titan1978

You have made a lot of us very happy these last couple of days. It’s wonderful to see so much history that many of us have only read about. Performances and characters that we all know but many did not have the context of seeing their work and how that formed the characters. I never thought I would see so much of Pinkerton’s Dorian. Thanks for sharing!

Denise Alexander also said so- that when she came to GH she was shocked at the sets and even the filming equipment, it was less sophisticated than what DAYS was using. I loved Evans, but I was young when I watched her and I really thought Witter was a great recast. Kind of like Krista and Kimberly Simms as Mindy on GL, who I also preferred. Witter and Simms just had a more sophisticated take, and both were sexy in a more grown up way.

Of the big three in the 00’s, I liked Jason the most. I felt the show shifting from being Sonny centric to Jason centric after the Emily affair and I agreed with that shift. All of a sudden Sonny was allowed to be called out, and Jason was the only one that was “always right”. For me, something changed about a year before he left the first time, and I think his vaccine beliefs were a danger to his coworkers the second time. But as I said, he came back with the right kind of energy and is closer to the Jason that he used to be. Finola and Steve both deserve better! What is wild to me is they spend about 18 months trying to make several pairings work and then blow them all up at the same time. Now Cody is just there floundering, etc.

No offense, but you are one of the least reliable posters who often perpetuates online nonsense and inappropriate information about these performer’s personal lives. As far as when you end up having actual information, a broken clock is right twice a day. I am more interested in Sasha and Jason with Michael’s baby, whatever it ends up being, than I am in Anna and Jason. I am not a huge Steve Burton fan, but he came back with the right work ethic this time. To embody the scenes with more emotion when they call for it and to lean in to connecting with more than Maurice and Laura. The show is so underwritten for character that I really appreciate he is emoting more than he used to, because the dialogue isn’t getting me there. I will continue to praise the current team for one thing- I can watch pretty much every day and see actual GH characters in the mix. Even during Mulcahey/Korte, it felt like weeks would go by and I saw a whole lot of Nina but very little of the GH vets. Now we see them daily, in the mix. Just wish the writing was stronger, but I will give Valentini credit where it is due. We should see more of Laura, Jordan, and Anna together talking about the issues they all are against in the city. Cyrus being one, and now Sidwell and the violence surrounding Sonny.

Yes to all this. When NAC was on the show he went above and beyond supporting a pairing with both Trina’s. What’s new to me is that this is the first time I have seen soap social media make its way to mainstream. About two months after he left all this stuff started which basically amounts to he is ungrateful to GH or their fans. And then it spread after about 6 months of constant online digs to mainstream online people. He may be an asshat, I don’t know. But the stuff I have heard reeks of soap fan nonsense.

Doris Belack, one of those great New York actors that played a judge many times on Law&Order and SVU too IIRC. She will also always be Rita to me, the stand in for Gloria Monty in Tootsie. Always interesting to see Joe. I had no idea Dorian was after Joe.

The whole thing annoys me because they just do these paternity reveals and they don’t really lead to more story. I would have brought on Serena, play wanting his share of the money (and maybe ultimately proving he is Mac’s but not Don’s or leaving as it stands now I could go either way). She would have been the cash influx at Deception, not Sonny (which has gone nowhere so far). Cody is just kind of there, and he’s being wasted. Give them something to do!

They can both get it as far as I am concerned.

I don’t think I ever saw self loathing played better on any show than Judith Light did as Karen. Even when she was nearly out the door her Karen is always haunted. Also- Larry Wolek was a stone cold fox, and very watchable as a genial, nice person. He never comes across as boring to me in everything I have seen.

I was going to post something similar! I love every second I have seen of Nancy Pinkerton’s Dorian. Strasser has said she was a fan of Pinkerton’s work on OLTL, and I also see where she brought some of that cunning and added her own flair for dramatics and as you said, that sense of humor. Strasser’s Dorian got to revel in the money and status that Pinkerton’s killed to get her hands on. It is fascinating how one major story turn can provide decades of story on these soaps. Much like the Katherine/Phillip/Jill affair on Y&R, Dorian/Victor/Victoria really was an engine that provided. And like Y&R, the shows were always better when they mined those relationships between Dorian and Viki/Jill and Katherine. Dorian sure was all up in every bit of Victor’s illegitimate children stories. Tony in the 70’s, Tina in the 80’s. And somewhat tied to Todd in the 90’s through Blair. Thanks for finding these and posting them @Vee!

When you watch the show, it’s pretty clear Frank keeps Finola Hughes in story. It helps her character is based in the action/adventure days and Hughes looks great. They have not been as consistent with lead story for any other women on the show except Ava, Carly, and Willow for five+ years or longer. Alexis drops out for months at a time until this year. Sam was nonexistent. Liz was sidelined. Maxie was sidelined. Tracy was underutilized. Laura should be used as much right now with Lulu, Lucky, and her serial killer brother, as she was when they used her to prop Esme. We saw her more when they were trying to save Heather. It’s so noticeable. I do wonder if the rumors of her mother dying recently were true if Genie asked for a reduced workload.

Thank you for posting, such a lovely tribute.

Mac had a very full life of adventuring before he hit Port Charles and that should have been enough to build Cody around. It has barely been mined at all. The use of Dominique was another one of those throwing an older character’s name into the current show without any basis in history we watched or any connection to today. See Jackie Templeton, Jagger, Paul Hornsby, Jimmy Lee Holt for Todd Manning part 3, etc. Especially egregious was trying to create moments between Holly and Robert by using flashbacks from her 1991 return where they were not together. I think one of them originally aired when Anna was missing and Robert was going after her, shortly before TR left. I thought Holly and Sasha did have good scenes and had good chemistry. I don’t hate Sasha as a Scorpio. I hate how they got there when logical windows exist. To me the issue is that they have no intention of writing a meaningful story for Holly, Robert, or Mac. So they went the easy route to try to make the people they do want to write for have ties (Sasha and Cody). Korte was there when Guza/Riche used Genie’s idea that Laura had a child while she was kidnapped by the Cassadines. As we all keep saying, she should know better.

