titan1978

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.

The affair that has kept on giving on soap sites since it happened. I truly cannot blame her- I also would have had an affair with Jason Brooks!

Think about if they had let that next generation of Abbott’s and Newman’s actually age and have the correct storyline trajectory. I think there is years of story with Victoria (I’m talking back in the day, when HT was still there) slowly taking over her father’s business and he has decided to just be married to Nikki and enjoy his life. And he hates it. But he can’t get back into power at Newman. So he starts from scratch again. You get to introduce new characters to set up his new venture, he gets to squabble with Jabot and Newman a little. Nikki has an in character reason to be upset and turn to let’s say Jack- because she finally had victor’s full attention and he has told her (bluntly as he would) that she is not enough. Told correctly that could be five years of story where everyone grows, and we slowly pull Victor away from everything having to revolve around him. Look at trying to keep Nicolas and Sharon young by killing Cassie and the other stories they have been through in the last 20 years. Same with Hope on DAYS- they have been stuck and the shows just keep putting them in stories like they are still 30.

I don’t disagree. I think they have lost their way over the last few decades of letting the characters mature or fade away if there is no longer a story to tell. Look at someone like Alice Horton. She didn’t often have a story, but she added a lot to the show over the years and had a point of view and important place. Now compare her to someone like Marlena- while I think Tomlin was using her well with Will and Sonny, I don’t think she and John should be in these action adventure stories they keep putting them in. Doesn’t mean they can’t have a place, but to try to have them be front burner for 40 years is not feasible. But they haven’t developed/invested the next generations enough to let them take over their natural place.

I thought it was all three, and yes he did.

Oh Lost. Remember the couple that were always there but we had not seen them before, and then they just killed them off at the end of the season because it wasn’t working. On GH, whatever the Cassadine story was supposed to be was disrupted first by Bob Guza leaving for Sunset Beach, and then again when Genie went on maternity leave and basically refused to return until the writing was better and she wanted to. It seems like pregnancies have possibly changed many storyline directions over the years.

It used to be brought up a lot that his medical knowledge helped him be an accurate killer. He had access to that information still. Alan was particularly upset about that on more than one occasion. And he didn’t start as Sonny’s sniper enforcer like he is now. It happened over time.

It’s especially weird that soaps are ignoring COVID, and yet other shows are not that actually air in syndication and stream seasons. This is a snapshot of a specific time and place, and yes, those shows might hopefully someday feel dated. But these soaps appear delusional (B&B’s kissing dolls in particular).

Well his apology, where he described CJ as beautiful and talented, and stated that proves he isn’t transphobic- yeah no. That’s beyond intentions. Not to mention the dress thing with his son, or him saying he should have crossed out dude and wrote Transgender! None of that is in any way showing him to not be bigoted. https://ew.com/tv/general-hospital-drops-ingo-rademacher/