Louise Sorel's Donatella Stewart's stay may have also played a part in the Lucy / Rachel battle for a seat on the hospital board, but maybe that was later. 

The scene @Franko shared is a bit of a trip. More lesbian undertones to Lucy's relationship with women. I am assuming Sorel's character is a combo Donatella Versace / Martha Stewart. The short run patient arcs in 2000 are pretty strong from what I've heard. Linda Purl is the next one, I believe, with her right to die story that was suppose to echo some of the Dominique story with Scott acting as Claire Wright's attorney. 

It was very interesting seeing Sal Viscusco later in the episode as the tabloid reporter that Alan catches snooping around. 

2000 is a pretty decent year despite the insane turnover in the writers seat. I wish Harris and Bloom had been given another year or two to continue telling their version of "Port Charles."

I watched to episodes from late in Harris/Bloom's run (September 29, October 2). The episodes were well constructed. The September 29th episode in particularly smoothly moved between multiple stories by keeping the characters in two main locations (the nurses' station and the Scanlons' bar). I thought it was an effective way to move between stories without cutting to different locations. It created a sense of movement while also sorta building longer scenes. 

I forgot how good Alison and Jamal were. Erin Hershey was very energetic early on as Alison and Kiko Ellsworth is just smooth. It's a shame he never landed another leading role (I don't think his GH part was more than supporting). Anne Jeffreys as the heavy is a delighful use of the character. 

The show is also tackling the HIV storyline with Joe testing to see if he contracted the disease from his one-night stand with Nurse Jill. I was surprised to see that Jill was still around and given such a point of view. It was really nice to see the layers even to such minor supporting players in the story. Alex Mendoza is passable as Joe, and probably more age appropriate than David Gale as the younger brother. He still just doesn't feel right, though he seems fine enough opposite Ion Overman as Gabriella.  

The Livvie story is just really well constructed. Harris had been present for the original Grace story on GH I believe, which helps. I think Kevin's intense interest in Livvie causing tension in his marriage to Eve was the perfect way to segue marital discord while also setting up Lucy to swoop in with her own daughter missing. 

Ian is actually a lot of fun as the renegade doctor who thinks outside the box to help his patients. He is a necessary firework that I imagine Rachel couldn't stand, but I could see why Eve is drawn to this version of him. They are searching for the missing patient, which I think ended up intersecting with Alison and Jamal's story. 

Harris not being offered another position is disappointing. She would have done well on the P&G shows if she was given the freedom. 

2 hours ago, dc11786 said:

Harris not being offered another position is disappointing. She would have done well on the P&G shows if she was given the freedom. 

Wasn't it revealed years ago (by somebody) that Karen Harris almost took the HW'ing gig at GL before hearing from others how awful the working conditions were?  Or am I getting that story confused with something else?

I caught a couple episodes last week. 

I watched a little of May, 2000, episodes. There were two major plots in the episode: (a) Lucy showing up at the park during Julie's supervised visitation with Christina leading to the social worker taking Christina away from both women and (b) Serena ending up in Claire Wright's room. 

I don't hate the custody story as much as others, but the comment that this isn't the material that suits Lynn Herring best. I think it is still rather intriguing. Herring and Lisa Ann Hadley are fun as rivals. Lucy being willing to keep Christina safe from Julie that she is on the brink of destroying everything. In her desperate attempt to keep tabs on Christina, she has forgotten to pick up Serena from school leading to the other story. 

Serena wanders into Claire Wright's (Linda Purl) room. Serena is aware that Scotty is doing the legal work so that Claire can die at home. This is a rather poignant moment as it was clearly playing on the Dominique story, but this is going with a very different angle. Serena's point of view on the issue (she seems deeply aware of everything) asks Claire if she is scared and if she is in a lot of pain. Purl does well in this role and she has nice chemistry with Carly Shroeder. Something like this moment would be easy to skip, but it makes the story very heartwarming. 

In addition, I watched two October, 2000, episodes following the other ones I had been watching. The fall out of Joe's HIV test is very interesting. It is coming to light who was behind it and it's a desperately ugly move by a character who 100% would stoop that low. Alex Melendez isn't terrible, but he doesn't really excite me as Joe. To a lesser degree, he seems more age appropriate for Joe compared to David Gail who came off as too old for me. Melendez cast as the son of the Irish Scanlon clan is definitely a choice. 

