titan1978

Both of JJ’s exits as Lucky were on his terms. The first to spread his wings. The second to escape Guza’s overly dark/depressing writing for the character. And he was pretty open in interviews about both exits.

I think Finn was initially more successful than Silas was. But McBain was better and so was Caleb. And Franco was never as successful as Todd Manning. On GH I think Kevin ended up an overall better character than Ryan, and was more successful in longevity and fan support. And Kevin was created to keep JL after the fact.

As one of Marland’s pupils, do we think we will get something like Marland’s rules for taking over a show? More methodical, no cutting or adding right away? Or will it be a big relaunch where things happen immediately like when Guza returned in 1997? That was a thrilling week of shows- Nikolas shot, Carly lies to Tony and claims Jason is the baby’s father, and the iconic and terrible Brenda photoshoot freak out. I hope some of the glaring absences will be addressed- Lulu, Lucky.

When the cancellations happened, the fact that OLTL was being cancelled as well was the shock for me. I wasn’t surprised by AMC at all. Even if I thought both shows had viability, AMC had been subjected to that GL/ATWT talk for a couple of years.

Can we dare to dream that Finn’s days are numbered? I was reading a post online and the poster was so happy, and then listed how great it will be for PM to write for Franco and Julian, who will surely be brought back. Yeah no, those days are done.

@Errolwas this the big change coming post strike that you alluded to a couple of months ago?

What I love about this news is nobody would ever consider Mulcahey a generic writer. And we have had a lot of that on these shows in the last decade +.

Well for all their boring faults, Passanante/Alden wrote longer scenes and he didn’t edit them to death like he does now. It was even one of the things Jean said had to happen for them to agree to take the job. Now we are not talking long scenes like we had with Labine and Guza. But not the quick cuts he usually does either.

B&B is like where talent goes for a retirement!

Well this is big news. Not just because it’s a huge change, but Mulcahey is an actual good writer. Frank will have his hands full working out new ways to schedule, because those scripts are going to have character beats again, and more than likely they are going to breathe again which means longer scenes instead of everything cut to pieces like it is now. Now if Karen Harris had been named his co-hw, I might have passed out. Or if he convinced his good friend Nancy Curlee to join the team in any capacity. I also can only imagine a stronger overall team of supporting writers, maybe even some great script writers!

At least Anna and Luke were not cheating on anybody. What a terrible story for Felicia.

Jill Farren Phelps pervasive destruction under the guise of modernization. In the 1990’s she did it on Guiding Light, Another World, and One Life To Live, with varying degrees of success. And often she did it by taking control of the writing, to the detriment of each show.

Abby was my favorite character, but there wasn’t much left for her with what they were offering storywise. I get why she was ready to leave. I think it would have been more interesting for Abby to not marry Greg and instead have them run against each other in politics. They made such good sparring partners, and it would give her something new to do, especially if they found a way to make it ultimately important to her instead of just a status like it always was with Greg. I get people not liking Paige but I enjoyed her stories more than the ones given to some of the others during those last few years. I liked Anne as well, especially when they leaned into her more sarcastic and cutting line delivery. I think the Sumner Group characters breathed new life into the show, and I enjoyed all the machinations and maneuvering there. The sad thing is that I think Laura would have fit right in there, even if Greg had an affair with Paige. I can easily see Laura holding her own with Paige, Linda, and Claudia. The biggest issue with those last few years for me in hindsight is Meg. Too much wrangling over Meg and none of it was interesting. It could have been, it just wasn’t. And another missed opportunity was Valene’s book about Greg. That could have been amazing for both of them.

The Williams family was a real lost opportunity too. I found all of them engaging, and it was great to have a family back on the cul-de-sac. I liked Paige, she didn’t bother me as a lead. What bothers me more in those last few years are the stupid antics created to keep Gary and Val from reuniting and being happy, including Val seemingly having a lobotomy. It was pretty clear Gary and Val were going to end up together again, they should have just done it instead of dragging it out. And this is coming from someone that preferred Abby/Gary and Ben/Val.

It’s a wonderful scene. I know there are others where they don’t go this deep, but the same dynamics play out. The weight and emotion of just two people talking. It’s a shame his scene partners like Jackie and Genie never got the Emmy love he did. I’m not discounting Tony- he can do wonderful work as Luke. But put him in a scene about deep emotions with grounded people like Jackie and Genie and everybody is always incredible. I never see Tony Geary in scenes like this. I see Luke. And since we are talking about Ruby quite a bit- Norma Connolly was excellent too.

