Young & Restless’ Eric Braeden Reveals Why He Once ‘Loathed’ Daytime
Friday, May 20th, 2022
Soaps may never have had a greater champion than the Emmy winner.
Now Eric Braeden’s name is synonymous with that of Victor Newman, with The Young and the Restless, with daytime television. But he was anything but enamored of the soap biz when he first got into. “Do you know that I really had to work hard at accepting the medium?” he said during the May 15 edition of State of Mind with General Hospital star Maurice Benard (Sonny). “When I came in at first, I loathed it. The amount of dialogue, the speed and the lack of respect with which they worked…
“They would count down [before a scene began],” he continued. “I said, ‘Wait a minute, you look at me before you count down! I’m on [bleeping] screen, not you. When I’m ready, we go.’ I had to say that a few times the first two or three years.”
More: Victor and Nikki’s love story… in photos
What really astonished Braeden was the lack of care he saw in his colleagues back in the day. “The people that work in daytime, they feel kind of a disdain for their own medium. I used to feel that, and I resented that,” he admitted. “I said, ‘What you’re doing, you’re entertaining millions of people. Have respect for what you do. What you and I do is harder than what anyone who stars in a film does, what anyone who stars in nighttime does, what anyone who stars in theater does. What you and I do on a daily basis is the hardest job for an actor in this town, in this business, period.”
If there’s a stigma attached to working in daytime, so be it. That has no relation to the quality or quantity of work that Braeden and his peers do. Any stigma associated with soaps “is based on ignorance, on not knowing what we do,” Braeden said. “I’ve starred in film, I’ve done nighttime, the whole thing. This is the hardest medium in the business. So actors who are in it, be proud of it. Be proud of what we do.”
If La La Land looks down on soap stars, who cares? Not Braeden. “I don’t give a [bleep]. I don’t care what Hollywood thinks. I really don’t,” he said. “Couldn’t care less. Done it for too many years… I know what we do.
“Look at Michelle Stafford (Phyllis)… She’s a wonderful actress,” he went on. “We have a new kid, Mark Grossman (Adam). He plays one of my kids. And I saw them inundate him with dialogue. I looked at the page and said, ‘I wonder how this young guy is going to do that!'”
Braeden then snapped his fingers to indicate how quickly Grossman nailed the material. “My hat off!”
Revisit highlights of Braeden’s epic run as Victor via the below photo gallery.
Video: YouTube/State of Mind
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Image: Courtesy of the Everett Collection
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<p>Prior to being cast by <em>The Young and the Restless</em>, a clean-shaven Eric Braeden was already well-known in Hollywood, owing to 1970s movies like <em>Colossus: The Forbin Project</em> (left) and series such as <em>Rat Patol</em> (center) and <em>The F.B.I.</em> (right). But it wasn’t until he’d begun to sink his teeth into his ultimately iconic soap role that he was able to say that “I feel I’m playing a character that is not a caricature,” he told <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/tv/1987/08/30/eric-braeden-finding-a-role-finding-himself/2f8c51c3-fc0d-4552-a8be-a68513622b07/" target="_blank"><em>Washington Post</em></a> in 1987. “Daytime TV affords me the opportunity to create a character who is not a cardboard caricature of good and evil.”</p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection, NBC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
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<p>When the future Daytime Emmy joined the CBS soap in 1980, it was only supposed to be for six months. But viewers were immediately captivated by his portrayal of Victor Newman, a Machiavellian villain so dastardly that he imprisoned in his basement the photographer that he mistakenly believed was taking liberties <em>with</em> as well as pictures <em>of</em> wife Julia. When the powers that be discovered that viewers didn’t hate the conniver so much as they <em>loved</em> to hate him, Braeden was signed to a longer contract.</p>
Image: CBS
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<p>The moment that Victor got a gander at exotic dancer Nikki Reed plying her trade at the Bayou, he was a goner. However, rather than just come out and admit that he’d fallen in love at first sight, he insisted that he was merely interested in playing Henry Higgins to her scantily clad Eliza Doolittle. Even after nature took its course and the couple made love, Victor refused to acknowledge that his heart was no longer his own. Instead, he pushed Nikki into the arms of Kevin Bancroft, a Richie Rich closer to her age.</p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
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<p>After Victor was nearly done in by psycho secretary Eve Howard and Nikki almost became the victim of literal lady killer Rick Daros, the star-crossed lovers at last tied the knot in a ceremony that was so lavish, it’s rivaled only by the nuptials of <em>General Hospital</em> supercouple Luke and Laura Spencer.</p>
Image: CBS
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<p>“I’ll never be ready to meet my boy,” insisted Cora Miller in 1984. But, hoping to help Victor fill in the blanks about his sad past, Nikki insisted that his mother do just that. And once she explained to son “Christian” her reasons for leaving him at an orphanage, they enjoyed a warm, if bittersweet, reunion.</p>
Image: Courtesy of the Everett Collection
