titan1978

The dynamic changed quite a bit when they both teamed up against Nina when Jess was there. But I still enjoyed them, and Jess is a more versatile actress. They vacillated between being on the same side and then fighting with each other. Often with Rex trying to cool things off. The scene where they are both at Phillip’s grave, I think it was Memorial Day, and they have a civil but then ultimately angry discussion was one where I felt Brenda shined as Jill, showing those layers in their relationship.

It’s so interesting that they are both equally awful to each other. I really wish we could see the affair, death and aftermath. Katherine is so much fun when she is fighting Jill.

It’s also the only place I prefer Brenda’s Jill. When Brenda mentions Phillip, there is genuine emotion and sadness quite often. She plays how important that was to Jill and how haunted she is by what happened. Sometimes she also played like she had a tender spot for Katherine, even after everything that happened. By the time Brenda left she wasn’t doing anything subtle with Jill. But she still was at the point of the episode posted.

I wonder if they are still planning a Stuart Damon special episode or if that has fallen by the wayside, especially now with Steve more than likely out.

This is my favorite version of Katherine too- so full of contempt for Jill and willing to hurt even the dearest friend if it means she is hurting Jill.

Presumed death is hilarious if that is the route they go with. We are still basically in the middle of Sonny recovering from his time as Mike while everyone thought he was dead. And Jason has been presumed dead and revealed to be alive twice- once as Drew and then again as Jason! I wonder if the actual conversations and negotiations about the mandate started back when the show was giving us Carly and Jason as being deeply in love. Because that ended so abruptly, it seemed like they switched gears due to interference.

I also think her just sticking it out when everyone else left around her gave her longevity on this era of DAYS as well.

Sad news. And poor behavior on TPTB at GH for cutting her when her health started to decline. I hate that kind of mentality.

Luke is/was always selfish. It’s annoying that he gets to always behave this way, especially towards Laura.

If Ron was there this would be an excellent time to have him disappear in the fog, bring on a lookalike character and have Sonny eventually have a telekinetic sword battle with David Gray when he realizes Jason is dead.

Sheri Anderson cut her teeth creating the supercouple formula that fueled DAYS in the 1980’s when she was under PFS at General Hospital. Thom Racina was with her there when the show began to transition to action/adventure, and so was Leah Laiman. They took that formula and wrote the show in that style between the three of them for the decade. I would classify that period as the Sheri Anderson period because she really focused on romance and that was the whole DNA of the show in that decade. I never felt GH was as blatant with the supercouple formula as DAYS was because they rarely had 5 or 6 of them at a time. DAYS was full of them! Al Rabin certainly deserves credit too, but I kind of think that style was just dominant because they all had the same sensibilities and worked together. I’m sure Rabin was of the mindset that if it ain’t broke (which it wasn’t yet), then keep the formula going.

It’s quite remarkable that Alden reset the show by having the Abbots fight for Jabot, Billy aged to make a new generation, and Jill/Katherine fighting for the estate leading to Mac’s arrival. She took all the neglected characters of the last several years when Bell was still the final word and reinvigorated the show. It was so entertaining again there for a bit. And she was right there with him when the show was not as tight.

It’s an odd fit. But he is a well respected photographer that has done amazing work with National Geographic, his Photo Ark project is awesome.

It’s really interesting to watch 1978 episodes. It’s compelling, but not quite as slick as Monty would have the show even just a little bit later. PFS and Monty really made an awesome soap team on GH. Marland laid the groundwork and then PFS’s team really knocked it out of the park.

I saw her solo run without Doug in the 90’s. I thought she was awesome. Sexy, confident, and she did sizzle with everyone.

Back in the day- I thought Genie Francis had lots of chemistry. I was too little for her original run, but from YouTube she seems to have chemistry with all her scene partners. Other than Luke, in the 90’s I thought there were sparks with Sonny, Tony, Mac, Roy, and she had great scene partners chemistry with pretty much everyone else. Vanessa Marcil for sure- she even gave Ricky a little heat. On DAYS I always thought Deidre could be in scenes with anyone and had chemistry to spare. Same with Peter Reckell too- he sizzled with Hope, Carly, and had okay chemistry with all the Billie’s. He also had amazing chemistry with Wayne, and the rest of his family and the Hortons.

