Jump to content

Was Gloria Monty or Wendy Riche the better GH EP?


Recommended Posts

  • Members

I'm not a long time GH fan, however I feel as if Wendy didn't do a good job with GH production wise as Gloria did. Gloria seemed to be more hands on doing more to improve the show and some might say leave a mark. Wendy just seemed to be there, not going beyond the call of EP IMO.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 21
  • Created
  • Last Reply
  • Members

Monty was a pioneer, and innovator. She gets the edge on that note. The Monty formula was a little Hitchcock mixed with a little Capra.

Riche was more nuanced, and her show had heart. Her formula was more the human condition reflected in the lives of the people of Port Charles. No matter the story, her vision was more grounded.

Monty could get what she needed no matter whom the writer was. Riche was not as successful in that regard.

Monty's GH was not gritty, it was escapist entertainment. Riche brought out the best in all her actors, and the cast during most of her tenure was stellar. Monty had lots of "soapy" actors, but they committed to anything, from DVX to Ice Princesses.

The funny thing is, I can see Riche telling Monty type stories her way, but I can't even imagine Monty telling Riche stories, even though I think Monty was more innovative and groundbreaking, in good ways and bad.

Not enough can be said about Monty's first great HW- Douglas Marland, and the same with Richie/Claire Labine. Marland wanted to be an innovator too, and you can see his spin on traditions with Tracey Q, Monica/Jeff/Alan/Rick/Lesley, and of course Laura/Scotty/Bobbie. His impact was huge, but Monty kept the show together after he left, and continued innovating.

Riche got lucky with Labine- She was already moving the show in a more humanist direction, finding a center and heart for Scotty and Lucy Coe (who went from entertaining to beloved in the span of a year) being one of her first inclinations, and giving Bill Eckert some emotional weight before they decided to kill him off. Labine was free, and the two clicked together with the GH characters. Who knew some of these people had real, emotional acting chops until they got ahold of them (Tony, Lucy Coe, Felicia Brenda, to name a few)

Both EP's were great for the women character on their shows- Independence, strenght and intelligence over constant catfights and skanks, which is what the show is now. Only room in a Phelps/Guza world for a saint or a whore.

I miss this show. Either one would be so much better than what we have now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I totally agree with you. I always thought that Alias could easily have become a soap, given its emphasis on Sydney's love and family life. The show also saved a lot of money with its stunts and "location" stuff by not going on location at all and using a lot of CGI.

However, my GH ideas were from the point of view of a transition from Guza's GH. The ruination of GH is so far gone that, honestly, the setting up of another GH would take ages. I was almost tempted to suggest that Jason wake up in hospital and jump back in time so that AJ and a bunch of Qs are still alive and take it from there. Much as I would like it, the show cannot jump from the mess it is in today to a whole new show tomorrow with a bunch of newbie spies running around that viewers do not know and couldn't care less about.

ITA about the mob, it is a total joke (the coffee-importing, non-swearing mob who look after babies and help grandmothers across the street but threaten the Qs with knee-capping and death) and I wish it was long gone (or on the periphery like Frank Smith's mob once was). Also, if MB, LW and SBur decided not to re-sign tomorrow, I would not be shedding any tears.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Britney Spears was a pop culture icon 10 years ago, and since then she descended into a joke and fodder for tabloids. Now she's rebounded somewhat...people remember that she's still there, there's not a page 6 story every other day about what insane thing she's done this time, and she still makes money for her record label I am sure. But many people don't think she had any talent or artistic merit to begin with, and see the fact that she was able to be turned into one of the most profitable recording artists out there by singing pitch-corrected songs about nothing, written by whomever, that we were inundated with on every radio station until we could not get them out of our heads set a disturbing trend that has caused a decline in the music industry and prevented up and coming talented artists with original music from getting ahead. I think in some ways Gloria Monty's GH was like the Britney Spears of its time...including the part about eventually descending into a complete joke: By all accounts, Monty's return in the early '90s was a disaster, and she was in fact fired because of low ratings. But I can't say what I have seen of her "heyday" in the early '80s seemed like something I would enjoy, and even her initial "success" set a trend that IMO was not necessarily good. That impact can still be felt across the genre today: the emphasis on young characters; short, action-packed scenes for viewers with no attention spans; the commitment to more primetime-like production values (but never really reaching that level) even as budgets are driven through the roof to the point that Susan Lucci has to take a paycut(!).

