titan1978

You know, I have always been team Laura and Genie.  But the article posted above reminds me that although I think the network and producers let Tony get away with murder and did not value her, she also left more than he did.

I remember her maternity leave that did not end.  And on Steve Burton’s podcast, she commented on how Riche gave her a first in first out type of deal once her kids were born, and how there was resentment for that that.  It might be the only time she was given favored status over Geary once he became popular.  Monty and JFP certainly treated him with more respect.

She has also stated that at times she would let him do the battles for both of them, although she also fought bts for better stories with him.  It just seems in hindsight that Riche did see her as important.  I wonder if that plays into how much Tony disliked Wendy?

11 minutes ago, Antoyne said:

Anyone know which writer decided John was Marlenas one true love and not Roman? Was it JER?? Did Drake and Deidre really have more chemistry than Wayne and Deirdre?

I loved Wayne.  I only saw his last storyline as a kid when Stefano killed Roman.  But I loved him.  Drake was always pleasant to me as Roman, and for those that find him sexy he gave them plenty to look at.  I was way more into Bo, so Drake wasn’t on my radar as far as attraction.

People I knew that also watched DAYS absolutely preferred Drake to Wayne.  I didn’t get it back then, and I still do not.  The story written by JER and Sheri (she was there when it started) put the tortured aspect directly at John and Marlena’s feet.  Roman was not written well at that time, and John was given the type of writing that romance fans respond to.  Tortured and sexy.  JER absolutely ran with that as a solo HW writer and made Marlena/John the couple.

Truthfully, Drake’s Roman (even before they thought he was him) was always written from a romance story angle first, whereas Wayne was a more complete character as created and acted out.

I also remember reading in the soap mags that people wanted her with John.

I don’t want anyone with Josh’s Roman.  Never have cared for him.

As far as Melissa Reeves goes- it was all pretty much reported on the soap boards I followed back in the day, and confirmed when Corday sued her when there were firm rumors she was going to another show, possibly GH.  The suit put it all out there as fact, including the part about Scott forcing her to quit.

No storyline I followed was ever as dismantled by recasts as that one.  The replacement Jennifer was awful, and then when Mark Valley left the next Jack was just atrocious.

Except for a few brief moments here and there, she has never seemed like the Jennifer Horton I loved back then since she came back.  Each time.

Kin Shriner was Genie Francis’s first serious relationship when she was a teen on GH.  He was... not a teen.

Justin Hartley and Lindsay Hartley met on Passions.

Weren’t Lane Davies and Nancy Grahn a couple at one point in real life while on SB?

8 minutes ago, Faulkner said:

Certainly no one can claim that Marty didn’t have a voice in that story. I had just forgotten how much of that scene was from Powell’s POV.

And in the end, because Roger Howarth was a great actor, we had to go from just how awful this was to Todd being a lovable rascal.  Yes he stalked Nora and if I remember correctly attacked Luna.  But he became a cooky character that was sometimes shady.

When he hit Tea, and people were all up in arms about it, I remember thinking well he did participate and orchestrate a horrible gang rape so this seems perfectly in character  to me.

And I liked Todd.  But I knew who I was watching.

33 minutes ago, Faulkner said:

Not to trigger anyone with these depictions of sexual assault, but there was Marty’s rape, which 26 years later is still unsettling and maybe a touch overproduced (even if it’s effective at conveying Marty’s drunken disorientation and dissociation). But it’s mostly about Powell’s manpain. Still that story touched everyone in Llanview for years, even if Marty ultimately became defined by it.

 

 

The best thing about soap storytelling is just how much ground they can cover, and the good ones do.  The angle of Powell in Marty’s rape story and aftermath was a strong part of that story.  How privilege and conforming can play a part in group assaults like what happened to her.  Especially in a college setting.

39 minutes ago, Wendy said:

My late grandmother was a CBS soap watcher, so I am somewhat familiar with B&B, even not watching it myself. But...dayum, that Ridge/Caroline scene makes Drake Hogestyn (at least in the same time frame!) look positively talented (though, to be fair, his RoJohn had genuine warmth and charm, which served him well - and, I admit, I like(d) him!).

 

Ronn Moss' atrocious delivery reminds me of that Jon Lovitz SNL character and "ACH-TING!"

