GH: Classic Thread

[vetsoapfan]

 

GH was lucky that AW and TGL were also pretty bad during the 1980s.

[victoria foxton]

Your confusing Dusty with Josh Clayton. Josh was a bellhop. Who Blackie suffering from writers block stole his song. Mistaken for Frisco Josh was murdered in the fall of 1985. During the Asian Quarter story. Dusty was a WSB agent/Singer like Frisco. Both Blackie's exit story and the Terri/Dusty summer story were really bad. If i remember correctly Dusty was a pawn in a woman named Elena attempt to rule the world.

Edited May 31, 2019 by victoria foxton

[j swift]

It's the Jimmy McNichol /Shaun Cassidy thing. All 70s teen idol turned GH actors have merged together in my memory.  Poor Josh was a victim of the "Asian Quarter" storyline.  He took a bullet meant for Frisco and never wrote a song, (nor carried someone's luggage), again...

[titan1978]

Re-watching the BJ/Maxie heart story (I guess I wanted to cry tonight), and I do not think the show ever told another story as beautifully as this one.  Stone comes close, and it deeply moved me then and now, but BJ was connected to the entire community of Port Charles.

 

We watched BJ grow up.  The bet and the Damian affair and how Bobbie was feeling before having the affair.  Frisco being there.  The family stuff with Frisco, Felicia and Tony and Bobbie, Ruby and Luke.  Monica was on the transplant team, Amy and Steve worked on BJ when she arrived.  I think the scenes with Lucy and Alan comforting her were really special and a use of history that these shows rarely do anymore.  Just really good integrated character based writing.

 

I know Jack Wagner and Kristina Wagner were never given material like this to act on the show before and she in particular really does great work.

Edited June 5, 2019 by titan1978

[carolineg]

 

I always thought Brad Maule was the unsung actor in that storyline and for basically most of his time on GH. I know we always get to see the flashback clip of him listening to BJ's heart in Maxie's chest, but I never heard much acclaim for his performances over the years. Always really good, fairly popular, and then left with a pity death after years of irrelevance.  Jack and Kristina were great, but I always thought BM got the shaft by TPTB.  He was a great asset to the show.  Not exactly a leading man, but perfectly capable of leading his own story.

[Franko]

After all his turmoil, it might have been nice to Tony to slip into the role of beloved elder, a la Steve Hardy.

[vetsoapfan]

 

GH has no beloved matriarch or patriarch any longer; no Steve and Audrey Hardy or Jessie Brewer or Lee Baldwin to provide warmth, wisdom and stability to the Port Charles community. Denise Alexander would be perfect for this purpose. It's a shame most of today's soaps place no importance on showcasing and preserving these (IMHO) necessary characters. I will never see Victor Newman as a benevolent patriarch on Y&R; it's a shame the show killed off John Abbot and Liz Foster, who could have provided that sort of comforting presence after Jeanne Copper passed away. At least DAYS can use Doug and Julie Williams as Salem's tentpoles.

[titan1978]

I agree so much.

 

Although Julie is at her best when they let her remain feisty and kind of a pain in the ass.  So I’m glad they still use that aspect of her personality.

 

 

[Franko]

It's so sad, so unfortunate.

[carolineg]

It's sad that the show has to resort to using fake actors as Edward and Lila to be the stabilizing factor on the show.  Guza went for big bang deaths and now the show is suffering.  Tony and Bobbie and Alan and Monica could have easily been the shows matriarch/patriarchs.  Days has a slew of vets that can be comforting like John, Marlena, Doug, Julie, even Maggie and Roman.  Gh has Sonny and Carly lol!

[titan1978]

Bobbie was well positioned before they phased her out.  She could have been in storylines with nursing students, and tenants living in the brownstone to ease her into that matriarch situation.  I think she had much more of a temperament as a character (beyond her very early years) to be the tent pole/matriarch role.  Alan and Monica are wonderful characters but they are also too selfish and manipulative for that stereotypical place on a soap.

 

Lesley would also have been perfect.

 

There was a time when I felt the show was trying to shoehorn Tracy into that and it just doesn’t work for her either.  Especially when she was Lulu’s stepmother and Dylan was around.  I loved her scenes with them back then, but only Bob Guza would try to make Tracy a matriarch.

 

 

[vetsoapfan]

 

I agree about Julie being at her best when she shows some spunk. Of course, even as a matriarchal figure, this will not stop the audience from loving her being feisty. Fans reveled in Lila Quartermaine's ripping into Tracy, Kim Hughes uttering her deadly, "Look, kiddo...," and Bert Bauer putting some irritating miscreant in his place. Part of the joy of having a strong matriarch or patriarch on canvas is watching them say or do what the audience KNOWS needs saying and doing!

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[John]

Interview with Sandra Ferguson about her stint as Felecia in 2005

TVS: Your next soap role was as Felicia on General Hospital. Was that supposed to be a longer term role?

SR: No, and I am kind of glad it wasn’t. They had quit really writing for the character and when I got there they didn’t think much about writing at all. I found that show to be the biggest disappointment I had in daytime. I was so looking forward to working there. When I got there, the storyline [consisted of] horribly irresponsible writing. It was nonexistent parents and troubled teenagers. I had a problem with that because I don’t think it’s a smart idea to show kids in trouble with no parents around. I wasn’t the only one disturbed by those scripts and I was glad that came to an end. I found out after I left that my character phoned in a good luck on her daughter’s wedding day. [Family] is one of the great, great things about the old shows.

From what I remember [General Hospital] use to be one of the shows more about family. When I was younger, I loved GH because of the Quartermaines. You knew the dynamics but you trusted that the family would be there for each other. They would fight but still be a family. By the time I got there that entire flavor was gone. I didn’t like playing a seemingly uncaring mother. That was very difficult for me. GH was the pinnacle show. I always wanted to be on it. I had actually tested for GH five times and every time they said they really liked me but I looked too much like Kristina Wagner (ex-Felicia, GH).

 

https://tvsourcemagazine.com/2010/06/1923-sandra-robinson-unleashed/

 

[Khan]

Today's incompetent EPs and HWs just don't care about the multigenerational element anymore.  Soaps weren't built on couples, but on families.  That's what fans loved most about them BITD.  You tune into your favorite soap(s) either to watch families that were like yours or you WANTED to be like yours.  It's truly depressing to think how low this genre has fallen.

Edited June 6, 2019 by Khan

[Planet Soap]

Agreed. The disregard for multi generational storytelling sucks. It's unfortunate that actors often get put out to pasture after a certain age where storyline is concerned (though Y&R still seems to utilize older actors ex. Eric Braden in his late 70s).  

 

ATWT was really great with the multi generational aspect. I like that they had Nancy then the Bob/Lisa/Kim etc.. generation on one front, then the Lilly, Carly, Holden, Jack crowd, and the even  younger generation of actors, on the other. 

 

I wish GH could have just pulled something out of their hat and resurrected Tony, Alan, or even Emily and Justus by now. If they could do a 180 and resurrect Jake and AJ then certainly this could have been done. (Though they shouldn't have been killed in the first place). 

Edited June 6, 2019 by ironlion