It’s funny you mention him, because after watching that clip the thought I had was would GA have made a good Buzz on GL? That Nadine and Buzz could have been a ton of fun to watch.

I really enjoyed him on GH. He was fun as Jagger’s boxing coach, bickering with Felicia about the sexist gym, and was gold with Tracy. I have really fond memories of Marco.

In one of her interviews with Michael Logan he asked about bad material and Jane said it’s her job to make it work, and she doesn’t judge the story. And Tony Geary in one of his interviews said they were sitting around before taping started and he said how bored he was. Jane replied don’t worry, Luke isn’t. She gets it. JE has had many periods of spotty/bad writing, and she never appears as anything except fully engaged as Tracy. I know Genie Francis has her detractors, but to me she always shows up too, even in bad stories. I don’t see her onscreen phoning it in when she plays Laura. Both of them sat through Geary doing bad work. The last couple of weeks have been fun to watch, and Tracy is a huge reason why.

She was so comfortable with Riche that she pitched the idea of Monica having breast cancer, and Riche and Labine loved the idea and they all told the story beautifully. That scene with Monica and Alan where she shows her scars to him and asks if he still wants to sleep with her and he says he would love to was so poignant and memorable. Stuart Damon also got to do wonderful work in that story.

The sad truth is that the Luke pairing kept the Quartermaines onscreen during the mid-2000’s, especially the later part. After AJ was killed, then Alan, they didn’t give them much to do beyond harping on Tracy, Luke, Dillon and Lulu. That and killing Emily, another reason for Monica to be heartbroken. Luke however had many story lanes happening through most of that time.

Sad news, he was still quite young. I remember liking him, he had a lot of charisma on DAYS.

Jane won some soap award and profusely thanked Gloria Monty for what she had done for GH and her character, when Riche was in place. I recently saw the clip, maybe a soap opera digest award? IIRC Jane chose to leave the show. In recent years she has been complimentary of Monty without holding back on her failings in treating people poorly and manipulating to get what she wanted onscreen. Her return to GH in 1996 being ongoing is the first I have heard of this. Tracy was forced on the show to establish her again before taking over The City. There was no long term story planned, just the three week stint, and it was mandated by the network. This is such an important distinction. When she came back the first time in 1989 there is so much joy in Lila’s voice when she says Tracy! She was a fully rounded person. I grew to love John Ingle as Edward. I cannot imagine David Lewis, especially at that time, playing the Ward backstory believably. But Lewis was so good in scenes with Tracy. You really got their dynamic more with him, the simmering anger he has towards her. Not just the disappointment, outright anger. And Tracy was the one that was most like him and better suited for ELQ than Alan. Only original recipe Edward Quartermaine would be upset his son became a doctor.

I feel the opposite. Because if he was not incapacitated we would not have gotten Drew manipulating the issue. Michael being injured gave us Nina trying to play mediator and being upset that Willow gave all the credit to Drew. Carly and Sonny vs Willow, Drew, and Tracy. And Jason making decisions based on more than just what Carly wants, including leaning into the Q family. The swing back to Alexis wanting to protect Sam’s child against Drew. And Willow being willing to stand against Carly and Sonny. And this is all before we get to pregnant Sasha. Everybody confronting Willow or Drew has been very entertaining to me. This is the kind of messy, complicated stuff we should have been seeing for months. It could be written with more complexity, but this is truly IMO the best material this team is capable of. Much like what happened with Nina and Mulcahey too- I don’t even like the characters at the center of this, Willow or Drew, all that much. But this is good soap.

Pretty much everyone was watchable and doing good work. Even the duds like Jenny were better than the flops we got as the decade closed.

The thing with the Quartermaines and Michael was a little more nuanced when it was happening. The Q’s were shady AF, especially Edward, Ned, and to an extent, AJ. Edward had just let Laura be put in jail to protect Justus, Ned lied to cover up for AJ instead of him taking responsibility for Jason’s accident, and Monica was soon to be in an affair where Dorman was murdered and she was a credible suspect, and near the time Michael was born Alan was addicted to pills. The Q family was not adjusting to Jason’s new persona. He even told them all he sees in their eyes is the pain at him not being Jason Q, he needed to get away from them and they were stifling. Jason Morgan had legit reasons to want to be away from them. To stick it to Tony, Carly said the baby was Jason’s. And both of them felt the Q’s would take Michael away from Carly if they knew the truth (and they would have). And Carly was doing crazy stuff that would have gotten Michael taken away. And Jason was in too deep because he loved Michael as his own son. I am not saying that Sonny isn’t dangerous and that they didn’t choose a worse path-they did. Even Guza had Jason and Carly coming to that realization when Michael went to jail and was raped. But the Q’s were not as cuddly as they became as strictly comedy relief in the 00’s, and the writing for Carly, Jason, and Sonny was better before 2000. As it stands today, I am happy to see the show circle back to this with Jason now having had a lifetime of experience with the mob and violence getting to Michael.

What crack me up is that we have had a couple of interviews with them, but zero when Korte and Mulcahey were named. Valentini really did not want him there.

I really felt for Ellen Holly during that part of the OLTL book. Bob Woods was so complimentary of her, and IIRC called AB a maniac. That’s pretty telling, even above Holly’s descriptions. I had forgotten all about that Joss, so thanks for that reminder lol. They do look miserable! But look who plays their parents.