Vee

He did have serious chemistry with Beth Ehlers, and better writing at GL helped. But as a dramatic actor Derwin has always had about one speed.

Other than fúck Zander for no reason! I felt for that poor recast, she tried.

And I think they keep them just so they can say 'we try and have a Black core family.' They're almost all related and have C-plots or supporting material, nothing else. It's not a real investment in major story, it's plausible deniability. I believe Kai and Isaiah are on contract (for now). From what I can see though, Kai is just here to fob off the Trina fans and say 'look, she has a new romance' and then play them every few weeks after this initial super-cliched intro. And I have no faith in them not shackling Isaiah to Cyborg Jordan. I think Portia and Trina could be doing so much more, but that would mess up the quiet, inoffensive place FV feels he has successfully islanded all the Black characters on the show.

I don't know about that. Nikolas and Gia were popular and heavily promoted for a time. I'd still bring her back given her family is around. But I do think she and the Wards under Labine were the closest the show ever got to really substantial representation, until Sprina. And we see how uncomfortable the show has been with that. I guess a case can be made for the Ashfords, etc. being as prominent as the Wards, Dara, Taggert and so forth ended up being in the late '90s post-Labine if not moreso. But it's more about quality than quantity for me. Curtis and Jordan are dead ends, T.J. is played out, Stella is a talk-to character and the other talents (Portia, Trina) have very little story.

If you listen to the YouTube comment section 'everyone' hated the Gottlieb era too. The one or two people on many of those videos relentlessly ranting about how terrible it was compared to the genius of Rauch crack me up. Ben and Viki (I refuse to call her Blondie) had a reasonable fanbase. And Erika certainly loved it. I liked the idea on paper of a May/December passion for Viki and was open to it at the beginning as frontburner story, but in practice Ben was generally a two-dimensional rage addict with very little personality or distinguishing characteristic and he wore thin very fast. As far as the larger audience goes, at best he was very polarizing with longtime OLTL fans re: the characters he displaced, the story he dominated and his role in an intrusive family, his snarling about the evils of Asa, etc. and was often as unpopular as any other Rappaport element of the JFP era outside of the hardcore Ben/Blondie fans. A lot of people rejoiced when he went out that window. I think it was a bit of a shame Mark Derwin's own very funny, sweet IRL personality couldn't translate to the character - as a dramatic actor he was always very limited on soaps. As a person he seems like a mensch.

Absolutely. It's just fun to imagine terrifying the racist faction of the audience.

Same here. I just think you can do plenty with a blank slate like that, from a strong family of color with such a beloved legacy. And yeah, the status of that relationship made no sense lol.

I don't think Steve would care. He had no hesitation putting the moves on Senait back in the day. But I'm sure part of the audience would be scandalized, and at this point when it comes to Jason that's all I care about lol. I also think Keesha returning as a still-upstanding and strong-willed character, probably involved in activist work, would be a unique contrast to Jason for his final years. (And would stick around without him) I had no particular love for Keesha's romance with either brother in the '90s. I just think it would be an interesting and unusual angle to play for a tired character who I otherwise have zero remaining interest in lol. And it would help bring on more Wards and characters of color.

Man, Lacey looks different. I did not know Lindsay was on GL.

Lots of people hated Ben.

I would absolutely write Jason off, don't get me wrong (if I had the power to do that lol). But while I'm stuck with him I'd try to make people uncomfortable, and bring Keesha back (recast) with kids. Maybe one of them is secretly A.J.'s, who knows?

Actors say anything to promote the show. JJ said Lucky's Africa arc was great stuff too. It was boring as fúck. What are they going to say to TV Insider? "It sucks, don't watch til October"?

All true. Still, at this point my only remaining interest in Jason (since Steve claims he is ready to retire in a couple years) is scandalizing the Facebook moms by having him in a (short) dalliance with a returned Keesha Ward. Though I imagine today's GH would issue a public apology to the Klan for something like that.

It's embarrassing the "#1 soap" has been reduced to this and GH hasn't.

And very typical of the FV taping shuffle. It looks like I hope we're not in for another tiresome Lucky in Africa sojourn where we have to wait weeks to see her with her loved ones.

