titan1978

Well the online scuttle is that Frank has been trying to get JMB back for a couple of years. Apparently there was a significant push recently to get her and she keeps declining. Whatever she is doing now she would rather do than get paid to be on GH. So recast it is.

This show. Carly found out about this accident at her hotel hours after it happened? Which means Olivia is also in the dark because she would have contacted Carly. There is an entire show to fill with dialogue. It costs them zero dollars to use a character’s name if they don’t have the budget to feature them. The details matter!

I do not mean this in a nasty way at all. I have empathy for Maurice even though I do not really enjoy Sonny anymore. But if storylines that are darker in nature are ones he is no longe capable of playing without a health crisis, then maybe it is time to finally evolve Sonny, fade him to the background, or begin an exit strategy. He doesn’t want cuddly Sonny, but it’s pretty clear he isn’t the best judge of his own abilities to handle this material anymore. I feel a lot of empathy for his wife too, she seems to play an instrumental part in keeping his mental health in check. If you watch his YouTube show at all, you know things changed for him during the COVID shutdowns. I think at this point something has to be done, because Sonny as the town’s best friend doesn’t work narratively either.

I think that putting Sonny in Luke’s orbit to keep him on the show had more to do with it than anything about Laura. They were forced to work together by Frank Smith, and with that came Stone. Luke had a real relationship with Robert, and that was the deeper connection with Robin. Once they build Luke’s, it kind of cements him in with the characters that are more likely to go out all the time. The Outback was brightly lit and more of a restaurant. Luke’s was the kind of place where illegal poker games were happening, and Stone worked there. It was a cool place to be. Labine’s Laura was almost too good. For all the complexity in their writing, the issues of of angel Laura and hero Luke become cliches. She was his angel, and he was her hero. But they were not actually those things at their core for everybody. That got lost somewhere in middle point of their return. In the first year or so Laura was still fiery, she could be volatile. When Lucky is shot she attacks Luke, verbally and physically, in a way that would not fly today, just like pairing them up wouldn't fly today due to the SA. But Labine’s Laura also was not as broken as Guza’s was. Even if that is based in her history, it easily veered into basket case and that wasn’t what Labine would do at all. She was styled very much older than her age. I thought she had some heat with Sonny back then, and she was more his age than Brenda was, but that would never seem that way onscreen.

There is some great stuff to explore. Her seeing the house for the first time and them hiding out there was great. I hate what Guza did to that house. She also has a great scene with Frank Smith that I remember fondly. Most of what Laura did was establish a community. She and the Wards go against the incinerator project the Q family is backing that would impact her neighborhood. Her friendship with Tony. But mostly it was worrying about Luke/Lucky and violence. They also wrote a lot of just day to day stuff for her, and fun family stuff between her and Luke and Lucky until the danger overtakes everything. That peaks both with her going into emergency labor with Lulu after Frank’s goons shove her down the stairs, and then the shootout in her house. After that she kicks Luke out and they just hover there for months. I get it though, I mean her son was shot the year before. Frank’s dead and yet here they are shooting up her house. Luke was way more in the mix. He had his club stuff with Sonny’s crew and Lucy which made him more prominent, plus all the action stories and individual relationships with Stone, Robin, etc.

I would love for it to be Marci Miller. Overall what I hope for is that if this is for Lulu, they screen test her with both Dom and Genie. It is interesting that whoever the new, so far unnamed headwriters are, they are focused on Laura’s family coming back.

In her We Love Soaps interview she says she centered the show around them, and you can see that. Pretty much every character hub was connected to them even if they were not directly involved in a given story. Especially when the Wards arrive, that really ties them to the Q’s. Labine grew Laura up, their first year back on the show kind of cemented her having a big heart and being deeply involved in her community. I think losing Mary Mae and her maternity leaves are what derailed them doing more beyond that initial characterization. Luke was allowed to be more in the mix.

