carolineg

Jonah got kicked out of medical school and Lexie got fired from the Police force after the Pacifier stuff. Jonah started to work at the hospital in a different role (in the lab, maybe?), dated Wendy and I believe got back into medical through Stefano possibly and disappeared. Lexie at some point decided she wanted to become a Dr. Anyhow, I was thinking more along the lines of Abe not forgiving Lexie after the Jonah debacle and she moves on to Mike starting over. I am sure she would have eventually gone back to Abe, but Mike/Lexie's careers and interests seem to align. I think Billie/Mike would have been decent too. At the end of the day even if he was paired with Kristen, Billie, or Lexie he would have probably ended up the third wheel of a triangle, but at least it would be something for him to do.

I 100% agree. I don't mind short arcs. They can serve their purpose. Fiona was a character that needed a longer storyline to play out on screen. There are so many things that could have been done with her. Also, not going to lie, if SST just created that backstory for Fiona in her head I might love her. And probably hire her on as a Days staff writer.

Yes! It was something to do with arms dealing in Israel. I was going to say that, but was second guessing myself. Obviously not counting Stefano's obsession or John, I still swear that RC's Mike was the only character that even hinted at a romantic interest in Marlena during those post-Roman JER years. Even if it was only the slightest hint. You make a good point about Mike. The first ladies that popped into my head were Kristen and Billie. I also think Lexie could have worked with him as well. Kate/Mike would have been a great idea. I feel like at the time Kate was still a fairly straight laced business woman loyal to Victor. It would have been fair game in 2000 lol. I actually think moving Mike in Carrie's direction was a fabulous idea. Austin/Sami/Carrie got too played out and it worked great at the time, IMO. It just stinks RC had to sit around a few years before he got the Ali story, Craig/Nancy or anything with Carrie

Holly mentioned in a previous episode Nicole asked her to stay at the apartment but she declined. They agreed on a hotel nearby because Holly still was upset at Nicole. Fiona could have gone down 100 different avenues to make this story work. I think it comes down to SST's short term deal, which in itself sort of makes me wonder what's the point? Find someone who will commit long term to tell the story correctly.

So strangely enough, during the Possession story I thought they were soft testing Mike with Marlena. When Mike got Marlena's passcode because he was being blackmailed by Stefano for.....something I can't recall lol. I know that seems crazy, but some of their initial scenes are flirty-ish. Overall, I agree. Once the show truly decided on going with big event arcs, Mike got lost in the shuffle. He was too steady and reliable to do much else lol. There were plenty of ladies to pair Mike with at the time it was a strange stop gap to him hooking up with Carrie. I never got any inkling JER was even hinting at Mike being gay, tbh, but I got a sense the show didn't know where to place Mike age wise for love interests. He sort of fell into the younger crowd being around Carrie, Austin, Sami, Lucas, etc, but should have been more in the Kristen, Billie, Hope, Jen, Bo, Peter, etc crowd. It's like they actively de-aged Mike more.

I always liked him too. I know people are more partial to MTW and his Hawaiian shirts, but I thought he deserved more of a story especially considering how important Mike was to Days history. Although after Tom passed it seemed fitting for Mike to be the Dr. of all trades and carry on tradition. Unfortunately once Mike finally became an "A" player I believe RC decided to leave.

Same. I guess Serena Scott Thomas got more motivation than, say, poor Julie Dove/Connie, but it was weak as well. Fiona will be shipped off much like Connie with little resolution never to be heard from again.

Yes. We never even learned much about Fiona's affair with Victor. No one asked lol. And how was Fiona supporting herself all these years? Did she re-marry? Does she work? Has she previously had mental problems? I don't need to know every minuet detail of her life, but we don't know much about her at all.

For sure. I misspoke a bit because I actually think 1990 is a decent year for Days with the Cruise of Deception story. The cast and focus just changed a lot. I think long term it mostly worked as I can't say I miss too many of those characters, but I think it took until late 1992/early 1993 for Days to find it's footing again. That is also the start of the JER years though.

Makes sense. Mike's departure did seem abrupt, but I never thought Days ever really found a footing for his Mike even though I know MTW was popular. Although I would argue the show has always struggled with Mike post Wesley Eure because Roark Critchlow just stood around for about 3 years before he hooked up with Carrie. Yes! I remember it being random too. And since I watched them as adult I thought it was strange. Although 1990 was a bit of an odd year for Days (and GH). Moving out of the 80's and not quite into the 90's yet. By 1991/92 it felt like an entirely different show. I know there were a lot of backstage changes though.

There were some good moments in the episode for sure. I agree they never really fleshed out Fiona enough for me to understand her motives. She says she was miserable for years and that's why she drank, but she is very well put together and doesn't truly seem like a lush. What was she doing all those years when Xander wasn't speaking to her? Is she evil? Is she just someone who makes bad decisions? It's another decent storyline with horrible execution. Yeah, this Chad storyline is dumb. I feel ya, Billy Flynn. You would think Mark would look at FAbby's DNA and realize Kayla's DNA was entirely different than the first sample and figure that out quickly.

