Vee

I'm a little annoyed they didn't show a vintage Laura/Bobbie fight scene or Scott/Bobbie stuff there. What would be the harm? Bobbie was absolutely ruthless to Laura in the '70s, lol. Terrifying. There was also a very brutal scene from the same era they showed on some soap awards show way back when, where Bobbie tore Scott apart after his initial rejection of her. Maybe the best work I've ever seen Jackie do. I wish I knew how to find it.

From today's show:

Nor I! I actually really liked A Martinez as Roy early on. I was one of the few. I wasn't happy he supplanted Julian Stone's Jerry, but I liked him and I liked his relationship with Luke. (I also thought he had chemistry with Laura, and I wonder if those stories about their testing him with Genie were true.) But once JFP turned it into The Roy Show, forget it.

Jason and Lois might cause me to break out into hives. Jason and Nina sounds like a recipe for Steve Burton's own personal Beau is Afraid.

I don't think MVJ's alleged early concept had anything to do with JFP's own interests, really. Her focus was on hiring Jensen and frontburnering her and AM as the new stars of GH, and that's exactly what she tried to do. I don't think she ever had any grander unrealized plan for Melissa, I think what you saw is all she had. Their story and handling followed exactly the same overbearing playbook as her favorites and their characters over on AW or OLTL. The only difference is that you couldn't play that shít at the flagship soap of ABC, and that's what got JFP relegated to the existential broom closet when Guza returned. I will be watching today's show, but I really hope Frank lets up on his usual 90 second scenes when the memorial episodes come around.

if Knots had continued on - or was a daytime soap - Gary would undoubtedly have sprouted at least 1-2 more illegitimate children from those years.

I have always wondered about the early version of the character supposedly sketched out by Michele ValJean's brief HW regime shortly before Jill brought in Megan. IIRC the rumor (which may be bunk) was that "Melissa" was instead supposed to be linked to Stefan and instead of a nurse would be a psychiatrist played by Bobbie Eakes, who was fresh off B&B or close to it. I'm not sure Roy was ever a part of that iteration, or if their backstory was merely her entry point.

Oh, I don't think he tanked the show's gross attempt at Sonny and Sam. Or Sonny and Kate #2/Connie. Or Sonny and Emily, the brainchild of his wife and himself, and something I in my role as Nostradamus warned people about for almost a year over on ol' Television Without Pity. I saw it coming miles away when they started moving them together onscreen while pushing her and Nikolas apart, yet somehow when they finally kissed I still couldn't believe my eyes.

I definitely heard that Bobbie was going to be the psycho heavy for Roy and Melissa. They were the A-couple for Jill at that time, two of her favorite actors. Do I think they were going to kill her, no, but Jackie was on the chopping block. Watching the worm turn and Melissa be revealed as a Kevorkian-esque psycho was extremely rewarding for me. I watched those scenes where she gets caught and jailed again recently for the first time in 20+ years and they seem outright defiant; I think they were written in Jill and Megan's last days, and the scripts almost seem resentful, lashing out at the audience as well as Roy for not accepting Melissa's goodness and sacrifice lol. (And also clearly trying to get Jensen Buchanan an Emmy.)

She came with Jill. They were a package deal at that point. Of course when they tanked the show Jill lost virtually all central power AFAIK despite retaining her title, which is a worthwhile comeuppance IMO - it was Guza's Hospital from then on. He had learned from his battles with Riche and came back after securing a producer credit. The only moment that changed was during the writer's strike in 2008, when she was the one minding the store with Guza gone and suddenly you had the return of her color/wardrobe fetish introductions a la Angel or some of her GL characters with Claudia, then an overnight huge frontburner story for Rick Hearst and Ric's new immigrant bride lol. Yes, and Tony put a stop to that. I don't know if she was going to die but I do remember the word was Bobbie would go nuts over Roy and Melissa and get shipped off to Ferncliff. The worst version of the story I remember was that somehow Carly's rape would be somehow connected to the cancer or disease, like uterine cancer or something. Just something really grotesque and typical of Jill.

Specifically, the temp Carly was supposedly to be raped by Sonny's rival Sorel while Sonny and Angel made love and Carly would later die of some sort of gruesome cancer or disease. MB hated the Angel story, and he and several other performers basically mutinied over their stories (including Endgame). Maurice threw his weight behind Tamara publicly as did the fans, and everything fell apart for Jill and Megan shortly thereafter.

I enjoy Lindsay in the role, but I think Sam is a spent character and I don't see a point in keeping her no matter the actor. She's one of so many in the cast GH has mostly held onto out of brand loyalty and fear of audience degradation IMO. So much of the show these days is built on simply maintaining its very delicate equilibrium.

I'm pretty sure Jill always intended to just port RC over to GH as Skye. But yes, I do recall hearing Gina was up for Carly in 2001 though I also heard (and believe) that Tamara was originally a temp intended to kill Carly off after JFP famously clashed with Sarah and led to her quitting. I also heard they talked to Gina again when Tamara left, GL or no GL. But I'm not clear on the timeline.

I couldn't stand her on OLTL. But I think she did incredible work at both GL and Y&R. She earned my respect. She was also very nearly Carly #2, 3 or 4.

