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Hello, Kitty
The Dish On YOUNG AND RESTLESS's Cattiest Star!

When Y&R brought back psycho Patty this year, viewers were introduced to another character: Patty’s stuffed cat, Mr. Kitty. The motionless — not to mention creepy — creature gained so many fans that Y&R Web Content Developer Greg Edwards decided to shoot a series of humorous webisodes about Mr. Kitty’s “True soap story.” “They’re so funny,” praises Stacy Haiduk (Patty/Emily), who spent more time with Kitty than anyone. “I think the videos are such a great idea.” Digest caught up with Edwards, who explains how he came up with the concept. Soap Opera Digest: These videos are great! Where did you get the idea?

Greg Edwards: Well, in the middle of the summer, there were about two weeks where I was in between projects and I asked, “What are some projects that would be cool?” At that time, there were a bunch of Twitter accounts about Mr. Kitty, so we thought, “Why not do something about the cat?” I started reading all the fan comments about the cat, and how there must’ve been some weird negotiations between Paul [Doug Davidson] and the kitty, and I figured I’d take that and embellish it and go way out into left field with it. I then went and talked to all of the actors and asked them to think about other actors they’d worked with in the past; I then said, “Okay, tell stories about those actors, but just put the Mr. Kitty name in instead.” I put it all together like that and it turned into this really wild story.”



Digest: So then everything is improvised?

Edwards: Yes. I came up with about a page of basic story about the cat that’s the clichéd small town person comes to Hollywood and they don’t know anybody, and all of a sudden, their head and their ego gets huge as they gain stardom … it followed every story out there, every cliché [laughs]. It was these certain points that I wanted the actors to hit. Then I’d sit down with the record button and I’d improv with them and act like I was interviewing them. Some of the actors I’d be really short with and rude to, and some I’d be really cool to. I tried to mold the story as it went. That was the way it went with everybody except for Jeanne Cooper [Kay]. I hit the record button with her and she just went off into this crazy story and 10 minutes later, my jaw was dropped and I said, “Okay, we’re done.”



Digest: It’s great that you got so many cast members involved.

Edwards: Most of them are my really good friends from the show, so it was a fun, little project to work on in between scenes. The actors would start talking about it and they wanted to take turns doing the interviews. They’d be like, “I heard about Mr. Kitty, I can’t wait for my turn.”



Digest: What other projects have you developed for the show?

Edwards: I’ve done the sneak peek video teasers. A lot of the stuff I do is behind-the-scenes stuff for Y&R. Anytime there’s an actor talking about something going on, I’m pretty much the one holding the camera. I’m the experimental video guy. I try to do something different than what’s normally done on the show.



Digest: Will we be seeing more of Mr. Kitty?

Edwards: It’s a four-part series. We put together the story and I think that anything more would be too much. But I’ve got a couple of really interesting projects that are going to take a couple of months to put together, that I think the fans are going to like. So stay tuned.

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