GH: Classic Thread

[vetsoapfan]

Actually, I do remember Dan flirting with Ruby. I just wish that viewers had actually SEEN Jessie and Dan drifting apart, as opposed to only hearing about it after the fact. Just like, if Dan and Ruby eventually became exclusive and Jessie accepted it, I'd want to see that unfold as well, and not have to put the pieces together in my own mind to explain the relationships.

But GH didn't invest much time or interest in the "old people" by then.

[Vee]

It's sweet they did this. Was this Anne and Jeremy's exit?

I keep forgetting Jeremy grew up to be one of the teen hunks in the legendary late '80s horror flick Night of the Demons - I never recognize him at all. (His character went as a doctor in scrubs to their doomed costume party, which knowing that film I wonder if it was a deliberate gag)

Edited August 17, 2021 by Vee

[FrenchFan]

1975/1976 was a very troubled time for GH which had only know the Hursleys and the Dobsons as head writers. When the Dobsons left for "The Guiding Light" in June 1975, Richard and Suzanne Holland were brought to the show. They wanted to make the show their own and fired many cast members: Victoria Shaw (Kira Faulkner) left in July, Shelby Hyatt (Jane Dawson) in August, Peter Kilman (Henry Pinkham), Rod McCary (Joel Stratton) andJudith MacConnell (Augusta McLeod) in September.

The Hollands tried to make their own characters work. They introduced in August Augusta Dabney and Ted Eccles (Caroline Chandler and her son Bobby). Marla Pennington joined the same month as Nurse Samantha Livingstone, Bobby's love-interest. Even if they paired Caroline with long-running character Lee Baldwin, the characters were a failure.

To try to boost ratings, the Hollands changed some focus on the show again introducing the famous Laura storyline. Stacey Baldwin was the first Laura in December 1975, with Judy Lewis playing her adoptive mother Barbara Vining. They also tried to add young characters to the hopistal staff: Danny Michael Mann joined as Kyle Bradley also in December and Monica Gayle played Kate Marshall beginning in January 1976. Kate was Jessie's niece and it gave Emily McLaughlin something to do as she hadn't done much since the resolution of the Phil Brewer murder story mid-1975. Kate and Kyle were engaged in a triangle with Beth Maynard, Diana's younger sister, one of the latest character introducted in March 1975 by the Dobsons before they left. Laura Campbell was also added in January 1976 as Pat Lambert, a foil between Peter and Diana Taylor.

Except the Laura storyline, everything was a bust. In February 1976, the Hollands were shown the door and were replaced by Eileen & Robert Mason Pollock who had left "The Doctors" in August 1975 after a successful run. They immediately got rid of what they considered worn out characters. In the only month of March 1976, 10 actors were out ! Augusta Dabney, Ted Eccles, Marla Pennington, Danny Michael Mann, Monica Gayle, Stacey Baldwin, Judy Lewis but also James Sikking (Dr. Jim Hobart) and Peter Hansen (Lee Baldwin), who was on the show since 1965 and Lucille Wall (Lucille Ames Meeks) who was a cast member since April 1963, 2 weeks after the show premiered. Laura Campbell was fired two months later in May and Michele Conaway (Beth Maynard) in June.

This whole "tabula rasa" enabled the Pollocks to create their own GH canvas. They created the Webber family who litteraly ate the show. Bobbi Jordan as Terri Arnett, Richard Dean Anderson as her brother Jeff Webber, Patsi Rahn as Jeff's wife, Monica Bard Webber all joined in the month of March 1976 to compensate the massive cast exodus. Michael Gregory became older brother Rick Webber in April and Stephen Barr joined as Rex Pearson, a rival for the Webbers in April 1976.

 

 

 

[victoria foxton]

@FrenchFanAll the comings and goings. Are making my head spin. I knew of all the changes. But never the timeline.

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[amybrickwallace]

@FrenchFan, thank you for the detailed timeline. Hindsight is always 20/20, but I wonder if Gerald Gordon should have stayed in NYC and on TD. That show was his oyster, but he was a big fish in a small pond. He got a very sweet deal on GH, but for whatever reason, Dr. Mark Dante didn't bring the magic to the show that Dr. Nick Bellini did on TD. GG never became the breakout star in primetime and film that he had wanted to be (as he said in print interviews at the time). Of course, he would be overcome by serious health problems in the years to come that probably had something to do with it. It's a shame, because he really was a powerful actor.

Edited August 18, 2021 by amybrickwallace

[Vee]

Didn't they bring Gordon back at random in the early '80s post-L&L? That's so strange to me.

[amybrickwallace]

Yes, from 1982-83. 

[beebs]

Very reminiscent of the DAYS Valentine's Massacre of 1980, honestly. And with similar results, I might add.

You'd think these showrunners would learn their lessons, but they never really do.

[Vee]

Were they entirely wrong, though? Most of those characters are forgotten; the Webbers aren't. And Laura and Lee were brought back by later regimes, I believe.

[amybrickwallace]

Was Laura brought back by Doug Marland? I think Lee was brought back by Doug Marland.

[Vee]

I thought Laura was brought back by Tom Donovan's regime and some other writer, but again, as per what we discussed a few weeks back, there is a lot of fog surrounding that period and when Marland actually got there vs. his name being on the scripts. (Who created Bobbie, etc.)

[amybrickwallace]

I know. He was writing for The Doctors until late 1977. I saw all of his run on Retro TV, and it really wasn't anything special. There were glimmers of good things on that show in his regime, but not much. Someone must have really liked him to give him a chance at GH, and then his soap career took off from there. 

[Paul Raven]

Both Laura and Lee were back months before Marland arrived.

[Planet Soap]

In rewatching old clips, I see a lot of YouTubers commenting that the writers missed the boat twice when it came to an Alan/Monica type pairing with AJ and Carly. I'm beginning to agree. Sean Kanan had good chemistry with Laura Wright during the return and breif doing in 2013 and Billy Warlock was pretty good with Sarah Brown during the marriage storyline.

Edited August 21, 2021 by ironlion

[amybrickwallace]

Who is in the middle square?