I just think Laura was more complicated than Labine wrote her to be. I thought her desires to be home in Port Charles and settled were better executed in the first year or so of their return. I think a huge part of my problem is how they chose to handle Genie having two kids during their run. By the time they got to her second child they had really made Laura into a handwringing damsel in distress. She spent months basically only talking about Luke’s obsession with danger. And I assume due to her first-in shooting schedule they also isolated her, she barely left her house.

We never really got to see Molly and TJ excited for their baby. It was always about Kristina. They have done such a poor job with this storyline. Forced conflict and zero attention that made it seem like anyone but Kristina wanted this baby and felt joy about it. It’s almost like AI artwork- you think it’s real then you see the six fingers on one hand. There has been almost zero real human reaction on this show in weeks. The Natalia fallout, the Heather story, Pikeman and now this. Is a robot writing this show that doesn’t understand human emotion? This is worse than anything I saw from Dan and Chris, except maybe Peter. TPTB need to take a serious step back and ask themselves who is this show being made for? Because I would bet there is close to zero audience that wanted to watch a conflict filled surrogacy storyline go almost to full term and end like this, with the clear promise of more conflict about it is to come.

Oh it’s a mess before that. I just remember that being, as you said, a particularly dark time. And I enjoyed the Panic Room and also think it was trashy and all spectacle. But that’s kind of what I felt for that period on the show. Everything was very trashy.

And it looks so much better!

Complicated. What worked for me was the more grounded take on storytelling as Riche moved the show away from the Monty tone that had been there even when Gloria was not EP. Felicia was one of my favorite characters so the Ryan story really drew me in. Pairing her with Mac worked better than all the other attempts for him. Scotty/Dom/Lucy was such an excellent way to give Scotty and Lucy depth. Karen/Jagger/Jason/Brenda was what really drew me in, I loved that teen scene. Levinson also was sleazy. Karen stripping being an example. The way they tried to make Brenda a vixen didn’t work for Marcil, and her playing against type where she could saved that character from cliche. Labine brought much needed heart and better storytelling chops to the show. Her team managed to execute what Richie was trying to do. Even a filler Labine episode had a sense of community and emotion. Labine had never done an hour show, so her version was a hybrid. That’s why the scenes were longer, filled with lots of character defining dialogue. Everything had more intelligence, and the characters all had emotional depth (a couple of duds to be sure, Katherine wasn’t really a great character, nor was Miguel). To me Labine is as important to the future of the show as Monty/Marland/Pat Falken Smith were from 78-81, she just did it in less time.

It was still good television, there was just a sense that it wasn’t going anywhere. They had amazing stories for two years, then it kind of slows down except for the Stone story. Everything else was resolved so that story took center stage while everything else went into a holding pattern instead of also beginning new stories. Guza comes in hot with Carly (MVJ says that was his, not Labine), moves Jax to Brenda, Jason/Robin, puts Laura on trial for killing Damian, Lily is pregnant and Sonny breaks Brenda’s heart again, clink/boom, and Lulu’s bone marrow transplant reintroduced the Cassadines and Laura’s secret son Nikolas. This was in like six months and it was great soap. The pace was quick but they still wrote all the quiet character scenes they had been doing, didn’t skip over details, and the emotional stakes were always high. I loved Labine, but she really regressed Laura. I got her point of view with her being over the danger, but Laura was a capable partner to Luke on the older adventures, not just a damsel in distress. The constant wringing her hands over danger felt like a waste. Guza knew how to write for Laura, and IMO the show was better for the fact that the Spencer stories revolved around her for those few months instead of Luke. We are not that far away at that point from Sonny shooting Carly in the head while she was giving birth to Morgan, which I felt was a low period for the show.

I loved her work, but I don’t think that was the answer. When Guza got pulled away because Sunset Beach was actually going into production, the show was really good. It was a marriage of the Labine writer’s depth, Riche’s production, and some of the old school Monty era action and intrigue thanks to Guza. My what if has always been Guza/Harris continue uninterrupted, and Labine gets control of Ned and Lois for her proposed spin-off. Riche trying to do two shows was a negative for both.

