DRW50

Reading through some now I see that she offers some praise to Lorraine Broderick (I wasn't sure what their relationship was as many fans used to pit them against each other) and Michele Val Jean, among others. Given that a writer worse than McTavish (Ron) was hired for BtG, maybe we should wait to see if Megan ever pops in... I had to laugh when she suggested Kelly Ripa would promo her book. I am sure Kelly would be so thrilled. I burst out laughing when she said all the writers who undermined her and tried to get her fired can go to hell. Now this is camp, not all the vomiting up on Twitter and tiktok.

I wouldn't be too surprised if that did take up most of Geary's story idea...

Thanks @EricMontreal22 for the Risa story projections. I remember some fans assuming McTavish didn't really want to write for Trevor and Janet, but I guess she did. This type of plot would mostly just work if they cast the right actress as Risa, and the casting at that time wasn't exactly good. This would explain why they wrote Tommy Michaels out (which I thought was a mistake), if they wanted an older recast.

Pikeman is one of those stories which seemed like it was used to answer all questions on the show while not answering any. They can't make these types of stories work in an era where they have no budget for remotes and action sequences. As soon as Sonny was heavily involved in the story, I moved on, because Sonny stories are going to end the same way. The whole poor Sonny med switching stuff just made the handful of characters who were critical of him seem like they were being set up to later repent. I don't know why the show oversold Valentin the way they did, as even when this all started (around the late '00s or early '10s), the Cassadines were not a very frightening family. They only ever were when they were barely shown and just used to bring menace for Luke and Laura. I guess you could count Stavros, in his brief stint under RKK. Helena was also very ruthless, but I never found her frightening.

Around 12 minutes in you get a behind the scenes look at Off the Rack, which ABC threw at Dallas. It's pretty obvious the producers weren't thrilled.

They did. He was a reporter named Shep. I can't remember if he was another swept out by Monty or if he had already gone by that point. They implied at the end of Casey's story that he would be back, didn't they? I'm not sure if Shep was meant to be him.

The numbers also fell during Mulcahey, so they may have had second thoughts (maybe if he hadn't been sabotaged things would have been different). I just hope ABC won't decide no changes will help and pull the plug, because they really haven't tried half as much as they could have.

Wasn't he upset enough about something to throw furniture around or was that someone else?

I think most of that period of Roger was the material we can't see (the '70s), although I do think they circled around that direction again in 93-94. I wonder what JFP's plans would have been for the character if she'd stayed, as Roger goes back to being a full heel (and is more regressed than he ever was in his second stint) under Laibson.

I think it did from Luna's end, but looking at Max's history I agree it doesn't mesh. Unfortunately, I am not sure anything done with Max in his last run did (although I liked the Roxy pairing, even if the show never had any real interest).

If it wasn't originally planned, I wouldn't be surprised, given that JdP was supposedly so against the pairing.

It's nice to see Julie in drama, although her "grandmother's necklace" can be bought on ebay in a lot for about $10 (plus shipping). Would anyone say "forcibly impregnated" when they are enraged? That moment with Kate and EJ looked genuinely good. EJ is such a mess of a character because there have been times I thought he was more evil than Stefano, but the show would always pull back as they knew a lot of fans saw James Scott as a hot piece of ass.

I'm glad they had Trina still thinking of Spencer, not because she needs to wait for his return, but because it was such an important part of her life and shouldn't be forgotten. I saw some fans who were upset over Taggert not being there. I just hope Real is doing OK. A shame the show has dropped the character. I watched the "last" Anna and Valentin scene. It felt like a proper goodbye. Yet the show never seems to want to let the character go. Finola and JPS work well together but it's time to move on.

There were moments where I think she did get the AMC structure, and even had surprising amounts of heart, they were just never properly balanced. Maybe aside from part of her first run.

@EricMontreal22 Ouch. I think McTavish is a bit overhated as a writer but those passages sum up a lot of the negative atmosphere which could pervade her shows. Just extremely crass and blunt. I would like to believe that would have been cleaned up if the book had gone anywhere. The story about the nail polish is amusing. No wonder the Maria vs Erica scenes always felt so genuine. I remember talk about all that at the time and later on - she didn't even go into some of the details that were going around back then. I think all her stints had strong moments but for me the worst was the second.

Thanks. So I guess the question is whether they will try one last time to get viewers back or make changes or just cancel the show. I do wonder if the ratings drops when they made a few changes last year have scared ABC from doing more. Clearly, they won't be getting rid of Frank.

I wonder how much is timeslot and being a half hour. The show being an hour was a mistake, and I think that will become more of an issue.

Sorry, I was thinking of a ratings report from a few weeks ago where one of those GMA shows had a big boost. I do know it's a bad idea to think too much on what social media wants, as people just want what suits them and their favorite character, but for a nostalgia return, I'm surprised there isn't more - there is some positive response, but the show spent so many years stomping L&L and Lucky to dust, I'm not sure they can come back. Maybe if the show improves they can.

I think that the days of returns doing anything for soaps are long gone, but in these cases, Burton has returned many times. He did bring a temporary boost, but even if the show had known how to use him that wasn't going to last. JJ has had little career outside of GH beyond movies from decades ago and a stint on Nashville. His last permanent return also did nothing for ratings. He isn't even that popular on social media with current fans. Is that replacement outrating GH or was that just a one week thing? It wasn't just the controversy, IIRC - didn't he have a past fling with a work colleague? Or am I thinking of something else?

I can't remember who it was who said Bela seemed more like a gay best friend than a boyfriend.

I hate that type of overly personal, ambush questioning. People call actors divas if they want pre-arranged questions, but this is why they do. She was clearly very shaken up at being asked that question. And some people just never move on to another love. Real life is not a soap opera, much as it may seem to be at times.

What makes John, Alan, or Roger superior to me is because viewers were allowed to have their own opinion about these men. Victor and JR were both too much of show pets.

I still think Frank sabotaged ABC's attempt to improve the show last year. If they don't want to make changes, then clearly they are done. So far, I'm not sure BtG has had any big impact on GH, but GH being on autopilot is not a good thing at all. They seem to just be winding down the clock, either expecting viewers to stay or not caring if they do.