GH: Classic Thread

[Planet Soap]

Facts! my first memory of GH was Dr Asher Thomas holding Sam hostage with a syringe to her neck while a Carly and a gun toting Jason chased after them. I later came to realize that was Bransford, along with alot of the Reece Marshall story. (random but..Hope almost drowned in a swimming pool on B&B that week!)

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What did you guys think about the Reece story anyway?

 

 

Edited July 14, 2022 by ironlion

[carolineg]

It's weird that a lot of important things happened under JB's brief run.

The Reese story had potential, but the whole thing sort of didn't work and fell into the trap of repetitive women that we pair with Sonny when Brenda/Carly aren't available.  The whole thing felt unfinished.  The lack of chemistry KW had with MB and the backstage issues just made it a fail.   The Carly twist felt tacked on and it was basically Sonny/Hannah without it.  There should have been so much more done with the Carly/Reese backstory setting up years of storyline but it all just went away after about 6 months.

[Vee]

The writing was at its worst that year, and Kari Wuhrer was so terrible. I knew she would never fit on that show, because she's only ever been a barely serviceable actor at best. Even with GH at a low place, a lot of its vets back then (including Maurice) were still very seasoned and able to go deep into lesser writing and elevate it; Wuhrer has always been a very surface actress used to the frankly more flashy and cosmetic writing for her supporting characters on shows like 90210, Sliders, etc. where she was not supposed to be a fleshed-out person (that's not to say all writing on 90210 in that past era was bad; the regular characters or others could be fleshed out, but she was just brought onto that show or others to play a vixen or sexbomb). She came on doing late-stage Spelling soap acting and didn't fit. The show was at a nadir, they knew it and reworked half the show (including the Michael/Dr. Thomas twist) and it did improve a considerable amount when they revamped it with the renewed hospital focus, Robin and Patrick, etc. and I believe Pratt's exit.

Edited July 14, 2022 by Vee

[carolineg]

KW was just a bad choice that didn't fit the role at all.  Maybe if she had chemistry with MB it would have made it better, but this was also at the nadir of Sonny's Brendabots.  Even if I don't feel like Reese falls into that category specifically she tends to get boxed in that way in retrospect.  I HATED KW on 90210 and think she was awful there as well, but I do think there were roles she could play on GH-this just wasn't it.

I don't think the Carly backstory was a bad idea.  Neither was introducing Carly's father.  But the writing was so bad the good idea was just so wasted.  And then it was written and put in the universe and the writers never went back to it.

I do think GH did make a good resurgence after that with Robin/Patrick all the way through Dante's story, but it hit a wall when Brenda returned.  As much as it pains me to say this, the show made the ultimate fail by not making that work and I see why major changes were made.  It was a 'no brainer' Guza managed to bungle, but that has nothing to do with Reese so I digress..

[Vee]

The irony is I think the only real reason those changes were made was because ABC wanted to can all three soaps and Frons had to fall on his sword to save GH. The price, I think, was Guza, who'd lost several steps during the interminable previous year. But once again they had no idea who to replace him with, and fully intended to can the show in 2012 (until Frank and Ron saved it).

I think the backstory with Carly could've worked, but it was a clear last minute retcon to try to spice the Reese character up and it went absolutely nowhere. Durant was horribly wasted, but that's another story.

Edited July 14, 2022 by Vee

[carolineg]

It's amazing almost 10 years later GH is still on the air.  I was sure it was a goner, but Frank and Ron did some great work early in their run.  Too bad they couldn't keep the momentum going.  The Kate/Connie DID story is still one of the worst stories I have seen though.  Just thinking about Kelly Sullivan reliving/reenacting Connie's rape makes me cringe lol.

I generally think Guza had a much better feel for GH than anyone who's come after him.  It was much more an issue of him having too much power and I think bungling something as high profile as James Franco and Vanessa Marcil's return was just enough for the Guza firing to be justified.  I don't know if I would say I miss him now, but I do think he was much better at doing events and making the show exciting.  GH has been so dull and anticlimactic for years now.

Back to Reese, KW was only on 9 months!  I swear she was on much longer or at least it felt that way lol.  They fired her after 7 months so GH cut their losses pretty quick.  I have always thought KW and Jennifer Bransford looked very similar, especially in that time period.  Similar hair, build, mannerisms, etc.  It might just be me, but I always wondered if that played into things with Reese and the Carly recast as I don't think JB was as bad as she was made out to be.  JB had some difficult material to play.  I don't think she was exactly right for Carly, but I don't think she was the flop she's viewed as today.  I know the legend is they always wanted Laura Wright, but, objectively, nothing about LW's previous work really screams Carly to me either.  That's probably why LW just made Carly into her own version of Carly though lol.  

[Vee]

It was unspeakably bad. The whole thing, Trey included. If I didn't care about Connie I definitely didn't care about her long-lost reality TV host smarmy son, a character type repeated from one of Ron's worst on OLTL.

