titan1978

Thank you for doing these counts! I was thinking how could Sonny and Michael be in the lead this month? But that makes sense because I pretty much ff all of their storylines lately. So for me, this month was dominated by everyone else!

That is a terrible cover! A fan could have created a better one!

I do not believe Austin agreeing to cover for this at all, unless we have decided to make his character into a villain. There is not enough of a relationship with Ava or any history to support this turn. If this is it I am truly disappointed that this is how they decided to kill off Nikolas. Even if I doubt this is the last we have seen of him.

I really appreciated that almost throwaway line of Laura’s about leaving Nikolas on the island as a baby. To me, that storyline reveal has been the defining moment for Laura since the couple returned in 1993. The fact that it can still bring her to that much pain and her guilt still comes up was the kind of human stuff soaps used to be all about. And this is absolutely who Nikolas is now. It’s been a downward slope for over a decade to get him where he is now. My only issue is if this is his death, it further complicates Ava for me as a viewer, and I already have to ignore her past to buy her onscreen. What Nikolas said to her was disgusting, but her actions should have repercussions. And we know unless Maura wants to leave she probably has a job at GH until she no longer wants it.

Looking at that list, I highly doubt it. That list is full of the most mainstream programming on streaming. While I am sure DAYS does well enough, there is no way it reaches the kind of streaming numbers stuff like Wednesday and Yellowstone are getting.

One of the more old school examples- David Lewis/Ann Jeffries/Tony Geary/Susan Brown, all were on Bright Promise before General Hospital.

It very well could have been Frons. I always suspected it was JFP because she was the one that tried to stop Genie from taking the summer off which lead to her leaving the show. Even though Tony was also going to be gone for the same amount of time. This was after Guza and Pratt were installed as HW and given their producer credits. I just always chalked it up to another example of JFP not being willing to work with a woman performers needs and wants like she clearly did with the men.

She wanted a deal similar to Genie’s after her kids were born- her scenes shot first so she didn’t have to be at the studio all hours of the day and wanted to work no more than 3 days a week. According to Vanessa the sticking point on GH’s/ABC’s side was the schedule, not the money. And that has always reeked of JFP to me.

Me too. If anything, it’s the only time I see chemistry with him. Much like Tony, Genie can usually generate chemistry with just about anyone. It’s just missing with Kevin.

Does she still direct at B&B?

As has been discussed on this site plenty, HT’s Victoria was a strong foundation to base the next generation of Newman’s on, and then be Victor’s successor in business stories. I also love Christie Clark, but she would not be good in this role. I could see her as Karen Wexler on GH if they hadn’t killed her off though. I wonder what Billy Flynn could make of Michael on GH?

Oh I think you could absolutely credit Calhoun and what the writers at the time did with Roger and the whole show after that initial return with that golden era. It is funny, we watch these shows and put up with a lot of crap. But even when one of these back from the dead stories isn’t good, sometimes the outcome of having the character back all can be forgiven for how we got there- AMC with Jesse and Roger on GL being prime examples.

I also have to commend Jesse’s return on AMC. Those reunion scenes were fantastic, and then he and Angie really anchored AMC for me in those last years and with the online show. I also thought John’s return from the dead and without his memories during Ed Scott’s DAYS run was pretty good. It gave them something new to play with both John and Marlena. Jack on DAYS really has had way too many deaths/resurrections. There have been so many stupid ones. Amish Reva. Melaswan. Brenda’s presumed death on GH (even though her return was fabulous, the death was stupid). Bonus points for wanting to keep the recast and the original- Todd/Victor on OLTL (which I enjoyed), Jason/Drew on GH (not so much), and the overly complicated OG- Roman/John on DAYS.

The absolute worst for me in recent memory was Frank Smith for about a week on GH. Even Tony Geary said something to the effect of he was old back in the 70’s. It defied logic and was pointless. Ron does this too much. One of the best was Hope’s return on DAYS. We had lots of good story surrounding that one- Maison Blanche, Gina (before the Princess and double nonsense), the puzzle box. It really played all the beats, especially with Alice, and Shawn Douglas. And at the time you really were rooting for Billie too. Then Peter returned. It was great.

Damn. It does look that way sometimes though!

Rewatching a bunch of Jonathan Jackson’s late Guza era return as Lucky, and reading all these comments about RC’s Lulu stories, ick. At least GH as it stands now, while bland, is nowhere near as misogynistic as it was during JFP/Guza or Ron Carlivati. These women are not all doormats, or constant victims, or throwing themselves off buildings over a man. I appreciate that even if I FF anything involving Sonny.

Too funny. What is it about these soaps that they attract so many of a certain kind of fan? From people throwing tomatoes at Jackie Zeman for breaking up Scotty and Laura in the 70’s to this. It’s wild. I know other fandoms are just as toxic. It just seems soap fans were the OG messed up fans.

That whole episode was very moving due to those real world connections and emotions.

I felt back then it started really creeping in when they went forward with Sonny/Carly. There were moments before that, but it really settled in there for me. Once Guza returned with Pratt under JFP, it was full steam ahead. Actually, I would say it started with Jason being the lead when Sonny left for a year. Saint Jason existed before we got full on Saint Sonny. Then it kind of transferred along with Michael to Sonny.

You want to center the show around a mobster, you should play at least a version of the truth. For all the faults I had with Guza, I never doubted his Sonny was a criminal. And those around him paid the price quite often, even if the show went out of their way to say he was a good man. Once upon a time it wasn’t that Sonny was “better” than the Quartermaines. It was just that Jason Morgan could no longer be Jason Q, and actively wanted to be around people that were more honest and didn’t have expectations. The saint Sonny stuff comes around later, still during Riche though.

Am I wrong in remembering he had some hand in Port Charles prostitution? I recall Tammy being a sex worker that had been a dancer at Sonny’s club, and then it became unsafe for her to work when they told one of those get out of the mob stories for Sonny/Jason Late 90’s, very early 2000’s era, before she ran Kelly’s. I always assumed he did gambling, sex workers, money laundering through his other holdings, maybe running guns too. I know it has been made clear that he does not allow drugs.

It was like old times and I also had a smile on my face. I love her in this mode.

There were periods of time in its last decade where it felt like AMC was Zach/Ryan/Greenlee/Kendal focused. Even if stuff happened for other characters, it felt like those 4 were the main leads to me. Once Cary and Sonny were paired, it automatically roped many Quartermaines into their orbit, which is when the imbalance became really noticeable to me. And even though Sonny was starting to be sidelined, his episode counts were still in the top 5 for the year, well over 200 episodes. And while Dante became Guza’s last obsession, he was Sonny’s son. So again, tied to the nightmare lol. Luke moving into the Q orbit was kind of like throwing a bone to the vets- here’s Luke to react to instead of Sonny.

Truthfully Sonny on GH rules this topic. At times, even at their most insufferable, I still found Jason and Cary watchable. I have ff scenes with Maurice for almost a decade. And each time I stopped watching the show for a handful of years since 2002 it was because of him. I think he even had character defining scenes during Vanessa’s last year long return, but I skipped a lot of that because I was just so sick of Sonny. Even Vanessa could not hold me !

I have to agree with RSW at DAYS. I have accepted and enjoyed plenty of attractive over talent guys on soaps over the years. Prime examples being Austin on DAYS and Nicholas on Y&R. But he is just way too forced for me, even though I do find him hot. But that’s it.