Vee

I think streaming still can be good for entertainment, as it was at the outset and in many of the ways you describe. But when everything in it is driven by a ceaseless drive for endless content, nostalgia bait, algorithmic analysis and tech bros focused on the next quarter vs. any industry longevity, it's not a recipe for future survival for entertainment. That has to change. I think we may well be at an inflection point for the industry not unlike the end of the '60s, just as Harris describes. But this period resembles the '60s in many ways, not just in media.

Real awkward coming in a few hours ago, writing a reply in the PC thread and finding myself surrounded by 3000+ bots. Maybe this can also lead to a firmer monitoring of our favorite troll and/or trolls who have continued making obvious and only slightly less obvious sockpuppets for years.

Another thread I think is relevant to the above and the dug-in philosophy re: the strikes from the great Mark Harris:

An accurate thread: Also accurate:

They did get back together on GH (and apparently were married again for a time before then, between PC and Lucy's return in late 2012). It just didn't last thanks to Ron.

I remember they turned Kevin into a total lunatic near the end (I think due to magic) and tried to put Ian and Lucy together. That was the nadir for me. I don't remember Karen being a vampire but who knows. Killing her and Eve were both huge blunders. Alison sleeping with Caleb was the focal twist which set off all the events some of us recently discussed in the GH thread re: Carlivati's disastrous PC wrapup arc in 2013 - it leaned heavily on the continuity and story points of "The Gift," like I think Caleb's magic ring or whatever it was. My take on the murky, unclear storytelling at the very end of that mess was that all of PC did happen, but Caleb's magic spell has made everyone mostly forget the true events and characters post-"Tainted Love". Who knows.

I just remember that by the end the show had like, a vampire blood bar people hung out at or something. And yes, what little they gave Ellsworth, Nolan North, etc., the few remaining normal characters was just demeaning. I do remember the single-episode story turn in which they finally realized Joy Bisco's 'twin' character (Marissa) was not working and replaced her on canvas with the more popular Casey the angel all in a single 20 min period and then went right back to the story in progress, which was one of the strangest things I've ever seen on daytime outside of Dark Shadows.

Every recast is 'permanent' til they fire you.

Lord. This was very stupid of her brother.

I thought in concept, on paper resolving the PC continuity issue was a fun idea - I don't mind a little supernatural jaunt, this is the show that did Casey the Alien. But the execution was a total mess and looked cheap and goofy as hell, and Ron's weird workarounds to 'explain' things re: Caleb, Stephen Clay, etc. sucked, especially since ultimately I think they turned out to also just be some sort of nonsense cover story for the magic spell or whatever. The plot doesn't make much sense at all, you have to wing it in your head lol. I also did not watch the final arcs of PC, which that story leaned heavily on. Points for continuity, but c'mon. I have no use for Kelly remaining on the show at this point tbh, I think Sam is spent, maybe forever. But if she was up to do a few days as Livvie to tie some of it off I wouldn't mind. No idea how you could make that work at this point other than tossing an explanation off in two to four lines of dialogue vs. doing another months-long magic vampire story, lol. Just give a quick explanation that feels plausible, doesn't involve the words 'magic ring' and let fans blame the magic for the rest lol.

My conclusion is that she did/does, but has been wiped from memory by the magic spell or whatever. In terms of official canon though, I'm pretty sure GH has no idea and doesn't want to go there lol. Which I can understand given the 2013 story's extreme unpopularity, but OTOH don't be cowards! I'd go there with bringing on her and Rachel Locke for a story sometime, why not. I still prefer Esme to be Rachel's daughter.

Not tested, they actually were together and consummated it for a while in the spring of 2012. As someone who'd always been curious about Luke and Anna together, I can say that in practice it was gross and awful and could not end soon enough. But that also may have been down to Ron's execution, which was just dreadful for them. Duke and Lucy was so bizarre. It mostly happened offscreen, and then one day we saw them again after weeks or a month (the common practice for Frank and Ron with vets back then, somewhat less so now) and they're both in bathrobes in Duke's apartment having breakfast, clearly having slept together. I was baffled.