About the blue thing- that’s not just Tomlin. There have been times on this show in the recent past where people’s teeth looked blue due to the lighting and filming. It used to be especially bad in the Metro Court restaurant/bar set. The accident has infused some much needed urgency into the show so far. However, it’s so noticeable how bland the scripts are once again compared to Dante’s shooting. There was so much depth and honestly better production in those episodes than in what I have seen so far. It was especially noticeable when Kristina arrived at the hospital and the way they filmed the revelations of Alexis and TJ. Mulcahey may be in the credits but he is long gone from the actual product.

It’s one of those little things that the show being more detailed could fix. You have Kristina Wagner on contract, and Felicia had a relationship with Stone, and more importantly with Jagger. They have barely used her since the new writers took over, she’s not in danger of going over her guarantee. She is a perfect example of a character that could have been someone he confided in and allowed the show to explore his point of view. She doesn’t have to agree with what he is doing, but she could have been an actual friend. Instead we wasted time flirting with Carly. You have Kin Shriner there too and no scenes that I can remember between Jagger and Scott either.

For a character he did not create, Courtney just screamed Chuck Pratt. Once he was headed out the door so was she. Speaking of the virus sweeps event, does anyone know who decided it was time for Robert Scorpio to come back? Both in hindsight and at the time it felt very strange considering how the show was written and produced at the time. The focus was getting rid of classic era characters, not bringing them back.

Gio is charming, but he cannot act beyond being charming. If this show wasn’t so bland, conservative and sexless there would be room for a character like him mixing it up. As it stands now he is just there flirting and smiling. They don’t even have him playing the violin enough to justify that being why they hired him. Trina certainly deserves better!

In 2002 that was the direction they were headed, Jason/Brenda. They ported most of Brenda’s planned story onto Sam as far as the Sonny affair, baby that dies and Jason taking care of her.

The real question is how did she not just hit the bottom and bounce in that shallow ass pool?

Excellent for MVJ! I am certain his EP role involves the writing more than day to day production. Even though I hope they fill the staff with more talent not from the last 30 years of soaps, I still understand the steady hands she is surrounding herself with. I know if I was Guza I would be thrilled to create, and mentor, and mange writers. But I would never want to sit in a network meeting again! Both MVJ and Mulcahey said he is quite adept at managing a team of writers and collaborative. Skills a new show would need.

Just from an outside view, I bet JHC is going to be running the day to day production, and I bet Guza is there as more of a creative director producer, almost like a showrunner. I hope MVJ negotiated herself a production credit or at least a contract that gives her some autonomy and control. She has partners in Guza and JHC that she has worked with and has loyalty with, especially Guza. But by all accounts this is mostly her creation, and soaps suffer when the writers are not in control.

That is not exactly accurate as far as GH goes. Not only did the tone of the scenes change abruptly when he arrived, the power struggle became apparent onscreen within 6 weeks. All of a sudden several characters decided to pursue new jobs, clearly to restructure character hubs. We have had a constant back and forth for months as stories started, gained traction, and then unraveled due to bts shenanigans. Look at Finn- dead father to raging alcoholic to rehab and off the show in like 15 days. Cyrus is a victim of Sonny’s, Laura and Anna are also after him, Molly is literally carrying the paperwork around to charge him, story dropped. So many more examples. The Sonny flip flop has been a disaster IMO. I am not disputing that Labine was a bad fit at GL and it showed. I’m just saying I think the abruptness/severity of bts drama playing out for the audience to see in their product is much worse here.

My nightmare. Again, yes this is my recollection too. Do I think it was disgusting to gloss over how awful sonny was? Absolutely. But what was written and on screen is what it is, not what I wish it to be.

Correct. He worked on the show as a scriptwriter in the early to mid 80’s. One of the reasons the Cassadine Nikolas story was so detailed was because he was there back then and knew and cared how to line the pieces up. He didn’t have the open disdain for soaps until he came back from Sunset Beach, and it really sets in when he came back in 2002. It makes me a little less angry in hindsight because those were the big two that I think really destabilized the show through today to be honest. But you are correct, misery and death was his business on GH and the tone was mostly his.