I found it interesting that Tony played scenes about the Spencer past as deeply ashamed of it. For all Luke’s bluster and bravado, Tony played it like talking about it made him ill. The longer a conversation went on about it the more his voice would break and he would try to bully his way through it. And Jackie played it often like a strong survivor. It no longer haunted her. She broke free of her past and also evolved as a person. It came up a lot during the first couple of years during the Carly story. Probably more than it had since her early years. And Jackie plays those scenes like they were harrowing times but they no longer defined her. It is a little difficult to reconcile the caring yet stern when needed Ruby we saw with one who was a madam and had teenage Bobbie working in her house. Maybe I am wrong, but I thought Luke and Bobbie had already been on the streets surviving and selling themselves before they ended up in Florida with Ruby.

This made my brain hurt. All the Kristen’s and all the Marlena’s together. Like Big Business but with more homicide.

Agree and same. And I would even go so far as to say when you are that rude to someone, which those comments were rude, her response wasn’t even that nasty. You want to see nasty- go hang out online with Drag Race Queens- they cut back.

I should have known Ron would use those clones.

The two Mac’s was one of the worst stories GH has ever done. Especially when it hadn’t been that long since we had Ryan/Kevin, which was awesome. For the historians- was Kitty/Kelly on AMC the first time they created a twin to bring an actor back after killing the first character they played? Bill Bell did slap a wig and terrible mustache on David Kimble to terrorize Nina for another year after she shot him. Didn’t Ben have a serial killer twin on Sunset Beach? And the infamous Marlena Evans clones (five of them IIRC) are still out there, dispatched by Stefano to confuse her family. Oh James Reilly.

Reading these recaps it felt like Jesse was moved to supporting shortly after Diana arrived. All that Phil turmoil moved to Diana, and the recaps had a lot of Jesse listens or Jesse talks to someone, but no actual plot for her as far as I could see.

That would be perfect! The person that mentioned Judith Light’s Karen from OLTL has given me the perfect comparison. Karen Wolek was capable of nearly anything, and it both fit and worked. That’s how I feel about SJB’s Carly. She was/is capable of anything, and those rash decisions are one of her trademarks. The other Carly’s just don’t have that extra layer of impulse driven mistakes, panic about them, and that leads to more destruction. Karen trying to protect Jenny with swapping Katrina’s baby for her dead one is something I could easily see SJB’s Carly doing, but for herself. And she also had audience sympathy, even through her mistakes. Like Karen.

We had an over correction. During JFP and especially Guza, hardly anybody was friendly with each other for long. Guza loved pitting the “titans” against each other. There was never a shortage of conflict between the characters. Frank and the writers since RC have stripped that all away. I get them mellowing with age. But nobody has any real, lasting animosity with consequence anymore except Nina/Carly. And that feels weak because they won’t let Nina lean into being a psychopath. Which would do the entire show some good. Bring on Annie part 2! I do think the only character that was allowed to win over Carly was Robin. Even rich bitch Carly knew Jason would forgive Robin for anything. And she blew up both fake paternities and didn’t suffer like Nina is for turning over two people that broke the law. The whole town thinks Nina is awful!

She has an all time great head of hair! All four of the Carly’s gave different interpretations, LW just came in at a time when Carly was untouchable in the writing. The height of the Sonny/Carly/Jason triad. So it made me have a hard time reconciling a Carly who has everything with where she came from. But Laura Wright is a pro, and the show has been lucky to have her. Truthfully, I can’t imagine Sarah playing the Carly that existed about a year into TB’s version through today. And I can’t imagine either of them doing what SJB did to create her.

I enjoy Adam more than I did Marcus. As far as Nikolas goes, so far I have enjoyed Huss more than any of the recasts. I will forever miss Tyler though. I appreciate when these actors join the show and clearly want to be there. It’s much more refreshing than watching Maurice go through bouts of clearly not caring. It’s kind of like Laura Wright. She’s always shown up, and acted her scenes no matter how strong the writing or her scene partner is. She won me over as a Carly recast because she is talented and clearly wants to be there.