Vee

I have many, many issues with Frank Valentini's stewardship of GH, but I'll never forget what he did for many vets over the years to pay respect to them, starting with what he did in John Ingle's final days which was reported in great detail by his grateful family. I never forgot either the seemingly spontaneous applause for Rachel Ames when she appeared at the nurses' station during the anniversary in 2013. I don't believe she knew about it; she looked very surprised. And the tributes for Jackie, for Sonya Eddy, for John Reilly, etc. were wonderful and kind. GH has many glaring flaws but they kept Monica very involved in recent years before Leslie's recent injury and illness, with the Qs and at the hospital. They endeavored to keep her involved any way they could, via voice or by brief appearances in the last couple years. I am grateful to FV and to GH for that. I knew this was probably coming but it's still very sad. Leslie was vital to revitalizing this show and making it a generational force, and to modernizing soaps in general, as others have noted re: recent discussion of Love is a Many Splendored Thing and her work there. I held out hope we could see her one last time.

Frank's full statement is in the above article, but also here on the GH Threads account.

Damn. Variety's full text:

The Sherry Larson story was a waste of time. Donna had next to nothing to do and no fire in the part. I would never have known what a force she was had I not watched KL (and some of her GH work was good, at least her performance). It also was a very strange and abrupt pivot in story, where Jane had begun turning unhinged over Jake and Alison and suddenly was embroiled with her alcoholic mom. Her deranged antics were swept under the rug (though in the end that was probably for the best for Jane).

Julianne once again discusses her time on the show, and notes that the Drew Barrymore Show is now in its old studio at the beginning of this interview.

@DRW50 Julianne Moore (Frannie, ATWT) once again talks at length about her time on ATWT - and the fact that the Drew Barrymore Show is now in its studio - at the beginning of this interview.

It was about five minutes, with Stafford right before Ron was fired. They barely knew each other but he conned her into quickie marriage as part of the live week stunt mandated by the network (as in, they wanted a wedding). He scammed her and Franco saved her. No need to ever go there again IMO. I love Watros and I think she's done strong work this last year especially but after a certain time I would still write Nina out. I do need to catch up on the show, since I am apparently back in DC on an open-ended stay as of today lol. My apt is still uh, probably safe, though the new winds, rain of ash and of course fire are getting perilously close to making us an evac zone if nothing else. I don't think the fires will reach my apt because if it did that would mean all of Los Angeles is up for grabs, but it's good I didn't go back to LA just to get evacuated out of caution. I got pretty lucky in that most of my absolutely essential documentation and electronics are with me due to some Christmas week travel before I settled down here with family. I feel pretty guilty enjoying being back east again after years of disdaining the city; it does have a lot going for it when you dig deeper, and people I know have lost everything. And to bring this back to topic I feel for Cameron Mathison and others, and really hope everyone at GH is as safe as they can be.

I'm committing to nothing! She's still boring as hell. My apt is apparently still fine and probably will stay that way. I am still back east in DC due to first the snow and now the fires, and enjoying it. But very concerned for others. It's been awful out west.

When DRW likes something on a modern soap it's hard-won - we don't always agree but he is too often right on the money. He's made me reconsider Sasha (sort of)!

I don't think there's any greenscreened backgrounds on GH.

I did kind of like the one where Tamara Braun's Carly brokenly sings "Hush Little Baby" to Morgan in early '04 (when Courtney shoots Brian Beck), but by that point JFP and Guza had already begun regularly overusing the mob action montages. It also was wildly over-choreographed in the action with Jason and the baddies, it just didn't look remotely realistic and was comical. Very few hit well after that for me, though I do have a fondness for the blatant Godfather ripoff sequence crosscutting between Josslyn's(?) christening and Sonny and Dante's confrontation in 2010, right before Sonny shoots him. Mostly bc of the dialogue and performances there.

