‘The Young and the Restless’: Beth Maitland Looks Back at 43 Years of Traci Abbott
Beth Maitland, who joined The Young and the Restless in 1982, couldn’t be more thrilled to still be a part of the cast as the show marks 52 years on the air on March 26.
“Somehow, walking into that building year after year, decade after decade, has just reinforced for me that acting has saved my life during the most difficult, traumatic times one can imagine happening to a person,” Maitland reflects. “Being an actor has gotten me through those things, and I feel privileged at my age to still have a job and to still be showing up for work doing something I feel meant to do. I walk into that building and I feel complete.”
Her favorite Traci Abbott storylines
© CBS / Courtesy: Everett Collection
While she’s been part of a slew of stories in her 40-plus years as Traci, there are a few that stand out for Maitland. “There are favorite things, for example, like the episodes that we used to shoot in the olden days,” she says. “It delights me to think back to the rock concerts in the summer with Danny [Romalotti, Michael Damian] and Gina [Roma, Patty Weaver] and Lauren [Fenmore, Tracey E. Bregman]. There were amazing smoke and special effects, and we would pre-record at the real Capitol Records like we were huge stars. It was just a magic time.”
Every tale featuring Traci hasn’t been lighthearted, however, and there’s one from 2009 that struck a particularly poignant note. “My favorite, most emotional and devastating storyline was perhaps the loss of Traci’s daughter, Colleen,” Maitland shares. “I think I cried for 30 episodes, where the tragedy just kept growing. Not only was Colleen brain dead and they brought her in and put her on life support, but then it was revealed she was an organ donor, and Traci had to start making choices about pulling the plug and delivering her organs. That story was so demanding and such a highlight of my career. It wasn’t easy and it wasn’t happy, but it was such a commitment to the job of acting and the purpose of telling that story.”
“Traci is the voice of the common person”
© CBS /Courtesy Everett Collection
Maitland cherishes the fact that she holds a special place in the hearts of soap viewers, who find Traci more accessible than other characters in Genoa City. “I’m not a traditional, glamorous character on a daytime drama,” she points out. “I sort of represent the everyday person who gets to live through Traci in a way that no other character provides. It’s not about weight, necessarily, or age now, necessarily, it’s about what attracted fans and viewers to Traci in the first place. It wasn’t always that it was a weight story that attracted them. It was that everyone has things they’re insecure about, everyone has things they don’t like about themselves — their hair is too curly, their ears stick out, their feet are too big, whatever — and Traci is that voice. She is the voice of the common person, male or female, it doesn’t matter. She’s relatable in a way that no other character on our show is relatable, and I take it really seriously.”
Appreciating Traci took time
© CBS / Courtesy: Everett Collection
She admits her appreciation for Traci’s role in the daytime landscape came with time. “It was at first a little uncomfortable, and now I’m just so proud that I get to be that voice,” Maitland explains. “It’s not only a groundbreaking compliment to [creator] Bill Bell to come up with a character like that and commit to it, it also speaks to our current commander in chief, to Josh Griffith and his writing staff, that they have decided to keep her. I mean, I haven’t been under contract on the show in, like, 35 years. I work at their pleasure, and to still have major storylines from time to time — I’ve been on the show more in the last five or six years than I was in the 10 years prior — where most people are at retirement age, speaks to their understanding that this character means something to their viewers, and that it matters to them, and they want to invest in that.”
In Traci’s current storyline, where she’s engaged to Dr. Alan Laurent, who recently kidnapped Sharon Newman (Sharon Case) and Phyllis Summers (Michelle Stafford), the show is leaning into Traci’s profession as a novelist, something Maitland would love to see more of. “I’ve always wanted her to not be a crime solver necessarily, but to be a mystery solver,” she says. “I don’t mean be a private investigator, but I always wanted Traci to be the one that figures everything out. This is not about being nosy or being a busybody, it’s about solving people’s problems or business issues. It’s about unraveling personal relationship problems. I would love for Traci to be Angela Lansbury in Murder, She Wrote.”
The ‘Y & R’ family, on and off set
Leon Bennett/Getty Images
In addition to her professional accomplishments, Maitland can’t help but focus on the personal connections she’s made through the years. “We talk about it being a family all the time, and people probably roll their eyes and think, ‘How can that be?’ But I’m telling you, there are people that I work with, both in front of and behind the camera, that are some of my dearest, closest friends,” Maitland offers. “We have our family by birth, but then we have our family by choice. These people are a giant part of my life and influenced me every day. We have been through births of children, relationships, marriages, divorces, loss, all kinds of things. Growing up together and being a part of each other’s lives is so meaningful, and to have peers and colleagues that I cherish and consider family is also one of the greatest gifts I can imagine.”
As is counting herself an ongoing cast member of the legendary soap. “I was hired just for the summer, and I was given a three-month contract,” she marvels. “But the fact that they keep investing in this character, that they keep returning to this really unique person being an important part of the dynamic in Genoa City is so flattering. I could not be more grateful and blessed to, at this time in my life, still have something relevant to do.”
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June 2017
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