@P.J. where you watching when they killed Roger offscreen in 2004 and the resulting Sebastian storyline? Having Roger's son become obsessed with Holly and holding her captive in Santo Domingo until she fell in love with him. Kinda sick. MG pretty much was gone after that story. At the time they planned a romance with her and Olivia, that plot later was reworked with Natalia instead.

Edited 15 hours ago15 hr by Spoon

Just now, P.J. said:

God, how I hated critical darling Santa Barbara. Never watched a moment of it, but it sucked up attention like a Kardashian.

I wanted to love that show SO much. It was created by the Dobsons! How could it be bad?

Every time I tried it I was like, no, just NO. I totally did not get it. It was too wacky for me.

6 minutes ago, Spoon said:

@P.J. where you watching when they killed Roger offscreen in 2004 and the resulting Sebastian storyline? Having Roger's son become obsessed with Holly and holding her captive in Santo Domingo until she fell in love with him. Kinda sick. MG pretty much was gone after that story. At the time they planned a romance with her and Olivia, that plot later was reworked with Natalia instead.

Santo Domingo--where Roger held Holly captive back in 1980?

Who's the sick so-and-so who came up with that "brilliant" idea?

It always seemed somewhat fishy that GL was operating on all cylinders and occasionally beating GH in 1984 for them to only dismantle it all in 1985 and for the show never see such (ratings) heights again. They thought having Reva was enough so they killed off lujack, wrote out all of Maureen's siblings and brought in an influx of dud characters.

3 minutes ago, DeeVee said:

Santo Domingo--where Roger held Holly captive back in 1980?

Who's the sick so-and-so who came up with that "brilliant" idea?

A name that @alwaysAMC is all too familiar with: David Kreizman. It was also near the start of Ellen Wheeler's run as EP.

They tried to get PS back as Ed, but he wisely got out of there after being wasted by ConJob and his contract was done earlier that year.

Edited 15 hours ago15 hr by Spoon

Come to think of it, I think Kreizman did a similar plot during his brief stint afterwards at ATWT, before going to AMC. Tom Pelphrey (Johnathan, gl) played a man who was brainwashed into thinking that he was James Stenbeck and was obsessed with Barbara.

14 minutes ago, alwaysAMC said:

I LOVE that song, so I'm already hooked :) That's great to know though about the ratings, good for them! I had no idea how popular they were until today, thank you all!

It was June '84, when GL either won the time slot, or beat GH's demos or something. They were not the overall number one (or whatever the rumors are. Sadly this also applies to ATWT which tries to claim 30 million viewers watched Steve and Betsy's wedding, and there's an entire thread debunking that, which breaks my heart)

That two weeks in June also is the fallout of Reva's marrying HB, and Josh's resulting accident. Which is inexplicably NOT up in English to watch. Not trying to bask in Beth and Lujack's glow, because I remember watching that all LIVE and it all was can't miss TV. GL was the definition of FIRE. And they played that damn song for WEEKS.

21 minutes ago, Spoon said:

@P.J. where you watching when they killed Roger offscreen in 2004 and the resulting Sebastian storyline? Having Roger's son become obsessed with Holly and holding her captive in Santo Domingo until she fell in love with him. Kinda sick. MG pretty much was gone after that story. At the time they planned a romance with her and Olivia, that plot later was reworked with Natalia instead.

Y'know, yes. Or at least I tried. GL was an unholy mess by then. Wasn't 2004 also the year of the horrible Maryanne Carruthers story? That blasphemy lives in infamy. But the Sebastian plot was just sick. I never bought that he was really Roger's son.

7 minutes ago, Spoon said:

Come to think of it, I think Kreizman did a similar plot during his brief stint afterwards at ATWT, before going to AMC. Tom Pelphrey (Johnathan, gl) played a man who was brainwashed into thinking that he was James Stenbeck and was obsessed with Barbara.

YEP. Complete with random bloody noses that looked disgusting. SMH.

@P.J. yes, the carruthers plot. Taggart/Culliton were turning things around, then ConJob came in and ruined things. Holly was getting close to Ed again, trying to get him to open up about his time in Africa, Ben and Marina really clicked together, Blake returned to Spaulding and it seemed like Josh and Holly were planning a takeover of Spaulding, Bill and Michelle hooked up and best of all Prince Richard was dead.

ConJob would do this thing that I hated where they would revolve plots around dayplayers that no one cares about. Also, the ridiculous rewrite where reva/Richard's son was stalking reva.