By the time Wendy Riche started, I think GH just was kind of "there," like Britney Spears today - a lot of people remembered watching it when they were younger, probably many of them ironically; plenty of people still watched it; and I'm sure it made money for ABC (way more than any show today) but not nearly as much as in its "heyday." Remarkably, Riche and Claire Labine turned it into a respected, acclaimed production and along the way, as has been mentioned, inspired performances in several cast members from the Monty era that nobody would have thought they had in them. I don't even know that there is anyone in the music industry who could do anything like that with has-been pop culture icon Britney Spears today.

Did the ratings go down toward the end? Yes, not that just about every other soap didn't experience the same thing at the time (during the OJ Simpson trial). But GH was actually in the top three in household ratings for much of the Riche-Labine era, and in its own way I think GH in the mid-90s was as in tune with those of us who came of age in that time as it probably was with teens in the early '80s. We just had more choices of things to watch, and the internet was already becoming a competing media - no soap was ever going to attract the following GH attacted in 1981 again.

In hindsight, I really disliked Wendy Riche by the time she left, because I felt she had dismantled everything that Claire Labine's time as head writer had represented, but seeing that the same trends have continued - and gotten so much worse (I can't imagine Riche ever killing off Alan Quartermaine) - since she left, I would say I was wrong. I'm sure she made her share of bad/desperate judgment calls, but I think that is pretty much universal in the panic-driven era that this genre has turned into, and a lot of times I'm sure her hands were tied. Much of the cast clearly respected Riche, and for whatever part she played in translating Claire Labine's stories onto my tv screen I applaud her. Although I think they must have had a falling out toward the end - I don't see how else to explain whatever went down with the competing GH spinoffs that eventually resulted in Riche's Port Charles. But, seeing as how PC is gone, now, and Riche had been forced out of it as well as GH years earlier, I can't help but wonder if she didn't ever think about what might have been if she'd just let JFP have GH and she'd up and moved to NY to produce the Labine spin-off that was all set to go? I won't go so far as to say it might still be on the air today - ABC wouldn't have had the patience not to destroy it in desperation - but I bet they would have done some incredible things with it while they could.

For the life of me, I also don't know why Wendy Riche has never worked in daytime since she left GH? I don't see how even her biggest detractors could not agree that there is so much worse out there?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I would describe Monty as more like Madonna. An innovator of the form os Soaptainment , while Ken Corday and DAYS in the 1980's was the Britney (this is not meant as a slam on DAYS, just the originator vs the immitator, both with their successes).

I do have to add that while Monty did focus the show around Scotty/Laura/Bobbie, she did that with Doug Marland, and he worked that formula on all his shows after GH. I know Steve/Audrey/Jessie no longer had major stories under Monty's tenure, but we did get Leslie/Rick, and Edward/Lila always were in play, we had characters ages ranging from a few teens, many 20's, mostly 30's and 40's during her time on the show. Most of the soaps of the past during that time and before focused their major storylines on the same age brackets, blaming Monty for youth overload is not fair.

The thing Monty did best was give us great friendships! The people of Port Charles were great friends, and I miss Robert/Luke, Anna/Tiffany/Sean/Felicia/Frisco, etc. Labine had some good ones too. I miss GH.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Honestly, I don't think JFP has as much autonomy as Riche had during the early Labine days. She certainly doesn't have the power Monty wielded.

A few years ago, when Guza was co-HWing with Pratt, somebody told me that JFP would come to the SLing meetings and just knit. She wouldn't say a word. Her position has essentially been usurped by Frons and G&P, to a lesser extent (weren't they also consulting producers on GH?).

Obviously she oversees production (the new nurses' station :rolleyes: ), hiring and firing and editing the show according to the script she's been given. But she can't dictate SL like Riche and Monty especially once did. That would be her micromanaging boss's job. The only time she had a hand in the SLs was during last year's writers' strike. Something Guza was publicly pissed about.

Anyhoo, just some food for thought. I don't know if JFP would be able to stop the rot if she DID have more power -- or take it to a new extreme. The fact is, GH right now is being micromanaged from above and written by somebody who, I assume, is somewhat ashamed to be writing a Daytime soap.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.



