titan1978

Something I learned on Burton’s podcast when he and Bradford interviewed KMc made me laugh. It was his idea to see if Kimberly was willing to return to the show, he went to Guza and pitched it. And she said she would but didn’t want to be paired with Jason again, because it was all about him. So she came back and was why they didn’t go for Robin and Jason again. It did seem like we were going to get a Nikolas/Robin pairing but they just never followed through. I liked her with Patrick though- plus we got to have actual hospital stuff again.

At the time it made sense that Laura would be as devastated as she was by both losing Luke and then Lucky dying. She wouldn’t just get over it. But they just left her directionless and morose, half pining after Luke and half still upset about Lucky. She and Stefan felt very temporary to me at that time. They dug the hole and then didn’t know what to do with her. She was also an island- they never invested in a career for her, or female friends, so she just kind of sat in her house and cried. And back then, the best Luke & Laura stories Guza wrote were about Laura- once she went on that endless maternity leave and came back Luke was back being the focus. Even when they revisited her rape. There was a brief period before Lucky’s death, the show bought her a bunch of new clothes, they had new publicity photos made with her, Tony, and SN, she had a flattering hairstyle with long bangs, and they were trying to give her more glam for a bit. Then it was back to frump town.

The flashbacks worked for me. SN really brought a lot to making Stefan a successful character. That was a great year for Laura on the show. First the Damian Smith murder mystery and trial, then Lulu was sick, which lead to Nikolas and Stefan. Even though her faked death was stupid, I did love the confrontation scenes she had when they returned with Nikolas, Bobbie, and then the rest of the town as they were dedicating a wing to her and the now not dead Lesley at GH. I loved those two scenes when Audrey and Monica came to visit Lesley too. I miss all that gothic smog on Spoon Island and the creepy Cassadines. And what happened to Luke and Laura only worked for me because of the groundwork laid by his very in character reaction to Nikolas, and Laura’s push/pull with her other son and the real feelings she had for Stefan and all her guilt. But pairing them as an actual couple was a disaster. The year of grief when Lucky died didn’t help either. I think I’m going to go watch her confrontation with Katherine at the ball and the first parapet fall- it’s the only time I felt awful for Katherine and MBE played it so well. Laura telling her the dress and the ring were hers, Stefan was molding her into Laura’s image- Since when did we ever look alike? So great. It was the hedging their bets. I did not get the impression that Riche would have gone as far as divorce, due to their iconic nature on the show and the wedding. So they spent a lot of time not really moving them fully on, or at least not enough to make other relationships work. Because until JFP divorced them, it was pretty clear they would eventually be back together. And as Genie has said- they lost interest in writing for her (again, the holding pattern hurt her more than Luke) after Lucky died.

Talk about an iconic moment with Lois and that cake. So great. I also liked Bobbie and Stefan, and Bobbie and Nikolas had a nice relationship too, that we really only got to see Laura be bothered by a couple of times. So many great things were derailed when Guza left for Sunset Beach. The only thing I thought sucked at that point was dark Felicia after Kevin was revealed as her stalker. Wrong actress by far. Oh and he just didn’t get Lois. She wasn’t stupid, she just had more a normal moral compass than Sonny or the Quartermaines.

Katherine was ill defined in every relationship on the show except for Lucy. I like MBE, but Stefan was very well defined and the Laura obsession made any of his relationships pointless.

I think Park would make a great Tom Hardy. And I am only really for Tom coming back if the show is going to invest in Tommy as well. They missed a perfect opportunity to utilize that family line when they decided to copy Grey’s Anatomy with their already cooking Sopranos recipe when Patrick, Robin, and the rest of the hospital characters were being used prominently again.

They almost had the potential with original Ava (they still needed to walk her back a little though) and Nikolas as a new Monica and Alan. Lots of heat and plenty of toxicity.

I thought they had chemistry, but Ava is also different since Kiki was killed and her experience with Ryan, which makes for a different type of couple.

While I have not seen many full episodes of GH from its original decade, when I do it’s very interesting how unsoapy the actors were. Lots of subtle work, and while characters like Jessie are subjected to various traumas, I’ve never seen a clip or episode of her acting hysterical. Or Rachel Ames. Certainly not John Beradino. Emotional sure- but not the high levels of emotion that become more and more popular in soap acting in the 1970’s. Was Denise Alexander as Lesley the first lead on GH that was more soapy? (I love her by the way, I think she is a good actress, but Lesley is much more a traditional soap lead of the more emotive type compared to Jessie, Lee Baldwin or Audrey IMO).

IIRC, Rachel Ames was no longer on contract during part of this period too. We saw Steve at the hospital, but they didn’t have many scenes until Wes Kenney’s era as EP, when Tom Hardy and Simone became part of the story, and even then, those two were B or C storyline characters most of the time. When you watch the first few Monty years, we see folks like Lee and Gail and the other original vets quite often. Even Jessie has her little story with Dan. I think loosing Jeff hurt Steve and Audrey. And Monty moved away from recasting major roles, so Jeff wasn’t likely coming back. Recasts were so strange to me because I grew up paying most of my soap attention to GH- and by the time I was old enough to know what was going on Monty just didn’t recast parts. When someone left, the story moved on. I’ve recast Jeff as Robert Newman around here before, and I could see him as Tom too. Plus I think he would make a better romantic foil for someone like Genie Francis or Nancy Grahn.

