Jdee43

I'm starting to suspect Maxie deciding for Spinelli in one day was done for budget, to wrap up Spinelli's story so he won't have to appear. Has he appeared since Maxie made the decision? With Maxie choosing Spinelli, all this drama over Lulu and Nathan feels so fake and manufactured, like the drama between Dante and Gio, and how the drama between Willow and Alexis is starting to feel.

Dante and Liz have very little chemistry. If they go there, it's going to be pure time filling, budget saving, fast forward material. If they want to give Dante something to do, they should have him mix it up with some of the older ladies on the canvas. They can have him go weird and mix it up with Alexis, or see how he goes with Nina. Not many options though. Since they can't cast good romantic partners for most of the cast, I doubt they will do anything for him. He's just stuck with Lulu, once Nathan is revealed as a fake, which I guess Nathan is now since he couldn't swing a baseball bat today... can they hit the audience more over the head with it..

Tracy mentioned Scott to Martin during the blizzard, but only to remind him how Lucy had an affair with Scott. There's been no reference to where he is or to what he's doing now. There was some surprise among the characters for a week or so after he disappeared in the summer of 2024, and Ric did tell Heather that Scott called him to take over her case, but that's about it. Maybe he's been hanging out at Eckert's bakery with Taggart and TJ, being treated to some free donuts from Sly.

The undercover story with Jacob is so silly. They obviously don't have the budget for something like this. Most of it is taking place literally in front of a brick wall!

With the scenes today, it looks like they are building up to a Michael/Jacinda/Kristina triangle. I guess it's the ultimate in budget saving, having a cheap dayplayer be involved with two contract players. Was that an old picture of Lucy and Anna in the background in the scenes in Anna's office? You can see it clearly in Dante's last scene as he sits down. Since Anna and Lucy were never close, is that more of the actors being close? It's strange seeing that as a long term viewer!

She was also in the pilot episode of Quantum Leap. Another beautiful woman gone too soon.

I don't know if I was totally feeling Joss's performance. It was a little bug-eyed and over the top. Also the stuff about Sonny came out of nowhere. It felt a little jarring when the rest of the show treats him like a cuddly romantic hero and go to guy for life advice. Carly did better with her performance, mostly because it was more restrained. She has more chemistry with Valentin that with other people they've tried to pair her with the last few years. But Valentin is such a crappy, wimpy character.. we really need more of him?

Great ideas on this thread to bring more life to the show! I wonder why stuff like this isn't tried. Lack of budget? Lack of creative vision? Burnout? Complacency?

The whole show is beyond played out and has no purpose whatsoever. What is the point

With the way the actor looks, they could have cast him as a recast Lucky

If giving Chase and Brook Lyn an insta-baby means they won't be having Chase spiral out, that would be really disappointing. The Sonny stuff is such trash. If they were going to do this story for the umpteenth time, they could have at least found a real actress that he has real chemistry with. A tall order, but they should have at least tried for the "star" of the show. It's beyond time they bring Brenda back. The show is making some disappointing, repetitious choices lately. I guess it's just Frank trying his best to dismantle the good place the show has been in...

It's disappointing to have Sidwell involved in all the shady business on this show; now he's involved with Willow; lazy writing. I do appreciate though that the Sidwell actor is trying to bring some dark humor through his performance to this latest version of the standard all powerful, all knowing bad guy that this show loves to do.

I would say it was the intro of Robin that gave Anna long term leading lady staus! Usually a child holds a character back, but in this case, the child made the character.

I think BTG has caused GH to step up its game. It's in the best shape it's been in years. Now if they had brought back some Quartermaines, dead or otherwise, instead of Britt and Nathan, they'd really be rocking, but I guess there always has to be some fast forward material.

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.