Marah said she felt a bond with them-- it was later revealed to be Alex for some forgettable reason. The only planned story they kept was the one about Gus's paternity and no doubt that they altered the details of that one.

Edited 15 hours ago15 hr by Spoon

8 minutes ago, P.J. said:

ALEX KICKED A-M out on CHRISTMAS? Sigh---I love Bev's Alex, but there are times you just want to shake the woman.

No wonder Beverlee left. They went out of their way to make her a gorgon under JFP.

Considering how much JFP did to keep Rick Hearst on GH as often as she could, I'm still surprised at how much she wasted him on GL. He pined after Eleni for years and years and was yet more Tangie fodder, and the way Alan-Michael/Lucy was framed under her watch put me off.

29 minutes ago, Spoon said:

It always seemed somewhat fishy that GL was operating on all cylinders and occasionally beating GH in 1984 for them to only dismantle it all in 1985 and for the show never see such (ratings) heights again. They thought having Reva was enough so they killed off lujack, wrote out all of Maureen's siblings and brought in an influx of dud characters.

I don't think it was about relying solely on Reva. She was a heavy presence, but a great deal of the show wasn't about her at that time. The issue was Kobe seemed so high on her own supply and must have assumed anything she created could easily replace the foundations of the show.

Kobe is the one who thought everyone was interchangeable as long as the had Bert as the constant-- then Charita Bauer passed. Then in 1986 we get the ridiculousness of Bert's passing being honored by mainly characters that didn't work with her- as the turnover in the year between her passing and on-air observance. Kobe didn't want to acknowledge Bert's passing on-screen (exactly like Sally Spectra forever living off-screen on b&b), but they received viewer outcry to write it in.

18 minutes ago, Spoon said:

@P.J. Bill and Michelle hooked up and best of all Prince Richard was dead.

Did Danny Cosgrove have any scenes with Bethany Joie Lenz, or was it all Nancy St Alban? I can't help but think they would've been fire. Instead, there's ol' dishrag Nancy, about as exciting as a piece of chewed gum on a sidewalk.

18 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

No wonder Beverlee left. They went out of their way to make her a gorgon under JFP.

Considering how much JFP did to keep Rick Hearst on GH as often as she could, I'm still surprised at how much she wasted him on GL. He pined after Eleni for years and years and was yet more Tangie fodder, and the way Alan-Michael/Lucy was framed under her watch put me off.

I don't think it was about relying solely on Reva. She was a heavy presence, but a great deal of the show wasn't about her at that time. The issue was Kobe seemed so high on her own supply and must have assumed anything she created could easily replace the foundations of the show.

I think JFP fell into a rut of bad casting decisions/departures that forces her hand in some respects. She refuses to let Kimberly Simms ink a one year deal that would've kept the Nick/Mindy story going (not my cup of tea, but whatev), Bev leaves, Jordan has his situation. There's the miscast Mindys, Geoffrey Scott isn't well received as Billy (if he ever even really would've stayed), Tangie, losing Beth Ehlers and Mark Derwin. Yes, it's her job to navigate those waters, and all shows lost performers every year, but GL really did feel snake bit for a while there.

Re; '84 and '85, yeah, Reva isn't the problem (even if you found her annoying), it's the heavy plot point stories and influx of new, bland characters. Of course, a literal flotilla of them were attached to Reva via Kyle, but it didn't feel like Reva swallowed the show---yet.

1 hour ago, Spoon said:

GL beat GH in the timeslot a couple of times around August 1984.

GL won the time slot over General Hospital May 28-June 1, 1984; June 4-8, 1984; June 11-15, 1984. Y&R was #1 those three weeks.

Re: Gail Kobe/JFP, both got the ratings up initially but eventually caused long-term damage. I say Kobe gets more of a pass than JFP because Kobe set in motion characters and storylines that carried GL through its final 25 years whereas JFP decisions lead to GL limping along in its final 15 years.

14 minutes ago, P.J. said:

Did Danny Cosgrove have any scenes with Bethany Joie Lenz, or was it all Nancy St Alban? I can't help but think they would've been fire. Instead, there's ol' dishrag Nancy, about as exciting as a piece of chewed gum on a sidewalk.

It was all Nancy. I don't know how he would have fared as I never thought he was the most dynamic of leading men, but it would have to be better than Grandma Moses.