It was a very good year, 1998: The Young and the Restless Two Scoops for the week of December 29

The Young and the Restless ended the year 2025 and began the New Year with lots of great stuff to write about. A highlight of the week was the New Year's Day rebroadcast from 1998!

The Young and the Restless, party like it's 1998

For the second time in recent memory, Y&R has treated viewers to a flashback from the show's vault of amazing episodes. In November, we saw a specialized episode featuring Danny and Christine’s wedding.

This time, we were treated to a fantastic episode that took place almost a decade later in the late summer of 1998.

The show's main focus was Jill Abbott (Jess Walton) and her rivalry with Katherine Chancellor. (Jeanne Cooper).

House rules

The two women vied for the love of the late Phillip Chancellor (Donnelly Rhodes) back in the 1970s. Now, Phillip was gone, but this time around, the two women were fighting over who'd be the one who got to live in his house. It was a very organic follow-up to the fight over Phillip’s love.

So much of Genoa City had changed since this episode, yet so much was the same.

Victor and Jack still can’t stand to be in the same room together, but back in 1998, Victor still owned Jabot, and Jack was forced to work alongside him if he ever wanted to get the company back (which the family did the following year). Still, the tension between the two men was thick as ever.

Faces I remember

So many beloved favorites from the past were present in this episode. There was the late Neil (Kristoff St. John), who hadn’t yet found out that his brother Malcolm (Shemar Moore) had fathered his daughter, Lily. We got to see Tonya Lee Williams as Olivia, and Shari Shattuck as Ashley, too.

Heather Tom is stirring up fashion wars as Katie on The Bold and the Beautiful, but in 1998, she was still Y&R’s Victoria. The actress was headed towards one of her most dramatic performances ever, as by the end of the year, Victoria gave birth to her daughter, Eve, and was told that her infant daughter had died. (Didn't you later suspect that when Vicki said, "they won't even let me see her," that the baby would be back someday, which happened in the form of Hayley Erin's Claire).

At Kay’s gala, in this episode, however, Vicki delighted in being the focus of attention from three men – her ex-husband, Ryan (Scott Reeves), her ex-husband Cole Howard (J. Eddie Peck), who was the father of her baby, and Neil, her then-current love interest.

Barbara Crampton was on the series at the time as the irrepressible Leanna Love, Victor’s ex-wife. At this point, Victor had long seen through her charade as Nora Randall, the author who penned Victor Newman: Ruthless. There was no (no pun intended) "love" lost between these two. But Leanna was still driving story as Genoa City's gossip monger. (Why hasn't Newman Media or Abbott Communications hired her?)

In this episode, Victor summoned the on-air personality to his office. We were left hanging as the episode ended before knowing why -- a reminder that Y&R has been the master of cliffhangers, big and small.

The Young and the Restless, Best in 1998 show

There was plenty of young love on the show in 1998. (Well, 27 years ago, everyone was younger!) Nick (Joshua Morrow) and Sharon (Sharon Case), enjoying a rare conflict-free night, chatted up Ryan and Tricia (Sabryn Genet). This was before Ms. Dennison had a psychotic break and ended up killing Ryan a few years later.

Esther (Kate Valentine) was seen in her maid’s uniform as she still worked for Mrs. Chancellor at the time.

Melody Thomas Scott (Nikki) looked radiant, still sporting the short hairdo that she debuted in May just before the Daytime Emmys in New York a few months prior to the taping of this episode. (This is the type of trivia that's in our brains, folks!)

We also saw a few familiar B&B faces in Ashley Jones and Jennifer Gareis. However, they weren't playing their respective B&B roles of Bridget and Donna, but rather their respective Y&R roles of Megan and Grace.

We saw a very interesting dynamic between Victor and Christine. Very few say no to the mustached mogul, but Christine is on that short list of people who can -- and do. She refused to help Victor as he tried to do anything unlawful in terms of taking down Michael Baldwin, who was representing Victor’s wife, Diane (then, Alex Donnelley), in her divorce against Victor.

However, Victor invited Christine to be on his legal team, which would pit Chris and Michael against each other in court. It was one thing to acknowledge that perhaps Michael had changed, but to have to interact with her one-time harasser again? Tune in tomorrow!

