titan1978

Agreed! Really strong work @janea4old!

1 hour ago, Vee said:

There is no chance I believe ABC or Disney have any interest in this size of a massive cast.

Yeah that’s Frank, it’s been his style on this show since nearly the beginning when the show was on the chopping block still. He cut his teeth on GH with Ron telling heavy recurring character stories, and kept it up after RC left. That’s how they told the 50th, it’s just way too much now.

The scripts are not stellar yet, but there is so much more detail and care in the words people are saying that it makes it easy to watch even mundane scenes.

The way Brook Lynn and Chase discussed money and their upcoming new life was refreshing for a couple that was kept apart for one stupid misunderstanding after another.

Laura and Anna had an adult conversation about why they have a fondness for Sonny and also why that doesn’t matter with him being a violent criminal.

Cyrus and Laura also had an adult conversation that was watchable, something I rarely feel about Cyrus. All this poor old victim Cyrus is getting ridiculous though. Yes he went to jail, but he was also a murdering criminal.

I don’t really see Maurice leaving as much as he bitches about it. Anyone that listens to his YouTube show knows he doesn’t do well with his mental health and not working somewhere he is well respected.

And the drama with Vanessa is the will she won’t she. She isn’t on my radar for co-worker complaints. She’s a lot like Rena in that she demands Brenda has a certain look in order to help her play the character.
 

I know she was promised one thing and the show tried to do something else with her last return (I will forever thank her for not letting them create a romantic backstory where she slept with Dante).

Riche still socializes with her, as does MVJ. She and Guza got along. Her co-stars like her. I think the issue is the tried and true show wants all the eggs in their basket, and she wants a level of control or freedom or both that they have no problem giving to MB and TG in his day. But they balk at listening to a woman.

RC was never going to be a good fit writing Brenda. Of all the Valentini writing teams, the current one has the best shot.

It really cost ABC nothing to give Tony and Genie favored nations contracts- which means what one gets the other gets. They should have the same money and as proved to be the sticking point when she quit in 2002- equal time off. I know she came and went more, but some of that was because of crappy treatment next to Tony. They had almost equal pay in the 90’s through her quitting, and all both of them negotiated for was more time off repeatedly/favorable schedules.
 

They also both had clauses that they could quit every 13 weeks without penalty too with enough notice. I bet nobody has that anymore. And they got a payout if the network got rid of them before their whole contract. But that was back in the days before the budgets got involved in contract negotiations.

So did the inserts include Laura/Jordan and the scenes with TJ?  Because his scenes with Hat Dad also felt very tacked on to me, which makes me wonder if they are acutely aware of their lack of using the Black cast and all of a sudden decided to drop some scenes in? We had all that conversation and then no follow through with Molly and TJ themselves.

They didn’t drop any plot movement stuff that I could see unless it is Cyrus vs Sonny, which does not make sense because Finola teased those scenes with Laura a few weeks ago so we knew that was coming. Unless the idea of Cyrus pressing charges is new and they dropped that in with Jordan to help set it up?

What is up with these spoilers?

Laura and Anna come to a mutual realization.
Trina questions Josslyn and Dex about their relationship.
Alexis and Finn support each other.
Brook Lynn and Chase have an honest discussion about money.
Elizabeth opens up to Gregory.

I just watched Tuesday 4/16 on Hulu and the only thing in the daily spoiler I have seen that was actually used was the Trina, Joss, Dex stuff.

No Anna and Laura, instead it was Jordan and Laura. No Gregory and Liz- Gregory and TJ. No Alexis and Finn at all, or Brook Lynn and Chase.

Reading through comments and actually watching the show, and one major issue that I hope is finally addressed is the focal point. This show is dominated by performers not on contract. I know this is a hallmark of the Valentini era, but it has to change.

Blaze has a story about her. Kristin is in stories that she is not the focus of- I can’t remember if this Molly is recurring or not. That also includes TJ, who is on even less than Kristina. Laura is stuck trying to keep Heather on the show with her recurring husband Kevin.

