titan1978

Lulu could be abrasive and brash, but this is just not fun to watch. It doesn’t help that both of these kids are from violations, because people like Ron Carlivati don’t understand or write actual women very well. The fact they are also both in stories where those kids want the attention of their mother’s violators and the show wants us to side with Valentin and Britt is also not helping. I am so disappointed in this show right now. The fact that I have to deal with Valentin, Britt, Nathan, and now Brad all back when we had finally moved on from them. If Roger Howarth were not on contract at Y&R I would be expecting a return announcement any day now. The show has slowed to a crawl and every single bad instinct that Valentini had leaned into for years are almost all back strangling the vitality from the show. I expect another precocious kid group to be back in action again soon.

I don’t know. Would she have been as ambitious as Carlivati was about bringing back fan favorites for the 50th? He was an actual fan of GH during the Monty years, and the water crisis story followed by the classic returns for the 50th saved the show. Now her coming in after he went off the rails fully? That would have been a blessing.

I was thinking about folks like Geary, Flannery, Zimmer and Erika Slezak. They were nominated and won so many Emmy’s, their work was really known by other soap actors that voted in their categories over the years. It’s hard for those folks to do the volume of work required and also watch other shows, but they were certainly exposed to those performances. Geary and Judith Light both blowing up on ABC at roughly the same time and being so front and center is interesting too. Neither one fit the traditional soap mold because they were just so gritty, and also married that with a deep vulnerability that the audience saw and made them care about their mistakes and pain. Sarah Brown’s Carly walked a similar path. I cannot imagine how exciting it was to watch ABC soaps as they were airing during that time period.

I think Curlee and Riche would have been a great combination. An interesting what if, because she had a similar tone as Labine when it comes to hope through tragedy and adversity. IIRC she did some consulting for all the ABC soaps and a little more than that but not fully part of the team at AMC. Didn’t Kay Alden also almost take over an ABC soap?

I don’t think so either. I think there was some stuff left unsaid between them and his general attitude towards doing the couple again caused some tension that really wasn’t about them as people, just his desire to move on. But they both have said many times around the 50th and when he retired that there was a lot of respect between them as actors and people, and even Geary has reverence towards the original run vs what he disliked from 1993-on. They burned so brightly and that wedding was so indelible that it did stifle their characters. Especially as the legacy characters really became nostalgia fodder for the audience in the last decades. Imagine Erica Kane forever tied to Tom Cudahey? Erika Slezak faced a similar problem because after the 80’s revival of Nikki Smith, they just couldn’t stop themselves from doing DID stories on OLTL. Those three performers might as well be the logo for ABC daytime. Lucci gave a lovely statement about Tony as well. As far as the public attention to Geary’s death, I am not really surprised. The one that surprised me was Jackie Zeman. It was sustained and had major media coverage. I loved Bobbie too, but to me at the time that spoke to the pop culture importance of the show during the Luke and Laura fever time period that was still more relevant than I thought. Tristan Rogers got that attention too. Geary is of course more sustained because he was Luke.

IIRC for a brief time the overlapping shots were Scotty fading into Laura’s shot, then the overlap between Laura and Luke. It felt deliberate to me at the time because all three shots were slowed down just a little to make the overlaps noticeable. Part of the issue seemed to be what happened with her original waking up from being catatonic story. It was heartbreaking to watch and I thought beautiful for the most part. But both of them said they ended up feeling manipulated by what was promised versus what they got, including the wedding scenes which were not the original plan and both felt were kind of cheesy to just have her wake up and get married while Luke hid the truth from her. Over the last few years I understand more of what both of them were complaining about. Genie felt Laura was too old to be an ingenue and that Laura had regressed repeatedly. And Tony was left kind of in limbo repeatedly when she left/and finally was by her account defacto fired by Jill. Genie was off living a life with her family and Geary was struggling to stay engaged at work and not very happy by all accounts. Luke was often still in story, but the only time it was really meaty before 2006 was when they revisited the rape before her return in 1998. After she left in 2002 he was stuck doing stuff like the Heather Webber story and several things that involved him emoting towards or about a mop with a blond wig on it, and as the sole parent of their kids. And the grind of the material really took a toll on him. I’m not making excuses for his commentary btw, which was often just rude. I am just saying that with distance and looking at them as their real people I understand more of where both of them were coming from. My issue with him is the fact that he acted like the Luke at the end of the show was the Luke that was there the whole time. Both of them (Tony/Luke) were older, bitter, and didn’t want to keep looking back. But we watched Luke evolve and also come crashing apart when he lost Laura. The stupid Rick Webber storyline was a huge part of why Luke became such a bastard, because he couldn’t save Laura from her own mind. Once he was paired with Jane he hung on for dear life because he had a true partner again and IRL they were actually closer fiends than he had ever been with Genie. Both of them seemed really proud of what they had accomplished with L/L, even though it was also difficult in deeply personal ways.

