Yes, although I think the whole circus thing came in under Labine.

It was Labine, lol. 

Speaking of OLTL '91-'96 & then beyond, and I am eating up the discussion, what did fans think primarily of Claire Labine then.? I found out recently that the way she left GH was at her own request because she was exhausted. And, prior to that I had read that she owed ABC a yr on that contract & they chose to have her burn that off at OLTL. Was that less than ideal?

This is what she said at We Love Soaps:

Quote

We Love Soaps: So working on GENERAL HOSPITAL was such a positive experience for you and the viewers. Why did you leave in early 1996?
Claire Labine: We had a show in development and NBC was interested in it. We left in order to pursue the development with NBC. And then we discovered that it was not exactly their plan, and they were going with, what was that weird show? SUNSET BEACH. So that was it. We took it back to ABC and they were really, really interested. I had done a first version of it for Michael Brockman when he came back after I had left RYAN'S HOPE. He was about to greenlight it when he got replaced, rather summarily, to my great regret. And then new management was not really ready to think about a new show at that point. Pat [Fili-Krushel] was really interested in it but it was difficult to get her to take the leap. The show was set in Brooklyn, and Matthew [Labine] had this absolutely marvelous insight to tie Lois and Ned into the show because they weren’t using Ned [Wally Kurth] and [Rena Sofer] was gone at that point. But they decided to go instead with PORT CHARLES from Wendy Riche.

We Love Soaps: Then you went to write for ONE LIFE TO LIVE instead.
Claire Labine: Yes. Loved the cast. Loved working there. Loved the control room. The cast loved us. Management did not, and had other plans. The ratings didn’t move. There was a great deal of network input which I felt was appropriate given the fact that they owned it.

We Love Soaps: You thought it was appropriate?
Claire Labine: Yes, it was appropriate. They owned the show.

We Love Soaps: But they owned GENERAL HOSPITAL too and they left you alone for that.
Claire Labine: They did! That was the difference. And the fact that Wendy so went to bat for us. She truly truly did. And she truly had the balls of a brass monkey. She would stand up to anybody if she wanted something and at that period of time she wanted it for us. She saw it was working, and she knew I had Mickey’s [Dwyer-Dobbin] backing.

We Love Soaps: As I mentioned earlier, one of the things I admire are the pervasive Freudian themes in your work. This was particularly present in your story telling of Dorian Lord.
Claire Labine: I loved that. It was gothic. It was baroque. And I loved Mel and Dorian right from the beginning. There was supposed to be conflict over him between Erika [Slezak] and Dorian, but that didn’t work from one of the performer’s points of views. So we thought, let’s just concentrate on Dorian and Mel. I found him to be an enormously satisfying character. I really loved bringing Dorothy [Mel’s daughter, played by Elisabeth Röhm] in. And I loved bringing Helen [Gallagher] in as his mother. It was such typical Helen! Elisabeth Röhm was a lovely girl, straight out of school. During the first day Helen was there in the studio, [Laughs] I saw Elisabeth coming down the hall. Helen’s dressing room door flings open and this arm reaches out and literally grabs her by the shirt. She said, “Come in here, we are going to rehearse!” It was as if an actor had been given the hook on stage, Elisabeth just disappeared! That was how she met Helen. That was very Helen, “We’re going to do this, we’re going to work at it.” She is a force of nature.

We Love Soaps: Were there stories you wanted to tell but didn’t get to tell on ONE LIFE TO LIVE?
Claire Labine: I could have gone on with Dorian and Mel forever. And Dorothy and that whole element of the show. Yes, there was a lot. Anyone in that cast could have had a wonderful story. One of the things I truly loved was writing for Roger [Howarth] and the one he offered the million dollars to.

We Love Soaps: Florencia Lozano?
Claire Labine: Yes, Florencia, who I think is brilliant. And I think Roger is totally amazing. There is so much talent connected with these things. You’re just in awe with what you are given.

We Love Soaps: Yes, the acting is great, but it has to be a mix of good writing too. I mean, your story about Todd giving Tea five million dollars to marry him in 1997 is still being played out, it was just mentioned this past week.
Claire Labine: Is it? That’s interesting. One of the things I remember most is Todd and the parrot. We relished that parrot. We loved him. We loved the idea of Todd having a parrot to talk to. There was one show where we were trying to get Todd into her bedroom. The parrot did a hop up the staircase, and her door was open, the parrot pushed the door farther open, jumped up on the bed, and spread his wings. She woke up to a silhouette of a bird of a prey standing over her bed and screamed her head off. Todd came barreling in, and there was all this sexual tension. Then there was the time the bird answered the telephone and someone was asking Todd for money. The bird just squawked, “Yes, yes.” It was totally outrageous, but really was fun. I could have gone on with the parrot for a long time too.

There's some incredibly bold, candid and in-depth stuff in Labine's run with Viki's therapy re: her sexuality and sexual abuse where sex, orgasms, etc. are discussed in-depth, which I posted here long ago. I'm amazed they got that stuff on air let alone out of Viki's mouth; it wouldn't be done today. There was also wonderful stuff with her and Clint Ritchie, and with Dorian and Mel. (Though my understanding is they kiboshed the Viki/Clint reunion in part because Ritchie and Erika were not in a great place at the time and he may have been drinking again - I know that Malone had paired Clint with Carlotta Vega while slowly moving him back to Viki, and I think Labine may have been the one who put Carlotta with Hank Gannon; I can't remember clearly. I loved all that stuff though with Carlotta and both men.)

