titan1978

I thought of another one, which merged several General Hospital specialties into one cliffhanger- the end of show montage set to music, mixed with slow motion mob action. The multiple hit mob shootout in 1995. Laura singing the lullaby to baby Lulu juxtaposed with the slow motion shootings in the Spencer house with Sonny/Luke/Lucky, Robin and Stone in front of the club, and Brenda in the shower in the upstairs apartment. I was on the edge of my seat when the next episode aired, and I still think it was one of the best ones they ever did.

One thing I will always give them is that Bill Bell/Kay Alden as HW knew how to give a psychopath a crescendo and make their ending thrilling. Even in that period in the 90’s when Bell was obsessed with Nick and Sharon, and the show got kind of boring. When they wanted a villain to go, they went out with a bang.

Yes, that moment on the docks still holds impact and was staged really beautifully! @alwaysAMC I didn’t start AMC u til Dimitri and Erica were already married, in the early part of the story with Kendall. I would have eaten that gothic storyline up as a teenager had I seen it!

It’s hard to quantify for me because she has been Carly the longest, and she has also endured the longest run with shallow writing that didn’t really explore her properly. To be honest nobody has ever reached what Sarah Joy Brown did for me. TB was a good recast for what they wanted at the time, but even she was pushed as romantic lead first, with a combative and antagonistic edge. SJB’s Carly was just much more complex, partly from her, partly from the writing, and also partly from the push/pull happening between Riche/Guza. There could be darkness and misogyny during their run, but it was more tempered. JFP leaned into that, and Pratt loves a trashy catfight. So the three of them setting the course in 2002 for several years really sets a tone. With all that said, I also do not see SJB working well now. They are just so different that it is impossible to imagine. I wish they had been more levelheaded when they wrote Claudia, but that just wasn’t going to happen at that time.

I also don’t believe that stuff about her. Do I think she doesn’t take any crap and is direct? Absolutely. She’s been acting in soaps since the early 1990’s so she has seen it all, and I have never seen her checked out. Now I don’t think she has ever gotten to that angry grit that fueled SJB’s Carly, and they never really tried to write her that way because it wasn’t working. I don’t think Valentini likes drama bts, and wouldn’t put up with it from her. Especially now. I don’t think anyone has any real power at GH bts except for Frank Valentini. The days of Maurice or Steve throwing their weight around are long gone.

Sonny was a little different back then, he was still essentially the same Sonny Claire Labine wrote for. He was less misogynistic, more in control of his libido, and he would have tried to keep himself from Brenda. Lily wasn't really the threat, it was the baby. That's why I think Brenda kind of gives up and gives in to Jax, because she needs the distraction and the comfort, and that baby is the one thing she thought would make a vow Sonny would not break for her. And that was just an unborn child, imagine if Lily had more kids and didn't die right away. But Sonny did not love Lily, that was a huge part of his breakdown after she died, and the feelings they both expressed about how wrong it would be to give in at that point. He felt guilty for dragging her into a marriage and his feelings for Brenda are what set up the chain of events with Lily's father having the bomb planted. And Brenda's own actions with the wire had betrayed Sonny so much that Lily was able to slide right in there. To me, the most important and defining line of their relationship until the conversation they had at the end of her last full return was the one about Sonny always leaving her in the rain. Dramatic and overwrought as it was, but that's Sonny/Brenda!

I am also not really able to access the site on my iPhone anymore. It was acting wonky for the last couple weeks, and the last two days all the workarounds have stopped working at all, with both Safari and Chrome. Seems fine on my laptop, although that's not what I use daily. Thank you for all your hard work trying to figure out what the issues are @Errol !

Oh I agree, it’s one of those soap moments you see after the fact and it’s still great.

It’s not that I didn’t like them or agree with you, because I loved them. I had seen Patch before Stefan and they just never feel like the same person, incredible work by SN. In 1996 he and Genie created actual heat, it felt dangerous. My problem was that all that promise never really fully came to fruition. After Lucky was revealed alive the whole thing just fizzled out. They deserved a big finish, not a slow crawl.

Good one. I “met” Roger pretty much after the fact, and all his big moments still worked for me. Minus the silly masked man when he returned. But the hall of mirrors, falling from the cliffs, all the stuff he did to Holly, the Mindy/Alex story culmination. It’s all good! When you watch all his crimes against Holly in his first run though, it’s kind of hard to fathom them sleeping together again like they did in the 90’s. I know they built it up carefully, and Holly is very neurotic, but still. This is the era I got hooked on AMC. My local ABC affiliate moved the show from noon to 3:00, so it was the only soap still airing when I got home from school. The tornado, Julia/Noah, Dimitri with Erica, the original Kendall Hart storyline, Tad/Ted and Dixie, Haley/Mateo/Alec/Arlene, the gay storyline, Kelsey and her teenage baby. Several years of solid stuff!

