Planet Soap

From watching this episode from 2 weeks ago I don't feel like Alexis is hammering down to Kristina that she is wring for trying to take her sister's baby, then picking a fight with Ava while pregnant. Alexis has just been trying to keep the peace between both siblings but his is not a two-sided situation. Kristina's completely in the wrong and Molly should not be pressured by Alexis to make peace with her sister. Kristina should be pressured to apologize for what she did.

Catching up... Kristina is sick in the head and Alexis is enabling her trying to play both sides. That is all.

Watch fast before they're copyright stricken. New classic clips account is up. Lauren vs Lynne Lori & Julia

Lifetime has put out some ridiculous content, they've also occasionally put out some good content. But, whatever Lifetime has done recently is far more interesting to sit through than anything any soap scribe has put on the air in the last decade. If any soap would be prime fodder for Lifetime that's B&B with its trashy salaciousness. I too would prefer a daily serial, but I'm curious to see where this goes. Totally agree. It's sad that a lot of the P&G soaps such as those two are barely mentioned in pop culture nowadays. ABC soaps seem to have more of a cultural staying power with layman audiences.

And just to be clear, I love Maura. I was knocking Kelly's latest performances.

Exactly. Y&R gets 3 to 4 million viewers whereas critically acclaimed cable shows like Mad Men were getting below 1 million viewers yet paid actors handsomely with higher production values. The problem with actors today is that they lack that dramatic flair. Many of them deliver lines in a conversational tone lacking theatrics. An example would be the campy Maura West versus the subdued Kelly Monaco. We've also lost dramatic production values. Dim lighting, extreme close up shots and grand background music are all absent in today's soaps. Finally today's writers don't know how to stretch plot in an interesting way. B&B literally copies and pastes dialogue between episodes. Meanwhile Bell era Y&R had endless twists during the Sheila baby switch story such as the miscarriage doctor getting hired at Sheila's lab, Lauren claiming to offer Sheila company insurance as a ruse to blood test for paternity etc ..

When GH Shifted from JFP to Frank in 2012-13, there's change in the lighting of the show. I think it was better lit under Phelps and when Frank took over around the 50th anniversary we got this very harshly lit bright show. 2012 2013 I think today GH has the best sets in soaps, but the harshly bright lighting cheapens the look of the show. HD is more complimentary to the Bold and the Beautiful than GH.

GH: 2/3rds of the cast with no story Y&R: Phyllis, Chelsea, Billy, Devon, Abby, Lilly, Sally B&B Katie, Wyatt, Liam, Hope, Finn, Carter, Zende, Paris

I think it's been established that soaps are struggling. I think a more fitting conversation is how much longer do the four remaining soaps have left? Will the existing tv soaps be shifted to streaming? Will The Gates revive the genre and either breed new soaps or extend the shelf life of the existing ones? Food for thought😉

Sam just falls into the "happened to be on there for a while" category. Sonny's legacy status is debatable, and there is an argument for Carly since she's Bobbie's daughter (via a RETCON). Of "the quad", Jason is the only undeniable legacy character. I really don't want to see Sam killed off. I'd prefer for A) Lindsay to take over the role, B ) Write Sam off without death, or C) Have Kelly Monaco improve her acting as the writers give her better stories.

I grew up watching Sam as the fourth lead of the show. But I cannot deny that since Jason went off the peir in 2012, Sam has drifted into irrelevance. Monaco has been phoning it in for years with an Is uninthusiastic delivery of her lines and vapid facial expressions. As much as it hurts to see veterans go, she is played out.

B&B I raced to this thread to say Ridge and Bridget. Low and behold it was the first answer! B&B Stephanie unknowingly giving a rapist the location of the keys to Brooke's house. B&B Brooke sleeping with Deacon, Nick, Thomas and Oliver. Y&R Victor gaslighting Sharon with a double of her deceased daughter (Cassie/Mariah... his adoptive granddaughter. GH Luke rapes Laura then taunts her by playing the song that he raped her to AGAIN at the campus disco. GH Ric locking a pregnant Carly in a panic room then gets forgiven and becomes DA OLTL: Todd Manning/Victor Jr: raping Marty, the dead baby lie, causing Star to fall down stairs, beating up Cole, "re-raping" Marty (Yet still being forgiven).

