GH: Classic Thread

[KMan101]

 

I still prefer TB and SJB as Carly. Laura Wright is serviceable in the role and I'm used to her as Carly now but I'd still take either back in a heartbeat. 

 

I always assumed SJB and TB were kinda pushed out, but yeah of course it was on their own, but still ... I question the treatment SJB has gotten on her soap roles. Phelps wasn't exactly a fan favorite of SJB, Tamblyn, Francis ... several actresses couldn't seem to run fast enough away (or were being pushed out)

 

IMHO, SJB should still be Carly to this day. I wish she were. But she's not. It is what it is LOL.

 

And I don't think they care much about 'endgame' couples, but Carly and Sonny should never have been a long-running 'endgame' couple. Especially with LW as Carly. Sorry but they don't have chemistry and they write LW's Carly as a Brenda/Carly hybrid.

 

It's time to stop catering to the stanbases and just write the damn show

Edited September 27, 2021 by KMan101

[Chrissy81730]

Laura Wright sucks!!! 

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[carolineg]

I don't doubt JFP had something to do with SJB's first departure, but since she returned later I always assumed it was something salvageable when cooler heads prevailed?  But I have no idea.   SJB seems to have had her struggles and she has had some of the worst roles on daytime soaps it's a shame.   Was Sarah not available when TB left?  

Anyway it's a bummer.  Nothing about LW would scream Carly to me even though I know she was what the network always wanted after TB. 

It does seem like Carson have a lot of stans online (none here I don't think lol), but so did JaSam and they broke them up.   It really seemed like GH was onto something with this Mike/Nina/Jason/Sonny stuff and then they made the least soapy choice available.

[KMan101]

 

Didn't SJB go to B&B/ATWT around 2003/2004/2005 so yeah she wasn't really available I suppose (I know she was on those shows obviously LOL but I always mix up the years). 

 

And I agree with you I hate they had SJB and TB play other roles on the show. I'm guessing SJB and Phelps were cool enough for her to return so there's that. I guess it was a mix of SJB wanting equal footing (much like Marcil) and not really getting it. Shame. Marcil and SJB should have been mainstays for YEARS on this show (though I know Marcil often wants to ... wander ...)

 

I agree that Carson have their stans for sure. You also have Jasam fans still clinging to 2011 writing. Some seem to want couples together forever with no conflict. Well, then they don't need to be on 5 days a week. Move them to supporting, you know? lol 

 

And I think seeing all these stans losing their minds proves to me that they were RIGHT to shake things up. But they're still straddling the fence with the Carson stans it seems.

Edited September 27, 2021 by KMan101

[Planet Soap]

Tony Geary as Bill Eckhart! (off topic: Wanye Northup as Alex on Days).

I agree with the notion that SJB had the best story arcs. She had the umbrella plot of being Bobbie's secret daughter with the Tony & Jason affairs and Michael's paternity underneath, which then launched into Michael's paternity and keeping custody. Soaps do not have the ability to stretch a plot out for 4 years like this anymore. The Sonny Mike Nina stuff went on for 9 months and got boring and repetitive. 

Her character seemed to loose a bit of direction when Michael's paternity came out, even more so when she got custody from AJ.

I like Laura Wright (especially from Guiding Light) and I struggle to think who else could have played Carly aside from SJB and TB. She was an improvement from Jennifer B. Her main problem is being in the shadow of the two actreses who were both better in the role than her, and had more chemistry with Sonny and Jason than her.

Edited September 27, 2021 by ironlion

[Forever8]

I know Megan Ward and Jamie Luner had both auditioned for Carly in 2005. And I also believe Galen Gering's wife auditioned too. I wonder who else was up for the role? 

[amybrickwallace]

I still maintain that SJB's very best scenes as Carly occurred when she got into that huge argument with Tony in late 1997 when she told him that her baby was fathered by Jason and not him. She won the Emmy in 1998 for those scenes (at least they were on her reel).

[carolineg]

I liked Bill Eckert with Julia.  That's probably unpopular.  

I don't know what's more offensive-hiring Wayne for that role or the use of OGRoman/Marlena flashbacks for that story!   I secretly judge Wayne Northrup for accepting the role. 

SJB definitely had the best material.  SJB's Carly was so scrappy and unconventional .  So different from the other heroines of that era.   Even in TB's era though Carly started to move into a more normal heroine role.   LW just completed it.  Her lack of chemistry is glaring with both those men, but I do appreciate LW brings more humor to Carly and really seems to always give it 100%.  Even if I don't like some character choices I never think she is phoning it in.

I could not imagine either one of those ladies as Carly, but I am at a loss at who else I can think of either.  Perhaps someone like Cynthia Watros could have pulled it off.   Although I wouldn't say she lights the screen up with MB either. 

[amybrickwallace]

When TB left in 2005, SJB was in New York on ATWT. When Jennifer Bransford and LW came on, SJB had accepted a primetime role on Cold Case (which subsequently did not last very long).

