Y&R's Mal Young: Big Changes in Genoa City!

The Rosales family has been slowly introduced to THE YOUNG & THE RESTLESS this year. First, Jason Canela joined the soap as Arturo, then younger brother Rey made quite a splash when Jordi Vilasuso showed up, and Sasha Calle rounded out the trio adding Lola to the mix. The working class Rosales clan doesn’t seem to fit in with the wealthy Newmans, Abbotts, and Chancellors, but Y&R executive producer and headwriter Mal Young believes that’s exactly the point.

“In the early days, [Y&R’s creator, the late William J. Bell] started with the haves and the have nots,” Young explained to Soaps In Depth. “Then the show went through different periods of development. Now there are a lot of rich people in [Genoa City], which is great, because you can show that no matter if you’re a billionaire, your life still sucks!” He laughs then continues, “But I wanted to introduce a different class of people. The [Rosaleses] are blue-collar, but they’re also aspirational. That’s important for viewers to see. It feels like more of a realistic representation of life.”

Canela first appeared as Arturo in March, and it wasn’t until August that Vilasuso made his first appearance as Rey, followed by Calle’s Lola in September. and Young believes that kind of gradual rollout is crucial to introducing new characters to the canvas.

“What we try to do is create a character, then live with him or her for three months, maybe longer, so we know who they are,” he confided. “The character of Nate was on the canvas many years ago. But this is a new incarnation with Brooks Darnell. Or like Michael Mealor’s Kyle. We hand the character over to the actor, and they are now the custodian of the character. We want that. I love the vibe of writing for the actor. It becomes a two-way street, [blending] what we’re writing with the actor. There’s something exciting about that!”