I always found them boring as hell simply because Jason is generally such a test pattern and Sam was his obliging shadow. Sure, they had chemistry; I just didn't care.

I would argue that's the only scene anyone remembers or cares about from that whole pairing. It was brilliant. And yes, Maurice already looked old next to her. Which is striking when you go back and look at clips, where he looks vibrant compared to today lol.

The show could be very misogynistic and mob-centric in those years, but many of the woman still had distinct personalities and relationships. That's the difference between too much of the show today. I think both John and Zach on OLTL and AMC were real mixed bags at best lol. John had a decent intro period and early romance with Natalie at first before it quickly got bungled, but it was also bound up in a very flawed storyline that alternated between being gritty and true to life or hilarious and campy depending on the day (the Music Box Killer). His earliest material with the two Walker/Todds, Atlantic City follies and Natalie the pool shark didn't help either. After mid-'04 I lost all interest in John and pretty much considered him dead to me til GH rolled around, where he actually fit. I haven't seen any of it in decades but I'll be the lone wolf and say I thought Jax and Sam could've worked at the outset if they'd stuck to the initial brief which was high adventure, treasure hunting in the '80s GH mold, etc. Or at least Sam herself staying in that mold. When Kelly first appeared on the show she looked dramatically different from goth queen Livvie, was cleaned up and scrubbed and looked for all the world like a young Ali MacGraw to me. It was striking. The Dead Man's Hand thing got real silly real quick but they still could've had more fun with her or those two. Instead, because the network had forced it by giving them a squish name at the outset in promos with no audience support ("Jam! Catch it from the beginning!"), because Guza already hated Jax at that point and Frons had bigger stars to move her on to Sam instantly got turned into a mob moll/Brendabot. It was so obvious at the time too, they were desperate to get Maurice competing with Carly and Lorenzo again with a big star. And it was gross and didn't work. (I even seem to recall something about Sonny pulling a magic sword from a stone as part of one of Sam's capers - imagine inserting him into classic GH fare like that.) Her vixen era was Kelly's only great period on the show. It is ridiculous people let her do that. It's got to stop.

Good lord. She actually has snuck out of the hospital and no one's seen her yet. Come on now. Don't do me like this a la Lucky's return.

I think the scenes were very well done with Bianca and Michael, and how he sort of psychotically cottoned on to her and talked himself into their having a relationship they didn't. I revisited them a few years ago and they held up production-wise. I just think, then and now, that doing it was repugnant and a convenient excuse to desexualize her and elide the network's fears of the character (which would probably be far more pronounced today ironically). It took many years for them to even go near active sexuality with Bianca again, and only then in very scattered ways with Reese or Marissa. At the same time it can't be denied re: how it turbocharged story for Bianca and the whole family. It's a very difficult thing.

It's true! I've heard all sorts of things about Jason Beghe over the years but he was so sexy on MP. I didn't know that about Bill Brochtrup at all.

I agree with all of that. It was a nasty tradeoff with Megan, who knew the show and its families well even as she plundered it. I do remember when she came back with much grand flourish (just like Frons' reinstatement of Malone at OLTL and Guza at GH around the same time, all three being creative teams who he felt were quintessential to their shows - and to a certain point he was right). A lot of material IIRC was centered around Pine Valley celebrating the fourth of July or some other big event. That was a classical soap opera setup that felt uniquely appropriate for AMC's suburban Americana, even if a lot of the events that unfolded (Bianca's rape and IIRC David almost poisoning half the town or something) were pretty ugly.

I thought Higley retconned them into being Roman and Kate's. I could be wrong.

If Alexa spends the rest of this week sharing scenes just with Cyrus Imma riot. Or worse, we'll get the Frank/Chris/Korte special. Just like Lucky in Africa, it’ll be a month of Lulu trying to get out of this hospital and playing gin rummy with the nurses til Jason inexplicably shows up to bust her out instead of her actual family. Stay tuned for January 2025, when Jason helps rescue James' new dog from a fight ring.

This entire trial is delusional and a timewaster too. Someone has got to sit Kristina down and slap her around with the truth.