Drake had a lot of warmth and charm as Roman.  He was a classic soap opera himbo back then.  By the time Wayne returned and he decided to play John as a little tortured, it has been rough seas ever since.

Although I have never watched B&B regularly, I’ve seen enough to say Ronn Moss has the acting talent of a block of wood with cheekbones and abs.

There is something about Susan Flannery in her B&B prime that always makes me see her as a quintessential Bill Bell actress.  Cerebral, chilly, contained but with tension like she could strike at any moment.  Deeply loving of her family, intelligent, and also kind of sad and broken.

I’m sure her turn as Laura on DAYS was wonderful under his writing too.

Alex and Roger at the country club is epic in a way only soaps can do.  Slow build, culminating in several stories coming together.  The scenes with Alex confronting Mindy before, the actual Country Club scene with most of the major players in town, the scene outside on the balcony with Alex, Alan-Michael, Roger, Blake and Frank, and the next scenes with Alexandra and Roger are just incredible.

She plays so many layers between all those scenes, and that voice!

Robin Strasser has spoken about that iconic scene in the past too.

So many classic scenes are ether lost due to the nature of production at the time, or not available to anyone to view because of copyright and money to make them available.

I am just thankful that some amazing people have added classics to the internet so I could see them again, or for the first time.

Real talk- the reason we never got Jason/Carly was that Steve Burton fought that pairing at every turn.  At first he was waiting out Kimberly McCullough’s visits from school.  Then when they broke them up and Robin was really gone, he played against romantic interest with Carly.

I think Burton had actual chemistry with all three of the major Carly’s, and I think Sonny has not always had romantic chemistry with Laura Wright.

Until Sam came along, I was pretty sure he wanted to be paired with Liz.  It was the only time outside of Robin I saw him come alive in a romantic storyline.  Again, before Sam arrived, when she thought Lucky was dead.

Maurice had a couple of duds by the time they paired him with Carly.  I think he was probably active in getting that pairing because he wanted to act with someone great again.

I love Vanessa Marcil.  Love Brenda.  But if she’s not willing to sign at least a two year contract, I do not wish to see her return again.  Her first return was so successful, but the show was a mess while they scrambled to reset after she left.  And the second time it was 60% of her return was a story she hated and fought against, and had so many weird missteps.

The whole Dante/Brenda thing was a mess.  The kid- a mess and a waste.  That should have been Jax’s kid.  The Balkan was a fine idea but it was executed stupidly. 

21 minutes ago, ironlion said:

That's unfortunate that the actors were so eager to run from the couple paring that made them a household name. Ironically, the charachter of Luke suffered without Laura as he became a cynical, "cool man" drunk. Having began watching GH around 2006, I had no clue Luke was the show's IT man in his heyday.

 

Now he's running over Jake, marrying Tracy and split personality? 

 

Laura on the other hand is coming off as strong and into her own on Frank Valentini's GH compared to the victim she often had to play under Monty, Riche, and Guza's watch. The hard truth is that star actors sometimes shouldn't be involved in the writing of their charachters. 

 

It's also interesting how GH shifts between male charachters as the star of the show. Steve Hardy, then Luke, Robert, Sonny, now Jason. I suppose it balances out the stong female stars on other soaps (Reeva GL, Stephanie B&B, Erica AMC, Viki OLTL). (Meanwhile, Victor remains the star of Y&R)

I have always felt she goes for the emotional core of her scenes, and Tony sometimes (or a lot of the time depending on the writing) goes big.  I never felt like Genie played Laura as anything but grounded.  I loved Luke back in the day, and didn’t necessarily have to watch them as a duo.  They worked just fine for me apart.  But together and written equally they really did do stellar work.  Action stories or emotional heartbreak.  They played it all really well.

29 minutes ago, j swift said:

I have a question:

 

When Laura became Stavros Cassadine's widow, (after she returned the first time when Luke was elected mayor) why didn't she get part of the Cassadine fortune in his will?

 

In the promo for Laura's return, they show Stavros putting this huge necklace around her neck.  Didn't she get to keep any of the jewelry?  She seemed to have all of her clothes, why didn't she pack her diamonds?

