titan1978

Did Blake have something to do with that? I recall reading something along those lines, like either the scabs or Long when she came back from the strike decided to reveal Blake as Holly and Roger’s child, which was not the original plan.

Agreed

Heightened human emotion has become a hallmark of almost all dramatic television, which was once the domain of soaps. I don’t have a problem with soaps sometimes going off into flights of fancy. But I also prefer them to be grounded in a sense of reality. When the whole show is outlandish I often loose interest. The change of pace can be thrilling, but you need to eventually get back to human emotion for me. The GH Riche/Labine team took the sense of realism almost deadly seriously, but not so far that they didn’t have romantic comedy going on with Lois/Ned, and attempts at humor with Kevin/Lucy/Mac. They had longer scenes that were often full of little things that added to relationships and character. The thing about the show at that time was it felt so real to me, the characters were all so well defined and had a purpose. Frisco even came back for the story with Maxie’s heart, which is what should happen. There was a sense of danger and action with Luke, but it was grounded by the mob instead of WSB spies (which I loved when I was a kid), and had real stakes. I watched a lot of Curlee’s GL when the lockdowns started, and I really appreciated how that show was realized during that time. Community, history, realistic relationships and all types of characters were featured all the time. As much as I have enjoyed Y&R, what I prefer is the almost more gritty realism I got from Riche’s first 6 years or so at GH with Labine and Guza, and the HW teams led by Curlee at GL. I like it real more than I like the Reilly type of storytelling. When you look at the best of Monty’s time in GH, my favorite periods often had the umbrella storyline that was the WSB/adventure stuff, and the other main story was balanced in more human affairs. Ice Princess and Diana’s Murder in the same period is a good example.

I can’t think of a character that didn’t encounter Ruby once she took over Kelly’s. She was always great for tough but very deep love. She was incredibly grounded as a performer, and I used to love her scenes with Jackie and Tony Geary. You could just tell the three of them really enjoyed those scenes.

I will always love Robin’s Dorian, and I have seen so little of Nancy’s version. But from what I have seen, this is a perfect description. She always seems calculated and cunning, and very aware of everyone around her. She’s a really fascinating actor to watch. As a kid of the 1980’s soaps, it’s so great to see these classic episodes. Especially OLTL, because while a central figure the entire story doesn’t revolve around Viki or her relatives like it did when I first started watching. And as solid as the show was, just think with a few key recasts (Jenny, Karen), it really allows those characters to become incredible.

I’m going to need you to post that link.

@DramatistDreamerbrings up an interesting idea. I wonder if that is why the Curlee/Demorest/Reilly and others era worked so well across so many characters. Because they each contributed to the overall, but I bet they also each focused on parts of the show they were the most into. As opposed to the one singular voice.

That was fun, thanks for posting it @Forever8! Which EP was mad at Hillary? JFP? I think that lines up with when she was there, and I know HBS has had no issue speaking about how she felt about the show during her reign as EP.

When I watch episodes from that era I think it is remarkable just how much chemistry and possibilities there are in the characters you listed. There were sparks all over the place, and if many those actors had stayed, there could have been many years of potential pairings that could have worked. Everyone seemed to have chemistry on that show at that time.

Oh gross. I’ve never even thought of AT’s Emily with Sonny. Vomit. Say what you want about Reilly, but he absolutely invested in the Horton family as HW during his first round. We had Hope, Laura and Mike return, Jennifer was often in lead stories, and Lucas was revealed as a Horton. Plus we had visits from Bill, Doug and Julie. I also remember thinking Tom Horton’s memorial was one of the nicer ones.

After thinking about Liza and Marian over in the Awkward Returns thread, it occurred to me that in the time I watched soaps, AMC had the most storylines with mothers being heinous or doing something awful to their kids. Marian (although I was not watching during the affair with Tad storyline, they referenced it plenty while I was watching). Arlene Vanesssa Mary Smythe Charlotte Devane Those are just off the top of my head!

I enjoyed it. It culminated with Monica throwing the Quartermaines out and if I have my timeline correct, they moved into Kelly’s and Lila’s relish was born. Sean stole their money too if I remember correctly. It was fun.

I loved Andrea, but I also really liked Karen Witter as well. I thought that ended up being a pretty good recast back then. Do you think Witter could have played the larger than life era of Tina? Andrea had the ability back then to go big, but still make it believable for Tina. Andrea always brought a lot of charm to Tina.

Agree 100%. Didn’t Marj’s version of Alexandra Spaulding become a drug kingpin? I cannot fathom Beverlee playing that. I also cannot imagine Liz Keifer playing out some of the more villainous turns from the earlier versions of Blake. The stuff with Phillip and even the earlier stuff with Eleni. Sherry would have had a hard time hiding her true feelings about having twins with different fathers. I can only imagine her trying to act that. I accepted a lot from Mark Valley that I never would have from Matt. He was a good actor and incredibly attractive, had a little of Matt’s sarcasm but was nothing like the OG Jack. But I liked him!

