The Richmond Sentinel in partnership with Our City Tonight TV show and Jim Gordon (JG) were pretty excited to sit down with The Young and The Restless (Y&R) out of Los Angeles, Lauralee Bell (Christine Blair) and Michael Damian (Danny Romalotti) to honour Y&R celebrating 50 years on TV, 13,000 episodes and number one rated daytime drama for 35 years. 

JG: I'm very excited to have this super couple of daytime drama, Lauralee Bell (LB) and Michael Damian (MD). You know them as Christine (Cricket) Blair and Danny Romalotti. Welcome.

LB: Thank you. We love that title super couple. It was so big in the 80s and even in the 90s. And now, nobody really uses it other then, say supermodel. When we were presenting at the Emmys last year, it was part of our intro and we liked it.

JG: In all seriousness, you are one of those couples. Lauralee I’ll start with you, you’re both well-liked actors, who at the time of taping are happier than ever before. What is this enduring love that fans have for your characters? 

LB: I think young women would root for me as Cricket was a little bit younger than Danny and they imagine themselves trying to date Danny Romalotti. It was like, is this even possible? There were groupies everywhere. Our story started off as a friendship and in time, he asked me out on a date, and then he sang love songs to me a few 1,000 times, and from there it just progressed. 

JG: Michael, jump in here, because I think the fans have grown up with you. What is it in your opinion, about these two people that we just love and want to see together no matter what?

MD: Well, I think that what Lauralee said is right. These two roles that William Bell, Lauralee’s dad created was brilliant. He created these two characters and the storyline that had this amazing arc and full of so much fun. And there were so many spontaneous scenes that felt very organic and when we’ve watched them back because sometimes they'll put them up on social media, we're thinking, wow, do you remember that scene? That was the part that made it really fun because it was spontaneous.

To give you an idea of a funny spontaneous scene, I was rehearsing with the band at the studio and there's somebody hammering, I stopped singing and the hammering stops, I started singing and then the hammering starts again and then we realized it’s Cricket in the back banging to our music. That was a funny scene and you know, they had to put that in because that's reality. It was the silly stuff that people really got to like.

The writers put in a lot of beautiful romantic scenes like in Lady and the Tramp we shared a pasta noodle. It all evolved around just a great love story, as you can only have so much drama and so much heartache so I think our romance really spoke to the people.

JG: Yes, I think that's it. And, your fans are all now of a certain age where we don't have time in the episodes to get into hairstyles.

MD: Don’t get me started on hairstyles. Lauralee's dad called me into his office and I thought it must be something important. Mr. Bell said “can you please get a haircut.”

My hair was so big – do you remember how big my hair was? 

JG: Yes, we were all trying to wear our hair like you Michael back then.

MD: When I watch those episodes now, Lauralee’s dad was so right. I mean what was wrong with me? I had a mullet.

JG: One of the things that I always make a point of asking actors who are on daytime, nighttime, long-running shows or long-running franchises on film is that, how do you keep it together, especially in daytime where it’s like a fitness center? How how do you keep it fresh? 

Obviously, you both really know the characters that you play really well, but is there an energy between you and the writers after all these years and is it a challenge as an actor to keep it fresh.

LB: Well, in terms of freshness, last week we were very tight on time and it was like “guys, we're going straight to tape.” So I mean, talk about a freshness, like I just learned my lines last night or the night before and now we're going straight to tape. There's just this adrenaline rush with the speed that we have to maintain.

Even though it's the same character, you're getting a new script constantly. So the freshness is there. Once we perform our lines then we have to press delete and tonight we have a new script to learn.

MD: It's very difficult to learn two shows at the same time by that I mean if we film two episodes in one day.

LB: There are times where we have shot two shows in one day. For me if there is legal stuff, I have to really make sure that people know that I am clear on what I’m talking about. People will come up and ask me for legal advice in public so it can be pretty interesting. You don't just sit in front of law books for 20 years and not learn something, right? 

