victorlord75

I recall that the critics were not particularly kind to Mary O'Brien, Heather#2, at the time. She was regarded as a weak actress, though I enjoyed her portrayal. I think what happened was, by the time Robin Mattson arrived to play Heather, the really good head writers like Marland and Falken-Smith were either gone or on their way out. Gloria Monty, it appears, was a big fan of some films of the 40s and 50s and injected some story line into the show from some of the movies she enjoyed So, Heather got turned into a film noir-like femme fatale for awhile, and viewers ate it up. In fact, I remember the writers putting words in Heather's mouth in her interactions with Scotty that originated with the great Tallulah Bankhead (I think, though I may be wrong). Scotty would tell Heather he'd be waiting in bed for her, and Heather would wryly reply, "If I'm not there, start without me!"

Me three!

I liked Julian back then too. And the love of Julian's life up to his "death" was Cheryl. And, it seems to me that the writers have dropped the ball letting Lucy come into Charlie's Place and be on friendly terms with Julian. She was never a friend of the Jeromes.

I liked it when Colton paired up with Olivia Jerome, and how that pissed off just about everyone in town.

At least Labine knew how to keep Luke and Laura interesting AND married. Ultimately, it was Guza who decided that the only way to keep Luke and Laura interesting was to break them up.

I'm not so sure that GM lost her midas touch, that is her marketing instincts. What she did lose was the recognition that it's good story that is of prime importance on a soap.. Besides her sister, I think she brought on a HW named John Whelpley, a writer that I had never heard of before then and haven't heard anything about since. GM's second stint probably saw the greatest number of changes in the writer's room in a year on GH since 1977. Some names I remember seeing passing through on the writing staff during GM's second run were Arthur Bernard Lewis, Linda Grover, and Anne Howard Bailey, in addition to John Whelpley, who I had mentioned earlier.

Even if it wasn't kind, it was true. As a viewer, I was satisfied with GH as it was right before Gloria Monty's return, and though Ms. Monty did help to save the show from cancellation in the late 70s, her return as EP of GH in the 90s was pretty bad. The ratings slid quite badly under her watch, and deservedly so. Rumor had it at the time that she fired Finola Hughes and that was the last straw for ABC.

I remember Ed Platt's character, or I should say, I think I do. He played a Mr. Chamberlain, if I remember right. He was the father of a patient Lesley was treating, the wife of a man, a college professor that she had an affair with as a college student. It fell on lovable Jessie to keep the professor out of the room until Lesley was finished treating his wife and naturally, Jessie failed. I can still remember the organ fade out when Lesley and the professor's eyes met in his wife's hospital room after he stormed past Jessie. Simple as the story was, I'd take it over mob stuff any day.

I did too, through the years. Despite the many good things Claire Labine did, writing out Sean and Tiffany was one of her goofs.

In my opinion, Jessie's last big story was Phil Brewer's murder. Once the aftermath wrapped up from that, she never really had much to do anymore.

I'd love to see them all again, too. They started to purge alot of the characters in 1975, and by 1977, my mother, who was a faithful GH viewer, stopped watching. She took no interest in the brand new Webber brothers and their sister Terri. She said, "I don't know all these new people." She never returned to watching either. My sister and I continued, off and on through the years. 1987 was actually a good year for GH, in my opinion. H. Wesley Kenney and Ann Marcus came aboard as EP and HW, and actually, under Ms.Marcus, the vets like Steve, Audrey, and even Jessie had more scenes, but even by then, it could be clearly seen that Emily Maclaughlin was ill.

You are very blessed to have compared notes with someone from that time of doing a soap. While we will look at footage from Sharon's era and think that soap stories were simple and basic, they did not have technology on their side back then, thus making their work very, very difficult.

Sharon was a good person, but a constant thorn in old-school Lucille's side. She had a gift for saying the wrong thing around Lucille and one funny story toward the end of Sharon's run was when Sharon got bitten by the acting bug and came to work wearing her nurse's cap--and an orange dress, rather than a white one like a traditional nurse. Wearing the dress was a way for Sharon to express her creative metamorphosis. The orange dress drove poor Lucille the Stickler nuts. I have seen a picture of Sharon in that dress in this thread somewhere. Sharon was funny and pleasant, but without being a cartoon like so many characters are made to be today that have a lighter touch about them.

