The Many Weddings of Ridge and Taylor

I don't mean anything after Taylor's second Lazarus act, either--I'm speaking here of Ridge and Taylor's honest-to-goodness, no interruptions, "till death do us part" weddings.


Of all the soaps that have ever aired—and remain on the air—The Bold and the Beautiful was the one I watched the most consistently.  From 2008 until 2013, I watched daily, rarely missing an episode unless I was on vacation.  In graduate school the show aired while I was working or in class, but I would wait religiously for the day’s episode to be posted on CBS.com around six each evening.  I also watched the show as a toddler, during the last glory days of daytime soap, from its beginnings until 1993 or so.  I own two of the DVD sets and have watched countless hours and clips from the interim thanks to the wonders of YouTube and other internet sites.  I have a pretty good grasp of the show’s history.  I definitely miss when it contained an element of romance and the promise of fashion wars between Forrester Creations and either Spectra or Jackie M.  Over the years, particularly since 2006 or so, the show’s cast has been decimated.  It seemed like anyone who wasn’t related to Brooke by blood became expendable.  For an admitted fan of Stephanie and Taylor and any storyline where they might intersect, I found this less than appealing.  Things really began to nosedive with the retirement of Susan Flannery and the death of matriarch Stephanie Forrester. While resulting storylines were initially fine, things quickly became screwy with Eric putting Rick and Thomas in a fashion competition and Brooke bedding down with her brother-in-law, Bill.  The senseless murder of Steffy and Liam’s baby and Brooke’s absurd change-of-life pregnancy were more or less the final straw for me; when Hunter Tylo was randomly taken off contract, B&B was taken of my viewing schedule.  The Young and the Restless followed several months later following years of poor writing and the death of Jeanne Cooper.  Ah, but I promised to talk about Ridge and Taylor.  Here we go…

The Brooke-Ridge-Taylor triangle occupies many viewers’ minds as the most prominent story in a show that has aired for not quite thirty years.  For all intents and purposes, the glory days of this storyline were 1990-1997.  When Ridge married Taylor in order to raise Thomas as a family—they later gave birth to twins Steffy and Phoebe—storylines changed and took Brooke into different orbits.   She never quite stopped sniffing around her “destiny” but he and Taylor remained married until her death in 2002—an eternity in soap time that only seems surpassed by Nick and Sharon’s ten-year marriage on Y&R (I’m excluding Tom and Alice Horton of Days and the Hughes of As the World Turns for the sake of brevity).  One of the more hilarious aspects of Brooke and Ridge’s marriages is that they never seem to be valid.  At least twice they married following Taylor’s death (1994 and 2002) and both marriages were nulled by Taylor’s resurrections.  Even subsequent efforts didn’t work out—Ridge left Brooke to raise Thomas, and Brooke dumped Ridge an innumerable number of times for Nick Marone, Ridge’s half-brother and her own daughter’s on-again off-again husband.  While Taylor “won” Ridge back in the 90s—he was never much of a prize but always seemed ten times smarter while married to Dr. Hayes—Hunter Tylo’s 2005 return to the show signaled a new era in which Brooke always won. Taylor was forced in alcoholism, making her a “lesser” choice; a parallel can be found in the Brooke-Thorne-Macy triangle as well.  Ridge and Taylor reconciliations post-2005 were always quickly undone in favor of Brooke; The Logan Queen couldn’t even handle Taylor’s marriage to Nick and tried to derail that at every turn.  In one of the more sickening storylines I can recall, Taylor was forced to give up her child with Nick (Jack Marone) because he was result of Brooke’s egg.  Countless children are adopted, fostered, and created via embryos in this country every year, and yet an intelligent doctor couldn’t “love” her own son and had to give him up?  Jack quickly vanished after feeble attempts by Nick’s subsequent women to “mother” him.  Even Nick is gone now.

In the glory days, though, things were good.  Ridge and Taylor’s first wedding in 1992 is one of the best I have ever seen.  Hunter Tylo was immaculately styled in wardrobe, hair, and makeup, and the ceremony was filmed on location at a real chapel as opposed to the living rooms where every other marriage seems to occur.  According to “The Bold and the Beautiful: A Tenth Anniversary Celebration”, this was done on a remote Pepperdine College.  This episode also seemed to bring out nearly every single cast member on the show in 1992—a visit to Spectra Fashions reveals Sally talking with Macy, Darla, Saul, and Clarke.  They just don’t make them like Darlene Conley anymore.

