DRW50
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Everything posted by DRW50
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Thanks @janea4old Temp recasts are one of my favorite parts of soaps and GH is pretty much the only one which still does that. I don't think he's been on a soap before. -
Seems like it's someone every day lately. I know he had a long life and some big comebacks but still I feel sad. "Laughter in the Rain" is one of those songs I listen to sometimes to get in a mellow mood. "Love Will Keep Us Together" is also one of the best pop songs. Thanks for the link @wonderwoman1951 Rob Grant has also passed. He co-created Red Dwarf, among other things. The early seasons of Red Dwarf were so good. Radio TimesRed Dwarf cast and crew pay tribute after beloved co-crea..."He was one of the funniest people I’ve ever met. A visionary."
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There are so many I wish could have been on a soap so I understand that. I know Doug Hutchison was praised highly for his work, but like Pelphrey I just thought he was very hammy (worse than Pelphrey). I do wonder what may have been if they'd culled some of the people who were just there because they were cheap and hired some stronger talent. This is another reason why soaps being an hour long and needing to fill so much time hurts them.
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Yes...drug dealing, stalking Alex. It's a sign of how far gone morally GL was that she was still there to the end. Marj did her best, I guess, and I did like some of her work near GL's close. I love Joan Collins, but they should have known she wasn't going to raise the ratings. FOX had already tried that with Pacific Palisades.
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He would have been great, although out of their price range. Joan is someone else I think would have always been out of GL's price range beyond the limited time they had her. What I wish they'd done was set an arc for her and then done a proper recast down the line. That may have been the plan but then they, IIRC, didn't let her have the time she needed for her book tour, so she left. Even then it seemed like that stint was more open-ended than it should have been.
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I watched the pilot and the first few episodes of the regular show that re-used some of the pilot material. The changes were very interesting (without giving away too much of story). The pilot is simultaneously more mature and less explicit than the first few episodes. Jeremy Sims, who was Alex, the core male role on there, called the early show "Home & Away with tits," and he's not wrong. You get real whiplash as the main soap added a grandmother character and a younger brother character for more of a family sense, yet one of the very first shots of the show is Sims' cute backside as be bounds out of bed (in the pilot the character is only ever shown from the waist up). Later in the pilot the same woman stops by his place and runs a bath for herself - he never gets in the bath with her. In the show, he again drops trou and climbs in with her. There's also a shift when some bohemian character who beds his way across the continents returns home and when one of the airport security guards says he's going to have to be strip searched, he says he wants the female guard to do it. In the pilot, she makes an annoyed face before the guys tell her she can leave the room. In the show, she looks bemused/turned on before the guys tell her she can leave the room. Marcus Graham played Alex in the pilot. He decamped to E Street before the show was picked up. It's the same character, but he's more straightforward and fits in more as part of the "normal" family. He also doesn't play Alex's sexuality quite as heavily. Sims is much more open in Alex being a sleaze, more in line with someone from Dynasty, and the show goes along, with his good looks undercut by extremely slicked back hair (I think they improve his hair a little as he moves more into being the show's engine) and writing which more directly blames him for something bad that happens in the early episodes (in the pilot the blame is more nuanced). He no longer makes as much sense with the family, and along with some casting choices, makes them feel redundant. The casting for his best friend/brother-in-law, a key role in the early stages, is much more generic in the show - you can believe he and Alex are old friends from wilder days in the pilot but in the show, he seems too vanilla. The female casting is more memorable in the pilot. The mother is so good that as the pilot went along, she was the character I most connected with. The younger sister and her struggles are more compelling. The aunt is something of a Morag character, a real bitch goddess with some heart, and the actress is fascinating. All of the actresses in the main show are more generic, not bad per se, nowhere near as interesting. (there's another interesting change where in the pilot, when the family needs money, the mother suggests she wouldn't know how as she's been a homemaker, while in the show, the mother says she has just worked in a few shops) The father in both is the same and does a good job with some very stock situations. The early episodes close on a happy and surprising event which in the pilot is not as happy, because the characters are going through some terrible times when they get the news. You see that they are conflicted and also numb by the sudden change. In the episodes, the characters basically just go WOOHOO!!! so we will understand that it's meant to be good news. There's also a circular moment at the end of the pilot which they likely did in case someone wanted to run it as a telefilm but didn't pick up the show itself. And there's more location footage, clearly more money to go around, which adds to the viewing quality. I can see why the network did not keep the format of the early episodes for very long. I am interested in just when and how sharply and quickly the format changes.
