victorlord75

I am amazed at how much I had forgotten from this time, like the Hutch and Rose romance. When the Kelly's were first introduced on GH, I was not sure what to think about them I would wondered if they were a "Ryan's Hope" ripoff. I knew that Noah and Bobbie were involved, but I seem to remember him more being paired with Tiffany. I was surprised that through the years, they never recast Anne Logan, who, though could be an annoying goody-two-shoes, she was still related to Lucille and Audrey, so she could have been useful for keeping the Hardy's interesting.

I am surprised no one brought this one up. Despite this stinker, I liked GH during this time.

I found the clip with the contestant winner above. It was not Ms. Conaway. My appreciation to @depboy for offering to look into this.

The interesting part of the latest synopsis shared is that I do not remember a thing about the character of Beth Maynard. Around the same time this material aired, there was a series aired in syndication called "Don Adams Screen Test", a sort of talent show where contestants would re-enact classic movie scenes for prizes. I remember one female contestant won a part on GH, but I lost track of what happened. Could the actress who played Beth have been the winner? I can't find anything about this anywhere online.

I always liked his character on GH and had always hoped they'd bring both Joe Kelly and Rose Kelly back. Alas, it was not to be. May Doug Sheehan R.I.P.

I remember the set renovation for the Q mansion only partially because I couldn't watch everyday at the time. I remember Bobbie's brownstone was prominent in stories at the time, from what little I could remember. There is a scene I remember well from the time that never made it to YouTube as far as I know. Bobbie had snuck into Cheryl's room in search of something (I don't remember what), and Bobbie heard Cheryl coming and got out on time, BUT did not leave things exactly as they were. Cheryl entered the room and noticed right away that things were awry, and immediately pulled up the collar on her outfit as if a frigid chill entered the room. Between the good score music, scenery, and great acting, I still recall it. So, Mr. Hardy surely had to have his hand in some, if not all of it. On on unrelated subject, I remember reading that Emily McLaughlin's adopted daughter confronted Mr. Hardy to find out if her mother was getting fired and Mr. Hardy assured her that he wanted to use Emily McLaughlin more. I wish I could recall the source for the story.

The ratings on GH were not good during Joseph Hardy's tenure, but I believe Alan and Lucy's infamous wedding took place while he was EP, which was hilarious. It is posted in parts on YouTube and is well worth a devoted GH fan's time to watch.

I don't mean to go off topic, but IMHO, I have hated most of the short-term character returns from the Guza Jr. era up to the present. Also dissatisfying is the deaths of former major characters off screen when the actor or a good recast are available, like for Jimmy Lee Holt. I will NEVER forgive Dan and Chris for killing off Olivia Jerome off screen. That character had the ability to make normally calm, rational character like Anna become unglued, which I found weirdly fun to watch.

I enjoyed this synopsis very much, and it is amazing to me how many details I had forgotten and some that I was even surprised by, like Joel's (sort of) indifference to Jessie's plight. What shone through brightly though was what an important, and interesting character Lee Baldwin was. Seeing his character (later) with Gail for so long, it is hard to picture Lee and Jessie as a romantic couple as it is witnessing Steve and Audrey with other people at this point in time.

I regret missing the poignant phone call scene described above. Becky Herbst has really grown as an actress and loyal viewers appreciate both her skill and onam screen presence. More knowledgeable posters here have covered whether past and former EP's and crew have given her her due, so I won't bother to comment on that here. Does anyone know who all the Head Nurses were since the beginning? I seem to remember Amy mentioning and dreading a "Nurse Strickland" after Emily McLaughlin's passing, but how long did she last? Five minutes? I know I never saw her.

In my case, I just happened to be home when my mother or sister were watching, but one thing that intrigues me when I read boards like this one is how frequently posters mention how bored they are with the shows they watch. I can recall, when watching GH, if one of the nurse characters recently wed, my mother would say, when the phone rang at the seventh floor nurse's station, "Now watch this! When she answers the phone, she is going to use her new married name!" And speaking of weddings, those were always must-see t.v. for my mother. Her favorite wedding was Lucille's to Al Weeks. Lucille hounded Steve to sing "Oh Promise Me" at her wedding, and he did! I think today,all this would incite yawns.

This is really pathetic on my part, but the only detail I can remember about Kin Shriner leaving GH the first time was that he was leaving to appear on "Texas", which was in the same time slot as GH on NBC.

I have heard, but have not seen, the new GH character named "Gio", who is a prodigy with a violin. In a Wikipedia article on actress Loanne Bishop, who played Rose Kelly, it says that she is a mezzo soprano and knows how to play a violin! If Ms. Bishop is still acting, TPTB should consider bringing Rose Kelly in as one of Gio's former violin teachers that is as skilled with violin playing as she is making BLT's.

