GH: Classic Thread

[Franko]

If it had been a year later, he could have been up for A.J. or the Ned recast.

[Dion]

@cassadine1991

 

Thought I'd reply here rather than in the ATWT thread.

 

Frankie Greco was the brother of Carla Greco (Carla was Colton's new love interest once Felicia had reunited with Frisco and was played by Laura Harring). Frankie was on for at least 6 - 7 months; involved in storylines with Colton, Ned, Decker and Dawn etc. I don't know what happened to him, but it's likely he got axed when Gloria Monty returned.

[amybrickwallace]

Then Robert Fontaine (Frankie) wound up on SB for its final months.

[victoria foxton]

Yes Frankie and Carla were axed by Gloria. Colton, Charlene, Frankie and Carla all went to the fake Latin America country. Frankie and Carla were from. They were all gone by early 1991. 

[ghfan89]

Gloria Monty on the Luke and Laura rape 

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In September 22, 1998 SOW. Gloria said that she helped
to create the scene and she directed it, but didn't write it.
She says, "I refuse to call it rape. Someone told me that
sequence would never fly today because women are different, and
they would object to it. That's nonsense." She said she
intentionally directed it to have what really happened to Laura
vague in the audience's mind. "You heard her scream 'No, but we
cut away before. You didn't know what ultimately happened,
except that they had sex. I wanted the audience to wonder, 'was
it a rape?'" She says the truth came out later in more subtle
scenes and THOSE are the ones she wrote, rather than the rape.
She says that these later scenes were overlooked.

 

"After the seduction, Luke went to see her in the hospital. He
brought flowers and she smiled and said, 'Thank you,' and, most
importantly, she accepted the flowers. She acted as if nothing
had happened. She could have looked at him the way that she did
and accepted the flowers, if she thought that what had happened
was a rape. The night of the seduction, this man had one day to
live. He was going to die. She came into the disco, and he kept
telling her to go away. In an emotional sequence like that, if
she had started running out and he caught her and dragged her
back, then I would also say it was rape. But if the man says,
'Get out, get out, please leave,' and you stay. . . then you're
crossing the line."

[titan1978]

And yet, when you watch a lot of the stuff on YouTube, Laura clearly was raped, says so, and takes months to start opening back up.  Yes, she does protect Luke.  People can be raped by someone they are in love with, infatuated by.  They even sometimes choose to be with that person. But it was still a rape.  Geary played those scenes like he felt immense guilt and shame for raping her back then and during the revisit.

 

If what Monty wanted was to play it as “seduction”, then the show could have done it.  To me, there was never a question.  He raped her, she loved him in spite of it, and forgave him because she wanted to be with him.  The audience reaction to Luke is why they went in the direction they did.

 

The thing I love the most about Monty always sticking to the seduction plan is that she also never did anything like this again on the show during either of her tenures.  I’m not even sure if anyone else was ever raped on GH with her as EP.  The only other serious social message story I can think of was Bobbie being abused by Brock.  
 

Which was kind of refreshing. Seeing how many heroines were raped as plot points on almost all the other shows during that same time (was anyone not raped on Santa Barbara or DAYS?) was atrocious.  Only a handful were treated with care.

[jcar03]

I watched something a few years ago where someone was exploring their family history and found out an ancestor in like the 1800's had been raped but all the documents (i.e. papers, etc) referred to as a seduction.  It made me think of the whole Luke/Laura thing since I heard it called that in the past.

Edited August 9, 2020 by jcar03

[Dion]

I've seen a few references over the years to Monica possibly being raped by Alan in early 1980 ( so only a few months after Luke and Laura). I've never seen clips so I don't know the exact circumstances and it seems that if it occurred it was seriously downplayed.

 

Other than that there were a few attempted rapes and rapes mentioned in backstory until Carla Greco (as it happens she's mentioned up thread) was raped by her ex in 1990. But that was during Joseph Hardy's run, several months before Monty returned.

 

[titan1978]

Monica and Alan had such a toxic relationship.  I remember them really calming down after their remarriage (not that they stopped having affairs- Alan nearly with Rhonda and Bobbie, Monica with Pierce Dorman), but the venom was mostly gone in their interactions with each other.  Before then though it could get downright nasty between them.  I am not excusing a rape or blaming Monica at all- just remembering how awful and entertaining to watch they could be.

 

Which also makes me miss David Lewis as Edward.  He could be such a bastard.  I loved Ingle as well, but his Edward was more blowhard than scheming villain.

Edited August 10, 2020 by titan1978

[Franko]

It helps that Stuart and Leslie had such excellent chemistry, plus Alan & Monica had relatively long periods where they weren't having affairs/at each other's throats (snarking, on the other hand ...), but yeah, watching their early scenes, you wouldn't automatically assume this is a couple that'd make it to their fifth anniversary, let alone their 20th. I guess it was circa 1982, when the Susan/Alan/Monica/Rick/Lesley entanglements were mostly over, that A&M began their slow transition to tentpole couple.