[titan1978]

What a fantastic couple of months Guza’s return was back then.  I also think this was one of her best scenes.  She did an excellent job of playing the fact that she was coming up with her plan right there on the spot.  And I didn’t hate Tony going dark.  I just hated that they didn’t also bring him back out of that.

 

I don’t think Vanessa would have been there for more than a year or two had she stayed.  However, JFP and the network wouldn’t agree to her terms for a reduced workload, more money, and a better schedule.  I know from many things I have read over the years that JFP does not like the schedule to be dictated by the talent.  She had to accept it with Erika on OLTL.  Riche allowed things like that, especially for the cast members with young children.  She did get a lot of credit for the ratings increase.  The show was also genuinely good those 6 months after kind of flailing a bit before then.

We know Guza wanted her to stay- he had an entire storyline he liked planned for her that he grafted on to Sam.

Edited September 28, 2021 by titan1978

[amybrickwallace]

I liked that their breakup was as ugly as their getting together was!

[Taoboi]

I saw that scene a few years back and hollered. But I love when writers remember continuity/history. It reminded me of when Dorian on OLTL would always bring up her medical history though she had not been hospital adjacent in forever. 

 

Same. I know it's a sign of an excellent actress NOW but darn it if she did not make me see red for messing with Jason/Robin. Which is why I loved when Liason started that Liz had CLAWS. 

[amybrickwallace]

SJB and KMc as Carly and Robin were great rivals - especially when Carly would play passive-aggressive with Robin. 

[Vee]

As I've said, I think Tamara, Laura and Sarah all have some of the same grit as Carly - Laura has been playing characters with that background her entire career, even when they try to pretty her up. It just happens that when almost all the longtime dialogue staff dating back to the '90s left in 2012, LW got stuck playing total dross for most of the last 10+ years. I don't blame her. I think she has been a very good steward for the character in hard times, I think she could do much more and I think Guza sometimes gave her good material. But no one will ever compare to Sarah IMO, and I liked Tamara a lot too.

I remember when Tamara first came on. On her first day she looked like she weighed about 90 lbs, the hair color was off at first and she came in wearing a very loud early 2000s vinyl/leather jacket, looking like a teenager. It was a massive change from Sarah and was IMO a disaster initially; I was pissed. It didn't help that JFP and Megan McTavish had (allegedly) planned to kill Carly off following Sarah's blowout with Jill, using TB as a short-termer to exit the character while pairing Sonny up with their new find, the terrible Angel Boris. Maurice tanked that story (as he should've, IMO) and the fans revolted as well - we got behind Tamara. They worked together, the tide turned, Jill and Megan's creative regime was ousted and when Guza returned the writing for them and especially for Tamara leveled up considerably and we saw what she could really do. As bad as some of late '02 and certainly 2003 got, when Guza first returned the show changed overnight from something alien and fake back to something familiar and adult. Then it rapidly got very adolescent, tacky and single-note, but that's another post. And of course Sonny and Carly fell apart in 2003 IMO along with the rest of the show - I think 2003 was the height of the Pratt excess, not just Guza (who is plenty culpable for many things), because I think it was Pratt who, like Frons, was obsessed with Courtney. Tamara was right to push for her and TK, because they were hot as hell and the background on Lorenzo (the history professor forced back into the family business, etc) was IMO well done. But the contempt for her rebelling came out onscreen from Steve and Maurice, which I've never forgiven them for.

I liked Maurice and Tamara together in 2001 and 2002, but I loved the original Sonny and Carly the most. It was a pairing that was reviled when it first happened, the audience and critical reaction was utter disgust, I remember it well. But really, people should've seen it coming. They had been building to it for a long while. Guza was clearly fascinated with putting Sarah and Maurice together. And they won me over very, very fast. They were that good together. They were the last GH supercouple and they only lasted a little over a year. I have had zero interest in Sonny and Carly together since 2003 and would not want them together even if Sarah returned to the role, but nonetheless, if we're talking the past it will always be the originals for me. Nothing touched them.

Edited September 28, 2021 by Vee

[carolineg]

I remember when TB first appeared thinking she was way too thin as well but I thought she favored SJB is some way and now I am not sure why because they really don't.  I do recall that TB was only to be short term and Carly wasn't long for this world so I wasn't really pressed about it.   She only started to really get strong with the Michael presumed dead stuff, the Alexis story, faking her own death, the Brenda return, pretty much up until the Panic Room story.   Like you said it got really ugly really fast with the Sonny/Sam and Lorenzo/Carly stuff, but I think I am just reiterating points already made.

I didn't know SJB's Sonny/Carly were reviled or disliked initially by critics/press.  I thought it was immediately a hit because SJB and MB were together!  I remember liking them immediately too but that was probably not a normal reaction from the S&B crowd.   It made a lot of sense for both characters and the time.  I certainly didn't think we'd be dealing with Carson 20 years later but I remember really being into them early on.

Idk, I think a lot of people (or at least used to) had fond memories of S&B and were pulling for Jason/Carly to make it work and the initial Sonny/Carly stuff was pretty seedy, but the show had to move on and it seems they caught on fast even if their was some backlash at first.  I remember them being named best couple or something in SOD that year.