titan1978

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.

It was even more embarrassing for Rauch than that. He fired them, they didn’t leave. The end date was nearing and he had to ask them to stay on because they couldn’t find anyone who was willing to HW for the show. Labine described it as doing them a favor. Which to me was a sign back then- if nobody wants the job, is it because they don’t want to work with Rauch, P&G, CBS or all three?

It was a hot topic in the soap media at the time, the show was rumored to be soon cancelled several times. To make room for B&B going to an hour, a new Bell soap, or both at the same time. The soap press was especially brutal about this and the quality of the show during the period before Rauch arrived. CBS lost some of that soap dominance because Irna and her heirs/partners started working on projects that took off on those competing networks. Agnes first on Another World, then her ABC shows, Bill on DAYS. Ted Corday at DAYS as well. As controlling as Irna was, she did allow those people to flourish. With the Doctors and General Hospital we saw shows that were already more modern because they focused of working men and women more than traditional family structure (although Edge was already in that lane too before them). Lots of talent took what they learned on CBS daytime shows and made it work even better at times on other networks. Monty was at Secret Storm for along time before it was cancelled. The other networks scooped up the right people to counter the CBS dominance.

I watched GL off and on in the late 90’s- early 2000’s, so my perspective is skewed compared to a longtime fan of the show. But I did follow the soap mags at the time, so I know what the stories were. I think the show had one real chance at regaining its footing and that was the first year or so of Barbara Esenstein and James Harmon Brown. Which in itself was a miracle after the two years before then. The show had dimension again, it had an almost excellent and very watchable cast across the board, and an engine with Annie that was both attention getting and a proper story for the talents of Zimmer and Watros. Everything big they did after that to me just chipped away at the show- the Clone, San Cristobal, Nursery Rhyme Stalker, Harley as central heroine, etc. Labine was miscast as HW. I felt a few worthy sparks until Conboy, then it was truly a shell of a show, limping along until it was cancelled. P&G ended their time with soaps with two of the worst EP’s (GL’s being incompetent, ATWT’s being egotistical). I cannot blame Zimmer for sticking to her negotiated contract, no matter what that meant to the show’s budget woes. These people have lives too- they pay mortgages, college tuition for kids, and any agents/managers they have. That part of the country was expensive to live in, even back then. Even outside New York was still expensive because of the commuters to New York. Anyone that did take cuts mid cycle should have been looking for their exits- that was a huge sign to me that the show had limited time left. I feel this way about GH too, which is the show I have the most love for and have paid the most time from my own life keeping up on. Right now it feels very much like watching GL in those last few years felt- except better sets and more vets. But the stories just don’t build and the production doesn’t try to make any real emotion play out. And other than the vets, the cast is full of good looking people that all are just there. During COVID I watched almost all of the Curlee era of the show- and while it does take a wrong turn during JFP’s tenure, it was still very watchable and felt like a whole show. I now believe that Curlee/Reilly/Demorest when Calhoun was there through the Blackout is possibly the best soap I have ever seen when it comes to range and everyone having a place and purpose. I am glad I didn’t know that when I saw the show by 2000. And I can never rant about Conboy without mentioning that stupid baseball diamond set.

She was on PFS writing team at GH from 79-81, according to this quote the tail end of Marland through PFS’s first run as HW. ”I am also tremendously proud of the Luke and Laura story on General Hospital, where I was what would now be considered an associate head writer,” she said. “In that two-year time frame, from the time Laura married Scotty, to two months before she married Luke, I was assigned a lot of the romance episodes but I was also the dialogue writer who was handed the date rape show. I was reflecting on that recently because it was and still is so controversial. I’ve always supported this story, and still do because it was the first-time date rape was addressed on camera.” Read more: https://www.digitaljournal.com/entertainment/sheri-anderson-thomas-talks-distinguished-career-in-daytime-tv/article/573258#ixzz89ccqcLhG

@Paul RavenI think what we have seen goes well beyond just an abrasive personality or a difficult boss. The sheer number of actors that signed the letter tells me that this was way more than that. Those types of things just do not happen often. The actions taken after the investigation and Corday’s handling of it by the cast kind of prove the seriousness of the allegations. What those women came forward with is more than a difficult boss. To me what we have here is the classic case of no one (Corday) managing issues before they become this systemic and problematic. If Alarr’s behavior had been addressed much earlier (as Farrah Faith claimed, he was gross all the way back to her first love scene), then maybe his talents would have prevailed and his behavior towards women could have been corrected in the working environment. Although personally I think disrespecting women in this way, or being racist or homophobic at any time with colleagues is worth termination. But I get HR departments try to mitigate firing immediately. Now the larger issue as pointed out by Alarr is worth noting as well- daytime soaps have a terrible track record with hiring people of color and moving them into leadership positions. Or onscreen.

As pointed out a few posts above, changes happen with guild memberships over many issues, not just during strikes. George Lucas famously resigned from the Director’s Guild during The Empire Strikes Back because the DGA was demanding Irvin Kershner have a credit at the beginning of the film, which is not how Lucas wanted Star Wars films to open. Star Wars: A New Hope was spared on the technicality of the Lucasfilm Limited title card after 20th Century Fox. But Lucas was not the director of Empire, so the DGA was making an issue of it. Even though Kershner agreed with Lucas. The large number of daytime writers on those lists just denotes how soaps work- produce new episodes over anything else. Wouldn’t it be a surprise if Sheri Anderson was at another soap right now? She did help create Luke & Laura at GH before taking that supercouple formula and running with it at DAYS.

Sad to see this. I was obsessed with everything Nina on Y&R, especially when they moved her into the Jill/Katherine orbit, and later with David. I loved the relationship they had onscreen.

Lesley and Monica’s iconic confrontation and slap is my favorite old school confrontation on GH. The closeups! Starts around the 6 minute mark.

I agree! Even if they didn’t feel safe enough to go to their union themselves, there is certainly no ignoring the story and issues now! Are none of the DAYS actors a union rep? I know way back in the day Francis Reed was. Another thing I hate for these folks is the idea that they may have kept silent to protect the show, especially as it declined in ratings and they were concerned about their jobs and those around them who were not abusing them. That’s Sony and Corday’s job.