titan1978

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-

15 hours ago, DRW50 said:

 

I never have gotten the Rena Sofer hype as Lois, and I never will, although her makeup looks very good in this episode. 

At the time, it was a fun story on a show filled with a lot of sad, emotional tales. Ned sneaking around as Eddie, married to both Katherine and Lois, and her ultimately acclimating to the Quartermaines was being told alongside Sonny/Luke vs the mob, BJ’s death, Monica’s cancer, and Stone dying of AIDS.  They were playing romantic comedy while everyone else was playing heavy drama or action.

I loved Lois but I have little use for Wally as Ned.  He’s fine, just never my favorite on GH or DAYS.  I will take Kurt McKinney any day over Wally.

The fact that she was presented as smart, fun, loud and a happy person played out well against her bff Brenda who was so needy and kind of pathetic at times.  But I can see how she is also grating and annoying.  That wedding cake episode is a classic as far as I am concerned!

I also liked that she had a history with Sonny, but saw and commented on the person he was becoming as he was gaining power.

Guza did not get her at all.

Wow.  That’s right.  I did used to think Jason and Sonny were hot af, and I enjoyed them as characters.

It has been a long time since I felt that way.

Not sure if this has been talked about here or not.  On the ABC website and app they have 20 classic episodes of GH about Sonny & Carly.  Not a great couple for me, but it’s whole episodes with characters that I do love.  Plus Sarah as Carly.  And the Faces of the Heart open.

First episode has Felicia being held by Faison, Hannah, and Roy.  None of which I enjoyed back then.  Funny what you can tolerate after over a decade of Guza, JFP, and Valentini.  I long for the likes of Hannah on GH today lol.

10 hours ago, victorlord75 said:

The thing about both JFP and Guza, Jr. that has me scratching my head to this day is that both of them were involved in one way or another on GH during its heyday, so one would think that both would have had the highest respect and esteem for GH history.  Phelps was there as a music director and Guza, Jr. was part of the writing team during the 80s.  So, I was shocked and really saddened by the horrible Heather Webber return where Heather was out to snag Luke (?) and how Rick Webber came back as an unrecognizable demon, only to get killed off.  I know that some posters here feel that Guza, Jr. was better than the current writers, but I don't agree.  I don't think the current writers have done as much damage, especially with revisionist history, like Guza, Jr. did.  The new writers seem to prefer to create new characters, but that's a subject for a different thread.  

The only thing I can say is that the lessons they learned from Gloria Monty were all the bad ones.

Gritty is fine, but on a show that airs five days a week all year long you need balance.  They are not good with balance.  Pair that with the misogyny found in both of their work and the lack of respect for history and it’s pretty rough.  They also both seems to revel in being unlikeable- her in reputation and him in not writing a single likeable character for very long without trying to deconstruct them.

Anyone watching the show could see the considerable difference between Guza’s first round as HW, and his second after Sunset Beach.

Every major story was focused on a man, except for Brenda, who was just stuck between two men.  Even Elizabeth’s rape seemed to really be more about Lucky and Luke than Liz or Laura.

Also- his entire point of view as an writer was to deconstruct every relationship and character except Sonny, Carly, and Jason.

Alan on drugs.  Luke loses Lucky and Laura and is mired in misery.  Laura loses Luke and Lucky and is mired in misery.  Lucky hates his formerly beloved parents.  Tony is a kidnapper (including Robin).  Justus is a murderer.  The list goes on.

Riche let all this happen.  There have been rumors for years they had tension and did not get along.  But still, she produced all of this.

I still think Riche’s run from her arrival to the first six months of Culliton as HW was just about perfect.  Lots of highs after that too, but that first part was just so good.