titan1978

I think my own disconnect is that while Tony could seem frail in recent years, Luke never was. Which reminded me of an interview before he retired where Geary admitted to being on set waiting to film and he told Jane that he was so bored. And she told him don’t worry, Luke isn’t. Which is probably one of the few insightful notes he got in later years as an actor. I had that same disconnect with Jackie Zeman when she passed. Both she and Bobbie always had a vitality to them. Bobbie’s early dichotomies being both bubbly and shrewd, hopeful and cynical. Hard to believe they are both gone.

The easiest path would be having Luke’s body recovered, allowing the show to re-honor the character and actor. Monica’s tribute happened months after her actual passing, same with Bobbie. Give them time to deal with Robert and Lesley.

The last few days have been heartbreaking.

I am in shock. Quotes from his husband in the article. I will have to collect my thoughts. Sad for his family and friends. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/anthony-geary-dead-general-hospital-luke-spencer-1236450901/

I somehow missed this one when it aired! It does remind me of the one I posted that had Genie Francis and Marcy Walker in it. There were other soap stars in it too. Terror in the Shadows also had Leigh McCloskey and Victoria Wyndham as costars. Makes me think someone knew soap actors would be a draw.

I wouldn’t put it past them to just drop it and never mention the shooting again. Paging Jagger’s murder, the person sending threatening notes to Ava, and Austin’s shooter to name a few recent ones!

It feels like a natural progression to me!

Yeah no more multiple personalities. Just let Willow be who she is- a trauma survivor that has never gotten help and has run from man to man to rescue her or give her attention, and it’s all unraveling and not working anymore. On top of that, she lost her kids. And I think even more important to her psychology is that she isn’t being seen as an innocent person in all this anymore. This latest life blowup has opened her up to visibility that doesn’t paint her as a damsel in distress or victim. Chase also potentially blowing his life up for her plays into his need to save women, which should destroy his marriage because even this watered down BLQ is not a victim like Willow is. The best thing the show could do here is also reveal Willow did shoot Drew and let Chase truly implode when it comes out.

She was a special character that was perfectly cast. That whole backstory was so well told. We get the beginning of an introduction to the history of that family when Luke and Laura hide out in what eventually becomes their home. Laura sees images of a black family living in the now abandoned house. Later we learn it was the Ward family home. I hate what Guza did to that house. They turned it into something ugly and it was originally something beautiful. Laura seeing it for the first time and walking around inside it feeling the history and the love is one of my favorite set of scenes from their return. I loved that set.

Since when has the PCPD been good at their jobs? When Anna or Robert were chief of police in the 1980’s maybe? But even they didn’t notice Burt Ramsey running an evil empire until it was almost too late. Sean Donnelly had his moments. But poor Mac was never allowed to get the bad guy once he was made chief.

There is also the TV movie sub-genre of films about the actual celebrity starring themselves. Ann Jillian did the one about her cancer fight. Deidre Hall about her surrogacy, and Joan and Melissa Rivers about grieving Edgar and rebuilding Joan’s career. I remember thinking Joan actually did some decent acting in it too, but I was a kid so if I saw it today I might have a different opinion. This thread has really unlocked some childhood memories for me!

Those Knots ladies certainly starred in many tv films! I knew Lisa Hartman Black from other stuff before I saw Knots Landing reruns. She was one of those celebrities that I just knew who she was without remembering her in anything. The same with Ann Jillian! Two soap connected ones I watched were To Love, Honor, and Deceive starring Vanessa Marcil, and Terror in the Shadows with Marcy Walker and Genie Francis. Both were fun to watch but I wouldn’t call them good films. The stories were typical tv movie thrillers. But they were both fun.

Stuff does get cut when they piece the episodes together. But also some stuff is just not a priority and was never written or filmed. Mac has not been a priority for this show in over two decades. And Emma sadly isn’t the priority Joss is, so we don’t see everything about her life. They skip over details in the stories they drop or delay all the time.

Watching Monday and hearing Ned name drop Peter made me wonder if another anvil was falling. Speaking of which, the only reason I would tolerate Lulu/Nathan (supposing he isn’t really who he says he is) is if they do not have sex, and she figures out the whole plot herself. I do think after what she has been through Lulu would be more nervous in general, but I want the spunk back. It’s bad enough that both her kids were conceived through violations and they both favor the wrong person right now. Also, they are hyping big bad Valentin! To me he was a crying mess that felt about as threatening as a plate of quivering Jell-O. The only good thing he has ever done is let Laura slap him and be revealed as one of the heads of Pikeman.

That is wild!

Talk of the more earnest and progressive era of Lifetime reminded me of Baby Cakes starring Ricki Lake. I could have sworn it was a Lifetime original but the internet tells me it was a CBS tv movie.

As we have discussed before, scrap Britt, whatever the recurring rates are for Valentin and Brad, and put that coin in the offer and give us Brenda. Jason and Sonny immediately have story, and they could finally go there with Guza’s 2002 plan to pair Jason with Brenda. Brenda can also be quippy and bitchy when written correctly. She was always a smartass, especially towards Carly. Let her walk in the door with some kind of secret and also as the buyer in a hostile takeover of Deception, working with Lois. And Brenda’s plot point son can be the HBIC gay man they have always wanted.

I watched so many of those trashy USA films. For years I thought the Cheryl Ladd thriller Lisa was a TV Movie and it was an actual film!

It’s so pathetic and being telegraphed a mile away. I hope it doesn’t come to pass but I have my doubts. We are about to be dominated by recurring characters again and the actual contract players are going to be the B characters in all their stories again. The only recurring person I want to see a lot of right now is Ric Lansing, and the occasional drop in with Lucy Coe. Rick Hearst is one of those handful of soap actors that just seems to have chemistry with everyone, even if his character is gross.

The only logic I can assign to the audience liking Valentin, Franco, Finn and Julian Jerome as much as they do is the clear acknowledgement that people actually do want romance stories on this soaps. All of them have had tortured romances almost their entire runs. I have to count the ABC viewers long term fandom of Roger Howarth and Michael Easton too. But ultimately I think it’s that they were all constantly coupled up. In the same toxic way fans wanted Luke and Laura together in 1979, they wanted Alexis and Julian to get back together after he tried to kill her.

Agreed! I cannot believe they are all slowly working their way back onto the show. And Valentin is getting the FV special for his friends- tie them to a core character like Carly. They have used Liz for this so much that I’m surprised he didn’t parachute into her yard and need medical help. It’s like they all forgot their ratings were not great when all these people were leading the show the first time around. They tanked the show themselves fighting for control after Mulcahey got there. Things did pick up when Michael was recast, and they were blowing through stories at lightning speed. But then Britt’s return and Ronnie derailed everything and you can feel the story manipulation happening again to prop those tired old characters. Valentini has driven me away before doing this. The fact that Laura has something marginally entertaining going on is keeping me watching.

It was way beyond too late to recast Edward with someone like Jed. One of the strangest recasts during JFP’s tenure.

This is the description of so many soap hunks over the years! And Chase fits that generic soap hunk mold so well!

Damn. Shots fired! Too funny! But in his defense, he had more personality than Nathan!

Less critically acclaimed but one I loved from USA was Body Language, starring executive Heather Locklear and her Fatal Attractions assistant, Linda Purl. It’s pretty trashy but a lot of fun!