victorlord75

Thanks for sharing! I sort of forgot about Gina and Gary. Gary later became a sleeze who wrote a weight loss book that suggested using S-E-X as the way to burn calories, embarrassing poor Gina to no end. They sort of reminded me of a Jane and Howie re-boot.

I am no expert, just remember bits and pieces from when my mother watched. My vote for a quirky character would be Kira Faulkner, the ex of Cameron Faulkner and a very nosy reporter who was on the hunt for scandalous information against the hospital. And that really complicated her romance with Dr. Steve Hardy. I was just a little kid, but Kira reminded me of Barbra Streisand in character from her "What's Up Doc" movie, both in dress and speaking. I highly doubt a single viewer was shocked that Steve and Kira's romance tanked. Everyone could see that they were an epic mismatch. You can see Kira at around 7:16 in this clip.

My memory has proven to be fuzzy, but my impression was that Gloria Monty DID fire Finola Hughes, which in turn, was the last straw for the network, who fired Monty herself not long after. They cast another actress to play Anna to finish out Anna's story before killing Anna and Robert off in some type of explosion. If I am wrong, I will be happy to stand corrected.

Ms. Lockhart has certainly had an accomplished television career, but I also remember her fondly for one of her early movie roles, in the film noir-ish "Bury Me Dead" from 1947. She appeared with Hugh Beaumont (later of "Leave it to Beaver" fame), who played her lawyer. The film used to turn up a lot on independent stations in the 60s and 70s. I saw an interview with her about that movie, and she mentions that the pinstripe outfit she wore in the movie was too large for her and she fixed it with safety pins for it to stay on!

Thank you, that makes sense. I do pay attention to the list when I watch. I seem to like episodes where Charlotte Gibson is on the list.

Question. Why is the list on-screen of writers so small for GH? Are there really that few writers for this show, or does the show employ uncredited "extra help" to save money?

I think one mistake that later writers made with Gail was to make her either Lee's angelic wife or the therapist that was an easy dupe for evil characters that required treatment. Under Marland, there was a series of scenes where Tracy goaded Lee to drink, Jessie witnessed it and spilled the beans about what she saw to Gail. Gail, then, in turn, ripped Tracy a new one. I wish that Gail and Tracy scene still existed on YouTube. It was glorious not only to see evil Tracy be put in her place, but to see some real fire from Gail.

Judith McConnell (Augusta) and Denise Alexander (Lesley) were great screen partners on GH. They got into some stellar arguments in character in the medicine room.

https://sixtiescinema.com/2013/05/28/valerie-starrett-responds/ You are spot on! See above.

That part I am not sure about, maybe Depboy might know? The thing to remember about the show at that time was, it was so plot-driven and desperate that characters and their motivations changed virtually overnight. There was a period of time where Diana Taylor suddenly became a bad guy and was in cahoots with Cameron Faulkner (toward the end of Valerie Starret's portrayal), which I HATED.

As you all know, my memories are sketchy, and at the time of this story, GH was probably at its most awful in its history. I think Patsy Rahn was still playing Monica at this time, and her Monica was not written as a sympathetic character, so maybe that's why the viewers were able to forgive Steve, because it appears Steve was more interested in saving Jeff's life than Rick-infatuated Monica was.

Here we go again with sketchy memories, but I believe Brooke Bundy reacted so strongly to filming planned scenes of her character's dead body with the child actor playing PJ/Stephen Lars, that they were not done that way. Ms. Bundy was concerned about the child actor's mental well being. I never cared for Ms. Bundy's version of Diana, but if this story is true, it does speak well for Ms. Bundy as a person in real life.

Thank you so much for sharing the clip! I am sure even viewers in 1968 were saying how over the top it was for a defendant for murder and the main witness testifying against them living in the same house and (sort of) interacting daily. Martin West's Phil was the only Phil I knew. He did a great job portraying a love-to-hate character. He has the dubious honor of reciting some of the most embarrassing lines in soap history. His character supposedly suffered from impotence, but, during a tense scene with Diana, he suddenly discovered that his plumbing was actually working and exclaimed, "I'm a man!" while the camera cut away for him to rape Diana behind a couch. Good thing I was not watching with my mother that day. The scene that I remember most of Phil was when everyone thought Phil was dead. Jessie had married Dr. Peter Taylor, and she and Peter were all lovey dovey, decorating a Christmas tree, and for whatever reason, the setup was perfect for Phil to witness the whole thing through a window!

I think the Hursleys realized that there was entirely too much angst at times, and that was why the hilarious constant bickering between Lucille and Sharon was thrown in. Young and pleasant Sharon had a knack for getting in Lucille's way or saying just the thing to work on poor Lucille's last nerve. Amy Vining provided a similar light touch later, but there really isn't anything like that today.

