Vee

There are way too many kids on this show due to baby fever on soaps in more conservative, less risky times. But yes: Dante and Lulu have Rocco (who Britt briefly stole). Lulu (allegedly) has mutant test tube hellspawn Charlotte with Valentin, not by choice. Equally demonic Violet is Finn and Hayden Barnes' (Rebecca Budig) daughter. Violet is unfortunately a Webber, as Hayden is Jeff Webber's illegitimate child. Maxie inexplicably, unacceptably has three damn children: Georgie (with Spinelli), James (with sentient log Nathan West) and Bailey or whoever (Peter August). She should not have one child let alone three. S&C stupidly had Donna a few years ago so the show could name a baby after a deceased crewmember. So now she can never die. Sonny and Ava of course have Avery, who also should not exist but was Ava's insurance policy after Connie and A.J. Sam has Danny and Scout, her unnecessary daughter with Drew. I still remember the dreadful period in early Passanante where they worked overtime to put Julian over as a good guy again and had him wearing matching Christmas sweaters with a doting Olivia following Leo's birth. Never again.

I think everything titan said makes perfect sense. But I also think the final step (turning on Jason) would not be possible quite this quickly without his meds being tampered with. (Sonny has turned on him before, but it takes more time and more incidents.) So now this works for me. I still think Alexis has used her teenage fling with Julian to block out the truth about Sam - that she's the child of Stavros. Oh well.

She's been around a pretty reasonable amount with Maxie, Spinelli, etc. (I think she is still on contract again) in B-story, and she also starred in the wonderful Jackie Zeman memorial episodes, where they did a bit of a riff on her "Barbara Jean!" moment. She did very well with that, probably because she and JZ were close. I just can't get past the visual on Adam Harrington as Jagger, even if I think he's doing a good job and the material has improved dramatically since the regime change. I still wish they'd cast someone like Paul Anthony Stewart, who I expect is out of daytime for good.

As I think titan alluded to, this has been a long time coming. The previous regimes have made Sonny and Ava way too cozy in recent months and years, like a lot of other characters who shouldn't be. So this is a reasonable outgrowth to me.

I think if she's in on it she's gonna get caught, that's inevitable. But it's also in Ava's nature to sometimes act a fool over men beneath her lol. She's always been equal measures vicious, brilliant and at times stupid. Remember, she brought us Aunt Denise and carried on with Morgan all over again while wearing the damn Party City fright wig and talking like Lois. I also hope she doesn't pull back over new feelings for Sonny, but I'd never really considered that possibility. I doubt whatever happens will get to a point where Ava would be able to do so even if she wanted to. I suspect she'll be exposed before then.

It was Labine IIRC. I can't remember how/why they broke up or when or why Tom left. On paper MA should've worked and I thought he did well enough onscreen, but they just never found the right moment or partner for him.

I've seen him around. He is too old for her. LH is very attractive but the first Tate looked like a baby by comparison.

They were definitely playing the Kevin/Felicia romantic tension in '94 upon my revisit recently, but I don't know how far because I haven't seen a lot of this year since I was a kid watching live and I don't remember how much is discussed or played out. It was such a strange and unique (and at times uneasy) relationship at that time given the Ryan of it all, and there are periods when it seems Felicia is becoming jealous re: Lucy or Kevin is interested in her. But I do think Kevin and Lucy became the endgame for Labine early there, as in early in '94. I think the Felicia stuff is ultimately there to build the character and further distinguish Kevin from Ryan in her life and on the show after they work through the romantic, etc. tension, as Kevin becomes one of her closest friends.

I don't love the thought, but she has fallen for worse and/or dumber people while also up to her classic nasty business. As long as she's in it I'm happy.

I think he was a great asset from the jump in what I've seen despite the difficult circumstances under Monty, but yeah they didn't give him much to work with. I have never seen him with Shell Danielson's Dominique, only the terrible original performer but neither lasted long. The Holly thing is nonsense. I just wonder if they had toyed with Scott and Felicia or always had Mac in mind. Because the Ryan mystery was part of her re-introduction.

I think they were/are, even if I hate that romance. But I also think having Anna close was beneficial to his plans whatever they may be. I do think Ava is working with Valentin and I'll be a bit disappointed if she isn't and is on her own trip. I also suspect she may have caught feelings for real in the process, which is equally typical Ava tbh. The idea that Valentin somehow needs to drug and gaslight Sonny to infiltrate Pikeman (which Jason has already done) sounds like heavy Valentin fan cope lol. We don't need to repeat or rehash every random fan theory or discussion online here and act like it holds equal weight or has some basis in legitimate gossip (and I'm not saying caroline is doing that, because she isn't). I think if Maurice had a problem with that he would've put a stop to it either now or in 2014 the last time Sonny was toyed with like this. Sonny Corinthos has never been a depiction of a model citizen with bipolar disorder. He is a troubled, dangerous criminal with poor impulse control who consistently makes bad life decisions and ignored his mental health issues for decades until Emily forced him to deal with it. His behavior (and how he gets manipulated by others) is regularly a cautionary tale even without this angle. The show showing professionals and patients handling their medical issues responsibly and then showing others not doing the same is apples and oranges AFAIC, and simply good drama.