I am also not remembering them rekindling an affair. He wasn’t even on that much! There was a hospital storyline that was barely talked about, and then the storyline with Laura. Whatever it was supposed to be- either she was molested by him which is what I have heard the original story was before she quit, or she murdered the nurse he was sleeping with and had repressed it and he was protecting her (which was another version I have heard of that didn’t end up airing due to Genie leaving). What we got was a mishmash and horrible to Rick and Laura. I vaguely recall a scene with Rick, Monica, and Alan where Rick and Monica had kind of a moment. Or just expressed fondness to each other.

LK, for good or bad, brings an intensity and really adds dimension to even bland dialogue. Which soaps nowadays desperately need. I know she has her detractors, but I thought she did great on GH.

There is that old interview from Jackie Smith that I read someplace on SON as well that credited some writer I had never heard of with creating the Quartermaine family. I wish there was an oral history of GH like that great OLTL one from a few years ago. Even if things contradict, it might help make the overall picture clearer. I do believe Genie’s recollection about Monty- maybe Laura and Scotty were already in the works but I don’t think they were planning to focus so much story on her, as in she became a lead. And Stuart Damon has said Alan didn’t really have a personality until Monty got there and they leaned into him having an edge. We know she casted Jane and Tony, but I have also read Jackie was already there as Bobbie, and Marland was there for a period of time before Gloria. Geary told an anecdote about her making Mary O’Brien miserable, yelling at her that she was the worst actress she had ever hired, except she also started airing in 1977. Of course, that story could have been embellished. And from that same interview when Tony didn’t get cast opposite Jane, she said they created the Luke character for him. Now was that Marland, Monty told him what to do, or a little of both?

That was great! I remember seeing this back when it aired, but not since. What a lovely scene, especially since they didn’t give her much to do for such a very long time. And here she got to use her own character’s important history and had something to actually perform, that was about her. BH really acted the hell out of that storyline.

Awesome, thanks for posting! I’ve seen so few episodes of GH pre Monty, I know that Tom Donovan was considered a good producer, and the show had stabilized before it expanded to 45 minutes and lost a lot of viewers. I have seen a couple of these older episodes with Diana Taylor, but this time she actually had scenes with some meat. I can see why people liked her, although I enjoy Bundy as well. This episode, while there was movement, felt kind of claustrophobic to me. It was such a simple idea, to make that rounded nurses hub, and those hallways off from it, but it really allowed the show to feel more open, even if the set was technically more closed off.

Didn’t they lowball Josh Morrow, Sharon Case, and Melody in the early to mid 2000’s, causing all three to not sign contracts and stop airing for a period of time? What happens with their contract negotiations? She deserves everything she is asking for. Even if her new character isn’t as strong, she is still great and they desperately need actors making their bland Y&R material have some spark.

I think she would have been great with Riche and her writing for Roger makes me think she could have given Tony Geary what he wanted without making Luke so awful. According to Claire, the Labine’s left on their own to try to launch a new show of their own. They were finally back in a groove of new things happening when they left after Stone had dominated the prior 6 months.

His first period at DAYS, before the possession, was classic and worked incredibly well. I loved the possession at first, but by the end he kind of settled into really slowly moving stories and characters talking to themselves all the time as a style. Everyone got really stupid, and over the top. Which he then carried over to Passions. It didn’t work for me, but I’ve never said he was a bad writer. It’s like Guza at GH- it wasn’t for me. But I can’t deny that he was a strong writer. It was just all misery.

As far as I know it has always been credited to Demorest/Reilly/Broderick. I love that Nancy came up with the blow dryer though.

I don’t get what was so awful about what Maurice Benard said onstage accepting his Emmy. I’ve long stopped caring about Sonny, but no matter what I think, he is the tenured star of the show right now, and has been certainly since JFP arrived, if not a couple of years before. Once they put him with Carly, the two corners of the show not storyline connected to Luke & Laura directly became the overwhelming majority of story. Is it egotistical to say that out loud? Yes. Other people say it, not you. But I also get he is proud of the show and his place on it. Now his version of star doesn’t compare to what existed for the popular GH cast of the 1980’s. But he is clearly the star of the show. And I love Genie. She will always be GH royalty to me. Same with Finola Hughes, TR, hell even Vanessa Marcil. She has kept me tuning in during some real boring eras of this show. But by choice and by lack of support from TPTB she has come and gone several times over her tenure on the show. I’m not saying her exits were not justified- they were.

Alan Quartermaine was my Maureen Bauer. It was when I realized the show isn’t for me anymore, they aren’t going to go back to a GH I recognized or wanted to watch. Sure I checked in at various times over the years, sometimes for several months to a year, but it took me a long time to get over what had happened to my once favorite show and it has never been the same. Alan was not a vet at a dead end story wise. I’ve heard several times over the years that Guza didn’t want to kill Alan. Always reeked of Frons and JFP to me.

He absolutely deserves at least a week! He expertly played every side of Alan and seems like he was a great cast member bts too!

I am also a die hard Brenda stan- however, the wind was really out of the sails in that year long return and marriage to Sonny storyline. Although I love Adrienne Barbeau in almost anything and wish the storyline had centered on her actually being The Balkan. Now the earlier return? The show was on fire, and considering how mad I was at JFP for what happened with Genie, and hated her exit storyline, Brenda was the only reason I tuned back in. And it really was a good run of story. And she would have stayed if they gave her the schedule she wanted with her young son, which was early calls and no more than 3 days a week as I recall reading at the time. But JFP refused.

Sad news. I know he has been in poor health over the last few years. Alan should never have been killed off. I hope he and his family feel some peace. After watching that clip, it reminds me that modern fans have no idea how much fun Monica was as a character. She’s been so neutered by tragedy that she is barely a character at all, let alone the ambitious, passionate and sometimes awful person she was.