titan1978

IIRC several people contributed to the selections.

Somewhere during Riche it almost seemed like the docks got gentrified. It became more the pier set, and the launch to the island when people came and went from Wyndemere. They deliberately made those sets look nicer. If anything, the sets they have been using for the docks/warehouse district under Valentini now look more shady, like where Rocco just shot Callum. It’s the only set that isn’t brightly lit! I don’t really think of Kelly’s as being in any way rough and tumble anymore once Liz worked there. Jagger was introduced robbing the place, and Lucky being chased out of Kelly’s by Frank Smith’s thugs when he arrived wasn’t a big deal. Now it’s just really bland and Carly pouring coffee is ridiculous.

I never understood until the internet why it was called Kelly’s or who Rose, Paddy, or Joe Kelly were. And as a little kid I did see parts of Laura’s return from the dead, and I remembered stuff with Lesley, but nothing about the OG Kelly family! I think that’s why it was so memorable and had such an impact. IIRC it was even named in either Soap Opera Weekly or one of the other soap mags in one of those best soap moments of all time lists they used to do every few years. I loved those issues and really wish I had save those soap mags now. That was where I first heard about Heather and the LSD, it was on one of those lists in like the top 20!

I don’t think they did think it was a mistake to be honest. It is wild to think about it this way, especially because I watched it when it was airing and now this just would not be accepted. But if the audience went along for the ride they just didn’t have a problem in those days with a rapist becoming a romantic lead. If it wasn’t for Roger Howarth fighting them the whole time he would have been shirtless and flaunted as a soap hunk and put through the supercouple rounds. He may have been annoying to TPTB, but damn, I’m happy he did fight them. They certainly wanted to walk him back from being a villain, which he was through the Marty story and stalking Nora. Didn’t he also attack Luna once? She was very vocal about him not just walking free around town. I wasn’t old enough to watch the original Luke & Laura story, and I was a kid and didn’t get it when Jack wasn’t really punished on DAYS with Kayla even though I did see that story. But by the time we got to DAYS having Carly fall in love with Lawrence, who had brutally raped her best friend Jennifer, and the weird dynamic they were toying with for Marty/Todd, I was disgusted and though it was ridiculous and unacceptable! And I was a young teen, the adults at ABC should have known better by then! It’s interesting to think about this in hindsight. Not that I didn’t think it at the time, he was one of those actors that you could tell when he didn’t want to be there. It was very present in his performance. But we had Todd as an acceptable romantic lead on OLTL. We had Sonny dominating an increasingly anti-woman GH. And Zach Slater on AMC. Frons was out of his mind, I don’t care how popular these men were (To a sharply declining audience I might add). There is a lot of gross storytelling at ABC in the Frons era. And I have no problem with an anti-hero lead, or a complex villain. But that’s not really what they did, because the counterpoint was not accepted in the very micro-managed writing.

She becomes so ubiquitous behind the counter at Kelly’s that it seems like she was always there. Luke worked there before she did! I loved Norma Connolly. Like @Franko said about Steve, Jessie, and Audrey, she added a lot just being there. Ruby took in the strays, later on people like Jagger and even Brenda. And in this story the Quartermaines! I have brought it up before, but in 1993 there is a scene when Rhonda has realized what Ray did to Karen, and she basically announces it out loud in Kelly’s while trying to find Karen. And Brenda and Ruby share a look, both of them fully realizing what Rhonda meant. Jason is there too, and didn’t quite put it together as quickly. It was such a simple scene, but it stood out to me back then. It’s one of the things I miss on GH, it felt like the characters had real connections. Ruby did kind of seem like the matriarch of the waterfront. Kelly’s was in a rougher part of town. It wasn’t far from the hospital, and was “respectable” so all kind of characters mixed there. But it was also a place where we saw people working, and it had character as a set. Now everyone in Port Charles is basically the same as far as economics, and more on the glamorous side instead of any older characters who have some grit and don’t take any crap. We have discussed Bobbie/Ruby fairly recently in this thread and the implications of their past. Their relationship always read as close on the show. Ruby was who Bobbie told her secrets to, even if Ruby didn’t agree with her and wanted her to not make another mistake. And she was possibly the only character that seemed to fully love and accept Luke exactly the way he was. Almost willing to excuse too much when it came to Luke.