It is even in an 80's lense lol. It's not like Nick was a reformed pimp once he got on the show-he was an active pimp. That pimped out his own underaged girlfriend. I do think the Nick actor (George Jenesky? Idk what name he's going by now) had some smarmy charm, but I never felt the show actively tried that hard to redeem him. He and Charlotte Ross had nice chemistry, but I am not sure why any sane woman would want to date him. I think Eve's troubled past may have helped explain some of the reasoning, but it was still creepy. If I was going to make a Steve/Kayla comparison I would probably go with Pete/Melissa as following that prototype. It's hard though because Pete/Melissa felt like a Bo/Hope redux too, but Bo's "bad" boy tendencies were fairly mild. I want to say Michael T. Weiss was either let out of his contract early to do another project or left abruptly when his contract ended because the deal fell apart. Since you have old mags you might be able to find out more about that or I could just being making it up in my head lol. It all seemed so last minute.

Nick bought Blondies/Wings and April worked there along with Eve. I think Nick and April decided to get married out of convenience but I am not exactly sure why. It has something to do with Mike mostly. April wanted him to move on to be with his son I think. Nick wanted Eve to move on as well. Nick was always injured, burned or sick during this time period so it might be related to that. After awhile I think April/Nick just got an annulment and moved on lol.

I think Nick/Eve were popular. Even though it's weird lol. I believe Nick was introduced as a villain and after Eve became more grey and slightly redeemed to make the romance more viable. The actor had some charm, but I don't think the character was especially important nor popular until Eve.

Yes, I agree. The constant commercials for their soaps and the marathons of classic episodes they did at least help build interest for like-minded audiences. The 50 hours of GH for the 50th was amazing to be able to see on tv.

I don't think there was a big bump when JJ returned in 2010, but they certainly didn't promote it the way they did Vanessa's return either. Plus Lucky was already on canvas in the shape of Greg Vaughn. I believe there was a much larger bump for Brenda's initial return. It ended up leveling off because, much like Lucky's current return, Brenda was stuck in Rome so long and the show was a mess. I think the last time there was an effort made for a return was Steve/Jason's in 2017, but it was nowhere near the level they promoted Brenda/James Franco/50th anniversary. But budget changes happened and Soapnet doesn't exist. I know Soapnet is considered an overall failure, but those commercials and marathons probably did bring some eyeballs to viewers of other soaps that were either lapsed viewers or mildly intrigued.

I wonder how many old viewers tuned in to JJ's return initially and watched him played cards for a few weeks and tuned out. I don't think there was enough going on story wise elsewhere to capture lost views.

Yes. Sure, it would be a nice sentiment, but where do you draw the line? Do we need a PSA on cobalt poisoning and bad hip replacements? This is a show that thinks gun violence is the correct action to take when someone is a mild inconvenience to you. This isn't a groundbreaking story like Robin/Stone's AIDS story. This is just a run of the mill medical drama used on soaps all the time. I just don't think it's that serious. It's not like Days where Rolf is just keeping dead people alive without hearts with secret serums he creates. GH stopped being socially relevant and aware years ago.

I mean, if people are truly considering donating their livers or going into surrogacy I would hope they'd do more research than just watching GH and taking a soap opera's word on it. I just wouldn't make life altering decisions on that basis. I suppose it would be nice if GH partnered with some organ donor organizations, but they didn't do anything with Willow's bone marrow transplant either.

Finally! I have been waiting for years for the show to bring Joy back. It would be nice to bring Nadia back with an aged Parker too. But then I guess that makes half the teen scene related lol. They should also retcon the original retcon and make Parker Phillip's son again or bring back Phillip/Mimi's son Pocket.

I tend to agree Jason's return story was one of the most affected by all the backstage changes. I never expected a Jason return to revitalize GH or be a ratings hit, but all the set up with the FBI, his kids, Carly, falling out with Sonny, etc just disappeared and now were a back to status quo with Jason/Sonny/Carly in only a few months. Like someone said yesterday, the show has just become predictable.

Ron was absolutely heading down the Frisco/Felicia reunion train. Mac was doing all those ridiculous things out of jealousy and reduced to performing with a puppet at the Nurse's Ball as if he had no right to be concerned. I always thought Maxie switched back and forth between calling Mac dad and Mac even before Ron. I thought Georgie was the one who always called Mac dad. I should clarify because I don't feel like editing-I was mostly talking about Felicia's return in 2007 when Georgie died in my comparisons to Lucky. I still liked her separate 2012 return, but my post makes it sound like it was the same return lol.

Exactly. I hate Felicia was painted that way because the show decided they didn't need Kristina anymore, but at least she got her own happy ending. I tend to think the show did Lucky dirty too. Sure, Jackson leaving was his choice, but the show could have thrown out some mentions that Lucky was at least in contact with Aiden. I obviously see the drama in the deadbeat aspect and get why the show did that, but it's a bit much with Jason having a similar father/son relationship. I do think the show wants to rebuild Lucky, so I hope that does happen.

I thought Felicia's return was good in 2012. I can still see why the comparisons are happening, but it's different IMO. Georgie had just been murdered everyone was shocked, in mourning, and raw. If Felicia returned out of the blue 6 months earlier I don't think the reactions from friends/family would be as harsh. Felicia is someone who completely redeemed herself to me, so it's more bad judgement and a character flaw she worked to improve and then be there for her family and Mac. It's actual growth!

Luke was an awful human from the jump. The show worked to redeem him in the 80's and 90's. I actually liked 90's family man Luke. Once the rape was revealed and everything was said out loud I feel like Tony Geary stopped caring. There is nothing fun about an aging, alcoholic, rapist pulling scams and ditching town when things got rough. Everyone's narrative about how that is just the way Luke is was disgusting. This is a show that has Sonny as the current hero though. Jason will never actually be a good person unless he ditches Sonny and Carly and changes his life-which won't happen. Lucky still is a good person at heart and has a chance to turn this around and I hope he does.