titan1978

There is no denying they were older and expensive in a time when all the daytime network people seemed to care about was young demos and budget. I do think Viki fared better because they didn’t really try to make her glamorous, and her character had more qualities that played towards others. She was great in her own storyline, but she also worked as a utility player crossing over with others- her family, friends like Karen Wolek, the Banner, etc. Erica was always so self centered, and I think the show forgot how to use her. She had a lot of growth in the late 80’s-mid 90’s, and then they would regress her again only she got more shallow each time. I also think Slezak has more range and the show wrote towards that. The only thing I credit JFP with in a positive light was recognizing Slezak was being pushed too far off the center stage, and re-investing in her character.

In hindsight, does Jeff Webber qualify from GH? When he left the show he was involved with 3 women- Heather, Diana (rip) and Anne. He was previously married to Monica, had a baby switch storyline, his wife went crazy, Diana was murdered and he was revealed to be Steve Hardy’s son. Not to mentionAnne was finally willing to lose her virginity to him (but didn’t). He almost went through as much as a comparable soap heroine.

I was thinking about GH under Monty, and to me the it girls were Lesley (at first), Laura, Holly, and Anna. I don’t feel like Felicia or Bobbie ever made it to that place, even though both were frontburner the entire time and always had love interests. They were still the A group of characters, just not in the way those four were. Same with Monica. On ATWT, MC and HBS’s Margos were to me, but not Dolan.

Bo Brady always sticks out to me on DAYS, he was given so many relationships and traits right away. His military background, he is the one that took Steve’s eye. His tense relationship with Roman, while having a very fond relationship with Marlena. His tense relationship with Doug while he and Hope were falling in love. He’s Victor’s son by affair, he had popular pairings with Hope, Carly, and Billie. He was classically rebellious but also a really good guy. You could almost connect everyone on the show with lasting ties to Bo at one point for about a decade. I think he was ultimately the most important Brady family member as far as impact on the whole canvas. on GH while Jason was always a lead after the accident, it wasn’t until Guza started centering things more around him in the mid and late 2000’s that he truly became the main guy. And then Dante arrived and he was basically on every day until Guza was fired. This is interesting because I could list tons of women on soaps that were the it girl or main focal point in very lasting ways. But with dudes it’s not as easy.

Hard to argue with the Victor Lord/Irene fallout. It also gave us Tina as a Lord and gave Andrea Evans so much great material to play with. Days- the Roman/Marlena/John affair is almost a total turning point on several fronts. It cements Sami as not just troubled, but scheming and vindictive in a way she hadn’t quite reached yet before that, which plays out for decades. It destroys Roman, and leads to the desecrator and possession stories, which created a storytelling style that dominated Days for almost 20 years. And it led to John and Marlena being together. GH- Left Handed Boy/Frank Smith led to the show focusing on more action oriented storylines that were completely away from the hospital. By the mid 80’s GH was much more umbrella storyline and action focused than it had been, and that continues through today. Not to mention the near constant presence of the mob in Port Charles- Smith, Mr. Big, Duke and the Jerome family, Sonny. Even Labine, while more grounded, wrote several action oriented events/stories.

I know we all crave soaps using history, but sometimes it’s best left in the past. Hello Paloma.

And he has the actors invested in the pairing and the fanbase! Even the original Trina retweets and comments on stuff. It’s so stupid. It is especially ridiculous that Joss is always in story.

I kind of saw that annoyance towards the greater Q family. Her actual unit, especially with Jason Q and Alan (and Monica to a good extent) seemed much more solid. The sarcasm seemed more pointed towards the group fighting and Edward being a blowhard, AJ and Ned being shady.

Tony, especially on his way out would not take the blame for Ron or his team. He was quite vocal with how he felt about RC on the way out. I kind of think it speaks to the utter chaos the show was as it transitioned away from Monty to Riche that they don’t have clear memories of being paired. Nobody seemed very happy about Monty’s second run. I have taken his feelings about Bill as his stubborn belief that he knows better than the fans, and if he thinks Bill was successful than it was, no matter what the audience thought. This was a man that back then would have played Luke again without issue but they couldn’t get Genie to play ball a year earlier than when she finally agreed to return, while he was Bill. Who though? Was he that fond of Korte? This is someone that had no issue cutting lines when people like Mulcahey were writing scripts. I doubt he cared all that much for Ron’s pretty generic script writers.

I remember TG saying in an interview that it was a mistake, they both couldn’t remember for sure and went with it.

Good point, I do not see Wayne as Roman in any way a natural fit during the Possession. I think Alan and Monica worked because they were always a volatile couple. From almost the start it was toxic and they seemed to never get enough of each other.

Hard to argue with the impact of this one. I do hate what became of Wayne’s Roman, especially since it took years for John and Marlena to actually be together. One I absolutely hated was Felicia and Luke on GH. What a chore to get through, and just wrong for almost all the characters. Alan and Monica had some of the best! Rick/Leslie/Alan/Monica, Susan Moore, Sean, Lucy, so many greats. And it is a real testament to Stuart Damon that Alan never seemed diminished by his relationship with Lucy.

