vetsoapfan

28 minutes ago, Liberty City said:

As i've always stated and still believe: TPTB (a.k.a. Disney-ABC) need to allow Mulcahey to do what he needs to do, and I keep saying Mulcahey over Mulcahey/Korte, because I do believe unlike Van Etten/O'Connor (who alternate in primary credit), Mulcahey is the main head writer (a-la Shelly Altman & Van Etten), and I know it'll be a battle between him and Disney-ABC if they try to say "no" to him or vice-versa. But I'm choosing to have hope Disney-ABC are going to try and take a step back with Mulcahey at the writing helm. He is a prime name with history behind him. Chances are on his side, and time will tell.

I have been saying for decades that the network suits have to hire the best potential writers they can, and then back off enough to give them space to BREATHE and WRITE. I remember both Henry Slesar and  William J. Bell saying in vintage interviews that they had to present storyline outlines to the network, but they were generally allowed to do/write what they wanted. Harding Lemay said this was true for him as well, when the ratings  were stable.

28 minutes ago, Liberty City said:

In 1973, Jerome & Bridget Dobson were name head writers, following creators Frank & Doris Hursley. Perhaps that is why it was hard to watch? We know from experience the Dobsons are very strong in their views and their decisions, as seen at Santa Barbara. Could the same situations have arisen at General Hospital with Young?

From what I remember, they were good enough (although my memory is foggy about which writers wrote what specific material back then. Everything is sort of mixed together in my mind.) I do recall that the writing was awful during the "married couple" regimes that followed: the Hollands, the Pollacks and the Elmans. Then Douglas Marland came aboard and saved the day.

30 minutes ago, Liberty City said:

Then the strike team came in and shook the entire canvas up; history was being brought into scripts, things for moving at a pace and it showed just how lacking Van Etten & O'Connor were in their scripts, so it was apparent then a change needed to come.

Right. Certainly, the boys were not the worst-possible writers for the show, but what we need now are writers who are actually GOOD; who make the audience excited about tuning in. If the new team including Mulcahey doesn't cut the mustard, either, then TPTB will have to try again to find someone with a winning formula. At least we have reason to believe/hope that the chances are on PM's side.

30 minutes ago, Liberty City said:

Mhmm; he his the second-longest tenured executive producer General Hospital has had in terms of a singular stint. James Young held the title for a total of thirteen years (1963–1976).

The situation with Young was curious. I enjoyed his tenure into the 1970s (the early part of that decade was good),  but then the show took a nosedive around 1974-75-ish, and it was hard to watch for a few years there. Heaven knows what happened backstage.

1 hour ago, Donna L. Bridges said:

LML = Shock & Awe entered the vocabulary of soap fans! 

And it really started the downfall of this soap.

1 hour ago, Donna L. Bridges said:

Labine/Riche is the sweet spot for GH for me!

I was putting up with GH in the mid 1970s, when it hit its first nadir. To me, Douglas Marland's miraculous resuscitation of the show was the first sweet spot, and Pat Falken Smith only added to the glory. After the wasteland of the sci-fi stuff in the 1980s, I was pleasantly thrilled to see what Labine did with Port Charles, and her tenure became the next major sweet spot.

1 hour ago, Donna L. Bridges said:

And we really dodged a bullet with Chris & Dan's last script, that was tossed. But I think they weakened the show. Pace, balance, stakes, pay-off. Peter too long a villain. Willow's leukemia also too long & entirely dependent on dumbing down eventually everyone but initially Willow herself. Babyitis & paternity contagion. Personally I've come to doubt whether they even should have been promoted from within. And, that's not even listing my personal pet peeve which is making up the conclusion as you go along! Liz's family, Hook once right handed, later left-handed, etc. 

Right, they weren't good headwriters, and made bad choices, but to give them an ounce of credit: they weren't Ron Carlivati and Thom Racina bad (damning Chris and Dan with faint praise, I know.)

1 hour ago, Donna L. Bridges said:

There's nothing wrong with specific constructive criticism! And, I, too am guardedly optimistic. 

It goes back to a comment I made earlier: soap fans are a hardy bunch and forever hope for the best.