LeBlanc had come back to the show the previous year, which was rare (but not impossible) for a Y&R villain to do. The show put Michael through the wringer to ease him back into Genoa City society. He had to donate a kidney to Danny (Michael Damian), and he didn’t win his law license back easily or overnight.

Nina in the (Genoa) City

Another huge highlight of the episode was seeing Nina Webster (Tricia Cast) try to navigate life as a single mother, attempting to go on a date. She showed up at Gina’s and found her computer-matched date for the night to be attractive. Attractive and tall!

There was literally something “extra” about the show, as there were many atmosphere players present in the scenes at Crimson Lights (how the coffee shop manages to stay afloat economically with today’s low patronage is anyone’s guess!). In 1998, Crimson Lights was a lively hotspot, a place where young people could go to see and be seen. Alas, in today’s economic realities, the coffee hangout is a place to go when you want to have a private meeting. No one is going to overhear you!

Kay’s party also had atmosphere players decked out to the nines. It was filled with folks who were likely employees of Chancellor Industries or another associate. They made you feel like Genoa City was a real town filled with folks beyond the 40 or so regular and semi-regular players that drive or support storylines.

We got to see Lynne Basset (Laural Bryan Birn), Paul’s loyal gal Friday. Heck, we got to see Paul, the much-missed Doug Davidson! He and Christine were happily wed at the time.

Jill v. Kay may be Y&R’s greatest all-time story

The show was promoted as Jill crashing Kay’s party, and that was, of course, the big highlight. These two women could be in the same room, and you'd feel the tension. Walton had been in the part for just over a decade at this point, but you’d swear she played the entirety of the Jill/Kay feud, which was over 20 years old.

Fans lament the loss of defunct cable network SOAPnet, which rebroadcast some current and past daytime and nighttime serials. We can’t help but wish that someday this and other classic Y&R episodes will be made available on streaming. We can imagine soap fans paying a monthly fee to see old Y&R episodes like this one!

A Wise Move

There was plenty of action going on in the show's modern day, which we saw last week. Ray Wise reprised Ian as once again Mariah (Camryn Grimes) conjured up the supervillain from her past. Let’s hope his return helps give Mariah some closure. We’re waiting for her to put this ordeal in the rear-view mirror. We’ll want to see her reunite with Tessa (Cait Fairbanks) if and when that happens!

Take a Flying Leap – Please

Matt Clark (Roger Howarth) threatened to jump off the railing at Chancellor Park to blame Nick for his “murder,” and he’d go to jail. But that didn’t work last time, and Sienna (Tamara Braun), when found alive, would back Nick and the Newman family that Matt was a bad guy, so we don't see it working this time either.

The fact that he faked his death and assumed a new life as Mitch would certainly cast doubt on his story. We didn’t think that Matt would really jump, but we almost wished he had. Anything to stop all Matt's threats. And all the yelling.

Also, why don’t the Newmans travel with security? You’d think Ian Ward, Aunt Jordan (Colleen Zenk), and Cane’s (Billy Flynn) security guard would have taught them this lesson.

Love is in the air

Daniel (Michael Graziadei) and Tessa finally made love, which showed that there was life after love for Daniel, who was mourning Heather (Vail Bloom). And Tessa certainly deserves some love after being shunned by Mariah. This doesn’t bode well for the show’s sole same sex union, but hopefully, this ends with Mariah and Tessa reuniting. It’s the journey, folks.

Might Adam (Mark Grossman) and Sally (Courtney Hope) get back together? Their New Year's Eve "date" (for lack of a better word) has us wondering. Chelsea (Melissa Claire Egan) has challenged Adam's moral compass in recent episodes. But did Sally do that better than Chelsea did? For Connor's (Judah Mackey) sake, we hope that Adam and Chelsea stick it out.

Jack be nimble, Jack be quick

Peter Bergman was a standout as Jack Abbott this past week. (Read our write-up of his being Soap Central's Performer of the Week for Y&R here). The cosmetics exec proved that a strong offense is the best defense. Jack told Victor off at Society, and he didn’t let Phyllis pull a fast one over him when she dropped by the house. If anyone should know what Phyllis’s game is, it’s her ex-husband, Jack. With the looming threat of Matt Clark and the Abbott family’s unity, we’re not so sure Victor’s going to beat Jack this time!

Catch all-new episodes of The Young and the Restless weekdays on CBS and Paramount Plus.