titan1978

@j swiftI agree to an extent. What we need are scenes with Portia saying this out loud to Trina and Curtis. And maybe some exploration of her own background and how much she was torn between stability with Taggert and her wild side with Curtis. Play the beats, not just the high drama. During the Nikolas reveal, even as angry as Luke and Lucky were, you could see Laura telling them what happened and how traumatic it was for her, and they did understand even if they still didn’t like it. We need some of that here.

I am truly shocked by Veronica Redd. Leanna Love was one of my favorite characters ever on Y&R. She was one that was always fun to watch, and Nina and the storyline with Phillip/Katherine/Jill is what made me tune in to Y&R consistently in the first place. I now have a reason to at least tune in some for the anniversary!

Like all executives, there are good and bad things about Gloria Monty. The issue became other soaps chasing what she was doing, as those writers moved on to other shows from her earlier teams. Sheri Anderson was a writer on the GH team during the Luke & Laura heyday, and I think you can see that all over her supercouple heavy years at DAYS. As tacky as the Ice Princess was when it comes down to weather machines, etc, the whole show was still very strong and had traditional roots still visible. I think the real damage comes just after that, with Luke the hero and Genie leaving the show. Pat Falken Smith returns to introduce Anna/Robin later, and the show is pretty well written then. IMO Monty/PFS together are the architects of what I consider the GH style. Does she get too much credit? Maybe. She certainly produced the hell out of strong material written by Marland and then PFS. But Bill Bell respected what she was doing, even if it was nothing like his style. I do think her ego got the better of her several times in both her tenures.

The best one that did the most for the show in my viewing was Nikolas revealed as Laura’s son from the island on GH. It used history in a good way, and the couple was never the same again. Same with Belle on DAYS. Also Kendall Hart on AMC was a great one! One that I think was a mess but I enjoyed was Lily/Rose on ATWT. I enjoyed Rose, even if it made little sense on Iva’s part. Worst has to be the unabortion on AMC. Just awful.

I didn’t see Leslie Charleson in the photo. I wonder if the show will comment on her status. Is she retired, or recuperating? I hope we get to see her again as Monica, if only to say goodbye if she is ready to leave.

What would you say is the tone that comes to mind when you think of the soaps you have watched? For me it’s mostly what they were when I started watching them, even if they moved on from that eventually. GH- an adventure show, even during Labine’s realism it still had that energy. DAYS- romance, romance, romance! Y&R- moody and gothic, while also being kind of reserved. Like old school Hollywood films. OLTL- harder to pin down for me, but even in the 80’s it had an upper crust, northeast vibe. AMC- Community, everyone knew everybody.

Another thing that the glory days had- for the most part we had strong writers across the board. So you got to see even plot heavy storyline oriented shows like 80’s GH, or The Edge of Night being meticulously crafted, with attention to important beats and reveals/climaxes that had true impact.

According to Twitter Liz was attacked in the park this week. The scenes of her struggling to hold onto the park bench and then crawling out of the shrubs later are still harrowing. I will always respect the writing team and producing team for not sensationalizing this at all. It was told with a maturity soaps often glossed over, especially in the super-couple era when sexual assault was often played as an obstacle to the main couple being together.

How did that happen? I was literally in the Classic GH thread! Wild.

Wrong thread.

Right? It’s wild to me that anyone is surprised that they receive so many pages in the magazine. In that fantastic old We Love Soaps interview Denise Alexander pretty much says it all- Lesley/Rick/Monica got the show to number one, and then Luke and Laura took it to the stratosphere. Yes they get a lot of attention for what was essentially a very strong show all around. But they hold a unique place among daytime television.

GH used to have several levels of income on display until soaps started ignoring stuff like that. While it was common for the doctors to be at Kelly’s due to the closeness of the hospital, those characters didn’t rent a room upstairs unless they were down on their luck. Characters like Lesley, Rick, Bobbie and Tony certainly were making good livings. But they were not the Quartermaines, their homes reflected that. Laura’s house was in a diverse part of town (as was Bobbie’s Brownstone and Jason’s motorcycle shop) surrounded by lower income families, compared to Sean/Tiffany and later Sonny’s penthouse. OLTL tried to bring that feeling back with Angel Square. They made attempts until we hit 2000 or so, then nope.

In the larger picture, what I remember most from soaps of the pre 2000 era was a willingness to take more chances. We had much more variety in character and storyline- not everybody was wealthy, characters had richer lives in that we saw them interact with family, friends, lovers, and co-workers. You saw love stories of many different types too- young love, affairs, toxic and realistic marriages, etc. Another thing I did was sample many shows. I always kept an eye on GH, OLTL, and DAYS. But I would watch other shows for a period of time, sometimes years (Y&R). There was the option to move to other shows then. What soaps did not get right back then was the same across media of the times- not enough actual diversity in front and behind the scenes.

It’s another example of what a soap fan with a true understanding of the history of the show would do vs something very mainstream like PEOPLE magazine. There is no denying that L&L were going to be prominently featured. But my ideal cover would also have Jessie and Steve from a vintage photo. I am happy it’s not just a montage of Luke & Laura surrounded by Richard Dean Anderson, Richard Simmons, Demi Moore, Jack Wagner, Ricky Martin, etc. hopefully the magazine doesn’t also focus too much on those folks either. We do know that Monty never did it again though. So she clearly understood the issues.

Her animosity with teacher Willow was more fun too. But I would be fine with the character going away, didn’t care when MS was there. And now while I enjoy CW, it’s a waste with this mess of a character.

He has been, but other than AJ, never directly a main character that wasn’t a rival mob person that I can remember. Although he was indirectly responsible for at least Lilly, original Kristina, and probably more I am forgetting right now. And this is Nikolas, Laura’s son. That alone adds more weight in my eyes. I will have a hard time just letting bygones be bygones for this one. Even if it was accidental.

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.