I ain't mad at her either. I hope it is a man to come to Genoa City and date Lily. Because i'm anxious to see if CK will stay or decide that she wants to be a "stay at home mom." Hummm....

The one question I have (and this is just a long history with Y&R not JFP) is what is up with the fact that 75% of the black characters are always coming from down-trodden situation

Dru, Devon, Malcolm, Tyra, Yolanda, Damon, Callie, Serena and Keesha. They even (MAB) wanted Nia Peeples (ex-Karen) who is not black to play black woman whose mother was a maid and that Karen had a strained relationship with her mother because of it.

I wish the writers would realize that not all black people come out a struggle to make success. I myself am from a Well-to-do black family, which was part of first wave of post slavery black success in the late 1800's. But then this is why daytime needed black people in executive and headwriting positions on soaps.

Yet i'm still happy that JFP showed her critics on race relations that she was going for the Grant years on GL route. Because when the first casting call is black. She is setting a tone.

One word of advice offer a contract to Lawrence Saint Victor. He has the sex appeal that women like, can portray a strong black take-no-prisoners brotha with a corporate job and he is a good actor with previous soap experience.

Now if you want to cast his mother then call up Amelia Marshall to play Lynette Douglas.

I aint mad either, Jillian!

This show needs more corporate type characters in the 20s-40s age range. I just hope to God this character is not related to the Winters or Barbers or Devon/Ana/Yohamony. Everybody in "that black storyline" is related by blood or law. Bah - no bueno!

I don't know why "orphaned at 16" is even necessary. Sixteen is very close to being a young adult, and do we need another stereotype of a tragic African American from a "broken" home? But other than that, this is a good move with a lot of potential.

COULD they finally be deciding that CANE and LILY are just dull as a bag of dirt on Christmas morning and that to spice up the show they;re bring on competition?!!!

I hope so! I am all for diversity but all that Lily has ever dated were white men from Kevin, Daniel and Cane. I am not being racist here but I would love to see the show celebrate the BLACK community more by making a pairing that celebrates all that is good about that community.

@pjc722: AMEN! I am with you on that one. I want to see an Ebony/Jet black couple on Y&R again like it use to have with Neil/Dru and Malcolm/Olivia. Now if they need a new template just use The Obama's or call up the black writer they had who use to write Guiding Light and As The World Turns. They can implore of her as well as Kristoff Saint John and others on how to build this character into something sustainable. Heck, just call me. I'll write a 5 year story bible and create the whole Douglas family!

I have an idea Josh and Jill...

Let's write for the cast heavy characters currently on the canvas. I am not needing a new character right now.

"Mini" Strike 1...

I hope so! I am all for diversity but all that Lily has ever dated were white men from Kevin, Daniel and Cane. I am not being racist here but I would love to see the show celebrate the BLACK community more by making a pairing that celebrates all that is good about that community.

I have always heard that Lily won't do black men. Her and Cane are dull as dirt as U say, but someone somewhere must like them. I personally don't understand why we need anymore characters, regardless of race or religion, as we have way too many at the present time and lots I am hoping they get rid of. Noah isn't much of an actor, but he wouldn't have been my pick as first to go.

Amen David! We are both on the same page here. I gave that character description of "orphaned at 16" the side eye for the same reasons you expressed above.

Touche, pferrando. But the show needs someone to breathe life into the corporate stories, and I really think there needs to be at least one black character not related to Neil, Lily, or Devon. I love my core Newbotts, but even as Abby and Victoria pointed out at Jack and Nikki's wedding, they are too co-mingled with all the past/present marriages, babies, affairs and sperm theft. Too incestuous - and the Winters orbit is getting to be the same way.

I'm going to have a 'wait and see' attitude before I critique anything, character-wise. The one thing I can definitely take from this is that perhaps the new regime are attempting to show that they are aware of the critiques from many about how little genuine storyline many of the African American characters have had over the last several years and they may also be aware of the fears of many that they would decimate the minorities in the cast and intend to try to show those fears as being unfounded.

To me, it is about the quality and the 'content of character' so I will reserve judgement until I see what comes of it all.

As for the cast-heavy list of characters, we know some of those will not be on the canvas by the years end (*coughs* Daisy Duke) so I don't have a problem with this aspect of it.

I definitely agree w/the statements of those who are discouraged by the dearth of Black/People of Color in creative, supervisory and executive production positions. This is why I wonder why the likes of ABC Daytime, P&G and Sony Television never did more outreach & recruiting with the prestigious Graduate Writing Programs like Yale, Iowa Writer's, Tisch, Carnegie Mellon, USC,etc. It seems they were content to keep the circle small and somewhat incestuous, believing that the wonderful writers of the 70s,80s,90s in the heyday would live forever somehow and those left in the staff would somehow be just as brilliant-- as if by osmosis.

@MsAgentProvocateur1: Well Said!

There are several African American characters in daytime that have stood out for me because they defied the stereotypical casting.

#1 Gilly Grant Speaks (Amelia Marshall) on Guiding Light. Because she was the first ambitious career driven black character in daytime. They actually wrote her rising up the ranks at the news station and putting her relationships on the line with friends and family to achieve success.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22wHQZKIuIA
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#2: Marshall Travers (Lammon Rucker) on As The World Turns. There have been minor black male bad guys in daytime but he was the first one to have what it takes to be a central, long term complex villain. In-fact he started out much like Victor did on Y&R. Meant to be there for a short stint but turned out to be longer. And when they paired Marshall with Jessica they struck gold with a couple that was obviously polling as well as Carly and Jack. Which was a shame when they killed him off. Heck he even survived being pegged as a rapist. I guess the writers forgot that daytime fans have a history of forgiving and writers redeeming characters who commit sexual assault.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k69ufyatb_g
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#3: Eve Russell (Tracey Ross) on Passions. Never before her had a black woman on a soap been played as a romantic lead/heroine and such an important part of a show. Nor had a soap (besides Generations) center the show and have most of the storylines tied to an African American character before Passions did with Eve.

At one point Tracey Ross was on 95% of the episodes for 3 1/2 years straight.

#4: Liz Saborune (Amelia Marshall) on Passions. Here was our very own culturally relevant valliness. And Amelia played her with panache.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KnOebZghnE
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#5: Renee Jones (Lexie Carver) on Days of Our Lives. The Alexandra Dimera years as I like to call them, were the first time an African American character who was bad was all powerful. And Renee made Alexandra a must see character day in and day out.

http://youtu.be/T7zQwTIUyog
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#6: Jesse and Agnie (Debbie Morgan and Darnell Williams) on All My Children. First black supercouple. Enough said.

These are ones who went beyond what we usually would see and wish we could see more of again.

Here we go!!!! The changes at Y&R begin. I too will reserve judgement until I see a finished product. JFP was not fired from GH for nothing. I'm just saying.

I am sorry but WHY additions to the cast? Namely, why now - get rid of the dead weight first!

Only reason for this casting I can think of is a new love interest for Lily. We all know Sony will put Cane & Lily to the forefront and since they haven't had a triangle (ever??? lol) I bet this is someone to challenge that.

Why do we need more new characters? We have enough good ones righ now.

@david46208 I LOVED Hamp and Gilly and Kat and David! I thought that the integration (for lack of a better word) of those characters onto the Springfield character was SEAMLESS. I know lots of people complain these days when new characters come on with no relation to current characters but the connection between Billy Lewis and Hampton Speaks as best friends based on their days of playing high school football together-- in a less capable writing team, it could've been a tenuous connection at best but with the tremendous writing and tremendous acting, you believed that these guys understood each other and were very close. And I loved the fact that Hamp and Gilly's courtship, had all the romance and conflict of any other soap couple. And Kat and David weren't the 'Black teen couple' they were a classic teen soap couple that were often kept apart by forces outside and within the relationship. And I adored the fact that Kat the younger of the two often took the lead because she knew the trepidation that David felt about their individual directions in life as well as the age difference. I think at that particular time around '90/91-early '92, GL was probably my Favorite Daytime Drama.

