When The Bold and the Beautiful debuted on March 23, 1987, heading up the cast were daytime MVPs Susan Flannery (ex-Laura, Days of Our Lives) and John McCook (ex-Lance, The Young and the Restless) as Stephanie and Eric Forrester, the heads of a design dynasty and parents of Thorne (Clayton Norcross), Ridge (then Ross Moss) and Kristen (Teri Ann Linn). Or so they thought…
Yes, yes, we’ll get to more recent storylines, like the brilliantly bonkers one that found Thomas Forrester (Matthew Atkinson) going to second base with an inaminate object that resembled the object of his obsession. But first…
Initially, the soap focused on the love triangle of sibling rivals Ridge and Thorne, and the virginal Caroline (Joanna Johnson), the daughter of Spencer Publications honcho Bill Spencer Sr. — and, we’d later learn, the twin sister of Faith Roberts, whom we know better as Karen. But not that Karen, thankfully.
Sure, in this photo, it looks like butter wouldn’t melt in the mouth of Forrester matriarch Stephanie. But that’s mainly because butter would be too freakin’ scared to get anywhere near her, much less her mouth. That sharp tongue of hers was painful; her right hook, downright debilitating!
Stephanie’s disapproval of Ridge’s infatuation with cater waiter-turned-chemist Brooke Logan (Katherine Kelly Lang) is the stuff of legend. And not for nothing, the blonde bombshell worked hard to earn from the older woman the nickname the Slut From the Valley. Not only did she have her way with Ridge — and marry Eric out from under Stephanie — she also… well, keep scrolling. You’ll see.
Yeah, Brooke also got seriously involved with Thorne (Winsor Harmon here). And Ridge’s half brother, Nick Marone. But who was keeping score of her scoring, right?
As this photo so clearly illustrates, the furious force of nature was eager for Brooke to get a hold of herself — a choke hold, if necessary.
Alas, Brooke couldn’t help but push Stephanie’s buttons. In fact, after no-good Deacon Sharpe (Sean Kanan) deflowered her daughter Bridget (then Jennifer Finnigan) — while on the phone with her entire freaking family! — the strumpet still went ahead and not only hooked up with him herself, she had his daughter… you know, Hope. Speaking of whom…
This was the kind of scene that played out any time Hope (then Kim Matula) was in the same room as her mom and boyfriend Oliver Jones (Zack Conroy) after they had let masks convince them that they were shtupping other people entirely at the senior’s high-school graduation party. You can well and truly picture Stephanie’s reaction, can’t you? Thought so.
In hopes of driving a sexy, sexy wedge between Brooke and Ridge, Stephanie had Thomas (Adam Gregory here) lie that he and his stepmother had gotten busy while high on hallucinogenic flora after a plane crash. As you can imagine, given both Brooke’s reputation and Thomas’ abs, everybody believed it.
In Stephanie’s defense, she had been hardenened by years of abuse at the hand of her father — years of abuse to which mom Ann (guest star Betty White) had turned a blind eye. It took the two of them an eternity to make peace. But as if we needed further proof that miracles can happen, Stephanie and Brooke became…
As a matter of fact, Brooke mourned the loss of her longtime tormentor as much as she had that of her own mother. No one understood Brooke better than her foremost foe. No one challenged her as much as her most vocal detractor. And heaven knows, no one smacked her as much.
Proving that she had as much vicious moxie as sister Stephanie ever had, Pam Douglas (Alley Mills) made it her mission in life to undermine would-be mistress of the manor Donna Logan (Jennifer Gareis). As you can see, their exchanges were… um, colorful.
The natural enemy of the Forrester family was knockoff queen Sally Spectra (the late, great Darlene Conley). A real broad’s broad, she wasn’t the type to sit around waiting for the phone to ring. Well, despite the implications of this particular image!
Sally’s softer side was embodied by daughter Macy Alexander (Bobbie Eakes), a promising vocalist who found all too many reasons to sing the blues. Not the least of which was her habit of dying.
Never mind Sally’s tough exterior. She went as squishy as a marshmallow when it came to her Bucky, playboy designer Clarke Garrison (Daniel McVicar). Sadly, he could never handle a woman who was as feisty and formidable as Sally. He was more into whoever was…
If that meant making a play for the Forresters’ frosty daughter Kristen, so be it. There is, after all, a “tulle” for every job.
Over the years, Macy tried to navigate a complicated relationship with Thorne (Jeff Tracta here) that was downright Shakespearean aside from the infrequency of duels and scarcity of poison.