1998-2002 B&B was peak camp with everything from Brooke and Deacon, to Brooke and Thorne vs Macy to Morgan and Sheila! Bring this energy back!

I think its the modern ---sometimes down for anything ---GH fans that liked their loved story. Longtime fans and the more discerning (I hate how superior and pretentious that sounded) weren't going for it. Franco did too much. He got Michael raped in prison, implied that he raped Sam I front of Jason, was a serial killer and committed other acts mentioned in this chat. He was too far gone to be redeemed. The biggest insult was Franco getting Michael raped in prison then rewriting history to say he meant for the rapist to protect Michael. I think the latter was done clear the way for him to have a relationship with Carly. But I think Franco and Carly were only a couple so Roger Howard and Laura wright could be together, to and rekindle Carly's romance with Todd who had to be written off when ABC lost the rights to OLTL.

I think the late 90s (image from 1998) was Luke's best look. Shaved rather than shaggy head.

Very older looking Geary dressed better as Bill Eckhart

Yeah Luke had this weird pilgrim look and Laura was styled like a matronly wife. Speaking of Luke, at 2:24:07 during the train crash story Luke makes this odd remark that he never wanted to be a father, and that it was Laura's idea. He says was only a sperm donor. He adds that Leslie is handling raising LuLu, and Lucky is married so Luke's fathering days are over. He comes off completely disinterested as a father to Lulu in the following scenes, only to be worried upon hearing Lucky is on the train. Even Skye had to correct him. This was a far cry from the proud dad Luke that we got in the '90s. The determination of (I'm guessing Tony Geary) to strip the character down into a nihilistic but comical con man was pathetic. https://youtu.be/QDleI27VkP4?si=LB0deEEca3pspQZX

Oooo Guza....do you all like him after GH? Hopefully JFP gets nowhere near this.

Loved the panic room. I still dont get how Ric came back from that and became DA.

Got it. Because 96 was a mix for both of them I'm always not too sure who wrote what between Labine and Guza. Looking back, 1996 it was a pivotal year as it laid the groundwork for the Sonny/Carly/Jason show we have today. What was your take on the Bill Levinson era vs Labine?

What particular events would you say marked that 2003 decline? Speaking of the early 00s, from rewatching 2002 Sonny was juggling a lot of storylines! His and Carly's presume deaths, Alexis' pregnancy, and Brenda's return.

These are interesting perspectives. I've always seen people writing that GH started going downhill by 1997 as Labine was gone, the mob became more central, and many cast departures by '98-99. I've felt the same as well based on observation and not knowing who the head writers were. I do like Guza's flair for action, and I can see how AIDS, Breast cancer, and kids dying in school bus accidents can get depressing. Granted Guza was good under Riche but under JFP is when his destructiveness was evident. But compared to Frank era GH 2002-2011 looks like gold compared to 2015-Present GH. SB: rewatching the Port Charles hotel fire sweeps event, could they not have sent multiple helicopters landing in different intervals to conduct the rescue?

Tony's death was sad. For me it was also symptomatic of what happened to the show. We had this great humanistic, emotional, and balanced show, that got 180d for (Non Italian lol) mafia centered stories. At least we got some good sweeps events from the era that was to come. I wonder what General Hospital would have been like had Claire Labine stayed head writer for the length of time that Guza was in power.

I say this jokingly but not jokingly...would Y&R take Ron!??

Ron Moss cannot act...Drake Hogestyn is rough too, but they served their roles and made it work lol. BIG FAILS... Y&R Phyllis as Sheila. Why? These characters had no history so how did that make sense? Maybe because Phyllis was the new Sheila in the 90s since Kimberlin went to B&B? Why end the run of an iconic villain like this? Thank God Brad Bell undid this. Guiding Light: Clone Reva/Amish Reva