titan1978

There were times when Anna/Robert had some heat IMO. I think their backstory of recreated flashbacks, including their first wedding, worked very well in disrupting Robert/Holly and cementing Anna as more than just an interloper. I also remember Duke being threatened a couple of times by their closeness, and the show would have Robert kind of look at her with longing sometimes. It wasn’t a stretch for me when he called her frumpy and their actual romance began again with her tying him to the pillar and leaving him there. I think the biggest issue is Anna did not need rescuing all the time, and that was kind of baked into Robert Scorpio. Accepting Anna was a huge ask when she arrived, with her wobbly scar story, being a double angent, Robin and Holly’s popularity. I think Monty cast her and Robin very well.

She did, didn’t she? I was thinking Carly but I don’t think it counts the same because it was three different Carly’s- SB with Sonny, TB with Alcazar, and LW with Jax. Bobbie was in popular pairings but I wouldn’t put her in the supercouple arena. Maybe for Jake. I have seen a lot of the original Roy and I can’t stand him. Laura had Scotty and Luke but I don’t think Stefan/Laura ended up strong enough.

The miracle that man worked on Nina should be studied by modern soap writers. The show had problems, but damn he made me want to watch Nina. I have never liked Nina, through both actors. Nothing against them, she’s just not a good character, surrounded by terrible stories.

In the classic GH thread Kim Zimmer came up, and how when she didn’t go over the top she was capable of incredible things. Which made me think of all the non-bombastic soap folks who used to bring it, were popular, but didn’t lose a more grounded nature to their work. First to come to mind was Julia Barr on AMC. She was good at everything I saw her do- romance, journalism stories, deep family heartbreak, snark, rivalries, comedy. When I first started watching, Brooke had a through line of dignity that just shone through, and I rooted for her.

Which she was doing! I remember the year of Lucky’s fire Zimmer was quoted in a soap mag as saying the Emmy’s overlooked Genie for a nomination that year, and how good her work was. The thing about bombastic soap acting by the likes of Zimmer, Tony Geary, Justin Deas, late B&B era Susan Flannery and Maurice Bernard is that when they got grounded material and played smaller, they really could just rip your guts out. These people were special for a reason, and almost all slipped into louder and with more passion meant more true emotion. Somehow Jane Elliott has skirted the line but never gone over it so much that it became the norm for her acting like it did for the others I mentioned. You know who else walked that line so well? Erika Slezak and Robin Strasser.

I didn’t enjoy Katherine. I was much more a fan of Cheryl and Robert, and lots seem to dislike that pairing too. But I also didn’t mind him with Anna, although that was no Duke/Anna, much like they were no Robert/Holly. I love Holly, but this person they call Holly since the bio toxin storyline is nothing like the woman before. I know she was a con artist, but that was such a small percentage of her onscreen character between her first two runs, now it’s like that is the only part.

I love the closing Autumn Breeze music, during the holidays you would get the long version with everyone that worked on the show for the whole year in the credits. That speeding ambulance just fit the tone of the show. The music could be modernized, but a speeding ambulance is pretty timeless, as long as it looks like the ones we see today. The 90’s ABC openings just worked for me. The falling photos AMC one with a similar beat as it faded to black to start the open, the GH overlapping, and the one that holds up the best for me, the mid 90’s OLTL opening. Perfect length, split up so only Viki was in each version, most of the shots they chose were great.

What a wild way to write him out! Either death or leaving for medical care for burns, like Lulu being in a coma just outside of town for years. Also the old school way of recasting if they eventually decide to go there!

Me too! Phil’s murder mystery episodes would be great, and more from the story of Lee Baldwin defending Jessie on trial. Wary Lesley and Genie’s first episodes would be fun too. Also on my list, more episodes from the transition of 30 minutes to an hour of Y&R, and I would love to see Phillip’s death and the immediate aftermath for Katherine and Jill. Always happy to see more Terry Lester as Jack and Katherine when she was more villainous towards Jill when the show reignited them in the early 80’s. DAYS- I would just love to see more of Susan Flannery as Laura, and the story of Susan (Denise Alexander) killing David. Add me to the list for the Salem Strangler too!

Carly blew up her mother’s marriage for revenge for abandoning her at birth, then lied about the paternity of her own baby twice, for years. These people love to repeat what was done to them.