1 hour ago, Paul Raven said:

Bingo.

Y&R as an example. Day after day storyline decisions are made that further chip away at any remaining credibility.

...

Literally every plot Josh comes up with is ludicrous/ill conceived/poorly executed.

It boggles the mind that there are NO executives out there who can recognize the problems, and will take constructive steps to fix them.

I've followed soaps for over six decades, and in the past, obvious and egregious issues on soaps would be remedied (or at least attempts would be made at remedies) in a timely fashion. But for the last few decades, the same crippling flaws have been allowed to fester on the soaps endlessly.

Frank Valenti has been with GH for 12 freaking YEARS!

7 minutes ago, Donna L. Bridges said:

Every time I use the fingers crossed emoji that is me saying I have hopes for good writing from Mulcahey/Korte! 

Soap fans are a hardy bunch, and persist in holding out hope that their favorite shows will one day improve...even after years (or decades, LOL) of bitter disappointment.

IMHO, DAYS has not had good writing since the spring of 1982, when Pat Falken Smith left for a second time. Some subsequent scribes have been mediocre, while others have been heinously bad. (The worst of the worst don't even need to be named, LOL.)

Y&R did not immediately crash and burn when William J. Bell Bell left. It was adequate for a while, if not terribly invigorating. But since 1996, when Lynn Marie Latham took over the writing, it's been a mess, with Charles Pratt's, Maria Bell's and Josh Griffith's tenures being particularly weak.

Since Thudley took over B&B, it has never been great, but at least comparing it to the writing of other soap scribes, it has not been as atrocious. (Don't get me wrong; a show can still be atrocious, while still being LESS atrocious than others.)

To me, the last time GH had great headwriters was way back in 1996, with Claire Labine. While I personally did not appreciate his contribution to the show, I know there are some fans who liked portions of Robert Guza's material. But since he departed, fans of the show have been stuck with the likes of Ron Carlivati and Jean Passanante, and so-so work (at best) from O'Connor and Etten.

Certain people decree that I am being too demanding of daytime dramas, and that I should just accept, without criticism, whatever dreck the soaps dish out. They say that because soaps are in danger, viewers would offer nothing but effusive praise at all times, under all circumstances. But to me, soaps are in danger BECAUSE they are so poorly done nowadays. Pretending like mad that the emperor has beautiful clothes is not going to mask his nakedness.

There are great writers out there. Maybe they need to be brought in from other genres instead of endlessly recycling the same, failed hacks from soaps' past. I'd rather see a brand-new (to daytime TV) writer get a shot, than have to endure another reign of hell from a Carlivati or a Pratt or a Higley or a Passanante.

Knowing Mulcahey has talent, I'm really rooting for him.

Just now, Liberty City said:

It's my hope ⏤ given Mulcahey's connectio to Douglas Marland ⏤ that a semi-immediate change takes place, but I am also realistic in that it's [likely] to take some time. I don't suspect it'll be like when the strike material began to air.

Particularly with the oppressive interference of "the suits" on soaps these days, I have a feeling Mulcahey is going to have a fight on his hands in the direction of GH moving forward. We know that's there's no chance of Josh Griffith's Y&R or Brad Bell's B&B offering us quality writing any time soon, and God knows Ron Carlivati is stinking up DAYS. GH is probably the only soap with the potential of now turning around and producing good storytelling.

Fingers crossed.

9 hours ago, Liberty City said:

I suspect it's going to take some time for Mulcahey & Korte's material to really settle and move, and I think that's natural.

Yes, it almost always (with rare exceptions) takes new writers' material some time to gel to the point where viewers get an idea of how good their work is going to be.

I can think of Douglas Marland on General Hospital, Rick Edelstein on How to Survive a Marriage,  and Claire Labine on Love of Life as exceptions to this rule. When they came aboard those shows, the writing seemed to turn around and soar immediately. It was almost shocking. Most times, new scribes take at least a few months to settle in.