The mystery of Livvie's paternity is unraveling very nicely with each episode giving a bit more of the story. Each piece seems to be building to a very obvious conclusion, but I think it's such a fun journey. It is also interesting that it seems to be driving Kevin and Eve apart and Kevin and Lucy together. This is just really nice. Herring and Lindstrum have great chemistry in this story and Lucy's point of view (re: Christina) makes this material meaningful. 

I really like Jamal and Allison. Amanda Barrington is desperate to keep them apart even threatening to have Allison committed to an asylum. I am curious how far Harris and Bloom were going to go with this. Allison shows some signs of PTSD after the Cedric situation and I think this would have eventually lead to Allison / Kevin. Jamal pushing away "Spunky" to keep her safe from her controlling grandmother is sad. It kills me to know what they will do to Allison and Jamal down the line. 

I would be curious what a modern reaction to all this would have been. A lot of 2000 is a variation on some of the best of Riche from 1992-1996. 

As was posted in the In Memoriam thread, actress Patricia Crowley passed away yesterday. She played original cast member Mary Scanlon Collins through the show's entire run.

3 minutes ago, Bright Eyes said:

As was posted in the In Memoriam thread, actress Patricia Crowley passed away yesterday. She played original cast member Mary Scanlon Collins through the show's entire run.

Sorry to hear this. I thought she'd passed a year or two ago. I liked her work as Mary, even if the character never went beyond a dimension and a half.

I dipped into the first week of June, 1998. The show has more energy than the opening months, but I cannot say I love everything going on.

The big umbrella story, the General Homicide murders, gives the show energy which it didn't have in the previous year and there are a lot of nice ripple effects. Lucy's character in General Homicide dies at the Nurses' Ball so there is tension and concern about Lucy hosting. Eve is suspected of killing Devlin, after having been revealed to be Devlin's former lover, which has led to tension in the Scanlon household resulting in Eve being booted and taking shelter with Chris Ramsey. Bennett is dead. Grace is dead. And Greg Cooper is sending notes. The dramatic tension is there, but I am not always super into serial killer storylines.

One of the nice little threads of the story is complications being caused in the Kevin / Lucy / Scott / Eve quad. I don't really have a horse in the race (I like Scott and Lucy, but they never seem to work together as much as they do apart). I don't hate Kevin and Lucy, but there is only so many patronizing speeches Kevin can deliver. With that said, there are some very well done conversations. Eve and Scott don't work completely for me either. I like all the characters separately, but I don't really care who ends up with who. Lucy's latest stunt has been to uncover Eve's past as an escort through information from Tammy Hansen (a GH crossover). The revelation causes more issues internally for Eve, and between Lucy and Kevin, than it does between Eve and Scott.

Concurrently on "General Hospital," Katherine Bell has recently been murdered by Stefan Cassadine which leads to Kevin and Lucy preparing to go to the wake. It is an interesting moment because Kevin does manage to tie the Katherine / Scotty romance back to the present day Scotty / Eve romance stating in both cases the women weren't perfect, but they did care for Scott. Kevin alludes that Lucy likes to keep Scott by himself in case things don't work out for her. Its an interesting hypothesis, and plays into Kevin's suggested fears that Lucy doesn't want to marry him.

There's a lot of historical references. Scott blows off the Eve/hooker reveal stating that he was once involved with another former prostitute at GH (Bobbie) without naming her. Kevin talks with Eve and connects with her on the accusations because of his own past, I believe alluding to the Felicia stalking on "GH." Eve goes off on how Dominique was a saint. I think the history lessons are great, but it often leaves me feeling like this isn't a story playing out in the world of "Port Charles," but rather in "General Hospital."

I find Eve, overall, more interesting in her other material. Shacking up platonically with Chris Ramsey. Going at it with Julie, who she goes as far as saying has an Electra complex and also states she pities Bennett for having a daughter like Julie. There is a very interesting nugget mentioned by Eve that she had a sister Shelly, who was badly burned at work, which resulted in Eve dropping out of school to take jobs to support the family leading to her turning tricks. The sister's burns supposedly have been treated and she lives in Austin with their mother. I wonder if Latham would have brought the sister in at some point.

In a B/C story, Ellen Morgan and Matt Harmon are reconnecting and the big conflict is Ellen is considering resuming her role as the head of the interns (Dr. May was doing this briefly and wants to return to pediatrics). Matt is quick to say he expects to snag the Quartermaine Fellowship soon and will no longer be under her supervision if they can just keep things quiet for a few weeks. Matt and Ellen have nice chemistry and this is a decent conflict, but there wasn't much play for it.