Don't get me wrong- I think there is room for the recurring players. I don’t want Lucy to disappear again. But it’s way over the line with them we look at the focus of the show.

1 minute ago, Antoyne said:

When I first got into GH TB was Carly and Jason was purely in best friend territory. I personally never saw anything romantic between them chemistry wise back then but maybe someone that remembers better can tell.

Didn’t they kiss during the PC Hotel fire sweeps stunt? They thought they were dying and decided to be honest about their feelings. And it was promptly moved away from.

15 minutes ago, carolineg said:

I have defended Sasha for years, but I am over her and don't think she's in any way right to be a brand spokesmodel.

Me too! But a year of terrible stories and the last two days in overalls have left me beyond numb to poor Sasha. Time to cut that character. Let her get an amazing job offer from Home and Heart that takes her out of Port Charles and we wish her the best!

There is no doubt in my mind that the new writers did not have to submit a story bible beyond fix the Jason return. My feelings from the start were that May/ Summer was going to be a better indication of new story directions. March was the Jason umbrella and setting that story up on its feet, while exploring the rest of the canvas. I think some of the starts and stops have been that way under Valentini anyway, dictated by how he manages the budget.

I can imagine Korte being asked what she would do with the story as the Jason expert, and using that opportunity to pitch a return to the GH that she loved. I still hope we get an interview from EK/PM at some point to hype their vision. 

The network was clearly game for a change- look at the exits of Howarth, the rumored exit of another, Burton’s return, luring Patrick Mulcahey out of retirement. Sometime during the strike somebody at ABC started paying real attention to the show again above Frank. Be that Varni or someone else. All of a sudden we had that ABC special that they rushed into production too.

I have no doubt Frank Valentini is still very much the EP here. But his show is starting to look and feel like GH did before his time, including stronger day to day writing and way less focus on his friends from OLTL. 

2 hours ago, carolineg said:

  Where was Blaze?

IIRC Blaze agreed to be the Face while also opting out of stuff like personal appearances. The Momager made a big deal about it. I knew when it happened that Sasha was going to be back hawking Deception on that show.

I wish Lucy had a real friend or confidant on the show that is not Scotty. Maybe rekindle her friendship with Felicia? Because I would like a scene where Lucy admits her bulldozing has more to do with her inability to deal with her life outside work, and her overbearing nature with Deception is because that’s all she has as a legacy. She is desperate for the name Lucy Coe to have some kind of meaning. They could even tie it in to her reaction to Bobbie’s death, and how much an entire community grieved for Bobbie and how little Lucy feels her absence would even be noticed.

Speaking of which, where is Felicia? For the faults of Chris and Dan and Frank V, I hope the new regime recognizes the show was saved by weaving those legacy and fan favorites back onto the canvas. I don’t want a Frons level show again where we only see Carly getting story and a rotating cast of youngsters.

Give me a real story for Liz, for Laura, and Anna. Not just rotating them into other people’s stories. When PM was on Guiding Light, it was an ensemble and nearly everyone had something to do. Portia could also use something deeper than Trina’s mom. And just like several other times on this stupid show, where is Trina and why won’t they use her as a lead?

I enjoyed the Davis girls, and Lexi as Kristina. But I have to give credit to Kate Mansi, she’s great on this show. I don’t see Abby at all. She has matured Kristina, and I can see her as a viable lead in her own stories.

Nina, Drew, and Kristina have all been reinvigorated, and that’s just in day to day writing.

I know Korte loves Carly, PM too. But this Carly is 100% what she became when Mulcahey was no longer on the show. She can be a lead character without sacrificing everyone else or allowing her to slip too far back into Guza Carly. I hope this is an over correction since the Jason thing is their first big story, and we get some nuance back into Carly and she isn’t on all the time.

It was a cumulative effect that gets lumped under the trial IMO.

The rise of talk TV that leaned into more sensationalistic material, filling an appetite that COURT TV and the constant coverage had created. Plus you could miss a talk show and go right back the next day.

The habit of soap watching was broken, and soaps thrive on habit. Once that more casual audience stops watching it’s hard to win them back.

