Port Charles Discussion Thread

[Contessa Donatella]

Glad you enjoyed them.

[dc11786]

Even in these October, 1997, episodes, the balance in Eve's favor is strong, but mostly due to poor writing rather than slanted writing. For instance, Karen and Julie go hard on Eve for her previous affair with Julie's father. Karen's stance makes sense because the Jagger/Fran revelation only happened several weeks prior so it's rooted in real emotion that the audience experienced. Julie's anger is intriguing because it is gounded in the character's naivete. Although, Eve is quick to call Karen a former stripper (as is Chris). 

With the Cullitons, I don't really know what they expected Kevin to do. I imagine bringin on Victor Collins in the weeks leading up to "Port Charles" was suppose to give Kevin a mirror into what Serena was experiencing with Lucy by allowing him to reconnect with Victor. I thought Kevin's dynamic with Scott and Serena was nice. Everyone is just "too nice" for this to be the A-story at the beginning and Rex is not layered enough to make him compelling. 

I remember the destruction of Eve and Kevin's marriage being decent in what I saw as Kevin was in the thick of the Charlie MacMillan is Livvie story and Eve was already being positioned with the newly arrived Ian Thornhart, though I do wish the show had pulled the trigger on Chris / Eve. I don't think Eve / Kevin stood a chance the minute that Scott exited stage left after the Christina kidnapping storyline.  

Something else that stood out to me is the show was very reliant on nighttime talent to headwrite with little to no daytime experience. Lynn Latham had no experience. Scott Hamner had some experience writing scripts for ATWT, but mostly had primetime experience. Karen Harris was a daytime vet at that point, but her original partner Jonathan Estrin was primetime. Barbara Bloom went from daytime executive to writer. Essensten and Brown had the most daytime headwriting experience, but even they had been primetime writers for a good number of years. 

Random side note, Amy Weber (Lark #2) was off shooting a film in India in late 1999. In one of the soap columns, it says she was supposedly going to return in early 2000 and be part of a romance. I think that was scrapped becasue Hamner left and Estrin/Harris/Bloom took over. I was also thinking though that Lark would have been an interesting rival for, and contrast to,  Alison Barrington when she was still a spoiled pain in the ass. Given all the Scanlon family drama, I am surprised that Lark was abandoned. 

[Vee]

I thought Eve with the rougher Scott early in PC made sense, they were edgy. Kevin and Eve, I just didn't understand how they would ever be together. And Scott and Lucy felt like a severe regression to me (and has ever since), but in fairness I was very unfamiliar with their past when I first watched PC beyond knowing it existed and the backstory with Dominique. When I first came onto GH they had just begun putting Lucy with Kevin, and I've never gotten over their last breakup.

I never really cared about either Lark, and the Scanlons only fitfully interested me. It didn't surprise me when they were supplanted by first Livvie (with Lark) and then Ian, the vampires, etc.

I have said many times how I would bring back Christina (Chris and Julie's daughter, adopted by Lucy and Scott/Kevin) as a spiky novelist/muckraker to stir up trouble as a new female lead on GH opposite an arrogant Dr. Tom Hardy Jr., so this is where me and my fanfic will bow out.

Edited December 31, 2024 by Vee

[DRW50]

@dc11786 I thought Lark was an interesting good/bad girl. I wonder if, beyond Livvie and whoever else, the reason they didn't bring her back is because she was mostly a reminder of when Frank was a terrible person instead of a reformed character.

Chris/Eve would have been such a great pairing. The show's choice to make Eve a heroine, rather than an anti-heroine, took away most of her potential. Julie Pinson has never been that great at playing heroines. 

The schemes with Lucy and Scott might have been interesting if they had wanted to write them that way but instead it just became a lot of misery over VD, Christina, and so on. 

[dc11786]

I didn't think Julie Pinson was strong enough to be opposite Kin Shriner in the beginning, but I think she would have grown with time. She was definitely green, but there was a spark there inside her that made Eve stand out a little more than some of the interns. I am more interested in Lucy vs. Eve than Eve / Scott and possibly even Scott and Lucy. I don't remember much of Lucy / Kevin in my viewing of 1995, but I feel they had declawed Lucy too much... and I think reuniting her with Scotty and Serena and potentially threatening that happiness with Eve usurping Lucy as a mother figure (in Lucy's mind mostly) is appealing. I know Lucy / Kevin were well liked, and I could see why in 2000 when they actually had story that worked for them.

I don't remember Lark being amazing from my first viewing of the SoapNet rereuns, but I remember she had a bit more energy than other parts of the canvas. I also noticed some parallels to the Karen Wexler story in my more recent viewing of some episodes so I am curious to see how that works out. 

In general, I don't think the Scanlons are interesting until they bring on Courtney, who seems like the perfect instigator. Sarah Aldrich played that part well. Courtney made them messy, which they needed to be to milk actual drama out of that unit. 

Feel free to fan fic lol. Christina was Frank's biological daughter, but i would definitely have Chris Ramsey act as a pseudo father figure. Also, Tommy and Christina should have some pre-existing relationship in theory as Scotty was Christina's father for a moment and presumably is still tied to her and Tom Hardy and Scotty Baldwin were close cousins at one time. I really wish the show had roped Tom and Simone into Port Charles the more and more I think about it. 