Courtney Kanelos has recently arrived in town and there are a lot of allusions to how much trouble she was in the past. I don't get the sense of the personal history between Courtney and Frank at this point other than Frank didn't like what Courtney did to his brother. There is some decent tension, but overall it's not really going anywhere yet. I didn't realize they were playing Neil and Serena's friendship this early as Serena goes to visit Neil at the hospital.

The show seems better than the Cullitons, but I'm not really drawn into anything yet. I'll probably just jump around again between episodes of "Another Life" and possibly binge 1997-2000 once I finish "Another Life."

@dc11786 Very glad to see your analyses again. I hope you had a good Thanksgiving.

I watched 1998 closely at the time and I'd tend to agree with you, especially about how Eve was much more interesting with Chris or Julie than in what they gave her. The attempt to turn her into a heroine soured me on the character, and I don't think it suited Julie Pinson, to say the least.

Same to you @DRW50 regarding the holidays.

Julie Pinson has charisma and grows as an actress over time, but the show rarely uses her effectively. I just watched the first 7 episode of July, 1999. Eve and Kevin are off to Rome to locate a missing Victor Collins. The writing is trying too hard to make Kevin and Eve this off beat romantic comedy duo who get caught up in hijinks. Michael J. Anderson has been introduced as Peter Zorin who seems tied to the spy stuff (he claims to work for the American embassy in Rome but this appears to be a cover). None of it really gels, but I get what they are trying to do. It just doesn't work. By the time Eve and Kevin discuss the mile high club, I am ready to fast forward.

The rest of July, 1999, that I've watched was fun. There was a guest appearance from 98 Degrees, who were performing on "General Hospital." Frank and Karen took Neil, Serena and nuLark to the sound check. It was a nice little diversion from he other stuff going on. There was a lot of turnover cast wise. On July 1, Michael Dietz makes his last appearance as Joe reading Neil's essay on the future (he's still undergoing chemo) and on July 2, David Gail is around to punch out Frank after learning that Frank set I'm up as a sex addict. Marie Wilson also first appeared on June 30, but I didn't watch that episode. I know Scott Hamner took over the first week of May, so he probably is settling in now.

Two climates happen in the same episode, or an episode or two apart, with Karen learning that Frank has been spying on her from an apartment across from hers and that this is how he set up Joe for the sex phone calls and the hooker Janell. It's like they are resetting the characters, which I don't necessarily blame them. I don't hate the sex addict stuff (but I haven't seen the build), but it definitely feels like something Bill Levinson would have tried on Riche's GH. I think Gail is meant to be a "tougher" Joe, which I think Gail does effectively present even if Dietz is the stronger dramatic actor. Wilson is suitable, but fits in better in some of the family stuff later.

Courtney and Frank are thick as thieves and Frank briefly hints that he is going on to turn on Courtney since he's already going down. This dynamic is fun. I think centering them in the story going forward with a new Joe and Karen would be a smart move.

There is some interesting psychological stuff going on with Karen and her fear of trusting men. It's never directly stated, but Karen lacking trust makes sense. She was molested by Ray Conway and Jagger has cheated on her at the tailend of their marriage. Throw in her stripper past and I could see how this all would leave Karen very unsettled. There is a lot of interesting things to explore here, but I'm not sure they will be.

The other big climax is the reveal that Lucy and DV slept together when Lucy had amnesia when DV sent Scott a video of Lucy and DV making out. This is a pretty decent set of scenes for Lucy and Scott despite the hideousness of the act itself. I was pleasantly surprised to see the show go there, even in 1999, and have Gail say it was a violation as well Scott saying Lee he's afraid he is repeating what happened with Scott and Laura. Scott's source of anger isn't the act itself, but the ensuing lie, while Lucy maintains she didn't want to hurt Scott. By the end, Scott is furious with DV as he should be.

In the other major story, Julie and Chris have announced their plans to marry and Julie wants Lee removed as her guardian, hoping to install Chris' shady lawyer Darren Leopold instead. There is a lot of fun little beats with Julie calling Lucy looking for Lee but hearing Christina crying in the background. Chris goes on the news and blames Lee for some of Julie's issues as she hasn't even been tried for the 5th murder she was accused of comitting. There is a genuine sense of dread about the possibility of having Julie released from Ferncliff.This leads to a standoff between Lee, Chris and Julie leading to Lee having an attack that is later revealed to be a pulmonary embolism.

