titan1978

Might as well post my favorite scene involving Lesley.  The good stuff starts around 6 minutes.  It’s also a pretty great Monica scene too.

Alan being gone left a huge hole in the show.  Not just as a Q or his relationship with Monica.  His scenes as a doctor, and his ability as a character to go from caring doctor to manipulative bastard never felt false.  Alan was all those things.

The loss of Alan and the diminshing of the Q’s also let out all the tension in Jason.  When he had that Jason Q past as a constant reminder at odds with Jason Morgan, it gave him more depth as a character.

10 hours ago, OldGHFan said:

Now this is the GH cast I want to see!

And other than Holly, we were seeing all of them regularly about 3 years ago.  Including Felicia and Mac.  And the ratings were higher!  And there was still room for the characters that are not popular but Valentini loves played by Michael Easton, Roger Howarth, Kiki, etc.  And again, the ratings were higher!  

The only neglected vet we see much of these days is Monica, and good for her.

6 hours ago, OldGHFan said:

 

She was.  Tonja Walker was great as Olivia.

I liked Julian back then a lot.  I thought he was cute, and I loved his dynamic with Cheryl.  Their dad was fun too.  But Olivia was he most dangerous.  She was just sinister and obsessed.

6 hours ago, Soapsuds said:

I still don't get the big deal where Adam is concerned. He didn't win a medal and has never completed a quad. He isn't even that attractive....IMO

The big deal is that he is the first gay American male in his sport to compete out of the closet.  Not come out later, but at the height of his career so far.

Gus is more my type, but I have nothing but pride for Adam.

Olivia Jerome was a great character.

4 hours ago, sheilaforever said:

Scott Thompson Baker and Joe Mascolo. Two actors I haven't seen on GH before. Cool find!

I loved Scott Thompson Baker as Colton Shore.  He was in a pairing with Felicia when Frisco was off the show, and was cousins with Lucy Coe.  His mother Charlene helped Lucy with her schemes (played by he great Marie Cheatham).

3 hours ago, Khan said:

They have John Beradino in one of the promos, and what does he talk about?  Luke and Laura.  Happy 20th anniversary, Luke and Laura!  I mean, GENERAL HOSPITAL!

I bet he wasn’t happy about it either!  The anniversary might have been in 1983, but those clips were very 1980-1981 centric.  Which I get, but spread the wealth a little.

12 hours ago, Elsa said:

 

I am mad at Y&R for erasing Jill's history and then dropping the character. These days she should be living her worst nightmare; living  in the Chancellor mansion and having turned into Kay with a younger woman trying to take over her life.

Having Jill turn into her version of Katherine would have been amazing.  Add to that sometimes her hearing Katherine’s voice.  Not a ghost, but hearing her voice at times. 

On 4/2/2018 at 6:59 PM, dc11786 said:

 

I believe it was Eric Peters and his roommate. Someone once posted here or on another board (maybe danfling's or Steve Frame's old board) about how when Stanley Kamel played Eric he was seen living in a one bedroom apartment that both Eric and his roommate would enter and exit from a various points. 

Interesting.  For 1972 that’s pretty remarkable.  Bill Bell and Agnes Nixon really liked to push the envelope didn’t they.  Which is kind of incredible because on paper, they were as old school as you can get.  I think if both of them were still writing shows today, there would be some interesting explorations going on.

Thanks for posting that Bill Bell article!  Who were the two men that in his intention had a homosexual relationship on DAYS?  I’ve never heard of this before.

I really wish I could see scenes of Denise Alexander in scheming mode as Susan, and scenes of Flannery as Laura.

Really the first time I’ve seen Bond as Jill.  I like her fine for this Jill, same with Adair (who I loved as Kate on DAYS).  But I started watching the show after Brenda came back and was in full Dynasty mode.  She was sexy, hard, cruel, campy, and a diva.  Then Jess came on and matured what Brenda had been doing, refined it.  Brought her own humor and less camp.  Jill really is a different character before Brenda came back and after.  Like night and day.  As a viewer I really respond more to the version of Jill that Brenda and Jess play.

These shows are fascinating.  Because Y&R is really nothing like those two episodes by 1988.  Nothing.  The glamour and mystery and corporate intrigue and Cricket of it all are so far removed from this.  Nikki is so different.  Paul is so different.

