Jeanne Cooper Remembered In a Special Episode of “Young and the Restless”

Uncharacteristically elegant for CBS Daytime: the network saluted the late Jeanne Cooper today with a whole hour devoted to the actress, the star of “The Young and the Restless” for 40 years. She died three weeks ago (May 8) at age 84 after a brief illness. The hour long special shows clips of her from the show and photos from her movie career that preceded joining the fledgling soap in 1973, six months after it first aired. All the show’s main actors are included, and some that have left for other programs. Also included are Cooper’s three adult children including actor son Corbin Bernsen. Most moving are the tributes at the beginning and end from actress Jess Walton, who played Cooper’s foil for three decades. Jeanne Cooper had quite a run, really extraordinary. Even as soaps are struggling to stay on the air– especially at CBS where they cancelled two in the last three years–this was an elegant pause in the ratings war. Now all the great older actors from soaps are gone, and the shows are overpopulated by young people — many of whom cannot act even the slightest bit. It was nice to year the younger folks on “Y&R” reminisce about Cooper’s mentoring.