General Hospital

[JackPeyton]

to answer the question, yes GH does try hard to make certin people look like [!@#$%^&*].

as to whom, it changes. lets just say its obvious when the hair, makeup, and wardrope people are mad at stars...

[rangethatrover]

Well Nancy Lee Grahn and Laura Wright PISSED SOMEONE OFF BIG TIME!

[DaytimeFan]

Hilarious.

GH looks awful from top to bottom. The sets are cheap, the actors look TERRIBLE, the lighting is truly the worst in daytime (I prefer the ridiculous look of GL to the funeral parlor look at GH) and the music is not what it used to be.

JFP must be going crazy watching the show, it's not her standard, at all. She must be just disgusted.

[ian]

nah, Jill just found out that you can win emmys even when you produce absolute SCHLOCK so she stopped trying so hard, and look what she has to show for it.

[brimike]

OLTL spends a LOT of their music budget on radio tracks. I've never heard more background songs (with lyrics) than on OLTL, and they have far more Act Six montages than any other soap on the air right now. Only GL comes close, but they just use the same song over and over again within an episode to get their money's worth.

[R Sinclair]

GH has always had some horrid lighting.

[Cat]

IA. And sometimes the directive comes "from above," not just based on who pissed off wardrobe today.

GH has had a very particular Star System in place since Gloria Monty arrived in the mid- to late-70s. Sure, all soaps have them, but Monty really took the 1950s studio system and imprinted onto the show. The A actors were Tony Geary, Kin Shriner, Tristan Rogers, Genie Francis (to a lesser extent -- the women were regulated to somewhat semi-second tier status with Vanessa Marcil being the one exception), Emma Samms and later Finola Hughes.

B actors were Chris Robinson, Denise Alexander, Leslie Charleson, Stuart Damon and many of the Qs. Most everybody else rounded out the C list.

Consequently, wardrobe, hair and make-up followed this sort of system, too. And has ever since. Becky Herbst (surely one of the most physically beautiful women on earth) had shitatstic blonde chunks put into her hair a while back which totally washed her out. Perhaps it was to make certain other stars look/feel better about themselves? Remember when they stopped showing Ted King's fine-ass torso back when Carly & Lorenzo were looking to be a couple? Yeah. Maurice wasn't a fan of CarLo.

Also, GH was never a "pretty" soap like the Bell shows or Santa Barbara. It was lit like 1970s film noir and hasn't updated from that harsh, realistic 70s look. It also featured characters who were not necessarily uber-wealthy country club denizens or multi-millionaire CEOs. It was about murder and espionage and death as it was about supercouples. Why change the lighting when Murder and Death remain the two main stars of the show?

As for Laura Wright, her hair is naturally curly so I would imagine she wants to give the hair-straighteners a rest from time to time (and the damage they inflict on hair). She also likes comfort and not having to wear bras all the time, hence some awful ho-blouses with the back cut out for Carly. I personally like it when her hair is naturally wavy, although the no-bras thing can be... distracting.

The ting that bugs me aside from these production/wardrobe issues is the sound. They have some super-sensitive microphones that pick up every sniffle, squeak and background noise. That's probably why some of the actors mumble and whisper so much. Natalia Livingston used to gulp in between her lines as she ran out of breath and that used to get very magnified.

[JackPeyton]

i swear that Becky is just hated because she is so stunning. thats the only thing i can think of as to why they dress her so bad. do her hair so bad. OMG remember a few months ago she had this white poncho/hat combo that was like nitted? that was sooo bad.

[S&BFanForLife]

ITA. I loved the look of the show during that time.