GH: Classic Thread

[amybrickwallace]

That whole story was such a dud. No offense to Brittney Powell. She could have been good with Greg Vaughan, but he made his GH debut too late to save that story.

[carolineg]

I don't remember the details of the story but I remember it being awful.  A hooker in a love triangle with father/son?  I have no affection for Courtney/Jason, but I didn't mind them back then.  Or maybe I just giggled when she looked so sad after Brenda/Jason got married.  I liked early LiRic a lot as well.

[amybrickwallace]

I believe it started out with Luke hiring Summer to dress and act like Laura (Genie Francis had just left the show after playing the reviled mental breakdown story). It never got better.

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[carolineg]

Yes.  I remember it now.   Luke/Lucky were really not doing anything very good back then but I guess Genie leaving left the show in a lurch (rightfully).  Do you think the show was willing to let Genie go easily because they got Vanessa?  Worked out well lol

[amybrickwallace]

It worked out well in the short-term, for sure. I don't even remember how Brenda left in 2003.

GH definitely has a long history of not appreciating Genie. She should and deserves to be to GH what Susan Lucci and Erika Slezak were to AMC and OLTL. I always thought that Laura was a much more interesting character than Luke (or Stefan, for that matter).

[carolineg]

Jax dumped Brenda at the altar after she kissed Sonny and she left town.  It wasn't all that dramatic, but a crappy thing for Jax to do knowing her history.

Edited October 9, 2021 by carolineg

[amybrickwallace]

Thanks. What a cop-out.

Getting back to Summer, the absolute lowest point of an already low story was she and Luke re-enacting the legendary night at Wyndham's Department Store.

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Yes, they danced to "Fascination". It was completely gross, and I think the message boards at that time had a field day!! 

 

[carolineg]

It was just a weird, rushed ending for Brenda/Jax and horrible for their fans.  Jax even offered her a million dollars to leave town.  I *think* the original plan would have been to have J/B get married and then for Sonny/Brenda to fall into an affair or something and then it would follow the basic beats of what became the Sam story with the baby and Jason.

 

Ooof to the Summer stuff.  Now that you are telling me this it is sort of coming back to me.  It was just a very b story at the time.   Didn't Summer tragically die?

[Wendy]

Sorry, but Brenda kissed another man (and her fiance's hated rival, at that!) just before her wedding. I don't feel sorry that Jax dropped her. (But I'm sort of mad at defending Jax here, considering how turned off I am by IR now. Oh, well!)

[carolineg]

To dump her?  That's fine.  To dump her at the altar in public was what was out of character for Jax and for Jax/Brenda.   I just don't believe Jax would ever do that to Brenda when he saw how she suffered when Sonny did that to her.   It was 100% a conversation that could have taken place before she walked down the aisle in front of friends and family.  And then to awkwardly try to pay her to leave town?  Gross.

I also think Jax was being super weird and pressuring Brenda to marry him immediately.  No worries about defending Jax.  I used to love him.  It sad IR makes me hate Jax.

[amybrickwallace]

Yes. It turned out that Nikolas had hired Summer to come to town in the first place. (Which made no sense, but nothing about the entire story did.) 

Meanwhile, Stefan was not a fan of Nikolas (Tyler had just returned to the show - his first return) falling for newly returned Emily (Natalia Livingston) and was determined to stop it. There was some party and Stefan, trying to bump off Emily ended up killing Summer instead. Lucky (Greg Vaughan at the beginning of his GH run) found her. That's all I remember.

[Vee]

Stefan had gotten the Cassadines into hock with various shady folks to restore the family fortune after Helena and possibly Nikolas had run it into the ground. He was determined to secure Nikolas' future and for some reason felt Emily was a poor choice of mate; I think he'd planned for Nikolas to marry bigger wealth, namely Lydia Karenin, who was heir to a major Eurotrash family. He tried to push Emily off the cliffs at Wyndemere but mistook Summer for her from behind. It was ruinous character assassination of Stefan.

Summer had a whole bizarre con artist backstory with her brother or whatever who turned out to be her ex-boyfriend and a lot of rare ancient coins they'd heisted or something, and she and Luke and Lucky went on some half-ass caper to former Cassadine holdings that had been turned into Russian bordellos, and ultimately they came back emptyhanded. That whole subplot made absolutely no sense and IIRC Summer may not have been her real name, but I honestly can't remember.

[DRW50]

I remember some fans here or at TWOP used  to say they  thought one of the reasons Tyler checked out was because of how the Stefan fiasco went down, especially since he had been happy to see Stephen Nichols return.

[amybrickwallace]

Thanks for filling in the blanks. I liked Lydia. It's too bad GH didn't keep her around because she had the makings of a good mover and shaker.

[carolineg]

Thanks!  I remember Lydia and the Summer plot a little.  Didn't they recast Lydia fairly quickly?

Were the Q's not wealthy enough for Stefan?  It's not like Emily was poor white trash.  Annoying, but not an unsuitable mate for Nik.  I never got the Cassadine Emily hate. 

I don't remember TC checking out that early in his second run.  I used to think he was one of the worst offenders with that, barely even trying in most scenes, especially at the end.  I wonder how much of that had to do with his personal issues now.