I am behind by a few days because I've been focused on family and now monitoring the fires in LA (my apt is safe so far, but I may be chilling back east a bit longer than I thought) but I will say what I've said before: Based on GH actors' many anecdotes, when FV cares about something he will make time to put it together to his liking. He is said to be very active on the floor or in the booth and has given lots of vets or other actors notes on performance and how to work a scene. So when it's something that matters to him, he will still work to craft it. The issue for me is twofold. First, I think his skill level for that has degraded as the time and budget crunch has gotten worse. When Frank first started as EP at OLTL he was basically a chameleon; he would tailor himself to whatever HW he was working for (starting with Malone and Griffith) and deliver a reasonably atmospheric show under budget, especially in the first couple years which were very dark and stylish in aesthetic at times even when the stories were often very silly. They never had the money or indulgence from the network that 2000s GH had (which allegedly went over a lot in the Guza II/JFP high on the hog days) but they put out a solid technical product. As time has gone by and money has gotten tighter I think the upper limit of FV's skill for production value has been maxed out long ago. But the second problem is IMO ultimately about his own taste. When Valentini became the de facto head creative at GH with Carlivati gone, replaced with a succession of writers who answer to him a la JFP, his own preferences were revealed and I think there's just not much there. He was good at being a chameleon producer for others up to a point, but as his own voice IMO it's just about showcasing his favorite actors and personal preferences, maintaining a bland equilibrium and putting the show out. I think all these factors contribute to a very anodyne, rushed show. He'll focus on crafting specific scenes he cares for, sure. But the larger picture doesn't hold together because his emphasis is often on the wrong places. Unlike, say, a Wendy Riche or her crew.

Thanks for that. I am supposed to fly back to LA from my family here back East on Friday, but uh, it's starting to look a little dicey.

I'm not sure anyone here is great at citing their sources.

Yes. She last appeared in 2012 challenging Blair re: the resemblance between Lorenzo Alcazar and Tomas Delgado from OLTL, both played by Ted King. Ron never resolved that weird subplot due to the lawsuit, but Blair did end her engagement to Tomas who had promptly mysteriously disappeared overseas (which, unintentionally, cued up Todd and Blair reuniting on OLTL 2.0).

That was a classy statement to put up under the circumstances. My neighborhood back in LA isn't burning yet and hopefully it won't be by the time I get back this weekend.

Extremely. The central story was his brother, Warlock's Ross was an expendable guest player who only appeared a few times. You don't want to know. Given the era, my bet is a primetime name who couldn't hack it or had other problems.

Yes, but BW's sole purpose for appearing was to kill Ross off in just a few appearances. If they could've gotten Lowry for that they would have. Skye Chandler should not be within ten miles of running a core GH business. She can come in for her little stints though! I don't mind her causing trouble and staying off, off, off contract.

He was somewhat my A.J. because he was the one I spent a ton of time with as a youth, while my memory of Sean Kanan was more sporadic (A.J.'s stories in the Labine years were not exactly barnburners IMO, so they didn't stick in the memory much any more than Jason Q did). Today, upon review and after his return I will absolutely say Sean is the definitive article. But I think Billy did a very good job in difficult times. I have no idea who they originally cast. I think he was just a pinch hitter at OLTL for a few days because Michael Lowry was no longer available. That was a strange incident where IIRC he got hired by FV and had to show up on-set within like, a day or the same day according to his recent interview. As for Nina, I do think she's fine at Crimson. Of course I'd prefer it to be someone like Brenda or whoever and would dump Nina from that if VM came along, but Nina bought her way into that position long ago, CW sells it and Kate/Connie is long dead.

He did that. I have found Nina useless since she first appeared, but Watros has made her much more entertaining. I would still rather watch Cynthia Watros than over half the canvas. YMMV.

A bit redundant to post now I guess as everyone knows, but Port Charles' own Demi Moore (Jackie Templeton) won Best Actress at the Golden Globes the other night. Lovely speech.

That's my thing. It just felt like pure gimmickry, which used to be beneath EE. And yet I agree she and Adam Woodyatt still have considerable chemistry.

They look amazing. Clifton Davis is a silver fox but I'll admit I'm surprised if he can handle the pace of daytime these days. I think Mosley (who I never rated well in heroine roles) may have the juice as a bad girl. And I'll forever be a little wistful Daphnee Duplaix didn't get to be the young matriarch of a new OLTL as Rachel Gannon Buchanan opposite Dan Gauthier's Kevin, but I'm so happy for her.

Colette the French dayplayer will be the way they attempt to salvage Brennan the slightly higher-ranking dayplayer. She'll be the secret true Pikeman or something, even though Brennan and Valentin were both very clearly Pikeman last spring-summer. I'm just waiting for them to make some other big hire so Brennan the stop-gap male can finally get broomed off the show too. What a waste of time. I will say Joss or Emma going WSB would be more interesting than most of the show.

She did. That doesn't mean Michael and Marcie needed to happen. Keeping it Al would've kept it simple.