titan1978

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!

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.

I’m a big fan of using pockets when a character was not onscreen to add to a backstory we did not see. Bill’s involvement with Kate should have been after he left and Laura had been institutionalized. I’m less concerned about the SORAS required for Lucas than the weird continuity patch of merging the original Kate into the new one. One of the reasons the Nikolas story worked so well on GH was that we had the missing years, and when Laura returned, she was frightened and not her feisty self. She was traumatized, and she did hide from both Luke and the Cassadines goons at first. It fit the narrative they told pretty well, including the death of Lesley being caused by Helena retcon. It also fit her history of breakdowns and her desperate love for Luke. She left Nikolas behind for selfish and unselfish reasons.

That is inspired and I would absolutely tune in for that!

I really wish ivy had more of a spark, because Lisa Brown plays that so well. She is so much fun as Nola, and such a drip as Ivy (from the episodes I have seen). Although I did like the stuff I saw with her and Craig.

I liked her on GH. She and Wes Kenney added some grit to the show that was usually not there during the late Monty period. She created the Jerome family, and Cheryl Stansbury, and I believe was also the HW during one of my favorite stories, when Grant Putnam kidnapped Anna. She also greatly improved Knots Landing during its final year, but it was too little, too late there. But I haven’t really heard many fans loved her as a writer anywhere else.

In a great interview two years ago she said she works better in a full leadership position where she can strategize, partner and get systems running and revamped than in the type of role being a Senator would require. After Kentucky two years ago and now, she absolutely should be in a leadership position for the Dems.

Looking at all those photos Jason47 has posted make me wish so much that I could see more of Bell’s DAYS. Was Rosemary Forsyth well regarded as Laura? Flannery is in a class all her own of course. It just seems like Laura was so important and then just faded away.

All this THE Guiding Light talk just reminds me of JFP, in multiple interviews, trying to push One Life as a talking point, instead of One Life to Live. She tried so hard for about 6 months worth of interviews between two sweeps periods to get the soap press and fans used to it now being just One Life cuz that was so much more hip! I think the same thing happened at Another World, she kept calling it AW, or am I remembering that one incorrectly? What a waste these people were to the genre. For all his faults, and I am truly not much of a fan, Reilly was the only one bringing in loads of younger viewers. And he did it the old fashioned way- he used vets, love triangles and slow moving stories that played every beat and had payoffs, he just told those stories in new and gothic ways. What these shows needed was the tropes and types of stories daytime does well, focused on characters people liked, and told in new and interesting ways. Instead we got a lot of hacks.

Was Kristina Wagner on another soap? I know she was on PC for a few episodes as Felicia, but I kind of think that doesn’t count. Also what about Brynn Thayer and Judith Light?

Sad news!

My dream Jeff Webber is Robert Newman.

And again. I love Holly, especially with Robert. But this is even worse than the Robin is dead storyline because Robert is literally the only one left who cares that is on the show often, and he isn’t under contract. Ethan is a guest star. Holly is a guest star. Wtf GH. Tell a story like this with a current cast member that is under contract. You have both Liz and Carly right now just twisting in the wind. Anna too(I mean Alex faking as Anna while she is held captive is just waiting to be told with the Peter implications).

Throw longtime viewers a bone by having a character pop up from the past that is meaningless, and then say things like honoring history or like you’ve never seen them like this before. At the least, she should be Chase’s mother. That ties her to today. But in the grand scheme of things Jackie only matters because Demi played her, and she and her sister Laura were blips with little impact. You say history and blank slate. I see lazy and pointless by making her Jackie. Especially if she isn’t going to be around for a real contract. I do credit GH with hiring someone with actual talent that hasn’t been on soaps since their 80’s peak, and someone that has had a steady career in primetime.

How wild! And @amybrickwallace, you have no idea how ready for that call I was then 😆! After having experienced Monty, Labine, and Guza, and with the cast as it stood then, I had so many ideas for GH that still embraced the genre while adhering to the human drama GH had become known for at that point. It wasn’t until YouTube and I finally got to watch GL with Curlee/Demorest/etc at the HW helm that I found out the tone I was writing as fanfic was what they were doing then, and really well. The more grounded realism and darker character exploration, but with a sense of hope and still some excitement, mystery, and soapy fun all in the mix.

I would have loved it if they had kept her in that way, letting her evolve into an actual PI. Like Felicia on GH did with Anna and Sean. Add me to the people that could not stand Lynne.

Wha? Why bring her on as Jackie but not have anyone really connected with her left on the show, especially if she is not there for Robert. Oh GH. Don’t you change.