Network execs not adjusting to how more options during the day for people to watch thanks to an explosion of cable had changed their industry. Instead they kept trying to recapture numbers like the early 90’s and 80’s, and the audience was fundamentally different now. So they decided they should have more input, more story control, and more stunts.

Also in the late 90’s we started to see no more investment in training a new crop of show runners and writers in daytime, and women were no longer running shows like they had been forever.

Shows like Y&R and DAYS were still thriving because they were stabile- you saw the same characters and the stories moved incredibly slow. Even the older characters were still in major play. As wild as DAYS was, all those Reilly stories were about romances.

Y&R seemed to capitalize on the fact that there were many Black people watching daytime and nobody was telling real stories with those characters. In the 90’s, to me, Drucilla, Neil, Malcolm and Olivia were just as important as Nina, Cricket, Paul, Sharon, etc.

And finally, a bunch of EP’s formed a committee because they didn’t like how their shows were marketed at awards shows, like it was all sex and no depth. This was also the height of AIDS. So some of them almost became neutered. Wendy Riche was one of the ringleaders of wanting that image to change of soaps being too sexy.

This is a woman that had a full on cat fight in the lobby of the MC with the recast Kate, IIRC. The one where Kate launched herself at Carly!

9 minutes ago, carolineg said:

True that lol.  He had a lot of raw charm as Nico though.

Interesting.  So perhaps it was always an issue for him and he was just better prepared back then?

@titan1978 @DRW50  I thought GH was still decent until 2003.  I think 1999 was a rough year overall with cast departures, but 2002 was a great year for GH.  I have an obvious bias, but the only story I remember really hating was the Luke/Lucky/Summer triangle that was just..icky.

There were some rough patches that are hard to forget for me- Luke/Felicia, the complete waste of Faison’s return, Lucky and Nikolas recasts I could not stand, Laura becomes sidelined, Carly and Sonny (I never cared for the pairing). Then JFP gets there and tries to destroy Bobbie to prop Jensen Buchanan, Rick is a bigger creep than ever before, Courtney…

Brenda coming back reset the show creatively and it was must watch during that entire run. Then Robin came back and they built up the hospital again, and I loved those characters. From there I was still watching daily until the text message killer story, even if I felt it was too dark and misogynistic.

I will always give that team credit for sweeps stunts that were very watchable!

1 hour ago, BetterForgotten said:

Maurice has also credited former producer Shelley Curtis for being there for him during his first few years - when he was suffering through anxiety and not able to remember his lines, Curtis would stay late with him in his dressing room and run through his entire scripts with him, line by line, so he could feel confident and prepared.

Wasn’t he referring to his first weeks on the show? When he had a breakdown, and Wendy and Shelley held his job and Curtis walked through the script line by line with him on his first days back. I didn’t know that continued.

19 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

I didn't feel like it was that balanced then either, and I also thought the show was dull as hell from about '99 on, but I am probably an outlier.

I felt the shift pretty much then too. Once Lucky “died” it kind of came unraveled. Several bad casting decisions and the push/pull between Guza and Riche really hurt the show. I think it was pretty dull to sometimes awful during the end of Guza’s time there for his second round.

Jason being featured heavily in two story circles did not help- the Sonny side of the show/mob and the Q family drama because of Carly and Michael. You could not escape him.

1 hour ago, carolineg said:

I like the idea of Chase/Brook Lynn much more than the actual execution of the couple.  They are just boring.

As far as Mo goes, it's hard to say.  He never had an issue with his lines in the 90's and had more complex dialogue.  It's possible medication, age, memory, shorter production time, whatever,  has contributed to his inability to remember his lines.  At the same time it's his job, so if MB has to make adjustments to be able to memorize dialogue he needs to do that.  If it was a new problem for MB I might be concerned, but he's had trouble with his dialogue for about 2 decades now.

And those Labine era scripts were very dialogue heavy, with long scenes. Guza’s teams were as well, but he structured the show differently so they were not quite as verbose. Those Labine era scenes really proved how talented the GH cast at that time was- it was a lot of meticulous dialogue. Filmed under better conditions than now though.

