Original US broadcast period: March 28, 1983–March 23, 1984
Network: CBS
Format: One-hour weekday episodes

CBS did not publish detailed season guides for these early years. In particular, day players, babies and exact episode totals are imperfectly documented. Dates described as approximate should therefore be treated cautiously.

Number of episodes

Approximately 255 episodes.

The calendar contained 260 weekdays during this period, but several episodes were pre-empted by holidays, news coverage or CBS special programming. No surviving official CBS list provides a completely reliable season total.

Official cast photograph

Complete documented character list

The list includes the identifiable contract and recurring characters who appeared during the season. It does not include every unnamed doctor, nurse, police officer, waiter or other uncredited day player.

• Ashley Abbott — portrayed by Eileen Davidson
• Jack Abbott — portrayed by Terry Lester
• John Abbott — portrayed by Jerry Douglas
• Traci Abbott — portrayed by Beth Maitland
• Douglas Austin — portrayed by Michael Evans
• Allison Bancroft — portrayed by Lynn Wood
• Kevin Bancroft — portrayed by Christopher Holder
• Christine “Cricket” Blair — portrayed by Lauralee Bell
• Katherine Chancellor — portrayed by Jeanne Cooper
• Phillip Chancellor III — portrayed by Jimmy Keegan
• Rick Daros — portrayed by Randy Brooks
• Tony DiSalvo — portrayed by Michael Corbett
• Lauren Fenmore — portrayed by Tracey E. Bregman
• Jill Foster Abbott — portrayed by Deborah Adair and Brenda Dickson
• Liz Foster — portrayed by Julianna McCarthy
• Diane Jenkins — portrayed by Alex Donnelley
• Mamie Johnson — portrayed by Marguerite Ray
• Amy Lewis — portrayed by Stephanie E. Williams
• Dina Abbott Mergeron — portrayed by Marla Adams
• Nikki Reed Newman — portrayed by Melody Thomas Scott
• Victor Newman — portrayed by Eric Braeden
• Victoria Newman — portrayed by uncredited infant performers
• Andy Richards — portrayed by Steven Ford
• Danny Romalotti — portrayed by Michael Damian
• Gina Roma — portrayed by Patty Weaver
• Tim Sullivan — portrayed by an actor not consistently identified in the surviving episode credits
• Esther Valentine — portrayed by Kate Linder
  The character was initially known simply as Esther and was later called Esther Valentine.
• Carl Williams — portrayed by Brett Hadley
• Mary Williams — portrayed by Carolyn Conwell
• Patty Williams Abbott — portrayed by Lilibet Stern and Andrea Evans
• Paul Williams — portrayed by Doug Davidson

Major plots

Patty shoots Jack

The consequences of Jack Abbott’s disastrous marriage to Patty Williams dominated the beginning of the season.

Patty discovered that Jack had continued his affair with Diane Jenkins and had married her partly to convince John that he was mature enough to become president of Jabot. Already traumatised by her miscarriage, Patty confronted Jack with a gun.

Jack tried to stop Patty from killing herself and told her to shoot him instead. She shot him three times. Jack survived but was temporarily paralysed.

Patty initially repressed her memory of the shooting. Carl Williams investigated the case and suspected several other people, including Jill. Jack eventually protected Patty by refusing to press charges, but their marriage could not be repaired. Patty Williams’s early storyline

Jack’s struggle for control of Jabot

Jack continued trying to prove that he was capable of succeeding John as the head of Jabot Cosmetics. His ambition created conflict with John, Jill and the rest of the Abbott family.

The shooting temporarily weakened Jack both physically and professionally. Nevertheless, he remained determined to gain control of the company, setting up the long-running struggle over Jabot that would define the Abbott family for decades.

Dina returns to Genoa City

Dina Abbott Mergeron made her first appearance on April 22, 1983. She returned to Genoa City after years away from John and their children.

Her arrival reopened the emotional wounds caused by her abandonment of Jack, Ashley and Traci. Jack was particularly hostile, while Ashley was more willing to rebuild a relationship with her mother. Dina’s presence also complicated John’s marriage to Jill.

