Dion

On 1/14/2023 at 5:15 AM, depboy said:

Tuesday, April 26: Ken tells Meg he has enlisted in the Medical Corps as a way to put Cynthia behind him.

I guess that's how Ken was finally written out.

On 1/14/2023 at 5:15 AM, depboy said:

Tuesday, May 3: Dr. Prentice tells Jessie that the slowing of her labor is normal, but he will administer a hormone solution.

I believe John Prentice had been appearing since 1964 but this storyline seems to mark the beginning of his increased prominence.

Thanks @depboy

Eddie's developing sleeping pill addiction after giving up drinking seems like an interesting and logical development for the character. I do wonder though how quickly it will all be wrapped up so that Eddie and Angie get their "happy ending". The events described here do make the speculation that Angie and Eddie eventually divorced offscreen in the years prior to Angie's cameo in 1993 plausible though as Eddie doesn't seem to treat her very well.

15 hours ago, depboy said:

Tuesday, January 11: Phil and Ken Martin have a head-on encounter.

Ooh I had no idea Ken Martin was still on the show at this point. Like the GH wiki, I assumed he and Cynthia left in 1964. Though it makes sense he'd be still around since it appears he had a crossover episode onto The Young Marrieds.

Thanks @depboy

12 hours ago, Vee said:

I don't get it BTW. Are Michael and Joss hardcore anti-Sonny all of a sudden just because he dumped their mom for Nina? Because that's sure what it looks like lol

yup that's basically the reason lol

On 12/24/2022 at 6:06 AM, depboy said:

Jessie divorce mystery solved?

I am not a lawyer, and the Google machine might have answered our query.

At Jessie's divorce hearing, January 8, 1965, she is granted an interlocutory decree.

This is what Google says re: an interlocutory decree:  "a judicial decree pronouncing the divorce of the parties provisionally but not terminating the marriage until the expiration of a certain period".  So they were pronounced divorced, but not actually divorced until Jan of 1966, I take it.

Yeah that makes sense. I have a feeling the divorce was called off or nullified once Phil found out about the baby (Nancy), but then of course they finally divorced after Nancy died.

I think it's possible Audrey and Tom Baldwin may have had the same interlocutory decree a few years later, hence necessitating Audrey's scheme to hide their son (who later became Tom Hardy). I'm not certain but I beleive the existence of a child would give grounds for such a degree to be nullified.

Some other thoughts, it's interesting that Audrey seems to have set her sights on having a child as early as 1965. The storyline doesn't play out fully until 1968, but I guess we'll eventually see Audrey come to suspect that Steve may have a problem and go down the artificial insemination route, leading to her miscarriage and divorce from Steve.

And thanks for the summaries

21 hours ago, Vee said:

Rory's death will be the latest excuse for Spencer and Trina not to touch.

Yeah we're gonna get months of Trina acting like she was Rory's widow aren't we

2 hours ago, DRW50 said:

Someone said there were rumors she and Nick would be joining the show more regularly next year. Do you know if there's any truth to it?

I don't know, but they casted 5 out of 6 of their children for this appearance.

so that does bode well.

Just some history, Lucas was born at the end of 2000 (can't remember if it was the actual finale or the episode before, but it was around the time Chris returned) and is Nick's son with Ange (who was terminally ill and died in early 2001). Tina-Anne (not seen this time) was born in the 3000th episode in 2004, the next three (Celica, Silvia and Ranger if I have the order right) were first mentioned during Nick and Waverley's return for the volcanic eruption in 2017 (not by name, just that they had since had "three other children") and Camry is the child Waverley discovered she was pregnant with during that guest appearance.

2 hours ago, DRW50 said:

Who was that man Esther was with when she was being wheeled out and Marty noticed? Is this her latest new love interest?

I missed that

8 hours ago, AMCOLTLLover said:

I heard rumors that this little revamp might have something to do with that merger of TVNz and that other thing.