A lot of the Labine run did not work for me but the stuff that did was great. Admittedly, they were still coasting on the glories, outsize popular characters and supercouples of the Malone/Gottlieb/Horgan/Griffith era during that year with the overall canvas, but by '98 the show was sleepy, the cast was bored and when JFP turned up their luck ran out. I remember a very enthused joint interview from HBS and RSW in the spring of '98, crowing about the Georgie Phillips story finally giving them something to do after being 'in the freezer' for a year or more, and how Jill Phelps had supercharged the show with the story of Georgie faking a sex tape with herself and Bo. (This was before Georgie's murder.) It seemed exciting, like the show had nice energy, so I came back because I too had grown bored with the show getting sleepier in '97 and a lot of characters and couples I liked leaving. But by the end of the year JFP was in full power, and HBS had gone from singing her praises to asking the head of daytime at ABC to get Nora killed off the show.

Edited August 23, 20223 yr by Vee

@Vee You're right, Labine did Hank/Carlotta. 

I forgot to mention that Angel Square was also pretty polarizing/weighed heavy in Malone's last year.

1 hour ago, Vee said:

This is what she said at We Love Soaps: ...

 lot of the Labine run did not work for me but the stuff that did was great. ...  But by the end of the year JFP was in full power, and HBS had gone from singing her praises to asking the head of daytime at ABC to get Nora killed off the show.

Love that WLS interview & haven't read it in ages, thnx. Also love thinking about HBS saying that! Wendy Riche can't say enough good about Labine, or the rest of the team at GH then. I was lucky enough to get into a dialog with her in DMs & she spoke so glowingly about everyone. And, then doofus me, I brought up Angela Shapiro. Nothing left to say! I guess a lady never tells.

Oh, Angel Square was everywhere lol. I loved those characters, but I imagine a lot of it is cringey or OTT now. I adored Antonio and Andy. Others did not, and a lot of their story is definitely silly today. We can't say the show wasn't ahead of its time in terms of Latin representation though. It was practically an entire second canvas of characters, contract and recurring, and a lot of them lasted into '97 or possibly beyond (I don't know when Javier or Linda Soto vanished).

9 minutes ago, Vee said:

Oh, Angel Square was everywhere lol. I loved those characters, but I imagine a lot of it is cringey or OTT now. I adored Antonio and Andy. Others did not, and a lot of their story is definitely silly today. We can't say the show wasn't ahead of its time in terms of Latin representation though. It was practically an entire second canvas of characters, contract and recurring, and a lot of them lasted into '97 or possibly beyond (I don't know when Javier or Linda Soto vanished).

I think Javier, Linda and Eddie were all last seen during the Labine period (wasn't Javier's last story Tea playing games with him and it backfiring - I hated everything with Tea so I have no idea anymore).

I loved Angel Square, although like @VeeI am sure it would not work as presented completely today.  I also liked Antonio and Andy.

Nora really suffered post Malone.  While not as idiosyncratic a writer as Labine was, there were still characters that just morphed completely with other writers.

Labine’s OLTL was a disappointment to me, although I loved Mel and Dorian.  The story about Dorian’s past had good bones and then became a sleepy bore.  The rest of the show was a big mess as I recall, but with strong dialogue and intelligent characters.

I will go to my grave loving Tea.  Right from the start.

16 minutes ago, titan1978 said:

Labine’s OLTL was a disappointment to me, although I loved Mel and Dorian.  The story about Dorian’s past had good bones and then became a sleepy bore.  The rest of the show was a big mess as I recall, but with strong dialogue and intelligent characters.

I will go to my grave loving Tea.  Right from the start.

I always loved Florencia Lozano. Tea I went back and forth from loving and hating many times over the years, because the writing was often not as honest about the character as the performer always was. By the end she and Blair were very well matched and I'd have her back any time.

I blame JFP and her people for the conclusion of the Canton/Cramer storyline, but I may be wrong.

Just now, Vee said:

I always loved Florencia Lozano. Tea I went back and forth from loving and hating many times over the years, because the writing was often not as honest about the character as the performer always was. By the end she and Blair were very well matched and I'd have her back any time.

I blame JFP and her people for the conclusion of the Canton/Cramer storyline, but I may be wrong.

JFP was the one who wrapped up that story, yes, very abruptly.

Sometime I should go back and watch Dorian/Mel but at the time I felt like there was so much emphasis on how annoying Dorian was meant to be to Mel, and generally how great Mel was, that I kept waiting for him to be paired with Viki. 

3 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

JFP was the one who wrapped up that story, yes, very abruptly.

Sometime I should go back and watch Dorian/Mel but at the time I felt like there was so much emphasis on how annoying Dorian was meant to be to Mel, and generally how great Mel was, that I kept waiting for him to be paired with Viki. 

It seems that from Labine's own mouth above Erika shut down that angle.

9 minutes ago, Vee said:

It seems that from Labine's own mouth above Erika shut down that angle.

I skipped that at first so thanks for telling me.  I wonder what Erika did want them to do with Viki. I'm glad she didn't want to go for Viki/Mel.

8 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

I skipped that at first so thanks for telling me.  I wonder what Erika did want them to do with Viki. I'm glad she didn't want to go for Viki/Mel.

I have a feeling she either thought it was too soon after the DID saga or that she didn't want Dorian and Viki fighting over a man.

1 hour ago, Vee said:

I blame JFP and her people for the conclusion of the Canton/Cramer storyline, but I may be wrong.

I think it's in the Bible that it's never wrong to blame JFP, so you're off the hook there!