GL: Frank Dicopoulos pitching ideas to save show

[Gray Bunny]

Yikes, well Otalia die-hards being compared to Mattessa, Manny, or Rassie die-hards pretty much sums it up... They'd be lobster-lovin' the first year of their storyline and from then on, nothing would be good enough. Something will always be wrong, not good enough, too rushed, too forced, etc. etc. etc. It's no wonder the writers finally gave up on writing for Matt & Vanessa in 2000. And after having fans give voodoo dolls to an actress (Laura Wright) who plays a character who may or may not even be a spoiler for a couple (Manny), well, it's best to just leave the toxic couple together, even though their height of popularity had already ended (and the actress who helped make the pairing popular was already gone for 2 years).

It's actually kind of nice the die-hard Mattessa fans all gave up on the show in 2000... cuz now the fans who've watched even longer (or weren't obsessed with the 'miracle couple') can enjoy Vanessa and BILLY'S upcoming nuptuals!

[bellcurve]

YUCK! TWOP has usually never pandered to JUST one fanbase.

That's pretty awful.

[Vee]

Yeah, you, uh, don't want to go in the GL thread on TWOP.

[DRW50]

That thread tends to be empty without the big couple interest. I think the last time the board had good activity was during the Jammy years.

I was not a fan of "Matessa" but I couldn't blame their fans for complaining. They had good story for one year or so before they became all about Wendy Moniz's overexposed Dinah. I hated when they kept pushing her as the new Vanessa. Then when Rauch arrived, he gave them one good story (the return/Internet chat) before his Maeve Kinkead hate kicked in and she was reduced to being called old and ugly by Beth.

[Vee]

I am not some Matt/Vanessa expert, but I thought it was awfully tacky how they Ellen Wheeler-style hand-waved their break-up and divorce with that lame hitman story and Matt apparently trying to get freaky with brain damaged Dinah, and now Matt just wanders around town hitting on dykes, prowling for any tail he can get, while Billy and Vanessa have this insta-reunion from out of nowhere.

[DRW50]

Yes it was all terrible and rushed and a waste of an actress I truly never believed would return again. I'm just glad they're back together again, I have been a fan of them for 20 years. And they don't have a fan name, which makes me love them even more.

Manny drove me crazy, although that may have been due to NSA. I actually liked Richard and Cassie, which is odd because I loathed Jeffrey for a long time, hated him with Cassie, Marah, and so on. BC was never a powerhouse but I thought he was much better as Richard. The weird slashy chemistry DAM helped. That also went away when Richard died.

[Vee]

I actually quite like Nancy St. Alban as Michelle. But then, I barely watched any GL by the time she showed up, so prolonged exposure may be the killer there. If they'd brought all these people back a year ago and had pushed to give Ed, Michelle, Phillip, Holly, Vanessa, etc. real, substantive stories, they might not be in this position today.

I never cared about Cassie but she was hot as [!@#$%^&*] with Edmund/DAM, even though the story was so strange. Even Nicole Forester had chemistry with him. When she married Josh (BTW, I thought Josh/Cassie could've worked, or at least been more soapy, torrid and compelling and less rage-inducing, if they'd written it right) and became the minister's fucked-up, revenge-obsessed wife, I thought the character had potential there, finally. That could've been dynamite story in having her [!@#$%^&*] Edmund behind Father Josh's back while plotting to destroy the Spauldings, reverting to the worst aspects of her personality, which could've led to Josh's own fall from faux-pious grace at the betrayal of his "perfect new family," and then a Josh/Reva reunion. Instead, as usual, Wheeler took the most bland, inoffensive, quick fix, and downright boring way out of all these story threads, even the one with psycho Will. It might have been campy and the kid may not have been the best actor, but he had presence and you can't tell me some people wouldn't have watched another six months of that kid mauling and murdering people. I did!

[Mitch]

DAM was freakin HOT as good Edmund in his jeans hanging out with Cassie. That is why I thought he would make a great Tom Hughes (as opposed to the stiff who has been playing him for years.) He plays a great kind of midwestern guy with a casual sexiness that most "good," guys on soaps dont do. His "good," Edmund was totally cut off from what the character is, and it made no sense, but it was hot. Also, Cassie's attraction to him was just weird and never explained. If they had shown she has a maschostic tendancies (which really she did from the men she picked) and Eddie was actaully really in love with her, but she wanted old Edmund back to be abusive to her, so she grew bored with him, it might have been interesting. But GL has always drawn Cassie in the most bland way possible, as if a former stripped/foster kid would have acted like the entitled cheerleader like LW played her. But then again, LW was wrong for the Cassie character from the get go, Cassie should have been trashier and totally bitchier to Reva. LW would play a great suburban snot nosed bitched who think her [!@#$%^&*] didnt stink, but didnt work as what Cassie should have been or potrayed as.

Agreed that NuCassie only worked when she went batshit crazy for a couple of weeks. Her [!@#$%^&*] Edmund behind Josh's back would have been great..especially a shot of her next to Minister Josh in church right after she rolled out of bed with Eddie, with a smirk on her face! Especially if they gave them a kinky sex relationship ala Sonni and Will (amazing that GL was more boundry pushing 20 years ago then it is now.)

[miss wolf]

It was but at least you could always talk about something else than Jammy. Now there are endless posts without anything but Otalia. And Jammy fans didn't organize a Otalia kiss Twitter campaign for Emmy night. They deleted over 200 posts the next day and closed it for the day. It's damn frustrating because it's my favorite place besides SON.

[DRW50]

That's the way it is for all the soaps.

I liked LW as Cassie, in that I thought her choices made sense (Cassie was a hard person who never had time for fun in life). I thought she blazed through what would have been very deadly material with a lesser actress, all that nonsense with the stripping, the stripping on a pool table to tease Hart, and so on. I do think she became very very cold as the years went by and she obviously got tired of the role, but I thought she had good chemistry with all her leading men. I wish the show had had the balls to do the Danny/Cassie story.

I agree with you about DAM as a leading man. It's a shame the show never seemed to realize.

[MichaelGL]

Cassie had the potential to be a new Bridget or even better a new Blake, someone to make waves in the late 20s-30 something’s gang. However the show would always teeter on making Cassie a vixen, but in the end try to portray her as some saint we should root for.

I didn't start liking NuCassie until after Tammy's death. I thought NF did a fantastic job portraying a woman was losing it and out for blood as well.

[bellcurve]

Nicole Forester really came into her own there, but I thought she was great well before then. Her chemistry with Robert Newman was great, as was the chemistry with Jordan Clarke.

It was great to see her validated with an Emmy Nomination. I felt like she, unlike Laura Wright, truly earned it for Cassie.

[koos]

Nicole Forester is absolutely the worst actress I've seen on GL, and one of the reasons I had to stop watching it for a while was because of her. I'd rather watch Charity Rahmer.

[MarkH]

She just won't die as the "lowest possible standard", eh? Is there a male equivalent?

How awful, though, to live out your days as 'the exemplar of the worst possible acting' on a soap opera.

[All My Shadows]

Charity probably hates soap fans with the heat of a thousand suns. "Leave me alooooone! It's been five yeeeears!" I'd venture to say that Andrew Ridings is the male equivalent.