I think Frank let Tony Geary have his way when he started at GH, right as Ron made it his mission in life to reunite L&L. He failed because Tony openly defied them, starting with their attempt to address Luke's alcoholism (by having Luke continue to ad-lib drinking the Quartermaine booze onscreen) and then all the way down the line. I think TG is the only actor Frank would bend the knee to, at least that I know of. He allegedly tried to break Steve's ego in that same period and that led to Steve quitting for years, when FV had allegedly gambled that he could get Steve to come in and out like Kimberly McCullough (who, in fairness, Frank had saved from permadeath onscreen as planned by Garin Wolf). Frank had no reverence for Steve or for most big stars, so he could allow Jason to be made a fool onscreen in 2012. He's beloved by so many of his cast and crew so that can't be discounted, and stuff like what he did for John Ingle I'll never forget. But also I think with most talent FV rules with an velvet-gloved iron fist. The best example I know from OLTL is the urban legend, which I believe to be true, and this part of it definitely is: In 2008, during press screenings/Q&A for the 40th anniversary, a fan asked the cast and crew panel point-blank why Bo and Nora had never reunited. Frank answered that question by promptly throwing it to Bob Woods and Hillary B. Smith. That sent a message. Allegedly, the rumor goes that the next step not long after this was Frank taking the actors aside, telling them the show was in dire straits numbers-wise and it was time to cut the bullshît and reunite Bo and Nora, for good. And the following year the show did exactly that (and it went very well IMO - the actors admitted as much afterwards, with RSW famously saying it was a huge mistake breaking them up and 'we could have been printing money all those years'). So, there's one example.

No, but she's damn good! And Gina is one of the few that could probably outlast the Sarah Webber Curse.

I am not going to get out my 'Gina Tognoni as Dr. Sarah Webber arriving with shady husband and 2.5 kids' portion of my GH bible again, so don't make me.

It doesn't. It's never going to happen again. Which means I would kill Jason, dead-dead. I still want to know WTF happened in Steve's last year. It was very strange. All of a sudden Jasam, which they'd forced down our throats for close to 20 years, was over very quickly, and Jason proceeds to get down with two new women in the same year, one of whom had been the no-go character for Jason by actor demand since 1999. Usually Jason needs a minimum of nine months, a background check and a promise ring to sleep with a woman. But suddenly he was down for both Britt and Carly in the same very quick span right on the heels of Sam. All I can conclude is that something with Steve and Kelly BTS became completely unviable, and I assume it will stay that way.

@DRW50 famously referred to Ava as Jim Carrey's "Fire Marshall Bill" character from In Living Color for years lol. I have never forgotten this description of Maura's outsize performances and tbqh it is at times accurate, especially in the RC years when she was trying poorly to keep secrets and kept playing to the Vegas Sphere with bug eyes and insane smiles. Ava is often campy as hell but MW also delivers genuinely great work that has real weight underneath and elevates the show, so I let a lot slide lol.

I will never buy that Ava is out of the mob, lol. Ava is a stone cold killer. She will always be in the underworld, whatever they have her pulling at this moment.

If Guza was here he would absolutely kill Ava in a blaze of glory and the audience would suck it up. Do I think it's needed any time soon, no, but it's far from unthinkable.

I used to be an avid booster for writing Ava off, but I think at this point in time she is fluid enough to do nearly anything. She's hit that Alex Olanov zone from OLTL. Her relationship with Nikolas started dark, turned saccharine and OOC and then went back to very dark again; that's why she still works for me. The one thing I wouldn't do is defang her or soften her up again. Ava is not a heroine, she should not have sweet bonding scenes to make us weep for her much (though you can play the pathos over Kiki, etc.) or a conventional love story. She should not be buddy-buddy with Sonny or Carly. She has an interesting, unconventional relationship with Trina that is not dissimilar to Robin's bond with the mob in her day; that is the most she gets (and you would have to show that Trina doesn't fully understand her, and is uncomfortable with the rest of her). Like Alex, she has to stay dangerous and be riding the line in a liminal space where she could get written out for her deeds at any moment. I personally feel any story of her would probably be building to a long, long trail leading to her violent exit, but I would leave it open for as long as I could.

Simply that. He wouldn't get vaxxed, wouldn't comply with the mandate at the network and put the cast and crew at risk. For me that is a termination offense. Same as the rumors (hopefully unfounded) that Lindsay Hartley's first run as Sam in 2020(?) came about because Kelly wouldn't mask up. I very much hope the latter is just a nasty rumor, but I would've killed both their contracts for that and you would never have seen either character again.

There will be a cartoon tumbleweed in Cameron's space onscreen very shortly. If it was me Steve would never be allowed back on-set after what he did but it was inevitable.

No, just his inevitable yet dreaded return. Nathan Varni was an overly talkative and IIRC somewhat combative PR flack for ABC during the early years of Valentini and Carlivati's reign. He was inserting himself into anything and everything social media online with fans and frankly was an embarrassment. He seemed to me to throw his weight around, drop random spoilers or editorialize, and suggest he was more powerful than he was. I thought they'd disposed of him years ago as he seemed to go quiet, but here we are.