 

I was thinking the same thing about why Jennifer Horton didn't get any of the Alamain fortune when she divorced Lawrence.  Soap divorce law can be so unjust.  

 

I know it's a soap, (yadda, yadda, yadda), but I am wondering if there was any mention of this detail in the story?

The only things I remember is that she had to leave everything behind, because she was terrified of Helena.  The one time she went to get Nikolas, the Cassadines killed her mother (retcon), and she decided to move on for not only her and Luke’s safety, but also Nikolas.  Also was that marriage even valid since she was obviously still married to Luke?  He did not died in the snow accident the Cassadines used to convince her to stop fighting and give in to Stavros.  

Adding Stefan to that Cassadine kidnapping story really helps make  it more palatable,  because without that relationship it’s really a very tragic story for Laura.

We did learn that Luke somehow had some or all of the Ice Princess diamond and was selling it off by piece to fund his adventures.

I love Kristina Wagner and Felicia.  But she has never really had an edge, and Luke needs that to bounce off of.  That tragedy, even as an undertone is where Geary does his best work.  They just were not good couple material.

26 minutes ago, Darn said:

I think Genie gaining weight during one of her pregnancies completely did the character in. They didn’t see her as a person, as sexy, as interesting, she wasn’t worth the “effort” anymore so they draped her in tarps and aged her into this matronly role. It was really sick. This beautiful, still YOUNG woman was suddenly reading as very old. Whereas Geary was actually old and looked it and ran around town with the much younger Felicia having the adventures of a man half his age. Just another example of the mysogyny that is pervasive in daytime.

That absolutely did happen.  I even recall when she lost a few pounds, maybe 10 to 15 after the Lucky fire story and all of a sudden they bought her some stylish new clothes and had her hair styled more sexy and she got new show publicity photos.  She was back in their good graces for losing a little bit of weight.

She looks great right now, and she seems to be happier.  As bad as the show is her character is being used better than she has since the Nikolas backstory was created.

Laura is the only woman I thought Stefan had any chemistry with.

31 minutes ago, Khan said:

 

Oh, FFS.  Those actors and their blasted egos.  

 

GH had the same problem with Luke/Felicia that DAYS had with Shane/Kayla: you can't build a viable couple or supercouple on the proverbial ashes of two former couples.  If you want us to believe that Luke could live w/o Laura and Felicia w/o Frisco, then you have to give Luke and Felicia two new partners who have not been in popular pairings before.  Otherwise, the audience will resent it and they'll revolt.  (Again, look at what happened with Shane and Kayla.)

 

I guess I should be glad, however, a Roy/Laura pairing never came to fruition.  A Martinez and Genie Francis would have had absolutely no chemistry.  They'd have been better off pairing her with Ingo.

I used to see some chemistry between Laura and Sonny, Mac, and oddly Tony.  None really with Roy, but at the time I felt he was really not doing his best work while on GH.  Waste of a good actor.

Genie has a great scene with Roy where Felicia is there and leaves, and Laura just unloads about her.

Once her pairing with Stefan was done, the show should have just started over for her.  New situations, new romantic pairing.  Lucky’s death really did a number on Laura.  The show let her character grieve like Laura would have, but it was all she did for almost a year.

Just now, Vee said:

Guza came up with Miranda but AFAIK she was cast and mostly written for after he exited. I may be wrong.

You are correct.

That two Macs story was atrocious.

Miranda was Guza’s character, and from what I remember reading back then, Alexis ultimately got Miranda’s backstory.

That two month period before Guza’s official return was so crazy.  Luke delivers Alexis’ entire backstory in one episode without real buildup, the two Macs starts, and several other pieces are being put into place or ended so he can basically have a season premiere of just where he wants the stories to go.  He was clearly already working on the show before his credits start.  If I remember correctly, he was credited as a consultant on Port Charles before his credit started back at GH.

I liked V!

22 hours ago, DRW50 said:

I've never been the Genie Francis devotee that many are, but I finally watched these scenes yesterday after hearing about them years ago, and they're very strong. I especially like that we don't get a cliched "girl power" moment but that we also don't get her in hysterics - she instead is just completely numb, which underscores the trauma of what we've witnessed. And it's a real contrast to Tony Geary doing his "best" action hero theatrics. 

