Members JaneAusten Posted January 1, 2010 Members Share Posted January 1, 2010 Just curious how people feel about the recent appearences of James Franco on General Hospital. Do you feel he helped the show? Did he help and bring some additional attention to the genre? Did it benefit, cause damage, or was it a non factor. My opinion. It did zero. The attention it may have brought to GH or the soap genre could even be interpreted as negative. His appearence was surrounded by the news of ATWT being cancelled and just IMO helped draw the wrong kind of attention to soaps, and seemed to highlight to the mainstream press that soaps are on their last legs. I think the publicity surrouding Franco's appearence did more for him professionally than it did for anyone or anything else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members CSF Posted January 1, 2010 Members Share Posted January 1, 2010 I think it did absolutely nothing at all for the show or for his career. His character is a total freak who is obsessed with Jason Morgan and violence. I find the entire storyline to be offensive and really boring. Now, if the writer's were smart and decided to create a character for him that was multi-dimensional with a lot of charisma and a romantic interest for a strong leading lady on the show, I think it would have had more of an effect. It just goes to show that ABCD and GH really don't care about putting together a show that is appealing and interesting and socially relevant. Even if they wanted to go the route of what made GH famous, the action adventure mystery stories of the 1980s, they go about it all the wrong way. Looking on the flip side of things, they would have made Franco's character someone that fans in the demo they are targeting would fall in love with. I don't think any viewer in any demo is going to care about or take an interest in a character who is obsessed with another man who kills people for a living. It's just so unbecoming. IMO, what would appease a majority of fans with this storyline is if they made Franco kill Sonny and Jason, but no, why would they do that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members AllMyDaysatGH Posted January 1, 2010 Members Share Posted January 1, 2010 I personally like the character of Franco and James Franco's portrayal. But honestly, this did nothing for GH. All of that heavy promoting, bragging, didn't do crap on an art canvas. The ratings have not improved, they have basically skyrocketed down even more overall. GH made a huge mistake by investing all of their time and writing on this storyline. Keeping other stories dragging on and on while supporting this one just failed, IMO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members JaneAusten Posted January 1, 2010 Author Members Share Posted January 1, 2010 Honestly I'm not even sure how much of the storyline has actually been a factor. He wasn't drawing anyone in to watch from day 1. It's not like viewers got pulled in and then left because the story stinks. They just never got pulled in. It just says to me no amount of stunt casting works. And while Franco did do a few interviews where he talked about his appearence, some of his comments were so obscure, while I'm sure he didn't intend it to sound that way, he almost appeared to be looking down his nose at them. On the surface it was all complementary but I happen to agree with the comments Nancy Grahn made. I know people felt it was sour grapes on her part, but I thought she just said what I have to think a lot on and off the show were thinking. And as I said before, I think now the mainstream media is just going to use his failure to draw in new viewers, in fact they dropped, as yet further proof the end of soaps is near. IN that sense I think his appearence did a heck of a lot more damage than good. That is will be spun that not even a "big Hollywood star" can help even though I still don't think he is a big Hollywood star. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ann_SS Posted January 1, 2010 Members Share Posted January 1, 2010 I'm going with a neutral impact. I see the positives as lots of free publicity in the mainstream media and I'm speculating here, maybe a slight increase in online viewership. The negatives were that a lot of the entertainment media gave GH negative reviews and that ABC spent a LOT of money promoting Franco's guest stint and there was no increase in the 18 to 49 women demo, at least so far. IMO, these positive and negatives are a wash. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members CSF Posted January 1, 2010 Members Share Posted January 1, 2010 IMO, I think the storyline is a huge factor. Like you said, and I agree, they never got pulled in because the violence on GH isn't selling. It's not going to make people rush home to put GH on at 3:00. They could have brought him in (even though it's short term) and found a way to make him connect with a character not tied to the mob or do something with him where he isn't telling Carly that his daughter's mother is "a real bitch" and kidnapping women and tying them up. Maybe people would be interested in seeing this guy if he came off as romantic and entertaining and handsome, but as usual, GH brought him in to do nothing other than pimp out the mob and violence and of course, the second worse character in GH history, Jason Morgan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members JaneAusten Posted January 1, 2010 Author Members Share Posted January 1, 2010 See I agree with that to an extent but most of the positive mainstream media attention went to Franco, not to GH and certainly not to soaps. That's why I said I thought this stint definitely benefitted him. He got a ton of PR from it. And in his case, I don't think the media saw it as negative because it was a part of a project he's doing for that film being made and part of his schooling also. It's all positive for him. Now if he was going on talk shows, doing tons of interviews(like most actors do when they have a new project or film coming out) promoting his appearence on GH left and right, I might have felt differently. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Leia Posted January 1, 2010 Members Share Posted January 1, 2010 I am a Franco fan but the premise of the story failed to illicit enough interest from me that would engage me to watch it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members JaneAusten Posted January 1, 2010 Author Members Share Posted January 1, 2010 That's interesting. I'd be interested in your opinion since you are a James Franco fan. Did you watch any of it or were you turned off before even watching? Did anything make you interested enough to at least tune in initially? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DRW50 Posted January 1, 2010 Members Share Posted January 1, 2010 EW already did this, in that crap article they had making fun of dying soaps, so you're right. I think Franco was a case of overhype from the start. He is not a movie star, and he's not a big name. He's a cult actor. Even worse for GH, most of the movies he has a cult following from are moving that are the antithesis of the thug worship that makes up Luzaland. Add in that the story is a waste of time, and a number of fans dislike it, and no wonder the ratings didn't budge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members CSF Posted January 1, 2010 Members Share Posted January 1, 2010 As usual Carl, you hit the nail right on the head and said it exactly how it is! I couldn't agree more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members JaneAusten Posted January 1, 2010 Author Members Share Posted January 1, 2010 Bingo!! I like James Franco, he's a talented actor, but yeah he's a cult actor right now. It's almost like putting Robert Pattinson on GH now. 80 percent of the viewers I am guessing would have no clue who he was even though he starred in a couple of huge films, certainly not viewers watching GH. And if RP was stalking Sonny or Jason, I highly doubt all the teens that love RP would have found that interesting or appealing in the least. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Soapsuds Posted January 1, 2010 Members Share Posted January 1, 2010 I still want to know who the hell is James Franco?...LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ann_SS Posted January 1, 2010 Members Share Posted January 1, 2010 This I don't understand. The majority of GH audience must like the mob, the violence and the overall darkness of its stories so why wouldn't it like the Franco story? With all the Franco promotion focused on the beloved Jason, I thought the 18 to 49 women demo would increase for sure, but after the Claudia increase, it went down to it regular numbers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DRW50 Posted January 1, 2010 Members Share Posted January 1, 2010 It's not an interesting story even if you enjoy the mob stuff. For a month Sam and Jason sat around saying, "Who is Franco? Why would he pretend to be a homeless man?" The Sam/Jason fans hate the story because up to then the characters had been moving forward in their reunion. The Spixie fans hate the story because of Franco using Maxie and then it turning into her cheating on Spinelli and begging him to cheat on her and so on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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