CBS daytime soap opera Young and the Restless celebrated its 35th anniversary last night with a panel discussion with longtime cast members at The Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills. Among them was the delightfully outspoken Jeanne Cooper, reports USA TODAY's Will Keck. What she said:

- Cooper (Katherine Chancellor) claimed that showing her real-life face lift on the show during the 80's qualified Y&R as TV's first reality show.

-Much of the cast believes that if the writers guild had not allowed for a provision to allow daytime writers to continue working during the recent strike, soaps would have died. "Had we gone dark, we'd never be back on the air and you'd be up to your ass in reality shows," said Cooper.

-Asked what she thinks of the show's more recent revelation that longtime adversary Jill Abbott is her daughter, the veteran actress said, "I hate it."

(Melody Thomas Scott (Nikki) gave the same answer when asked what she thinks of the show's new Hi Definition format which reveals every wrinkle and blemish.)

You have to love Jeanne Cooper! She's awesome! :)

I also believe the soaps would have had a very difficult time recovering had the strike effected them.

I flove Jeanne Cooper. She doesn't give a damn who she pisses off. They know that she's their *only* link to the show's early years (besides the character of Jill), so without her, you have another "General Hospital," where the show is 100% different from what it was at the beginning.

Reality shows are killing TV.... and it's not just the soaps!:mad: Jeanne Cooper is right! Soaps just aren't the same anymore. I've watched OLTL, GH, AMC and OLTL at different times in my life and it's so true that they've gone downhill. But I don't think that's really the fault of the writers as much as the Internet. All the spoilers and so forth has taken the fun out of watching for the sheer suspense of not knowing what's going to happen. Now they are giving day-by-day synopsis!:crazy:

Andrea