JG: We should also say, all modesty aside, talking about being on the show a long time I was reading the other day that when you did a crossover appearance on your, I guess I'll call it your sister show, The Bold and The Beautiful their ratings went up, thanks to decades of filming and the fans.

LB: That’s very kind to point that out. We do have the best fans. We feel very lucky to have a group of followers. Like when there were fan clubs back in the 90s there was one fan club called the Bug Squad because I was called Cricket (nickname).

There was a lot happening at The Bold and The Beautiful and the message we received was “you guys are coming over, It's going to be so fun, and will you be bringing over some Y&R people?” Of course we didn’t know. And people definitely came through for us, so we really thank them and appreciated that.

JG: Having covered the Kate Linder (who plays Esther) charity tea in Vancouver for many years up until COVID, I've seen the fans up close. They are very passionate fans and they also really speak their mind about certain things, when it comes to your characters.

I want to mention just a few more things before we wrap up. Some people may not know that you both professionally are award-winning artists in a lot of different fields. A lot of my friends who watch your show also follow everything you do Laura Lee online. I think fans love to see what's going on behind the scenes.

And Michael you are doing a lot of writing, producing and directing of shows. Michael, I’ve got to give you kudos. Many years ago when I was a DJ in a bar you accomplished something which is not a guarantee, and that is to take a classic song, do it again, make it your own, and it's still good. I'm talking about your number one Billboard hit with Rock On. So congratulations on that.

MD: Thank you. I'll sing it for you later when we go off the air, OK?

JG: OK, thank you. And Laura Lee, I have to mention the legacy that you have with your folks.

Your late dad and your late mom, they created this show Y&R. 

Your dad was a pioneer in daytime TV in terms of revolutionizing storylines. But I want to make a note of this because I've always known this, but I don't think a lot of people know this. Your mom was Oprah before Oprah was Oprah. And I'm talking about your mom's TV celebrity status in Chicago.

LB: It's funny because everyone associates our family with the TV shows, of course. But in Chicago, as an example on a Sunday afternoon, I would just want to go to the mall with my mom and buy a sweater for school. We couldn't go anywhere without people stopping her. And she was so gracious that she would never say, “I'm so sorry, I'm with my daughter.” She would stop, find out where they were from and answer their questions. 

She, was amazing. Every time a celebrity would come through Chicago, she had them on her show, guests like Marilyn Monroe, Presidents and even the cast of Star Wars. I thought she was super cool that day when Princess Leia was on her set. My mom was incredible. 

And then when we moved out to California for my Dad to pursue his career and in daytime TV show, The Young and The Restless my mom had to give all that up. It's like a huge regret of mine when I think back that we asked her to do that. But she was the mom.

JG: How many years did your mom have her show?

LB: I believe it was close to 30 years and back then you wore many hats, she hosted the show, then she’d rush over to do the commercial and I remember one commercial Sarah Lee Cake and her name was Lee and my name was Lauralee and the sponsor was Sarah Lee. And then she’d rush back to the set and say “and now were back with President Gerald Ford” it was amazing times.

JG: Everyone back then had to do the show and commercials even Johnny Carson.

LB: Yes, she was amazing. And I love it when fans on Instagram say, hey I'm from Chicago and I remember your mom. 

MD: Are her shows on YouTube? If so I want to see them.

LB: They are, I'll get you the link.

JG: I know you are very busy and we've managed to not talk about storylines. I'm sorry to our fans out there, but we cannot give away any upcoming storylines, but I want to say this - this is the tagline, folks.

Does Danny make it home in time to ring in the new year with Christine? I want to get this right for the Canadian market.

We want to say to the viewers watching in Canada that you can check this important moment out December 27 and 30. If you are like a lot of my friends, who watch the US feed, you can check the airings out December 30 and 31. Thank you both for joining us today, and we look forward to seeing everything that your characters do next year.

LB: We appreciate this so much and we just want to say we love our Canadian fans, we are so grateful to all of you.

MD: Yes, thank you also to our many Canadian fans.

JG: To watch the video interview in full go to richmondsentinel.ca/videos