GH: The Quartermaine Mansion

[CSF]

Kind of random, but for any GH longtime fans, maybe you can help.

I know the original Quartermaine Mansion set was changed in the late 80s under Wes Kennedy, and I know Gloria Monty changed it again, to make it smaller when she returned for her second stint, but everytime I watch clips of GH from the early to mid-90s, I feel like the set was altered 2 more time in between how it looks from 1998 on. So basically I'm just asking, how many times has that set been changed and what were the reasons aside from the WK and GM changes.

Thanks guys!

[sheilaforever]

Any expert will know it much better but in addition to those two changes you mentioned, there was a re-design in the mid/late 90s and by the 2000s JFP stole the Quartermain staircase amongst other things and shrunk it down.

[quartermainefan]

The Q mansion was always 3 sets or rooms down stairs. The living room (with the double doors), the den through the little door on the left that originally had a desk but soon became a second living room (and the living room we see Today), and the foyer with the circular staircase. I think it was during the earthquake that the foyer staircase got changed to look like it is now, (and a dining room appeared) and this may be when the living room got changed to white and fruffy and very girly--or something reminiscent of that. Then a couple of years later it got redone again with all the earthtones. And the den has been pretty static ever since. The living room, rarely gets shown for some reason.

[CSF]

Thanks quartermainefan.

I remember when the dining room was where the living room is now and the living room was a crimson color right past the staircase and the foyer was huge and the den was a blueish color. Then after that, that's when I think the earthquake came and Monty made the set smaller with the dining room disappearing and the living room going back to the side of the house it is on today and it was a light, yellowish color, but I recall that design being reconfigured twice IIRC, but I'm not sure when the living room was changed to the earth tones as it is today. I'm thinking it must have been some time after Monica's breast cancer storyline, but I can't recall.

I believe Wes Kennedy wanted to make (and he did) the Quartermaine Mansion much bigger because he felt a family of their status should have a huge house, but Monty didn't care much for them and wanted to cut the scale of their set down and did the same thing to Bobbie's brownstone.

It's funny how JFP turned parts of the Q mansion into Carly's house (very noticeable) and I think it was also transformed into Kate's house then switched back. JFP did the same thing to the Brownstone, making it Alcazr's mansion.

[SFK]

Yeah, the earth toned set with that beige sofa I've always loved was there when I started watching regularly in high school, and this was a few months before Stone and Monica's big storylines. I know David Lewis was gone by that time too. Before that, didn't they have the fluffy thick pile powder blue carpet on the curved staircase?

I wasn't watching then, but I hate that Monty wanted to make their set smaller, that kind of makes me mad actually. I know it's just a show, but people (especially rich ones) usually don't downsize when doing a renovation . I realize that each studio space (and show budget) will have its own limitations, but the mansion sets that have been most effective imo are the ones that have utilized vertical space. That's what made the Clegg mansion on Capitol so impressive, that and the black and white color scheme of course. And the Alden mansion on Loving as well with the balcony overlook in the library/living room.

[quartermainefan]

I think there were 4 different Q designs. The original, then there was sort of a blue look to it around the time Lucy was Alan's wife, the white fluffy look of the early 90s and then the earth tone look. I am sort of sick of GH's earth tone fetish. Everything has been brown for 15 years.

[CSF]

I think Wendy Riche started the earthtones.

I absolutely loved the look of the Q Mansion when it was redesigned under WK.

[CSF]

I know exactly what you mean. I don't think that Monty really cared for the Quartermaine's and she didn't think they needed that big of a set. IIRC, when Wes Kenney came to GH from Y&R, he felt they should have a much bigger house and therefore had the renovations done to the set.

I was always bothered by the fact that on Guiding Light, the Spaulding Mansion foyer and staircase was in the Spaulding Living Room. That made no sense whatsoever. And honestly, I always felt the original Chandler Mansion set on AMC was rather odd.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Didn't Monty hate the Quartermaine's and wanted to phase them out at one point, but was stopped?

Looks like Guza is doing a good enough job in making that wish come true for her though...

[CSF]

Yeah, I think she wanted to phase them out, that's why she made their mansion smaller and had her beloved TG return as lame ass Bill Ekhert which turned out to be a total disaster.

Guza and Pratt were both on the GH writing team in the early 80s when Monty was EP. No surprise that they carry her love of action packed plot driven storyline's that belong back in the 1980s.

[quartermainefan]

Seeing as how she brought them in, I doubt she hated them. I think she was just misguided about the end of the 1980s and times were changing and "rich" was out of style. Reagan was out, all the soaps ended at night, wall street took a hit in the late 80s, it seemed like blue collar was in.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

The Quartermaine's debuted when Monty was there, but they were initially a Douglas Marland creation, I believe. It was widely reported that Monty wanted to phase them out towards the end of her first tenure at GH and during her second tenure at the show. She apparently didn't think they contributed much to the overall show and wanted the Ekhert clan to be their replacement during her second stint, of course, that was a massive failure on her part.

American soaps have been about the rich forever, and really, the Quartermiane's were unique on the show. By the late 80's/early 90's, they were the only real nuclear family unit on the show with a matriarch, patriarch, children, and grandchildren still on the show.

Did GH ever really get "blue collar" at the end of the 80's though?

[bellcurve]

I always thought Carly's mansion was part of the Versailles(sp.) Room, with that staircase and stuff?

[CSF]

You might be right. I vaguely remember some similarities between the two sets. But I do remember at the same time she was living there, the Quartermaine foyer just disappeared.

[CSF]

I think that's very accurate of GM's feelings toward the Q's. DM did create the whole family. They pretty much were the only real solid family on the show at the end of the 80s, beginning of the 90s.

As for GH getting a blue collar family, the Ekhert's obviously didn't work. The Spencer's returned and I'd always considered them to be rather blue collar and common.