Khan

OMG, lol!

??

Mobsters can and do "retire" from the organization. (They never call it "the mob" or "the Mafia"). And in Sonny's case, you could make the argument that he SHOULD retire, due to his mental health posing a challenge to the stability of his organization. And you also could make the argument that he needs to be...eliminated for the very same reason. But, my point is, even when mobsters retire from running their outfits, they're never truly out of them. Many crime families have pension plans and 401k's for their retirees, which means the retirees still profit from the extorting of others. What does the "mob life" entail? You name it: drugs, prostitution, bookmaking, racketeering and yes, even infiltrating unions. Wherever mobsters see an angle they can exploit financially, they will; and they will say, in so many words, "You will use my men, my merchandise, my equipment, etc., to move what I tell you to move; and for every dollar you make, my organization gets x percentage. And if you don't pay up...? Well. You've got a lovely business here. I sure would hate to see something bad happen to it." (Sound familiar? It should, because not too long ago, we had someone in our WH make a very similar threat.) Remember Johnny Friendly in "On the Waterfront"? He used the longshoremen's labor union to control the docks. The men who handed out daily work assignments to the dockworkers had to use Friendly's men each day, "or else." That practice placed Friendly in the crosshairs of the Waterfront Crime Commission, which meant that any of his men who chose to testify against him would face certain death. It's witnessing one such death - and realizing the part he played in setting it up - that makes Terry Malloy (Brando) realize for the first time that the man he's been enforcing for is a "cheap, lousy, dirty, stinkin' mug!" (By the way, Friendly, by way of Terry's brother and his own right-hand man, also made Terry lose a pivotal boxing match years before, which is where the famous "I coulda been a contender" speech to Charley Malloy comes from). So, don't laugh too hard whenever you hear about Sonny, Jason and their "coffee importing/exporting business." They could very well be importing and exporting coffee. It's the methods they employ to import and export the stuff, while bullying and intimidating their competitors in order to have the advantage in their market, that makes them sociopaths and criminals. Two other, important points: 1) Theoretically, each "family" controls a neighborhood or section of a city or town, so "mob wars" are essentially turf wars, where one "family," sensing vulnerability in a rival organization, uses threats, intimidation and especially physical violence to seize control of the other family's territory; and 2) mob killings are Never. Personal. Even GH can get that wrong sometimes. When mobsters kill, or order someone to be killed, it's strictly business. So, for example, if your spouse is beating the holy hell out of you, you're not gonna go to the local family and put out a hit on them, because that's not what they are in business for. Even if your spouse works for the organization, the most they will do is talk to them and tell 'em to "knock it off," because if their spouse gets bold enough, they're gonna talk to the cops, and the cops are gonna start poking their noses where they don't belong. As a matter of fact, there's a very famous story about a woman (whose name I'm blanking on atm) who helped bring down one such "family" after they refused to help her go after the hoods who attacked and raped her one evening in a store basement. Wow! Thanks, @DRW50, for finding it for me! Natalia could hire someone to "stalk" Blaze in order to increase her visibility (and drive a wedge between her daughter and Kristina). In turn, that could be the catalyst for Kristina's losing the baby, as Blaze's stalker gets carried away and ends up putting Kristina in serious, mortal jeopardy.

I thought the same thing this morning. Not that it's a joke, per se, but that it's ironic how almost everyone on this show is changing professions except the two people who need to change their professions the most. If I didn't know any better, I'd swear that EK/PM were, in fact, making some kind of statement there, but that's being too cynical, lol.

Suddenly, I'm wondering whether Tobias actually exists, or whether Aiden's just stalking the poor lad, lol. Oh, I absolutely agree with you. The fact that MB remains popular, even as his character represents a lifestyle that is no longer seen as glamorous or envious to the average person, puts GH in the toughest of spots. IOW, getting rid of him through whatever means is really the right thing to do but, for obvious reasons, they can't. That's why I struggle to embrace the good things that EK/PM have done thus far, because I just can't get past the fact that two of this show's leading characters are sociopathic criminals who (IMO) belong behind bars or in the ground. Like Minnie Driver says in "Grosse Pointe Blank," there are things that you do not do in a civilized society, but men like Sonny Corinthos and Jason Morgan do many of those things. In fact, they profit from them; and this show is asking me to gaf about them!? I don't think so!

Sonny Corinthos is like every other, real-life mobster: he could never run a business that was "largely legit" or "white collar." If he could, he wouldn't be where he is atm. If Sonny were removed from the organization - and provided, he doesn't encounter any sort of threat, either from his enemies, or from his "employees," who fear his running to the government for protection - he'd go back to being what he was when he assumed control of Frank Smith's empire: a low-level hood, running a seedy strip joint, keeping "his girls" strung out on pills so they will do his bidding. Even then, under those circumstances, he'd struggle to keep up, partly b/c the sex worker industry has changed, and partly b/c time and age have taken their toll on him; leading Sonny to the inevitable moment when he takes his own life rather than become a "wizened old man." If it were up to me, this current storyline with Pikeman would be the true Fall of the House of Corinthos, ending either with Sonny being murdered, or (reluctantly) agreeing to enter the Federal Witness Relocation Program - along with others who are in his family - in order to protect everyone from Pikeman, whose global reach likely exceeds that of Sonny and his "coffee empire." (Would people like Dante, Sam, Michael, Willow, Kristina, etc. be furious at Sonny that they all have been placed in a position where they must leave behind their entire lives in PC and start over somewhere else, with new identities, in order to protect themselves and especially their children? You bet!). And Jason, as Sonny's one-time right-hand man, would be left behind with the unenviable task of legitimizing his former boss' businesses, but that would be a constant struggle, as well as living with the ever-constant threat he could be walking one day, "and a car will slow beside you, and a door will open, and someone you know, maybe even trust, will get out of the car. And he will smile, a becoming smile. But he will leave open the door of the car and offer to give you a lift."

I've always said there are only two options for Sonny and Jason: either they die, or they get out of the mob forever. And even if they were to "go straight," as it were, they still are bound to face recriminations from others from within the criminal underworld out of fears that they'll turn state's evidence. Is that available on YT? I haven't actually watched those scenes, but I'd like to very much!

I agree! I was all for a same-sex couple on GL, but dear God!

Yeah, I don't care for them either, especially when I personally don't know anyone who goes walking in the park like it's still 1900, lol. You could accomplish the same goal just by having characters run into each other at the town diner and it would make more sense.

No, that's Dante's new gig, lol.

Oh, he's in town alright! He's working for Pikeman.

Again, if that's Frank's goal, then he isn't aware that he's actually doing the opposite, keeping GH so inoffensive that he's boring the audience (which, as I've said countless times, is the worst sin you could commit in entertainment). But I say that out of total respect for him and for the pressures he obviously faces everyday at the show.

Again, something I really needed to hear Tracy say, lol.

ICAM!! IMO, a big problem with today's soaps is that they don't have any characters who are striving for something. Viewers really respond to characters who strive to better themselves in some way, or who yearn for something (or someone) that is elusive to them. So, I would hope that TG hands us a nice mix of haves and have nots.

I agree, and I think it's great that he's so easy to work with, too. Actors especially need a producer who is attuned to their needs. But it doesn't seem as if all that admiration for FV has resulted in an emotionally charged show.

When Al Rabin and Shelley Curtis left DAYS, they took the heart of that show with them. To those who, like MB, want to make excuses about budgeting, consider this: SFT's original sets were essentially black-painted screens, with window frames held up by wires to suggest windows; and when they needed bushes to suggest an outdoor scene, they tied twigs to music stands. Yet, I'll bet that if you were to ask someone who was around then, they'll tell you that watching just one, 15-minute episode of SFT was more thrilling than watching an entire week or month of GH today.

I hope not, lol. It'd break my heart to see the empire that Zukor and Lasky built get taken over by Byron "No Budget, No Problem!" Allen.

Before we dealt any meals, or sweated to any oldies...

