Do you know who this is about? A March 1980 Daytime TV mentions two long-running soap opera queens on a CBS soap who had finally gotten over some of their issues, which had gotten to the point where they would not even film scenes together, even though their characters were supposed to be friends. One of the actresses said she was tired of the other one getting all the romantic scenes, even though the other one was five years older.

Actually from the date my immediate thought could this be the legendary Jacqueline Schultz and Collen Zenk feud?

I interviewed her and she said some things she later wished she had not said and was very rude to me for having published the interview.

Heh, I remember reading Morina's tell all interview she certainly did not hold back at all and with her husband still directing Y&R I'm not surprised she didn't get in trouble. Still I suppose she just needed an outlet to vent her various frustrations of working in daytime for what nearly thirty years.

Were Barbara and Dee friends and was there a five year age difference and only one played love scenes?

This is a video from the 1991 Luncheon, Gloria Monty takes some time to talk to the fans about the new direction of the show.

Anyway, she speaks very candidly about the new direction that she was taking GH, about why some of the casting decisions were made, and mentions a smear campaign against her that she calls "ghastly, unproductive, and discouraging"....I remember reading about this, but does anybody know who was specifically responsible or who she thought was responsible? I know she once mentioned that it was some former castmembers and executives, but she never named names.

Edited March 29, 201114 yr by Vizion

Thanks for finding this. Geez that's an awkward video - no wonder John J York looks embarrassed throughout. Who was this Michael person she said she wasn't responsible for getting rid of? Was he the only one she didn't fire?

How long after this was she replaced?

Wendy Riche Took Over GH in Jan 1992

Thanks for finding this. Geez that's an awkward video - no wonder John J York looks embarrassed throughout. Who was this Michael person she said she wasn't responsible for getting rid of? Was he the only one she didn't fire?

How long after this was she replaced?

Michael Watson (he played Lucy's cousin Decker). I found an Entertainment Weekly article where Gloria Monty talks a bit more about this "smear campaign"

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,314802,00.html

Here is an excerpt (there's more, but I didn't want to post the whole thing):

Ten years later, Luke and Laura are both gone (Francis is now a regular on ABC's All My Children), along with about half of the show's audience. But Monty says she isn't unnerved by the slippage in the show's ratings. At the moment, she is more concerned with an alarmingly tall stack of paper she has labeled ''Unaccepted Scripts.'' ''It's too long,'' she may say of a scene she dislikes. ''It won't hold.'' Or: ''It's a downer.'' Or: ''You've lost the suspense.'' Or: ''Without your realizing it, this character is becoming terribly unpleasant.''

''Good heavens,'' she says, eyeing the pile. ''I have to read all that.''

At 69, Gloria Monty is tiny and often described as frail-looking, except by anyone who has ever been on the receiving end of one of her orders. They have been plentiful recently. More humor in the scripts! (She got it.) More contemporary language! (They're working on it.) More sophistication! (Well, everything's relative.) ''When I returned,'' she says, ''I realized that I had no story to work with. Everything was over.'' So she decided to clear the decks.

Since then Monty has razed sets, terminated story lines, revamped the writing staff (bringing seven new faces in to work with her sister, head writer Norma Monty), and swung the ax at enough actors and actresses to fill General Hospital's emergency ward for months to come. A dozen cast members, almost all of whom Monty says had reached the end of their contracts, their usefulness, or their interest in remaining, picked up their scripts and found themselves taking bullets, developing mysterious illnesses, or leaving town. It was a housecleaning of unprecedented thoroughness, and it bred resentment and rumors: Monty removes her property from the studio...Monty walks off the set in a rage...Actors ready to mutiny. And in the small-verging-on-incestuous world of soaps, they spread fast. ''She's in terrible trouble, isn't she?'' murmured one soap queen on a rival show. ''I haven't watched, but I hear awful, awful things.''

''There is a smear campaign against me,'' Monty declares. ''It's an attempt to sabotage me, and I have more than a good idea where it comes from: people who are no longer with us — who were never part of the family. And it's deplorable — it's hurting people who were their colleagues. It's vicious!'' she snaps. ''Petty! Petty, petty, petty.''

