TV Guide Spoilers about Michael Learned's character:

She joins GH on April 16th for a multi week run. She will play Shirley Whitney a terminal cancer patient. ML says Shirley is a wonderful character, fun and fiesty and irreverant. She says if you're dying, THIS is the way you want to go. She will teach her handsome doctors how to rumba and will make bad jewelry

Shirley will also be an emotional tonic for her primeary cargiver Elizabeth Webber.

The character is an inspiration for Learned because she always opts for the positive even under tragic circumstances

I was intrigued until Elizabeth's name came up.

I just rolled my eyes so far back, I could see the back of my head. Whatever, dude.

The best thing that Shirley can do for Liz is teach her to use effective birth control and shut that womb down.

Edited March 31, 201015 yr by Ann_SS

Who cares, she's got a storyline and it sounds great.

I can't even remember who Michael Learned is. Is that wrong? I kept thinking of Michael Pare, the guy from Streets of Fire.

I can't even remember who Michael Learned is. Is that wrong? I kept thinking of Michael Pare, the guy from Streets of Fire.

I thought she was very good in the early seasons of The Waltons (I didn't really watch as much after the grandfather died).

I was going to ask if anyone remembered if it was The Waltons or Little House that had the episode where they took the kids to church and the preacher told them that they were going to burn in hell, and one of the little girls was traumatized, and this reinforced the father's belief that it was wrong to go to church and believe in God.

Good luck getting that storyline on TV today.

Michael Learned played a similar character to this perky terminal cancer patient on Scrubs. She did a great job.

I thought she was very good in the early seasons of The Waltons (I didn't really watch as much after the grandfather died).

I was going to ask if anyone remembered if it was The Waltons or Little House that had the episode where they took the kids to church and the preacher told them that they were going to burn in hell, and one of the little girls was traumatized, and this reinforced the father's belief that it was wrong to go to church and believe in God.

Good luck getting that storyline on TV today.

That was Waltons. Michael Landon liked to pull some outrageous things on LHOTP, but I think he ever went that far.

I'm not sure John Walton didn't believe in God, but he was definitely not a fan of going to church because he felt that going to church put the focus on the reverend and all of the church traditions instead of what all of the church-goers claimed they were focused on.

And good luck get any family drama on the air today unless it's one of ABC's "Oh, we're so rich, just like our rich viewers at home, but oh, our lives are so hard to live!" crapfests.