Radio New Zealand (RNZ). I'm not sure why it would specifically have an effect though since Shortland Street isn't like EastEnders where that show is directly made by the BBC studios.

I'm a bit miffed they had Waverley being the one responsible for accidentally starting the fire but Claire Chitham knocked it out of the park as usual, particularly in her scene with Maeve.

With many of the major locations destroyed by fire we can expect a dramatic refresh of the sets in the new year

7 hours ago, AMCOLTLLover said:

I still hate Shorty for axing Nick and Waverly and saying they were no asset to the show anymore. Shame on them.

Worst thing the show ever did IMO

On 12/10/2022 at 4:40 AM, j swift said:

I would add some practicality to the formula.  Jessie, Audrey, Leslie, and Diana were needed for stories within the hospital, so, if they had toddlers at home, there would need to be constant dialogue about who was caring for their kids. 

That's true, especially in Jessie's case.

Although it should be noted that both Audrey and Diana's childcare arrangements eventually ended up playing a huge role in their storylines lol.

That said, I do think it was particularly cruel to kill off Jane's daughter just as a precursor to Jane's exit.

14 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

So there were 2 dead babies within 2 years. that would have been fun to watch.

I hinted at that above when I said that Port Charles had some of the worst infant and child mortality rates in the 60s and 70s.

I mean up until Gloria Monty took over...

• Jessie had a miscarriage in '64
• Chuck died in '65
• Jessie's daughter Nancy died in '66
• Audrey had a miscarriage in '68
• Diana's son Tracy died in '72
• Lesley had a child that died as part of her backstory
• Jane's daughter Joanne died in '75
• Lesley had a miscarriage in '77
• Diana's daughter Martha was killed in a hurricane in '77

In the end only Angie's child,Tom Hardy and Augusta McLeod's child survived.

23 hours ago, depboy said:

Wednesday, March 24, 1965: Phil tells Lee that his son Chuck's condition is very poor.

Wait...Lee had a (biological) son?

I suppose he probably died. Port Charles - or rather "the unnamed city where General Hospital is set" as it was back then - had some of the worst infant and child mortality rates back in the 60s and 70s.

Speaking of Phil....

On 12/4/2022 at 5:55 AM, ironlion said:

GH's production value was gone by the mid 2000s (lighting wise especially)

The lighting and the overall look of the show did dramatically improve in the immediate lead up to going HD in early 2009 though (about one or two weeks before the actual switchover). It was quite dreary beforehand but suddenly brightened up.

Which brings me to what I'm thankful for, I quite enjoyed most of 2009, even the first run of Franco. I particularly liked the carnival which ended with a drugged Edward driving into everyone. After Sonny shot Dante - which was a great moment - the show slowly lost its appeal.

11 hours ago, fivethej said:

Really surprised to see Sarah in this picture. For those who don't know or remember, she was introduced during Aremid and was a love interest for Jack. This would suggest she was going to stick around, but for whatever reason, that didn't happen.

**Not to be confused with Sarah Horton whom the thread was about a few days back

That said, I'm not sure she had anything to do with Sami/Austin/Carrie/Lucas so perhaps this is a more candid shot of the younger cast posing together rather than a promo for a particular storyline?

8 hours ago, carolineg said:

Sarah should be a few years older than Carrie

 I think Carrie was supposed to be slightly older (at least in 1990) because I remember them being candystripers together in the hospital and being interested in the same boy, Chad. And I distinctly remember Sarah saying to Chad that he was probably more interested in Carrie because Carrie was older. But then of course they wrote out Carrie (and Chad), recast Sarah with an older actress (which kind of gave Sarah a bit of a bump in age too, though she was still a teen) and tried to pair her with Michael Easton's Tanner before writing her out.

3 minutes ago, Joseph said:

An Identical Sister??? LOL But they just lost the chance to redeem Holly Altogether Why Not an My Evil Twin Did It for all the [!@#$%^&*] she did in the last 20 years? Lol

No need really. They've totally just glossed over 2006 Holly.

