, Ben, had molested him when he was a child. Jake flew home to Madison, Wisconsin, to confront his dad, who denied everything. It wasn't until Jake's uncle, Charlie, came for a visit that Jake put it together; when Jake heard the clinking of Charlie's Army dog tags, Jake identified the sound as having been in the room every time he was assaulted. Charlie tried to kill Jake before killing himself, and Jake recovered, but the saga of a male character having been sexually abused by a male family member was the boldest story the soap had told yet.

You've just Remembered When with the first five years of The Bold and the Beautiful! Tomorrow, we'll revisit the beginning of the show's heyday: 1992 to 1996. Tune in, why don't you?

Watch The Bold and the Beautiful weekdays on CBS or stream the show on Paramount Plus.