titan1978

I wonder if folks like Michael and Drew/Willow got played so much earlier in their cycles for their contract year that Frank takes them mostly off the board at a certain point before their year starts over again. Because I have felt like this happened with people a few times over the last couple of years that we know from constant usage are FV’s favorite characters, they would just drop off. Chase and Brook Lynn had the same thing happen after their wedding was done. It happened with Spencer too when NAC was there. The only people that seemed to be immune for years were Maurice, Laura Wright, Finola Hughes (before she left), and Michael Easton. I assume they had the highest guarantees because we know Valentini is not pushing people past their terms or he would have to pay them for it. We also saw them consistently all year long back then. Roger Howarth was there too until they killed off Franco. You could argue they are just trying to balance the story out, but if the show was put together better it wouldn’t be so noticeable, or necessary. As always, thank you for compiling the data @jcar03 and @alexisfan07

I love KW and I think she has done well with what they give her. But Felicia should be a PI.

I didn’t watch AMC during their original run, loved them when they came back. Another one of the handful of actual good returns for iconic characters. But I can’t imagine Jesse as a singer! Which is funny, because wasn’t his lookalike Loving character a musician? I saw scenes of them on Loving way before AMC! Legit LOL!

Everybody was just fully realized! Labine made me actually care about Tony Jones, which was pretty incredible because I never liked his judgmental ass! That Luke and Laura return was so smart. We meet them again and Lucky for the first time and they are living full (although faked) lives before the danger starts again. They used Frank Smith as the villain, and we get a little mini adventure reintroducing them. They smartly had them on their own so the audience got to see them closer to how they were versus as parents now, while Lucky also gets to show off who he is. Then they hit town and hide in what will eventually be their home, Laura sees visions of a black family living there before it was abandoned setting up the Ward’s, and Sonny gets a purpose by being connected to Luke from Frank. It’s one of the most brilliant reintroductions in daytime history. They were still larger than life compared to the rest of Port Charles, but also more grounded and facing down to earth dangers. I know Geary pitched the story and some of the details. But it’s also so clearly what Labine and that team did the rest of their run that they also took the idea and fleshed it out. I have said this before but I think because Luke and Laura were originally designed as more grounded characters they fit in better with what Riche was doing than let’s say Robert Scorpio would have. Had Wendy convinced Tristan and Finola to not leave, which she reportedly tried to do, I think things would have been very different.

If Trina was going to arrive at some kind of career/life goal change, why couldn’t it involve the hospital?! I don’t even hate the music aspect, but it’s just so random. They also have Brook Lynn just floating around too. She’s an executive at Deception and still dabbles in music as a producer? That’s not really how that works!

Who knows what would have happened had Genie not been strung out and then mad as hell at Monty for saying it didn’t matter if she died, because Tony was the show. Monty regretted saying it and that it got back to her, and in the mid 90’s Genie made some public comments about how she felt bad about the way she left and knew it upset fans. The wedding might have been postponed too had she re-signed, as they already knew she was leaving when they filmed those episodes. I think the frenzy was bound to die down anyway, but I also think the whole mess with Laura and Jackie Templeton and David Gray would have best been avoided entirely. Had Genie stayed I don’t think we would have gotten Emma Samms either, and I think Holly really helped the show regain some ground with both Luke and especially Robert.

Exactly! It was noticeable almost immediately that Claire Labine slowed things way down when she got to GH. But it facilitated rich dialogue and exploration of the characters. I feel like we really got to know the characters during that period of time. It wasn’t boring to me because it was a deeper look at all of them. It had to be frustrating. She may also have just been a mercurial person who was combative by her nature. But I do wonder. I also think she was more provocative than Bell, was more modern, and took bigger risks. I prefer her tenure to what Marland was doing too, I think she took the bones of what he had been setting up and playing and made it more fun to watch. I find dialogue on Marland shows to be kind of bland.

PFS is a fascinating person. She clearly hated Monty in 1981, but she came back to GH under her again in 1985- creating Anna and Robin amongst others. She was certainly not afraid of getting her lawyers involved, and it didn’t seem to keep her from being rehired through the 80’s. I wonder how much of her volatility was from working under Bill Bell and seeing his work treated with respect and then having to justify her own story projections when she was the HW? At GH the first time she was upset Monty used the story and script as an outline and made changes liberally to the scenes, while maintaining the overall storyline.

Monty had a way of really imbuing the show with energy. She came up against the limitations of the format and even her expanded budget, but when other soaps did the action stuff it seemed less than what she did to me. She liked intensity- the exaggerated way Luke flies off Frank Smith’s boat when Scotty punches him comes to mind, Robert and Sean fighting in the rail car. Same with emotional stuff, like the iconic fight between Monica and Lesley, or Robin running into Anna’s arms. It’s staged for impact, and matched perfectly with PFS’s modern for the time writing. It’s funny to watch her older GH stuff and see how much walking and talking the characters do, like the daytime version of what Aaron Sorkin became famous for later in his shows.

