Vee

GH cast JJ at age 12, lol. And by the time the recast came along in 2000, the network was taking a much firmer hand in things. They would not have cast Jonathan, at age 12 or age 18 or age 21, in the 2000s. My opinion of soap standards being low is backed up by over two decades of them being low. But even when they were good, they still cast for T&A over talent often in the golden years. There is a reason Ryan's Hope blew through umpteen recasts and lost good people, among so many other shows.

Soaps have cast for abs over talent for decades. It's not shocking.

It definitely plays out, although only up to a certain point on one key issue. 1795 stays with Vicki til the end of her time on the show, let's put it that way.

With JJ gone, ABC wanted a hunkier Lucky and JY was hot at the time from B&B. The network (and perhaps Riche) didn't care about anything else. I would love to know who else auditioned back then, I know it was a contentious process and that GF didn't want Jonathan replaced at all while TG drove a hard bargain as well. The J.R. role on AMC ultimately played to Young's strengths - he could be loud, arrogant, boorish, etc. And he has improved as an actor a lot since his GH days, to be fair; he's come a long way. But he was never exactly subtle, and that did not change at AMC or later when he returned to B&B. As for Georgie, both she and Emily were terrible mistakes to kill off. They could both easily be resurrected and then sent off-canvas til needed.

I had wanted to see Tony and Finola together for years - with the dialogue team Guza, Labine and co. had had in place for many years. They were almost all let go by Frank Valentini, or gone not long before. When it actually happened in 2012, the pairing was extremely poorly done by Ron and Frank. I didn't care at all. The writing would not have helped. He first came in with the Guza team still fully in place. Jacob Young was a very bad actor back then. (He also hasn't necessarily improved much vs. simply gotten very hammy and begun playing to his strengths instead, but people don't want to talk about that)

I would not call what Geary was doing in that period in 2001 or some of the lesser Guza stories 'phoning it in' - I thought his performances were often OTT and disastrous.

He was awful that year.

Televised! With Geary hamming it up! It was so awful. The only good part of all of that was Stefan's heartbreaking monologue at the end.

Jacob Young was unspeakably bad on GH, but especially in 2001/Endgame. Everyone just [!@#$%^&*] about in the tunnels during that story was idiotic. The original story, IIRC, had to do with a bioweapon spreading throughout PC following an explosion which would destroy the hospital and allow Jill to redo all the sets. Angel, her pet character, would've been heavily involved, I believe. All of that was shelved due to 9/11.

It was so bad. I'll never forget the music, budget schlock, etc. I once compared the bedroom pillow fight between Geary and RKK to a battle to the death with Elaine Stritch, IIRC. I'm pretty sure Guza hated Courtney. Frons and Pratt were the ones who pushed her and once Frons lost interest, Guza wasted her without hesitation. People can have varying opinions on the performers or writing, but I don't think Amber was ever unpopular as Emily, and she was driven off the show early by JFP. And however bad Natalia could get or the writing for her stories, she wasn't a horrible actress and it was a huge mistake killing Emily.

I don't think he necessarily needed a successful pairing - he was dynamic and striking without it. The Emily pairing they pushed for years and it didn't work because of the writing and acting, not because it was inherently flawed. Robin could've worked; a lot of people could've worked. I think Nikolas and Ava, written well, would work fine.

I'm not sure what contracts even looked like for DS. But no, Zombie Jeremiah was not Anthony George. They had him under bandages and makeup so therefore there was no reason to get the actor and not some stuntman.

Yep, but it didn't happen.

Sarah has been a cursed role since Jennifer Sky, who was pretty unpopular as was the brief JFP recast. I would still try it, but as I said I'd cast Gina Tognoni.

The vets got nothing to do beyond stupid little romantic foibles and slapstick with their C or D-level subplots at that time. There was no point and it would've been beneath him and Laura. Genie left that year because Valentini refused to give her a contract, as she was absolutely right to do. As for 2006 and Robin, they introduced Patrick almost immediately so I am pretty sure he was always the intention for her and was hired to be her love interest. But I do think Guza flirted with using Nikolas there, he just never pulled the trigger on that. I also think that whatever Kimberly's feelings (and I've heard about her request there before), Guza and Jill would never have paired her with Jason again - they considered Robin too uncool for the mob characters. (But it still should've happened at some point)

That was around when they first began teasing Nikolas and Robin - something I think Guza wanted for a long time, along with Nik and Emily. They didn't pull the trigger on Nik/Em til the recast though, and the writing and some of the acting ruined what could've been a great couple. Guza kept teasing TC and Kimberly McCullough together even in the late 2000s, when they were under the thumb of Jerry Jacks, but he still never broke the seal on that pairing.