During hiatuses from Brooke, Ridge attempted to move on with Taylor Hayes (Hunter Tylo), a shrink who took to couples costumes like a fish to water. Or, if we’re going for a fashion analogy, like a seamstress to a sewing machine?
Ridge even endeavored to start a new family with Taylor, one that included identical twins Steffy (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood) and Phoebe (MacKenzie Mauzy). We’ll just leave that there for a hot minute. Identical twins. Mm-hmm.
For a moment, Ridge (now Thorsten Kaye) broke his pattern of ping-ponging between Taylor and Brooke for long enough to become enaged to the latter’s kid sister, Katie (Heather Tom). Again, this was only “for a moment.” Knots tied in string rarely stay tied.
After an injury stripped Ridge of his designing mojo, he found renewed inspiration in working — closely — with Caroline’s namesake niece (Linsey Godfrey, most recently Sarah on Days of Our Lives). That and macking on her.
Distracting Ridge from his womanizing from time to time was his other family, surprise biodad Massimo Marone (the late, great Joseph Mascolo), the aforementioned Nick (Jack Wagner) and Nick’s mother, Jackie (Lesley-Anne Down), whose predilection for boy toys was rivaled only by Sally’s.
Stephanie had let her husband and son go their entires lives without mentioning that it was old flame Massimo to whom Ridge should have been sending Father’s Day cards. But then…
… was kinda Stephanie’s approach to the truth, especially when telling it might have consequences. She even kept Eric in the dark about the fact that their “late” daughter Felicia (Lesli Kay) was only late in air quotes. It was a whole thing.
We did mention, didn’t we, that Jackie was a bit of a cougar. Mind you, her relationship with Owen Knight (Brandon Beemer, now Shawn on Days of Our Lives) really put the “love” in “love affair.”
When not contemplating going all in and changing her name to Mrs. Robinson — get it? — Jackie ran her own design house. Among its staff: Bridget (Ashley Jones here), who spent years becoming a doctor, only to realize that what she really wanted to do was draw dresses while wearing the “impenetrable” disguise of Madame X.
The CBS soap’s early cast included John Wayne’s son Ethan and Robert Mitchum’s granddaughter Carrie as Brooke’s siblings, Storm and Donna.
By 1998, Brooke had hired the world’s worst nanny for Bridget (Agnes Bruckner here) and Rick (Jacob Young): Impetuous Amber Moore (Adrienne Frantz) seduced her boss’ teenage son. Needless to say — and as his expression suggests — Sally’s son C.J. Garrison (Mick Cain) was suddenly very eager to be babysat.
Rick (Justin Torkildsen here) didn’t take it well when he learned that bride Amber had traded their ill-fated offspring for the healthy child born to her cousin Becky (Marissa Tait).
In 2013, Rick (Young again) lost his heart to Maya Avant (Karla Mosley), who at various points was played as a salt-of-the-earth ex-con, a scheming, updwardly-mobile model and a transgender trailblazer. To this day, we have no idea why the couple divorced.
No sooner had Maya and sister Nicole (Reign Edwards) discovered that their family tree needed a branch added for their dad’s illegitimate daughter, Sasha Thompson (Felisha Cooper), than the vixen began putting the moves on future half brother-in-law Zende Forrester Dominguez (Rome Flynn here).
There was no mistaking that gleam in Taylor’s eye. It was a sure sign that she was once again going to try to get over Ridge — in this case, by getting under his stepbrother, Rick (Kyle Lowder here).
Oh dear. The tears sparkling their way down Taylor’s cheek suggest that, even as she was committing herself to Ridge’s half brother, Nick, she knew that she could never really love any man but the one she couldn’t have.
Briefly, it looked as if Taylor might become Ridge’s stepmother. Which, if his history has taught us anything, is hardly a hindrance to a hookup. (Right, Brooke?)
Ultimately, Taylor might have been better off staying in Morocco, where she landed after a “fatal” plane crash. There, a smitten Prince Omar (Kabir Bedi) treated his Layla like a queen. Or at least like a princess.
Yup, now would be a good time to “reflect” on 1992, the year that The Young and the Restless’ epic feud between baby-stealing psychopath Sheila Carter (Kimberlin Brown) and her favorite punching bag, Lauren Fenmore (Tracey E. Bregman), spilled over to The Bold and the Beautiful.
After being held prisoner by Sheila, shrink James Warwick (Ian Buchanan) should have known better than to have anything to do with her. But he not only had something to do with her, that something left her pregnant with his child.