I am not out here trying to bash Maurice. But he has bitched about the show for a decade. And he hates it when he doesn’t have a story or isn’t being used constantly, so it’s not like he would enjoy having a schedule like Tony did. He’s been very open about how the COVID shutdown lead to a breakdown for him, and missing the show was a huge part of that. So if everyone else is upping their game then he needs to dig deep too.

59 minutes ago, dragonflies said:

Shannon Peace out there dragging the show for the lack of screen time for the black actor's. 

Good for her!

She has a point. We should be seeing Trina, even if It is grieving for Spencer. We spent months of Robin going to that bridge to remember Stone.

Stella, Trina and Portia are great. Jordan was not a good recast, at least for how they have written for her. DT plays Curtis like he would rather be anywhere than in every story he has had for a couple years. But there are plenty of other duds that have been seen.

We need more of Portia being as strong as she has been at the hospital, more time between her and her daughter. Stella has been utilized well at the hospital too.

Also- if the show wants me to care about Molly and JT’s surrogacy storyline, we should see them way more than we are.

20 minutes ago, Soapsuds said:

If an actor should leave it's MB. 

He was atrocious today. Does he think stuttering and yelling all his lines as acting?

Even Steve Burton was better than him today.

He has been terrible for a long time. If I was a younger actor watching him, and he tried that mentoring crap he always does on me I would decline. Intensity is not great acting. He used to be pretty good, and his disdain for not being celebrated outside daytime really shows onscreen.

At his hammy worst, I would take Tony Geary over Maurice any day now, and I was sick of him when he left. But at least he had a sense of fun and scene partners that loved working with him because it was fun to do so. Maurice strikes me as someone that offers acting advice while he himself is tanking the scene with terrible acting.

I love Maura West. The problem is that she is playing a character that should not still be here, simply because it’s Maura playing Ava. Would I get rid of handful of characters before I even looked in her direction? Yes. But at the same time she is no better than Sonny as far as people who have not paid for their crimes.

I wish for Nina to lose it and leave in a blaze of glory before Ava though.

2 hours ago, BoldRestless said:

I actually think yesterday was the worst Carly propping I've ever seen in my life.

It was Courtney adjacent for sure! 

They had their chance for me with Ava and Nikolas as a new version of Alan and Monica. Only Ava was the more violent partner this time, like Alan. I could have seen her last way longer in that dynamic without taking away her edge.

Watch some classic pre-90’s Alan and Monica. There is danger, passion, violence, comedy, romance, challenging each other, loyalty and betrayals. And they are both smart, dedicated professionals who have a terrible marriage and cannot quit each other.

I laughed out loud a couple of times during today’s show. Only they both felt like I was laughing with the show, and not at the show.

Those buttons! Maybe if Drew wore a shirt in his size it wouldn’t just fly apart when barely tugged. CM looks incredible, and he plays this kind of material so much better than knight in shining armor. That leather skirt Nina is wearing is not going to be easy for a down and dirty office desk quickie.

“What’s up Sonny!” Oh Jason got jokes now.

Maura West is still amazing, but some of those I am thinking hard and not speaking closeups were giving me Kristen Wigg’s surprise lady from SNL. She looked like she was about to blurt out about his meds.

I saw all the complaints about Drew/Nina, and in general the show itself. And I think if the show/ABC had been using Twitter as a focus group, no wonder we have been stuck in blandsville, USA for years.

Finishing up the week watching Friday’s show, and I had to laugh that Sam and Dante are essentially wearing the same clothes and colors while sitting on a couch that is also blue. I’m not saying it’s that big of a deal, but what other show would not make a simple change here?

I loved the scenes of Portia going off at the hospital about Heather. Soaps used to be all about the community reaction to the actions of the characters. And her point of view makes total sense to me.

I also like Joss and Kristina’s natural animosity. The show was very lacking in essentially good people having true differences. I even liked Joss handing Dex a burned grilled cheese. It’s exactly what she would do. Everything isn’t so generic anymore!