  • Recent Posts

    • Today was the day everybody recreated the flower ceremony from John and Marlena's 1999 wedding 

      Please register in order to view this content

      And once again, it was beautiful. I also couldn't help but laugh though when Brady brought up John's use of his eyebrow whenever he dealt with his kids or grandkids. It's little lighthearted moments like that, that really have helped make these episodes and this tribute so real and genuine. And even though they couldn't get Alison Sweeney back for John's memorial, I'm glad that they came up with the idea to have Eric read a letter from Sami. The way that the letter was written is pretty much what Sami would have said if she had made it back to say goodbye to John.  Marlena and Bo's eulogies were the ones that got me today. I seriously wonder if their's or anyone else's were scripted or improvised. And I agree Bo, John's huge heart and compassion was his true power.
    • Please register in order to view this content

       
    • Yeah, right, they've got Cam playing Love2Hate Drew in extremis & they're not gonna play that hand out?!!!  I figure they use the prison beat-down for a redemptive phase but only when they think they've wrung every possible drop out of this absolutely odious every day villain they've created!
    • Please register in order to view this content

       
    • Respectfully agree to disagree. We had 4 episodes with original flashbacks integrated well into contemporary scenes that were sweet, romantic, that resonated, that hit all the possible nostalgic chords & that shows me the writing team not only cares for these 2 characters but that they were really excited about writing for them. And, we also have the quote from Korte/VanEtten beginning of the year-ish that they considered Lucky & Liz a foundational couple for the canvas.  I thought Lucky's saying he didn't think he'd stay once she turned down his marriage proposal to be good character motivation. I also thought the idea of some summer travels with Aiden supports character integrity.  Going by his exit interviews, what's left is people & logistics/scheduling, etc. & there's no way a writing team can anticipate an actor taking an out in their contract ahead of time. They have to deal with it, in the moment, when it comes up & likely it's going to make a bit of a mess to whatever they have sketched out in the long story thrust. 
    • I had a driver taking me to Infusion the other day & we were talking about soaps. She was out of touch but had been a CBS fan, from TPIR, all day till Oprah. Telling her about BTG. What network? CBS. When: 2pm. Is it between ATWT & GL? Oh, girl, you are so behind. So, she was appalled when I briefly brought her up to date BUT she remained interested in hearing more about BTG, so that was a plus.  Last weekend I got a haircut so it is the way I like it, short & spiky but of course it's purple. Recently, I was waiting for my ride outside the Infusion Center & a woman comes up to me, about my age, short spiky hair but all white. She raves about my purple hair & says she is a pancreatic cancer survivor & purple is that color (which I knew) and she is thinking going purple but doesn't know where to start. So I tell her about Splat, no bleach req'd, easy, etc. & she's getting excited & my driver pulled up, & stuck her head out & said, Donna? & she had purple hair, too! I felt like we were in a purple vortex. It was both lovely & surreal.      
    • We saw Hope, with Bo, where she revealed John's death to him & he immediately wanted to leave for Salem & we saw the two of them talk to a doc or an admin about whether he would be allowed to be discharged yet.  Someone, maybe Will, talked to Sami on the phone and at the airport Sydney had taken a fall, sounded like she was on a moving sidewalk, and had at least 2 breaks & was scheduled for some kind of orthopedic surgery.  Since it is clear that Sweeney cannot or will not be available, again I say  it is time to recast.  Wasn't Carrie lock-step with Belle the whole time? In general I thought all of the eulogies were both good & appropriate. Yes, Paul touched me like no other. Loved Abe. I still miss previous Little Rachel but for the first time new Little Rachel also moved me. And, amazingly, I am caught up again. Whoopeee!  
    • Please register in order to view this content

       
    • In true TV tradition Dani kept her bra on during sex. Couldn't we have been treated to Andre in his underwear , rather than trousers on already? I took Hayley's reaction as teasing. Surely she wouldn't think for a moment Bill was fooling around with Ashley? I agree that Dupree staircase looks a little basic.Wish for something grander. And in the living room there was a lamp in front of the door. Huh? Is that a closet? Would you have built in storage in a living room in a house of that size? Chelsea has millions of followers?
    • https://www.facebook.com/share/v/16N2KPYDxR/ During the livestream tribute to #DrakeHogestyn we discussed the taping of #JohnBlack funeral scenes on Days of our Lives beautifully stated by his TV children Eric Martsolf Martha Madison
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy