titan1978

It is a little wild that Alice Grant is going to the party in a pretty dress and is so excited considering she killed Diana Taylor not that long before! Such a weird decision to blame her when they decided to keep Robin!

Monty was innovative within a format she was intimately involved with already and wanted to change and challenge, not an outsider from daytime hired to bring new vision and perspective like Linda Gottleib and Wendy Riche later on. Kind of like Bill Bell bringing more psychologically complex characters and more overt sex to soaps once he got his shot at the top with DAYS. I think Scotty was hot as hell like this, and he was cute before. Had Genie not quit there would have been a lot to explore from her side with this Scotty. Both of them (Luke and Scotty) staying on each other’s throats pretty much forever works because of how awful Scotty was from 1981 on. I think it’s all the movement. The cameras move from zooms to actual moving, people are standing and walking in and out during their scenes, taking coats off, etc. The Haunted Star setup, even the way people were lined up arriving, not just coming one set at a time, but actually waiting in line GH didn’t have the same kind of writing as other soaps during Monty’s era, but the relationships are deep and lived in, and have a real ease in how they are presented. It’s not the deeper writing you would get from Marland’s sprawling ATWT canvas, but the sense of community and character relationships feels just as real and believable. Monty and her teams knew how to keep the show alive and the hour show didn’t often feel as much like filler. It has low points like Laurelton, but the show feels full to me. Curlee’s Guiding Light was better written of course, but the characters sparkle so much that I have similar feelings watching it too. I don’t skip much.

That does suck! I wish ABC would just be cool and let us watch them on YouTube since they won’t do anything about airing them again!

How delightfully old school would that be! That’s like something you read in the synopsis from a soap in the late 60’s. Maybe he can suffer hysterical amnesia and end up on a farm with a sweet, down to earth lady with some kind of physical impairment? Bill Bell would be proud! Kidding aside, yes, we need drama here. It can’t all be shallow twists and fast paced. Every time they slow down just a little bit between Drew events, the cracks show a lot. It’s still better than GH has been in over a decade for me, but the frustration is it could be better. The boring stuff Frank seems to hate fills time and makes the characters richer, which also makes payoffs bigger. We could easily have a hybrid with what he prefers and also at least one actual earned emotion per episode because a character was actually explored beyond a plot point.

I won’t see today’s episode until later so thank you for the warning.

I am a firm believer, even on GH, of having normal, everyday people stories and characters. Even in the Monty era you had Lesley and Bobbie as leads in grounded material. And not just the Quartermaines with all their wealth, but actual people that were more real. So I would have no problem with Liz/Dante to be honest. My problem is the show doesn’t give a damn about either character. Leslie and Bobbie were leads. I think with the current issues of income inequality having different socioeconomic characters should be a great place to generate conflict and stories. But that’s not Frank. I think he is a talented EP and director who needs to move away from some instincts honed by learning from Paul Rauch. That includes lighting as well!

I think they were both miscast to be honest. Lucky shouldn’t have gone the traditional soap hunk route. Somebody who was more quirky would have been better.

This is a great idea!

Even though I am open to a good Lucky recast at this point, why bother? Frank doesn’t care about Liz enough to make the writers use her, or keeps them from using her. Either way, having him back under these parameters sucks.

That’s what I get for quoting from a quote on another post lol! A sexy Asian male lead coming along for the ride hungry to prove himself to his grandmother (Tia) and grow in the organization causing trouble for everyone would be fun to watch!

It’s such a soap fundamental you hate to not see it! I felt the same way when Sonny/Mike came home from Nixon Falls when Carly and Jason were together. There are so many HBO B-Movie staples from when I was a kid that were just always on. Jaws 3, Last Starfighter, Looker, Grease 2, etc. Right? But baby/embryo violation is something Lulu is supposed to just get over multiple times. A larger and dynamic Asian presence would be great.

lol, a guilty pleasure of mine! Being occasionally babysat by teens in my family in the 80’s paid off in that I saw a lot of stuff way too early. Jaws 3-D in the theater being one of them!

Bess Armstrong! I loved her in everything!

What a strange pull. I wonder what the story is.