4 hours ago, Sapounopera said:

Yes, yes, yes. (Though Brenda Dickson was my Jill. I want to believe that this Norma Desmond thing was just an 80s phase in her acting)

Brenda Dickson was "my" Jill too, and although her talents were modest at best when the show began in 1973, at least her Jill did originally come across as a normal human being. In her Norma Desmond phase (a perfect way to describe that, bravo), Dickson's characterization was more of a caricature; a cartoon. Jess Walton ultimately returned the character to the realm of reality.

2 minutes ago, Liberty City said:

From my experience across multiple platforms, in today's world of social media, it is especially heightened where people cannot separate ART from ARTIST, etc. People want their version of things to be the only one and it's also why when there are those that fan says should be writing these soaps, and I completely disagree, because [so many] cannot see things without their rose-coloured, one-way pointed view of things.

This is very well said, and I agree. Various people have told me over the years that they have withdrawn from participating on social media, because of the easily-triggered. 

2 minutes ago, Liberty City said:

I mean: Ron Raines, Marnie Schulenberg & Paolo Seganti were all hired within the same point of time, and it just felt like "YOU GET A JOB! AND YOU GET A JOB!" and did not feel necessary to the canvas.

Extraneous, "filler" characters are pointless and ultimately counter-productive to the health of a soap. GH has a plethora of them on the current canvas.

2 minutes ago, Liberty City said:

Well, the hiring of the Guiding Light and World Turns actors could also be from the hiring of Marin Gazzaniga? Don't know. Just hoping, in terms of General Hospital, we get some sense of Mulcahey infused into new characters and possibly mis-lead characters introduced during the past few regimes.

Mulcahey's skill has been evident in the past, so if we are lucky, he will be given the freedom and support to strengthen the show and downplay or eliminate its weaknesses.

2 minutes ago, Liberty City said:

That's another problem: no matter what an executive producer and / or head writer will do, no one will ever be genuinely 100% happy with what they watch. You can't please all.  You can only hope to please most or a vast majority.

Right. The reactions to any form of entertainment are always mixed and contrary; 100% consensus is non existent, and we have to accept that as a given. That's why I am always baffled when people take different opinions as an inflammatory act of war. I don't want or expect everyone to agree with me all the time about everything. How boring that would be. JMHO.

2 minutes ago, Liberty City said:

I feel like a lot of 2.0 was eleventh-hour characters for the sake of casting former east coast talents.

ITA.

7 minutes ago, Vee said:

Were we not wildly afield as is here is where I would say someone online needs to pick Thom Racina's brain about his stormy OLTL 2.0 tenure which he has been kind but very circumspect about, and which near the end revealed the underpinnings of a classic Racina-style mystery/conspiracy arc with Corbin Bleu, Ron Raines' eleventh-hour character, Barbara Garrick's Allison Perkins, etc. But I digress even more, so that is a discussion for the OLTL thread or somewhere else.

I would be interested in picking Racina's brain about his involvement with the sci-fi stuff on GH, and if he ever regretted it, if he was satisfied with how it turned out, what he thought about the audience's reception of it, etc..

18 minutes ago, Donna L. Bridges said:

Viva la difference! 

I always say that there is a reason that Baskin & Robbins has 32 flavors of ice cream! 

But, both the movie & the book of TKAM happen to be my favorites!

Mine too. I love TKAM, but one of my best and longest-known friends friends cannot sit through quiet, character-driven dramas. He finds them painfully tedious, but he literally immerses himself into the other side of the coin, with films like Beneath the Valley of the Ultra Vixens; Faster Pussycat, Kill! Kill!; Plan 9 From Outer Space, and the like (all titles I only know because of him).

It's like some viewers loved Claire Labine's lovely, emotional tales on General Hospital, while other fans much preferred the science-fiction sagas which dominated the 1980s.

My friend and I always banter back and forth about we like and dislike, and often end up sampling each other's recommended titles. 

We understand that expressing even wide differences of opinion is not akin to acts of war, LOL.

(That being said, I personally hope Patrick Mulcahey's version of GH is closer to Claire Labine's than Thom Racina's.)

Let's just hope that the new headwriters introduce intriguing new and returning characters whom the audiences grows to care about, played by actors who are worth our attention. Everyone will win! Soaps need all the audience pleasing they can get these days.