Marla Adams began her original regular run as Dina on April 22, 1983. Dina Abbott Mergeron’s introduction

Jill versus the Abbott children

Jill’s marriage to John placed her at the centre of the Abbott family, but Jack strongly opposed the relationship and suspected that Jill was primarily interested in John’s money and position.

Ashley and Traci also struggled with Jill’s presence in their father’s life. Dina’s return made the situation even more volatile, leaving John caught between his current wife, his former wife and his children.

Jill & Jack

Lindsey Wells’s Blackmail Storyline

November 1983: Jack Abbott and his stepmother, Jill Foster Abbott, were stranded in a mountain cabin during a snowstorm and had a one-night stand. A disguised Lindsey Wells secretly photographed them together. The precise airdate is not documented.

January 19, 1984: Lindsey made her first identified appearance. She revealed that she possessed the incriminating photographs and began blackmailing Jack and Jill, demanding money and professional advantages at Jabot in exchange for her silence.

Traci, Lauren and the bullying storyline

Lauren Fenmore became Traci Abbott’s principal rival. Confident, glamorous and often cruel, Lauren repeatedly mocked Traci’s weight and insecurity.

Traci was attracted to Danny Romalotti, while Lauren also wanted Danny’s attention. Their rivalry extended into singing, modelling and social status.

The storyline became increasingly serious as Traci’s low self-esteem left her vulnerable to college professor Tim Sullivan. Tracey E. Bregman later recalled that Lauren’s treatment of Traci produced an extraordinarily hostile reaction from viewers. Tracey E. Bregman on the storyline

Traci’s pregnancy

Traci became involved with her college professor, Tim Sullivan, and became pregnant.

Tim had no intention of building a life with her. Danny, who cared deeply for Traci, offered to marry her and give the baby his name. The pregnancy and proposed marriage led into the 1984 storyline in which Traci miscarried and her relationship with Danny ended.

Depending on the anniversary-season cut-off used, portions of the wedding and miscarriage storyline may be classified as either the end of Season 11 or the beginning of Season 12.

Danny, Patty and Traci

Following the collapse of Patty’s marriage, she renewed her relationship with Danny. However, Danny felt responsible for helping the pregnant Traci.

Danny’s decision to support Traci devastated Patty. The situation contributed to Patty’s decision to leave Genoa City and brought her original storyline to an end.

The teen set expands

The programme developed a new group of younger characters around Danny, Lauren and Traci:

• Christine “Cricket” Blair;
• Amy Lewis;
• Lauren Fenmore;
• Traci Abbott.

Cricket was introduced as a teenage model on July 15, 1983. Amy subsequently became part of the group as a friend and singer. Their arrival helped establish the teen-oriented stories that became increasingly prominent during the mid-1980s. Christine Blair’s introduction

Victor and Nikki

Victor and Nikki continued their intense but difficult relationship while raising their infant daughter, Victoria.

Victor remained controlling and emotionally guarded, while Nikki wanted security and a formal commitment. Their story moved steadily toward their first marriage, which took place in the following anniversary season, in April 1984.

Paul and the Bancroft storyline

Paul Williams became involved in the troubled Bancroft family story, principally through Allison and Kevin Bancroft.

The storyline drew Paul further into investigative work and continued his evolution from a rebellious young character into Genoa City’s principal private investigator.

Births

No confirmed live birth of a major character occurred during Season 11.

Victoria Newman, born on November 17, 1982, was already an infant during this season.

Pregnancies and miscarriages

• Traci Abbott became pregnant by Tim Sullivan.
• Her pregnancy led Danny Romalotti to offer to marry her and raise the child as his own.
• Traci subsequently miscarried, although surviving summaries disagree over whether the relevant episodes aired immediately before or just after the March 1984 anniversary boundary.

Recasts and SORAS

Jill Foster Abbott

• Deborah Adair played Jill during the early part of the season.
• Brenda Dickson returned to the role in 1983.
• This was an adult recast, not a SORAS.

Dickson had originated the role in 1973 before leaving in 1980. Her return re-established her as Jill for the remainder of the character’s major 1980s storylines.

Patty Williams Abbott

• Lilibet Stern played Patty at the beginning of the season.
• Andrea Evans assumed the role in 1983.
• This was an adult recast, not a SORAS.

