When Jeanne Cooper had work done on her face, the procedure was incorporated into her TV character.
by Rich Watson
The Young and the Restless debuted on CBS daytime television in 1973. You probably know the theme song. One year later, Jeanne Cooper joined the melodrama at age 46, after a long career in the golden age of TV, appearing in many shows.
In 1984, she was ten years older and felt she needed a facelift. Then her character did the same.
And it was shown.
Soap operas
I never had any interest in daytime soaps, then or now. As a kid, I couldn’t see them anyway, being in school all day. Nighttime ones were different: I watched Dallas, Falcon Crest and Dynasty not so much because I was such a fan, but because they were on, and they were popular.
I remember the wedding of Luke and Laura on General Hospital. Oh, boy, do I ever. The final episodes of shows like The Sopranos, Lost, A Game of Thrones? Fugeddaboutit. The whole country was obsessed with Luke and Laura’s wedding like you wouldn’t believe. You knew about it if you didn’t know the characters.
You just had to be there.
Because I didn’t follow soaps, I don’t remember hearing anything about Cooper’s facelift. It seems like I should’ve heard something, though.
It was a big deal too.
About The Young and the Restless
The husband-and-wife team of William J. and Lee Phillip Bell created Y&R for CBS as a youth-oriented soap, which was the trend at ABC. The title was a reflection, in the Bells’ words, of “the youth and mood of the early seventies,” post-Woodstock but pre-Watergate.
The central families, the Brookses and the Fosters, live in a fictional version of Genoa City, Wisconsin (2020 population: 2,982), near the Bells’ home in Chicago. Over time, the cast expanded to include new families and characters. In 1980, the show went from a half-hour to an hour.
Y&R has won eleven Daytime Emmys. Last November the 13,000th episode aired. Among the future stars to appear on the show include Tom Selleck, David Hasselhoff and Eva Longoria. It’s slated to continue through the 2027-28 season.
In 1987 the Bells created the spin-off series The Bold and the Beautiful.
About Jeanne Cooper and her Y&R character
Cooper, a California native, began as a supporting actress at Universal in the fifties. Among the films in which she appeared include Tony Rome, The Intruder and The Boston Strangler.
She transitioned to TV and had greater success there, acting in all kinds of shows, from westerns to dramas to anthologies and sci-fi. In 1962, her guest appearance on Ben Casey earned her the first of two Primetime Emmy nominations. In 1969, she had a recurring role on the drama Bracken’s World at NBC.
Her son is L.A. Law star Corbin Bernsen. Her guest spot on that show merited her second Primetime Emmy nod.
On Y&R, she played Katherine Chancellor, the one who always stirred up trouble. Her second husband Phillip had deep ties to Genoa City and its history. Initially, she was a boozer, and her marriage was in danger. Three other actresses have filled in as Katherine, but Cooper has played her the longest.
In 2004 she received a Lifetime Achievement Emmy Award, but she wasn’t through. Four years later she won the competitive Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series.
Katherine’s ongoing feud with hairdresser Jill Foster Abbott is one of the show’s touchstones. It lasted until Cooper’s death in 2013, longer than any other rivalry in American soap operas. (Katherine, too, was killed off on the show.) Among the many highlights of their feud includes the time when they smashed pieces of a wedding cake in each other’s faces.
Jill was originally played by Brenda Dickson and succeeded by five different actresses.
“I walked by a mirror and scared the hell out of myself”
The history of plastic surgery goes back further than people think, all the way to ancient Egypt and India, in fact. The Sushruta Samhita, from at least 878 CE India, is a medical text, written in Sanskrit, which includes, among other things, basic principles of plastic surgery. In the fifteenth century AD, it was translated into Arabic and Europeans learned how to do it. In the twentieth century, Dr. Varaztad Kazanjian developed modern procedures for plastic and reconstructive surgery.
When Cooper asked for time off from Y&R to get the facelift, William Bell pitched her the possibility of having Katherine do the same. Cooper thought they should actually show the procedure.
She worked with Dr. Harry Glassman and Y&R writer Elizabeth Harrower on developing the storyline for the show. Cooper wanted to present the facelift in what she called a “documentary fashion.”
Viewers saw Glassman’s hands perform the real facelift on Cooper-as-Katherine, while an actor did the voiceover as Katherine’s doctor. She had her eyes done and added a chin tuck. The cameras recorded her genuine reaction once the bandages were removed. Cooper’s post-surgery recovery was also incorporated into Katherine’s experience.
Having cameras film her facelift, she said, felt strange:
Dr. Glassman was so funny… It was so funny having the cameras in the procedure room while they were doing my facelift, but when it was over, it was incredible. Dr. Glassman offered some brilliant reconstructive surgeries because of my facelift. He is an artist at reconstruction.
Needless to say, the event was a ratings smash.
Plastic surgery popularized
As a result of Katherine’s (and Cooper’s) facelift, the stigma of plastic surgery declined. Its increase in popularity had beneficial results. Cooper confirms as much in this video interview:
People were coming down to Los Angeles getting appointments, with my real doctor’s office, of reconstructive surgery for kids, [for] people who had been frightened, who had not led full lives, [who] had used something as a crutch, [who had] a deformity or what have you. And I think that’s one of my proudest moments, that a lot of people made their lives better. Not just through cosmetic surgery, but reconstructive surgery.
Whatever fear it took away, I do not know what it was, nor do I care to know, but if I did it, or if Katherine did it, whatever [viewers] think or whatever they wanted to think, so many lives were made better…
Today we hardly blink when celebrities opt to go under the knife or get Botox injections or whatever, though often times we’re critical of the results. Some do it in front of the camera on reality TV shows.
But Cooper did it for an audience first.
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Also in 1984:
- Apple Macintosh’s “1984” commercial airs during the Super Bowl.
- Alex Trebek is the new host of the game show Jeopardy!
- The Cosby Show and Miami Vice debut on NBC.
- ABC cancels Happy Days and Fantasy Island.
- Andy Kaufman dies.
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Did you watch Y&R when Jeanne Cooper had her facelift? Leave a comment and let me know!
July 30: A new Behind the Blind.
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