'Young and the Restless' Star Peter Bergman on His 30th Anniversary on the Soap: 'An Amazing Thing'

Peter Bergman has been a familiar face on The Young and the Restless for 30 years, and his legacy on the long-running soap was celebrated on Monday’s episode of the show — but the actor says that he initially tried to talk the writers out of “making a big deal” out of his decades-long starring role.

“When they first talked about making a big deal about my 30th anniversary, I kind of tried to talk them out of it,” Bergman said in a recently published interview with CBS News. “And then they said they were going to write a show that was all of Jack Abbott’s memories, and that seemed strange to me too.”

But the 66-year-old actor said that “it really turned out to be a powerful personal experience walking, retracing 30 years on the show.”

Highlights for Bergman over those 30 years include some of the most memorable moments from the series.

“I think any of the gatherings of the Abbott family are just my favorite scenes to play, but story-wise Jack’s never easy relationship with Phyllis was always a joy to play,” Bergman said, adding that his “endless enmity with Victor Newman” is also something he’s “been very proud of.”

Bergman, who started on the show in 1989, called his time on TYATR “an amazing thing.”

“There are times it seems it was a few weeks ago that I started and times it seems a lifetime ago,” he said, pointing out that “it adds up to my daughter’s entire lifetime, she was four weeks old when I first started this show and she’s a 30-year-old woman with a career.”

Monday’s episode sees Bergman as Jack Abbot reading from his sister Traci’s memoir and includes flashbacks to older episodes, the Associated Press reported.

Bergman said that he didn’t expect the milestone episode to be as special to shoot as it was.

“As flattered as I was, I didn’t know how interesting this was going to be, or how much fun,” he told the outlet. “Well, I was so moved by the whole thing. It was retracing three decades of my life and, obviously, three decades of Jack’s life.”

Bergman has been nominated for his role as Jack Abbot at the Daytime Emmy Awards a whopping 21 times, taking home the award three times, in 1991, 1992 and 2002.

Young and the Restless airs weekdays on CBS.