titan1978

I also would pay between 5 and 10 a month for one of these services. Especially if it covered GH or GL.

I know! It’s such a strange part of her history. Also has a child with Brian Austin Green, and a horrible stepmother to her son (If you believe her side of things and I do), in Megan Fox. I can’t remember if anyone mentioned Genie Francis is married to Jonathan Frakes from Star Trek. And her father was an accomplished actor, and her siblings have some fame from singing.

Thank you for posting. Even though GH was not originally a show built around core biological families like most soaps, it still had a strong sense of community. The hospital was the family home that everyone came in and out of. I miss scenes like this, and I miss these characters.

It was pretty well established that Brenda did not want him to be in the mob, and did not like that part of his personality. To me, Carly didn’t care about that at all. It was way more in character for her to accept the danger, even with her kid. The absolute best example of them all coming to terms with their choices was Michael going to jail, and his assault. Carly and Sonny both had lots of scenes about their choices leading him to this place, and Jason was pretty much destroyed by it for a period of time. It was the first time I remember them really coming to terms with everything for Sonny, no matter the cost. The natural progression at that time with how Carly and Jason felt about Claudia and just how bad Sonny had gotten was for them to really turn on each other. The writing was even setting it up for a couple of years at that point. From what I remember, the Sam/Jason storyline was going to be Brenda and Jason and they were going to pair them. The baby that dies, bonding through that, etc.

What I remember is just how it all felt kind of rushed, especially for Y&R. That was a pretty quick set up relationship and wedding for Bill Bell and such major characters. Not just Nikki but Victor and Diane too. I got the sense that he wanted to shake things up and prolong the inevitable with them reuniting. Then it seemed like Bell wanted to retire with a bang, and the climax was sped up. It still took almost two years, but it seemed faster because normally that would have been three or four years lol.

I have watched a lot of the Curlee and team HW era of the show thanks to YouTube. Didn’t watch it back in the day, and I was truly missing out. I can’t imagine watching it so sparkle for a great run, only to see it start to unravel and be dismantled brick by brick with not great casting decisions and terrible management. I can’t think of another soap at that time that had so many riches and was using them all as a true ensemble with well written characters of all ages doing stuff that made you want to watch. And was willing to take chances! I know she gets bashed plenty. But JFP really does cast a lot of bland women, produces shows where they are always in competition with each other and fighting, kills off all the wrong people, and centers her shows on talented men that she lets or demands dominate everything. I will give her credit at GL (certainly the writers were responsible) for not shoving all the vets aside. On her watch Alexandra, Blake, and Mindy were replaced by people that are just not quite right in my opinion. And Alexandra and Blake’s characters became nothing like they were.

Fun scenes. What an idiot Victor Jerome was. I miss that old school synth music sometimes, and the extreme close ups like Anna’s when it is confirmed Victor had escaped. Such a staple of soaps and the GH directors used it a lot during from Monty’s 1st tenure through the early 1990’s. I do remember thinking the original Julian was hot, and I loved him with Cheryl (I also loved her with Robert though!). Can’t stand the current one.

Well, as angry as some viewers were, more loved Luke. Which is gross in hindsight. I mean Rise skyrocketed up the charts after the rape, and usage in scenes like this and others. Fans screamed rape me at Tony Geary at appearances. It’s just all around awful. Once his popularity took off and the show decided to keep him, there was no going back. There are several scenes of him tormented by hurting Laura. That screams PFS, but still the intention seems pretty clear in hindsight. Redeem him and get them together.

Have any of you listened to Steve Burton and Bradford Anderson’s podcast? I do not listen to every episode, but I do listen to the episodes with vets. There was a great two part episode with Genie Francis, and another two part with Lesley Charleson. If was great to hear her opinion of the Eckerts and the differences between David Lewis and John Ingle’s Edward. Also how she felt betrayed by Gloria, and how awful she treated them when she came back. The interviews are usually a little bit about their history before diving into GH. Sometimes they flub the details a little but these people are not historians of their show like a lot of fans are.

