Fans of The Young and the Restless desperately miss Doug Davidson in his role of portraying Paul Williams in Genoa City. Today, the beloved soap vet took to Instagram to share his Monday memories.
Part of Davidson’s caption reads, “I forgot the year, but a Y&R Anniversary gathering. Can you spot the two clowns?” The other “clown” Davidson refers to in the image is none other than Victor Newman actor, Eric Braeden.
Fans began responding almost immediately. One wrote, “I love this!!!” Another chimed in, “Miss you on Y and R.” Finally, another answered Davidson’s question, “You and Eric, Dougie!”
Since being moved to recurring from contract, Davidson has been outspoken on social media about his unceremonious removal from the show. In fact, Paul simply disappeared from the storyline with no explanation at all. Rey (Jordi Vilasuso) came in and started working with Paul and Christine (Lauralee Bell) at Genoa City Police Department, and then Paul was suddenly gone — leaving fans feeling blindsided.
Braeden has also spoken out multiple times on Twitter about Davidson’s removal from the scripts. In addition, he often retweets fan tweets regarding Davidson and his possible return to Y&R . Before he was written out, Davidson was the show’s longest appearing actor — with 40 years of service to the show.
While the Inquisitr reported that fans are warming to Vilasuso’s Rey, many viewers feel that the GCPD is big enough for both men, and they want to see Paul written back into the fabric of Genoa City as soon as possible. With such strong support from fans as well as from Braeden, it seems that they’re building an excellent case for Davidson’s return to the show.
Former head writer and executive producer, Mal Young, revealed he’d left the show during the holiday break — and Josh Griffin will soon take over as head writer. Because of the soap’s filming schedule, Young’s storylines will continue airing through January and possibly into February. At that point, the new writing team’s work should start appearing, which could take things in sharply different directions than the current storylines are going.
Obviously, Davidson’s followers would love to see one of those new directions be a fantastic and intriguing storyline for Paul, because they’re not ready to say goodbye to him — especially so, given that Davidson is not ready to say goodbye, either.
Perhaps his special memories of the Y&R anniversary is a sign of good things to come for Davidson as regards the show. Sadly, he missed the recent celebration of The Young and the Restless cast and crew in marking 30 years as the No.1 daytime television program.
