I think everything you say is true, and that Frank's ADD pacing, focus on sets being up and the block taping are a big part of the execution. But in addition to not wanting to 'bore' people with long scenes, he is also much, much more scared about content than he used to be. Which you've also mentioned.
OLTL and his early GH were not afraid to do that, 10-20+ years ago. I don't think he'd dare trying the mess he and Ron pulled with Franco or DID Connie today. But sexuality, as we've all talked about, has also been downplayed. And Frank's past periods were not afraid of explicit sex or the main characters doing horrible things, as opposed to outside interlopers like Sidwell, Cyrus, etc. (who all still come off more meandering and less brutal than earlier GH villains or OLTL baddies like Mitch, Carlo, etc).
The very first little arc I'd do on GH today is one I've mentioned many times before, and one they'd probably not dare to do right now: Emma, Joss, whoever is accidentally knocked up, needs an abortion and some local right wing anti-choice measure temporarily prevents GH from acting legally. So Portia, Elizabeth, Lucas, Felicia, etc. lock down part of the hospital and do it anyway., maybe with the secret backing from Laura or even Congresswoman Willow. Shameful as it is given where we've regressed in America right now, that is a soap opera still making a statement and using its social contract with the audience. GH used to do that and still could. Frank is focused on keeping GH alive, which I can understand to a point, and isn't interested in making those statements. Sorry, but boring C-plots about endometriosis or a day of eyemites are not properly utilizing the hospital or the message platform. I will always be so grateful for how direct and powerful AMC 2.0 was with that storyline with Angie and Cassandra. I'll never forget Debbi Morgan doing direct address to the camera about Todd Akin and 'legitimate rape'. That was Agnes Nixon, and that was the power of the medium made manifest even at so late an hour for soaps.
Scrubs and the rise of Grey's were incredibly important for the show. People talk a lot about lack of hospital stories today and I agree it needs more doctor/hospital leads in A-story again. But the fact is that after the show bottomed out in 2005, hit a nadir and Steve Burton got on the phone and begged Kimberly McCullough to come back, they did a lot of what they needed to do. Scrubs became a central couple riding the Grey's wave and they built around it, adding a lot of supporting players for them at the hospital (Epiphany, Kelly Lee, Lainey Winters, etc). Liz was on staff. As two-dimensional as I found some of those added characters I did love that karaoke at Jake's or whatever became a regular thing for the GH staff players. It was almost shades of Monty's sense of community, which I'll get to below. But from '06 on the hospital became a central story hub again and has stayed that way. Contract leads under 50 either work there or are there all the time. Yes, we need more young doctor leads again, but once the hospital came back as a hub it remained and has stayed there for 20 years. I wasn't really sure that would ever happen from '00-'05.
The mention of Monty wanting to emulate Frank Capra makes a lot of sense. I talked in the Classic GH thread about how charming and spontaneous I found a lot of the constant social gatherings in early-mid '80s Monty, how unforced and loose a lot of it feels. And it's something she did again and again with various groupings that always felt very lived-in and heartwarming.
I also will say I think FV kept the working-class/underclass roots of the show very active at OLTL in its last decade. Angel Square, the Vegas, etc. all remained a major part of the show. Roxy's Hair Haven. Gigi Morasco and her son were a low-income single parent family we saw a lot of. Moe and Noelle from Paris, TX. Ex-addicts Sky and Rachel living together and friends with Kish, all of them sharing a complex (I think) with Layla and Cristian. It wasn't perfect material or story by any means, but the social stratification was still there.
A wonderful thread, and discussions like this are an essential part of the reason I stay on this forum.
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Vee ·
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