I hated Lily. But the show was so good back then that when she died it did feel shocking and was I was sad for her. She was no angel, she manipulated things several times while pretending to be the better person. The men were all clueless! In hindsight though, I think Lily was the better choice for Sonny as a wife. She wanted to be close to power but she really didn’t want it for herself. She was manipulative but not headstrong. She understood the game having grown up in it. She would have been a stabilizing influence on him rather than creating chaos. She even accepted his feelings for Brenda with resignation that their marriage would just not be that kind of relationship. Even with all that I think Sonny would have continued to be pulled towards Brenda. Maybe people that didn’t watch back then don’t understand it, but it was very dramatic, toxic, and yet you still wanted them together. They paired all that angst beautifully with a couple of 90’s Chris Isaak songs for their end of show music montages GH used to do so well. Brenda was always complicated when it came to Sonny being in the mob. It’s part of the wire storyline, she made illogical decisions because she wanted to be part of Sonny’s whole life and resented he was keeping things from her. During her last return we saw a Brenda who finally realized that her basically until then unspoken dream that he would give it all up for her wasn’t enough for him. He wanted power more than anything, even Brenda, the love of his life. And Carly was just impulsive, reckless, and volatile and a terrible choice to be that close to danger all the time. Carly, especially SJB and TB were like introducing an unstable element to an already volatile mix.

We barely see Mac so I kind of forget about Cody’s family ties. And yes that was terrible. Ethan/Lucy is also ridiculous.

Thanks for the tag! That whole time period was apparently very chaotic. Monty had said what she said about Genie and it got back to her, so she quit in anger. She then had regrets apparently and Monty also felt bad, and they had the conversation about Monty cleaning up the drugs on set. But from what I have read they may have thought about recasting her, and decided it just would not fly while they were in the middle of doing it. The story was nebulous, they weren’t even sure that Genie wouldn’t change her mind and try to come back. I don’t think there was even much more than a sketch of an idea for Jackie other than they wanted Demi. That also kind of shows in what Stone says. They were casting for type, like old Hollywood, and didn’t always have much of a fully defined story. Being told she had no mystery totally sounds like the GH of the era to me. Monty was moving away from recasting, clearly felt that was tied to the old fashioned soapy things she wanted to get away from. Heather Webber was the last main character recast that I can remember from Monty’s entire first stint. After that she just didn’t do it back then. Maybe even thinking about doing it with Laura soured her so much she didn’t really try again, except as a threat to Jack Wagner. Based on her Soapy interview I think Eileen Davidson was auditioning for GH around the same time and could also have been going for the same parts. Although her casting director was a man.

A ridiculous error with Korte at the top now. She’s supposedly the show historian! It’s not the worst though, because Ric is essentially a retcon anyway. The worst for me was the error with Bill and Holly during Tony Geary’s last big story. They were in stories and a romance together!

Awesome, thanks @SoapDope78

It ended up being their house/Laura’s house. Laura had what seemed like fantasies of a young black family living here with their children while they were hiding there from Frank Smith. Months later we learn it was the Ward house before Bradley died. It was one of those “feelings” Laura used to have that were borderline psychic but never fully explained. Laura even digs up Bradley’s bones while gardening IIRC, setting up the story with Mary Mae Ward and Edward. I miss writing like that.

Those were some pretty incredible scenes. IIRC Laura says something like “since when did we ever look alike?” to Katherine and you visibly see MaryBeth start to crumble, even though she is still putting up a front. I get why they brought her back, Luke and Alexis in 1998 are not going to actually murder someone in cold blood like that. Now 2008? All bets were off by then lol! But in hindsight, this was another example of a plot with the Cassadines that built and then nothing really comes of it, like most of Stefan or Helena’s schemes! I think Tony Geary was right and there should have been a time limit on Stefan and Helena, and Nikolas would be the painful element that stayed to haunt their marriage. It was a lot of build and then nothing several times. Guza just didn’t want to let them go like he did the Sonny villain of the year stories.

It cleared something up for me. He just swapped out Easton and Howarth for another close friend. As much as I like what they have done with Drew and think he is necessary, I also think it’s another example of FV forcing actual GH character aside for his friends, or characters created while he was there. Again, Dante. Liz. Laura. There are more, but you have three actual GH fan favorites that are good actors just there to help explain plot points and people like Drew (until recently) have every beat played and are always in story.