And Sheri Anderson, who deserves a lot of the credit/blame depending on how you view it. She was on the team under PFS when the prototype supercouple formula was developed with Luke & Laura on GH, and IIRC was one of the ones that quit and went with PFS to DAYS when she got fed up with Gloria Monty and the sci-fi storytelling. DAYS cemented that formula though! Like @Khansaid, GH had some of the biggest supercouples of the era, but they were more ensconced in the action/caper storytelling. And virtually every character on DAYS in the 80’s under 45 was put through the formula, even less popular ones like Pete/Melissa took their turns. Monty also seemed to learn her lesson about using rape as a storytelling device to keep a major couple apart, she never told another story like Laura’s again. There were things like Monica/Alan’s marital rape, but it wasn’t played like the supercouple formula as an obstacle for the couple to overcome (which was as gross back then as it is now). She noticeably grows up in that period when they were broken up because she panicked about still being married to Scotty when they got attention for Frank Smith. She’s more independent, lives on her own, does a terrible job as Edward’s secretary, and gets herself into the Ice Princess story several times. She’s even holding people at gunpoint at the climax with Robert. It’s much closer to the women later on on GH. But they play the trauma of her experiences with Stavros when she comes back in 1983. Genie plays a lot of it very fearful, uncomfortable, and sad. It was so easy to wedge Nikolas into that story because of her behavior onscreen, Lesley’s death soon after, Laura’s own history of having an off switch when she is traumatized, and how weird she was just wandering around looking at Luke but not going right to him or her family. It’s kind of disappointing in 1995 when Labine pushes her right back into the little lady scared of danger. It made sense with her having a family, but it was also not very Laura to me.

I think based on his DAYS history that he may have been responsible for some of the focus on impactful twists at GH, and going out on a limb more with Willow/Drew. It took an outside person to goose what GH usually does IMO, and I think this will be good news for DAYS from what I hear. I hope GH doesn’t sink back into everybody just being mostly amiable and just there again.

Coming back to this, but it is interesting that Monty’s GH had very few damsels in distress or women without some agency. Laura is the only major lead I think of being repeatedly victimized during Monty’s first run, and even she has her moments from the Left Handed Boy through her kidnapping by the Cassadines. Monica, Lucy, Heather, Bobbie, Tiffany, Jackie, Holly- these are all strong women allowed to have agency. Anna and Felicia end up being vital parts of the action storylines, Anna becoming the lead character in them for a period of time. Women across all the soaps fared better back then, which is wild to think how regressive the storytelling became. But GH and DAYS had pretty much the same DNA in the 80’s to me, and the women on DAYS were mostly second to the men and deferred to them in the danger stories. Hope as a cop comes to mind- she’s no Anna or even Felicia for that matter. Kayla and Kimberly are also mostly victims driven by the men in their stories. Marlena fares a little better, but she also suffers from the little lady waiting at home hand wringing about the danger Roman is facing.

Her initial story with the scar and coming between Robert/Holly was not popular or a good entry. She had to overcome Holly leaving the show, the scar and double agent history, having a romantic past with flashbacks with Robert when the audience was very pro Robert/Holly, Robin’s arrival, and then Tristan leaving. That was a lot of heavy lifting, and she also did it without really being in a popular pairing until Duke arrived (although I did like Robert/Anna). I credit Finola and Tristan making it work because Tristan liked Finola, and great casting for them with Kimberly as Robin. I also think while Laurelton was a mess, the Asian Quarter story had worked well and that Robin/Anna reunion was a great moment, and Mister Big gave her a more successful action story. GH had a history of women being deeply involved in the action stories with Laura, Holly, and Felicia. But as Vee said, Anna was different because she got to stand on her own as the action lead. As @Franko heads into the last Monty season, I do wonder if the show slipping from number one was partly due to some part of the audience not liking Anna as the lead? She was charming and had fun/sweet moments, but for the most part was more cool and calculating. She also becomes more somber and serious with the Jerome story.

This is a vile take on the story. I don’t care how much someone likes Britt. It’s not about that. Lulu raised him for most of his life (SORAS retcons included). If you wanted to argue that Britt feels that pull towards him because of her actions, that I can see. Even though the show didn’t use that until her return. But I don’t believe he would feel this way towards her, and the thought process is pretty gross all around when it comes to surrogacy. The show could have Lulu struggling with telling him how much of a violation this was because she doesn’t want him to feel even more unwanted than he did when he first learned what happened. Instead Lulu just wrings her hands. But the propping of Britt by repeatedly trying to connect them is just tacky. If anything, he should be angry with her, and sad around Lulu. Let’s remember while they are trying to make Britt this maternal figure she stole that embryo to trap a man. Not because she desperately wanted a baby, and has been pining for “Ben” this whole time. I honestly hate this story and think it’s so gross. Guza/JFP were openly misogynistic as creatives on GH, but even they wouldn’t have had both of Lulu’s children be from bodily violations as a science fiction plot (Charlotte), and Britt stealing her embryo. And I have made my feelings on Guza/JFP as a team painfully clear on this board, yet I would credit them with better taste than this.