Brenda to me never lost an inherent need for love. She can be selfish, and emotional, and also very loyal and determined. I think her need for love was there right from the beginning, and was the most important part of her relationships with Julia and Sonny. One of my favorites earlier scenes that could have been a nothing scene happened in Kelly’s- Rhonda runs in looking for Karen after she realized what Ray had done to her. And Brenda and Ruby share a look, and you could see Brenda thinking and putting the pieces together.

Well Tomlin must have adored her too- she became a more important character during one of his stints, and he used her each time he was at the show. Thinking about this thread reminds me of something Claire Labine said in an interview about her time on GH- when she got there, the hospital was not a focus, the only family with multiple members still there was the Quartermaines, and she had a returning Luke and Laura and a handful of characters from other eras that were still just there. And that was kind of true- Felicia without Frisco, Sean, Tiffany, Robin and Mac without Robert and Anna. The show hadn’t really been a family driven one, but the hospital hub wasn’t a focus and the WSB/action hub has kind of fallen apart without Robert and Anna.

Sad news. I always enjoyed him as John and thought it was a huge mistake to kill him off.

That was awful even back then!

And then mentally stuck at about 22-25 for another 20 years. But Bill Bell also proved that if the characters had motivation and a point of view, he could use them for decades. His original Y&R characters. I bet if JLB had decided to stay, the show would look very different today. And his DAYS was essentially the same handful of leads for a decade inside the same character orbits. But they were at least allowed to mature and go through stages of life. I think the most important thing for a soap is the natural progression. If the characters are set up well- families, children, jobs that allow for growth, they can still be major players without always dominating stories. Doesn’t mean they should never get a story again, just that they will not always be leading story like they did at certain points. Under Riche, when GH wrote out Sean and Tiffany, it sucked. But I don’t think it was the worst idea. I would have brought Tiffany back later with a media company, but at the time, I didn’t disagree that they needed a rest. Whereas someone like Alan I felt was still very viable when he was killed off.

NLG has more than once said Alexis has always been ill defined and that she is often in plot driven stories rather than character driven ones on GH. While she has been given a more leading role than Kate on DAYS, it’s kind of a similar plot device kind of writing. I have no idea why Kate is still there either. Nothing against her, it’s just she has outlasted so many more vitally important characters and always has something going on.

She was turning 40, her husband turning 50, it was the summer and she wanted to extend her vacation to be gone the same length of time as Tony during the summer. JFP told her no, that per her contract she had to give them so much notice to take that much time off. Geary did not have that clause apparently, or if he did they didn’t enforce it with him. The same contract allowed her to quit at the end of certain cycles. So she quit. It is not fair to say she didn’t have perks- Riche moved her scenes up first so she could always be out early once she had kids, which apparently ruffled some feathers. She said a big part of why she quit was she always strived for parity with Geary. So they had similar pay, perks, etc. And then they would do things with her that they never did to him, like the vacation thing.

The big difference is that they obviously didn’t have an actual story for her when she left this time on vacation except being mom/grandma Laura. Except for a few instances, Geary was always in story and with pre-taping he wasn’t really gone as noticeably as she is this time. Only a couple of times did his departure really stick out to me back in the day.

@TaoboiI have been criticizing the show for this for the last 5 years or so. At first I thought it was just her usual snooze fest, bland and generic style of writing when Passanante was HW. But it continued until the current writers took over. I think they have tried several things that sound great on paper, and I love the classic storytelling they are clearly writing- it just isn’t making it onscreen. You can tell when they have been derailed by production- the dropped plotlines and characters, the propping of certain actors forcing story directions, etc. There are times when it is almost good on paper, but the execution is lacking and I have decided the blame lies at Frank/production’s feet. It’s like he decided that they were going to underplay everything from now on, and none of it will ever be fun. Guza was bleak AF and there was still more life. I remember thinking when Ryan was on the rampage that it wouldn’t cost anything for this to look/feel more menacing, and it’s just limped to a conclusion-ish.