titan1978

Erica stealing Maria’s child was a pretty low point.

Thank you. Even that backstory belonged to someone else. Guza ported it onto Alexis from his plans for Miranda.

I am not exact on the timeline, but if he didn’t write the marriage himself it was during the time they were working from his outlines while he was prepping Y&R. So it was by his design. This is one soap trope I hope stays in the past. Pat Falken Smith wrote the rape. One of the reasons Marland left the show was interference in what he wanted to do with Scotty and Laura. Every account I have seen places the blame squarely on PFS and Monty for both the rape and the later seduction angle. He was long gone when the seduction angle came about, which was months later. Lots of story plays out between the sexual assault and them going on the run. I just watched most of it for the first time. There are several shows where Bobbie knows Luke raped her and brings it up quite a bit, sometimes in sympathy for Laura and sometimes not.

I keep harping on it too! She has been missed as a lead, and has been a real MVP during this tumultuous year. I hate that wallpaper. Nothing looks as cavernous to me as the nurses station. When JFP had that new set built the walls were closer in. It wasn’t even this bad during the height of COVID. I know it’s to make the lighting setups easier, but it looks like the hallways are huge and the nurses station feels like a mile away from the elevators. But I hated when they got rid of the hub design, which was also done way back in 1997 to make it easier to light and film. But what they lost was the effect they used to have of people walking around the hub from the hallways, it helped make things less static.

I don’t think they could pull that off. Laura’s dress was torn, and she was near catatonic. I recently saw the scenes where Jessie talks to her when she arrives at the hospital, and the scenes when Luke brings her flowers in her hospital room (like the next day!) and basically lets him know she isn’t going to admit it was him. They will never be able to escape the fact that they told the story the way they did. Equally crazy is the audience at the time largely wanted them together after the rape, would yell rape me to Tony Geary at public events, and gave the show its largest audience following their story to the wedding. All of our modern commentary completely glosses over the majority of the audience supported this from 1979-1981 and beyond. At least we saw both of them tortured by what happened. I watched DAYS during the supercouple era and what they did with Jack was just as horrendous, as well as turning Lawrence into a romantic character with Carly, amongst other stories. EJ/Sami wasn’t even that long ago all things considered!

I remember it pissing people off about a decade ago when NLG said out right that Alexis has never been a real character. She is whatever the writers want. She compared it to Julia on SB, who she said was a fully formed character and was easier to navigate because she was so well defined. Thank you. Thank you Thank you

Yeah, especially when you can look at her unraveling during his sister’s death and see the writing could be helping her. Instead it’s generic and she is doing all the work. I also have to say though, as someone that recently lost my mother, I am barely able to watch. And I am kind of relieved it is not stronger writing or I would have to tune out completely. know it was different times and Lucky was a teen, but compare this to Genie, Tony, and Becky’s truly raw grief during the fire storyline. I could not sit though that right now. But I do miss when the show is less superficial and generic. Or everyone’s sadness about BJ. They even gave Sonny and Carly stronger material with Morgan. But this is the show now and for the foreseeable future I think.

I get it. It will take me a couple of years to think Michael Easton is gone for good too.

Donna, your question said her fans and their behavior. Not some of her fans. You didn’t quantify it. So I responded to what you said. You were taking a minority and making it out to sound like her fans don’t deserve any sympathy.

Or he could have had some sense of awareness and either hidden behind some people or at least faked it a little bit. But he had zero control over who was filming and sharing the video. And you are correct, damned if you do, damned if you don’t. The whole thing has been handled incredibly poorly.

Yeah no. The clapping is still happening and one of his hands is behind his back when they pan to him. Though you say you have no investment you sure have spent some time lately spreading negative KeMo comments disguised as dish, and support for FV. And as I have said many times, in this thread and others, I don’t like the character of Sam and think KeMo has been lackluster on GH since JFP days. Loved her as Livvie. I think her being gone is overdue. But I have eyes, and the video is pretty clear. His face alone says plenty.

Judging all her fans and their support by the set of vocal people online that are almost always nasty about everything GH is a disservice. This is nothing like the volume and vitriol that happened during the JaSam and Liason wars of the 2000’s, because the audience has dwindled considerably. Yes I am online, read the tags annd know the circle of nasty GH folks and I also recognize the difference between fan-trolls and actual sane people fans. Do you? It was, for lack of a better word, tacky of him.

I still believe Maura and Ava were being set up to be a major player again without getting rid of her. Mulcahey worked on GL with Roger who was never redeemed. I think if anything we might have gotten a Who Shot Roger storyline and not actually killed her off. I think Valentin was the goal as far as a big bad that would eventually be gotten rid of permanently, and that all changed as soon as it started. For all the faults of this terrible year, I have forgotten the bright spots of being rid of Valentin and Finn.

It’s wild how many people think there was some plot by Frank to keep JaSam apart as a couple. Did they watch when the show broke them up? It was because of the talent that the relationship was ended, and by all accounts one-sided on her end. I would feel differently if there were any leaks that Burton was not kind to her or was difficult to work with. I don’t even like the guy and I haven’t heard anything about them not getting along. I do feel sympathy for her- she lost a job that she has been in for over 20 years, in what has also been a difficult few years personally. I do think FV is petty and is mismanaging the show. I feel for her fans too. She can never say her fans didn’t try very to hard save her job. They did online and offline which matters. Only time will tell if there is a longterm effort. Genie fans and people just upset with Frank went after him consistently for a long time before they seriously reached out to Genie to try to get her to return.

