Port Charles Discussion Thread

[Cheap21]

no bc GH should have been using all the characters it wasnt. PC needed its own seperate identity and shouldnt have been the dumping ground for rejected GH characters. PC used several GH characters and they were fine in the capacity in which they appeared.

The interns were great. Jake was probably the weakest of the 7 but he was written out within the year. The other 6 served their purpose

IA. 2000 with Karen Harris as HW was a great time for PC. She reinjected it with some life with her hospital based storylines. I actually liked BE in the beginning with the arcs and they were good but they went overboard. They got too obsessed with the supernatural stuff. Superstition was the beginning of the end for PC. Even then, I thought they could have salvaged the damaged done in that arc, and they had their chance in NE, but once they brought back Caleb and the vampires and turned half the town into them, then it was a wrap

[NYC123]

ITA with Toups. They should have NEVER hired B&E.

[Chris B]

Excuse me. I know you posted this a long, long time ago, but I take offense! Let's not forget that RYAN'S HOPE, a great show, was thrown under the bus for Loving. That show which never seemed to find it's identity was given RH's timeslot to make Agnes Nixon happy. It's a shame because RH's ratings were good and with the timeslot switch they immediately dropped so much that you know the show never had a chance. Had they not moved Ryan's Hope we wouldn't have The City or Port Charles because it was a great, well developed show that would've remained successful. I'm still pissed it was messed about with for Loving. I'll never watch Loving or The City because of that!

Now moving onto my reason for entering this thread--Port Charles! I've seen the arcs two, three times in some cases. I was a big PC fan when I was in high school and now I'm re-watching the series from the very beginning. Anything Pre-arc is brand new to me. Original!Joe and Original!Karen are new to me. Scott as a regular on PC is new to me. I just completed the pilot and was pleasantly surprised. I don't expect this to be a great show. They experimented with a different format: no families and multi-generational storytelling; set in the same town and same main location as another soap (still don't know how that'll work!). The casting seems strong which explains why they didn't have too much cast turnover in the pre-arc years.

Things that stood out to me so far...

- I forgot Port Charles was in New York with those painfully obvious California-as-Ontario location shots. I just assumed the show was set in Cali since the location work is clearly being done there. Then I thought about it, shook my head and tried to ignore it. Not a major problem, but kinda annoying. They could've picked a locale to put Scott and Serena that they could reasonably recreate in California.

- Loved seeing Lucy Coe directly off her GH stint. I loved her during the arcs and I've never seen her on General Hospital. She was great in the pilot. Very funny, sexy and I loved the scene where she calls for help and bullets come flying through the elevator. I'm surprised GH hasn't tried that! It was such a thrilling sequence and she did a great job with it.

- As an Audrey fan I hope to see a lot of her in these pre-arc years. She's in the opening and Wikipedia and IMDB show her as a regular so I hope it's more than once or twice a month. That's how I'm used to seeing her and I'd love to see her do even more. If I were in charge of Y&R I'd sign her to contract as the new Dina Mergeron. That is, if Marla Adams isn't available.

- So weird seeing Julie Pinson at the beginning of her soap career. I hated her on Y&R and DAYS, but I'm enjoying Eve. This is probably her best soap role. I also look forward to seeing more of the fragile Julie. I know they ruin it later on (based on her appearances during the arcs), but I'll enjoy it while it lasts.

Right now I'm looking forward to seeing Karen and Scott interact and the introduction of Debbi Morgan as Ellen.

[DRW50]

My memory isn't the best, but I actually don't remember ever seeing Audrey on PC after the primetime movie. At the time it was almost a joke, because she was in the credits every day but never around. I guess this was good practice for GH's opening credits of the past five years.

Julie was great as early Eve but I lost interest when they tried to make her into a heroine. Julie, on the other hand, comes alive when they make her a bitch.

[bellcurve]

Maybe to you.

I hated they way they threw Jamal under the bus for Rafe and Alison. It was pathetic and I hated every flipping second of it. And then they threw Jack and Alison together...really?!

I was relieved when they ended with a cliffhanger. Yeah, Alison and Rafe got their happy ending, but in my continuation, she gave birth to Caleb's vampire baby. I hated Caleb/Michael Easton, but I'd take him anyday over Rafe.