IOW, you're saying that Frank Valentini is playing it safe and has been for quite some time. Which is a real good way to kill any soap opera even as you think you're doing the opposite. You know why Norman Lear named his second company "T.A.T. Productions"? Because, it was short for "Tuchus Affen Tisch," which is Yiddish for "putting one's ass on the line." That's what Frank's gotta do. He's gotta put his ass (cute as it is!) on the old line. He's gotta stop playing it safe and instead play the hell out of every scene, regardless of anything, including where it lands on the makeshift "Wheel of Fortune" wheel that has become GH's taping schedule. Lord knows I hated JFP's overall approach, but at the end of the day, her scenes had energy. Well, I know how much you enjoyed the last years of OLTL on ABC, and I don't wanna take that enjoyment away from you, or from anyone else. I know a lot of people would disagree, but I felt the "soul" of OLTL had evaporated long, long before the network finally pulled the plug on it. And please do not get me started on the Nurses' Ball, which ceased being relevant the day a dead body turned up in the middle of the festivities.

Well, to be fair, I wouldn't ever badmouth my own show to the public either, lol. I might say, "Well, yes, we've experienced some ups and downs - not everything worked as our team had hoped - but we're confident that our show remains in a very healthy place." But even I wouldn't have told Logan or whoever, "That Dena bitch couldn't write her way out of a paper bag," lol. It doesn't take a budgeting whiz to have a producer or head writer with vision. It just takes someone who can answer one, very simple question: What is this show about? I'm reminded all the time of Al Rabin, who, as DAYS' EP, always asked after every scene, "What have we shared with our audience?". He, along with his team (including Shelley Curtis), understood that it isn't about how much money you throw at the screen - although, for sure, you make every penny you use count - but about finding the emotional thread in every storyline, in every episode, in every scene. It doesn't take a lot of money to produce the kind of heart-stopping drama that was Rabin and other EP's trademark, and it doesn't take a lot of time either. But it takes heart, and that's something that I've never seen in FV's work, either on GH, or even (sorry, @Vee) on OLTL.

Thanks, @Franko! Mama Khan was more of a GL fan, so I don't recall much of Simmons' time on GH, but I *do* remember TRSS, lol.

I, for one, would like to know why. Why does he always keep so many actors on the payroll when there's only so much airtime and budget to play with? Even his longtime mentor, Paul Rauch, wouldn't have thought twice before jettisoning large groups of characters, so why is FV different? Does he hate to see anyone out of a job? I hesitate these days to criticize any soap, for a number of reasons, but when it comes to GH and FV...? I think it's great that, by all accounts, FV is terrific to work for - not to mention, he's also easy on the eyes, lol - but I just don't understand him as a producer. More specifically, I don't understand his vision, or know if he even HAS a vision (beyond sluggish storylines and bloated casts with bland leads and overly precocious child actors). Like another poster said, he keeps the trains moving on schedule, but we don't need Mr. Conductor from "Shining Time Station" to produce GH. We need someone with creativity and verve, and for me, those qualities just aren't there. Even when Elizabeth Korte and Patrick Mulcahey write great scenes, they still land with a thud on screen, because FV adds nothing besides turning the cameras on and off. A great or even good soap opera scene should kick down the [!@#$%^&*] doors like a rock star; but at best, a great or good scene on GH merely nudges you awake with its' elbow. GH needs a leader - be it a HW, be it an EP, be it both - with an Elton John or Mick Jagger-like attitude to the work. Someone who's gonna give us balls-to-the-wall soap opera - even with no budget! - because they know that all the network can do to them is fire them.

Even if it doesn't change, or change anytime soon, I could learn to love the super-sized cast, but only if they learn how to juggle actors' guarantees better. Either craft more umbrella storylines that draw in more characters, or take a page from the final, threadbare season of KNOTS LANDING and make those gaps where actors suddenly disappear and reappear without notice work for the storytelling.

Granted, I know less than nothing about these things, but I feel like if GH simply were to pare down the number of (recurring and contract) cast members and storylines, the rest soon would fall into place. You really don't need a cast of thousands anymore on these shows, when 15-18 regular, on-contract cast members would probably do.

Which came first: his appearances on GH, or "The Richard Simmons Show"?