They got their money’s worth out of that Puerto Rico remote!

I still enjoy the overlapping opening notes and dissolve into the opening of FOTH, and I hate it when uploaders cut it. I love it on the AMC opening of the same era too, the falling pictures. They could easily update the speeding ambulance and old theme. It would be quick, and that also fits how FV cuts up the show. Anything to get rid of the incredibly tacky photo flip they have now. Even photos of an ambulance flipping and getting closer to the screen with the hospital behind it would be better than the various headshots that just sit there.

It’s the way the show is still being shot too. Those rapid zoom in closeups that are so signature to Monty’s style fade away the longer Riche is there for more subtle versions. It is disorienting for me to watch this era out of context. The Riche style drama, but still the old opening and she hadn’t updated the hospital and nurses hub to the pale pink colors yet. But it’s so clearly not like the show had been for over a decade too.

Dynasty dated itself so quickly with all that style. At one point there were actual, complex issues between Alexis, Blake, and their children. But that goes away and it’s all women quickly walking towards an exit, turning while putting on a fur, and throwing down some drag queen level shade at the other people in the room before actually leaving. Later era Dynasty, Thirtysomthing and China Beach airing at the same time on the same network (IIRC all ABC) is so fascinating. The culture switches to introspection for that generation as storytelling so decisively and with that a move away from high style.

There was a sense in her last return that she was just annoyed with Carly and tired of them as rivals. But the brief anniversary return she had enough spark that it felt more like Brenda was happy to play with Carly like a cat with a mouse. That slyness was back. It did seem like she took what they wrote and just added fun to it instead of leaning into trashy, which is what Ron loves.

There is a lot of compelling stuff there! I have wanted the return of the waterfront clinic for years. But I also prefer when there are multiple income levels for the characters being played out, not everyone is rich or at least more than comfortable. I was watching a lot back when Tony and Bobbie got together. It was exactly as you said, they were friends that fell in love. Bobbie finally got to have children in her life, and the stability she was striving for. It’s not just her teenage past she was running from. Roy was killed, Brock abused her and was killed, Jake betrayed her, and Scotty was never going to be stability for her, he was still pretty broken. The audience wanted happiness for Bobbie, Jackie was incredibly popular and had always been central in the more grounded part of the show. She still made mistakes, like the whole Lucas debacle with Cheryl and Tiffany. But you understood her, and she always still had that fire. I know Jackie wasn’t really a fan of the setup of the Damian storyline. But when I was watching it live and again later, especially after seeing so much early Luke and Bobbie, it’s pretty easy to see how Luke reappearing would push her off her axis a bit. They were devoted to each other and both also pushed the other’s buttons.

She apparently has no issue with a Jason/Brenda pairing. She rightly didn’t want to have a long lost Dante baby (or relationship) while reconnecting with Sonny, she thought the whole idea was icky. Guza was trying so hard with Dante at the time, and Vanessa was very much this was not what we discussed! She’s close with several people from her GH days that are still there, she knows exactly what the show is like now as far as production like a factory without much soul. Even at the end of JFP they took some time to get to the emotional core, otherwise, what’s the point? Now it feels very much like the point is to have a show to air, chopped and soulless are fine. It just has to be in the can and ready to air with the most generic dialogue possible. And even if Burton and Marcil were cool and it was a go, there is no way Maurice would be cool without being in a pairing that was working for him too. It’s part of why he was so happy with Sonny/Carly- it broke the Brenda curse for him. Nothing worse on a soap than being a leftover part of a supercouple that doesn’t click with anyone else and all the audience wants is a return. It put some of the power back in his hands. Outside of his short first HW stint after Labine, I am not either really. But I have no issue with admitting that he is a strong writer and the day to day writing and scripts had actual character in them, even if I hated his focus and stories. Even when Pratt was there to plot things up, that team still made the big moments count. This is me looking at his work from a critical distance, as a fan of the show since I was like 6 I hated most of his work after 1998 and the majority of his last run.

And let’s be honest. I am sure Vanessa will want to know what the story is going to be. She would never return for a story where she actually slept with Michael and had his child. And she clearly doesn’t need the money enough to just accept anything GH has to offer. She’s actually pretty frugal as far as everyday living, bought her property a long time ago when it was affordable on her salary. Her husband works full time as a police officer, and I think her mom lives on the grounds as well, or did for a period of time. Sadly I don’t see her coming back except to usher Maurice into retirement or if the show is ending. She loves Brenda and the show, but clearly doesn’t have to be there to live. Still as mercurial as ever!

