Vee

Some of the OLTL staff followed him to GH I think, others did not. I remember finding it tacky that Ron took shots at the DOOL team for beating him for awards during Eileen Davidson's reprise era in the early 2010s, considering Melissa Salmons and others from OLTL had migrated to DOOL.

Would not shock me if she jumped.

I don't know that I agree with that; I don't recall much difference then or now, let alone beforehand under Ron's tenure. Long scenes were few and far between. But it is definitely even more the norm now.

That's if he gets his way. Frank has been very fond of the bite-size scenes for almost 20 years. His mid-late aughts demographic focus determined that. I'm curious to see how they gel if at all. As I said a few pages ago! B&B is the retirement camp where great writers go to chill with a paycheck, that's Brad Bell's fiefdom. Which is why I never expected MVJ or others to return, let alone Mulcahey. Who wants to work?

That would've been apeshît. I've been praying for her for years, I never dreamed Mulcahey would come out of the B&B retirement laurels. The scuttlebutt that other writers may be tossed is interesting.

I've already lived that test. This is gravy to me.

Received. You don't gotta be clearer than that.

Valentini has worked with both greats and idiots. He allegedly could barely tolerate Dena Higley but never said a word against her. As many BTS have attested, he started as Rauch's assistant at OLTL and worked his way up. He has been around a very long time. I cannot thank Frank enough for some of what he's done at OLTL and at GH, including saving the show at GH, saving Robin Scorpio from a permanent death, how he handled John Ingle's passing, and yes, the Jackie tribute too among many other things. I will always be very grateful for that and will always recognize his immense skill in keeping a show on budget and alive. I also think Frank fancied himself the last king of soaps due to early hype he and Ron got (partially from me!), took too much ownership over time of his shows, and has gotten very comfortable playing favorites, keeping a static, often staid or lifeless show running at all costs while catering mostly to his or the network's perception of elderly audiences and not challenging the viewers or themselves in any way. Frank presided over both the Kish era at OLTL (and its last overall renaissance in Ron's early tenure) and its brutal culling and replacement with a bunch of white str8 himbos, and he did that to save its ratings by catering to bigots. But I don't think Frank has any loyalty to anything but keeping his show running and on the air. I respect that a lot, to a point. I'm not sure anyone could've kept it alive this long. I also think his creative instincts have seemingly micromanaged the show for too long since Ron got fired (and he should've been fired, that's not in dispute for me), from scene length to taste to character preference and story flow and direction. And Mulcahey is a titan. So I wonder what will happen. Oh, dude, don't do us like that. Play charades, give us something!

However it turns out (Malone II v2: Electric Boogaloo being the worst option), it cannot possibly be what we've endured for years. I'll take it.

He never lost his fascination with Sarah. Which, I certainly don't think means LW is out of a job but is interesting.

I lived through Michael Malone's second run at OLTL, I've already watched all my favored legends topple. It was often disastrous but also insanely entertaining and had a literate heart beneath all the madness. Something GH has almost never been for at least 9 years. As bad as Ron's GH got at least it was often compulsively watchable for sheer insanity, much like Malone II. If that's all I get from this I'm calling it a win.

It could not possibly be worse than what we've had the last decade.

I have a very hard time believing this was Frank's idea. Frank likes a GH he can control and mold that is peppy and cheap and most of all, on the air. He's had GH all to himself for almost a decade. The attitude he (and Ron) have always had about it that I can see is 'apres moi, le deluge.'

Again, what people fail to factor in about Elizabeth Korte is that Korte has been there since 1996. She came up under the very, very, very good writers' corps from Labine and Guza I-II that was absolutely rock solid. You could've put the show on ABC at night at times in those years without disrupting primetime's pedigree. It was that good and that was because of those scripts and those actors. Many of those writers lingered even as the show slowly got bad and then very bad in the 2000s; even in really ugly times they could still turn out really shockingly great, literate scenes all the way to 2011. Then Guza was gone, Frank came in with Ron and almost everyone remaining was purged. Except Korte. I have a real long memory. Since I remember hearing her name in 2001 or so, Korte has been blamed online for everything imaginable on the show, especially re: Carly. But Korte has been there all along. She was, until now, maybe the last remaining writer on staff who knows what it is like to write this show for more than pure equilibrium and put it on without it being about 90 second scenes. And I don't think she's ever gotten enough credit for that. It takes more than one writer or creative or executive to make Carly the center of the show. And Carly took the rock plenty of times in those years. As for Mulcahey, his legend speaks for itself. I am 100% back for this, however it turns out. He also has talked about having much of his historical material for the family (as part of the Great Migration) cut. B&B is paid retirement for good writers. Brad writes that show.

It's all good news to me. Patrick Mulcahey is a GH legend. let alone a soap legend. I am floored they got him back and this will have me back. If they disappoint, well, I've been disappointed before.

Holy fúck.

I really loved his work in Dawn too. The movie holds up so well. He was so fun on the commentary track too. He'll be sorely missed. Lee Grant is back at it:

A hell of a statement, and it reminds me of @Khan's. Dee has always been good at these.

Another legend.

If that happens then you've got a real incendiary mix. I have many issues with Frank's stewardship but I'm not sure anyone else could've kept the show afloat for the last decade, let alone save it in 2012. The current HWs seem like nice guys with a lot of spirit. Their stories often don't work but IMO that is down to Frank. I have seen what it looks like when Frank steps in before at more than one show. He keeps the trains running but avoids anything too edgy and keeps the show in stasis. He perfected this banality with the terrible Passanante/Altman run, which O'Connor and Van Etten has somewhat been a step up from. He controls the stories, he controls the pacing and the focus as far as I can see it. It's similar to when JFP micromanaged her soaps, pre-Guza.

Exactly. Nothing changes unless ABC really invests in overhauling the show and making Frank step back from creative control vs. what he's good at (budget), which will not happen. People have despised Liz Korte since at least the early 2000s for various reasons but she's been there a very long time. I don't know what is feasible to actually blame on her.

A thread for our times, a time for this thread. @DRW50

Ron DeSantis' Weirdest Campaign Moments

I see we're back to quoting and engaging this aging troll. The account is one of various obvious spinoff accounts who the mods have not yet intervened on despite years of the same behavior. Their only MO is to say the opposite of whatever the popular sentiment on the forum or in a thread is at any given point and latch on hoping to stir things up. They want your attention, they don't care how to get it. Block and ignore.