I think it was a real plan, but I think Guza lost interest in it because it wasn't his central core just like he lost interest in Valentin and so many other things. IIRC a version of Dante was on the books for years before he finally got round to casting him. GH wanted lots of attention for bringing back the Wards at the time and kept pumping up Maya and Zoe (IIRC Zoe was mentioned onscreen constantly for awhile), then did zero with them because Guza didn't care about Black characters or non-mob - he just wanted the accolades and PR buzz of being credited with bringing back a Ward. I believe they've mentioned her having daughters in passing, so AFAIC Christina is still canon and real. I'm not sure if/when Christina was mentioned by name, but I suspect she was in early 2013. I think most of PC can be counted as canon til the vampires show up, but even then we know Alison and Rafe existed. IMO the very muddled upshot of the Caleb/Silas mess in '13 was RC hinting in the end that Caleb's magic ring had somehow warped reality, and made everyone 'forget' Livvie, etc. - as in, all that stuff still really happened and those people did exist, they just don't remember some of them. This was not explicitly stated in text, but it's what I took away from the final scene (where Caleb gets up in the morgue, takes the ring and leaves). In fairness, Ron reunited them at first and then I think maybe a year later seemingly busted them up with Scott and a very, very strange mostly offscreen romance for Lucy with Duke just out of boredom. I know Genie and JL are happy but I will never get over Kevin and Lucy not being together, and I don't think Kevin is right for Laura so yeah, I'd go back there.

I never did understand the point of the Grace character.

She has had the same expression on her face since Peapack.

Oh, I can't stand Peter Parros lol. Sorry. Or Karla Moseley. I do think I'd want to reintroduce Maya, the mythical Zoe Ward or both. I just have no clue who or in what way.

I would bring on Christina (Lucy and Scott's kid) as a spiky feminist writer, Annie Donely as a cop or WSB, Emma as a young vixen, maybe a young Ward woman and at some point maybe Serena. I'd recast and retool Joss who would be a support player for awhile before becoming more prominent again. Maybe Lila Rae. Sarah and Keesha Ward would be back too but they're older. Same with a probably recurring Gia, same with Lulu who would only be back later. New guys of varying age: Lucas, Thomas Hardy Jr., Alec, a new, geeky younger Euro Quartermaine for Joss (the illegitimate grandchild of Alexandria), a boy/man or two from the Asian Quarter and possibly Dr. Rick Webber Jr. Some younger men TBD later. Older dudes: A hot new man for Laura. Maxie, Sasha, Willow, Gladys, Sam, Molly, Jordan: Gone. Nina would be phased out slowly as part of a psycho storyline with Sonny and Brenda. Esme, also phased out and return from time to time. Molly could potentially be re-introduced down the road whoever is in the role. Maxie can return someday far from now. Kristina, I haven't decided but it ain't lookin' good. (We'd deal with the name thing - Christina would probably become Chris or something.) Michael, Chase, Dex, Curtis, Austin, Finn, T.J. #1: Gone. Michael could be recast in a long stretch down the road. I'd give CM a chance to regrow the beard. Returned men: Sean Kanan, Chad Brannon because he looked insanely hot in his recent appearances and undead Zander could do for an extended arc for Liz and Cam, and either Jonathan Jackson or a Lucky recast, same with Nikolas for Tyler or someone new down the road. Justus as an elder for the Qs, possibly Joseph Phillips or someone slightly younger, possibly for Portia. Maybe Steve Webber, maybe Dillon Q. We have no lives.

Wow, thanks.

Yeah, I doubt Ben Hogestyn needs/wants to come back. CJ Thomason was hot as hell on Harper's Island, but I never saw him again after that.

That is crazy. That Noel Clinton thing is something the classic GH thread might care about. The DV story is terrible but I'd love to see some of the material again pertaining to Meg directly and what people who knew her have to say about her decades later - her whole character arc and saga is so strange to read about. And yes, DV sucked. They tried multiple heavies - Rex, DV, Greg Cooper and none worked. I think so too but I think she must've only appeared a handful of times. I don't remember an exit for her or for the Kaneloses but I'll take your word for it, you're much more up on this stuff than I am. IIRC Amy Van Horne (Lark) later auditioned for one of the Soleito crime family (maybe a Carla recast from The City) during Garin Wolf's brief GH HW tenure in 2011, but those big plans were all dumped.

