Young & Restless Just Shone a Spotlight On a Possibility That’s More Than Just ‘Oh, Kay’ — But Will the Show Seize It?

Much like there is only one Jeanne Cooper, there is only one Judith Chapman.

Over and over again as we watched the June 21 episode of The Young and the Restless (recapped here), we found ourselves saying the same thing: Damn, that Judith Chapman is a breath of fresh air — why doesn’t the show use Gloria more?

Maybe, we thought, the powers that be just don’t know what to write for a character who is that radiant and unpredictable. We do, though. There will only ever be one Katherine Chancellor, just as there could only ever be one Jeanne Cooper. But the death of both of the Duchess and her portrayer left a gaping hole in the canvas, and Gloria is just the person to fill it.

Think about it. Like Kay, Glo is a born survivor who’s got the battle scars to prove it. She shares Katherine’s sometimes questionable taste in men. She lights up any room that she enters. And heaven knows she has much-needed wisdom to impart, as she did to Chelsea and Chloe.

Obviously, Gloria’s brand of glamour and insight is very different from Katherine’s. But Chapman has presence with a capital P and an innate ability to put the “grand” in grand dame. So were we in charge, we’d move her front and center, revolving all of Genoa City’s movers and shakers around her, and watch as scenes that might have lightly shimmered before begin to brightly, ahem, Glo.

Needless to say, we’d also give the free spirit a love interest. Chapman’s idea certainly piqued our interest. (Read all about it here.) But we could also imagine Gloria being paired with a Daryl Tulane, the scam artist that Santa Barbara vet Gordon Thomson (Mason) played a few years back, or Max Hollister, the corporate shark once played by Chapman’s former General Hospital castmate Sam Behrens. (He was Jake Meyer when she was Ginny Blake in the ’80s.)

Review still more, more, more reasons why we need Chapman on screen on the regular in the below photo gallery that chronicles her shenanigans as Gloria.