-Audrey testified on behalf of Joe Scanlon, because he almost got kicked out of the program for performing brain surgery on Audrey with a drill.

-During the Nurses Strike, she walked out with Mary Scanlon and all the dayplayer nurses. BTW, I miss Deniece, Katie, and Hector. And Raj too! LOL. I also recall they made crossover appearances on GH too.

Heroine Eve was boring as hell. Typical Lynn Lethal...take the bad girl and turn her into a Giggly Heffa.

And Toups is so right. They should have never fired Karen Harris for trash like Brown/Esenten. PC had so much heart and character during her short tenure. I'll never forgive Angela Shapiro(and especially Felicia Behr for saying PC was "leaning on GH too much." So the solution is to turn it into a crappy Anne Rice ripoff?) for that.

[DRW50]

Thanks, bellcurve. I had forgotten they finally used her briefly later on. I have heard good things about that nurses' strike story and Karen's tenure. At the time I wasn't watching because I was still annoyed by what LML had done to Lucy, by some of the material in the Hamner run (the DV/Lucy stuff when she had amnesia turned my stomach, and I thought he also went too far with how Courtney and Frank behaved in breaking up Karen and Joe, although I did get a kick out of their relationship/the actress who played Courtney), and by Kevin/Eve in general.

By the time I tuned in for her run, she was already on the way out.

[Chris B]

Firing Karen Harris does seem odd if they show was actually good when she was writing. I'm not looking forward to her stint because I know it'll be over quick and them I'm back with the arcs. I've watched three episodes so far and it's a cute little show. Chris is sexier than I remember. I don't recall him every doing anything so this is a shock. Very surprised to read that early Eve is a bitch. I only knew her as a heroine. Hell, I barely knew her since she died in Secrets.

So far Ellen seems a bit of a bitch. Nothing like Angie. Not loving the wig, but overall it's a nice outing for Miss Morgan. Anyone know why she left the show after a year? Was it a Beverlee McKinsey one-year contract deal to help with the launch and then she said "Peace!"?

[SFK]

I remember watching Debbi on Sinbad's late night talk show and she was touting her new, bitchier character, Ellen ("Angie's DEAD!"). She seemed excited about the prospecst, but after a year or so and the show wasn't really poppin', she decided she wanted to devote her energy to booking film roles. She had a lot of good press off of Eve's Bayou and I think she had a lingering desire to see where that might take her.

[DRW50]

I think one of the reasons Debbi left was they had started to mellow Ellen significantly. She did seem to enjoy some of this (there was some good comedy when she became friends with Lucy), but overall the character lost most of her purpose. She was probably right to go, as I don't think they had any real plans for Ellen. Poor Marie Alice Recasner never had much of a chance.

Chris never had a lot to do on the show but did have his moments. I always loved his friendship with Eve (frankly that was one of the few times I found Eve tolerable) and he also had some very tender moments with Julie. Seeing his vendetta against that prig Matt was fun too. He was very funny. And Nolan North was very cute.

To think that PC had a parade of boring Joes, and later, the awful Rafe and Jack, and never properly used Chris or Jamal.

[bellcurve]

The show was REALLY good when Karen Harris was HW. Don't believe the haters who say otherwise. I remember coming home from school and being engaged in what the doctors were doing. I watched PC when it first began, but when things started to shift from the Hospital when Lethal was Head Writer, I quickly lost interest.

You also have to keep in mind my only regular soap viewing experience was NBC Daytime and I wrote them off after they canned Sunset Beach. I was astounded to watch a daytime soap where characters actually worked and not only explored their personal lives, but professional ones as well. Karen Harris did a pitch perfect balance of this.

The only time I have ever been able to stomach Thorsten Kaye was when Ian was initially introduced as this renegade doctor and we got to see his compassion for the homeless. He was hotheaded, but nothing like the boring pig he became. I assume Harris was really instrumental in developing that character.

Early Eve was trampy and fun.

Her relationship with Scott was great fun too. Pinson and Kin Shriner had great chemistry together.

Frank stalking Karen and stealing her panties, DL-56 or not, was just wrong. And making Joe into some psycho.