And I think you know where I stand with the Jess/Marshall Travers storyline. They were Fire & Ice and TPTB really messed that storyline up royally! One of the many reasons the show didn't survive.

Thanks for the clips! I'll be watching them one by one in addition to catching up on my online viewing/listening.

That writer you are referring to is Susan Dansby and she is still with the Y&R writing team as far as I know.

Y&R needs to focus on its core, legacy characters, not bring in even more new characters.

I was hoping it would be a casting call for Nate... but I think it could be a good thing that this new character is not related to any of the AA characters currently onscreen.

Maybe they can bring back Olivia & she can get her grove back!

Are we sure they aren't SORASing Devon and the description uses a fake name to throw us off? I'd make sense to make him a little older and more professional. You'd think they'd get rid of Tucker, without him Devon is a man not a kid, and nuDevon can be the sexy man about town instead of his geriatric playboy bio-daddy.

Maybe Tucker will be killed off and Devon would inherit McCall Unlimited. I think it's high time a black man be one of the corporate business OWNERS in GC. He should be at the Victor, Kay, Jack level instead of just working for them. Neil would have the corporate experience to mentor Devon into running it on his own. They need to restore the women in power too. Jill should be back as CEO of Chancellor Industries. MAB should be ashamed of herself, the GC business world resembles the 1950s where only white, protestant, old men were allowed to be top players.

@ChristianDavis148 & pennywise555:

ChristianDavis148: Thanks for her name. Yeah they need to talk to her. She lives in ATL and could give them some great insight.

Pennywise555: I agree with you. I said a long time ago they should have just made Neil the new wild card in the corporate world. Kay could have gave him Safra the black cosmetics/hair-care line that Damon and Vanessa were working on trying to get the new hair relaxer off the ground, when they went to Japan to find the rare orchid. That whole part of the story was dropped when Ashley wanted to shelve the project and Jack (who could have helped to kept it alive) was on the outs with Damon after he found out Damon had slept with Phyllis. But it is too late now, unless it was written that Kay kept that when they the Abbott's Jabot back.

But the wealth of story material that could be played with Neil who knows Victor like the back of his hands and is wise to Jack's tricks, would make for years of interesting story. It would also be great to bring out a more ruthless side of Neil.

Of course LML thought the closet thing a brotha would get to owning a business was a jazz club. And then Y&R started down this whole music route with Devon and all.

Of course they did the same thing with the Callie Rogers tale.

Anyways...

Neil should be the soap opera version of a Kenneth I. Chenault (CEO, American Express), Kenneth C. Frazier (CEO, Merck & Co., Inc), Earl Graves Sr.(President/founder of Black Enterprise) and John Johnson (founder of Ebony and Jet Magazines).

He ain't 70 + trying to or allowed to father half the children in Genoa City. So there is story for years to tell. They just to tell it.

Isn't that the truth. Of all of them that they should get rid of, they do Noah,
and he is very seldom ever seen. They have about 10 that should have gone before
him, and a long time ago.

Why couldn't they have went back & got that FINE, talented young man that played Nate Hastings Jr? Put him, Angel Conwell, & Tatyana Ali on contract, dump Debbi Morgan, Julia Pace Mitchell, & Darnell Williams? THAT would be a ballgame.

Maybe black guys don't do it for Lily

i see this in the right direction, since 90% of Y&R is all-white people.

Isn't that the truth. Of all of them that they should get rid of, they do Noah,
and he is very seldom ever seen. They have about 10 that should have gone before
him, and a long time ago.

