titan1978

Those top three seem like a lock to me, and the ongoing issues with diversity in media make me hopeful for Angie and Jesse and their family, because it’s already there for them to tap into. I think a mystery angle works just fine with these characters, and a bit of darkness. I wasn’t even watching the show yet (didn’t start until the Kendall stuff), and even I know the murder mystery around Will Cortlandt was very popular and that era of AMC is beloved. I am a lifelong fan of GH- but my love affair began squarely in the Monty era so that is the DNA to me of that show. I think a lot depends of when this guy started watching. No matter what happens, I’m watching the first episode if it makes to air.

I love soap fans- but this is wild AF. I am interested to see what they do with the property, but I am fully aware it will not be AMC rebooted in primetime, filled with the types of characters mentioned in your post. That’s just not real, even if it was a daytime reboot, because that is not how networks think. Ita going to be its own thing, with some familiarity. And we better be prepared to let go of some of what we watched from about 2002 to the end.

I don’t give Kelly Ripa any credit to want to protect this as a brand. In all the years since she left she obviously has fond memories of working there and that it was important in her life, but she is not precious about soaps or daytime at all. She used to make fun of her time on the show all the time (I haven’t watched her talk show in a very long time, but I remember her often poking fun at the silliness of soaps).

How interesting! Maybe this will lead to other shows being reinvented this way (Edge of Night I am looking at you). I would be shocked if they didn’t try to get SMG. This needs people with ties from before and also some big names if they want it to actually work. And she is a much bigger star than AM.

That Rick GH story is just like the murders and Melaswen on DAYS to me- I am dying to have someone confirm what was really going to happen before bts stuff happened. Was Rick going to be revealed as having molested Laura? And how long was the original story supposed to play out? Because they set him up with the hospital syndicate and the story with Laura and it felt at the time like it was going to be more involved that it eventually was, but we all know Genie quit. And on the one hand, I hate what they did with Rick. But if Genie had stayed and Rick molested her, she would have bee given an incredible story. Same thing with DAYS- was Reilly planning to bring any of those people back? And if not, what was his plan for Marlena? Because I find it shocking to think he would have killed them all off and also Marlena.

Yeah, and I think it was a mistake in hindsight on the show’s part. I know they chose to not accept the new lesser contracts. And I loved Julie when she came back without Doug for that period in the early 90’s. But I also see the problem- we still had Tom and Alice as viable characters for quite a bit after that. And Julie is just too much to be a standard matriarch, and there wasn’t room for her to not have a real role on the show. Just being Hope’s surrogate mother and Doug’s adoring wife is removing all of Julie’s personality.

I would much rather hear about what working for Irna was like!

As someone that started watching in the 1980’s, there were plenty of characters I would have gotten rid of before Doug and Julie. I get the show was moving them into older character territory, and had already moved Marlena to the centerpiece of the show. But people like Liz and Neil (and I liked both of them) outlasted them in the 80’s and that is kind of shocking to me. This might be blasphemy, but I would rather have Doug and Julie on the show back then as featured characters than Maggie and Mickey. And again, I love them. But Julie especially adds that extra layer that makes her good in all kinds of stories, and also independent enough to be in the mix of all the action. Maggie can’t pull that off.

I will never forget just how good she was when she started killing Carly’s patients and then buried her alive. I wonder if the audience had an easier time forgetting how bad her crimes were because Carly wasn’t around anymore as a reminder. Because she was a murderer. I think Dano has it in her to play more subdued, but not with Ron writing it.

A lot of those GH people- yes. But Stone? That death was important for all the right reasons. I think it should stand. Same with BJ. Now Gillian on AMC? I adored her. She is the only thing that made Ryan palatable, and it was a travesty to kill her off. Not just because of Ryan, but she had that upper society background and demeanor that really tied into a core tenet of AMC, as set up by Agnes.

If I remember correctly, she said a more complicated relationship between them and they (writers) would have to do it very carefully. I read that any number of ways, but I do not think the intention or execution would have worked for a them too be a long term couple. But imagine what it would have done to Ed if they had even just kissed and it went no further?

I agree. It just seemed to me in this case that they were gently testing the waters. It wasn’t the words in the scenes so much as the ways they had them looking at each other. Lots of long gazes when talking to each other, and soaps are notorious for chem testing.

Fletcher and Maureen makes more sense to me than him with Holly. If she had lived I think we would have seen something become of her relationship with Roger. Maybe not a full love story, but something was being built up there. And it is well written. Her death and the way she dies, leaving everything unsettled was excellent writing. It’s just too bad the story lead to killing off Maureen. But as it stands without thinking of how bad it became, it’s as perfect a soap storyline as BJ’s heart was on GH. All the pieces were set and everyone was given excellent material to act.

Those are two actual classic episodes!

He lost interest in Y&R characters too over the years. Between Rex dying and Kay Alden reigniting the fight over the Chancellor estate, Katherine barely had anything going on for several years. The Williams family was hardly prominent except for Paul by the late 1980’s, after being a major family a few years earlier. Traci also suffered from this- they wrote her out more than once, and Bell clearly had no plans for her., while finding plenty to do for all her story partners- Ashley, Jack, John, Danny, Lauren, Brad.