26 minutes ago, Lye-C said:

No one is “settling” for Ronn Moss and his “ilk”. We embrace him.

The consensus of many internet posters over the last 25+ years belies this claim, although you do have every right to speak for yourself.

26 minutes ago, Lye-C said:

These kinds of performances belong on daytime

Well, they have certainly been on display on daytime TV at various times through soap opera history, but whether or not they "belong" there or are embraced by everyone can be widely debated.

26 minutes ago, Lye-C said:

so don’t tell us to watch John Waters movies instead.

A calm reading of what I actually wrote confirms that I said people CAN seek out John Waters' films if they enjoy his style and content. There was no demand that they must do so.

26 minutes ago, Lye-C said:

You can always record and fast forward through what you don’t like. 

A huge portion of the audience has just abandoned soaps altogether, alas. 

1 minute ago, Donna L. Bridges said:

THIS, all of this! And, for a little bit of Monday morning fun, especially for those of us who were fans of Scott Holroyd, here is a picture of him & me, where we both look like we are deer caught in headlights, but really we were having a good time at Blondie's in Manhattan at a soap/fan event! 

 

I do think that natural, layered and complex performances are just not everyone's cup of tea. There are those who would dismiss To Kill a Mockingbird in favor of Howard the Duck, or The Grapes of Wrath in favor of Chainsaw Cannibal Hookers.

Differences are the spice of life.

36 minutes ago, Liberty City said:

I agree: I've always stated Scott Holroyd is someone I would have preferred seeing as Austin over Roger Howarth. It, at least, would've made the role more palpable to me.

I'm just... still wondering how Patrick Mulcahey will introduce new characters, especially given his interview with Alan Locher. I wonder if he still has the same mindset of that. We kind of saw that with the Avant family on Bold, and that was a semi-small bubble (though still bumpy for me).

I do hope Mulcahey will introduce new characters carefully and judiciously (or even better yet, reintroduce beloved, legacy characters from the past). God knows, I'd loathe seeing a Buzz Cooper 2.0 coming aboard and eating the show. Some folks may have loved Justin Deas' loud-mouthed and belligerent hamminess in the role, but many did not. UGH.

Now, people do have the right to champion hammy theatrics if it's their preference, and yes, Howarth's nostril flaring was appealing to both of his fans (LOL! I jest, I jest! Sort of. ). I know people who reveled in glee watching Divine with doggy doo in Pink Flamingos (seriously; they were wildly entertained at the outrageousness and wanted to see more pushing of the envelope like it.) I would counter that such material can be sought out in John Waters-type films. Soaps, a medium that has gifted us with performances by the likes of Beverlee McKinsey, Susan Flannery, Maureen Garrett, Charita Bauer, Judith Light, Jane Elliot, Frances Reid, Judith Light, Kate Mulgrew, etc, have long proven that stellar performers are celebrated within the genre.

Not everyone is happy to settle for the work of Ronn Moss and his ilk. There are those of us who clamor to see superb thespian work on display, and we have been fortunate in that regard on many daytime dramas over the decades.

Long live the Meryl Streeps of daytime! I'll take Beverlee McKinsey, Susan Flannery and actresses of their caliber over Brenda Dickson (God love her) or Charity Rahmer any day.

4 hours ago, Spoon said:

The best soap acting is passionate, over-the-top and often scenery chewing.

 

So, ultra-theatrical, hamming it up and broad Bette Davis-like impersonations is what you admire most in soap acting?

I'll take Meryl Streep over Phyllis Diller (or Paul Holroyd over Hammy Howarth) any day, but...that's just me.

No doubt there will be newer fans who never saw Jagger Cates in his original incarnation. They will more easily accept this new performer since they do not have knowledge of the original characterization to compare with Adam Harrington's, and can't understand what a jarring and bad fit this recast is.

To each his own.

25 minutes ago, Mitch64 said:

Guiding Light, any of the Bauers killed...Bill, Hillary and of course, Maureen. I disliked the Coopers but felt that killing Nadine was unnecessary and mean spirited...now if it was Buzz I would have gone with it!

