titan1978

I think some of that was because Burton was heading out the door due to the lack of success in his appeals to not follow the vaccine mandate. I don’t think SH and LW have ever really had romantic chemistry anyway, so that doesn’t help. They have more than she has with Mo though. He really is risk averse, and even with Willow we let the dogs out only to slowly neuter her and drag things out so that the sting of what she did to Drew softened.

Frank uses the recurring players a lot now too. My complaint on modern GH is that the recurring characters are often the center of every story, and the contract players are just there. Back then the story was about or for the contract cast! But there did used to be more texture. He has a lot of natural charisma and also knows when to play the weight of the material, give it some gravitas. As silly as carbonic snow is, it worked because Geary, Rogers, and Francis sell it. I have posted this before, but when he left in 1992 I was sick of Robert. That ponytail did not help things. But I found him kind of overbearing with both Anna and Mac. But when he came back during the virus storyline in the 2000’s, he was such a breath of fresh air and I realized how much I missed Robert. Hearing him say Corinthos like it was a slur was icing on the cake. I saw her Blake first and was unimpressed. Then I saw Sherry (who I already loved from ER), and that made me dislike the recast more. Sherry really played the hell out of Blake. I could watch that 1990-1992 Guiding Light cast all day every day.

Kristina Wagner once said something along the lines of Gloria Monty and the show PR team practically salivated back then when a couple got together both onscreen and off. They couldn’t wait to exploit that! It’s quite wild to see this woman onscreen, being called Carly, and there is practically zero left of the character. Even the Laura Wright version had more grit before. I don’t even have a problem with her feeling this way. But cover why in the dialogue. It would be so easy to have her say something like almost 30 years of loyalty to that man has given her nothing. It’s actually taken from her.

It gives me the creeps, always has. Something I don’t get is why they haven’t even come close to having her rebel from him or resent him in any way. Her whole life revolves around him and the show wants us to find that redeeming for Valentin. With Rocco obsessed with Britt, I think it would have made some story sense for Charlotte to be more drawn to Lulu and her life without Cassadine shenanigans impacting her all the time, and an obsessive parent. I also don’t get the desire for this Valentin. Weepy and overly dramatic at all times. The best thing he has done in years was be revealed as leading Pikeman, only for Frank to immediately backpeddle to save him for later return.

When I see them for some reason Dan with Ruby just doesn’t work for me. I buy the relationship with Jessie more. As has been proven time and again by TPTB, the talent is expendable. Even if you are Beverlee McKinsey, Jill Farren Phelps does what she wants and doesn’t want a woman performer offering suggestions or standing their ground. So it does need to be completely spelled out in their deals. Not GH of course, but had Beverlee lasted a couple more years some of what she was upset about, the inefficiency of longer days and late hours was eventually going to work itself out, because the budgets stopped supporting that. They all lost the feeling of working within a company and seeing stories/perfomances they were not in while waiting to tape their scenes, but they gained more time away from the shows. And to think, Teri Hatcher was more difficult to work with than Marcia Cross was!

The funny thing is soaps used to do this kind of thing all the time. Noticing chemistry and writing towards it. Day players that impressed so much they wanted to keep them. Geary’s Luke was supposed to die, or at the very least be written out after 13 weeks, and the decision to handle the SA and him staying was made within a couple of weeks of the end of his cycle, not months before. Valentini is kind of old school that way. But back then the shows were also taped closer to air, and the whole genre was filled with people that could see what was working onscreen and develop it. Now it’s like Frank finds someone who is halfway nice to deal with bts, and he never wants them to go. That’s nice and all, but I’m more worried about what is popping onscreen!

Based on what Storms said when she first took her leave about the incredible story she was coming back to, I think the original story was way more Nathan/Maxie and possibly more of a cat and mouse, thriller type situation. But she didn’t come back when she was supposed to, then did and was back out in a few weeks because of her personal issues. Her return was clearly supposed to be about 3 weeks into his run, because that’s when the stalling and weird disappearances started. The show clearly waited to see if she was still coming back, then pivoted. Then the Lulu debacle started, and then that was also abruptly ended. BTS at GH continues to be a compelling mystery of WTH is going on lol.

I have so much empathy for EM. Her life was not easy. On the show Jessie was kind of put out to pasture story wise prematurely if you ask me by the arrival of soon to be long suffering Diana Taylor. They even moved Phil onto Diana!

I wonder if it was just one of those things that Monty and EM worked out. Like Wendy Riche telling Anna Lee she would basically have a job for life. I wonder if Erika Slezak had to have it spelled out in her contract that she had a first in, first out status, or if that was just agreed upon and granted without making it official due to her longevity? Same for Genie Francis when she had her kids, she had the same perk and I don’t know if that was a contract thing or a Riche thing to get her to come back from her second maternity leave.

More good news for BTG, and another smart decision on marketing the show!

I haven’t minded this Joss storyline at all. It’s GH, I grew up in an era where Frisco was pulled between being a rock star and a cop/WSB agent, where Robert had a secret computer room, and Anna and Sean could be double agents and also end up as Chief of Police. I like that they gave her a purpose that contradicts Carly’s choices and kept her mentioning that Sonny is a criminal. In GH logic I have been asked to swallow worse things, even recently. Do I think the show executed it well? Not really. But I still prefer this to what was there before.

She was also believably dangerous for a GH character. She had a darker edge than Robert, and could often be described as more pessimistic and at times gloomy. But Finola made it work, and the collaboration with the actor and show made a unique character in all of daytime. When Olivia Jerome rigged the elevator and killed her unborn child with Duke, there was a sense that Anna could cross the line when she was out for revenge. I never felt that way about Felicia, Robert in the 80’s, or Frisco. Sean maybe. One of the reasons it honestly surprised me that Guza didn’t want Anna full time in the 2000’s was the fact that he could easily make her grey. Instead they used her well as a sounding board for Robin, and poorly as a groupie for Eli Love. They loved the juxtaposition of soft spoken Emma Samms as con artist Holly though, which for me never worked at all. When they first aged the character up she had a lot of insecurity, especially around the men she had feelings for. It could be explored now too if the show did any character writing at all. Especially coming from a set of epic parents with a legendary love story, even if it did end poorly, it burned bright.

It’s a shame, because she used to be at least a little calculating and less afraid of everything. All My Children got Anna more in character than this show has since her contract return. Certainly since the stuff with Valentin started, through all of Peter August as a real person and a ghost.

Did they ever explain why Cullum was carrying around Faison’s book and smoking his favorite brand?

Oh good, something to look forward to in a scene with Joss! Britt having a fatal disease was a big part of her arrogance slipping, and her coming to terms with that was a big part of why that interlude with Jason worked so well. If they remove that in general she hasn’t shown any real growth. I can’t imagine Jason staying with Britt as she is now, without that tragic aspect looming.