This detail being shared is a real find for me. I have zero memory of the scene between Heather and Joe, but I am glad to now be aware of it. If I remember correctly, shortly before Alice was killed off, she was the one taking care of Jason, who was still very young? I remember being upset when they killed the character of Alice off. She had a splitting headache and was gone a very short time later. Maybe the writers killed Alice off an an excuse to bring Jason around Alan and Monica more, but to this day, I view the very sudden way they got rid of Alice as a big mistake.

I enjoyed the clip of "Never Too Young" very much. I saw in the end credits that Sybil Weinberger was the musical director of the show. I think she also was for "Dark Shadows" for at least awhile. I'm a weirdo like that. I will read the end credits if I can! Thanks for sharing. I have learned so much from this thread in a very short time.

I am very grateful for the information. Howie was such a dirt bag character. The fact that I remember him 50 years later and no footage of him exists really says something. I never heard of "Never Too Young", but it sounded good. My mother used to watch GH on Channel 6, WPVI Philadelphia. I remember "Dark Shadows" coming on after GH, but I don't remember what they did with the slot after Dark Shadows got cancelled. Today, WPVI Channel 6 never moved GH to the network time slot of 2 p.m. Eastern, it is still on at 3 p.m. there like it had been for many years.

@Contessa Donatella-I think that is his name.

This was excellent and @depboy, I cannot thank you enough for sharing. I marvel at two things when I view the stories on GH from December 1974 here. ALOT happened in a half hour episode and the story was distributed among so few people compared to the soaps of today. It is tough for me to remember that Steve and Audrey spent alot of time apart in the earlier days of GH. Jim Hobart was played well by Mr. Sikking, an excellent performance playing a vicious drunk. If I remember correctly, he drove Audrey to try to commit suicide? My mother, who I've mentioned in earlier posts here always thought that Steve and Jessie should have become romantically involved. Steve was very interested in Kira, but as I remember her, she reminded me of Barbra Streisand in "What's Up Doc", and that is in no way meant as an insult to the actress playing Kira. Rather, I am trying to point out how poor a match she and Steve were. There is a YouTube clip of a GH episode from 1975 showing the detective mentioned here, and the actor portraying the detective was the same guy who played Wally on "Leave it to Beaver". Now, if I am reading this right, the suspects in Phil's murder were Jessie, Peter, Diana, Augusta, and Jim Hobart. This proves how my memory could get fuzzy. I would have sworn that Howie Dawson was involved with this too, but maybe as a child, I couldn't tell Jim and Howie apart.

I do think that Marland tried to establish that Heather did not have the patience to wait for the benefits of a strong marriage to materialize over time. I remember a scene where Steve and Audrey discussed that. While that does not compensate for lack of information, it certainly helps to establish motivation.

I do not know what to think about Monty vs. O'Brien, and here comes my spotty memory again. I could swear to reading somewhere that O'Brien was asked back and declined, thus paving the way for Robin Mattson. On an unrelated subject, I have read that Gloria Monty loved father-son and mother-daughter scenes, such as Lee and Scotty, and Lesley and Laura. But hands down, my favorite parent-child duo was Alice and Heather. The screaming matches between Alice and Heather kind of followed the same formula: Alice would threaten to go to whoever Heather was scheming about to spill the tea, Heather would threaten Alice and make Alice back down, and then, Alice would walk away with her panties in a bunch. I ate the stuff up, every time, I loved it!

I thought this post from the Short Lived Head Writer thread was so good that I have quoted it here because it relates very well to the posts here recently about GH's darkest period in the ratings.

I was unaware of all of this. Thank you for setting things straight.

My impression has been that Donovan fired the Dobsons and had them replaced by the Hollands. I believe it was the Hollands who created the character of Laura Vining. Lesley's husband Cameron Faulkner financed getting the Vinings out of town, but I don't know if that plot point belonged to the Hollands or the Pollocks.

I am very appreciative for your gracious approval to share any memories of pre-Marland GH. Here below is something that really upset me, as a child who was around while my mother was watching "her story". Dr. Lesley Williams was very reluctant to treat patient Florence Grey. She had an affair with Florence's husband while still in college, and it was essential for Lesley to get help to NOT to let Florence's husband into Florence's room while Lesley was there, because Lesley did not want to see the husband again or to upset the patient. So Lesley enlisted the aid of Jessie to keep the husband waiting at the nurse's station until Lesley could slip out of the patient's room. Of course, the plan failed spectacularly, as the impatient husband burst past Jessie, came into the room and locked eyes with Lesley (cue long organ music, fade out). Now comes the part that upset me as a child. Florence's father was rich and the owner of a large department store. He caught wind of who Lesley was and her role in upsetting his daughter, and he would pick arguments and threaten poor Dr. Williams at every turn. The man who played Florence's father was Edward Platt, the man who played the "The Chief" in the "Get Smart" reruns I watched, and I did not like to see "The Chief" being mean!

I would assume that it was probably around late 1974 that the network became dissatisfied, because by 1975, they axed Jim Young as the producer and replaced him with Tom Donovan, who was probably the worst producer GH ever had.