Vee

Accurate! Shawn was so hot and so poorly used - his years as Sonny's goon post-Jason in 2013-2015 were particularly embarrassing. I never got over their dumping the planned Shawn/Carly romance, and he was surprisingly convincing as an unexpected tycoon when he got out of prison and took over the paper and gave it to Alexis to run. Sean Blakemore was the hottest man on GH for a number of years. I think he still gets plenty of other work and won't come back on contract, but I'd take him back.

She objects because Spencer is a spoiled aristocrat who came back to town stalking and terrorizing his stepmother and immediate family, who's screwed her over more than once and whose psycho ex-girlfriend framed Trina and nearly put her in prison. I think they want people to think so, but also aren't truly invested in major story for any Black characters outside of Trina in any way (and that was a struggle, let's be honest). That's how you end up with months of treading water while Donnell thinks about pre-ordering Tears of the Kingdom.

There is every reason for Portia to not want her daughter with Spencer after all the bullshit he's pulled since he was a child and well after they met. It's an organic and classic soap conflict, the trick will be if the show does some bad shít so Curtis can stare at her stonefaced and shake his head some more. I would still give Portia that abortion rights story at the hospital I mentioned awhile back. Then maybe have younger Thomas Hardy Jr. chase after her, and either undead Justus or someone else for a bigger romance. She absolutely deserves real, substantial story of her own.

Wow, classy.

Someone should tell him a ton is on YT.

That is excellent. And yes, I would purge my account and posts myself if ever I moved into soaps lol.

I don't think she does! Others do, I do not. Jordan has never been much of a character. They've tried three actresses, the first was the best and did her best and it wasn't enough. Send her away for good, bring back a Ward or something.

I remember FV weighing in on the casting process on I Wanna Be a Soap Star, lol. His vaguely hunky choice ended up on OLTL for 13 weeks or whatever. It was not pretty. Let's just say I've often suspected his hand in the casting at GH.

TH would not pass a Host test on Westworld. I don't understand people on GH Twitter caping for this actor claiming "Jordan needs story!" Jordan has not had a consistent character across three actresses and is now played by a cardboard standee.

Not Laurus!

Imma leave this one to @Darn! He's got a lot to say.

You're kidding me. Why did I think she was dead?

And ironically I think (based on Labine's own interviews) that it was originally possibly intended as a triangle for Dorian and Viki. Mel and Viki's connection was teased early on and Labine has said, IIRC, that the Mel/Dorian pairing came about in part because one other party was not interested in being in a love triangle. That would have to be Erika Slezak, and I assume despite her personal fondness for Robin that she just didn't see the appeal in a love triangle opposite Dorian. Labine also teased a reconnection with Viki and Clint (and gave us maybe Clint Ritchie's last great scenes on the show when Clint finally confessed his resentments about the dissolution of their marriage), but my understanding is that also didn't happen because of CR's drinking and possibly Erika not wanting to deal with that again.

A legend on the field and on screen.

Taking the industry standard perfunctory press photos isn't the same thing as having a real vested interest. Within a year of that quickie wedding Markle was gone, and within a year of that exit Jill had pushed Robin Strasser out.

I think RR was pretty enough, they did bring her back at least once for another couple years and gave her some teen story (and tested her with Zander). While Richards had talent I think she was either not totally equipped for bigger material or (equally likely) not physically mature enough for them to make stories work, not unlike a lot of soap kids who've been replaced including the dreaded Bechtel. (And it amazes me that the Joey/Dorian story on OLTL was originally pitched for Chris McKenna's Joey, who still looked about fourteen.) There's also FV's (alleged) attempt to recast her with Budig during his and Ron's run. I don't mind ELQ stories when they use the players well, even when I have little idea what ELQ does. As I've said before, the FV regime has at least made an attempt to show us more material examples of their business - the Brownstone renovation and whatever else, even the Pickle Lila horror. But I have never bought into whatever the fùck Cassadine Industries is lol. Same with "DiMera" on DAYS.