What I love is that she smiles, she is feisty, she leans into the history of her scene partners even if the show doesn’t write for it, especially noticeable with Anna, Holly, and Mac. KW, while a capable soap actress, should never have been mired in storylines where she was so morose and depressing to watch. She was a character Guza and his team, and JFP just did not get. She’s at her best when she is allowed a sense of fun. It’s like Lucy- LH is capable of everything they can throw at her, but she’s at her most fun when she is involved in something she should not be.

While I enjoy and welcome remotes back on GH, talk about a waste. If I was at GH, a romantic remote like this would feature a couple people are dying to see finally get together- like Spencer and Trina. I appreciate them giving Carly something to do that doesn’t revolve around Sonny in some way. But this pairing isn’t worth the beautiful footage.

I assumed it has more to do with their production model, which must make scheduling a huge priority. And non-contract may have proven to be too difficult to schedule.

Many black performers across all media have stated that there are issues with makeup, hairstyling, and lighting. This is not an attack on the professionals working in these fields- it’s a call to arms for their unions and networks/show runners to ensure their shows and programs are hiring people of color to work on their casts. I cannot count the number of Black women performers I have seen comment that they have to have their wigs styled and or hair done by people they bring in or do it themselves. I agree, the people working in these jobs are hardworking and want people to look their best. But the systems of a lack of diversity exist. Back to Maxie- it’s pretty easy to make this an actual storyline without criticizing her weight. They made Maxie a baby factory, and a tragedy queen. Give her a story where she confronts those things and decides it’s time to get back some of her edge. Plus sized people can and do often look stylish, and there are more options than ever (and as a plus sized person, I know all to well the desire to hide and how hard it is to find stylish stuff). Especially a professional woman like Maxie. They have got to get rid of Austin too.

I’m excited by this casting. Denise Crosby especially!

And that was back in the day when GH had incredibly long scenes. Labine and earlier Guza had long scenes full of dialogue. He went all shouty all the time first, then started the fumbling of all his lines. It reminds me of the later Geary years where he was still ad-libbing but was noticeably struggling to pull it together for his scene partners when he went off script. He used to have a real talent for getting back to where he was supposed to be for his scene partners that didn’t adlib as well, but that was in better days for the show. In his defense, we know Valentini shoots things fast, and sometimes out of sequence. Many actors have complained about this hurting their performance. HBS was very vocal about it on OLTL, that all the block shooting by set was destroying continuity of performance and the ability to do much more than say the lines and hope for the best. Once upon a time it was not everyone was cut out for the rigors of soaps. Now even those that once were fine or even great struggle with the current production models.

They really missed a beat with Esme and Cameron. This whole corner of the show could have been much more entangled if they had allowed some of their chemistry to go somewhere. Imagine the fallout for everyone once it is revealed Esme was behind the video leak, Trina’s framing, slept with Nikolas and was Ryan’s daughter if Cameron was also in love with her. I found her far more entertaining before the Nikolas affair. I do think she is serviceable as Esme and there was potential there. I’m hoping she is not the Hook.

What I can’t remember is if Rhonda had already burst in to Kelly’s and basically revealed Karen’s abuse from Ray yet to Ruby and Brenda (Jason Q didn’t seem to have picked up on it as fast as Ruby and Brenda) or if the stripping reveal was first? One of my favorite scenes by the way- Ruby and Brenda looking at each other and realizing Karen was in real trouble. I loved Brenda’s relationship with Ruby.

Stone and Gina are Jagger’s siblings, who was in love with Karen. Karen turned out to be Scotty’s daughter (the most wasted reveal ever). And they were following Karen who had been acting erratically, having recovered past memories of abuse, which led to her ending up in Sonny’s orbit, dancing and doing drugs.

I think Andrea Evans OLTL return falls under this- it was all camp and very much like her Passions character, as opposed to her version of Tina. Not to say she wasn’t capable of camp as Tina. But she managed to keep her grounded as well during her 80’s run.

Happy to have been here for a long time, and the board before. I really appreciate how little drama there is here now compared to earlier days/versions of this community! Not to say that we haven’t had a few dustups here in the last 20 years!

If anything, Curtis should be more in Laura’s orbit. They have genuine friend chemistry in scenes together, and he could work for the Mayor’s office doing something that keeps him in the mix of the main stories, while also having his family and relationship stories. I am convinced that they actually have at least 6 months outlined, and just when things get going Frank or someone above him derails them. It’s happened repeatedly in the last couple of years., especially in the spring! There are so many dropped threads and starts and stops to almost every story except the ones involving Sonny (minus the changes brought about by SB being let go). I bet Trina/Spencer, Esme, and Liz have all been derailed due to Frank’s classic springtime interference. We will spend money finding primetime parents for Chase and Finn, but not casting anyone to play Jeff (or Lucky) to actually explore anything truly about Liz.

I think part of what happened was Frons felt GH was strong enough with JFP and Guza. But look at AMC and OLTL- I think they assumed it was nearing the end within the decade and he left all those EP’s in place even when he burned through HW on AMC. Although I do think he fired Guza and then was fired himself.