Even though I know it was sexy for its time and lushly produced, it still reads to me as old fashioned soap.  I’m not slamming that at all.  I see a kindred spirit and not evolution between Bill Bell here and Bill Bell on DAYS.  But by the late 1980’s to around 1992, I think his style evolved a lot, as did the look of the entire show.  That lush thing was turned up.  The drama and intrigue was turned up.  Not campy, just dialed up.  I’ve posted before about finding many of Bill Bell’s characters kind of cold, aloof.  That does not seem to be the case in his earlier show.

I really like this Patty, and it’s the only time I’ve not been annoyed by Mary.  Paul was cute too.  They were a great family addition.

All this talk about the Riche era has me watching YouTube and bawling my eyes out.  I don’t think any story has moved me as much as Stone’s did.

1 hour ago, Dax7000 said:

My all time favorite GH character was Lucy Coe. I was a little disappointed when they completely changed her from a schemer to a comic relief type. I appreciate character growth, but her early manipulations were great fun to watch. I am surprised they allowed her to keep her Quartermaine stock all these years.

 

 

I like Lucy best when she is just shady enough.  Early Labine was great.  The schemes with Damien, fighting with Katherine,  the pain over what the bet cost Bobbie and Tony.  Missing Serena.  They went a little too far with her once she completely changed into a better person for Kevin.

This is an iconic scene because of Lois and Katherine, but I also love Lucy and Ned.  “She’s all yours pal!”

36 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

 

Heather Tom was superb in the story of Victoria's baby loss. The problem for Herbst, as with Genie Francis, is aside from some individual scenes and scattered episodes, the writing was very hollow, and centered on men. To me the rape story with Liz and the rape revisitation with Laura were about Lucky and Luke - viewers being asked to cheer Lucky as he verbally abused his mother and asked to pity Luke for the burden of being stuck with the woman he'd raped. I thought the whole thing was disgusting. 

 

I had a difficult time believing in or connecting to much of anything with these characters under Guza. Liz eventually became loathsome after Lucky "died" and she was paired with Jason, and Laura just felt empty and aimless, whether it be with Stefan, at the hospital, wherever. I also never connected to any of Lucky's "death" story, acting or writing.  

I do agree that the story was written for Lucky and Luke and involved Liz and Laura.  

To me the Luke side of it wasn’t a burden, it was that he never felt that he deserved his “angel”, and that he had been found out about just how awful he was.  He was shedding his attempt at being the best version of himself, which he did for his love of Laura.  When Lucky found out, it brought back all his shame and his attempt at not being the person who has done this for a huge part of his life was destroyed.  But it was pretty much only about him, not Laura.  It was about breaking him down. 

If they had even tried to give Laura a point of view, it would have been incredible to revisit this.  Instead I was let down once we got to the actual confrontations between the three characters.

 I thought Lucky was his most spoiled during this story, and kind of hated him when he was with anyone but Liz.  Laura never got to truly explain what happened to her to him in a way that was appropriate and the depth of her feelings for Luke then and now.  We just got nasty Lucky.  I did love her telling him he didn’t own her, and that she had a life before him and separate from him that was hers.  But that was one episode.  Then it was walking on eggshells for a long time between the three characters.

Oh Guza.  His entire writing style is deconstruction.  The problem is he never builds it back up.  But I would watch that year again daily over anything happening on the show now.

1 minute ago, BetterForgotten said:

And that's another example of a story that Monty would have never done.

 

She was good at big plots and creating larger than life characters, but the depth just wasn't there otherwise. While I see the "fun" element in a lot of her GH work, it's just lacking soul and integrity to me overall. 

I will give her credit though.  She learned from that mistake and during her run no other female character was raped.  Which was better than another one falling in love with their rapist.  

I think rape is an important story, especially on shows with such high female viewerships.  The stories should reflect what is going on.  But soaps have a tendency to sensationalize it and make it a plot for a couple to overcome.  DAYS I’m looking at you here.

And though I did not watch it, Santa Barbara seems to have been particularly rape crazy for a show that aired for just a decade.

Monty would never have revisited that story.  She also would not have divorced Luke and Laura.  She described her own style as a mix of Hitchcock and Capra.  So thrills but also a sense of right and wrong that was close to black and white.

2 minutes ago, OldGHFan said:

 

I totally agree.  The revisit of Laura's rape was so good.  I was so surprised when Genie didn't even get nominiated for an Emmy that year.  Then again, that was the year that Susan Lucci finally won.

She was truly robbed the year of the fire.  I will never forget Luke telling her on the docks, then going to identify Lucky, and lashing out at Luke and Sonny and Jason.  Not to mention the week after leading to his funeral.  I remember even soap stars from other networks saying how her performance was truly overlooked.

