How I'd Save Y&R

I think Y&R kind of sucks right now, so here's what I'd do to save it....

BEHIND THE SCENES
FIRE Hogan Sheffer and Scott Hamner. FIRE Paul Rauch. REHIRE Edward Scott and David Shaughnessy. DEMOTE Maria Arena Bell to breakdown writer. RE-HIRE Kay Alden and Jack Smith as Associate Head Writers. HIRE someone new to daytime as the next Headwriter, with Alden and Smith as the headwriter's "guide".

CAST
FIRE Amelia Heinle (Victoria), Eden Riegel (Heather), Daniel Goddard and Christel Khalil (Cane and Lily), Marcy Rylan (Abby), Stephen Nichols (Tucker), Darius McCrary (Malcolm), Julia Pace Mitchell (Sofia), Michael Graziadei (Daniel), Emily O'Brien, (Jana), Michael Muhney (Adam), Laura Stone (Skye), Michelle Stafford (Phyllis), Maura West (Diane), Sean Young (Meggie), and Clementine Ford (Mac).

PROMOTE Tatyana Ali (Roxy) to contract status.

DROP Kate Linder (Esther) and Judith Chapman (Gloria) to recurring status.

KEEP Nina, Phillip, Rafe, Traci, Olivia, Murphy, Jefferey, Cricket, and Lauren around on recurring status.

REHIRE Victoria Rowell (Drucilla), Heather Tom (Victoria), and Vail Bloom (Heather) as contract castmembers.

REHIRE Veronica Redd (Mamie, Drucilla and Olivia's aunt), Alex Donnelly (Diane), Vanessa Marano (Eden), Michael Damian (Danny), and Ashley Bashioum (Mac) as recurring castmembers.

REHIRE Shemar Moore (Malcolm), Michael Gross (River, Michael's father), Jerry Douglas (Alistair, John Abbott's lookalike), Marla Adams (Dina, John's ex-wife), Beau Kazer (Brock), Greg Wrangler (Steve, Traci's husband), Chris Engen (Adam), and Kimberlin Brown (Sheila) for short-term guest-starring stints.

HIRE newcomers to play ABBY NEWMAN, PHILLIP "CHANCE" CHANCELLOR IV, NATE HASTINGS (Olivia's son), RICKY WILLIAMS (Paul's son), KYLE ABBOTT (Jack's son), and SCOTT GRAINGER (Lauren's son),

STORY IDEAS (to start)
After picking up Jill in his car, Tucker is struck by a drunk driver and killed. Katherine is pushed over the edge but doesn't blame Jill. She falls off the wagon and becomes the town drunk as her friends and family help to get her life back on track. In AA, Kay meets a man who knows Murphy. Turns out Murphy may have a child in Genoa City and not even know it...

Phyllis is the drunk driver who killed Tucker! As she attempts to cover up the truth, the walls begin to close in around Phyllis as Cricket investigate the unsolved hit-and-run that nearly killed her and Paul. Phyllis is caught and sent to prison after all of her friends and family turn against her.

When Phyllis goes to jail, Nick reveals that Summer is really Jack's daughter. Nick turns custody of Summer over to a reluctant Jack.

Molly Carter, Sheila's mother, arrives in town to see Lauren. Molly reveals that Sheila was an only child and that Sarah Smythe was a friend of Sheila's from nursing school who idolized her. Sarah had a relationship with Tom Callahan (aka Tom Fisher, Kevin's father) producing twins Ryder and Daisy. Sarah was so obsessed with Sheila that she raised the children as if they were Sheila's and she was their aunt. (This story is simply a bit of housekeeping but would serve to reintroduce Sheila at some point without the Ryder/Daisy baggage).

Cane is deported from the US and Lily decides to take the twins and move to Australia with him. (The evil cattle mafia would, of course, be caught and jailed first.)

Daniel realizes his art career will never take off as long as he lives in Wisconsin, so he moves to LA where Amber Moore lives...

Gloria finds out Ashley is not John Abbott's biological daughter and goes on a rampage, threatening to reveal the information publicly to get back at her. This puts her at odds with Aunt Mamie...

Following Tucker's death, Sofia is promoted to CEO of McCall and she and Malcolm move to New York after marrying.

Devon decides to seriously pursue his music, creating a rift between him and Roxy. Luckily, his "cousin" Nate is around to cheer her up...

Billy decides to sell Restless Style, and both mother Jill and aunt Lauren want the magazine. He agrees to sell it to both of them. Jill and Lauren's relationship gets even more complicated when Jill falls for Lauren's father-in-law River....

Phillip moves back to Genoa City permanently and into the Chancellor mansion. He starts dating Rafe.

Jack and Esther find themselves falling for each other...

Sharon realizes she has made a mess of her life in the past couple of years and turns down Nick's request to get back together so soon. She needs to focus on herself for a while and takes off on a cruise. When she returns, Sharon decides to start her own business with a feminist slant, putting her relationship with Nick on the backburner.

Ashley finds herself attracted to Nick, even though he's the son of her ex-husband. Nick, rejected by Sharon, finds himself attracted to Ashley and they begin a secret, torrid affair.

A comatose patient arrives at Genoa City Memorial Hospital's new long-term care facility. Imagine Olivia's surprise when she discovers the patient is her dead sister...

Lauren learns Sheila has resurfaced as a doctor in LA with her original face! Lauren takes off to California to confront her. Sheila admits she contemplated having plastic surgery to look like Phyllis, but her companion Sugar tracked her down and volunteered to take her place and look like Phyllis. Sheila claims she decided not to have the surgery because she wanted to start her life over, so she told Sugar not to do it either and to let things be. Sheila was on the run so she left. But Sugar went ahead with the surgery to look like Phyllis and pretended to be Sheila with plastic surgery. When Sheila learned Sugar had died in her place, she decided to "play dead" and moved on. She met and fell in love with a European diplomat and they married. Now Sheila's husband has been sent to LA to work, and Sheila is able to practice medicine because dipomatic immunity extends to her as the wife of a diplomat. Lauren warns Sheila never to set foot in Genoa City again or to contact Scotty. Lauren suspects Sheila's marriage is a sham so she could return to the US and continue her evil deeds.

Paul's son Ricky returns as an openly-gay teen, and he's attracted to Noah. Noah and Eden broke up in Paris because Noah realized he was bisexual and cheated on her with a guy. Noah admits he's interested in Ricky. Kyle Abbott is secretly attracted to Noah, but he's too far in the closet to fight Ricky for him...

Ultimately the cast would look like this...

CONTRACT
Katherine
Victor
Nikki
Jack
Jill
Neil
Ashley
Paul
Sharon
Nicholas
Chloe
Ronan
Kevin
Billy
JT
Michael
Noah
Devon
Roxy
Abby
Victoria
Heather
Chance
Drucilla
Nate
Ricky
Kyle
Scott

RECURRING
Esther
Gloria
Nina
Lauren
Olivia
Traci
Phillip
Rafe
Cricket
Danny
Jeffrey
Murphy
Mac
Mamie
Eden
Diane

GUEST STINTS
Malcolm
Adam
Dina
Brock
Steve
River
Alistair
Sheila