@DRW50 I can't imagine who they were planning on pairing Lark with. I watched an episode from October, 1999, to make sure it wasn't Eve's son who was mentioned a lot late in Scott Hamner's run. Eve's son would have only been nine and I would have found it hard to buy Pinson as a mother to a teen in 2000. 

I think they should have given back some of Scotty and Lucy's edges. If Karen Harris had arrived a year earlier, I could totally see Lucy and Scott dealing with VD rather than DV. 

***

I'm up to mid-November. It is mostly background noise because it isn't very compelling. Greg Cooper as a Stefano Dimera figure is a choice... not one I would have made, but there it is. 

Greg's kidnapped Julie which has produced two decent moments. One, the investigation has brought to the forefront that Julie's disappearance might be caused by Julie's emotional turmoil over learning that Bennett and Eve had been lovers. The intense hatred for Eve is pretty one-sided and I wish there was more vitriol sent in Bennett's direction. The second moment sees Mark Boardman stabbed by Greg Cooper and saved by Matt Harmon, who Boardman has been shunning from the surgical rotation because he doesn't think Harmon can be a surgeon in a wheel chair. Harmon's story continues to be the strongest. Alan Q pops up for a nice cameo and so does Monica. 

It looks like the first new character introduced by Latham is Barbara Stock's Nicole Devlin. A nice addition. She does well opposite Albert and Pinson. I'm curious to see how she does with Hadley. They set up some minor groundwork for what is to come with Chris / Nicole, which I'm onboard for. In 1999, I know they briefly bring back Nicole as part of a story involving Rachel investigating Chris' past. Erin Gray (Nicole #2) says she had auditioned a year ago for GH and wasn't hired becasue she looked too healthy and the character died. I wonder who that could have been. 

The less said about the Rex Stanton stuff the better. There was a nice reference to the park that Dominique died in and the atmosphere in the Baldwin / Collins circle is nice with nicknames and favorite stuffed animals and such, but it lacks the bite that is necessary to be compelling. I skipped ahead and watched one episode from October, 1998, and the Scotty / Lucy / Kevin stuff appears more compelling, but not original. There's an emphasis on emotions that seems missing in the 1997 stuff. 

I think I'll stick with it to see when (if?) things get better. 

 

Edited January 1 by dc11786
double post

[DRW50]

@dc11786 I wonder if it could have been Brenda's mother, Veronica? She is in the right age range and the character was dying.

[Vee]

Most likely. IIRC Jennifer Hetrick (Vash from Star Trek: The Next Generation and former partner of Patrick Stewart) got the part. They looked very similar.

[dc11786]

I knew that Veronica was crazy, didn't know she was dying. Thanks @Vee and @DRW50

[Vee]

idk if she was actually dying, but she did have the serious disease and she did die (by suicide). Gray may have been referring to the character having a very short run.

Edited January 2 by Vee

[dc11786]

Erin Gray may have misremembered. She specifically stated she didn't get it because she looked too healthy and the character was sick and going to die. Again, for a role she didn't get, she probably misspoke. 

 

[DRW50]

 

I don't think it was ever specifically said she was dying but that was a huge shadow over the character and what led her to kill herself. Jennifer Hetrick was also a beautiful lady, but she had a more haunted look, whereas Erin was always very all-American.

[Vee]

It was more an idea of two arrogant opposites - Tom II (now Thomas, to avoid any unfortunate racial optics) would come back to town with a chip on his shoulder about his skills a la Patrick Drake (and engage in a brief and torrid affair with older woman and work superior Portia), and Christina (who probably would need to go by another name given Kristina Corinthos-Davis) would be a fiery writer and activist trading on her adoptive and biological parents' scandalous histories for her work and possible TV deals, sort of an eccentric creative in the mold of the Dobsons. And eventually they would come together and become a new central young couple. Thomas did have a childhood around Maxie, so they would be friendly.

I did consider the idea of having Tom Hardy appear (be it Matt Ashford or someone else), since I think Steven Lars/Steve Webber is played out as an elder hospital character and you can't really have both around; they fill the same heritage role. You would have to reckon with Thomas' family at some point regardless, and it would be nice to see Simone. I would love to see Chris Ramsey again, but Nolan North is now a very big deal in video games and as I recall has spoken ill of his soap experience; I suspect he is unlikely to ever come back.

Edited January 3 by Vee

[Michael]

Deep cut here, but does anyone recall what Linda Dano's Rae did when she appeared on PC in 2000? Was it more of a cameo to get her to hit all four ABC soaps, or did she have some story? I remember her on the "big three" all too well, the way they twisted history and backstory to cram her in on those, but she doesn't seem to have had any footprint on PC at all.

I'm loving this conversation, btw! I don't have a ton to add, but it's fascinating to read.

[DRW50]

From this it seems the main story she had was witnessing the Rachel/Kevin hostility and briefly hoping Eve was her daughter.

Port Charles Recaps: The week of April 17, 2000 on PC | Soap Central

Port Charles Recaps: The week of April 24, 2000 on PC | Soap Central

[Khan]

Linda Dano/Rae Cummings' hopscotching across the entire ABCD lineup was such a joke.  I'm honestly surprised they didn't have her pop up and looking for her long-lost child on other ABC programs as well.