Thanks for doing this! As much as I am tired of the Sonny/Carly/Jason show, this is still loads better than the JFP/Guza era counts, when they were all usually over 200 episodes a year or close to it. Nobody dominates like that anymore.

IIRC they decided to reveal her rapist because they decided to heighten the stakes of the Emily photos blackmail story to cement the four characters as a squad. They were dropping anvils that it might have been Tony, but in interviews the writers, mostly Guza, spoke about her never finding out because that was more real to the situation. The entire storyline was only done to have Lucky find out about his parents, and so Guza could keep chipping away at L&L. Thankfully MVJ was allowed to handle a lot of it with sensitivity because she wrote from her own trauma and cared about the character Liz and Becky. But the show did center Luke and Lucky too much in a story that should have also centered Liz and Laura more. I will always respect the way they handled the attack and immediate aftermath though. I have seen too many soap sexual assaults that were overly graphic just to sensationalize the act of rape. Her being grabbed in the snow and then scenes of the empty bench and snowy park was incredibly effective and haunting. One of the handful of GH scenes that has been effective for me decades later. Riche did want to tackle gritty stuff but she wanted classy too. Compare that to the horror JFP and Guza/Pratt brought with Emily being raped by a Nikolas doppelgänger. No class at all there.

He should never have been allowed to dominate the entire show. And obviously the Nielsen audience felt the same way because during the total domination of Sonny/Carly/Jason and overall darkness of the show they lost millions of viewers. But Frons didn’t care because he was plotting the end of soaps.

I don’t think he lacked vulnerability. I just think he played it as it was written, either by choice or because it’s what he was told to do, and it lacked some of the nuance that might have helped for a redemption story. I got the downward spiral, but I also found very little to root for with Tony. I will say that it all felt very real though. His slow descent felt lived in. And I know he was actually excited to play the stories until it just became him being bitter and appearing a few times a month with no actual story anymore. Tony became the first character that was against Carly that the show worked overtime to make it seem like she didn’t deserve it. They did it here and there with Robin back then too, especially when she told AJ the truth, but it was Robin so they were more equals. First Tony, then AJ and the Quartermaines, then anybody not on team Carly.

I never understood any attempt at them being together again after 2002 and their almost wedding. I felt the same way after Laura’s catatonic state happened because Scotty was the one that killed Rick, and how he treated Lulu for Logan. Laura should have went after Scotty for revenge, not show up engaged to him a few years later. Brenda ending up back with Jax feels like a weakness, and that was against all the development she went through.

I know Bobbie cheated on him but the way Brad Maule chose to play a lot of his scenes surrounding Bobbie after Damian Smith, and later how he acted about Carly didn’t do him any favors. I didn’t want them reunited after it felt like Bobbie was expected to live a life just begging him for forgiveness when she had admitted the mistake and Jackie played how much it cost her. Brad played everything in such a strident way, very angry and little vulnerability. I think had he chosen or was allowed to let some vulnerability show more often it would have helped him and Tony. Tony was always so judgemental. It’s kind of like how the show quit writing for Genie for a period of time after Lucky died. I think she played the grief so deeply they didn’t know how Laura would recover from something like that, so they just left her kind of adrift. Compare the way Maule played his stuff to how Tony Geary played Luke without Laura in the 90’s like a walking wound. Even when Luke was wrong (hating Nikolas) at least you got the sense how sad he was all the time. I actually liked that they let Tony go so far into his rage, but I was hoping for that rebuilding because I do think these soaps need a glimmer of hope. But then again, Guza didn’t do a lot of building people back up, only tearing down. It was a relief that Alan survived his drug use, and he wasn’t really given much to do of depth after that. And I had loved Bobbie and Jake, no other pairing has come close for me. But Tony/Bobbie was popular, and the direction people wanted after Lucy’s lies were exposed and her marriage to Tony broke up.

Considering ABC News was forced by the company to settle a lawsuit with Trump that the actual news division personnel felt should have been dismissed altogether I don’t know anymore. They might settle just to get past the perception of anti-conservative bias.