It was quite a leap from thug, to low level mobster, to rapist, to hero, to mayor. The difference with Sonny is that he stayed a mobster and everybody else became immoral somehow. Like their failures of character had more weight than his did.

She left him pretty well set up, it was just the beginnings of it all, and not fully developed plots. But he did not inherit a bunch of stories already deep in motion. His complaints are funny because when he came back, he famously wrapped up nearly everything as a ghost writer before his first official show back, when Nikolas was shot outside Luke’s because he hated everything. Bobbie’s flashback/dreams with babies crying, Jason was firmly in Robin’s orbit, his accident, and Jax were all Labine’s last plots. He took them in different places than she would have (Jax was meant for Lois, etc). But when you look at her last six months, the show was kind of meandering and had lost a lot of momentum with Stone’s death. It had so dominated for months. That story took the wind out of the sails of the show for a bit when it ended, IMO.

I also agree that the fire was a real turning point. It was like they wanted to nail the coffin shut, not leave it open a crack like everything before it. They kind of tore each other apart, and it was hard to watch. I do think both Tony and Genie excel with that kind of dark, emotional material. I thought we actually saw how Laura would have grieved for Lucky, even if it kind sidelined her for almost a year. Which is rare for a soap. They do tell things in real time (especially back then) but often with extreme grief they let them move on. She was morose for months. Had to be hard to act that kind of pain, but it’s one of the things that I loved about her in that era. I had no issue with the rape revisit storyline- it was important and made sense in the context of Lucky finding Liz. What I hated was how he treated Laura, and how other than a couple of scenes she got the story wasn’t about her. It was only about Luke. And Lucky’s pain kind of eclipsed Liz at times too. And that sucks. She had kind of been sidelined during Labine’s last year (maternity leave, Luke and her on the outs), and Guza really brought her back. She went on trial for killing Damian, then the bone marrow and Nikolas reveal, through her next maternity leave and finding Lesley. She was the focal point of all those stories, not Luke. It was the last time they were a couple and the story revolved around her until she went crazy. I always wondered if it was because she kept refusing to come back to the show during that maternity leave, so they stopped trying with her character. I remember an interview with Michael Logan when Guza returned, and he asked about Genie. And Bob said he would go down on his knees to beg her to come back (or close to that). What a difference a decade makes- they refused to bring her back when she was ready, except for guest stints. One thing that first Guza run did is that I did not feel that most of Labine’s work was very soapy. Guza brought that back, big time. Love triangles, secrets from the past, murder mysteries, and a medical crisis involving family. All in one amazing year. Who killed Damian Smith?

It was. I read an interview with Susan Pratt and she mentioned Hoffman visiting the set, interviewing some of the cast and watching filming, hanging backstage, etc.

I think Gloria had an eye for talent, and could spot chemistry, and knew what to do with it. Because even when her show was not well written (outside of Marland’s tenure and both of Falken-Smith’s), it was still compelling and entertaining television. As far as Luke goes- the Labine era made me love him. He was still dangerous (all that Frank Smith stuff), and wasn’t really a “hero”, but he had so many rich relationships and had chemistry with all of them. Sonny, Lucy, Bobbie, Lucky, Tony, Robin, Stone- not just with Laura. I loved his relationships with those people. The thing about Tony that drives me crazy as a fan of this show is he was always trying to sell a Luke I did not see on screen as the version of Luke. I get he didn’t want to be turned into Steve Hardy, but he he was elected mayor! At the height of his original run he was everything he claimed he hated about the character once Labine arrived, and blamed it on her. If anything, Laura was the one that kind of lost her way under Labine. Guza’s first tenure as HW brought her back.

I had completely blocked out that they brought Paul Hornsby back. Ron should have stuck to the story for Bill, and spun out another story using the Luke backstory he created. Both would have been great without the DiD mess.