One good thing came of it. Before she left Genie asked her if it was true. Monty allegedly went pale. They talked about it, and Monty asked her if she cleaned up the drugs on set would she be willing to come back? Genie said when she came back the first time the drugs were gone. And when she came back in 1993 it was a warm welcome by the actual show, which was a relief to her. But yes, ABC was shitty to her more than once.

IIRC Claire Labine did a hybrid version of this at GH. Unless you were in the middle of a cliffhanger or a major story turn like BJ’s accident, for the most part each day was mostly a new day. Even BJ’s accident/heart transplant was several episodes surrounding the events, then a new day several actual days later as kind of an emotional reset. I often felt that it seemed like Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday were each their own day on her GH, usually picked up in the morning or early part of the day.

I appreciate Genie either giving zero f’s or just being older and not willing to protect people that she told this story again without protecting Gloria here. The first time I saw her tell it she didn’t specifically name Gloria or they edited it out of her Lifetime Portrait. Gloria Monty learned her lesson about that rape. Unlike let’s say DAYS, that was the only time she told that story. And her instincts were right in 1991- the show needed to be more grounded. The problem was she didn’t like strong writers and it was almost always to the detriment of the show during her first run too. Riche accomplished what Monty thought she wanted to do. Monty’s GH was best when written by Marland and across two runs by PFS. Bill Bell hanging so much story on Nick and Sharon right away, including marrying them that fast was a huge mistake IMO. At least he was smart enough to surround Cricket with fan favorites like Nina and Danny, Paul, etc.

He brings an actual goofy, fun energy to his scenes with the Quartermaines. A welcome gentle sarcasm and both verbal and physical commentary instead of their normal biting wit. I don’t think he has much more to offer right now, but there should always be room for a charming, good looking person on a soap.

Most important to me is she worked under both Monty and Riche. She knows the DNA of the show and worked with many of the actors and helped develop characters. Based on interviews she still seems to get it too. We need people like her mentoring so that the correct lessons are learned.

There is a bit of Frank apologist in trying to blame Kelly or some outside force at the network. Which I find hilarious. There are several examples of Frank Valentini being petty towards actors that make things difficult. We know he absolutely hates if someone talks about bts dirt or criticizes the show. Tristan Rogers told his fans one of his abrupt departures was because Frank was pissed about what he said about the show. Sean Kanan was fired and his character killed off just a couple years after a popular resurrection after complaining about lack of story. And negative comments about his appearance were allowed to be in the scripts IIRC. NLG “joked” on Twitter that Alexis being sidelined and sent to jail was because Frank was mad at her. Kin has openly complained and been punished too. Kelly publicly spoke up about the show getting rid of Billy. And visibly tanked her onscreen story with Jason because she wanted to act with her real life partner. It was so uncomfortable to watch that Burton even spoke about it, saying what worked before was not working anymore when they broke them up. Do I believe he is capable of icing someone out? Yes I do. I also believe the way this was handled was not good. But I don’t believe she did something so egregious that Disney got involved. Please. Also! People around here have argued before about a contract not being renewed or being dropped to recurring is not fired. It absolutely is. They were let go.

My criticism is because there is so much talent at GH right now. It’s not terrible, but that cast could be doing really good shows consistently, and it doesn’t feel as hollow as Y&R does to me because there is such a strong core of vets. DAYS also has thia, but RC has turned that show into more of a cartoon.

I would take Kurt McKinney back in a heartbeat. Never going to happen though. I was not a fan of the Q writing from about 2000- on. But I could still count on JI’s Edward to have a twinkle in his eye. And Jane and Stuart to be at each other’s throats but still have that underlying affection for each other. It’s like Valentini is allergic to joy, sparks, heat, anything watchable daily and long term. He wasn’t like this at OLTL.

It’s the problem of too many characters and not enough story to go around. My complaints last year were that the recurring folks were the story engines and the contract cast was just reacting for the most part. Now they are using more of the contract cast, but nobody has enough story to go around. You can absolutely have this big a cast and still utilize most of them. That’s why you write an actual story, with beats to play. Romance stories help this tremendously! Not only does it help the show from being a slog to get through, but they spread out more story. Dates, bedroom scenes, etc.

She had an actual point of view, had a backbone, and seemed like a real character for the first time. The lines of dialogue should overall not be interchangeable between Carly, Ava, and Nina. But they kind of were before the change, and now it’s like they are all rudderless. Without a story or point of view. Even Carly is just floating around. Liz being back to prominence is a great thing the new team has done since August. Dante being given something to do is great as well. And I like that Molly and Kristina had enough focus that I feel like I know who they are again, even if I despise Kristina. At least I watch her and have a reaction at all.

Maura West especially got to show shades of actual evil glee in upsetting Nina. It was a welcome return to what Ava should be- a viper.