Yes! I thought he was a real get when they hired him, and then that is what they did with him?!? Even the idea of exploring Laura’s biological father had real merit, and ended up being useless. Tying Kentucky Fried Tad to it was beyond stupid. I was happy to see Jeff on The PITT this season too. As was the attempt with Laura during the Carly/Laura Deception storyline and Felicia affair. On GH Genie, like Tony, had chemistry with pretty much everybody. NLG does too for the most part, as does Rick Hearst. GF even brought out a real sweet side to Brad Maule. But not as a couple, and the same with Mac. Even the pairing with Felicia was because they were both hot and there, and big enough draws that Wendy Riche needed at that time. As the years go by I think that Ryan story and Jagger/Karen/Brenda/Jason kind of saved her and kept ABC from interfering with her too much. They bought her time.

Yes, thank you for the tag @DRW50 I think The Banner was such an important central hub to build out from, that losing major characters that were journalists hurt OLTL as much as the eras on GH when the hospital was an afterthought. Even in later eras the contrast between The Banner and The Sun helped delineate characters and was fertile for story! I think that is possibly why they leaned on Erika and Viki so hard with Rauch, and Andrea Evans as Tina. Yes Viki was a vital character tied to the beginning of the show. But before Rauch she was more part of the ensemble of leading ladies. And Andrea played Tina for all she was worth. But as you said, especially during the earlier Rauch period, many of those new characters didn’t take off. And even the PR ones that did, like Gabrielle Medina and Megan, were suited for a moment in time and left the show.

LOL and agree!

Reading back several pages, and it had a similar impact on me. The gothic lighting, hidden rooms, dramatic music, and stormy nights with lightning flashing really captured my attention as a young teen. OLTL was my grandmother’s favorite of the ABC shows and so I was familiar with Niki Smith and the secret room when Andrea Evans was playing Tina. I very clearly remember Jean Randolph’s reign of terror, and that specific scene with Tommy. I really was hooked by the serious tone for Viki this time. Niki was alway so campy to me. This was not camp, they managed to hit the note without letting it go too over the top. ABC daytime was on fire during that time.

I am blown away this exists with audio. Thank you for posting it!

There was a moment, when Sonny thought Ethan was the one that hurt Kristina, that I thought we were going to see a modern summer on the run. And it would have pitted Luke against Sonny in a real way. But it never materialized. I understood why and agreed she was and looked way too young for him. But I also know a little sleaze never seemed to bother Jill Farren Phelps or Bob Guza, and Guza loved to pit the “titans” against each other. When there was a larger soap press, he said it every time they did a story with main characters fighting.

Catching up on a bunch of episodes, and even though I hate Sidwell attached to everything, I would welcome it being revealed that Jacinda is also one of his pawns. And best of all, I want her to revel in it. No redemption once the final plays out. Anyone familiar with DC Comics? I want original Terra levels of psycho once it’s revealed. Let her go after Nina too! Let’s get hot Michael a legit relationship from the ashes of his current ordeals. And for god’s sake, no to Ezra/Laura. I don’t care how much more watchable GH has been for the last year, and Kevin being permanently out of town. I will not stomach another major character in a nothing relationship with a recurring character. It’s hard enough with Michael/Jacinda, Carly/Valentin, Trina/Kai, and Sonny/DA. Enough is enough FV!

I am so happy for them, MVJ, and the genre!

He doesn’t want their merch, just the infrastructure they have built up over the years lol!

I love imagining Sonny and Jason’s hidden warehouse is full of knock off Birkins!

On of the things about Spinelli that made sense was the organization being involved in digital crimes. And they slowly moved that away too. At least that was modern. The question remains- what does Sonny do? Money laundering, we know from Pikeman he also runs guns, and those piers probably involved some extortion.

There may have been a couple of insignificant moments during that Nurse’s Ball when Tony was unhinged. But nothing as good as it could have been. @DRW50 pointed it out, the show was really fragmented and started to lose that large community feel as the 90’s went on. We went from Stone’s dying really connecting every character to a year later the characters were really split up into hubs and it kind of stayed that way during the rest of Riche’s tenure.

It really is. Stone at least had a believable performance as a former street kid who was a hustler but not an enforcer. And Jason spent years believably (for a soap) turning into Stone Cold and could pull it off. Danny comes across too sweet natured to play this believably.

Especially with the hostility between Lucy and Bobbie that would still come through at times, and Lucy should have had something to play during dark Tony. But a lot of that happened after PC began. IIRC when Guza came back in 1997, he was credited as a story consultant at PC before his GH credit stated airing, but it didn’t amount to much as far as I could tell. I love characters like Scotty, Lucy, Nadine on Guiding Light. Schemers and social climbers, but not truly evil people at their core. Always their own worst enemy.

