Khan

@Vee ain't gonna be happy 'til he sees the banner "BLOODBATH AT GH!" splashed across SON, lol. I loved this scene, too, but I pray this doesn't mean Stella will become Tracy's Magical Negro. Really? I mean, he's alright, but...he's no Philip Brown. Seriously, some of us are hoping Chase and Brook Lynn's nuptials will turn into GH's answer to Red Wedding, lol.

Every time I see CZ, I halfway expect Anthony Herrera to pop up and say, "Hello, Barbara."

That's one reason why I'm surprised to be as invested in the story as I am, all things considered. I mean, when was the last time anyone was intrigued by a storyline on a soap that's clearly being rewritten on the fly, lol?

I'm beginning to wonder that myself. In a way, it reminds me of when Douglas Marland took over THE DOCTORS: individual scenes and episodes are being written better, but aside from that, very little, if anything, has changed.

It's strange how Jason's story works for me in ways most other stories on GH don't (and I say that as someone who is, at best, lukewarm about Jason/Steve). Yet, aside from PM/EK, there have been no other BTS changes lately, so what's going on here? Were Chris and Dan really that generic, or has Frank truly taken a hands-off approach to his new HW's (either willingly, or with pressure from above)? As the saying goes, inquiring minds want to know, lol.

On the other hand, I'd put him in a May-December romance with Trina, just to watch the head of every Liason and Sprina fan explode on social media, lol.

From what I gather, Angela Lansbury agreed to return to the show after the 1988-89 season, but only under the condition that she would have a reduced workload, as she had complained for years about being overworked. Since reducing the episode order and/or not having her appear in every episode was out of the question, Peter S. Fischer and his team struck a sort of compromise. Hence, the "bookend episodes." As for the episodes themselves, I definitely agree that the quality varies. Generally speaking, I think the ones with Keith Michell as Dennis Stanton are pretty good - and apparently, I wasn't alone in my thinking, as he was featured in all the "bookend episodes" for the 1990-91 season. Also good: the first "bookend episode" of the 1989-90 season, "The Grand Old Lady," which Fischer had written originally for the short-lived "Ellery Queen" series, except the network cancelled the series before the script could be produced; and "Murder -- According to Maggie," which was (IMO) a sly spoof of the cop shows from that period. Three of the "bookend episodes" - "Jack & Bill," "Class Act" and "O'Malley's Luck" - are serviceable, meaning, they aren't among the best, but they're all pleasant enough, if you're in a MSW binge-watching mood. "The Sicilian Encounter," which was the only episode to feature Len Cariou/Michael Hagerty without Jessica/Angela, is okay, but I think it suffers without her presence. That leaves, I think, "Goodbye Charlie" and "The Szechuan Dragon," which, IMO, are the weakest of the lot, and the ones I avoid re-watching whenever they pop up again on the rotation (although, if I had to choose which one to watch again, I'd choose "Dragon," if only because it's a Cabot Cove episode). Ironically, "Goodbye Charlie" is supposed to be based on one of Jessica's books, which really makes me wonder just how good of a writer she's supposed to be, lol. For me, the toughest MSW season to get through would be the 1991-92 season, the only one with David Moessinger as EP/Showrunner. Although J. Michael Straczynski wrote some great episodes that year, the season as a whole feels a lot grittier and less literate than the seasons that came both before and after. Moessinger and his team had worked on "Jake and the Fatman" prior to working on MSW, and I think it shows. (The 1991-92 season is also when we get Ahmed, the doorman at Jessica's NYC building, and quite possibly the most offensively stereotypical character in the show's entire run, lol).

Currently, there are 96 cast members on GH who identify as female. Surely, one of them is bound to spark with Steve, lol.

It didn't help that those were the seasons with the "bookend episodes." The following year, after that practice had been suspended, the ratings rebounded.

I must admit that part puzzles me as well. I assume that Wagger gave his superiors at the FBI his reassurance that Jason could be trusted. But I also assumed that Jason only went along with the plan to infiltrate Pikeman because of his prior relationship with Wagger.

I wouldn't put it past Ron Carlivati to suggest that Steve Olsen and Cass Winthrop are the same person.

Seriously, they need to have Aiden pursue a career posting baking videos on TikTok, lol.

I wouldn't be surprised if Everett, Bobby and Nick all turn out to be the same fellow.

In most of those cases, however, I'm sure TPTB had the power to say "no" if they didn't want to tell a particular story. To me, that's a far cry from, "Steve doesn't want Jason's memories back, so don't even try it!," or, "Tony doesn't want Luke to get help for his drinking, and if you go there, he'll just sabotage the storyline with no pushback whatsoever!"

The only way I can make it make sense for me (and even then, I'm grasping!) is to assume Bill met Kate ROBERTS shortly after Kate WINOGRAD left Salem but NOT before he (and Laura) leave Salem (and that the fact that they both were named "Kate" was just a total coincidence, lol).

It's always incredible to me how eerily accurate that parody was. Everything about "The Days of the Week" - the acting, the writing (that doesn't include the jokes), the pacing, the music and production values - was just so dead-on. Anne Beatts ("SNL") once said that you can't satirize anything you're not a fan of, which makes me think the SCTV crew must've enjoyed watching the soaps.

Personally, I think TG realized that having a young son (and daughter) on the show meant that he (and GF) would one day become part of the "old guard" of veteran characters who aren't necessarily driving stories anymore, but who are instead the "older and wiser" talk-to's to the newer generation who are, so he balked. Just because he had resigned himself to the fact that he would always be "Luke Spencer" to the world no-matter-what, that didn't mean he was fine with being GH's answer to RH's Johnny Ryan.

And that...makes me sad. Not so much because of Maurice and Steve personally, but because of the fact that they play characters who shouldn't be on any TV show, and certainly not as protagonists. And the thing is, you don't have to keep Sonny and Jason in the mob in order to keep them from becoming boring! But either no one can see that, or they refuse to.

I agree that it's nice to see Anna regain her sense of self, but to me, it means nothing if it doesn't end with Sonny either dead or locked up in prison for the rest of his life. And that's really the issue I still have with GH, despite all the wonderful things that Elizabeth Korte and Patrick Mulcahey are doing for this show.

I liked how Claire Labine in particular saw Luke as someone who had experienced a lot in his lifetime, but who had finally settled down (or, as settled down as a man like Luke Spencer could be); and as a father who saw a lot of himself in his young son and, as such, would do his best to keep him on the straight-and-narrow. To me, that level of maturity made Luke a much more fascinating character to watch than the drunken, self-pitying void he ultimately became.

This one hurts. A lot.

It's almost as if Bill was having TWO affairs behind Laura's back - and both his mistresses were named Kate, lol.

But the preview suggests he's been hiding that fact for some time, which has me curious for some reason, lol.

I can't remember whether we discussed it in this thread or in another - and I apologize, but I'm pressed for time atm, so I can't search for it either - but I think @Errol provided a pretty good breakdown for why, in his opinion, the opening sequence didn't work.

That would be my vote, lol!