                                                   Credit: CBS/Bell-Philip Television

Across town, Eric has hired Sheila Carter to babysit Rick.  Sheila is the absolute last person you should ever hire to do anything, but she livens things up.  Brooke is also nauseous and a visit to the doctor reveals she’s pregnant.  Of course she’s knocked up!  That’s what happens on any soap when you’ve been fooling around with two different partners.

                                                               Credit: CBS/Bell-Philip Television

At the church, Stephanie shows concern and wonders where Brooke is.  While Stephanie and Brooke were mortal enemies, Brooke’s possible reconciliation with Ridge would have meant a potential reconciliation for her and Eric.  As it turned out, Eric moved on quickly…with Sheila.  But I am jumping ahead of myself.

                                                     Credit: CBS/Bell-Philip Television

In the varying wedding scenes, Taylor looks truly stunning.  You can see that she is a woman who is blissfully happy and ready to spend a lifetime loving Ridge.

Credit: CBS/Bell-Philip Television

Malibu Barbie—er, Brooke—drives like a crazy person to get to the church on time following her visit with the doctor.  However the wedding goes off without a hitch, and Brooke arrives at the chapel too late.  Suffer, cow, suffer.

Credit: CBS/Bell-Philip Television

All in all, an excellent episode filled with mystery, suspense, and the requisite amount of romance.  The wedding also featured appearances by Ridge’s sisters Kristen and Felicia, Taylor’s father, brother, and ex-husband, Bill Spencer and his daughter Karen.  Only Margo and Jake seem to have been absent, and I believe both departed the show that same year.

Ridge and Taylor’s second wedding fast-forwards things to 1998 or so, the era of teenage Rick being “babysat” by Amber.  Oh, what great parents Eric and Brooke were.  Following the birth of Thomas and the revelation that he was the boy’s father, Ridge leaves Brooke for Taylor and his child.  Ridge and Taylor were reunited in marriage in what the characters tell us is apparently a night wedding.  Really?  I’ve heard of people being married at midnight on New Year’s Eve, but B&B seems to have a fascination with people getting married under cover of darkness.

Look, Stephanie and Duke Lavery—er, Dr James Warwick!

                                                     Credit: CBS/Bell-Philip Television

Taylor’s father Jack Hamilton makes a return appearance at this wedding.  Other guests are Thorne (now played by Winsor Harmon), Eric and Lauren Fenmore, Macy and Grant Chambers, and of course baby Thomas.  Clarke escorts Brooke—dressed like a beekeeper—to the wedding, and tries to prevent Stephanie from discovering her there.  Ridge and Brooke remarry without incident, despite Brooke lifting her veil and capturing Ridge’s eye.  Following the ceremony, Brooke remains alone and teary-eyed in the chapel.  Finally she launches into one of those soliloquys that only soaps do, talking to the altar about how she plans to live her life to the fullest with or without Ridge.  Of course this will lead her into relationships with Thorne and her son-in-law Deacon, the latter of which will result in a child.  But for now Ridge and Taylor were happy, and soon after remarrying would conceive twins, Steffy and Phoebe.

Credit: CBS/Bell-Philip Television

In the final wedding, Ridge and Taylor renew their vows in St. Thomas, where he first proposed marriage to her on a beautifully-done remote storyline in 1992.  This particular vow renewal was a reaffirmation of their marriage following Ridge’s bizarre impregnation of his high school girlfriend, Morgan DeWitt.  After the wedding Morgan kidnapped Steffy and the family was led to believe she had died.  When Taylor finally found Steffy, Morgan had draped her in a red wig.  Sarah Buxton was a great villain on “Sunset Beach”, but Brad Bell clearly had no clue what to do with her over the long run.  But for now, Ridge and Taylor’s honeymoon begins and ends with them having pizza and watching cartoons with their children.

                                                  Credit: CBS/Bell-Philip Television

    It’s a shame that Taylor isn’t currently on canvas now that Ridge had been recast with Thorsten Kaye.  I would be interested to see how they interact together or if they (hopefully) possessed some chemistry.  I was a huge fan of Taylor’s pairing with Whip Jones (Emmy-Award Winner Rick Heart, whose Alan-Michael Spaulding makes up some of my earliest soap memories) before he vanished into the recurring hinterland.   With apologies to Ronn Moss, Thorsten out-acts, out-classes and out-does him in pretty much every way, though Ronn’s Ridge was far more tolerable pre-2009, especially paired with his “Doc”.