Eric Braeden Thought He’d Only be on ‘Young & the Restless’ for a Few Months

Three months. That was the commitment Eric Braeden made when he signed on to play Victor Newman. Forty-six years later, he is still there.

The whole thing traces back to a tennis court.

"I just played tennis with Dabney Coleman," Braeden told Rich, explaining how he ended up in the room at all.

"Great way to start any story, by the way," Rich said.

Braeden had a reason for the setup. Coleman had done a show before, and when two actors run into each other, the first question is always the same: what are you working on? Braeden mentioned he had been offered an interview for a soap.

Then came the line that says everything about where his head was at the time.

"What's a soap?" he asked. "I don't watch daytime television."

He was not being coy. "I had no clue," Braeden said. "None."

Coleman asked him whether he loved it, and that was enough. Braeden respected Coleman as an actor, and on that recommendation alone he went to CBS and met the people who ran Y&R.

What happened next was pure working actor.

"Of course, the first thing you ask for as an actor is how much," Braeden said. "Let's call a spade a spade."

The money, by his account, was pretty good. So he signed. For three months.

"The rest is a long history," he said. "46 years."

Rich did the math out loud, because somebody had to. Braeden figured he would give the thing a quarter of a year and move on. He has now given it more than four decades. Which raises the obvious follow-up: did Coleman ever collect on the I-told-you-so?

He never got the chance. Coleman died about a month before the two men were scheduled to meet for dinner, and they never made it.

"But he did not ask for a percentage," Braeden said, which earned the laugh it deserved.

That left one piece of unfinished business, and Rich could not let it go. What kind of tennis player was Dabney Coleman, exactly? Was Braeden better?

"He and I were sort of the best amongst the celebs," Braeden said, putting Bill Murray and Ben Murphy in that same circuit.

But better than Coleman? Not a chance.

"No, no, absolutely not," Braeden said. Coleman had learned the game young, and in Braeden's view that settles the argument permanently. "In tennis, unless you start when you're young, you can only reach a certain level."

Rich, a late convert to the sport himself, did not put up a fight.

It is a small story, and it is also the whole story. A tennis match with a guy he admired, a recommendation he trusted, a paycheck that cleared the bar, and a three-month contract that turned into 46 years of television. Braeden never went looking for the empire. He asked how much, liked the answer, and showed up.