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One Life to Live & The Edge of Night promo, 1982
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This goes into some detail. I'm not sure how accurate it is, as the first one doesn't know that Brenda outlasted Dan in Llanview, but it suggests Dan left with Laura Jean and that Laura Jean was an estranged mob wife. Parallel One Life to Live: OLTL History 1990-2000 Daniel Wolek - Wikipedia
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Amell has tanked several shows since Arrow and tanked his reputation with his comments about the strikes. I don't blame them for recasting Hobie but they made a poor choice.
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Forsythe would have been a very interesting choice. I can see it. He certainly had more range than David Stewart allowed. Sorry if I spoiled anything for you. I look forward to what you have to say as the years go on. I think it was probably for the best that Robert and Cheryl never married as that added more layers and tragedy to her character...and I can't see him marrying her.
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Thanks as always @slick jones Tony Musante was such a unique presence, a good looking guy too. ATWT wasted him. I still remember how great he was on Oz.
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I'm not sure if anything with Zachary Quinto has ever worked out since Heroes. I have never really gotten his appeal anyway.
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First Choice can really give you the chills.
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I know who it is, but with this look he reminds me of someone else (maybe Juan, or someone who drifted in and out of PC in the Rafe years - maybe that dreary werewolf Jack). I finally got it. He looks JUST like Josh Swickard (Chase)! Eerie. I know this was 25 years ago, but I'm also reminded of how completely dead inside he looks in comparison now.
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General Hospital February 26 1988 ABC Daytime w/original commercials Another vintage episode, with commercials. Tom and Simone's wedding, and the end of the story where Grant Putnam kidnapped Anna. I didn't realize that Lilybelle (Dru and Olivia's mother on Y&R) played Simone's mother. Looking it up now - Norma Donaldson. Such a fascinating actress, incredible presence. Laura Carrington has such a unique presence too. I think Stephanie Williams was great on Y&R but never thought she was right for the ABC Daytime recast roles she had. That lengthy shot of Anna waking up and getting her bearings is something the show would never do now (like having an interracial couple in a frontburner wedding...) but it does so much to set the atmosphere and danger and take advantage of the location shooting. This wasn't long before the strike. If I ever watch this period more consistently, I'd be fascinated to see how much the strike changed things around - I don't hear that it caused as much upheaval as it did with some of the soaps. I did not realize Patrick O'Connor hung around for this long. Like her sister Crystal, Robyn Bernard always had a lot of screen presence, even if I don't think she was suited for a lead role. (which I guess she wasn't really getting by this point anyway) I gritted my teeth at Simone and Lucy being friendly and Simone asking her where Tom was knowing that within a few years Lucy would sleep with him. Wherever Simone is now she probably STILL hates Lucy... Nice to see Jessie. David Wallace isn't bad, but he's bland and more than a little stiff. I know the character likely wouldn't have stayed around even with a stronger actor (Matt Ashford is calling), but I do wonder. Grant doing that bad British accent to mock Anna makes me laugh more than it should. He's a lot of fun in general here, yet also dangerous in that very American survivalist way (very prescient). Maybe one of the only times those camp takes on villains GH loves to do amuses me (Helena being another). Anyway, now that I've watched the whole episode I enjoyed it all the way through. No real weak scenes (even the few filler scenes with Amy, Terry and Patrick were OK), which is not easy for an hour-long soap.
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