The most extravagant rumor is that GH's lurching story lines have grown so chaotic (Monty got rid of a brownstone set she hated by having the writers pencil in a New York earthquake) that ABC might put the soap on hiatus. Monty greets that one with a harsh laugh: ''My God! Hiatus! You'd think we'd sunk to the bottom of the sea. ABC is backing me unconditionally.'' But she admits some plot developments were handled too abruptly — recently, one character was shot but showed no wound in a bedroom scene minutes later — and that ''it's taking longer than I thought'' to renovate General Hospital.

One reason is the swift audience rejection of the Eckert clan, a working-class family Monty introduced to contrast with the show's money-soaked Quartermaines, daytime's equivalents of Dynasty's Carringtons. ''I'd always wanted to do Rich Man, Poor Man,'' says Monty. ''And I will. Eventually.'' For now, the Eckerts' prominence has been hastily scaled back, although Geary, as Bill Eckert, will remain central to the show. ''I know Gloria came in with high hopes for [the Eckerts],'' says Dwyer-Dobbin, ''but she's the first to admit it didn't work.''

''What was unusual was that the Eckerts got so much action,'' observes Soap Opera Digest editor Lynn Leahey. ''Viewers were very excited to have Tony Geary back, but the Eckerts came on too strong. Viewers hated the fact that some of their old favorites were getting pushed aside.'' Monty says things weren't helped by a series of anonymous, identically worded phone calls to ABC — once as many as 24 in a day — complaining that the Eckerts were hogging the spotlight. ''The curious thing,'' she says, ''is that the Eckerts weren't even on [the day those 24 calls came].'' More of the smear campaign? ''It's not a new tactic,'' she says. ''It's dreadful. But I have a very tough skin.''

Edited March 29, 201114 yr by Vizion

Thank you for taking the time to find this. I wonder if this is one of those things about not being nice on the way up. Monty seemed very tough in her first GH run - were people waiting for her to fail?

Something I've always been confused about is the relationship with Tristan Rogers. When Tristan left the first time (1986 or 1987) he credited Gloria Monty and didn't seem overly thrilled about her replacement. Yet he then went on to quit in 1992 because of Gloria. What specifically made him change his view? I know Tony Geary supported her to the end, didn't he?

Carl

I Think It Was The Way GM Treated Finola Replacing Her After She Got Jack's Place. I Think TR was upset and quit and that was the last straw for ABC they FiredGM and Hired Wendy Riche

sounds like Susan Seaford Hayes didnt get along with many people at days..but she did admit that in her book..also CC said in an interview that during her run on days she wasnt the easiest person to get along with but if you notice at the book signings she never really sits next to deidre hall or talk to her inthe back ground lol

I wonder if DAYS' Bryan Dattilo has any beef with James Scott or Galen Gering... Both of them basically cost him his job (or rather, the writers/producers did, but you know actor egos)

I Could SSH Like That

Thank you for taking the time to find this. I wonder if this is one of those things about not being nice on the way up. Monty seemed very tough in her first GH run - were people waiting for her to fail?

Something I've always been confused about is the relationship with Tristan Rogers. When Tristan left the first time (1986 or 1987) he credited Gloria Monty and didn't seem overly thrilled about her replacement. Yet he then went on to quit in 1992 because of Gloria. What specifically made him change his view? I know Tony Geary supported her to the end, didn't he?

Tristan had been planning to leave in 1990, the year before, but Gloria convinced him to stay another year to help her out. He had been planning to leave all along.

I Think Fin Being Fired Sealed His decision to leave

I wonder if DAYS' Bryan Dattilo has any beef with James Scott or Galen Gering... Both of them basically cost him his job (or rather, the writers/producers did, but you know actor egos)

Considering the hissy fit he threw he we was let go, and his general piss poor attitude and bad mouthing of both id say he has issues with them. Id also bet he was fired in large part to his attitude.

Considering the hissy fit he threw he we was let go, and his general piss poor attitude and bad mouthing of both id say he has issues with them. Id also bet he was fired in large part to his attitude.

Wait Where Did BD Make Comments On His Costars and what Hissy fit? Deets Please!!!!

Edited April 9, 201114 yr by John