GL now joins some illustrious company in the cancelled soap thread.

Let's share memories and ask questions here.

30 minutes ago, Mitch64 said:

I wonder why Hilliard got fired? I thought he was too small for Hart but he came off as more midwestern farm boy then dem and dose Grillo (who may have gotten cast as a Midwestern farm boy in gay porn, but maybe that is what they were going for...) 

 

I'm sure we'll find out tomorrow. How long was he on?

And per Kim...Grillo was an A$$ and the only one who she said was difficult on the set.

15 hours ago, Mitch64 said:

I wonder why Hilliard got fired? I thought he was too small for Hart but he came off as more midwestern farm boy then dem and dose Grillo (who may have gotten cast as a Midwestern farm boy in gay porn, but maybe that is what they were going for...) 

I love this facade...I wonder where it really is? I think a house for a big family but Tom Reardon had to make some good money to afford this place. I hate what Rauch did to the Reardon's, got rid of Bridget, made Nola a sad stalker, getting rid of JFP's Reardon kitchen set with looked like an old house kitchen (complete with worn wallpaper...) so they forced Nola into a sad little room with a kitchenette..and the worst, having the Coopers taking over Company and apparently the Boarding House..EEEWWWWW!

Such a big house for such a poor family. I envisioned a more  urban exterior.

55 minutes ago, Sapounopera said:

Such a big house for such a poor family. I envisioned a more  urban exterior.

as i recall, it was a boarding house, so it would have generated income. 

i don’t recall the reardon’s backstory. perhaps the family fell on hard times after the father died?

5 minutes ago, wonderwoman1951 said:

as i recall, it was a boarding house, so it would have generated income. 

i don’t recall the reardon’s backstory. perhaps the family fell on hard times after the father died?

Tom left them and Bea turned their home into a boarding house when most of the kids grew up and left town. Nola used to complain about growing up poor and working as a servant for strangers in her own home.

The Gail Kobe exterior shot never fit with the backstory and my imagination.  Then things got really crazy when the Reardons ended up with Company being thrown in their property.... 

 

Some amazing set pics:

That hospital set was ghastly.

Can anyone identify the various homes?

All those GL sets look(ed) terrible, IMO, especially when you compare them to the ATWT sets that @Liberty City posted in the ATWT thread.  I don't know whether GL's budget was any smaller by that point than ATWT's, but you could tell just from looking at those sets on camera that GL had become so bare-bones.

If Marshall Hilliard had been cast either after or instead of Jeff Phillips, he might've lasted longer on the show.  As it was, he was, like, the fourth actor to play Hart (including the temp recast, Sean McDermott), so I think he was doomed from the start.

Edited January 13, 20241 yr by Khan

@Paul Raven, the only set (of the homes) that I can remember from those pics is the one with the fireplace, which I think was the Jessup farm where Cassie lived. Anyone please correct me if I am wrong. I don't remember the other two home sets in the Wheeler/Peapack years at all. Sad because they look a helluva lot better than what we got in the later years. I LOATHED that Main Street set. I want to sob thinking about how many of the characters sat on those purple benches giving dialogue and being limited to that street set. Ugh. The Cedars set makes me weep too. Question--wasn't the late 70s/early 80s Cedars set that greenish color? If so, were they trying to recapture that? I always felt they took the word "cedar" to literal with the hospital set. So much that it looked cheap like plywood and green paint. I always felt the Cedars set should've been one of the best looking sets on GL as it was the epicenter of so much the show's most memorable stories. 

This episode popped up on my suggestions and while it was enjoyable, it was hard to see certain characters act certain ways. 

Seeing Mindy basically stalk Phillip was odd. And then to watch her literally beg him to hang around when he already promised to meet up with her later was weird too. It got to the point where I was expecting her to drop to her knees and beg him to stay. I am glad that in later years they instilled confidence in Mindy.

Alan was an a** to poor Hope. It was hard watching him be cruel to her when I've seen clips of Alan being so loving and gentle with Hope. It was like they were writing Alan to treat Hope like he treated Elizabeth prior years. And Alan thinking he was going to get into the political field after being involved in all the Roger stuff previous years is an odd writing choice. In this current political climate (after 4 years of Trump), I could buy it. Back then? Not so much.  But it is painfully obvious in this episode that the writers even feel like Hope is a nag. I think we all feel that Hope was one character that should've remained on the show until the bitter end. 

Question--with Annabelle, wasn't her mother killed when she was young? Hence why they did that unfavorable story saying Bill, HB, Tom, Henry, and Brandon went on that boating trip and met Annabelle's mom, who died on the lake (and why her dad targeted many citizens in Springfield)? I am assuming in this episode that she was lying when the line was dropped in their that her mom past recently.

Just wondering... Now noticing it, Annabelle's stories  seem to have always revised GL's prior history. I remember when I used to post WAY back when on SOC and old fans reminisced about this story and were not thrilled because they stated it was farfetched as HB and Henry never gave any inkling of knowing anyone or having lived in Springfield prior. Then the Susan Piper story where Brandon had faked his death and was living in Barbados. But I guess with all the other stories being endearing at the time, it was easy to overlook these hiccups. Sorry for the tangent, y'all. 

