According to comedian/actor/writer Brad Sanders, it was his idea to bring his alter ego, Clarence — his street-talking persona, who offered a daily rundown of Y&R starting in 1986 — back to the soap, which celebrated its milestone 50th anniversary earlier this year. He explains, “One of the radio stations said, ‘Look, man, you need to be a part of the 50th anniversary. You should be there!’ And I said, ‘Yeah, let me call!’ So I called [Vice President, Daytime Programs, CBS] Margot Wain and she called [Director at CBS] Danielle Unger and they were like, ‘Yeah, it sounds great!’ And they set it all up.”
After a long delay due to the writers’ and actors’ strike, the details of Sanders’s return were finalized — and when the news was made public, he was moved by the warm response from fans. “How sweet is that?” he marvels. “I saw some stuff online, people from Canada were shouting me out and stuff. I’m still processing it as we speak.”
Sanders’s long journey as soap-loving Clarence began when he was working as a standup comic. “He became part of my comedy routine,” Sanders notes. “I came up with the name Clarence because I was using the voice of one of the neighborhood guys. When I was doing him on stage, the people were quiet and I was like, ‘Oh, this is bombing.’ And then I see this girl sitting next to a guy and she’s punching and elbowing him in the ribs — they didn’t want to miss a word of what was going on with their soap. That’s when I started to say, ‘Well, this is something right here.’ ”
Soon, Sanders was bringing Clarence to radio audiences, as a guest on Ton Joyner’s show in Dallas. “He had a soap update of sorts and he asked me to do mine on the air,” recalls Sanders. “[After that] the phones were ringing off the hook. I was walking around the streets of Dallas, and I was overhearing people say, ‘Man, you [hear] this brother on the radio talking about the soaps?’ When I got back to L.A., I heard of a lady on the radio doing comedy bits and I said, ‘Man, I would like to work with her. She needs somebody to play off of.’ I had a stack of possible material I would do and I talked to the manager, Jim Maddox, and he said, ‘I like that soap thing. Do that.’ And so that started on KJLH, the Stevie Wonder station.” Sanders’s skyrocketing popularity then landed him on the Z MORNING ZOO on Z104 in New York City. “It was the number one station and the number one market,” he notes. “At this time I didn’t know anything about radio syndication, I didn’t realize the significance, but [disc jockey] Scott Shannon helped me get on some other stations, and Tom Joyner had me on his Chicago station, so I ended up with the top 10 markets. That enabled me to get a syndication deal with Premier Radio Network, which was just starting out at that time, and I ended up on over 200 radio stations. I was watching the [soap], writing my copy and recording it on the telephone to each station, five days a week. I was making money but I still called [each station] collect [chuckles].”
Not every network was a Clarence fan — in fact, he was served with a cease and desist over his ALL MY CHILDREN updates. But seeing the potential in collaborating with Sanders, CBS advised Y&R’s co-creator and then-head writer, William J. Bell, to snap him up. “I have an official adoption certificate. Sanders smiles, “I have an official adoption certificate from YOUNG AND RESTLESS when I moved from Pine Valley to Genoa City. That’s now I ended up at CBS.” His new home was a perfect fit. “They were just percolating with ideas and came up with a lot of different things for Clarence,” including his slick wardrobe and extensive hat collection. In addition to plot updates, Clarence became such a fixture at the network that he was featured in its 1991 promotional campaign for the Daytime Emmys, called “I Got The Gold”, which even earned him a shout-out in Rick Hearst’s (ex-Alan-Michael, GUIDING LIGHT) acceptance speech that year.
Before shooting his Y&R appearance, Sanders shot a scene in the movie adaptation of the musical version of The Color Purple, but his role was left on the cutting room floor. “It was the best film I was ever cut out of,” he chuckles. “In case my meaning is unclear, go see the movie. It’s a great film. I’m terribly disappointed not to be in it and somewhat embarrassed, but I understand the plot point was cleaner without it. That scenes was difficult to shoot. Mr. Colman Domingo [Mister] and I worked under a man-made torrential rainstorm to nail that scene and we got it. However, as I learned from Mr. Bill Bell, you have to do what’s best for the show. Major respect to Colman Domingo who dried off after performing his part lying in the mud of the aforementioned storm, came back, got back on the muddy ground and did the lines with me for my close-up. Class, all class. Thank you, sir.”
And while there’s little he can divulge about what will happen when Clarence shows up on Y&R on Wednesday, December 27, he says he’s open to more visits to Genoa City. “I make no assumptions in this business,” he notes, adding, “We can certainly explore the idea.”