Notice the line about Alan "practically" having to rape Monica. Clearly the show was trying to keep any leading character with futures away from being considered out-and-out rapists.

And finally, it's appropriate we're talking about A&M, since it's approximately 40 years since A.J.'s paternity was set straight.

 

[rlj]

Alan did rape Monica, I remember the scenes, back then it was referred to as forcing himself on her

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like Blake/Krystle on  Dynasty, or Palmer/Donna on AMC!

[titan1978]

I don’t know that I would count post Susan Moore as when they calmed down.  Monica has an affair with Sean Donnelly and kicked the Q’s out of the mansion.  Then a couple of years later Alan cheated with Lucy Coe, divorces Monica, and married Lucy.  They were still pretty volatile until the show decided to move that kind of story to their kids.

[Franko]

Oh, I don't doubt that. I just found it telling that by July 1980, the writers included a qualifier when Monica described it.

 

Not only that, but Alan had his fling with a nurse prior to Sean and Monica, then Monica had her fling with Ned about a year before Alan and Lucy hooked up. I guess Alan and Monica were a bit like a volcano. Dormant did not exactly mean peaceful.

 

Side note: when I was reading the summaries from the mid '80s, I was surprised at how Monica's bond with her long lost cousin, Lorena (Jimmy Lee's rebound girl and eventually Derek Barrington's wife) was undone. Monica ended up being closer to Celia (and even then ...) than Lorena.

[Dion]

After six months I've resumed watching 1981 episodes of General Hospital. I won't be doing detailed summaries as I found doing that to be a bit too much. Sadly in the interim a number of the episodes from the playlist were deleted so we lost about two weeks or so in July, skipping the fallout of James Duvall's murder, O'Reilly's murder and Victor Cassadine's introduction.

 

Some highlights so far:

 

Alexandria finally convinced Emma Lutz to give her the Ice Princess in exchange for a $3k donation made to GH in Emma's name. When Luke, Robert and Slick found out from Emma that Alex had the statue, they headed over to the Q mansion to search the place, upsetting Stella and causing (the unseen) baby AJ to cry from the disturbance (None of the other Qs were home). Meanwhile, Alex relayed the good news to Tony and gave him the statue's copy of the formula. Alex later met with James Duvall at Laura's apartment in an attempt to get him to hand over his copy of the formula. James was suspicious and opened the base of the statue finding the statue's copy missing. James and Alex argue when he realises that she's with Cassadine; she ended up hitting him with the Ice Princess and he was killed instantly. Alex was very upset but managed to compose herself enough to find James' copy of the formula.

 

At the exact same time the fourth of July picnic was being held. Most of Port Charles attended, including the Qs and Jesse (who was out of her nurses uniform). Mike (later Mike Webber) was introduced pretty much as a random kid. Mike and Jeremy won the three legged race. Bobbie ended up having a flashback of the previous picnic when Luke got her to light fireworks for him so he could run off and do something without anyone suspecting. Meanwhile Laura and Slick waited for Alex to show up at the picnic (Alex arranged for Laura to meet her at the picnic, but it was a ruse to ensure her meeting with Duvall would not be interrupted. When Alex didn't show, Laura gave Slick the slip and went off to her apartment. When she arrived she found the door ajar...

 

We then unfortunately skip all the parts where Laura finds the body, is triggered and finally tells Luke about what happened with David Hamilton. The playlist picks up with Robert, Luke and Laura already on the yacht.

 

Hutch and Toby recovered from poisoning at GH. During the missing episodes, The GH staff (except for Amy - who pointed out that Hutch was a hitman who'd been after Luke and Laura - and Dan) had apparently become quite fond of the two cons. Dan and the hospital board were not happy about their presence in the hospital and Dan tried to convince Steve to release Toby since he was sufficiently recovered. Audrey strongly came into bat for Toby and pleaded that he couldn't be sent back to prison while his life was in danger. However Steve felt he had no choice but to release him. Lee met with an old friend to discuss Hutch's case. Meanwhile Gail was showing Zach, a new intern, around the hospital. Zach was interested in Nurse Stacy (but I think Stacy is still interested in Noah).

 

Susan has fled town and Alan has finally told Edward that she is pregnant with his baby. While Edward was supportive of Alan having a mistress, he was furious about the pregnancy and declared the child illegitimate. Monica's PI attempted to talk to Alice about Susan, but Alice wouldn't tell him anything. Amy later eavesdropped as an upset Alice declared out loud her feelings that she had failed both Heather and Susan. Amy was most surprised to learn that Susan was pregnant and she quickly crept upstairs before Alice could see her.