Once they reached adulthood I was hoping the natural issues between the sisters would lead to conflict and story opportunities because of this. Molly was studious and worked to get where she is with her law degree and job that should put her at odds with Sonny/Jason. Kristina has flitted between multiple paths in her life and has a problem with honesty when it comes to responsibility. Lying about Ethan as a teen, the reality show, the cult, the surrogacy, the bar, the center. There is fertile ground here for storytelling, and instead they just kind of use it as an excuse but don’t fully explore it. As others have said, Alexis thinking about having her committed was a solid direction they just wouldn’t follow through with. I actually think Kristina has a lot of story potential, even with Mansi’s cold and strident version. But it’s as an antagonist and her own worst enemy.

There are so many ways to look at this. If I was going actual soap actors that have transcended the genre into the public consciousness, it would be Tony Geary, Genie Francis, Susan Lucci, with Deidre Hall or Eric Braeden fighting for that last spot. The best actors I feel the genre had? Beverlee McKinsey, Erika Slezak, Anthony Geary, and Larry Bryggman. I know Flannery is a well respected and incredible talent, but I wasn’t old enough to see her as Laura, and didn’t watch B&B. Personal favorite actors that I just liked to watch the most? Victoria Rowell, Jane Elliot, Genie Francis, Robin Strasser. My Rushmore writers are Claire Labine, Bill Bell, Agnes Nixon, and Pat Falken Smith. The EP’s would be Wendy Riche, Gloria Monty, Wes Kinney, and maybe Robert Calhoun.

The whole situation with Storms is very sad. I hope she is getting help. There is no telling what they wanted to do, although you could watch the show and see the story was stalled out waiting for her return. I assumed her return was supposed to last longer, and her current issues truncated it.

It’s a gross story and the worst kind of propping. KT comes back to the show and immediately has her whole family re-established and they tried to make Rocco actually her child, before the backlash slowed them down. But they still haven’t given up on tying them together. And we have people like Liz just languishing with no family, and the debacle with Lucky’s return.

Sometimes it worked out, like Sean Donnelly and Lucy Coe. Sometimes they just kind of faded away, were there for big events, parties, etc.

I can’t say I miss him. But I agree with the sentiment.

I might have to skip this episode. This actually makes me ill, and I do not understand why the show keeps pushing this.

I also just saw this, using Safari on my iPhone. I am still having difficulty accessing the site, but I can get access after a couple of refreshes or reloads. Until a couple of days ago I would be blocked for hours checking periodically, then it would suddenly just work. It’s better than that now.

I agree, he seemed to be much more invested in that and it felt like he had an actual character again. And he does love scenes with Genie Francis, which many of us have noted before!

Like a lot of characters on GH, the Black folks are just there. I appreciate that Valentini has made keeping Black characters/actors of multiple generations on the show when other regimes did not. Now are they used properly? No. In good stories? Not very often. But again, they are there and they do give them stuff to do and I would describe Portia as a B level lead, she’s pretty consistently in stories that play every week. We see Portia more in her own stories and crossing over thanks to the hospital and being blackmailed by Drew than we did from the infamous Winter’s Wednesdays on Y&R! But we are a long ways away from the layered storytelling from Labine of the Ward family. They had actual major stories connected to Luke & Laura and the Quartermaines with the mystery about Bradley and the incinerator project in the neighborhood, Justus running for office. Even back then though, it hinged so much on Rosalind Cash and Mary Mae than the family pretty much collapsed without her there.

As an adult I often look back at MTV and The Real World of that era as being to only places I saw other young LGBTQ folks just existing and not being a stereotype. MTV did a lot to help LGBTQ+ folks have more mainstream lives. In other media of the era we had films/tv with gay men dying, same sex kissing with women mostly for the straight male gaze, and people being made fun of. Paul Lynde and Liberace come to mind. And even with catty Paul Lynde I see a lot of anger in his performances as a gay clown on game shows. MTV showed us living and having fun, falling in love, etc. I know people learned a lot from Pedro and then a few seasons later Danny being involved with an active duty military man, because of don’t ask don’t tell. It was a different kind of reality tv back then! I remember very vividly where I was when I learned Kurt Cobain had died, and when I saw the breaking news on MTV that Pedro had passed away. Because we have been online during the slow decline of the soap genre I think people forget, or newer fans just don’t know, that soaps used to be very impactful and much more mainstream than they have been since the 2000’s. Robin Scorpio contracting HIV was a huge deal, and the GH of that era was still very popular with pop culture. I’m really sad for these young LGBTQIA kids right now. They grew up in a more open and accepting environment, and they are now the first generation of gay folks that are losing rights instead of gaining them. I was a teen in the 90’s, I know what it was like to live under this stuff before and fight your way through it. But we had community then, we had bars and neighborhoods where we could be safe together. That’s all been gentrified away in most places.