Got it! It would have been strange. They found the perfect part for her. If you watch her earlier years she is almost a proto Sarah Brown Carly. Just with more humor because the show had a lighter touch. Both of them went after Tony. Lucy was insecure, desperate for attention and was a social climber which are traits she shares with OG Carly. Both wanted the security of a wealthier existence. Lucy is neurotic though where Carly is desperately lacking in self esteem and angry.

I don’t even remember if they were together at the end of PC to be honest. That show did kind of grind them up. Lucy was a full on vampire hunter. I don’t think wiping out PC would have made their fans happy, but it would be necessary. My sleight of hand would have been GH characters reading the fictional novels Tainted Love and Tempted for a couple of months and it is revealed they were written by Kevin under a pseudonym. I think Mac would have had a lot of fun teasing him about that. Wipe the vampires into fiction, have access to folks like Kevin, Lucy and Livvie instead of the final true BrendaBot, Sam. Nolan North’s character would have been welcome at GH to stir up trouble too, especially once Patrick and Robin got there. Oh well! As much as I dislike Kevin/Laura, it has been nice to see Jon again on GH. And Lynn is welcome anytime! I’m glad the show has shown respect to folks like Lynn, Jon, and Kristina Wagner who has had a contract for years! My complaints about Frank Valentini are well posted about. But he has shown these folks and their fans that Frons and JFP just kind of threw out some respect and kept them. I wish they were as well written and used as Tracy is, but at least they are still used.

That one is new to me! Obviously the GH casting director of the time liked her to keep bringing her back. Monty too. For years I thought Sean could have been used better had they gone back to his less virtuous era. Beyond the affair story we got that was really there just to put Tiffany through hell. Although I loved Sean and Tiffany I did think breaking them up for a bit should have been a good idea. Instead it was so tragic and Tiffany got way too dark. I thought Sean would have been much more believable as the reveal behind the virus storyline than Holly for example.

IIRC both Lynn and Jon had a little expectation that they would return to GH full time and were disappointed when it didn’t happen. At first iI think it was in their deals that they would go back if PC failed. The supernatural era of PC kind of doomed any interest in at least one of them coming back. JFP and Guza were also clearly not interested in vets by that point, although Guza liked to use Scotty for a couple years at a time here and there. Had it happened I fully expect Lucy would have reverted to just a schemer, and Kevin would have finally gone full psycho and been killed off after a reign of terror. Guza’s 1996 story with Kevin’s breakdown was good, but we all know his interests lie with deconstructing characters and not building them back up again.

I don’t disagree. I think most of the OG vets that were there under Monty know how to imbue characterization in plot driven material. The writing overall was stronger back then, but there were rough times even when the show was solidly number one and the actors and energy of her show kept it there. Even though I am enjoying the show much more since Michael was recast, the truth is it still suffers from a sameness and generic writing across the characters. Lucy stands out for better or worse (and I agree with the criticisms of FV Lucy) because Lynn doesn’t let her be generic. I think even Anna and Laura have suffered from often just being there in this generic writing. Sonny and Carly have too, I don’t even recognize them anymore. They had an opportunity with the body in Laura’s trunk to tell a mini story for her about not letting that drive her back to a trauma driven catatonic state. But instead it’s just a plot device for Sidwell that gets dropped for weeks at a time. I will harp on this probably until the show ends, but one thing Patrick Mulcahey absolutely got right was that the characters should have specific voices. Maxie being virtually revitalized in a handful of episodes is a great example. I shouldn’t be able to switch the dialogue easily between folks.

I agree, and she is also his. With Scott, there have been moments. But honestly to me Scott never loved anyone like he did for Laura, and that’s why his relationships until Dominique always blew up. And I think that one would have too if she had lived. That was a lovely tribute. I remember an interview around the 50th that Jane participated in, possibly the one with Tony and Kin. And when talking about all those returns and folks like Lynn she said something along the lines of never understanding why those people were ever gone to begin with. I actually enjoy all aspects of Lucy, always have. Daffy, screwball comedy Lucy and scheming social climber too. As far as the vets go I think Lucy is closer to the core of who she always was than Anna has been in a few years. I never saw any hints of that personally. Felicia was a reluctant friend at first, and I can’t say I felt like Lynn was playing Lucy as flirting with her. What I saw was a determination to win Felicia over during that Mac/Felicia/Kevin/Lucy era. It read to me as neediness and at times just a belief she would power through like she always did during Labine and wear her down. Much like she did with Sonny. Luke always liked a quick witted person who was a hustler, so his fondness for Lucy so quickly fit his personality to me. Even if he was loyal to Bobbie.