As Errol mentioned in another post, the 45th anniversary of the wedding is in 2026. That would be a fitting time to remember Luke and that anniversary. Although Geary himself, while proud of what they did, also did not want that clip to be the one thing always played about his work as Luke. There are better scenes, but not ones that resonate with the nostalgia of the audience or importance of the genre. They both seem to have more fondness for the Wyndhams scene if a classic clip is going to be used.

People forget she was still very much wanting to be close to Bobbie but hadn’t revealed herself yet. She liked Tony’s money and had some feelings for him, but her manipulations were unraveling. Jason was someone she did have feelings for, and had come into a lot of power that would help her keep her baby from being taken away by Tony or the Q’s. She was afraid of that, but she was also afraid of not having any money and leaving Bobbie who she had a push/pull relationship with. The fact that Jason fell in love with Michael so quickly and knew the truth about Carly gave her a safe place and also an inroad in her mind to being with him. The later stuff with Sonny didn’t work as well because there were not as many layers. And as you said, Warlock was not the right recast at all.

That would certainly give them time and be more than appropriate. Making my way around Threads and other online corners seeing the reactions to his death has been very interesting. I had no clue Luke was so popular with the Black audience of GH. It’s another sad reminder how invested that audience has been in soaps and how little the actual show has included Black characters as leads at GH. Even Viola Davis commented about him on a post I saw from Marlon Wayans. The GH of that time still commands mainstream pop culture attention that other soaps just don’t enjoy. It shows how vast that audience was and how the nostalgia of it hits close for people of a certain age. I felt the same way when Jackie Zeman died- I saw it everywhere for days, media and fan tributes, same with Tristan, Leslie, and a couple of years ago, Stuart Damon. Soaps have had deep roots in melodrama way before Monty took control at GH. Even when rooted in more realistic stories, they were often overwrought.

This has been my mentality for decades. They are not to blame for other soaps creating pale imitations. I give Monty plenty of blame for not keeping the hospital characters at the center, for terrible behavior towards actors, and not realizing her show was always better with stronger writers. But I don’t blame her for the genre falling apart.

I agree with this. You can see it in her shows, there is always movement. Those talking head scenes were walking around the nurses station, stopping at the counter at Kelly’s, etc. Scenes in the Webber home often begin or end with someone coming down the stairs, or headed to the door. I am sure Geary had run into plenty of issues where staging in a more traditional way hindered what he wanted to do and could seem stifling. Monty allowed improvisation, and spontaneity to be encouraged in rehearsals. As a kid I always noticed that the ABC soaps of that era just felt more modern. When I watch old episodes now, the ABC shows still stand out that way. They took risks. Now I am not saying I think everything they did was fantastic- they had plenty of flops and bad ideas.

Her statement did not disappoint. They both spoke about that deep connection, that they didn’t share with anybody else. Even when Tony was fully committed to not ever playing Luke & Laura again, he still spoke about that connection as performers with some reverence. I am not shocked they didn’t speak because that was their way even before his final exit. When they met to discuss returning in 1993 they had only seen each other a couple of times since their earlier run. That return was one of the handful of soap icon returns after being gone for a long time that fully worked. I have said this before but Monty, Marland, and PFS, with Geary and Francis of course, made such grounded characters with real internal lives that they could go and save the world, and also still fit in closer to reality in grittier material later under Labine, Guza, and Riche. We saw Luke slowly morphed into a bitter and cynical man who eschewed connection with others. I had no problem with what Geary did with Luke’s characterization. Luke after Laura probably would self destruct. What I had issue with was Geary’s insistence that this was always the Luke he played. It very much was not, we saw it as it aired, the good and the bad before his revisionist history. Almost every soap I watched had an iconoclastic character who challenged the other people in their communities. Soaps are so bland now and don’t really do these types of characters anymore. Thanks everybody who has been posting tributes, I don’t use Twitter anymore so this is the only place I will see them!

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.