Jdee43

Reading these 1986 summaries, it's hard to believe that Anna has been on for less than a year, and starting off as a bad guy too.

BTG B- GH B DAYS F-

Spin-offs always hurt the mother show. Just as Somerset and Texas hollowed out Another World, Port Charles hollowed out General Hospital, taking away rich characters and history, making it so much easier for GH to go mob centered and focus on a handful of mob characters in the early 2000s, since so much of the hospital stuff was on PC. If GH needed a spin off, ABC should have gone with the Claire Labine one. At least that had stronger writers involved and only would have taken one character who was on GH at the time, Ned, as Lois and Tracy had left by 97. But ABC went with the more budget conscious option.

Norman Lloyd would have been interesting. He would have at least kept Edward's humorous side going. If it was Gloria Monty recasting Edward, she probably would have stretched the budget and gotten an old primetime star like Norman Lloyd. But since it was Wendy Riche, always budget conscious, we got John Ingle. But would it have been so bad to retire the character of Edward Quartermaine when David Lewis retired in 1993? If they needed an elder patriarch, they could have invented a new character and say he was Edward's brother. The recast obscured David Lewis's contributions to the show; the best and original Edward Quartermaine is barely remembered at all today.

I agree, David Lewis was the only Edward Quartermaine. John Ingle was an imposter. I never warmed up to Ingle in the role. He lacked the warmth, charm, slickness, and overall humor that David Lewis had. A strange casting decision. Ingle had already played another minor role on the show circa 1987; why bring him back, and in a role that was not quite his wheelhouse?

If feels like a behind the scenes issue as to why the show is skipping/fast forwarding the obvious Maxie/Nathan beat. I guess either the producers or actors or both have no use for that pairing. This was super evident today when Nathan said he would have chosen Lulu if he was given a choice.

Them wrapping up the Nathan /Maxie story in one day 🙄 This show really tries hard some times to have as little drama as possible, a drama-free zone. It just shows that they could care less about the characters involved; they are not invested in them at all. I could care less about these characters too. I don't know why they ever brought Nathan back and for me Maxie was played out decades ago. But by them going with this, what drama is there left to do now? Will that be better than or more soapy than having Maxie act like a normal person and take some time with her decision?

In its first 7 months, Santa Barbara fired its leading man, Dane Witherspoon; fired its leading female, Ava Lazar; dropped 2 of its original 4 families; recast the patriarch of the one family that lasted, the Capwells, 3 times; recast the Capwell matriarch twice; tried rebooting with an earthquake; then tried rebooting with a serial killer storyline. The show ended up being about a handful of long-term characters, all connected to the same family. It was a rocky start from which they never really recovered.

Totally agree -- Lemay's Another World from 1971-1974 was so good because he was working with what Irma Phillips and Agnes Nixon had set up. When he started doing his own thing, it wasn't as rich or as appealing, especially not in the long run. The death of Agnes Nixon's Another World started with the spin-off Somerset. Many of the interesting characters went to that show, pretty much never to return. The final blow was 1975 with Another World expanding to an hour, and Raunch and Lemay being allowed to change the show however they saw fit. Their new vision worked for a few years, but by 1979 the show was pretty much a hollow shell of itself. The end result was 20 years of mediocrity, where the only history the show had to pull from was some of the Lemay stuff from the 70s. Agnes Nixon's AW was forgotten. Whatever few characters were still around from the Agnes Nixon years, such as Aunt Liz and Rachel, it was only Lemay's version of them that we got.

If they pair Dante with Liz, it would be a sign that they've given up on his character, and that the next step will be recurring or him leaving the show. It's just the fate of anyone who gets involved with Liz. Since Ric's already on recurring with no story, they should just pair Liz and Ric. If they gave them cute scenes three times a month or so, I'm sure everyone would be happy.

Having seen Shepard Strudwick on episodes of The Twilight Zone and Have Gun Will Travel, I have a hard time believing he could have been the lead in anything. He didn't have the charisma, definitely not like what Macdonald Carey and James Pritchett had.

Nathan's return has been consistent with his last run. Nothing too deep; the actor just tries to be polite and emote empathy and lets his scene partners do all the work. There's nothing there, there's never been anything there, so not surprising the writers chose not to bother to explore anything. If Nathan turns out to be the big bad, it ain't going to work. A polite, befuddled bad guy? They better be ready with the rewrites.

With that writing staff in 1986, the show should have been much better. It was strange in 1999 to bring back Faison without Robert and Anna. Trying to turn Faison into a Luke villain never worked. Faison's interactions with Lucky had none of the menace of his interactions with Robert and Anna. It was a waste all around.

They need to end the Lucy and Sidwell stuff. Are they setting up Lucy to get killed off just in time for her 40th anniversary on the show? Sidwell and Lucy have no chemistry. It's not funny, it's not dramatic. It's more cartoonish and embarrassing than anything, and just sad. Sidewall has more chemistry with Ava. It's amazing how Ava just has chemistry with everyone!

Laura was definitely the star of the show from 1977-1981. Perhaps it was a bit of misogyny, favoritism, and being fed up with all the backstage drama that led Gloria Monty to say in 1982 that it was Luke. It's wild to think that with all the hoopla, the big wedding, the big ratings, Luke and Laura at the height of their fame survived as a married couple for only 2 months.