It doesn't look good for Lee and there are a lot of family scenes. There is a "final goodbye" between Scott and Lee that is very poignant with Scott refusing to say its a goodbye. The Baldwin family is such a tight unit in this sequence with a very nice delivery of a monologue from Marie Wilson's Karen about how she imagined what her grandparents would be like growing up and how Lee and Gail are better than she could have imagined. Playing this with all of the DV material in the background, not mentioned, gives this a little more oomph.

I know Scott Hamner gets raked over the coals for the psychic spy stuff, and rightfully so, but this material isn't bad. It's not Karen Harris' "Port Charles" but more appealing than a lot of Latham's material that I've seen. A lot of the domestic stories are well done and I find the overall presence of characters like Gail and Lee charming. There's something very appealing about this.

@dc11786 I appreciate you writing about the material with Lee as that sounds most interesting to me but what I didn't remember. At the time I mainly remember Frank in his true sleaze era (which Jay Pickett did a great job with) and some of the build of Chris/Julie. These parts were compelling and made good use of performances. The stuff with Scott, Eve, Lucy and Kevin I found to be extremely alienating. I thought DV was miscast (too young to be Scott's father, lacking charisma, on and on) and I can't think of a worse way to bring him on than a rape story with Lucy that they tried to half-dress as romance.

I had forgotten Michael J. Anderson from Twin Peaks was on the show lol. Thank you @dc11786 . I hated the DV story with all the psychic spy nonsense, but I'm always for seeing Anderson back then and it's not like that kind of stuff wasn't a part of the GH fabric. It just felt so silly and poorly done on PC, which had been a more grounded show (until what's still to come).

I remember they dug up one of Meg Bentley's 1960s suitors during the DV story - he actually showed up onscreen to talk to Scott about DV and Meg's affair. I think it was the same actor. I was shocked. My apologies if you discussed this (I'm pretty sure we have before lol). I've seen that episode recently, but I have always wanted to see more of that material even as I hate the DV story, simply to see how they characterized the long-forgotten Meg as a person 30+ years later. But the edits online are impossible to wade through for that. I might watch some of it again to see more of Gail and Lee, who I have come to appreciate much more than I did as a kid while watching classic '70s, early '90s stuff etc lately. When I first started watching ABC I didn't really get that history, in part because Scott left GH almost as soon as I started watching and when he came onto PC I saw him as a (hot) interloper for Kevin and Lucy.

Edited 7 hours ago7 hr by Vee

@DRW50 The Lee stuff is fairly well done and feels intricate to the story and not necessarily just filler. Lee's role as Julie's legal guardian given hercompetency is significant and Julie and Chris' challenge of Lee's role is what leads to the dramatic moment where it looks like Lee is having a heart attack. Chris actually accompanies Lee back to Port Charles saying that he helped save his life, which is undermined in a very low key way by revealing Lee's problem was an embolism and not a heart attack as the meds Chris administered for the heart attack had no impact. It's a sequence which spirals in several ways. It brings the Baldwin clan together, who feels tighter and more developed than I felt in a lot of earlier sequences with Karen's monologue on her dream grandparents and Gail's confession that Lee still hopes that one day Lee and Scott will work together again. Most beautiful though are the moments alone between Scott and Lee where Lee has resigned to his fate (Monica has, off screen, confirmed that there is a low likelihood Lee will survive) and Scott has to be the one to uplift his father and convince him to fight.

There are clearly other threads building. With Lee incapacitated, he won't be able to fight Chris and Julie when they want to install Darren Leopold as Julie's new guardian. This also will enhance the animosity between Chris / Julie and Scott / Lucy as Scott and Lucy are fostering baby Christina. While this health crisis certainly drives the plot, it is also a moment to explore the dynamics of the Baldwin clan.

This episode might be worth a peak. It features Lee / Scott's conversation about DV / Lucy framed in the experience Scott had with Laura / Luke. It also includes Gail / Lucy discussing the incident with Lucy / DV and Gail, as a psychiatrist, framing it as something damaging that was done to Lucy. It's very nice to see Lee and Gail in support of Lucy. Lee also goes to confront Chris and Julie after Chris' news broadcast where he alludes to Lee keeping Julie locked up to manage her estate. It ends with Lee's health crisis and Gail calling Scotty to come to the hospital.