Evans played Patty through the conclusion of the character’s original storyline in 1984.

Phillip Chancellor III

• Phillip continued to be portrayed by Jimmy Keegan.
• His earlier reintroduction as an older child represented a mild SORAS, but no further major age jump occurred during Season 11.

Victoria Newman

• Victoria was portrayed by unidentified infant performers.
• The surviving credits do not consistently preserve the babies’ names.
• No SORAS occurred during this season.

No major SORAS

Season 11 featured important recasts, but no firmly documented instance of a young child suddenly being replaced by a teenage or adult performer.

New characters

• Dina Abbott Mergeron — April 22, 1983, portrayed by Marla Adams.
• Christine “Cricket” Blair — July 15, 1983, portrayed by Lauralee Bell.
• Amy Lewis — 1983, portrayed by Stephanie E. Williams.
• Tim Sullivan — 1983, Traci’s college professor and the biological father of her unborn child.

Departures

• Andy Richards — 1983: Steven Ford concluded his original run.
• Allison Bancroft — 1984: Lynn Wood’s storyline ended.
• Kevin Bancroft — 1984: Christopher Holder left when the Bancroft story concluded.
• Patty Williams Abbott — 1984: Andrea Evans left after Patty’s marriage and relationship with Danny both collapsed.
• Tim Sullivan — 1984: Traci’s professor disappeared from the story after abandoning her.
• Douglas Austin — approximately 1983–1984: the character’s storyline with Julia Newman came to an end.

Returns

• Dina Abbott Mergeron returned to Genoa City within the story, although April 22, 1983 was the character’s first on-screen appearance.
• Brenda Dickson returned as Jill Foster Abbott in 1983 after having originated the role from 1973 to 1980.
• Eve Howard may have appeared briefly in transitional episodes, but the surviving credits are not strong enough to confirm a substantial Season 11 return.

No other major established character made a documented long-term comeback during the season.

Marriages

Danny Romalotti and Traci Abbott

Danny agreed to marry the pregnant Traci so that her baby would have a father and the Romalotti name.

The marriage is generally dated to 1984, but the precise episode date is not securely preserved in accessible records. Some anniversary-based classifications place it at the very end of Season 11; others place it at the beginning of Season 12. The marriage was short-lived and was annulled after Traci miscarried. Danny Romalotti’s early storyline

No Victor and Nikki wedding yet

Victor and Nikki did not marry during the strict March 1983–March 1984 period. Their first wedding took place in April 1984, shortly after Season 11’s anniversary cut-off.

Deaths

No major established character is conclusively documented as dying during Season 11.

Traci lost her unborn child through miscarriage, but the exact placement of that event around the Season 11–12 boundary remains uncertain.

Season significance

Season 11 completed the programme’s transition away from the original Brooks and Foster families. The Abbotts, Newmans and Williamses were now firmly established as the central families.

The season also introduced three characters with particularly important long-term legacies:

• Dina Abbott Mergeron;
• Christine “Cricket” Blair;
• Amy Lewis.

Alongside Lauren and Traci, Cricket and Amy created a younger generation of characters who would drive many of the programme’s musical, romantic and socially focused stories throughout the 1980s.

 

Nikki resumed stripping at The Bayou, which was hurting for business. Her husband, Kevin was outraged, but Nikki continued stripping. Fed up with the tension in her marriage, Nikki turned to Rick Daros. While Kevin and Nikki were in the midst of divorce proceedings, Kevin befriended Julia. Kevin’s mom, Alison, arranged to have Nikki’s striptease act photographed and spliced into a porn film, hoping that it would cause Nikki to lose custody of Victoria at the divorce hearing.

