Khan

I agree with all y'all, lol. At the end of the day, ABCD/Disney is a corporation, and what are corporations about? The bottom line. Producing a daily, one-hour (with commercials) drama with a cast of 20-25 actors is a helluva lot cheaper than producing one with a cast of 60 or more, lol. No, I tend to think GH's current cast size (on- and off-contract) is all Frank Valentini's doing. I don't know what reason he has for keeping so many on the payroll, though, unless he's just so darned loyal and hates to see anyone out of work? If Ava is taking bipolar medication, she should be freaking the hell out: convulsions, hallucinations, whatever.

Premiere ad campaign: "Black is about to get a whole lot more beautiful."

That's nothing compared to some of our own families, lol.

I agree! To be fair, her role on ATWT was a thankless one.

OMG, yes! Yes, yes, a thousand times, YES!! IDK where Bekins would fit on the current GH canvas, but if I were Elizabeth Korte, Patrick Mulcahey, Frank Valentini or Nathan Varni, I'd make the room! Thanks, @DRW50, for that recap!

Two of the many reasons I loved watching DAYS back in the '80's.

They should chemistry-test him with Tracey Bregman for two reasons: 1. I think they would look cute together. 2. If their characters were to marry, her character's name would become "Lauren Laurent."

One thing about farm girls: they're a lot savvier than city folks ever give them credit for!

It's like what I always say: you can get away with acting like a diva if you have the goods to back it up. It's only a problem when your behavior is as shitty as your performance, or vice-versa. IMHO, GH needs Vanessa/Brenda, because Carly in particular needs Brenda. In fact, Carly probably needs Brenda more than even Sonny does, because Brenda - again, IMO - is the only character who can fight Carly's fire with fire of her own. IOW, Brenda brings out the best in Carly. (Or the worst, depending on how you look at it, lol). Carly by herself as a lead (anti-)heroine is okay, but Carly and Brenda...? That, my friends, is like having a license to print money.

That was my thinking as well.

Perhaps, Ashley's DID is due to Dr. Laurent's, um, influence?

Zoiks! I totally forgot about Tad Martin! And that he was once married to Blair! At the risk of sounding like I'm criticizing: I'm sure the story with Blaze and her mother is one that's rooted in truth, especially about the Latinx and Hispanic communities, but its' inherent conflict is just lost on me. I mean, it's 2024; and we're still concerned over what "coming out" could do to one's career in the entertainment industry? Am I missing something here?

I think that's how the brief Charlie/Erica romance started!

Quick question: why is it called "Home & Heart" and not "Home & Hearth"? And is it just a shopping network, or do they air other kinds of programming, too? IDK whether this counts, but I do remember AMC's Erica Kane launching a "Man of Enchantment" campaign for her cosmetics company way back during the Clinton administration.

LOL!! Speaking of OLTL, I'm genuinely surprised that Frank Valentini has yet to find a way to bring Andrew Trischitta (ex-Jack) onto GH.

I agree! I also agree that it's time to start thinning out the canvas, if for no other reason than there's too much going on atm and that the more characters and storylines they need to service on this show, the harder it is for them to concentrate on what's really striking a chord with the audience. I'd much rather watch a cast of 20-25 involved in 2-3 great storylines (even if it means some vets have to be phased out or phased out again!) than watch a cast of 70-75 involved 5-6 storylines where the quality is hit-or-miss JUST because it means I get to see Lucy or Robert or whoever again on a regular or semi-regular basis.

Like I've said in the "Gates" thread, I wonder whether EK and PM are still working off whatever outlines/projections/post-its their predecessors might have left behind. TBH, even with all the improvements, I still tune out on a lot of stuff, but only because they are so unfamiliar characters and I haven't been watching long enough to know everything that's going on.

LOL!! Really? In the short time that I've been following GH again, I've only seen or known Cody as the cute stable boy. My bad!

Why do I feel like TPTB (including the new Co-HW's) are overlooking a potentially good storyline where Cody and Sasha are named the Faces of Deception?

