I adored Claire Labine's work on RYAN'S HOPE, as well as everything I have seen from her GENERAL HOSPITAL. I would expect her to thrive on GL, what really went wrong? (Except Paul Rauch).

Can you remember of some of the things she did and worked for the show? Any similarities-parallels with her RH?

4 things...

Marah and Tony having hot sex

Big mob gunfight.

Romeo kills Catalina and frames Tony

Mae the Cigarette girl/undercover cop.

Labine has said that practically everything she pitched was turned down.

33 minutes ago, Sapounopera said:

I adored Claire Labine's work on RYAN'S HOPE, as well as everything I have seen from her GENERAL HOSPITAL. I would expect her to thrive on GL, what really went wrong? (Except Paul Rauch).

Can you remember of some of the things she did and worked for the show? Any similarities-parallels with her RH?

Rauch likely sabotaged her, but I think her work was just too dark (and yet simultaneously aimless). I can believe she didn't get all of her own ideas on - I can't imagine her wanting to write for San Cristobel - but most of the mob material seemed like her and I thought it was unwatchable. Cigarette girl Mae and the questionable decision to make Blake into Lucy Coe also seemed like her.

She did use Mary Stuart very effectively, along with characters like Claire (maybe the longest-running GL character that no one ever seemed to know what to do with).

2 minutes ago, Spoon said:

Labine has said that practically everything she pitched was turned down.

Yeah, I heard that, too.

But lest we forget...she did write a mob story on RH, with a core family member who marries into a mob family.

1 minute ago, DeeVee said:

Yeah, I heard that, too.

But lest we forget...she did write a mob story on RH, with a core family member who marries into a mob family.

She brought mob stories into all her soaps, even when they were not on the canvas at the time of her arrival (like OLTL).

1 minute ago, DRW50 said:

She brought mob stories into all her soaps, even when they were not on the canvas at the time of her arrival (like OLTL).

More and more I'm starting to believe that Paul Avila Mayer was the one who really made the first years of RH shine.

4 minutes ago, DeeVee said:

More and more I'm starting to believe that Paul Avila Mayer was the one who really made the first years of RH shine.

I think she needed strong partners. She seemed to have that at GH, and of course RH. She wrote some beautiful individual moments at GL and OLTL, but the shows themselves spun wildly out of control.

15 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

Rauch likely sabotaged her, but I think her work was just too dark (and yet simultaneously aimless). I can believe she didn't get all of her own ideas on - I can't imagine her wanting to write for San Cristobel - but most of the mob material seemed like her and I thought it was unwatchable. Cigarette girl Mae and the questionable decision to make Blake into Lucy Coe also seemed like her.

She did use Mary Stuart very effectively, along with characters like Claire (maybe the longest-running GL character that no one ever seemed to know what to do with).

Such a weird time..(well, what wasnt a weird time on GL post Curlee leaving...) remember when they fired Labine, then they couldn't find anyone to replace her so they rehired her and MADD made a statement "The votes came in (the ratings raised by a point) and a recall was called for" or some dumb thing, they they replaced her with Lucky Gold of all writers. Rauch did sabatogue but it didn't take much...things shot down: Liv and Holly (though it would be Childrens Hour where one would not return the affection..) and Mae being Stacy Chamberlin, which might have been good but Nola was off for years, and Rick would be at least 19 years older then her. Not promising stuff.

1 minute ago, Mitch64 said:

Such a weird time..(well, what wasnt a weird time on GL post Curlee leaving...) remember when they fired Labine, then they couldn't find anyone to replace her so they rehired her and MADD made a statement "The votes came in (the ratings raised by a point) and a recall was called for" or some dumb thing, they they replaced her with Lucky Gold of all writers. Rauch did sabatogue but it didn't take much...things shot down: Liv and Holly (though it would be Childrens Hour where one would not return the affection..) and Mae being Stacy Chamberlin, which might have been good but Nola was off for years, and Rick would be at least 19 years older then her. Not promising stuff.

That Olivia/Holly story sounds much more interesting to read about, although I'm sure Maureen would have played the hell out of it.

I would have been interested in seeing Claire write for Lisa Brown, but Mae, Stacey, or a de-aged Trudy Bauer, that character was never staying around long.

27 minutes ago, Mitch64 said:

Liv and Holly (though it would be Childrens Hour where one would not return the affection..) and Mae being Stacy Chamberlin, which might have been good but Nola was off for years, and Rick would be at least 19 years older then her. Not promising stuff.

I have to say, neither excites me. Interesting that they did see it through with Olivia later on, and it not being unrequited love.

WHY were SO many characters cops during the late stage of GL? I would have loved for a grown-up Stacy to come on the show at last, but why would they need yet another cop on the show?

The other problem is that most people Stacy was connected to: her mother, her father, her stepfather, her grandmother, her grandfather (Henry thought of himself that way), her aunts--were all gone. Who was she going to reveal herself to?

Yeah, I wouldn't have been interested in any story with Holly and Olivia. I just didn't like Olivia, period. And given how trite Olivia/Natalia was written years later, I don't have confidence that the story would've given the weight it deserved.

I think there were so many cops on the show because it was an easy shortcut to create conflict. Gus was a thorn in the Spauldings side, Mallet had been a cop (and came back as some prison warden but who had been working as a hitman or whatever), and Marina just kind of fell into the family business.

Yeah, if Mae was Stacey, the only connection she would've had is the name Reardon (or Chamberlain). Both Bill and Michelle were her cousins, but there wasn't really any history there, which is part of the reason "J" was such a flop.

On 1/13/2026 at 6:01 PM, Mitch64 said:

At least the idea of the mob made some sense...the straight lace Bauers, pillar of SF contracting with this shady family.

Plus, it just felt more real (for lack of a better word) than anything going on on San Cristobel. But, like you said, the execution let the whole thing down.