Jill scheme to steal her husband John’s money included bugging Jack’s office. When Jack was in the midst of an intimate encounter with Diane, Jill phoned his pregnant wife, Patti, and suggested that she pay a surprise visit to her husband at work. Patti saw Jack and Diane making love. She was so distraught that she rushed out of the office and collapsed. Patti was rushed to the hospital, where she miscarried. Jack’s dirty deeds continued when he tried to replace Ashley’s boyfriend, Brian, at Jabot with Eric Garrison. Later, Ashley and Jack were stunned to discover that the mystery woman who was trying to buy Jabot was their mother, Dina. After Patti recovered from her miscarriage, Jack resumed his affair with Diana. When Patti overheard Jack making plans to have a vasectomy, she showed up at his office with a gun and threatened to shoot herself. Instead, Patti got caught up in the heat of the moment and shot Jack. At the hospital, doctors removed two bullets from Jack’s chest. But a third bullet paralyzed him. Meanwhile, Patti wiped the incident from her mind. A subsequent surgery enabled Jack to walk again. During Jack’s absence from Jabot, John appointed Ashley president. She was so good that, when Jack returned to work, John kept Ashley as president.

Consumed with stress because of her faltering marriage, Patti began seeing a therapist. At the therapist’s suggestion, Jack agreed to help reenact the stress that triggered Patti’s blackout. When the reenactment takes place, Patti suddenly recalled that she had shot Jack and her reasons for doing so. Soon after, Patti divorced Jack and left town.

The Abbotts were thrown into turmoil when John suffered a heart attack. However, he recovered. In an effort to keep John interested in their marriage, Jill pretended that she was pregnant. Soon after, she and Jack ended up spending the night at a remote cabin and making love during a snowstorm. A stranger stood outside the cabin’s window, snapping photographs of the couple.

Paul Williams worked to clear his father, Carl, of criminal charges when Carl was set up by the mob, who resented the police detective’s efforts to smash their syndicate. Paul’s involvement with Cindy, a reformed prostitute, also nearly destroyed his family. Paul was forced into hiding by the mob. To lure Paul out, they kidnapped his mom, Mary. Fortunately, Paul and Carl rescued Mary and the mob was put behind bars–with the exception of Tony DiSalvo. The charges against Carl were dropped. Nikki agreed to marry DiSalvo, the mobster who had possession of the steamy flick that Alison had created, when he promised to destroy the tape. Paul and Andy rescued Nikki before the wedding ceremony could take place. DiSalvo was so angry that he tried to shoot Paul, but Cindy shielded Paul’s body and took the bullet instead. Before DiSalvo could fire another shot, Jazz, a friend of Paul’s, shot and killed the mobster.

Nikki’s problems continued when Alison kidnapped Victoria and fled the country. Rick tracked Alison down in England and told her to return Victoria. He revealed that Kevin wasn’t the baby’s father. Victor was. After Rick returned Victoria to Nikki, their relationship picked up steam. Victor watched as their romance continued to grow, but he resisted telling Nikki that he knew he was Victoria’s real father.

Eve and her friend Max concocted a diabolical plot to poison Victor. Julia overheard a smidgen of their plan on the phone and warned Victor that he was in danger. Julia suspected that Eve was involved in the poisoning, and eventually she proved it by having the poison that Eve administered to Victor analyzed. An antidote was found and Victor regained his health. He realized that Eve had tried to poison him so that her son, whom she believed Victor had fathered, could inherit half of his wealth. To punish Eve, Victor pretended to be dead. When Julia confided to Eve that she thought Victor was murdered, and that she wanted to exhume his body for an autopsy, Eve sent Max to the graveyard to dig up the corpse. At the cemetery, Max was so shocked to see Victor alive that he fell against a pitchfork and died. Eve was carted off to the loony bin.

Ashley broke off her romance with Brian and began seeing Eric Garrison, who was also involved with Dina. Eventually, Eric ended his affair with Dina and proposed marriage to Ashley. Dina offered to help with the wedding plans. When Eric’s possessions arrived from Paris, Dina made sure that Ashley saw a portrait of her mother that Eric had painted. On the back was an inscription, ‘All my love, Eric.’ Ashley was mortified to discover that Dina and Eric were lovers.

Ashley’s sister, Traci, struggled to lose weight so that she could win Danny’s heart. But Lauren Fenmore, who was also interested in Danny, did her best to undermine Traci’s confidence. As a last resort, Traci turned to diet pills. While Traci was under the influence of the pills, she had a car accident and was rushed to the hospital. Meanwhile, Lauren was jealous of the concern that Danny showed the seriously injured Traci. At the hospital, Traci went into convulsions.

Previous year : Y&R 1982

Next year : Y&R 1984