 

(this reminded me that I always liked Harry - didn't Guza or McTavish later reveal him as a traitor or something?)

 

 

My personal favorite mob shootout on the show.  So much came together, and the cliffhanger version when the shots start while Laura is singing the lullaby is just great production for a soap.

Those  two also did the stupid revisit of the Aztec stuff with Felicia, only to have Guza wrap it up when he was ghost writing the show before his official return when Nikolas was shot outside Luke’s.

The show had been such a mess that when Guza came back (with Pratt) I was excited.  And the Laura story did start out well, even if I was terrified that Rick was going to be revealed to have molested her.  The hospital takeover was a good idea, and you could see where that story went off the rails when JFP and Genie came to blows over her wanting to take the same vacation Tony was taking that summer.

I hate what they did to Rick.  But I also think Genie and Tony excel at that emotional material that cuts into deep issues, so I wish she hadn’t left and we could have seen whatever the original story was play out.

Guza was really on fire when Brenda came back, then it was good but messy soap until we got to the contagion/Scrubs/Metro Court era for me.  I ate that era up.  After the fallout of Alan dying though, the good writing was overshadowed by the destruction of the core of the show, and I slowly stopped watching.

What she should be is a sinister member/matriarch of a new group of characters.  No past strip mining.  No winks to the audience.  The Dimeras are done at this point.  We need some new danger.

I am really impressed with HBS.  I loved her as Nora from day one.  But now, when I see ATWT stuff with her On YouTube, I just adore her version of Margo.  And Margo and Nora are not played similarly to me, she inhabits a different character.  Most of the time a soap hopper seems the same to me, but she really does seem different in both roles.

13 minutes ago, Khan said:

 

Actually, I think this was Reilly's handy work.  Even Sheri Anderson would have been above ripping off AMC.

I thought they were co-hw through the affair before she left.

I was so excited when Marlena returned, but the two Romans kind of killed the momentum until they decided to have that affair storyline.  Even though I prefer Wayne as Roman, that was the right story at the right time on that show for Marlena. She really got that one last chance to be a full character, capable of making mistakes, hurting those she loves and undeniably in love with another man.  Before the devil got involved.

Can’t believe it has taken me several days to remember this one.  I was riveted to Carly buried alive.

4 minutes ago, juppiter said:

I loved that storyline, but god do I hate the “witness/suspect snaps under interrogation and volunteers the truth for no reason” trope. It’s common on L&O and it’s just a deus ex machina IMO. But Cynthia Watros is fabulous in those scenes and makes up for the lazy writing. One thing that struck me: I don’t remember the 90s lighting being so bright and the wardrobe so white/pastel.

I remember that being a common criticism in the soap mags, that Rauch turned the lights way up and the mood of the show was affected.  Especially if you look at the moody lighting from JFP’s run.

I also couldn’t find the DAYS scenes with Gina/Hope and Tom’s puzzle box, where the family learned definitely that she was Hope.  I really miss hearing Alice say her family member’s names, Tom, Jennifer, Hope.  She had a certain inflection for each one.

That OLTL clip really brings back a bad time on the show for me as a viewer.  Dorian killing that baby was rough.

As much as I hate the Rappaports, I did enjoy Lindsay when she was on the conniving side.  Seeing Sam again though- oof.

Also- the scene looks great, but man did JFP over produce that.  The music, the lighting, all the tricks to make it great.  Something JFP forgot about after GL- if the writing is strong, and the performances are good, your production doesn’t need to do all that to convey what you want.

That scene with Maureen on GL.  That whole story and end for her character.  I know many have commented on what a mistake it was to kill her off in this way, and of course I agree.

What I see is an actress and a character that deserved better.  In every scene I have watched over the years (I didn’t watch GL back then, so thanks YouTube!), she is just a wonderful actress and brings a lot to the show and her scenes.

Start just before 6 minutes.

I could watch those scenes of Alex ripping into Roger all day long and never get tired of them.  And the later portion, outside when he threatens  her and she says “Ooh I’m scared to death!” in a way that only she could with that voice.  Perfection.

@Soapsuds I am dying at the inclusion of a Chill fan video.  Dying.

Wish the quality was better for this DAYS clip-