titan1978

When Luke & Laura came back, they had been running the diner, then he was working for Frank again and opened the club. Guza added the great touch that he still had the Ice Princess and was very conservatively using it over the years to help fund the family and his adventures. Even Laura’s house was rundown when they bought it. IMO Luke always had access to plenty of off the books cash. It’s in his nature!

It appears Michael Malone has died. He really reinvigorated OLTL in the 90’s. I was glued to that show and his many wonderful characters.

Until JFP terminated her contract, Jackie was only gone for a year or so in the early 1980’s. Of the four of them, Leslie has been on the longest as far as still being used. Genie is gone for a decade at a time, and Kin has come and gone the entire 45 years. They should be celebrated, it’s a shame. Y&R had no issue celebrating two recurring characters with Ashley and Traci!

Who would? She writes for a half hour soap, probably makes very good coin compared to other soaps.

Okay GH- let’s lure some of the actual writing staff back to make this a possibility, then I would be halfway excited. Korte is not enough- I’m talking Karen Harris, MVJ, and what feels like my constant drumbeat lately for Shelly Curtis. Lois existed in a very specific space on the show, and she needs people that have written her in the past to help move the character forward without being a caricature and or obliterated. The hopeless romantic part of Lois would be welcome on this show, paired with the right person (not Ned!). Watching a woman her age reclaim her music business, bond with her daughter, and find new love would be great. I see an easy fit at Deception too. As far as Ned- I think that ship should stay sailed for the best of the performers involved. It may have been a long time, but nobody should have to entertain others by reliving their own romantic traumas. It goes without saying that Frank’s pets also must stay far away from her. Come on GH- I bet this board could think up a good two year story for you to use! When Labine was there I never saw Lois as the naive overly moral person that Guza moved her towards. She was shrewd, she was smart, and she had ethics that did not align with the values of the Quartermaines. She had a big, loving family, not the backstabbing dynamic she married in to. She wasn’t perfect, but she had HER point of view and made choices to be with Ned and business partner with Sonny that made her question how strongly she held her beliefs.

When I started Jill was pretty close to a cartoon, but even then BD played the vulnerability about her past, Phillip, and even sometimes with Katherine. But Jess really grounded Jill, she had some scrap and grit. She humanized her quite a bit. MM as Hillary had that internal life that used to be a hallmark of Bell shows and great female characters. More going on internally was portrayed even with weak writing. I am one of those people that thinks the show was better with her and that character, both in the short term and the potential.

Those Webber brothers really had a problem with fidelity.

As much as I love Lois and would be thrilled to have a scene with Brenda, Sonny, and Lois again, I don’t really wish this show on her at this point. Lois is wholly a Claire Labine character. Guza couldn’t write for her, and I don’t think anyone that is a soap HW currently understands how to write for a character like Lois. And I’m all for her being moved forward character wise, but again, she had a certain set of ethics, personality traits, etc that just do not work well on todays soaps. it would end up as a caricature, and I’m tired of that happening to beloved characters and actors.

It’s almost like two different things happened at GH in those years. Marland introduced important new characters, Monty and the network before she got there cast them well (Bobbie, Scotty and Laura come to mind as ones she didn’t really have a hand in hiring), and almost all the stories had movement. And while the pace was increased, when you watch the shows still written by Marland they are more traditional than what we got once PFS takes over. Marland is a very traditional soap writer- he certainly tackles complex issues and characters, but his pacing and style is not as revolutionary as what came after him. What I think of as Monty’s style was really cemented from the summer on the run story for Luke & Laura through the Ice Princess. Humor, intrigue, proto-supercouple writing, complex characters, strong women, danger and the canvas being dominated by a single story. She also stopped doing things like recasts after Robin Mattson as Heather, and didn’t really do that from then on for any major character in her first run that I can remember. The characters were important but the star system made it so they were not replaceable as recasts. Marland would never let a pesky thing like an actor leaving end his stories. I think that her formula was created under her time with PFS, and then she kept implementing it until she left in the later 80’s. While Marland’s contributions cannot be ignored, I think GH became what it became in the cultural sense with Monty and PFS.

And doesn’t Serena have all the estate?

Oh brother. And let me harp once again on the fact that we should have CS playing Serena on this show, which would make this stupid plot a little more tolerable. Because then at least there would be someone tied to Dominique on contract.