It's been done before, IIRC. Ava kept him off his meds in 2013-14. It makes sense to me that any rival would target Sonny's mental issues.

If Valentin has Anna Devane in his bed and his home he theoretically has a major threat to Pikeman's plans under control, so that makes sense. Charlotte ruined that. I suspect it was Valentin or one of his cronies (Brennan?), but I hope they reveal Ava pulled the trigger on Austin herself. He was so despicable to her and it's been too long since some segments of the audience have been reminded who Ava has always been. They are going to have to hire someone for her. Frank would put her with Marshall if he could get away with it.

Not that anyone in the audience will care much (any more than they would if it turns out Ava was faking her possibly private reaction to the threat/evidence after Austin's demise which I suspect she was), but they can always retcon it easily enough to say that Valentin figured the footage of Charlotte would get found soon and wanted to get out in front of it his own way.

Who found the Charlotte footage first? Nina? He did choose to cover it up and made her do so.

He has clearly been working on the scripts IMO, credit or not. I thought he was also already credited on one or two but I may be wrong. I'm all for new writers, but that's different from family hires. These jobs get passed down often through families because they are generational income security, so it becomes a closed system that keep more new people out. Sometimes those family writers are very right for it of course, but in this day and age I prioritize new blood over someone like Emily Culliton. I could be wrong though, she could be great.

We dunno whodunit. It just reminds me of Ron spending overtime on GH Twitter telling people his important scenes were cut for time and constantly throwing the show or other personnel under the bus in doing so. You can't over-engage like that, especially in this tiny industry. It's also more nuanced re: Trina, since a few days ago she got her best scenes in ages with the very well-written and acted extended monologue segments at Spencer's grave, which will probably go on an Emmy reel. They reminded me of similar monologue stuff from the '90s.

I'm not going to weep if they dump a nepo hire tbqh. There's too much of that in this business as is. I want to see both old hands and new blood. Mulcahey taking a hand in the breakdowns tells us they're done fúcking around.

I still remember Ron dogging DAYS after several (IIRC) ex-OLTL writers had moved there post-cancellation and they got nommed or won something over him at GH IIRC, I believe for Eileen Davidson's big return year as Kristen. I found that tacky since he'd worked with several of those staff writers for years.

@depboy thanks for all you do - I've been meaning to dig back into these synopses recently. On another 1992 note no one asked for: Has anyone else seen the early Felicia return material in June of '92 and gotten the distinct impression they were heavily testing Scott and Felicia? They have a number of cute banter scenes with him looking after Maxie (who they keep calling "Max") and have pretty solid chemistry, and their vaguely improvisational energy works well together. But honestly Kristina really returned gangbusters overall from what I can see, and more than proved herself solo here IMO - she dominates a bunch of scenes with Felicia sweeping across the canvas doing what seems like odd jobs, with hilarious stuff with her working at the PCPD with crooks at the line-up, etc. I've always respected how strong and funny KW was as a slice of life player in the Labine era with JJY, Kimberly, Jon Lindstrom, etc. but she really has even more of a vivacious spark than I remembered. I don't know if this is when her real IRL troubles with Jack Wagner started but it seems like she came back eager to prove herself without him and Frisco as a solo heroine, and for a good stretch of years I think she succeeded. It's nice to be able to admire that again after the Luke/Felicia years brought her so low. Kristina is a lot rustier and less spontaneous a comedienne these days than she was back in the '90s, but she's still got a lot of emotion and heart onscreen when it counts and I'm glad she's still here. I do wonder when they started the move towards Mac and Felicia.

I'll be shocked if Lulu isn't cast soon.

Oh, I'm not predicting it at all. But if ABC is truly getting serious about making GH competitive and strong again, Vanessa (and possibly finding some flexible deal with JJ, a man can dream) is out there. It would certainly crank things up if Brenda blew back into town on the same day as, say, a clueless Sonny having his latest mob wedding to Ava Jerome-Cassadine, a la his Zacchara union.

Talent isn't the issue. The issue is the state of the industry, with a half dozen streaming giants falling apart or restructuring and everything in tumult. It's entirely possible those seas remain very choppy for a long while for working actors, and in that situation daytime becomes a safe harbor for many. It's possible that could include Chavez, if not right away then later. A few years ago his potentially returning soon wouldn't even be a consideration, but things are different.

Someone with more recall and regular viewing than me or titan over the last few interminable years needs to track all of "Pikeman's" big moves so we can examine them re: Valentin. Your service is appreciated! In the meantime I will check the insanely detailed GH wiki.

I am waiting for the first shoe to drop on several contract exits or possible returns, personally. If JPS is out or Vanessa does, miracle of miracles, return, we will know real things are changing. I don't think you could've made Valentin into a Big Bad under Frank's sway. You take care too!