Set in Los Angeles, California, the show centers upon the Forrester family and their haute couture business.

The program features an ensemble cast, headed by its longest-serving actors John McCook as Eric Forrester and Katherine Kelly Lang as Brooke Logan.

[3] B&B was the last American soap opera to make the transition due to the cancellation of ABC's One Life to Live before it returned along with All My Children on April 29, 2013.

It is the youngest airing daytime soap opera in the United States, celebrating its thirtieth anniversary on March 23, 2017.

The young lovers rushed to get married after Stephanie became pregnant, forcing Eric to break up with his college sweetheart Elizabeth "Beth" Henderson in the process.

Meanwhile, Beth married their classmate Stephen Logan on the rebound, raising their own family in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles.

Unable to achieve success like Eric, Stephen walked out on the family, leaving Beth as a single working-class mother.

But she soon disapproves of Brooke becoming part of the Forresters' lives, believing she is an "opportunist from the valley" who swooped in after the "wedding of the year in the fashion world" was called off.

After Donna finally convinces their father to return home, Stephanie arranges with Bill Spencer to give Stephen a job in Paris.

A key element of the show in the late 1990s was Brooke and Eric's son Rick's relationship with singer turned fashion designer Amber Moore.

Sally, a larger-than-life character with outrageous clothes and a sizable red hair, is a key element in both comedic and dramatic storylines, with the help of long-time confidante Saul Feinberg, ditzy receptionist Darla Forrester, and fashion designer Clarke Garrison, who in 1991 fathered C. Garrison Fathman, Sally's son.

After being discovered in Italy in 2002, Macy returns to Los Angeles where she reunites with Thorne Forrester before developing an interest in fellow recovering alcoholic, Deacon Sharpe, whom she marries in 2003.

They slept together once just before Stephanie began dating Eric Forrester, and after forty-something years, a medical crisis reveals that Massimo is actually Ridge's biological father.

During her absence from Ryan's Hope, Michael Brockman, former President of CBS Daytime, asked Claire Labine to develop a new serial in 1986.

[6][7] On April 20, 2020, CBS announced plans to begin airing a week of vintage episodes, following the soap's shutdown, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.

[9] On June 15, 2020, TVLine reported the series would be the first to resume production on June 17 as the first scripted series on American soil to get back up and running following Hollywood's three-month, coronavirus-imposed shutdown with a representative telling the website: "The health and safety of our cast and crew are of foremost importance to us, We will be following all protocols set forth by the State, City, Television City, and the various guilds.

In recent times, the show has increased shooting on location, in the way fellow CBS soap Guiding Light did in its final two network years.

"High Upon This Love," the theme song of The Bold and the Beautiful, was written by David Kurtz and Jack Allocco and features a prominent saxophone sample played by Eric Marienthal.

From November 1998 to July 1999 in the United States, a vocal version of the theme song performed by Dionne Warwick was played during the end credits.

John McCook (Eric Forrester) and Katherine Kelly Lang (Brooke Logan) are the only two cast members who have remained on the show since it first aired on March 23, 1987.

When Flannery also announced her departure later that year, it was decided to have Stephanie's character die after losing her battle with cancer.

[14] Susan Flannery has personally won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series on three separate occasions.

[14] Upon its debut as the replacement of former soap opera Capitol in the CBS Daytime lineup, The Bold and the Beautiful ended eighth in the final year ratings.

[16] Since the cancellation of Port Charles, it is currently the only American soap opera with a running time of 30 minutes (including commercials) and was the last remaining American soap broadcasting in the fullscreen standard-definition television picture format, until the show upgraded to 16:9 aspect ratio high-definition television in September 2011.

[20] South African channel SABC 3 aired the soap between September 1997 and March 4, 2019, when it was removed from the schedule due to cost issues.

[21] The series returned to African television on the now-defunct pan-African channel Eva on DStv, with the English and Portuguese feeds airing episodes from 2019 starting in May 2020.

[36][37][38] These sets, however, only contained episodes from 2003 onwards, frustrating some long-term fans, as a large proportion of the show was left out.

[39] One of these sets, entitled "Most Shocking Moments", was also released in the US on July 23, 2012, on the Amazon Video service, but only contained 15 episodes.

Numerous former Big Brother houseguests have guest starred, occasionally making references to their time in the house.