Her grief just seemed so real.

2 hours ago, victorlord75 said:

At least Labine knew how to keep Luke and Laura interesting AND married.  Ultimately, it was Guza who decided that the only way to keep Luke and Laura interesting was to break them up.

And I felt that was kind of sacrilege.  I think they broke them piece by piece in a way that I could get behind as long as the end result was to build them back up together.  Instead it became pretty clear they just kind of gave up on her character.  Luke was still off being Luke and Laura was crying all the time about Lucky.

Nikolas, and revealing Laura having a kind of love for Stefan on the island and then Lucky learning about the rape and the fire were really good, character driven reasons for their relationship falling apart.  But they should never have been divorced.

5 hours ago, Khan said:

 

Tony Geary wanted Luke and his family to behave as if it were still 1980, which was a definite contrast, IMO, to Genie Francis, who seemed more okay with the idea of Luke & Laura being older and living more settled lives.

There were times when I thought they went too far with Laura in that direction.  She could be dangerous, impulsive and reckless just like Luke, and they tried to make her a little too domestic.  

But at least we saw her growing more anxious with the mob.  Lucky was shot, she was kidnapped and shoved down the stairs while pregnant with Lulu, her house was shot up and she killed a man to save Luke all in like a year.

It annoyed me as time went on and it became Laura wants to bake cookies and Luke wants adventure.  Which did neither character any justice.

One thing I will absolutely give Labine- her Laura was both vulnerable but also incredibly strong.  And Guza wrote her as a basket case.  

She had an emotional collapse when Nikolas arrived and had to be sedated.  She almost killed herself on the train tracks after Lucky died.  She went crazy when she thought she killed Rick.  She was just a mess under Guza.

2 hours ago, BetterForgotten said:

Riche also did a good job of checking Tony Geary's ego, and he hated her for that. 

And yet he also did some of his best acting work under her production and teams.  Nuanced, delicate work that later got bigger and bigger.

As much as he hates it, that early family unit of Luke, Laura and Lucky was really great stuff.

46 minutes ago, cassadine1991 said:

Wonder how Riche will be like if she'd ever return as EP

Better than Valentini.  Truly.  Also, all the stories will have emotional stakes.  She was very big on even a big action story having an emotional grounding.

The problem is, who writes it for her?  Because she can turn excellent writing into a great show (Labine, most of Guza), and mediocre writing into something at least watchable (Levinson and most of Culliton).  Sadly, Korte and Val Jean’s brief tenure was boring af, and Whitesell and Iacobuzio and an entire year of Guza was nearly unwatchable.

I was so excited when there were rumors she was possibly going to ATWT and again Y&R years ago.  I think she would have been a good fit at ATWT.

2 hours ago, BetterForgotten said:

To be fair, Riche's last couple of years set a dangerous precedent for the show that it's never really been able to shake ever since (the mob emphasis and the Sonny/Jason/Carly trio as God mentality). All of that started under her leadership. Her last year or two were not very good, IMO. 

Agreed.  Running Port Charles and GH was a huge mistake IMO, and GH suffered.  Guza’s storylines totally collapsed about 2 years into his return from Sunset Beach and the show was a dark mess.  

When did Frons take over ABC daytime?  Because I think that his type of interference was present towards the end of her time there.  I know she and Bob were not getting along by that point either.

I love Monty but I also really enjoyed a lot of what happened under Hardy and Kenney.  And they were not as demanding as she was, so the cast also had reasons to not enjoy her worst traits.

When she took daytime by storm before, she had strong writers for the first few years or her tenure with Marland and Falken-Smith.  That was not the case during her return.

I still think some of her choices were right, just not the way she implemented them.  But I would not trade those Riche years.  When Labine got there, the show moved me in a way that it had never before.  It was sophisticated for the 1990’s like Monty had modernized it in the late 70’s.  Monty would not have told a story like BJ’s heart, and never would have told the story of Stone and Robin.  

Part of why they acted so quickly was the vocalized frustration of the actors.  In under a year the show lost Robert, Anna, Felicia, and Frisco.  The Quartermain family wasn’t being featured, and she rushed her new vision onscreen.  By the end of that year things were looking up though.  She had repaired some of her own damages.

Both Tristan and Finola were fed up with Monty and burned out.  They were originally going to work it out to keep her she was planning to leave but had second thoughts.  Then she booked a prime time show on ABC.  Monty told her it was her last day while she was filming and didn’t have her finish out the end of her contract on air because she was mad at her.  They eventually made up.

Edited because I had some stuff wrong lol.