titan1978

I really miss how the show used to have Bobbie and Laura at odds sometimes because they have the history and they are very different people. Labine and even Guza (a little) kept this thread alive in an adult way. Bobbie didn’t agree with how Laura was raising Lucky. And she would lay into Laura when she kicked Luke out. There used to be some semblance of depth to these relationships. Instead we get Sonny playing softball with the rest of the town. The benevolent godfather (who may or may not make his money running guns, drugs outside PC, and women).

Do you know what drives me crazy? If Carly was institutionalized, we would be seeing every stupid moment. But Liz is there and it’s such a non-story currently. Spread the wealth GH. Also- I wish someone would dig out any other flashbacks than that scene with Bobbie and a Laura. There has to be other scenes that survived showing them at odds back then. Same with her wedding to Scotty. Laura’s rebuttal was so generic. They mentioned a soup kitchen for Christ’s sake. There is actual history that could be used but never is. I hope so. I would think they wanted to include her in this episode if they could.

I love this comparison.

Oh her manipulation gets much more direct as she moves more into building herself than building Gary up. But that’s not where you are yet. I wish Knots was streaming somewhere in full!

I always thought so too. She was in love with him and used him to help her build a life that utilized her business acumen more than she had been allowed to before. I also see it in how she behaves towards him after they are divorced- she clearly plays a fondness for him that is different than other pairings. @Vee, these very detailed recaps are great. I hope you are enjoying the show as much as it seems. This thread is keeping me engaged here, as the soaps currently airing are not.

This show has undervalued her for decades.

During JFP and Guza’s run on GH, Patrick and Robin arrived just in time to stop me from dropping the show. Their story and the hospital having a focal point away from Sonny kept me hanging on when I was really starting to dislike the show. Will’s coming out on DAYS really kept me going there too, as I had gotten really sick of Sami and she was pretty much the driving character of the show at that point.

They really did a great job with this type of story. I think they also told the most complete stories back in the day for ambitious characters too- you knew as an audience member how badly people like Jill, Brad, Ryan, Nina, Drucilla wanted their lives to be, and saw step by step their growth in a way other soaps tended to gloss over, even if they were sometimes underhanded or selfish on their way. When Bell was still there, characters had many facets. Nina was antagonistic but also rootable. Lauren was awful to many people, but again, she was entertaining. From everything I have read about that time period, it reminds me of Stars Hollow on Gilmore Girls, but if Emily & Richard also lived in town like Phoebe.

I always felt GH was the best at the action storylines over the years, especially when they still had the directors and line producers who learned under Monty. GH is also great at not needing a core family to create that family feeling. It started with the hospital being the family, and continued with the deep friendships of the Monty era through Riche. Some of that has fallen by the wayside in the last 20 years or so though, recently making a shallow comeback. OLTL handled gritty better than almost all the other soaps IMO. It felt more modern and urban at many times in its history, certainly compared to the P&G soaps.

Of the ones not mentioned yet, I really liked Georgie, Dillon, Maxie, Spinelli, Lulu, Cooper and Logan (although they went from teens to early 20’s) on GH.

Maurice retiring. He talks about it enough, but will he actually do it?

Really heartbreaking.

I guess I don’t see comments like that as bashing. It was well established and in her nature to let her insecurities get the best of her, which often lead to drinking again. Back when I was more attached to the show, she clearly had a mentor relationship with Nikki, but I never saw her as a matriarch. They don’t have to be sweet either- Stephanie on B&B is the antithesis of someone like Alice on DAYS, but I would still codify them both as matriarchs.

Didn’t Marland get rid of Hulswit though? He kind of destabilized the Bauers with that move. From what I have seen, his Ed was more dynamic than the one played by Peter Simon.

When Sarah was there? Yes. And I would have kept the Jason ties. Just not the full Sonny relationship which for me has at times ruined the show. Who knows what would have been possible if AJ was recast with someone that could actually hold space as a lead though. BW was not as good as SK in the role.

Guza and Pratt negotiated for those producer credits and autonomy when they came back as a package duo. It was the same thing at Y&R when Pratt arrived- neither was over the other with creative decisions. From what I have heard the only place Jill had some power to wield was with the budget, staging, and how it made it on the screen. I’ve been thinking about the trajectory of Carly and where she stands today. What fascinates me is that if she had stayed with AJ, her place on the show would probably be the same as it is today. Hotel owner, involved in everyone’s business, center point of stories. Only a handful of times in the last decade+ have had her being with Sonny matter to her day to day life. She goes everywhere without visible guards, she isn’t really in the mob life, and she plays the part as entitled, not scrappy.