Sharon's character was a breath of fresh air. There is no character on soaps today like hers, if you think about it.

My mom was a faithful viewer during this period, but she was probably one of the few viewers who was a bit bored by Dr. Hardy re-telling the Christmas Story every year, but oh, how now, what I wouldn't give to be so "bored" again, to see all those actors and characters again, and to hear the "antiquated" musical score again, clearly and in all its glory! While I fully realize that "GH" had to drop George Wright's music to keep up with the other soaps, I can remember the day the music changed. It was very jarring to my family. My sister exclaimed, "It sounds like the background music on Ryan's Hope!" I don't know the exact date it happened, but to me, I truly think it was a day where part of the soul of "GH" was lost forever.

While Gloria Monty was a great producer, some boo-boos occurred under her watch. I think killing off Peter and Diana Taylor was a big mistake, even though the great Valerie Starrett was no longer playing Diana by GM's arrival.

Yes, she did indeed do a great job. Yes, there was alot of psycho-babble in her scenes today, stuff that usually goes over my head, but not this time. I understood what JE as Tracy was saying. That says something!

It's a pity so much of the old GH is lost in the mists of time. While the old GH was not action packed like today's version of the program, one thing that the old version had was a very close relationship between all the characters in one form or another. Perhaps today's version mirrors how disconnected we are from each other in today's society. Regardless, I am hoping that the new version of GH takes a cue from the old, and returns to the closer relationship model between its characters. That can provide a fertile ground for lots of good story, going forward.

Was it a miss to not pair Steve and Jessie? I'm not so sure. Frank and Doris Hursley had written for Search for Tomorrow for awhile, I'm told, and they would have understood a platonic male/female relationship from writing for Jo and Stu on "Search". I think one of the reasons that Steve and Jessie weren't paired up was because of that perennial soap demon, age. Even by the time "GH" had some longevity under its belt, its leading man and woman were showing signs of aging, and I think that is ultimately why they didn't give Steve and Jessie good story by the late 70s, even though both were phenomenal, gifted actors.

Exactly the same time slot it had in Northeastern Pennsylvania during its ABC run. During the late 70s and 80s, it was all about youth, but, to Edge's credit, the older characters who were still left did get air time, like Mike and Nancy Karr.

Thank you Thank you Thank you for sharing this link. It reminded me of how fun "Edge" was, and how much I miss it, even today. I remember some reporters in the soap press at the time calling Schuyler and Raven "The Nick and Nora Charles of Daytime", while others bestowed that title on Robert and Holly Scorpio from General Hospital. In my view, the title was much more deserved by our "Edge of Night" heroes!

I remember a goofy scene where Schuyler and Raven were hiding inside a car in the parking deck of the ISIS building, and in a very "Hart to Hart"-like moment, Raven brought out champagne glasses and popped open a bottle of champagne, with the popped cork hitting hard on the ceiling of the car. Raven snickered (along these lines), "Good thing this is a rental car!"

I never knew that part about Lee Sheldon's plans for the show. The Nicole double would have been a great story, and I'm sorry that those plans never made it past the drawing board. I have to throw in my two cents and say that I don't think the executive producer or the headwriter were the main problems with the show. The main problems were too low a budget for lavish production (though they did a fabulous job with what they had on hand), and the wrong time slot. I think with proper promotion, and the right time slot, the show would have found an audience, because the acting and story were quite good.

Perhaps so. I don't think I'd want to be a writer or producer in daytime today for all the tea in China--besides putting up with network executives who want the numbers only to go up, up, and up, they have to deal with viewers who are not forgiving if they feel that the show that they love isn't being true to itself. I didn't see Henry Slesar's material, but, from what I've read, the basic format and character types on the show didn't change radically. The main change, according to books on the subject was emphasis on the younger performers--a problem that faithful viewers of all soaps have been complaining about for over 30 years now.

I didn't have the pleasure of being a long time viewer of this series like many of the members of this community have. I only knew of Lee Sheldon's writing, and am rather mystified by the harsh criticism leveled against him. Every once in awhile, I will still go on YouTube and view the final episode that I remember seeing at the time on WNEP Channel 16 from 10:30 to 11:00 a.m. (one day delay basis). A poster had pointed out that during the chase sequence in the beginning where Chris is following Alicia, the score music is "Shadow in the City" from Death Wish II--composed by Jimmy Page! I was amazed!