Just get a new actor! Lord. (Although I did think CJ Thomason and Ben Hogestyn did a good job. I also remember the sixty seconds they had Evan Bonifant from OLTL and 3 Ninjas play Lucas as part of a teen scene with Robyn Richards and Lindze, IIRC - I thought that would work, but he didn't last.)

Oh my God. No. I wouldn't wish Curtis on any living female. It would probably be a new guy if not Action Beardo Drew, which is still my first idea. For me, Dante would be with BLQ and then probably a new Lulu or tried out in a triangle with Brook and Annie Donely (a cop/WSB). Cody is just the B or C-tier fun stud to me. I'd invest in a lot of new younger 20s-30s male and female leads like Thomas, Christina Collins, etc. since Michael, Maxie, etc. are played out to me and I would intend to fire 50% of the cast lol.

I watched PC on and off, especially in the Karen Harris(?)/Barbara Bloom period when I think they wrote the show. General Homicide had its moments but it baffled me that the story seemingly spun for months on people being convinced that Julie Devlin did it and then, when it finally ended, surprise: It's Julie! I liked many of the characters but it never fully cohered. The closest it came was the Harris/Bloom/whoever period for me. Kimberlin Brown's Rachel Locke was a fun character and one I've always wanted to see again on GH, but the recast and subsequent writing out of Ellen Burgess upon her arrival was bizarre. To this day I'm not sure if they concretely confirmed or denied whether or not Rachel murdered Ellen while faking her exit from town. The numerous attempts to re-pair Scott and Lucy on this show never worked, nor did Kevin and Eve. And I loved Eve. The DV psychic spy story (and its nonsensical Scott paternity retcon) was terrible. But I've always wanted to revisit it just to see if I can find any commentary from any of the characters on Meg Baldwin, a very forgotten totem of GH's past. IIRC Rhonda appears later on. They have a story spinning around her in the more supernatural arc-based era. Courtney was reasonably popular, but all I remember about her or Neil now is the actress tanking her chance as the Victoria recast on Y&R and the little lisping boy going on to be in The Cell with J-Lo. When they transitioned the show towards more high-octane stuff (first Rachel, then Caleb/Michael Easton and the supernatural) I'm not sure if characters like Lark, Courtney, Neil, etc. even got an exit. There were so many Joe recasts. David Gail was hot but a world away from Michael Dietz. Then they hired a Latin dude, I think.

I would love to have Lucky back. I just don't feel there's a point in doing it without Jonathan after he seamlessly returned around 2010 and cemented the role again. If you can get him on some sort of VM-esque sweetheart deal, great. If not, it would have to be a very, very good recast. I have no use for Chase or for Matt Hunter. I do think Cody serves a potential fun purpose as the fun local stud for a fling with midlife mother Liz, etc. and Mac stuff, he doesn't have to be a major character. I have other more central male leads I'd introduce, like Thomas Hardy Jr. as a doctor. And I'd probably keep Nikolas open if Tyler recovers enough.

LOL, don't get me going on this again, I have discussed it on here at length in various threads. Long story short, my plan was always to bring on Gina Tognoni as Sarah, a brilliant and well to do surgeon with a seemingly perfect marriage and several kids who would leave working single mom Liz (who, unlike Sarah, gave up her dreams due to circumstances) struggling in her shadow again after many years. Sarah's marriage would fall apart over time and the idea a while ago was to ultimately pair her with Cameron Mathison's Drew, now working for the WSB. That was before we spent the last year-plus dealing with Cameron giving his worst Access Hollywood performance onscreen and being little more than a maniacally grinning spare part for the show. Now, short of making Cameron regrow Drew's hostage beard and dramatically retooling the character again I have no clue who I'd put her with. The Carnes news is annoying but tbh there are so many religious/whatever crackpots on daytime, including many beloved stars. So long as they shut up and do the job or follow mandates re: that stuff (unlike Burton, Ingo or Marcus Coloma) I don't care. But if Carnes did quit over the vax mandate then forget it - there are a zillion talented guys out there. Unrelated: If it's true that