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<p>While allowing friend John Abbott’s daughter Ashley to recover from her nervous breakdown at his ranch, Victor was drawn to the fragile beauty. Needless to say, this did not sit well with his bride, Nikki. Not at <em>all</em> well. So she struck back by sleeping with her husband’s nemesis — Ashley’s brother, Jack — and extending her “fatal” illness well past the point that it should have killed her.</p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection, Columbia TriStar Television/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
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<p>Over the years, Victor and Jack grew ever more consumed by their loathing of one another. They fought over wives, companies, the last chicken wing… You name it, they crossed swords over it. And although Jack is a formidable opponent, Victor, as inventive as he is unscrupulous, always seems to come out on top. Tough to beat a guy who thinks nothing of sicking your crazy ex on you or having you replaced by a doppelgänger!</p>
Image: Geraldine Overton/CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
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<p>After Victor was read the riot act by Nikki, Ashley and even teenage daughter Victoria — honestly, he probably had it memorized by then! — he took advantage of a convenient mugging and car crash to let his loved ones believe that he’d died. While they turned on the waterworks, he toiled as a ranch hand for pretty blind farmer Hope Adams, who became his fifth wife. (You didn’t think we were going to include <em>all</em> of his spouses, did you? There’s only so much room here on the Internet.)</p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection (2)
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<p>When Jack’s old flame Diane Jenkins returned to Genoa City still looking like the supermodel that she’d been, Victor swept her off her feet, mainly to stick it to his archenemy. Also, she looked like a supermodel. But the second Nikki was shot, the Mustache slapped his John Hancock on divorce papers so that he could hastily remarry his true love on her deathbed. Which of course turned out to be no more her deathbed than any other piece of furniture on which she’d ever lounged.</p>
Image: Lisa Rose/JPI
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<p>Having had two vasectomies, Victor could’ve been knocked over with a feather when he learned that a donation he’d made to a sperm bank had resulted in the birth of his and Ashley’s daughter, Abby. As if that wasn’t a big enough shock, he found out this game-changing tidbit of information from none other than the little girl herself! (Note: This photo isn’t actually Abby filling in her pop but Darcy Rose Byrnes enjoying a moment with Braeden at the soap’s 32nd anniversary party. But you knew that, right? Right.)</p>
Image: Aaron Montgomery/JPI
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<p>During one of a zillion rough patches in the marriage of Victor and Nikki’s son Nick and wife Sharon, she bent her sympathetic father-in-law’s ear. As a matter of fact, she bent it so far that she was able to kiss his lips. One eyeful of the forbidden kiss was all it took, and not only did Nick hit the roof, he kept right on going up, up and away!</p>
Image: Aaron Montgomery/JPI
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<p>While struggling to make peace with Nick, Victor learned that his “late” dad wasn’t dead after all. But reuniting with the cur who’d deserted his family didn’t bring Victor the closure for which he’d hoped, it only brought back to the fore all of the pain that Albert’s abandonment had caused in the first place.</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
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<p>Upon being diagnosed as having epilepsy, Victor decided that he preferred the kinder, gentler version of himself that he was when he skipped his medication. So he simply stopped taking the pills, a move that damn near cost him his life as well as his reputation as the meanest bastard to ever cross the border into Genoa City.</p>
Image: Aaron Montgomery/JPI
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<p>We will not discuss the reliquary storyline. (There’s a reason that it’s on our list of daytime’s <a href="https://soaps.sheknows.com/gallery/soap-operas-worst-storylines-ever-list-photos/" target="_blank">worst plots ever</a>.) You’re welcome.</p>
Image: Aaron Montgomery/JPI
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<p>As Hope lay on her deathbed — which, unlike Nikki’s, really <em>was</em> her deathbed — she called to her both Victor and their son, Vic, aka Adam. The young man was stunned — <em>stunned</em>, we tell you! — to learn that his business idol was actually his father and soon made tracks to Genoa City to take full advantage of the nepotistic opportunities presented this newfound family tie.</p>
Image: Brian Lowe/JPI
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<p>Victoria really should have known what would happen when she suggested that her pal, private curator Sabrina Costelana, hang her hat at her newly divorced father’s ranch. Still, Victoria was stunned — <em>stunned</em>, we tell you! — to find out that her buddy was having a May/December romance with Victor. Mind you, Sabrina didn’t live to celebrate their first anniversary as a married couple, so the upset was all so much “I do” about nothing.</p>
Image: Pierre Guibert/Visual Press/JPI
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<p>Reeling from Sabrina’s demise, Victor burned down the French chateau that he’d bought for his latest missus, then consoled himself by reuniting with Ashley. Unfortunately, by then, his relationship with Adam had gone from bittersweet to downright sour — and he gaslit his next stepmother into miscarrying his half sibling.</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