The stability of Bell’s shows is amazing when you consider he really did write what interested him. If he wasn’t interested, he moved on. Maybe Tommy was over for him after that story. It’s not like he kept Marie as prominent as Laura and Julie and Susan. He really loved writing for them!

These deaths just remind me of what happened from a network level by about 2002ish on almost all these shows- only a handful of characters were deemed important, and everybody else was fair game. It didn’t matter if they were a vet, or legacy characters/kids. If it wasn’t one of the sacred cows, then the future of their story was irrelevant. On GH it became easy for them to kill off characters like Emily, Alan, Georgie, etc because if they were not Luke or a Spencer kid (Lucky or Lulu), in Sonny’s direct orbit (Jason, Carly, Michael and the rest of Carly or Sonny’s kids), or Robin, all bets were off. Even a kid between Liz and Jason was fruit of a poisoned tree. On Y&R, if it wasn’t a direct tie to Jack, Victor, Nick, or Phylis, then all bets were off. They still protected that section of the show for future story, and had no problem even cutting down other Abbotts as long as Jack was still standing. Even popular characters were burned to continue the focus on the characters networks wanted.

Y&R- Colleen and Brad Carlton should not have been killed off, and neither should Drucilla. DAYS- I thought killing Zach was a mistake then, and I still feel that way. Not a big fan of Bo being killed off either. GL- Maureen is more than just a mistake. It’s the tonal shift that sets a stage for what soaps became after that. No more sense of home, warmth, and that maternal guidance that used to be common and helped the characters along their way. I didn’t even see her until later thanks to YouTube, and I totally see what happened and why it was wrong for this genre and that show’s DNA specifically. But GH was the worst for me- Alan should not have been killed off. There was plenty of mileage for that character still. Same with Georgie, and I’m still mad they killed her, Coop and Logan off. Emily too. Just wasteful for future story and there was potential with all of them.

I mean, they literally quickly set up her character and put her right in the story Guza/Pratt had planned for Brenda. The baby, falling in love with Jason, the whole thing. I think Alexandra Quartermaine was pretty much a Tracy substitute.

Saw on Twitter Wendy Riche, Kimberly, Michael Sutton and Michele Val Jean reminiscing about Stone’s death. I didn’t know Michele wrote the script and the “I see you” line. It was a huge reminder of how much GH just broke my heart back then, but I came back every day because it was heartbreak with a purpose. It was sad but there was always hope and humanity on display. Stone died but Robin didn’t. This story took guts. And they told it as the ratings dropped, because they had the integrity to keep telling it. As someone that has know people that had AIDS and died, it was the most realistic portrayal of the decline I’ve ever seen on tv. We saw little by little all the medical issues he had. Thanks to the daily aspect of soaps we watched him dying in almost real time. Then they told the truth and had Robin contract HIV. Groundbreaking. Even though the network wanted them to rethink it and have her be somehow negative. And yes, the lack of gay characters would never be allowed today. But back then it was pretty trailblazing.

Thanks for the insights @vetsoapfan! I have wondered over the years after reading comments and stories about them if JC was just collateral in Harding Lemay wanting out of the Steve/Alice storyline, especially with George being difficult. If so she didn’t deserve it. As far as Flannery slapping Susan Seaforth Hayes- well I love both of them but by all accounts she was at several times a nightmare to work with. Didn’t she also get in a fight with another costar? I have heard Flannery was rude, but that is not the same as unprofessional. When did Flannery slap her? As far as anyone could be fired, it always seemed to me that even someone like Susan Lucci, Erika Slezak, Tony Geary etc could be let go. If not fired outright, then offered such shitty deals they would just choose to leave themselves. The last daytime firing that actually shocked me was when Drake was fired on DAYS. And then shortly after coming back, they fire both him and Deidre Hall and from that point on I figured it could happen to anyone.

Well, didn’t she bring that on herself? I have never heard Flannery described as anything but professional, and not difficult to work with. Weren’t she and George fired because of issues on AW?

I imagine if Flannery had remained Laura would have as well. DAYS reminds me so much of what happened to Y&R after Bell retired. He left DAYS with a story bible and a trusted protege, and I wonder if the show was still a half hour show if PFS would have had more success. Then a string of HW’s, the cast is decimated and started over several times before the show stabilized again in the super couple era. Y&R fared better after he left, but eventually the network and Sony’s interference removes his protege, and we suffer through several head writing regimes that decimate the cast and the show is now reinvented and is nothing like it’s original DNA. Except Y&R has never stabilized in my opinion after Alden, and the state of soaps today means it probably won’t have the resurgence DAYS had after Bell had been gone for about 7 years or so. He proved incredibly hard to follow on DAYS, and eventually on Y&R. Much more than after his earlier stints writing under Irna.

I just re-watched an SVU episode with Florencia Lozano and she was pretty awesome in it. Made me miss Tea Delgado a lot.

I haven’t seen much of The Doctors. But was Althea more rounded? I know So much of Lucinda involved complicated relationships with her kids, both Sierra and Lily. Yes she had business stories too, and love affairs. But the meat of her part was tied to her kids. Maybe that is what she doesn’t like about Marland’s writing for Lucinda.