On the Anniversary of Peter Bergman’s Young & Restless Debut, We Pick the Lock On a Photo Album Full of Memories, of Jack’s Life and Loves
Saturday, November 27th, 2021
CBS, Sean Smith/JPI, Aaron Montgomery/JPI
Thirty-two years ago, the actor put new spring in the playboy’s step.
By the time Peter Bergman made his first appearance as Young & Restless Casanova Jack Abbott on November 27, 1989, he’d already overcome a big hurdle: Terry Lester, his popular predecessor in the role. (That’s him below with his former on-screen family.)
Bergman came to the CBS soap an established soap star and, in fact, half of a supercouple, owing to his decade-long stint as All My Children’s Dr. Nice Guy, Cliff Warner. And he’d been suggested as the new Jack by no less than future Young & Restless leading lady Melody Thomas Scott (Nikki).
Yet he still had… concerns. “I was replacing a terrific actor, one people felt was” the character, Bergman told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel in 1991. “I suspected that for several months, I would be directed to play scenes like Terry did. I promised myself I would not become angry with those suggestions and that, eventually, I could add my own stamp to the character.”
But it turned out that CBS hadn’t hired him to play Lester’s Jack but his own. “My first scene… was with Jess Walton (Jill),” he recalled. After a take, “Edward Scott, who was directing that day, came out to give notes, and I thought, ‘Uh-oh, here it comes!’
“Instead,” he continued, “Ed looked at me, smiled, went over to Jess, gave her a note or two and didn’t say anything to me. From that moment on, I knew they had hired me for what I could bring to the character of Jack.”
Decades later, Bergman would recall that he relocated to Genoa City in need of an attitude adjustment. As he put it to USA Today in 2019, “I was dragged, kicking and screaming, to the best thing that ever happened to me. Looking back, if I have any regrets, it’s that I didn’t immediately embrace [Young & Restless] for the wonderful opportunity it was.” (That’s Bergman on All My Children below, with Taylor Miller as Cliff’s bride, Nina.)
Whether Bergman at first appreciated the chance that he’d been given, at least both the audience and his peers appreciated him. Almost immediately, he, for lack of a better word, became Jack. And just two years after he tackled the part, he won the first of two back-to-back Emmys. (He picked up a third in 2002… ya know, just for good measure.)
Ever since, the soap icon has knocked it out the park so regularly that it’s a wonder that nobody has thought to build a larger park. But you know that already. Instead of reading along as we state the obvious, celebrate Bergman’s milestone by breaking open the below photo album, which retells the tumultuous life story of Jack Abbott.
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Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
1/31
<p>Jack always struggled to make his father proud. It probably would’ve helped if he’d stopped sleeping with John’s wives or picking fights with Victor that would end with him losing the family company… But there’s only so much a man can do.</p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of Everett Collection
2/31
<p>At first, Jack went after Nikki out of spite when Victor swiped Jabot from the Abbotts. But Jack ended up being the butt of the joke when he actually fell for the former stripper, only to land in divorce court when it became clear he didn’t have the mustache to keep her happy.</p>
Image: John Paschal/JPI
3/31
<p>Successful architect Diane (Alex Donnelley here) tried washing her hands of Jack until he went and hired her to design his lake house. Thankfully, nothing turned her on more than a job. But then Victor saw Jack’s lake house, raised him a Newman Towers design and whisked Diane off for a wedding in Nevada.</p>
Image: Aaron Montgomery/JPI
4/31
<p>Fortunately, after Victor ran off with Diane, Phyllis was there to pick up the pieces, and… Um, wow. OK, then. Boundaries, shmoundaries.</p>
Image: Aaron Montgomery/JPI
5/31
<p>Since we seem to be playing a game of “Who Did Jack Sleep With Next?” it’s worth mentioning that around this time, he and Jill gave it another go, too. “That’s right, Jill, I <em>am</em> a tall drink of water. And you look mighty thirsty.” </p>
Image: Aaron Montgomery/JPI
6/31
<p>With everyone but John vehemently against his marrying Gloria, the odds are pretty good that Jack <em>wasn’t</em> thinking “I wonder what she’s like in bed” during their wedding. But surprise! Even John’s wedding was a (long) prelude to his future widow’s roll in the hay with Jack. </p>
Image: Aaron Montgomery/JPI
7/31
<p>When Katherine presented Jack with a top-tier <span style="text-decoration: line-through">girlfriend</span> job at Chancellor, the Abbott scion snatched <span style="text-decoration: line-through">Carmen</span> the offer up without a second’s hesitation.</p>
Image: Aaron Montgomery/JPI
8/31
<p>Just before John suffered a stroke and died, Jack made sure to take advantage of his dad’s confused mental state to fake a will cutting Gloria out of the family fortune. Nothing like building father/son memories to last a lifetime. </p>
Image: Aaron Montgomery/JPI
9/31
<p>… over and over again. After he was gone, John’s spirit returned countless times over the years to guide Jack whenever he was in trouble. He, uh, did get less dramatic about it as time went by, though. </p>
Image: Aaron Montgomery/JPI
10/31
<p>Was it attraction or boredom that led to Jack and Phyllis “entertaining” themselves while trapped in an elevator? Whatever the reason, it resulted in a “Who’s the daddy?” cliffhanger that lasted for years and gave us icky feelings about Summer and Kyle.</p>
