Becoming Bold & Beautiful: 25 Years of Making the World's Most Popular Daytime Soap Opera

Becoming Bold & Beautiful
25 Years of Making the World's Most Popular Daytime Soap Opera

The Bold and the Beautiful is the world's most watched daily dramatic serial, seen by a daily viewing audience of over 35 million people in more than 100 countries worldwide. Take a rare and revealing look at what happens outside the camera frame as the cast and crew work to create episodes of the series, in studio in Los Angeles; stage 31 of CBS Television City, its home for 25 years; and in such beautiful locations as Paradise Cove in Malibu, California; Cabo San Lucas, Mexico' and Aspen, Colorado.

See how Stage 31 is transformed from an empty dark stage into a stunning family Christmas dinner at the Forrester's sumptuous residence in Beverly Hills. Or how the crew shot on the hottest day of the year in downtown Los Angeles on Skid Row. From special fall holidays, such as Thanksgiving and Halloween, to episodes that shock the senses, such as Hope's graduation party, a modern-day take on a masquerade ball. See images of CGI used to create Brooke and Thomas's berry-induced hallucination on the desert island in the South Pacific.

Travel back in time to the inception of the series in 1987 and the early years, including the original press kit and early black and white photos. See how the series creators, the Bell family, mirror the fictional Forrester family. With a special section celebrating Darlene Conley (as knock-off queen "Sally Spectra") and never-before-published photos of how it all began, fans of the series will live through the early days of the series again.

For 25 years, The Bold and the Beautiful has delighted and fascinated audiences all over the world. Now the spirit of the series, past and present, has been captured in more than 200 photographs of the cast and crew by some of Hollywood's best photographers and complied into one work.

Foreword by The Core Four

It was such a surprise for the four of us to realize how time has flown and how everything has changed (especially us), as we viewed the photos of the past twenty-five years. It seems like another lifetime ago when we first walked through the doors at CBS Television City to shoot our first episode of The Bold and the Beautiful. We will have filmed over six thousand episodes by the time this book goes to print. It's amazing!

From the beginning, we have had that rare opportunity of collaboration with truly talented and creatively generous writers. The co-creators Bill and Lee Bell, and now their son Brad, allowed us to breathe life into the characters of Eric, Stephanie, Brooke, and Ridge. What a creative and fulfilling time this has been for us.

Now we find ourselves a quarter of a century later, still going strong, still successful, even with the recent shifts in the worldwide television landscape. We like to think we have survived because we have a solid foundation. We know all the layers and complexities of the characters by heart, just as all of you do, having followed us since the beginning.

We thought you might want to take the sentimental journey with us. We hope you'll enjoy a glimpse into our world backstage, seeing the work that enables us to make a show into "magic."

We hope you will join us in reliving our lives and our characters all over again.

Bon voyage!

Susan Flannery, Katherine Kelly Lang, John McCook, and Ronn Moss