This episode features the more emotional Baldwin family moments. Gail pleading with Lee is heartbreaking. Marie Wilson has been in the role of Karen under 2 weeks and does a decent job selling the connection to the Baldwin clan. This features the Lee / Scott scenes starts at 15:22 with the rest of the family scattering leaving to some very wonderful work from Shriner and Hansen. In an era for the genre where this kind of character work was fading, this is a standout sequence.

@Vee The psychic spy stuff is definitely ingrained in the fabric of the GH universe from the Ice Princess through Casey the Alien and beyond. Riche's early adventure sequences were more grounded (even the Paloma / San Sebasitan stuff which I believe may have been cooked up by consultant Anne Howard Bailey seemed more down to earth) and I know she's about six months from turning over PC to Julie Hannan Carrouthers. I get what they are trying to do but it is such a tonally clash with the rest of the show, as you stated. There's also some stuff I skimmed over about Victor's electronic role playing game and some of the spy gear stuff that I think is suppose to evoke a level of modern day suspense paired with pop culture camp with references to "Austin Powers" and the inclusion of Peter Zorin. None of it really works for me, but I know there is some later stuff involving Eve where she has been convinced her child is alive that I will eventually have to get to that seems like it might be a better balance of the absurd and the emotional.

The Noel Clinton stuff occurs on the cusp of Lynn Latham departing and Scott Hamner assuming the reigns. I want to say it is set up in episodes still attributed to Latham, but he appears under Hamner. This is all the first week of May, which I believe also focuses on Lucy (as an amnesiac believing she is Eve White) and DV sleeping together. I want to say all of the Noel Clinton sequences are in a single episode.

I haven't seen enough of DV to make a firm opinion. Most of the stuff I've seen isn't great, but Riche typically allowed villains to have more layers than I've seen yet with DV. It's just very intriguing that so much story space is spent establishing the rewrite of Scotty's paternity in the very real timeline.

The one thing I don't think completely works is that Lee and Scott's bond is so strong and it was long established that Scott was Lloyd Bentley's son. Changing this doesn't change the relationship between Scott and Lee. I think they could have gone one of two routes to make this dynamic more interesting. Either establishing that Meg and DV had a child that DV raised that was a half-sibling to Scott (I'd go with a sister to pair with Kevin and shift Eve back to the younger set) or establish that DV's late wife and Lee had been involved with DV having raised Lee's biological child. DV as Scott's father is the more traditional route, but I think they could have extracted more by going a slightly different path. I almost wonder if Rachel Locke as Lee's daughter and DV's surrogate would have worked.

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by dc11786
added link to second episode

Thanks so much. You always have lovely thoughts. I think the hope under this regime re: DV and Scott must have been that DV would be some ready-made long-running villain, hence the blood ties and Kin Shriner spending months scowling and growling "Bordisso!" everyday, but I never was interested in him and he flopped just like Rex Stanton. I can't remember how or when they got rid of DV.

I have always wanted to see Rachel Locke return to wreak havoc on GH. I'd still want GH to make use of some of these other characters (like Christina and Serena, or perhaps a child of Livvie's) someday, while deftly sidestepping the continuity issues involved later in PC's run. The ambitious but dismal 2013 attempt at such on GH was largely handwaved as being the result of a magic spell anyway.

Edited 26 minutes ago26 min by Vee

2 minutes ago, Vee said:

The ambitious but dismal 2013 attempt at such on GH was largely handwaved as being the result of a magic spell anyway.

I still don't know whether to laugh or cuss someone out over that.

Just now, Khan said:

I still don't know whether to laugh or cuss someone out over that.

I mean, to play devil's advocate Carlivati was often a stickler for obscure continuity (unless he didn't like it or had some new idea of his own, in which case he'd just do all sorts of shít). So his solution did in fact have its roots in PC's final storyline - the magic ring of wishes or whatever the hell it was lol. That was definitely what Carlivati was hinting at IMO; that all of PC had happened but Caleb's magic ring had made the world forget (I know). And Alison Barrington, her son, Rafe Kovich, Caleb, etc. all existed per GH (as did Christina), and Karen Wexler is still dead. So AFAIC PC happened, and you just explain it all away with one line about idk, 'those strange times, sometimes I forget they ever even happened' or Kevin saying 'Livvie and I haven't spoken in 20 years' or something lol.

Edited 14 minutes ago14 min by Vee