Maeve Reade should have never been killed off, just have her and Fletcher leave town together....two birds one stone!

Frank was okay enough, but Nadine was the only Cooper I actually liked; the last one I would want to see killed off. On the other hand, I prayed daily for Buzz to be axed!

13 minutes ago, NothinButAttitude said:

 

I was just coming in here to say that. This is just wrong. You'd think after they had Ciara raped on the sofa and saw the backlash that they'd just stop doing dumb stuff in the Horton house and keep the house as the safe haven of Salem but I guess not. At this point, I think Ken is deliberately trying to kill his parents' legacy. 

Frankly, even though the show seems to be on its last legs, I'm surprised it's still limping along at all.

2 hours ago, Lye-C said:

Alice deserved it.

Of course  she did.

2 hours ago, Lye-C said:

As a JER first and foremost and a Days fan third (behind Passions), I absolutely loved that storyline.

We know.

2 hours ago, Lye-C said:

BTW, Days’ ratings went UP during the Salem Stalker storyline. Clearly people liked it. As far as I’m concerned that was Days’ last great storyline. The show has been a shadow of its former self since Corday forced JER to do Melaswen.

Any time, anywhere, any day.

F*** him.

Yes to the F***!

F***, yes!

Adam and Nicole: August 1, 1973.

This is cool. I had never seen this photo before, which is from Steve's and Alice's first wedding in  September of 1971.

Setting fire to the iconic and beloved Horton living-room set is an insensitive decision which will only anger fans. There is so much emotional attachment to that set. What's next? Will they take a baseball bat to the Hortons' Christmas ornaments? Boo! Hiss! This is worse than the vile shoot-out in the Bauer kitchen.

On 2/5/2024 at 1:28 PM, dragonflies said:

GH: 95% of the cast

DAYS, too, alas. But on GH, Sonny, Carly, Jason, Finn, and Drew need to be shown the show sooner rather than later.

Core characters should be center stage. Bring back Serena Baldwin, Tommy Hardy, Lucas Jones, and other descendants of important families. Give Scotty (the longest-running character on the canvas right now) more to do. There are so many characters/actors the show could be focusing on.

29 minutes ago, Vee said:

The recast is just comical. I can't take anything done with him seriously because of the actor choice, nor do I care about Jagger returning period.

The actor is objectively decent enough, just NOT as a Jagger recast. Shades of Kassie DePaiva taking over for Mia Korf, Wesley Pfenning being cast as Alice Frame, Susan Batten taking over as Connor Walsh, Roger Howarth following the wonderful Paul Holroyd as Paul Ryan. 

Why not just cast this new guy in a new role? He will never be Jagger.

TGL: Slaughtering the majority of the fine, existing cast in 1983 and 1984, changing the show's style and tone, and basically cutting off decades' worth of history from pre-1983.

TGL: Amanda Wexler is Alan's daughter. No, wait, she's his sister! (An impossible retcon after what had transpired on screen.)

TGL: Brandon Spaulding is dead (we saw him die on camera). No, wait, he's alive, so ignore what you saw! TPTB do.

TGL: The patriarchs of major families all went fishing together decades ago, long before they even met or lived in Springfield.

TGL: Kelly Nelson asks Ed Bauer if Ed remembers Steve Jackson, Ed's former father-in-law, colleague at the hospital, and the GRANDFATHER OF ED'S SON.

TGL: Reva the Clone, Reva the Time Traveler, Reva the San Cristobelian Queen, Reva the Illegal-Immigrant Savior, Reva the Amish Amnesiac, Reva the Portly Sex Goddess of EVERY MAN'S FANTASY.

TGL: Harley, the super-heroine.

TGL: San Cristocrap never ends, and Bradley Cole gets rehired.

TGL: The Santos Mob, with a preacher in the family (Rev, Ruthledge was surely rolling over in is grave), a shoot-out in the Bauer kitchen (JFC!), and 587 weddings for Danny and Michelle.

TGL: Peapack. Springfield is morphed into a muddy and run-down looking Walnut Grove with inferior sound and video equipment.

Whew! I  need a break now, LOL!