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<p>If there’s one game that over the decades Victor’s loved more than wife swap, it’s been this one. He’s forever giving the coveted CEO seat at Newman Enterprises to one of his offspring, only to yank it away and offer it to another or simply reclaim it himself. He could probably do with a hobby that doesn’t result in such high family-therapy bills.</p>
Image: Sean Smith/JPI
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<p>In 2010, Adam (then Michael Muhney) found himself in such a legal quagmire that he faked a mental breakdown in order to wriggle off the hot seat. As you can see, Victor wasn’t buying what the ne’er-do-well was selling way too hard. Sometimes, dude, less is more.</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
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<p>Victoria never had to wonder whether Victor approved of her choice in men. He was always so clear about it, he was downright transparent. For instance, to express his feelings about her decision to marry Jack’s brother, Billy (then Billy Miller), he had his daughter arrested on her wedding day. Nice, huh?</p>
Image: Sean Smith/JPI
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<p>After Nikki learned that Victor had been instrumental in bringing a preggers Chelsea Lawson to Genoa City to throw a baby-sized monkey wrench into Victoria and Billy’s relationship, the on-again/off-again Newmans hit a turning point: Nikki made Victor promise never again to lie to her. You can imagine how well <em>that</em> worked out!</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
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<p>In 2011, Abby (then Emme Rylan) was so determined to become Genoa City’s answer to the Kardashians that she lawyered up and sued Victor for her inheritence in order to bankroll a reality show. Since Victoria and Nick were almost always ticked at Dad, too, they joined in the suit and walked away with $500M each. Quick question, though: Um, how big <em>were</em> their piggy banks, anyway?</p>
Image: Aaron Montgomery/JPI
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<p>Eager to sink her claws into Victor — or at least his wallet — Meggie McClain helped Nikki tumble off the wagon, then did her best to intoxicate Ol’ Moneybags with her charms. She thought she’d succeeded, too, but at the last moment, her would-be dupe revealed that there was no black widow clever enough to entangle him in her web of deceit.</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
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<p>When Gabriel Bingham arrived in Genoa City, Victor couldn’t shake the feeling that he knew him — for good reason. The “stranger” was actually his own son, Adam (then Justin Hartley), rocking a new identity and a <em>whole</em> lotta reconstructive surgery of which Chelsea <em>clearly</em> approved. Before Big Daddy could help the couple skip town to start a new life, the handsome Lazarus was condemned to “death” by Chloe Mitchell, the mother of the little girl that he’d accidentally hit and run over.</p>
Image: Sean Smith/JPI
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<p>While Victor was cooling his heels behind bars in 2011 for Diane’s murder — he was a lady killer, sure, but not <em>that</em> way — he proposed to Sharon, helped her win joint custody of daughter Faith and ultimately took her to be his… if our count is correct, 13th wife? It was as lucky as it sounded.</p>
Image: Paul Skipper/JPI
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<p>Intent on learning nothing from his mistakes, Victor married Sharon a second time, then deserted her on their wedding night. (And they say romance is dead!) Rather than come home and play house, the amnesiac hung out on the West Coast with well-intentioned Sister Celeste until such time as he could be presumed doomed again.</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
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<p>When Victor and Nikki remarried for what they swore was the last time — and futilely hoped that people wouldn’t snicker at the notion — Adam (still Muhney) took a bullet meant for his father, and everybody was nearly blown to smithereens. Because “The Chicken Dance” was never going to be enough to out-“I do” Luke and Laura.</p>
Image: Sean Smith/JPI
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<p>The joke was on Victor when he hired Mariah Copeland — a dead ringer for Sharon’s late daughter, Cassie — to haunt his former wife and daughter-in-law. Turned out, the schemer was actually Cassie’s heretofore-unknown twin; his wicked game had inadvertently reunited Sharon with her own kid. D’oh!</p>
Image: Sean Smith/JPI
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<p>Even when she wasn’t doing her hair, Victor’s sometime daughter-in-law, Phyllis Summers (then Gina Tognoni), understandably saw red upon finding out that, as part of one of his bazillion plots against Jack, the Mustache had slipped a skeezy lookalike into his foe’s loafers — <em>and</em> her bed. Not cool, bro. Not cool at <em>all</em>.</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
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<p>Victor was fit to be tied when his surveillance of Victoria and ex-husband/new boo J.T. Hellstrom revealed not only that the younger man was investigating him but also abusing his daughter. However, their confrontation didn’t end as most do — with Victor emerging the… well, the victor. Instead, he wound up at the bottom of a flight of stairs fighting for both bragging rights to the win <em>and</em> his life.</p>
Image: Jill Johnson/JPI
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<p>Ever since, Victor has lived in a lavish hell primarily of his own making, as he’s pitted his children against one another and struggled to be for Nikki the trustworthy partner as which he’d long tried to cast himself. But at least he was learning from past mistakes… um, <em>wasn’t</em> he?</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
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