And LML(no way in hell could this have been Wendy Riche, or at least I would hope not) hiring David Gail as Joe Scanlon was [!@#$%^&*]. Michael Dietz was great as "good guy" Joe and they replace him with some roided hothead. There's no way I could feel sorry for Joe when he was exposed to HIV(via Nurse Jill) because Gail made Joe such an arrogant pig. And speaking of...I loved that story! My favorite moment was when Courtney had eavesdropped on a conversation at the hospital that Joe may have HIV. And Courtney made a big deal about it and hunted Mary Scanlon down(who, wisely, they molded into a conservative, closeminded, judgmental woman) and then two of them ended up asking Frank. Pat Crowley played it to perfection.

Mary: "Does your brother have it?"

Frank: "What are you talking about?"

Mary: "H. EYE. VEEEE!"

The reactions most of these characters had to everything were so real.

And while we're on Courtney, I loved Sarah Aldrich. It's a shame PC dumped her during these stupid arc stories and that she never found another daytime gig. She wasn't THE BEST actress on the globe, but I felt like the writers played to her strengths and she ran with the ball. Courtney was always trying to do some get rich quick scheme or plan parties for Amanda Barrington. My favorite moment from Courtney is her reaction to Sonny Corinthos whenever Mo Benard crossed over to figure out why Frank got shot at the Recovery Room. He tries to introduce himself and Courtney steps back and says, "I know who you are." And when Frank tells Courtney that Sonny paid off all his gambling debt, Courtney says, "Please, don't tell me he knows where we live." LOL.

Hell, all Sonny Haters should watch those two episodes PC featured him in. Most people feared him and/or recognized him for the scum that he was.

I was devastated when they demoted Karen Harris. F*ck Angie Shapiro and Felicia Minei Behr for doing that sh!t to my show.

[SFK]

I am so tardy to the party, all of these years and I never realized that was Marie-Alise Recasner playing Whitley's mousy tagalong Millie in the first season of A Different World.

Like you Carl, I remember VERY little of Audrey after the primetime movie premiere when "Alan-Michael" drilled her head open.

[DRW50]

Marie was a lot of fun on A Different World. I wish she hadn't just disappeared. She had the puppy romance with Ron, which then made Ron's transition into being a horn dog even more jarring (I did love Ron in the last season -- Ron/Freddie were a great couple, although the blatant sexuality from them and from Whitley/Dwayne in that last season was such a departure from the earlier seasons).

bellcurve, I've always wondered about what happened with Joe. I thought Dietz and Jennifer Hammon were very good together and worked well as the young romantic leads. They were billed as the show's breakout couple. Then they dropped Dietz to recurring and he had to play an increasingly less important part until they found David Gail. It seemed like they wanted to make Joe more edgy, or whatever. Perhaps this was an ABC mandate. It felt very strange and did Joe no favors. Joe wasn't supposed to be edgy.

I just wish the show hadn't had to go so heavily into those hollow arcs, which were blatantly plot-driven and which wrecked so many characters with such flimsy reasons. Kevin's a lunatic because he got jabbed with a needle! People are paid to write this?

I wish they'd done more with Gabriella. They had an interesting story when she became a vampire, but it went nowhere. I guess that would have involved writing for a minority character.

[DRW50]

It seems like she only made one or two appearances. She was on GH more often during that time. That Wikipedia profile makes it sound like she was used a lot on PC and then went back to GH. Then again, that profile also may give viewers the impression that GH actually gave Kent Masters King, Eddie Matos, Kiko Ellsworth, Jay Pickett any type of story when they were at GH. They deserved better (well, maybe not Eddie Matos).

[jfung79]

In my memory, after the pilot, PC was actually pretty multi-generational and family-oriented at first -- the Scanlons and the Baldwins. Lee and Gail made quite a few appearances early on. Mary's relationship with her sons, and the interactions of the brothers, Joe and Frank Scanlon, were also important in my memory. It was nice to have that as well as the focus on the interns' problems at work. It was a nice balance.

I loved the chemistry of the first Joe and Karen and the sweetness of their story.

How are you watching the first few months of PC? I'd love to re-live them, those were good times (just the first few months, I don't care about after the Cullitons were fired, lol). But I guess I wouldn't have the time to watch them even if I could. Oh, but those were the days ...

Edited January 18, 2010 by jfung79

[bellcurve]

Exactly.

And I understand that Jennifer Hammon quit, but they could have kept Michael Dietz and moved him to another pairing. And if they wanted to make Joe edgy, they should have trusted that Dietz could do that.