5 hours ago, Khan said:

If Marshall Hilliard had been cast either after or instead of Jeff Phillips, he might've lasted longer on the show.  As it was, he was, like, the fourth actor to play Hart (including the temp recast, Sean McDermott), so I think he was doomed from the start.

I think he said in the interview that he'd tried out for Hart when Jeff was cast. He said he tried out for a lot of soaps (I don't think he said exact roles). He went into some details about how much he pursued the role of Hart, much more than a lot of actors do, apparently (it wasn't just him saying this as someone who worked at GL sent in a message to Alan). I don't think they went into a lot of details over why he didn't last but he did seem to suggest he knew the writing was on the wall and wanted to try different things to stand out if he'd stayed - for instance, he wanted to grow a beard. 

The most interesting part was probably when he mentioned that in a scene where Roger hit Hart, he wanted to hit Roger right back, to show that he wasn't going to take it. Michael Zaslow didn't see the relationship that way and it didn't happen. 

(I think Marshall is right about how Hart would have reacted but given how degrading and awful that period was for Roger I can see why Michael didn't want to have Roger in that type of scene) 

There was a lot of talk about his attempts at getting his own TV and movie scripts made, and about helping Leonard Stabb (they showed a recent photo of Leonard - he seemed happy). And he mentioned, post-GL doing a lot of background work on other soaps like GH and Y&R (I think). I don't know if @slick jones has any of those listings or not.

Edited January 13, 20241 yr by DRW50

15 hours ago, Liberty City said:

Some amazing set pics:

Good God what is that Bordello set with the bed in the back???? Olivia's???I hated Main Street and that idiot Wheeler wasting money on creating it...the hospital could easily be the epicenter of all the action as in the old days, as it would save money. Beth could work as a rape crisis counselor( I know. but that is what should have eventually happened) Olivia could have been appointed the Hospital Administrator....you have that, Spaudling office, Company, Towers, and a few home sets (Bauer Kitchen, Spaulding Den, Ross's house, which could double for official mayor city business) your good.

What is with that cop station???I never knew why soaps insist on having cops when they do it so poorly, but then, it still makes me laugh that the dumbest character on the show, Frank, was the chief of police. The Towers club does look good there, and I did like the Company set until the end...(remember when Laibson turned the neighborhood family run pub into a "club" looking set...and Rauch just turned it back and no mention was made from  the characters.

Just now, Mitch64 said:

Good God what is that Bordello set with the bed in the back???? Olivia's???I hated Main Street and that idiot Wheeler wasting money on creating it...the hospital could easily be the epicenter of all the action as in the old days, as it would save money. Beth could work as a rape crisis counselor( I know. but that is what should have eventually happened) Olivia could have been appointed the Hospital Administrator Alex is there often with board business....you have that, Spaudling office, Company, Towers, and a few home sets (Bauer Kitchen, Spaulding Den, Ross's house, which could double for official mayor city business) your good.

What is with that cop station???I never knew why soaps insist on having cops when they do it so poorly, but then, it still makes me laugh that the dumbest character on the show, Frank, was the chief of police. The Towers club does look good there, and I did like the Company set until the end...(remember when Laibson turned the neighborhood family run pub into a "club" looking set...and Rauch just turned it back and no mention was made from  the characters.

 

1 hour ago, Mitch64 said:

remember when Laibson turned the neighborhood family run pub into a "club" looking set

Yep, lol.  IIRC, too, they wrote it into the story by having Nola redecorate it in some weird, purplish hue.  I could buy Nola "sprucing up" Company, but never to that degree, lol.

17 hours ago, Khan said:

 

If Marshall Hilliard had been cast either after or instead of Jeff Phillips, he might've lasted longer on the show.  As it was, he was, like, the fourth actor to play Hart (including the temp recast, Sean McDermott), so I think he was doomed from the start.

Leonard was my favorite Hart and I feel like if hadn’t had the accident Hart would have never left town again. Phillips always came off as a bit generic/nondescript for me, and years later my opinion of Phillips was sullied even further with him being a complete miscast recast as Matthew on AW. 
 

It’s been some time since I’ve stuff with Hilliard as Hart but at the time I found him forgettable trapped in that horrible story with Roger and Dinah. For better or worse Grillo did at least leave an impression for myself. I actually did like Hillard’s Hart with Bridget. 

Leonard Staab was my favorite Hart followed by Jeff Phillips. 

I could never get into Marshall as Hart. I always felt he was miscast.

He seems like a really nice person but he talks too much.😂

 

I really liked Jeff Phillips at the time because I liked the idealism of his Hart and his love story with Julie. When I saw him on AW I got his limitations more (although at that point Matt was just a cardboard cutout anyway).

I was still so mad with GL about Maureen's death and the flood of exits that I didn't pay a lot of attention during the time Leonard Stabb was there. Looking back I can see his charisma and what might have been, although I tend to wonder how long Hart would have lasted.

I thought Marshall was OK, but the character was so ill-defined and the story with Dinah and Roger was, at that time, one of the worst I'd ever seen on GL.

Frank Grillo was mostly a generic, amiable piece of ass. I accepted him in that role, but he never was Hart. I guess it didn't matter as most of his time on the show was disconnected from Roger, Bridget, etc. anyway.