Vee

I'm sure the ship has sailed, I just think it's the stronger pairing in fundamentals. I also think the kid playing Spencer is a bit wooden, but improving. He is very pretty. I just don't at all buy that they will get equal airtime and story; I know how FV operates. And I definitely don't buy Spencer, rugged heterosexual.

Remember when you said: Biden wouldn't pass the American Jobs Plan Trump would overturn the election Trump will win in a landslide Trump will definitely run again Just saying.

Given the rather direct mirroring of Nikolas and Gia (one of his only good pairings), I'd be a lot more open to Spencer and Trina if it didn't seem like the classic FV pairing of 'the ethnics' and other races as the sidekick characters to the latest attempt at Starr and Cole/instant teen supercouple of Cam and Joss, or as I shall call them, White Plight. This is also what he did with Langston and Markko on OLTL, shutting down any attempt to frontburner them, and let's not forget those years of heavy story Molly and two different T.J.s have gotten on GH itself. Once fans didn't respond to Molly with a white twink in 2013-2014, she went into carbonite with her Black boyfriend. I know how Frank rolls. I think Cameron and Trina is the real money, but I know Frank will never give up on this chick they hired as a temp for Joss because he is determined to redo Starr and Cole and his old teen demographic numbers at any cost. I also will never believe Spencer is str8 and not at least bi, but that's another topic. Also: They should recast Gia.

I had to cancel my plans for a social gathering with a bunch of friends the other day, my first since COVID. L.A. brought the indoor mask mandate back and my ex, a doctor, just got it again despite the vax. While I haven't been in physical contact with him, the precedent of that and other stories like it plus the idea of going to a party with 30-40 people, many of whom I don't know and none of whom would likely be masked, just wasn't for me. I don't even feel safe going to the movies right now, something I'd deeply enjoyed being able to do again in the last month or so. Now I'm debating whether it is safe to fly home and see my family in 2 weeks as I'd planned. Stay safe and rest up, caroline.

I think those scenes (not sure if they're the same ones) where he was clearly broken and a mess and she was beyond him were what sold me the most on Brenda and Jax. It was an evolution they did well and they regressed her later on.

I thought they both appeared briefly when Aaron debuted, but I may be wrong.

The Bernie left which became Do Something Twitter remains certifiable:

Guza ghostwrote a fair bit of stuff before his official return IIRC, as is common. I feel certain he wrote the famous and incredible Stefan/Alexis scenes where he confronts her about the Katherine scheme, kisses her and then banishes her from the family.

I thought it was established that Jax and Brenda had been crossing paths a lot in Europe in the years since 2003, but I may be wrong on that.

I honestly don't watch most of these anymore because it's painful to think about how Locher will likely cut off talented and intelligent subjects from discussing key stuff, and I can't imagine watching it happen live. I wish someone could draft the WLS people or hell, even Jamey frickin' Giddens.

I think you could easily keep Jax around as a business and romantic rival to bounce off both Brenda and Carly and their respective love interests or other tycoons around town - I think you could also still work with the same romantic history with Jax and Carly, even with Sarah around, now. I would never have said that 20 years ago with either her or Tamara because I think when they played the role Carly was fundamentally different and it was alien to the character and nauseating for me to imagine her with Jax, but Carly has evolved a lot since then, LW and Ingo were great together and enough time has passed. And Sarah has also matured and is able to play both upscale and downscale sides of the character IMO, her time as Claudia I think proved that despite that run's unfortunate material. But I would probably only bring him in and out for short runs to do mover and shaker intrigue from time to time.

Over half of daytime is quietly right wing, lol. I usually ignore it. I was willing to shrug off Ingo's politics until he got hardcore Trump online and outright obnoxious, so now I feel differently. But yes, I suppose you could still use him. The drama is inherent with Brenda (and Carly) even if she is happily married to a reformed Sonny.

I think LW has always had a lot of grit, ever since Loving. The choice to make her Carly a soccer mom and hotelier and local town troublemaker was a choice made by Guza and co. LW plays it to the hilt, but I also think it is frankly a natural and logical evolution of Carly - she used to be white trash and now she is rich and a mob wife with multiple kids. This is what she did with it, but she's still tough as nails deep down. I don't think there's anything wrong with how she plays the role, or even in how the character has changed because the upward, corrupt trajectory makes sense for her; I think the day to day writing is often the problem. That doesn't mean I wouldn't still cut her loose and bring back Sarah Brown. Laura is great, but Sarah was a force of nature and no one has ever touched what she did. Ever. And she could still play this same stuff Laura did, but you could do new things with it or take her to different places. It's as simple as that for me.

I think in a just world Jax and Brenda would've stayed together. But Guza ruined it a long time ago, almost twenty years ago now, so at this point I turn the page. I also think VM's last stint, for all its huge problems, made (in its final months, anyway) trying to evolve her youthful affair with Sonny into something approaching middle age and other responsibilities a very interesting focus. I think there are plenty of ways Jax could fit into that drama with Brenda as a spoiler or potential other option, if Ingo hadn't become very difficult for me to watch onscreen. I reserve the right to change my mind, lol.

caroline and I discussed this in the long ago past but I think Guza actually did a very, very good job evolving Brenda past Sonny to Jax when Maurice left for the first time. Whether it was by necessity or not, he told the press he would make the audience see Jax and Brenda as a supercouple to rival Sonny and for my money he did exactly that (and I was not a big fan of Brenda at all back then). The scenes she shared with the struggling Sonny in '98 really sold that she had gone beyond him for me. I think when they regressed her in 2002 it was a betrayal of that; Guza had clearly lost all interest in Jax. That being said, it happened and Sonny and Brenda have tried before to make a go of it, and articulated the reasons why it did not work as older people. To me that is where the meat of the story is. If Ingo had not become a hardcore Trumper in public I might feel differently.

