titan1978

Ron gonna Ron. That’s all I see here. The propping and actor swapping are just tragic on DAYS. This is as bad as poor Becky Herbst being used to try to make two Friends of Frank work on GH.

General Hospital- I quit the first time after Laura entered into her catatonic state and Rick Webber was killed. Brenda’s return lured me back until they killed off Alan Quartermaine. I have never watched consistently, day in and out for years again. There were periods of time I didn’t even check in for years at a time.

I grew up watching the soaps my family watched- GH, OLTL, DAYS. I started watching GH for myself when Frisco pulled the hat off Felica, and Anna became the leading character. OLTL with Tina being revealed as a Lord, and the return of Nikki Smith. DAYS with Bo and Hope, and the death of Wayne’s Roman Brady. My sister and I got hooked on Y&R when Katherine was going after Jill, and to this day I credit that part of the show with making me a fan- Katherine vs Jill, with Phillip and Nina ending up in their crosshairs. The cut up photograph, Jill/Jack and the divorce from John, Philip choosing Katherine over his mother, Nina and the baby everyone wanted control of. Years of story born from a story I had not seen, and the show deciding to revisit it. My local ABC affiliate moved All My Children to 3:00 in the early 90’s, and I was home by 3:15 from school. At first it didn’t really interest me, but I ended up hooked by the Kendall Hart storyline. Erica, Dimitri, Wildwind, Kendall, Anton- they were my gateway. I watched pretty much until Fons had all but destroyed the show.

What shocking, sad news. I thought he was a talented actor that really didn’t get consistent, strong writing on any show. At times, his Billy captured a little of the essence of Terry Lester’s Jack. And as others have said, he really brought Jason back to life on GH. He had chemistry with everybody. My heart goes out to his loved ones and coworkers.

They were teasing a connection between Robert and Anna during the Grant Putnam storyline too- Duke was jealous of their connection and Robert’s attempts to rescue her were going so slowly that he went to the Jerome’s for help- effectively returning to the mob. In the 80’s After Monty, I prefer Wes Kinney’s tenure to Joe Hardy’s. I didn’t know he was so disliked by the cast! I sat through all this when I was very young, and was not that engaged.

It will be fun to see Rena as Lois again. Wonder how long she will be there?

Sad news, I hope he is successful in his treatments.

They have been striking at the View the entire time they have been airing new episodes. WGA contracts are complex, and The Talk, Drew, Jennifer Hudson, Kelly Clarkson, and the View all have writers that are part of the current striking contract. News writers have a contract that either expires next year or the year after. Other daytime show writers that are not news or on those shows are under a contract similar to the soap actor contract- it is still valid and not expired. As of this morning, only Kelly Clarkson’s show had not announced an intention to resume production, but the others either have or are going to. They will be striking them too if they are not already. The absolute comedy of Ross Matthews and Drew now calling themselves co-anchors. She was incredibly misleading in her statement about resuming her show.

Yeah it’s almost as if the entire strike is just a couple of studio heads having ego issues and Netflix not wanting any kind of transparency. Everybody else seems poised to deal. The attitude of be thankful for the crumbs I give you and tell everybody else how wonderful I am belongs to the egos, like a comically inept King. And Netflix increasingly seems like they are desperately hiding just how much money they make and it’s either way more or way less, and they don’t want anyone to know about it.

I feel exactly the same.

Sometimes I wonder if these fans are even watching the same show as I am. Huss was engaged and wants to be there. Marcus was great at first, but he clearly wasn’t engaged at all towards the end of his run, not to mention whatever happened in his final weeks. Hell even Tyler was often visibly bored and not interested several times through his runs. And I love Tyler. Why be assholes to Huss?

I’m happy to have the character back and I thought Huss did a great job before considering he had to play the emotional ending of all those relationships and stories.

I’m a little behind, have they officially said who the head of Pikeman is? I just keep thinking what a great way to bring back Grant Putnam. He has the WSB/DVX background, acrimonious history with Anna, and hasn’t been seen for decades.

For a meddling type character, she isn’t even fun! I am dying for Sasha to finally have a purpose, and killing Gladys sits nicely for me.

Hard to argue with either of those, and I agree that both shows were invigorated by those returns. I think Marlena’s return in the 90’s on DAYS was equally as successful and integral. As messy as John/Roman was, it gave us Sami’s many issues, the affair storyline, and Belle. Much like Luke and Laura and Roger’s return, Marlena was connected to every character and story- either directly, through her family, through Stefano, and her friendships. A later one that was maybe not as well written overall and certainly the show was in rocky shape but still helped rebuild something the show had lost was Angie returning to AMC and Jesse being alive. The two of them together really worked, and carried over well to the online show.