I remember the mags (back when they still had a shred of autonomy) suggesting the same - that Dorian and Mel's wedding was thrown together in the offices because the show no longer had regard for them. I was shocked by both Laura Bonarrigo's firing (one of the first soap magazine stories or BTS machinations I ever became aware of as a teen, after Genie Francis' long maternity leave at GH) and Robin's subsequent ousting. I thought both were simply foundational, I looked up to Cassie as a big sister type and as a young viewer I didn't know they could be touched in that way. I never 100% forgave the show for what JFP did to Robin, and I don't think Robin ever fully got over it either.

There would be more Latino and Black characters - probably the spouses - but I also thought of maybe having a fourth wild card, a cutthroat Latino tycoon who is alleged to be Jock's long-lost son or daughter pulling rank on all of them, positing that the Steve Forrest character from the later seasons was Jock after all. Except that question would of course never be answered and the truth would never be confirmed.

I would've done it the simple way Jacobs originally posited - John Ross good, Christopher bad - except I was trying to account for the TNT revival, which I figure enough people watched and which had Hagman's last performances. On that show, John Ross was the heavy and Christopher the good guy, and Christopher apparently died at the end. So I adjusted for that and came up with something else.

All I'll say is that looking back on my own revival idea now from awhile back, I think instead of John Ross as the villain like the last attempt at a return (something David Jacobs objected to on the TNT show, finding John Ross vs. Christopher in the same moral roles as their parents a retread of J.R. and Bobby) you could do something different. Gary and Val's son Bobby and John Ross would be the central poles of the story, but the main antagonist would instead be J.R.’s younger son by his hick wife (Cally). That son (call him Joshua, or whatever) would be the heavy, raised outside the Ewings and married to a Chinese national wife who is a brilliant international businesswoman and the brains of the outfit. They would have global empire aspirations. So Joshua the younger heir and his wife would still be trying to drill baby drill, while Bobby II is into other energies and concepts and trying to save the earth, married to the female lead, a supposedly reformed environmental radical/activist, possibly one with a past with John Ross. A reformed John Ross would be caught in the middle between the two dueling men in more the kind of role Jacobs suggested for him, a heroic but morally conflicted protagonist torn between his father's way and a better way. I figure that's how you square the circle with the TNT show's continuity (where John Ross was the heavy) while largely ignoring or avoiding referencing any of it much.* Maybe you could even toss in Meg MacKenzie as a side player, a political operator working with/romancing one of the men while utilizing her Sumner connections. The frame of reference for my idea was always the socially conscious political drama/soap opera of the last recent season of Borgen on Netflix, where climate change and oil (in Greenland) and fighting over those dwindling resources in a hazardous time were the central issues. Here, a vicious heat crisis would scour Texas a la the UK's horrible heatwave this past year, with people dying in the streets; call it divine retribution for the Ewings. The key veterans would appear in supporting roles or cameo (I did like the idea of Sue Ellen having run for office from the revival show). And maybe you can excavate ol' Pam from the dead after all near the end as the emotional climax to the thing if you somehow got Victoria Principal to agree, which would probably never happen. Anyway, do it all in 8-15 episodes and call it a day. It would be a dark story, with elements of soap but it would not be meant to continue on. *(Of course, if it ignored the TNT show entirely then you could make up whatever, like the antagonist being John Ross' own adult technocrat son, or Christopher or whoever else, so I dunno.)

Was the original idea that they might go there romantically? That could've been wild.

A reboot is probably very viable using some of those old concepts, but I worry in practice (or on network vs. streaming) it would go the way of the Dynasty revival which was sheer camp for camp's sake vs. camp by natural evolution. I feel like Yellowstone is kind of the natural descendant of Dallas, for better or worse quality-wise. My only real interest is in a brief revival, tying something off with the original characters and the new generation for a closed run, but I won't ramble on about that idea again unless someone asks. Vee's Fanfic Corner has been too active on this forum lately.

Do we know when Gavin Houston is back as Portia's brother Zeke? Or what Zeke's occupation is?

She's mostly RT'ed other people's remarks, but there's this: This wonderful picture I'd never seen cropped up: I do think she should be at least mentioned, it would be a nice touch. It's surprising to me those characters Bobbie had deeply involved in her life back then in that era have almost never come up. I did see a brief allusion (I think) to her losing custody of those foster kids in a '93 ep when Bobbie gains custody of Lucas and tells Tiffany she's been there.

A legend. I will be watching some of his Visconti work again.