I had vague memories as a little kid seeing them when Laura returned in 1983, the blue scarf and Luke screaming at her from the balcony of the mayor’s mansion. So I knew who they were. That return starts off pretty great with the explosion seen in the credits for years, and meeting Lucky, having a little mini adventure. But what really grabbed me and made me love them both was when Laura sees the original Ward house, and them hiding there. Something about the still very real chemistry between them, the way Genie played seeing it and running up the steps on the porch, her face when they went inside. I felt like I got why they were special, and I knew exactly who Laura was at that moment and what kind of couple they were. The larger than life was there but it was grounded in real human emotions. They took a lot of care and effort for a return that felt effortless watching it, like they just fit right away.

I started watching ATWT with the team just before Sheffer arrived. I also loved the early part of his run. I have a lot of fondness for Rose, thought she and Holden were more interesting than Lily/Holden at that point, fell in love with Carly and many other characters. I know Katie got annoying later on, but the Ednicott awards was a fantastic comeuppance! During my adult rewatch, what I came away with is that there was almost a line in the sand about halfway through Maison Blanche. Everybody had some kind of lobotomy around that time, couldn’t see stuff happening right in front of their faces. That was also when the talking to themselves starts to get really noticeable and more frequent, and it goes downhill from there. I pretty much hate the Posession storyline, but I watched it back then and it is iconic for a reason. But the earlier part of the story was played more gothic horror than camp horror, which it becomes as it went on. That’s why the only part I still like is Marlena’s reveal as the Desecrator, because that wasn’t floating above the bed yet and we didn’t know she was the devil lol. This honestly sounds amazing. Before it got yanked from YouTube a few years ago, there were a couple of episodes up showing the climax of Vanessa’s plan against Lorie, including her death. I would love to see that whole story, because it was incredible.

They need Drew. If this was a truly well written show we would get a cat and mouse game with Drew no longer being impacted by the meds but faking it to try to trap Willow into staying with him by getting actual blackmail material evidence. But I am also not shocked he has been on less because they really burned up his appearances for a long time. Sometimes that budget things catches up to Valentini favorites. The story meeting is one thing. But what will put him on Frank’s dead to him list is talking about it outside the show. He hates that more than anything! Liz and Ric are just there like a lot of her stories. Rick Hearst has virtually chemistried his way back onto the show, but it’s still Liz and she’s not a priority. Whatever happened to all that Dante/Liz teasing? Maybe they do go there, but what’s the point if we never see any of them actually telling the story?

I think with the genre in embers again as opposed to burned completely out, now would be a reallly great time to rebuild and recruit talent to be mentored. Stop rehiring people that are beyond done.

After Spencer/Esme died Laura began to be moved back off the center of the show. Personally I don’t think Mulcahey had an affinity for Laura and it showed when he was first there trying to restructure the show. The later attempts to rebuild her family with Lulu and Lucky were mixed as far as adding more for Laura to do beyond Mayor. And that was entirely due to mismanagement with Jonathan Jackson. She is in a holding pattern, and they need an actual story that is told onscreen consistently again. But not a romantic pairing with Ezra Boyle. As far as questionable ethics, well nobody on GH since Guza was there has been fully morally upstanding. Maybe Georgie Jones, but she’s been dead a long time!

I agree with everyone that has mentioned Karen Wolek on the stand. When I finally saw the infamous scene on A Daytime To Remember, in isolation, it was powerful but kind of underwhelming. Later on I saw more of Judith Light as Karen after that story, because that’s what was available, and she was still so clouded in shame and self loathing that going back and watching that again it was more heartbreaking. Another story I would love to see from the start, even if I believe Judith wasn’t playing her when the prostitution began.

That episode used to be up on YouTube a long time ago. I saw it a couple of times and it was riveting! I believe they cut between the attack/reveal with scenes of Patty Weaver’s character performing. I only saw her as Gina on Y&R, and judging by what I saw on DAYS she was very underutilized by Y&R! I knew about Niki Smith, my grandma’s favorite show was OLTL. But this was something else entirely. Gothic. Sinister. There was no camp there. Agreed! It’s one of those missing episodes I hope someday just finally appears. We got to see that very early Monty GH episode this year, and vintage stuff still trickles out every once in awhile! He had lost me by then tbh. But I will never forget seeing Hope alive at Maison Blanche, or Marlena revealed as the Desecrator! That story really grabbed me as a kid! OMG yes that was so good! I am not a B&B person, but of course I had seen this story mentioned in at least one soap mags best soap stories of all time list. I recently saw this scene and it was possibly the best acting I have ever seen from KKL. Visceral. Bill Bell was still writing then IIRC.