Image: Aaron Montgomery/JPI
11/31
<p>And you thought election nights these days were tense. Try being in the room with this trio waiting to see whether Jack or Nikki had won the state senate seat. We’re getting a panic attack just thinking about it.</p>
Image: Aaron Montgomery/JPI
12/31
<p>It was at this point that Jack stopped to wonder if all this effort was really worth it. Not rescuing Sharon, of course. No, we’re talking about the whole Clear Springs resort and explosion storyline.</p>
Image: Sean Smith/JPI
13/31
<p>When Jack presented the <em>Restless Style</em> team with an envelope of all four names in randomly assigned couple combinations, Phyllis, Nick and Sharon were shocked… but intrigued. Long story short, the magazine crashed and burned, and so did the relationships.</p>
Image: Aaron Montgomery/JPI
14/31
<p>“What’s for dinner?” Jack innocently asked. “An affair,” Billy (then Billy Miller) and Sharon answered in unison — then looked awkwardly away.</p>
Image: Aaron Montgomery/JPI
15/31
<p>Look, not to shame anyone’s attempts to spice up the bedroom, but maybe Jack should’ve had a clue something was off with his new squeeze, “Mary Jane,” when she wanted to play with a blindfold and scissors.</p>
Image: Sean Smith/JPI
16/31
<p>Mary Jane, as we all know, turned out to be Jack’s scorned first wife, Patty, who was determined to take him for a long, long ride on the crazy-go-round. A wedding with flowers <em>and</em> a kitten? How decadent!</p>
Image: Aaron Montgomery/JPI
17/31
<p>Nothing would’ve made Emily happier than marrying jack. That’s right, <em>would</em>, not <em>could</em>. Patty had kidnapped and taken her place by the time the wedding happened. But once Emily was free, she promptly dumped Jack for not realizing she’d been replaced by a lunatic <em>four months ago</em>. Ouch.</p>
Image: Aaron Montgomery/JPI
18/31
<p>Remember that time Jack rescued Victor from a sinking ship that had been attacked by a great white shark? Wait, that was <em>Jaws</em>. This was when Jack rescued his nemesis from a sinking ship after he’d been attacked by Patrick Swayze’s brother. Swear to God.</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
19/31
<p>Eventually Diane (then Maura West, <em>General Hospital</em> femme fatale Ava these days) came back with her and Jack’s son Kyle, who at the time was played by an exceedingly polite baseball player.</p>
Image: Sean Smith/JPI
20/31
<p>Shortly after Diane returned, Jack and his fellow Genoa City-ites got together to shoot an ’80s power ballad music video, wherein they played murder suspects in the blonde’s death. Very gripping. Lots of smoke. Jack didn’t do it, and that’s about all you need know about how it ended.</p>
Image: Sean Smith/JPI
21/31
<p>Nope, still not done with Patty. Apparently she was <em>really</em> into watching Jack drool. Genevieve, though? Meh. </p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
22/31
<p>On his wedding day to Nikki, Jack delighted everyone by rising from his wheelchair for the first time since Patty put a bullet in his spine. But then he got stuck halfway, and the rest of the wedding was just awkward… </p>
Image: Paul Skipper/JPI
23/31
<p>Gee, you’d think Jack had never seen a woman napping on his floor before. What’s that? Stephanie was <em>dead</em>? Oh. In that case, it’s a lot more disturbing that Adam (then Michael Muhney) was so nonchalant about Victor’s gruesome attempt to frame Jack for murder.</p>
Image: Sean Smith/JPI
24/31
<p>Judging by the matching pajamas and the look on her face, we’re guessing this is the moment Phyllis (then Gina Tognoni) began regretting waking up from her coma and rejoining the Abbott family. Or at least <em>this</em> part of the Abbott family…</p>
Image: Sean Smith/JPI
25/31
<p>Kinky would be one word for Kelly handcuffing Jack to a bed and brainwashing him to love her. (And we guess also teaching him how to read?) Kidnapping would be another. You say potato…</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
26/31
<p>While Jack was off in Kelly’s bedroom of horrors, Bergman played two roles as Victor replaced his nemesis in Genoa City with an evil lookalike named Marco. And that doppelganger, in turn, played <em>Clue</em>. Was Mr. Boddy killed in hallway with the fire poker or the revolver?</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
27/31
<p>Jack figured all he needed to do was stare at Billy and Phyllis until they kissed to catch his wife cheating on him. The really crazy part? It almost worked. The magnetism between those two was <em>insane</em>.</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
28/31
<p>Either Gloria had just struck a pose to seduce Jack, or she was trying to hide and thought that his vision was based on movement. Tragically, it was the former. Even more tragically, it worked, and Jack slept with another of his (dead) dad’s wives.</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
29/31
<p>“Hello, Genoa City cleaning services? My mother left a dead Graham on the floor, and he needs to be mopped up ASAP.”</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
30/31
<p>Though Dina’s return was initially a joyous affair because it finally closed out the Abbotts’ Ring Around The Rosie circle, it quickly grew tragic. Dina suffered from Alzheimer’s, and her kids had to watch her vanish before their eyes. When she finally passed away, Jack had reconciled with his mom, but they’d never again have a pocket full of posie.</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
31/31