Sure he does, lol. Maurice is past it. Putting Sonny and Brenda back together would be his active retirement (not hers). Sonny could still get up to business intrigues and schemes but his days as the central frontburner lead would be done. Brenda would have a larger story role and they would become a foundational couple for the younger people. In another time I would instantly put her and Jax back together. But Ingo's personal politics and IRL behavior have seriously soured me on him in the last couple years, so I'd probably write him back out again lol. If not for those unfortunate recent years he could mix it up a little with Brenda or be a serious spoiler for Carly and A.J. - LW's Carly was a fool to lose Jax, he was good to her.

It's not complicated. Use her to finally topple the mob. Sonny gets pushed out of the business, brought low by some foe, humbled and in doing so reunites with Brenda and chooses her. Maurice becomes a 1-2 day a week player (all he can handle now) as Sonny moves into white-collar intrigue and the scheming elder role Guza (and early on, Carlivati) had begun moving him into in the late 2000s-2010. Brenda and Lucy take the reins of Deception, Sonny's cleaner money backstops some of it while getting up to other skullduggery, and you're good. Brenda (and her now teenaged son) would be the primary star in the couple, not Sonny. When one is off the other picks up the slack. The drama of their blended children and very different worlds writes itself, too. While we're deep in fantasy camp I'd also indiscriminately rehire Sarah Brown and Sean Kanan as Carly and A.J. to do the Alan/Monica thing going forward, since they are apparently already playing opposite each other again on some webseries on Amazon. I love Laura Wright, but if you give me a choice I would not hesitate. (I would also kill one of Sonny and Carly's many extraneous children - I can't believe they had yet another)

Ellie was too good for Spinelli and raised his and Maxie's damn kid for years. So of course he throws her over for Jason.

I don't see any point in recasting Lois now when Olivia is essentially the same character, sadly. Lisa auditioned for the Lois recast in the 2000s and clearly should've gotten the part. I love Lisa Lo Cicero and I like her chemistry with Wally Kurth so I tolerate the whole thing because I like Olivia in doses and with him, but except for a few days early in Carlivati's time pairing them up where Olivia and Ned directly discussed Lois and the similarities in background of the two women, the Lois issue has never been really addressed. That being said, if Olivia left town (or got back with Johnny Zacchara - I liked them together) and LLC came back a month later playing Lois instead, I'm not sure I'd complain. Roger Howarth gets to do it all the time! Jane is clearly willing to do part-time stints as Tracy so I say keep on bringing her back. She's gold. And you can find a way to make the schedule work for VM.

It's not about good business. Frank has a show he wants to put on and stars who can command more power and loyalty than him or his preferred favorites, or can't be controlled, do not factor into it.

They often say Lucky skypes with the kids or whatever. That's about it. They should've redone a David Hamilton-type suburban mystery with Franco and Liz's kids. Have one of the boys kill him and the others help him cover it up. Instead Franco will be venerated by them for years to come and they've had Hudson West (who should be on contract, BTW) and William Lipton acting their absolute hearts out mourning the serial killer, and I bet no one ever has a serious, honest conversation with Elizabeth about Franco and who he really was ever again.

Yeah, I think that's honestly all of it. Roger quit OLTL for ATWT about a month into Frank's tenure as EP. They spent years trying to get him back. The early scenes RH had with Ava and the Quartermaines in 2013 were honestly the highlight of his entire misbegotten tenure as Franco, and they couldn't be really enjoyed for any chemistry he had with the actors (especially Maura West) because again - it was fuckin' Franco. If they absolutely had to have Roger on the show as someone new it should've been Jimmy Lee's son eight years ago instead of the serial killer, something people were talking about and suggesting even back then, BTW. But today it's too late, AFAIC. Making us sit through Howarth #3 and Easton #4 is just contempt for the audience.

It's also, inescapably, the fact that Vanessa and Jonathan are still major GH stars with primetime success but whose footprints have never really vanished from the show. They do not need the show but are still very beloved by the audience. If they returned on contract it would fundamentally destabilize the show Frank has built now which caters to his OLTL alumni stars Howarth and Easton as well as a handful of young and (in the words of Soapdish) "peppy and cheap" white kids. What would become of Drs. Austin Gatlin-Holt and Hamilton Finn, the anonymous and indistinguishable Willow/Sasha duo, James Patrick Stuart's inexplicable continued starring role as Billy Joel-loving stable boy Valentin or the Starr Manning cosplay hour with Eden McCoy if both Brenda and Lucky return to GH?

VM is bigger than Frank and his interests, has a healthy ego and doesn't need the show, so he's intimidated by her and the fact that he can't control her. That was clear given her commentary in 2013. Same with Jonathan. I assume that's why he hasn't bothered with either of them. Look how many rounds he went with Genie before grudgingly giving her a contract. Frank's usual strategy for dealing with difficult people is to ice them out, give them happy talk, promise them big story coming and then go dark and cut them loose. Or, offer them recurring (like he tried to do with Genie and Stephen Nichols) and say take it or leave it. He can't do that with VM or JJ. Anyone he can't keep under his thumb or control the terms of their engagement he doesn't want around, or tries to marginalize.