The Young and the Restless is celebrating a major milestone that happens this week -- the airing of its 12,000th episode on Tuesday, December 1 -- and to mark the exciting occasion, several stars from the long-running series took to video to share memories from their first days on set.
Y&R favorite Peter Bergman (Jack Abbott) begins the eight-minute clip, which was posted to the soap's social media pages, with memories about working with some of the soap's biggest stars right out of the gate.
"My first day on The Young and the Restless, I had two scenes with Jess Walton [Jill Abbott], three scenes with John Abbott [Jerry Douglas], and I prepared and prepared like crazy," the actor shares. "I wanted this job to work in the worst way. I just thought, 'The audience has to buy this. This has gotta work.' The scenes went well, and it was the beginning of one of the greatest adventures of my life."
Elizabeth Hendrickson (Chloe Mitchell) shared her memories of working with Christel Khalil (Lily Winters) on her first day.
"I remember being so thankful that she was the one that I got to have my first scenes with," she says. "We had a lot of fun, and she was also just a terrific actress."
Jordi Vilasuso (Rey Rosales) reports that though he was super happy for the opportunity to work at Y&R, he also had a huge case of nerves on his first day.
"I have to say, the emotions I was feeling on my first day being on The Young and the Restless were excited, maybe a little nervous," he shares. "Grateful, very grateful to be on the number-one daytime drama and looking forward to what Rey Rosales, Detective Rosales, would be bringing to Genoa City."
Tricia Cast (Nina Webster), however, insists that she really wasn't nervous on her very first day at Y&R.
"I didn't feel nervous, except for the acting jitters that a person gets naturally, but not particularly nervous," she shares. "I was more excited to be there."
Michael Mealor (Kyle Abbott) had reason to be nervous because he basically worked with the entire cast on his first day, shooting the centennial episode in Walnut Grove.
"We had 50 actors on set at all times," he recalls. "It was the massive party, a bunch of old actors came back, we had storylines with old characters -- it was so much fun. But it was so nerve-racking for me, because everyone was there and everyone was watching me on my first day, filming my first scenes! I really just kind of blacked out."
Mark Grossman (Adam Newman) also weighed in about his first day, sharing a little bit of a snafu that he will always remember.
"Just before I was about to shoot my first scene, they realized that my hair was actually parted the wrong way, so they had to come out and totally redo my hair and part it the other way right before we did our scene," he recalls. "I will never forget that, because it's always about the hair! The hair's gotta be on point."
Adds Greg Rikaart (Kevin Fisher) about a hilarious moment from his first day, "A bunch of crewmembers were wearing Hawaiian shirts, so when it came time for Kevin to make his entrance, wearing a Hawaiian shirt, Don Jacobs, our stage manager at the time, and a bunch of other crew guys all rolled in, one after another, wearing Hawaiian shirts! It was funny and made it onto our Christmas reel, the gag reel, that year. And it told me right off the bat there here I was, working with a bunch of cool people who knew how to have a good time."
Check out the fun-filled video below and let us know what you think in the Comments section at the end of the article.
One day you never forget is your first day on the #YR set! Some of our stars are reminiscing about their Y&R debuts ahead of the 12,000th episode. ⭐️ pic.twitter.com/G2wiLz9OUV
- Young and Restless (@YandR_CBS) November 29, 2020
Whose first day at Y&R do you wish you could have witnessed in person? Y&R is airing its 12,000th episode -- do you remember the first episode that you watched? 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.