I can’t imagine Tamara Braun’s Carly seducing Tony. I can see Laura Wright’s version doing it, but not TB. I also cannot imagine David Lewis playing the 1990’s era Edward Quartermaine, especially the story with the Ward family. Ingle played the sorrow and romance side better. But I did love David Lewis.

One of my favorites that was just a throwaway scene, starts at around the 2 minute mark. I also love the music at the beginning of this scene. I wish somebody would stream these shows!!!

I agree they often styled Sherry to look much older than she was. She looked younger on ER several years later! But part of that ended once she had those much more flattering hairstyles/color towards the latter part of her run. Sherry’s Blake is one of my favorite soap bitches of all time. She’s so much fun in scenes with Alexandra. And Holly for that matter.

The story and the schedule did more to driver her out that anything else. Just a handful of years later (2 to 3), and the schedule issues were gone because the actors with families started to get somewhere with their complaints and their union, (such as working turnarounds where they were there until the late hours of the night or after midnight and still called back to work the next morning at their normal call times), and paying all that overtime to everybody else (crews especially). The story wasn’t going to change- the show wanted it to be her vs Mindy and an overall obsession with Nick. She thought it should have wound up already, and instead was becoming the defining trait of the character. She could do the bad schedule, or a bad story, but not both at the same time for years.

F#ck that guy.

Something I noticed over the years I watched ATWT (after Marland’s death unfortunately), was just how lost people sometimes looked during her adlibs, especially the newer actors. I also saw both Martha and Jon Hensley breaking character reacting to her spinning out trying to get back to what she was supposed to be saying. She’s a brilliant actress, but doesn’t come across as always a good scene partner. People like Nancy Lee Grahn, Tony Geary, and Tristan Rogers also ad lib a lot. But their scene partners rarely look as lost or just plain annoyed as hers sometimes did. Not that Nancy and Tony didn’t sometimes derail things and noticeably try to get back on track. It just happened less that when I was watching Lucinda.

Fantastic episode! Good quality GH of this vintage is really rare, and it’s so great seeing. That Jesse and Bobbie scene was really interesting. Always great seeing Gail and Lee Baldwin. This period of the show fascinates me so much. You can tell why the show started to gain viewers, it’s got a great mix of new characters interacting with established ones and all the stories have movement. What I think of as Monty’s style is cemented once PFS gets there, so this early stuff is an interesting mix of classic soap drama turned up a couple of notches, as opposed to later in her run when it really was more like a modern primetime show. Even a talk to scene here has a point of view and more going on than just repeating the plot.

It made no sense not to tie that kid to Jax. It’s a dead end. But I guess when you have a pretty good idea Vanessa isn’t staying, then why do the kid at all? I am sure she did ask for more money. At that moment in time she was worth it, and they should have worked it out. From what I recall, the sticking point was the schedule, not the money. Like many times in the past, the fact that she wanted time more than money was a surprise to ABC. I don’t know if it was Frons or JFP or both. But I do know JFP isn’t real fond of maternity issues with women, or women that push back in general. When Steve Burton and Bradford Anderson have a guest I am interested in I listen to their podcast. He just mentioned in a recent one that he was a real dick to JFP when she first got there as he was leaving, and yet he was welcomed back and given all the airtime in the world. If anything, there was a period of time the show felt like it was transitioning to Jason’s POV and Sonny was finally being held accountable for his decisions. Things like this really piss me off, because I know how awful she was to several women who were less or equally demanding and she just ignores or punishes them, and many of them were rightfully important talents on their shows.

If you can believe this- she looks back fondly on Sheffer’s writing for her character. It’s when Marland made her a vixen going after Tom that she didn’t enjoy. She thought that was out of character. On these recent interviews, she has spoken highly of Sheffer. I think she just didn’t like being a home wrecker that was set up to loose- it was always going to be Tom and Margo.

I just remember watching Burton try so hard to play against feelings for Sarah’s Carly. So much so that I actually laughed when he was so broken up after being shot and finding them together. Why would he care? Maybe about Sonny. Their modern relationship was cemented when Tamara was playing her, but back then it was wild to see him playing against writing that was setting them up to be a couple. I think I even remember him saying in an interview back then that Jason would never be in love with Carly. Well Bob Guza clearly had other ideas lol. He also noticeably came back to life when Liz rescued him and they started hanging out after Lucky “died”. I think Vanessa was against where the story was going with Dante in her last return as I recall. She also has been vocal about that kid being a mistake. The only demands I remember from her was she wanted the same kind of schedule that Riche gave to Genie Francis when her kids were born- her scenes came first in the day and not to go over her guarantee so she could be with her young son as much as possible. JFP does not respond to demands from women very well and that’s why her first return was not extended.

I can’t think of another character as offscreen agenda dictated as Jason. Almost every natural turn hasn’t happened because of SB and or TPTB. Guza and Phelps (and Frons) ran the show together for a decade, and their agendas and style would never have supported Jason Q. Not even a logical version of Jason getting some of his memories and emotional connections back, but still choosing Sonny. They didn’t even do that! We have Steve fighting against being paired with Carly (any version), and whatever happened with the viable Liz triangle (which could have been going for years)... The final nail in Jason Q’s coffin was killing Alan. Without Alan, there is no point.