I will always respect Kimberly McCullough for publicly speaking out against Stuart Damon’s firing. Leslie Charleson made some comments too, I remember she said she and Geary had been commiserating that they are all now seen as expendable by TPTB, easily shown the door. He included himself in that. I have no idea if Frons would have had the balls to fire him, but I get the sentiment.

I am sure she received little pushback if any at all for Anna Lee from Guza or Frons. Part of her appeal was cutting the top line expenditures of her shows (talent and sets) even if she often went over budget due to other factors and had to scramble (sweeps and production). That looked like a clear budget decision. Same with Shell Kepler, Brad Maule, and to some extent, Jacklyn Zeman. For her that was budget, and they were not really being used by Guza anymore or at all. I can see where the contention was for Alan. The Quartermaines, especially Alan, were really set up for antagonism with Sonny, and dramatic tension and pathos with Jason not remembering his past, and Michael. While not really in a story of his own, Alan was still part of the fabric of the show Guza was writing. From all the conjecture I have been able to find, someone with decision making power wanted Alan gone, and if JFP used her focus group magic to free up money or Frons wanted a big cut or all of the above, who knows. I do know the Alan as ghost thing was just to slowly get the audience used to him being gone after the outrage.

Bobbie on GH was one of the biggest examples for me. She was driving story from her first appearance until the Roy is resurrected debacle. Even during the super-cop period of the show, Bobbie almost always had a story, often more grounded than what Robert/Anna, etc were up to. She had a couple of really popular romantic pairings too in that time, Jake and Tony. Alan and a Monica had been kind of pushed aside a couple of times in favor of their kids starting in the 1990’s. But Bobbie was still always in her own story and in crossovers with other characters like Carly and Luke. JFP really had no use for her. Dante is another great example- Frank and the writers post Guza have really no value in the character. Look what they did with Lulu.

It seems like GH was a hit earlier, Monty and Marland just saved it from a low point. It was a very popular and highly rated soap pretty early on. By all accounts, DAYS takes off after Bell takes over as head writer and some key recasts happen- Flannery as Laura, SSH as Julie.

From what I recall GH was one of the shows. No idea if there was an actual character. I feel like Miranda might have been a possibility though for some reason. She would have worked much better as Miranda than what we got back then. She even superficially resembles Helena, and the backstory for Alexis was originally mostly the one for Miranda. And when she quit she was absolutely considered a get. Before Vanessa Marcil’s endless will she return corner box story in all the soap mags for years it was Missy before the suit.

It was for breach of contract, and made the affair public record. I believe what set him off were the rumors (which may well have been true), that other soaps had inquired about her status. Rumor has it she had even taken a couple of meetings just before he filed the suit.

GH- Laura and Curtis I think they have nice chemistry and although I love Kevin there is no spark there for me. Michael and Chase When the Sasha/Willow storyline was rolling I felt they had the most chemistry. Truthfully, Chase is the only person I have seen actual chemistry with when it comes to Michael. Liz and Drew She deserves to be freed from Frank’s bff’s, I thought they had decent chemistry, and I miss the days when Carly and Sam didn’t like Liz.

She had a couple. When she first got there it took a bit for her new vision with Levinson to make the show work again, but I actually enjoyed that period once things settled down. Like @Dion mentioned- when Guza left and after his 6 month projections ran out the show was really a mess until Guza came back. Culliton didn’t fare well without those projections, even with Karen Harris still there. I also think the last year of Guza’s second run, filled with things like Felicia and Luke’s affair, terrible recast decisions for Lucky and Nikolas, Roy back from the dead, etc and the rumored battle for control of the show backstage did not help things. She should never have been the EP of Port Charles either- I think forming the show and then being a consulting producer might have been better for both shows. She still had more highs imo than lows, and overall I enjoyed her run far more than JFP.

Was that the period of time Guza was still in the credits but was on leave due to his child passing away? I seem to recall it was while Pratt was still there. The miracle that was pulled together with the changes in your post was quite amazing in hindsight. The show was absolutely awful post Laura going crazy until Laura Wright arrived and the train accident sweeps event kind of reset things. It got actually good again for a couple of years there. Twice early in JFP’s run the show was worse than anything Riche had produced, and she certainly had lows herself.