I wasn't aware there were any GH clips of Michael Delano playing Mark Dante. I recall my sister commenting on how cute this Mark was, and when Mr. Delano showed up later on "Rhoda" playing Johnny Venture, my sister would always bring up his GH role. I guess GH behind the scenes at the time was probably a real [!@#$%^&*] show. My memory has become cloudy, but I'd swear that when they brought the Tom Baldwin character back around the same period, it was the original Tom Baldwin, sporting a long, scraggly beard. It was only for one day. But then suddenly Don Chastain was playing Tom, which explains why it didn't work. I could be confused though Maybe Don Chastain just looked like Paul Savior if he wore a fake beard. I increasingly doubt myself.

I did like the Robert/Holly pairing as the show transitioned to Robert being its leading man. He was the only police commissioner on the show that had a super computer and equipment in his house that rivaled the Bat Cave. However, typical of bad 80s writing filled with spies and counter-spies, cartels, and master criminals, Robert being so Australian and Holly being so British provided culturally ignorant Americans like me with a a couple that seemed like a refreshingly good fit based on personality. No one mentioned Robert's former spy partner Constance Townley so far. I remember Constance being a fun character at first, but sadly, what I remember most was the actress who played her as being quite thin and as having the biggest 80s hair on the show at the time.

I remember how excited my mother was when "GH" started to use the ambulance visuals in its opening credits, a serious upgrade from the simple blue screen with the words "General Hospital" in big white letters. There was a new George Wright theme to go along with it. I have written about this topic before. I have absolutely zero proof for my opinion, but I think the "General Hospital" speeding ambulance opening was a rip off of the opening for the CBS prime time series "Medical Center".

Good for Ms. Marcil if she doesn't have to settle for anything handed to her on behalf of a character that she cares more about than the current regime does. Unlike a few members here, overall I did not care for the majority of Robert Guza Jr.'s stories, because he too often got my hopes up when old characters returned, only to re-write history for them and making them unrecognizable However, right around the time Ms. Marcil decided to leave the soap, he introduced the character of Brenda's mother that really caught my interest. She looked to be interesting, but because of Ms. Marcil's imminent departure, they quickly turned the mother into a mad loon, and Guza Jr. left me disappointed yet again.

I was not watching GH when Elizabeth got raped, but my friends who did at the time all thought that Tony was the rapist. Tony was drinking heavily and was apparently in a nasty stage. It is hearsay because I wasn't watching. I just remember what my friends told me.

I don't know. To me, Holly and Sasha being mother and daughter smacks of the writers trying to launch a Liesl-Britt 2.0. I agree the scenes were good, but I hate the idea. It is another example of revisionist history at its worst. Sure, it's only a soap opera, escapist entertainment, and fans have always asked writers to use a show's history. However, to use a show's history properly, the history has to be respected and must properly fit. This doesn't for me, even though I like both actresses and both characters. To me, it would have made far more sense to form an unlikely bond, but, it is what it is.

More recently, I got excited when they brought Elizabeth Hendrickson on as Margaux Dawson, back in 2018, and I thought, "Ah, she is related to Jane and Howie somehow.". But just like David Grey, that too was a coincidence. What was wrong with me? Except for the good people here, no one pays attention to such things. You'd think I'd have learned by now.

I actually remember some of the story here. I know characters like Kira Faulkner and Margaret Colson are mostly forgotten today. I don't know what the producers were trying to do with the character of Kira, and God forgive me for writing this, but who Kira reminded me of was Barbra Streisand's character in "What's Up Doc" (the look, the wardrobe, her speaking voice, etc). There was no way in hell that I thought Kira and Steve fit together. It was like pairing Marcus Welby with Bugs Bunny. Again I know it's terrible on my part to publicly admit this, but nonetheless, I am convinced that at least some people who'd view the little footage of Kira that is on YouTube would understand where I am coming from.

I also want to express my appreciation for sharing the article as well as commenting on the article itself. Mr. Gregory sounds like a very interesting person with a variety of interests. I liked his version of Rick because his Rick seemed more devoted and faithful to Lesley than Chris Robinson's version. Of course, to be fair, Mr. Robinson only followed scripts written for him, so the story choices were not his. As a viewer, I was frustrated by Rick being so wishy-washy regarding Monica. However, I never got to the point of hating Rick.

What about Rick Webber being recast from Michael Gregory (MG) to Chris Robinson (CR)? Does anyone know if Rick was recast pre or post Monty, because I sure don't? This is a case where I liked both actors for different reasons. I will say that it was easier to believe, appearance-wise that MG's Rick and RDA's Jeff were brothers as compared to CR's Rick.

I can see why you disliked Anne as a character. With a recast, they could have toned down her annoying qualities and mined her familial connection to true legacy characters of the show. However, that said, the ratings for the show were good at the time and they survived just fine eventually without having Anne around.