Plus they already did that with Anna and Alex just recently.

19 hours ago, Joseph said:

Gimme more scenes with the Vets Like This and I'll say there's hope for this show

I liked that they used Paloma to give some added motivation to Holly's actions, because let's face it, she was only a lookalike half-sister created for an adventure storyline 30 years ago and they were never going to use her in a meaningful way again. So may as well kill her off.

On 11/13/2022 at 6:05 PM, Franko said:

I feel confident in saying that GH's first It Girl is Emily McLaughlin. She would be followed by Denise Alexander, Genie Francis, Emma Samms, Finola Hughes (with Kristina Wagner as the girl-in-waiting), Vanessa Marcil, Sarah Joy Brown and Laura Wright.

I'd also add Valerie Starrett to that as Diana replaced Jessie as the lead central heroine in the early 70s (even taking Jessie's two love interests!), though after the Phil Brewer murder mystery wrapped up it seems Diana quickly began to peter out (pun somewhat intended lol) with the show finally getting a handle on what to do with Lesley and pushing her to the forefront. And then of course Starrett was eventually replaced as Diana by Brooke Bundy.

I guessed that it was Holly who shot Lucy a month ago in the October thread. I mean it is kind of obvious.

And now it's finished!

Now halfway through, some thoughts...

Just finished watching the first episode of the new season and damn it feels like the show is going all out to

9 hours ago, carolineg said:

I remember the show setting up Sarah/Liz's backstory pretty well.  I don't fault Emily for not knowing Jason's history.  I swear I didn't know for years Jason wasn't Monica's biological child and Emily just got inserted into the Q family practically overnight.

To be fair on Emily, neither Sarah or Jason realised the connection either lol

And it was pretty cold of Jeff to break up with her via letter...poor Anne had just decided she was ready to go live with him outside marriage and well...you know...lol

11 minutes ago, carolineg said:

It sounds like Carolyn to me too, but it is hard to tell lol.  Carolyn/Caroline is fairly interchangeable.  I wouldn't even notice if it wasn't something that personally bothered me.  That's why I go by Carrie for the most part lol. 

Days always had an issue with the name.  John (and a few other characters) would call Caroline "Carolyn" all the time and no one ever corrected or said anything.  I had no idea Jeff/Carolyn were together in 1982 or that she existed as Carolyn back then.  I thought she was made up sometime in the 90's after Liz/Sarah appeared.  

Even in the comments for that vid you have one that says Caroline and one that says Carolyn lol.

I did know or rather assume that Carolyn was the woman Jeff threw Anne Logan over for (offscreen, eventually told to Anne via a letter that caused her great agony lol) but didn't know she was actually named Carolyn back then until I came across this vid. Obviously whoever in the writers team was involved in Sarah and Liz's creation had a fair idea of the history (probably was working on GH back in the 80s too). In 97 we got references to Monica's marriage to Jeff as well as Emily noting that Sarah's description of Steven-Lars sounded exactly like the old Jason (with Emily not being aware that Jason and Steven-Lars were second cousins).

9 hours ago, carolineg said:

Carolyn seems like she might be evil.  I thought her name was Caroline though before this?  Correct me if I am wrong, but I remember that because it's obviously my name.  But.....my entire life people have called me Carolyn so it might not even be an actual mistake.

I really do hope Carolyn is evil (I still think they should've used Denise Crosby as Sela more on TNG), and I hope she can put the fear of God into Heather too. They should have history, as IIRC Heather was originally written out to go visit Steven-Lars and Liz mentioned in 2004 that Heather used to bother them when she was little.

I do think I saw it written as Carolyn in either the GH Wiki or the who's who profiles on Soapcentral long before this.

Tbh though, to me Caroline and Carolyn can be a bit interchangeable to the ear (and likely to the people calling you Carolyn as well) but of course to you since it is your name you'd always hear the difference immediately. So in that case, I'll leave it you to decide whether Lesley is saying Caroline or Carolyn in this 1982 clip (just after the five minute mark)