Noah i think is the first of many cast-cuts to come.

my wish-list for getting cut:

Nikki
Cane
Lily
Chloe
Eden
Abby
Geneveeve
Tucker
Murphy
Esther
Chelsea
Gloria
Jeff

This thought actually did cross my mind too, pennywise555. Sometimes they put out casting calls for existing characters and act as if it's going to be a new character v/s a SORAS. That might be a compromise for viewers not too keen on any more new characters - which I can totally understand. My only issue is so much time and other resources (Sabrina's old art gallery as Devon's recording studio) have been wasted on making Devon this supposed music mogul in the making. I think the only way I could buy Devon taking over McCall Unlimited (is that's what it's called?) is if something drastic happened - Tucker dying or being somehow incapacitated. I say this because Neil made several attempts to get Devon to follow in his footsteps up the corporate ladder to no avail. I can see a SORAS/re-tooled Devon or a new character being possible, but both ideas have their drawbacks.

I just want the new regime to make changes that aren't complete 180s like MAB did. I think we Y&R viewers have been bamboozled enough!

The character is a new love interest for Phyllis. She needs to take up more air time - not!

I completely agree with you with on Y&R and all the stereotypical casting of their AA characters. Seriously, it seems like the easiest route for them to when creating a new POC. I was also a bit irritated that this character was labeled a teen orphan. I recall when Devon first arrived, he was in foster care, and I remember Dru in the early days was a runaway who couldn't read...talk about redundant. In the present day, we're still dealing with Harmony/Yolanda overcoming her crack addiction. She still seems to be going through the motions, but I'd say its time we start to see some actual story line developing for her. I don't just mean her once a week dates with Neil that doesn't develop into anything, but a real story. Come on, TPTB, lets switch it up a bit.

I checked out a Youtube video of that guy you mentioned, Lawrence Saint Victor, and if he's interested in coming back to daytime...he'd actually work. Very attractive guy, nice body(since this is JFP's thing). Who knows...Lily might change her mind after seeing him.

OMG i haven't posted in a while and now i remember why. i swear we all (myself included) are so quick to jump to conclusions and criticize every move TPTB (and TIIC) make. they're casting an actor and it is a first good move. there probably will be (no there WILL be) some cuts coming so just relax about that not happening first. the fact is that all of our negativity about whats wrong with these shows isn't helping to keep them on the air. the more negativity we put out there and other fans read it, the more likely they are to focus on the negative, become less invested in their stories, and then tune out!

THe online bitchiness has set a culture of crazy and people focusing on what they hate and its enough. it doesn't help and we're helping to kill these shows by spewing everything we hate about them instead of what we love.

rant over. welcome to the new actor who plays this role and i for one am thrilled and excited by whats ahead at Y&R. ANYTHING will be better than the MAB drivel we've had to endure the past few years.

The more i've been reading about this, the more its sounding closer to a recast than a brand new character. It really would look bad to bring in a brand new character with a similar backstory as so many of the AAs characters of the past. So yeah, very strong possibility they might be giving Devon a little more to do. Oh, and you aren't kidding about his playbody daddy...Tucker gets around...LOL.

I certainly wouldn't mind seeing a Black Power player finally arise in the Corporate world of GC. Poor Neil has been a Corporate player for years, yet still answering to someone else(Abbott/Newman/Chancellor), instead of maintaining his own business. So to see some major changes like this would be a great move, and the AAs would really become a major part of the fabric, instead of hanging on the sidelines. I also like the idea of the women working in the business world. That would be the perfect opportunity for Lily to be doing more than hanging out at Crimson Lights hanging out with Neil or Cane. If Victoria, and Phyllis could raise small children, and still work in the business world...give this girl something to do!

I just couldn't believe how MAB took this show backwards in so many ways to concentrate on her select few favorites, while just about everyone else suffered. It became horrible for the AA characters, b/c they had become so invisible. I started to notice Wednesdays became their primary day of the week for screentime. No real SLs...just appearances. So I'm actually hoping with the new changes BTS, that we'll actually start seeing some improvements with this show.