Life With Father
B&B Head Writer Bradley Bell Found It Takes A BOLD Guy To Succeed In Dad’s BEAUTIFUL Business
(From the June 22, 1993 issue)
Many people would consider working alongside their parents the very definition of hell. Not Bradley Bell, who is following in the rather formidable footsteps of his father, soap wizard William J. Bell, co-creator of YOUNG AND RESTLESS and BOLD AND BEAUTIFUL.
Bradley got his introduction to the soap business while he was still in high school when he sat in on Y&R story meetings. “For the first two years, I didn’t really say anything, so our relationship was good,” Bradley jokes. Now, at the tender age of 28, Bell the younger is B&B’s head writer and supervising producer, responsible for writing the show’s outlines and determining it’s over-all direction. “He gives me almost total leeway and free rein at this point,” Bradley says. But it hasn’t always been smooth sailing.
Bradely discovered that having each script dissected by one of the most successful writers in daytime history was a mixed blessing. “I would feel that I’d arrived, that I could do it,” he recalls. “Then [my father] would take one of the scripts and really edit it. It was great because he probably spent more time with me than he would with other people, making sure I did everything the way he thought was right.”
He’ll get no argument from Dad. “For about the first year, I frustrated the hell out of Bradley,” Bill recalls. “I didn’t use any of his stuff because I didn’t feel he was quite ready for it.” During this intense period, Bradley was living in one of the guest houses on the Bell family’s Beverly Hills estate. “We were inseparable, which was great because it was a very good learning opportunity,” Bradley observes. “But it was also very difficult, because there was a time I wasn’t sure [if] he was my boss or my father. He is a workaholic, [and was] especially back then. At dinner, we’d talk about the show. At breakfast, we’d talk about the show. On the weekends, we’d be switching sides at the tennis court and he’d say, ‘Hey, what about Sally Spectra?’ That was something that took me a while to get used to. I was young; I wanted to have fun.”
When there were clashes, both men used the same sounding board: Lee Phillip Bell, Bill’s wife, Bradley’s mother and co-creator of Y&R and B&B. “She was always great because I could talk to her and say, ‘Look, he’s driving me crazy,’ ” Bradley explains. “I think my dad would do the same thing with her, so she was the person in the middle saying, ‘This is where your father’s coming from, and I know you’re working hard, but he feels you need another couple of months before he’s ready to entrust you any further.’ She’s always functioned as the quiet voice who keeps everything running well.”
Bill has his own special memories of that period. “It wasn’t that I didn’t want him,” he clarifies. “I knew that being my son was, in many respects, a disadvantage for Bradley. His work was more closely scrutinized than it would have been if he were someone whose last name wasn’t Bell. By the time everything connected, it was great, because there was minimal editing and rewriting.”
Bradley says there wasn’t a single moment when he realized his future lay in soap opera, but he did come to a career crossroads. “There was a time,” he muses, “when I was writing sitcom episodes. A producer wanted to give me a deal for three or four episodes of a sitcom he was doing. I said, ‘Dad, this is the offer I got.’ He said, ‘Well, you have to make a decision at this point, because either you’re with me 100 percent or you’re off on your own.’ It was a tough decision, but I’m still glad I stayed here.”
Bradley is quick to admit that he still goes to his father for advice. “He’s always right on,” Bradley says matter-of-factly. “It’s been about a year that he’s let me have the last say. I think at first he was reticent, but now the ratings are higher than ever and the demographics are improving. The final determining factor was the ratings.”
Bradley has discovered that daytime is a demanding mistress. He routinely works six-and-a-half days a week — a lot under any circumstances, but even more so considering he’s a newlywed. Fortunately, wife Colleen works in B&B’s casting office, so he does have an opportunity to see his bride.
Although Bradley has learned a great deal about the art of soap writing, he confides, “Each script is really torture. You want t o make it the best it can be, and you have only one day because they’re eating up a show every day. So it never gets to the point where it’s easy.”
Bill will undoubtedly be reassured to hear that his son is planning on keeping his feet firmly planted n the soap world. “I’d be very happy if I could make a good living in daytime and never venture into sitcoms or films,” Bradley offers. “This is what I know how to do. I want to follow in the footsteps of my father — maybe someday take this show to an hour and create another show. But I’m in no hurry to do that.”
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