Tony Geary, Jane Elliot, Kin Shriner TV Guide Interview

[VirginiaHamilton]

From what I remember of the Showkilling 3's years of crap, all Evilena had to do was hang onto Luke's crusty balls for dear life. At least this regime bothered to remember that she had a family to battle with, have her interact with other characters outside that family whose name wasn't Luke, and gave her a non-Luke love interest (even if it was short-lived) that (from what I heard) actually liked the sight of her.

[ChitHappens]

Anything if it yields "Ron is better than whomever", I guess.

A majority of FRon's energy has been wasted on the LV3, how to include them in the GH cast, write their love interests, how to write them out and how to write them back in as different characters if need be. EVERYTHING else has been half assed and ridiculous!

Tracy should have been given a business rival, a new character who battled the Qs. As it stands, the race is on for a [!@#$%^&*] recipe as Tracy looks more ridiculous with each passing eppy. She can't even intercept a damn Fedex package without looking like a clown! REEEEEEdiculous!

Scottie, he just needs to take that drugde back to Paris so I don't have to see or hear from her ass ever again. Scottie is a joke, a bloated joke, but at least another vet is onscreen. Matters not that he's not doing anything different than before, only this time, he looks worse. Ron will write him out soon enough, so I won't waste much time speaking of him!

But again, if it yields "Ron is better than whomever", so beit!

[Harmony233]

Great interview it was funny I loved hearing about the backstage gossip

[R Sinclair]

Loved the interview. Disagree with the Saviors Complex, however. I'm still waiting for a well told, emotional investment story. Something that was thought out from start to finish. Not just a bunch of "What If" scenarios passing themselves off as stories. Not to mention, they've been working overtime to keep Konnie and Todd front and center. This show is not balanced at all. The day Scott arrived and saw Luke with Laura for the first time, all of their scenes combined totaled to under 4 minutes of airtime while John/Todd/Rafe scenes came up to 10 minutes that same episode. Something's amiss when you do have the iconic Luke/Laura/Scotty triangle taking up only 3 minutes of show time while the stupid and poorly thought out Vampire story took up a third of that episode. I'm not saying every day "the vets" have to have the most airtime. However, when you build the previous episode's tag around a Luke/Laura/Scotty "reunion," you're clearly hoping that's going to lure people in who are feeling nostalgic. Only to do a bait and switch and have them suffer through 10 minutes of vampire garbage and only see 3 minutes of the reason they tuned in. Not only that, but to just have it be more of the same Luke and Scott bickering over Laura.

[VirginiaHamilton]

Because it's the truth when it comes to what I've seen of their past year in comparison to the dreck that defined this show over the previous 12 years.

*shrug*

[Vee]

I think the truth is somewhere between both the actors' and the posters' extremes. I do think they've done a lot for the show, I find it compulsively watchable and very entertaining and generational everyday again for the first time in thirteen years. I also think the show is a [!@#$%^&*] overrated mess.

This was hilarious, though:

[OldGHFan]

I would love of all the actors from the Gloria Monty era would write a book on her. Man, that would be something.

Great interview!!

[EricMontreal22]

I pretty much agree. Despite the repetition I find with RC's scenes in general, I have to give credit that I find even the most ludicrous episodes easy to get through, and have enjoyed watching day by day--something I don't think I've felt for GH for a good decade (of course it was never one of my top shows, but for much of the previous regime I was fine with more or less ignoring it.) But the amount of praise they do get--and I don't blame the actors for praising them in interviews--is just so beyond ridiculous that it makes me feel even more annoyed by all the missed opportunities.

[EricMontreal22]

This probably should go in some other thread--and it's probably been linked before, but I found a surprisingly detailed (by Ent Weekly standards) article from 1991, half way through Monty's one year return to GH talking about how desperate they were to turn the show around. I knew some about this era (the Eckherts, etc) and that it didn't work, but hadn't read about it in so much detail (I didn't start watching the show till the Riche era) http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,314802,00.html

[Vee]

That's a fascinating article. Thanks.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

It seemed like the show had been coasting for a few years before Monty's last stint, and all that coasting eventually reached a peak during her last run before they brought Riche in to retool the show.

That action-adventure spy sh!t was never going to cut it in the 90's anyway.

Though, I do find it funny that as GH got more realistic, DAYS got more outrageous and ended up becoming the most buzzworthy show of the decade (similar to what became of GH in the early 80's), even if it never reached #1 in the ratings.

It makes you wonder - were the 90's really a more realistic and down to Earth decade for soaps (and pop culture), or was it because Reilly used traditional soap stories at his core with his own unique spin, instead of trying to reinvent the wheel as Monty once tried to do?

[ChitHappens]

I think this is what really bugs me the most. Hearing this praise from people who've been in this business for decades (who I honestly believe really know better) as we watch these 2 schlockmeisters pass on so many opportunities. They won't take their time and tell a story, and when something ends, praise jesus that it ends, the bottom has already fallen out. The only thing that has been ongoing and absolutely ridiculous is Clown Falconeri (December 2011 is when it started). I would just like for a real writer to get their hands on what's left of GH and really write. TTHIC are embarrassing, IMHO!

[EricMontreal22]

ALthough, to be fair, it sounds like she kinda realized that and that was why she wanted to focus on class struggles, etc. I'm sure hiring her sister didn't help things either (although Monty always seemed to go through a lot of HWs.) Of course just a few months before Monty's return, GH had done the Casey the Alien story, so....

Yeah, interesting point. And of course by '97 or so soaps, in reaction partly to DAYS were getting more outlandish again in general.

I can't disagree with any of that...

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Wendy Riche always talks about how doing advanced press for the Stone/AIDS story was one of the worst decisions she/ABC ever made, as it gave people the impression that the show was a dark and depressing mess (instead of the uplifting way the story was eventually told) - they lost a lot of viewers over it (and it most likely cost Labine her job as HW, despite the spin we've heard).

[Vee]

It's interesting that Rogers is apparently in the article talking up the Robert/Anna romance, as he and Finola have been on record ever since as not really caring for it. I understood their feelings but I always loved them together years later. Before the last year I probably would've reunited them if it was up to me, but I'm more than fine with Duke and Anna.

I think the idea behind the Eckerts, etc. worked - a Quartermaine yacht tanking in the harbor of Port Charles, with the new blue-collar family wrapped up in it (since Bill was a sailor) as well as environmentalists, the tycoons, the community, etc. That is a great idea IMO and timely given the Exxon Valdez disaster of the time. But the way she executed it was the mistake, apparently.