And from interviews we know when Curlee was promoted she focused on characters she had a particular fondness for when she was paired with Long as co-hw. I spent some time rewatching Reilly’s first run on DAYS. I would say his GL contributions were stellar, and his DAYS was very entertaining for me right up until Marlena is revealed as the desecrator. Once we get to the full possession storyline the show really changes.

I’m just going to chime in and also say at most of those CBS procedurals, almost all the female characters, while given camera and story time, often were hard balled at contract time and considered replaceable and paid less than the men. And the decade prior that wasn’t always the case. Or on other networks. It mirrors what happened across all of daytime television in the late 1990’s-2000’s- except for DAYS the last four soaps all had significantly skewed their storytelling towards the male leads and settled on often misogynistic tones. Y&R fully became the Victor/Jack show, many female characters were weakened and sacrificed or sidelined. GH was fully the Sonny/Jason/Carly hour, and Carly was of replaced three times (twice we know the talent would have stayed if they had the same input and a comparable salary to the other two). DAYS unquestionably belonged to Sami at that time. Again, learning none of the lessons of how Sex and the City became such a cultural flashpoint and maligning the female characters on their shows. This was only really apparent in daytime and at CBS primetime.

I know this is not ideal and many people are upset. But the talk that this is being done as a way to just get rid of DAYS altogether is not realistic. If they wanted the show gone they could very easily have announced the show is done when this contract is up. They are attempting to draw viewers to Peacock, with something they think is a big enough asset to do it. They want the show to help them succeed. The question is will viewers tune in? And moving them to less than 5 days a week would honestly be for the best.

Didn’t the Bell family sell their stake in Y&R a few years ago? I seem to recall a lot of posters lamenting that as it meant the family was no longer able to do anything about the creative choices.

I know he has had to justify the musical guests during almost every season budget renewal, and also he has protected the show airing the way it does- live, with the cold open, weekend update as a centerpiece, musical guests, etc. Also the way the show is run- from the writer’s night to final show, three weeks and a break. So while I think the show would continue without him, minus the budgets and more network interference, I just don’t think we get a better show out of the tinkering. My apologies for hijacking this thread with SNL talk- I’m as obsessed with the bts of SNL as I am with with soaps.

She would be my dream pick, but even she would admit it’s a tough job and Lorne protected the show in a way that just won’t be possible anymore.

I am kind of in favor of SNL ending when Lorne goes. I cannot think of anyone that would be named his successor that would have the same clout with the network executives to keep the show as it always has been. And I fear that interference will change the show in a fundamental way. Lorne has kept the wolves at bay for decades.

What breaks my heart for fans of this show that do pay and continue on, there is a very real possibility that the streamer gains numbers from this in the short term. But it’s got to keep bringing in new subscribers to be sustainable by corporate standards. Which means when PEACOCK stagnates again, you have to wonder how protected the show will be. Even in its current form, it’s an expensive show. If they want money from me, I’m going to need access to classic episodes.

The timeline and way this news was delivered is the surprise. Moving them to Peacock was totally expected, just not quite like this. I can only assume they have to renegotiate their contracts to film anything beyond their 8 months already taped. I know their filming style has kept them financially viable, but if anything, more care is going to be needed and required to keep going. And let’s get those classic episodes up to stream! Please!

What kills me is that this story isn’t poorly plotted or paced really. It’s the culmination of quite a few beats that have been played and dangled for years. It just doesn’t matter to me at all. I don’t care about any of it. And usually I am all for a long term story that plays out over years on a soap.

I used to feel she was treated horribly under JFP and Guza, often written as a plot piece instead of a character. She’s had to sell some ridiculous story turns during her tenure, and often wasted in pairings. Both nothing compares to this- she has truly been used to prop people who should have long been gone from GH, and now even her biggest story in years is currently all about Finn. It’s appalling.

Cybil Shepherd has publicly stated Moonves cancelled her sitcom because she declined a romantic relationship. Her show was less expensive and had higher ratings than shows he didn’t cancel airing at the same time.

Wasn’t the perception that his Michael was not capable of acting out what they wanted with the prison rape storyline? As in a straight man being assaulted. His Michael could very easily have been gay from what I remember back then, and he would have been fantastic doing it. I know he was well liked by MB and other cast members. Truthfully, Chad has had the most chemistry onscreen with other dudes anyway.

Saw Kin posted this throwback on Twitter. He was a cutie back then, and I think the only character on GH I have liked as both a nice guy and a total unapologetic scumbag. Scotty is such a great character.