 

Heather and Joe grew closer and shared a kiss. Burt organised a line-up but the woman failed to be 100% sure that it was Heather that she saw on the night Diana Taylor was murdered. Anne was upset by Joe and Heather's growing closeness and warned him about Heather yet again.

 

Now that several characters are on the yacht en-route to the island, Victor Cassadine and Tiffany Hill has finally become apart of the cast.

 

 

[Dion]

Late July 1981

 

Slick drove Rick and Lesley to several places around Port Charles, humorously explaining to them what he knew about the Ice Princess caper (and providing a recap for the audience). Rick and Lesley eventually confronted Edward at the Q mansion. Edward stonewalled them. After Rick and Lesley left, Alan who had overheard, questioned Edward about Laura. Edward shut Alan up by bringing up the subject of Alan’s child.

 

Rick and Lesley updated Amy on some of what was going on with Laura. Amy then told Rick and Lesley about Susan’s pregnancy. Lesley explained that she and Rick already knew about it and Lesley gave Amy a tongue lashing for gossiping. This did not deter Amy, as she later told Bryan, Claudia, Kathy and Zach about  Susan’s pregnancy at the Disco. Monica’s PI, Larry Corrigan, overheard and beckoned Kathy to join him and they decided to inform Monica. Kathy rang Monica and passed the phone to Corrigan who broke the news to Monica. Monica was devastated.

 

Luke, Laura and Robert managed to launder their clothes and waited in the sauna where one of the yacht’s guests joined them and said it was great that the staff are allowed to use the facilities.

 

Burt learned one of his officers, officer Woods, recognised Heather as the woman he saw on the night that Diana Taylor was murdered. Burt sent Officer Woods to Kelly’s to confirm that Heather was the woman he saw. Meanwhile, Heather was alarmed to learn that Sarah was recovering and the she would be allowed to be out on day release.

 

Noah put his foot in it when he said that it was good that Toby had recovered and was being released (genuinely meaning that he was happy that Toby had recovered and forgetting that Toby would be sent back to prison). Toby asked Noah if there was anything he could do to keep him at the hospital but Noah was unable to help.

 

Some partial and missing episodes follow, mainly focussing on the Ice Princess and Hutch storylines.

 

Rose accompanied Mike (who had broken his leg) to some sort of hydrotherapy session. Rose was concerned when she saw that Hutch was also there, undergoing the same therapy. Joe later arrived and spoke to Rose after speaking to Hutch. Rose was unforgiving as Hutch was in the organisation that killer her husband, Joe’s father. Gail later suggested that Rose volunteer at the hospital and Rose accepted the offer but finished the scene glaring at Hutch.

 

Alex is upset by Tiffany’s presence on the Titan but Tony explains that she is with Victor and that Mikkos allowed Tiffany’s presence. The two were packing because Mikkos had requested that Alex and Tony join him at the island in advance of the others. Alex wanted to know why the plans had changed but Tony and Victor wouldn’t tell her. Meanwhile, Luke, Laura and Robert raided the fridge for food. Later, Laura snuck on deck while the guests were having a party. Luke and Robert attempted to tap into the yacht’s communications. When Laura returned, they were mystified to hear a seaplane headed for the boat. Robert, successful in tapping into the yacht's communication lines, learned that Alex and Tony had departed the Titan for the island; that Victor has one of the copies of the formula; and that the Cassadines do not trust Max, one of the guests who apparently controls five countries in the third world. A crewman arrives and Robert is forced to knock him out.

 

Missing from the partial episodes was a confrontation between Stacy and Bobbie over the hospital’s new nurses’ jumpsuit uniform. Later, Anne gave Bobbie some advice on how handle Stacy's obvious pursuit of Noah, suggesting that she ignore her.

 

Gail suggested Rick and Lesley seek Lee’s help in talking to the commissioner. Gail was hopeful that this would thaw relations between the Webbers and the Baldwins (they’ve been estranged for over a year). Lee was happy to help but was left mystified when he called the commissioner and the commissioner wouldn’t help. Rick and Lesley eventually manage to meet with the commissioner, but he denies anything is going on. Rick and Lesley later had dinner and mysteriously started speaking German with completely different voices 

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(JK - this particular episode was cobbled together from several different sources including the German dub).

 

Now that Tony and Alex have departed the Titan, Luke is able to go topside dressed as a crewman since Victor doesn’t know who he is.

 

Summer madness by Kool & the Gang played as Heather removed her blouse (but was still wearing a slip and a dress) and attempted to seduce Joe during a game of Solitaire at Kelly’s. Joe wasn’t having it with her flirty behaviour though and took off upstairs. Heather angrily pushed the cards off the table. Joe returned to his room definitely looking like he needed to take a very cold shower.

Edited August 16, 2020 by Dion