I still would love to know the timeline of their hiring. When did ABCD contact EK and PM? Had they contacted anyone else beforehand? And how much time did EK and PM have to prepare before officially starting? My instincts tell me the reason why we haven't seen too many drastic changes yet (aside from longer scenes and deeper conversations) is because EK and PM didn't have a whole lot of time to sit down and draw up major plans OR so much of Chris and Dan's stuff had already been written in advance (and EK and PM are working off whatever Chris and Dan left behind) that dumping it and starting fresh would've been too costly or time-consuming OR a combination of the two. Either way, I'm giving EK and PM time to figure out everything before (Michele Val Jean snaps up Patrick Mulcahey for her writing staff and) I pass any judgment about their work.

TBH, I don't care very much about Gregory's health either, but only because I know that, in real life, ALS is incurable, so I know already how his story will end. (If I've said it once, I've said it a hundred times: don't give your soap opera character(s) a disease that isn't curable or treatable, lol). But I do get what you're saying, @Vee.

Partially. I also believe Lansbury herself wanted MSW to be more upscale, for lack of a better word. Hence, the move to NYC. (Of course, there was also the growing belief that Cabot Cove, as a main or recurring locale, was beginning to look ridiculous with all those murders occurring inside what was supposed to be a sleepy, little town in Maine. I, myself, tend to look at that as a "necessary evil," like SORASing on soaps). As for the criminology professorship itself, I suspect *that* was incoming showrunner David Moessinger's idea to justify Jessica's involvement in so many official criminal investigations, as well as provide yet another, new arena where fresh stories could be generated. Personally, I don't think it worked, for three reasons: one, it seemed preposterous to me that NYU Manhattan University would have hired Jessica Fletcher, a mystery writer with no real credentials in law enforcement, to teach a course in their criminology department and not in their English or Creative Writing department*; two, if you're still having difficulty after seven years with the premise of a mystery writer and amateur sleuth who helps the cops find the real killer every week, giving her a new side hustle as a criminology professor (who will also go into the inner city from time to time and hold creative writing workshops??) probably won't help (and maybe MSW isn't your kind of show anyway, lol); and three, any full-time teaching position would have tied Jessica down too much and prevented her from being able to travel, which, to me, was always a huge part of the show's charm. The way I see it, Moessinger had only two real options: either maintain the status quo that had been established by Peter S. Fischer - meaning, roughly half the episodes take place in Cabot Cove, and the rest follow Jessica on her travels - or make a REAL change, have Jessica say adios to Cabot Cove and move to NYC permanently. Instead, he (and Lansbury) tried to have it both ways - the home in Cabot Cove, the fancy, new apartment in NYC; the new gig as a criminology professor/creative writing teacher on top of all the continued traveling for book tours and research trips - and wound up with an occasionally confusing show. (*The second episode of S8, "Night Fears," pretty much acknowledges this fact - and it's the point, I suspect, where the new team already concedes that they've made a mistake in giving Jessica a job she really wasn't qualified to do.)

The Tracy/Gregory material proves my point that there was nothing wrong with Gregory Harrison joining the cast as Chase's dad except that they weren't using him properly.

Wait, is "Gays of Our Lives" officially dead, lol?

I *just* rewatched "Death Takes a Dive" (a.k.a. the boxing episode) earlier this afternoon on PlutoTV. Harry McGraw was a great recurring character. Too bad Jerry Orbach's joining the cast of "Law & Order" put a stop to his appearances. As much as I enjoy watching all 12 seasons of MSW, there are SOME things I would have done differently, had I been the series' showrunner. For one, I think the move to NYC at the start of S8 was somewhat unnecessary, given how frequently Jessica traveled. Between her home in Cabot Cove, her apartment at the Penfield and her trips both throughout the U.S. and abroad, it seems as if she never spent more than a day or two in any location, so why the need for the house AND the apartment, lol? Especially when her second career as a criminology professor - which I've always thought was a mistake - fell by the proverbial wayside pretty quickly.