I wanted him as Jeff Webber so bad when they recast him a couple years ago. Amazing to me we got Jeff Webber and Liz’s mom, and the story was ultimately about Finn. This show really pisses me off sometimes. I think Justine and Jacinda were just fine for recurring players to keep it pumping plot wise. Justine actually came alive prosecuting Willow in a way I was not expecting. Jacinda did too in earlier scenes with Nina and Portia.. They are just not meant to be paired with two leads, it’s such an afterthought and a waste of Michael in particular.

Call me Gloria Monty I guess, I just want the show full of folks with some charisma, especially if they are paired with leads! Didn’t he just give Selena Wu a million dollars to botch killing Drew? Which was just a twist I guess like all the rest on the fast paced and often messy GH. During the first Anna is kidnapped story when Duke was pissed that Robert was keeping him out of the investigation he went to the Jerome family for help. Which lead to years of story for Duke/Anna. Where is Selena Wu turning the screws on Curtis?

Oh I agree, that’s why what they did pisses me off. I think Sonny (and Kate) would have been better served if they never went that route or recast her. Even killing AJ ended up meaning nothing after a year or so too.

I don’t know if he is capable of calling it. He’s tired of the grind and shows very little commitment onscreen. But when he is alone with himself too much his mental health plummets. He has spoken about it quite a bit on State of Mind. I think his wife is a saint, and I have empathy for him. There are places for Sonny to go if he’s going to stick around three days a week.

I know I do! At least when Genie decided to hitch her wagon to a recurring character it was Kevin! This one level up from a day player nonsense with both Sonny and Michael is just so weird. As others have said- Nina is right there! Doing a lot of nothing. This is part of why what they did with Kate Howard pisses me off to this day. We finally had a new lane for Sonny romances that was an actual character that was not Carly or Brenda. Then they took her perfectly believable for soaps name change and made it DiD, with a terrible recast, and she was DOA. She could have even come and gone and still been there for a viable option if Megan Ward was available. If we are going to do this again with Sonny make it count. I know Tea Delgado was not always liked but at least Florencia Lozano had chemistry to burn and went there. Sonny and Maurice have always done better being paired with strong actors. She could even play a new character, just bring the heat to keep Mo from dominating with boredom. Lure the still very beautiful Sherri Saum back to soaps. Do something that counts!

That’s FV’s GH! A plot point either means nothing and is forgotten quickly, just something to do to pass the time like the shallow version of characters drinking coffee at the table used to be, or it will end up being their baby. An umbrella villain is fine, they just need one major target, it could even be an entire family. But specific. 1990’s Stefano had Tony running his own vendetta against John, Peter running his section of the crimes and story with Jennifer/Jack/Laura, and Kristen walking the line between them (before going full bad). It was all connected to Stefano but he wasn’t directly doing it all. This feels very tacked on when she was doing perfectly fine committing her own smaller lever crimes against Drew/Michael.

Thanks @Errol for including the stats from the last Olympics. It was interesting to see that the ratings haven’t collapsed as much as I was expecting in four years for the soaps. While I know inflation is squeezing their productions just like everything else, it also shows some signs of health to me.

And in a terrible story with that hair covering her fake scar, that she was wearing for penance. It was a messy introduction, Emma Samms was incredibly popular as was Robert/Holly. Tristan, Finola, and Monty willed her into staying power, and the writing pivoted to support her relatively quickly. Then Robin arrived.

And I get that decision. I just think they should have maybe let Wendy Riche put it together and get the creator credit, but then turn the show over to another EP and Wendy could consult, be a supervising producer credit from airing day one after the pilot. She knew from her first year at GH that she needed strong writers with a vision and they did not do that with PC. Culliton had already not been working on GH. As trashy as he was, Levinson would have been better. At least he would have made the show gritty and sleazy instead of bland. It was pretty well cast and I loved seeing Lee and Gail again thanks to Scotty and Serena.

Thank you for the quotes @Errol and @Liberty City During some of his Arrow interviews (and bts leaks/gossip) he irked me, so I haven’t given him or his shows much of a chance. I do think Baywatch was of a specific time and place. But then again, it holds some thematic parallels with the 911 franchise, so maybe a pure trash version will find an audience. I will gladly look at the rest of the cast photos when the marketing kicks in!