If Sheila had a bonkers equal, it was Ridge’s old flame, Morgan DeWitt (Sarah Buxton), who went so off the rails over what could’ve been but never was, she kidnapped a very young Steffy and let her parents believe that she’d been eaten by a shark. Oh, and judging from Stephanie’s expression here, Morgan was an at best mediocre plumber.
From the moment we met Bill Sr.’s namesake son (Don Diamont), his interests were clear: women, women and more women. And if the woman happened to be one of the Logan sisters, so much the better!
We thought that the 2009 wedding of Bill and Katie settled the matter of which of the Logans was his true love. We thought wrong. The groom’s lips and sister-in-law Brooke’s have over and over again seemed to be as drawn to one another as our lips are to a glass of Malbec.
“Like father, like son” took on a whole new meaning when Bill’s chip off the ol’ block, Liam (Scott Clifton), began ping-ponging between Hope (Matula here) and her sometime stepsister, Steffy.
Every once in a while, another woman would catch Liam’s eye. (See illustration A above.) But those flirtations tended to last about as long as a commercial break.
It’s always been Steffy for Liam. Or Hope (now Annika Noelle). Or Steffy and Hope. The more things change, the more he… doesn’t. To this day, he still waffles between them the way you or we might between fries and hash browns.
Don’t try telling that to Wyatt (Darin Brooks). Bill’s son with Quinn Forrester (Rena Sofer) has seen so many of his relationships go up in smoke thanks to her meddling that if he ever gets married again, he’ll likely wear a flame-retardant tuxedo. And leave her off the guest list!
A perfect example of Quinn acting on Wyatt’s behalf: In 2016, she kidnapped an amnesiac Liam to eliminate her son’s competition for Steffy. She even pretended to be Liam’s wife and “encouraged” her own estranged husband — you remember Deacon — to take a flying leap into a watery grave. As you can see, he was not pleased. They so rarely are.
In 2017, Sally’s namesake grandniece (Courtney Hope) took the fashion biz by storm. Unfortunately for her, that storm consisted of a light breeze and some drizzle.
Bill was only too happy to have Steffy marry into the family, whether to Liam or Wyatt. At the same time, when the opportunity to sleep with her himself landed at his doorstep… Let’s just say that he didn’t — as he should’ve — say, “Go away, we don’t want any.”
For a long, tear-stained year, Liam and Hope were led to believe that baby Beth had been stillborn when, in fact, the kid had just been napped by an unscrupulous doctor and sold to her aunt, Steffy.
’Cause the twisted plot that found an unstable Thomas getting to second base with “Fauxpe,” as we took to calling his Hope stand-in, was equal parts ridiculous and awesome.
In hopes of holding onto Wyatt, Sally went so far as to pretend to be dying and imprison romantic rival Flo Fulton (Katrina Bowden). Spoiler alert: It did not work.
Was this, the moment that a Hope-sessed Thomas said “I don’t” to model Zoe Buckingham (Kiara Barnes), when perennial officiant Carter Walton (Lawrence Saint-Victor) decided, “Ya know what? I’m gonna put a ring on it!”?
Carter may have been destined to remain unlucky in love, but at least he got lucky, period, when he began hooking up with Quinn. She wasn’t about to let husband Eric’s erectile dysfunction rob her sex life of fun.
Ridge totally wigged out Brooke, if not viewers, when five minutes after sticking a fork in their latest marriage in 2022, he was ready to plan family dinners again with standby spouse Taylor (Krista Allen). If only we knew a good shrink to whom we could refer her…
Steffy had finally gotten off the marry-go-’round with Liam when subsequent husband Finn Finnegan met his biological mother: Ack! Sheila! In no time, she had shot both of them and let Steffy believe that she was a widow until at last she bumped into “the deceased” in Monte Carlo.
Rather than run Sheila out of town, Bill, hitting a new low, tucked her in. Horrifying viewers as well as his nearest and dearest, he proclaimed to love the madwoman who’d shot Stephanie, Brooke, Taylor, Steffy, Finn…
It only took forever, but Taylor and Brooke finally realized that they didn’t need Ridge or any man. After decades of bitch slaps and cake fights, the mortal enemies buried the hatchet and became friends.
It was all fun and games until Douglas (Henry Joseph Samiri) told the court that he didn’t want to live with troublemaking dad Thomas or doting adoptive mom Hope but his Aunt Steffy.
Hemlines may rise and fall. Trends may begin and end. Designers may fall in and out of favor. But if there is one thing that we know will always be true, it’s that The Bold and the Beautiful — and its two remaining original cast members, McCook and Lang — will remain spectacularly in vogue.
Advertisement