Diana's ghost also saved her from a similar near-death experience, IIRC!

Yep. I remember that [!@#$%^&*] vividly, lol.

GH did Genie a disservice, but they also were scared of L&L IMO. It's a fact. Which I can understand, bc I was still all about Luke and Laura at the time; as a young viewer who'd been reared on their return under Labine, I did not buy how they were being kept divided against each other even after 1998, and I hated Luke's affair with Felicia on an intense level (today, a lot of that story seems like a fairly realistic portrayal of a bad midlife crisis for both parties tbh - the mistake was the show attempting later in the story to treat it as legitimate love). I resented Stefan with Laura and their boring picnics and [!@#$%^&*] on a profound level, while also loving Stefan with everyone else. Looking at the show today, I think SN and GF had great chemistry with botched story - it's just that the show neutered them together because they weren't sure where they were going with Luke and Laura together or separately for a long time, until it was too late.

John, if you're going to copy and paste your tweets at least format them.

I always thought McKenzie Westmore looked and read much older, almost matronly, when she was on the show so it's amazing how young she actually is. I imagine a lot of that is down to the very deliberate styling of her as Princess Diana at the outset.

That was what I was talking about last night, yes. I thought their chemistry was great when he was first introduced - you could buy Stefan as a credible threat to L&L. It was later on, when they did try to pair them and had them doing picnics in the park with that morose little toddler playing Lulu and generally being utterly somnambulant, with Stefan defanged, that it fell apart. I think it was a waste and it could've really worked, but it was the execution that failed the actors, not the pairing in and of itself. I actually really liked Tava Smiley as Chloe despite the bland pairing with Jax, and I liked her with Stefan despite myself. I remember Stephen Nichols working hard to drum up interest in it among fans, lol. The story with Chloe having a psychic Eyes of Laura Mars thing with Helena was silly, and IIRC they never explained what it or the whole Faberge egg thing or whatever was about before Guza was fired/quit. That whole storyline just faded away. But she and SN had chemistry. I thought it was unnecessary to kill Chloe off; I always liked her, and I liked the possibility with those two. Like the potential of A Martinez's Roy with Laura, something apparently toyed with early on in 1999, it was a road not taken. As to other stuff: The Nik/Katherine pairing was both Tyler and Coltin Scott/Stephen Martines. Tyler did the beginning before he left but I think CSM did the bulk of that pairing and story. It became very stupid very fast. And the Cassadines had both Greek and Russian roots - that's how the show retconned it in the '90s. IIRC, Ron Carlivati and Frank Valentini wanted to get SN back as Stefan in 2013. They dropped many hints about Stefan in dialogue with Nikolas at the time. But from what Nichols indicated in later interviews, GH did not offer him a contract or much of a story. My suspicion is they intended both him and Genie to be part of their now-tiresome recurring veteran corps to play out little 'senior citizen love triangles/quads' 1-2 days a week, which is how they often use/used many of the older vets. And neither Genie nor SN wanted to do that, nor should they. The characters were too big for that.

I loved Stefan and Bobbie. Even if it was meant as a lead-in to a proper entanglement with Stefan and Laura, Stephen Nichols and Jackie were amazing together. They never got Stefan/Laura right as a couple despite the chemistry and the amazing intro in '96 because they domesticated them once they were put together a few years later, and made it into a snooze while dressing and styling Genie poorly. Stefan and Bobbie, OTOH, always crackled.

I think they badly wanted MBE to be a heroine for GH just like on DAYS and tried to make it happen multiple times, but it never worked. She was best as a supporting schemer which is mostly how she stayed. I am amazed they kept her on the show past the Scott and Ned storylines, but I assume there was a significant investment from the network or maybe Riche. MBE was great as a villain.

I don't care. Grant looks older. I'm not interested in the exact ages or who played Tom last. You can play with the SORAS and cast a sexy middle-aged actor who isn't quite as clearly old as Ashford or Aleksander. Not that they're not excellent actors, but Tom should be a bit younger. Either way, it's moot since this character may never come back.