I also loved Julia. And truthfully, I liked Jenny Eckert, Sly, and Mac. And Paul Hornsby. Bill though- just awful. When Tony and Genie came back together as Luke and Laura, it was like a lightbulb went off. I totally got why Tony was a big deal, and why they were great together, and how much Genie really shines playing Laura. As Bill I couldn’t stand him. Monty cast some good actors when she came back, and the characters were solid for the most part. It was just a mess of way too many changes, and sidelining of characters that were at that time integral to the show. If she hadn’t bombed so spectacularly, we would not have gotten Riche/Labine and that would have been a real shame.

I know I have said it here many times- I just absolutely love Lee Baldwin.

Guza eventually used all the ideas that the 1990’s writing team came up with, even if he just mapped them onto other characters. The Miranda backstory went to Alexis. Sam became her secret daughter. The transplant story that brought Nikolas on was originally a non-Cassadine storyline for the return of Luke and Laura, deemed not big enough (which I think was the correct decision for that return). Plus the bones of the Nikolas storyline came from ideas Genie Francis shared with Guza and Riche about a story for Laura. She wanted to play a secret, and thought there was fertile ground for and about her character from when she was kidnapped by the Cassadines.

I so agree about Ryan. The missed opportunity was him and Jill, because she might have been able to bring out the ambitious side that could have led to something. Like Brad 2.0. But Don has more smarmy charm than Scott.

Like a lot of people here, I’m a fan of the genre most of all. My show was always GH, although I have sampled them all and even watched some for years. But GH is the one I keep tabs on, even if I can’t stand it. I absolutely love The Edge of Night though. Just seeing the photos of the stuff you post has been fun!

Thank you for all these great posts! I hope you manage to come across articles during intense times of transitions. Like Marland arriving on GL and ATWT, Monty on GH, etc. I would love to read some critical reactions to what was changing on screen in real time for them, just how noticeable it was at the time as opposed to hindsight.

I also loved that aspect of Y&R. It was part of the identity of the show. It made it seem like it wasn’t a small town, unlike every other soap on the air. And that is not a knock on those shows. GH works best for me when the character connections are close, and there is a main umbrella plot going on. Guiding Light worked best as a community that crosses paths. All My Children worked best as a gossipy small town. But Y&R works best for me as a place where not everybody interacts with Victor Newman or Katherine Chancellor.

I agree. She was clearly one of Bell’s favorite characters but around the time her orbit became Ryan centric, she just kind of faded from importance. And at the time, I remember thinking that Ryan and Victoria still had feelings for each other (especially Victoria), and that it kind of seemed like they would not stay together. Then when Nina was suicidal I was just disgusted by the writing for her by that point.

Felicia lived at the brownstone. I do not recall her leaving there until she was with Mac again around the Luke affair. Robin and Mac lived there during all her teen storylines. Laura visited the house with Lucky when they came back to the show and she even had scenes in the infamous attic where she was kind of upset by something that wasn’t explored until they Guza/Pratt and Genie’s exit.

I guess that year and a half looms large for my memory. The Ashley that replaced Brenda sidelines the character. And Jess was wasted after the baby Billy stuff, John leaves for a bit and Mamie was gone. It felt very much like the Abbotts were out of favor. And truthfully, I felt that way at times before that. Once Traci stopped being a major player it felt at times like Victor and Ashley were really tied to Victor and John to Jill. I never felt that Victor was sidelined at any point. Or Cricket. Or Drucilla. And I still think Cricket was the second lead behind Victor. And then Drucilla. Because without those three hinges the rest of Bell’s stories in the mid to late 1990’s would have looked nothing like the show we got. I’m not saying I didn’t love characters tied to them, but they were the leads in those circles. I really and truly miss Dru on this show. Of those three I never got tired of seeing her. I agree that reigniting Jill and Katherine was the best thing for both characters, and building from there with a new generation was Alden’s master stroke. I really miss Y&R.