‘Young and the Restless’: Melody Thomas Scott Recalls Her 1987 TVGM Cover With Eric Braeden & Eileen Davidson (VIDEO)

Stephanie Sloane June 12, 2024, 3:50 pm

It’s been quite a celebratory year for The Young and the Restless’ Melody Thomas Scott. Not only did she mark 45 years on the No. 1 soap in February, but on Friday, June 7, she and her husband, Producer Edward Scott, received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 51^st Daytime Emmys. As one of daytime’s most popular stars, Scott has graced the cover of TV Guide on multiple occasions and looks back at one with costars Eric Braeden (Victor Newman) and Eileen Davidson (Ashley Abbott) from August 1987 that focused on the love, pain, and outrage of soap triangles.

“First of all, anything with big hair like this is ’80s, and look at my fingernails!” she says after seeing the cover shot. “And those were real. I always had my real nails. Man, I could have carved a steak with those. And the jewelry. Everything was very Dynasty and Dallas.”

The actress admits she’s less than excited about revisiting her cover look: “We did several setups, and, of course, Eileen and I had our hair down in some and up in some, and then there was this one setup, which they actually selected, which was our least favorite,” she recalls. “At the end of the shoot, we said, ‘Oh, my God. Watch they’re going to pick this.’ And they did. Of course. And our hair is a mile high…. It kind of took a little bit of the shine off of being on the cover because we hated our hair [laughs].”

There was a bright side, however, is that she went home with the red dress she wore. “I do remember I got to keep it because I remember having this in my closet for many years afterwards,” she muses. “Not that I could wear it on the show or anything, but if we go on a cruise or something, that’s acceptable.”

Melody Thomas Scott Still Hopes 'Y&R's Nikki Will 'Go Stark-Raving Mad'

Scott can’t help but laugh recalling some of the more dramatic aspects of playing out the triangle on screen and remembers one scene in particular that spooked her real-life spouse. “I remember somewhere around this same time, Nikki had a fantasy about being dead in a coffin,” she says. “But I actually got to be inside a coffin and I had to take the lid off and sit up and there’s Ashley and Victor in front of me. And my real-life husband, Edward Scott, who was producer at the time, he said, ‘Oh, my God, how can you do that? I could never do that.’ ‘Cause he gets the willies about anything having to do with death. I’ve never forgotten that. That story was great fun.”

Check out what else Scott is sharing about her four-plus decades in Genoa City, including her special connection to Braeden and memories of Nikki and Victor’s tumultuous relationship, in the full video, above.

The Young and the Restless, weekdays, CBS