I am one of those people that thinks Sonny has more chemistry with Alexis than he had with LW’s Carly, all the Brenda clones, broadway Kate, and Nina. It would never work now for me though like it did when they conceived Kristina. Kate Howard/Megan Ward was great. She had the chemistry with Mo, and more than just Sonny’s girlfriend going for her. Plus she was fun to watch as a demanding boss to Maxie and Lulu. Miranda Priestly-Lite, but very fun on GH. I will never understand why they got rid of her. That recast was dreadful.

All this talk about casting errors just reminds me that I think almost everything wrong with GH in the last couple of years has been on the production side. Poor casting decisions- a couple of good ones in there like Trina, Spencer, Esme (which I know not everyone agrees with) surrounded by miscasts like Jordan, Molly, the former OLTL folks, Gregory. Then we have stragglers with no real purpose just there. Followed by people like Nina who should have been gone ages ago. I have thought many of the big stories sounded great on paper, and were then produced with a severe lacking of energy. So my complaint isn’t just the writing, although there are issues there. Poor Sasha, one character where that trauma could have been shared amongst many characters story wise to spew her being a tragedy all the time. The show looks good but is lifeless, and I blame Frank for that. The characters that naturally should be there are not like Jason (I agree with the reason SB is gone), Lucky, Lulu, hell even Serena. They have excellent players being wasted- Dante, Liz, Cameron (should have been locked down), Alexis, the list goes on. It’s ridiculous that we see Olivia more than Dante, and the show is clearly more invested in her. And I like Olivia just fine- she’s just not central and somehow I would love for some returns, but I think the garden needs serious tending before I would add more people. We wasted serial killer Ryan without using him to thin the herd.

I also have very little issue with Sonny during his first run, which culminates pretty well with leaving Brenda at the altar. He did stuff I hated, but he wasn’t presented as the heart of Port Charles. I was never a fan of pairing him with Carly, and it just got worse from there. Stuff I enjoyed- I liked him with Luke and the club, and I cannot imagine GH without Stone and Sonny’s relationship with Brenda. Scenes I will never forget- Sonny in the penthouse after Lily died, just tortured by what had happened. The scene with Brenda and the wire. Leaving Brenda in the rain. So much stuff when Stone died. During the later years his conversation with Brenda when he admits power will always trump everything else in his life, including her. One small scene I have never forgotten and still moves me is Sonny holding Liz after the fire that killed Lucky, and he looks almost sick at her pain. It was a little moment but it was so well acted by everybody. Worse stories for me are the relationship with Emily, Angel, most of the Reese stuff and now with Nina. Brenda’s second return and the Balkan stuff just didn’t materialize as well as her first return.

Can’t just blame him though- they have been ignored or misused for over a decade, way before Ron got there.

There was plenty for Portia to do as a spoiler for Spencer/Trina before they started having her look this bad. Spencer did have to serve time in jail. He is volatile. Trina showed poor judgement in stowing away on the Haunted Star. She was in danger. The whole Esme angle was because of Trina’s ties with Spencer. Even a non-controlling parent would have issues here. At the same time, she has no problem with Trina working with and being close to a murderer (Ava) from a mob family. I miss soap writing that actually used the format- every day storytelling so that all the beats were played out, motivations were clear and not rushed just to fit into a trope.

Add me to this list. Infuriating and it felt like disdain not only for them but for people that had watched the show forever.

After years of watching Bob Guza’s GH, there was no way he would have kept Georgie over Maxie. If anything, I think characters like Georgie and Courtney have Pratt written all over them. Same with Dillon. Courtney being the worse example. So I think Georgie would have been removed eventually anyway out of disinterest during his tenure. People that were baseline just nice, normal folks Pratt likes to put in extreme positions, like Allison and Billy on Melrose Place. Guza would rather explore the darkness within each character, and the ones not being subjected to that had an edge or were sarcastic and cynical. Brenda, Robin, Maxie, Lulu, etc.

Who was there as EP and HW for the Lucy story with Brent/Marion?

Gross and inappropriate. It is fair to say they were two volatile people who should not have married at that time in their lives from what I have read and seen. But Holly’s physical assault and rape by Roger are in no way her fault.

Once Pam Long leaves (although I think that period of her with Curlee in a position of power on the HW team is very watchable). Things really get good for me when Rick Hearst arrives as Alan Michael. From that point through the Blackout it’s just a really great show. So summer 1990 to the end of 1992? There are still amazing days after that- Nadine faking her pregnancy and hiding Bridget, Maureen’s death (not a good idea at all but executed beautifully), David Grant’s trial, plenty of great stuff until Curlee can’t take it any more with JFP P&G/CBS. I think Curlee really got Vanessa in a way nobody else did after that, and certainly Holly. I can’t say there is a character that has story that I don’t like during this run. It kind of falls apart with the recasts- I am just really partial to Sherry as Blake, Beverlee as Alexandra, and Kimberly Simms as Mindy. So 1993 is a tough year to enjoy fully, and it just gets worse IMO.