Guza did know GH well. He had a long, long history with it before becoming HW. He's done great work. The problem is that in his second stint he preferred mostly his vision of it to the larger tapestry of the show's history, and his ballooning ego and clear desire to use the show to vent his frustrations over never making it in primetime or cable - bigger stars, bigger stunts, edgier violence and shocks - toppled him. It got lazy and embarrassingly adolescent. and then repetitious and often unwatchable or nihilistic, even with an excellent daily writing team still in place spinning decent dialogue from increasingly bad stuff, or good story outlines or couples that would get poorly handled just to do more Jason and Sonny stuff. Frons allegedly felt Guza was the only steward capable of running GH, but that was a big part what undid them both in the end. No one man is the show. But it still isn't as bad as some of the last half-decade. I would potentially, hesitantly welcome him back at this point provided there was a check on him with a very different co-HW, but that would never happen.

It really did, even as she got next to no airtime near the end, coming in and out to moan to Ric about her problems. I just remember her wandering those cave tunnels after the train crash slowly dying and no one caring, including the audience.

I think JB was absolutely a flop. It was a disaster with fans and onscreen from the jump. Part of it was having to replace Tamara with a virtual unknown - even though Tamara had been filling in for Sarah the same way, it had a different tone given that online fans at least knew Bransford was a Friend of Jill Phelps from OLTL - and part of it was Bransford's way of carrying herself as well as the material. She's not untalented, but it was never going to work. And I do believe JFP, in one of her rare moments of real creative input post-Guza, hoped she could put it over when they were in a bind with Tamara quitting lol. But she couldn't do it.

I do think LW's previous characters on LOV/TC and GL were very Carly-adjacent - gritty, hardscrabble scrappers with schemer tendencies but a heart of gold. It's all the same type, albeit not as dark or edgy as Carly.

Edited July 14, 2022 by Vee

[Contessa Donatella]

When LW was cast as Carly I was really surprised and I could not imagine her as Carly. Part of that surprise was that she was leaving GL at all & that she was moving to the West Coast. But it was pretty clear that she had made a good deal for herself, which she had! There was a part of Cassie that was a hootchie mama that I don't see in Carly but for the most part, she just inhabited Carly, early on & quickly & that was something that grew. And, now, despite what a huge fan I am of SJB & of TB, LW is now my favorite Carly. (I have a parallel situation with ATWT & GH because Maura West is more Ava to me than Carly Tenney.)

[carolineg]

I think JB was set up to fail.  She was given ridiculously difficult and unlikeable material. Perhaps JFP's power play made Guza write Carly so horribly.  She never had a chance with those storylines.  Do I think she was the right person for Carly?  Probably not.  I think JB was clearly a placeholder until LW was done at GL and I do think JB could act as well.  Lead a show?  No, but I would be perfectly fine with a show without Carly as our female lead lol.  I just wonder what JB could have done with slightly more likeable material.

As far as Laura, you are right.  Her previous characters are Carly adjacent, but don't really feel like Carly to me if that makes sense.  There is a cunning, slick manipulativeness Carly had under SJB that LW doesn't have.  LW has read pretty soccer mom since her GL run.  An entertaining and funny soccer mom, but she lacks something TB and SJB had (besides romantic chemistry with Mo lol).  

[BetterForgotten]

SJB played a very unique almost un-soaplike character in Carly. Not just the character herself, but the way it was often portrayed in a very visceral and often gritty way. Similar to the same way Judith Light had done as Karen Wolek decades before on OLTL (yes, she too was a recast, but who remembers anyone else playing that role?). 

LW doesn't have that quality, but she's playing whatever Carly is now. 

 

[Vee]

I do think Guza partly tanked her because JB was forced on him in a tight spot. But I don't think they necessarily knew they had Laura in waiting until that came together later on (I'm not entirely sure on the timeline, but IIRC LW's exit from GL was largely storyline-based). I think Guza gambled that he could make sure the recast didn't work and get someone more to his liking, and he bet correctly. You knew they didn't care about her when they let JB's Carly marry Alcazar, a character they had worked hard to neuter and marginalize to protect Sonny/Jason ever since that same couple had taken off with Tamara in the role. They would never have dared go there again with a recast they were invested in, and didn't with Laura Wright (who had scorching chemistry with Ted King on LOV/TC).

We've been over this before lol, but I just don't agree. I think LW has more than enough grit and steel to sell Carly and has always succeeded. The fairy princess shít on GL is what I didn't buy - it was when they had her all but doing Skinemax softcore porn with David Andrew Macdonald in the Conboy era at GL that she was at home again. It's her material as Carly that is often mediocre, especially in the 2010s-on. Domesticating her was a choice, but again I think she has a force onscreen and physicality to her that Sarah had (and even Bransford did, resulting in the now-legendary story Kelly Monaco still tells about Bransford actually whacking her during their catfight) and Tamara didn't. When Laura's Carly makes a vow to fùck up someone's life you 100% believe it is her mission in life. She made Dante and Lulu's lives hell. I didn't believe it when Tamara would try. She was great at certain things but she didn't have that edge. No one touches Sarah Brown to me, but I think Laura is as good a ringer as you'll get for her type of Carly. JMO!

The things she did onscreen were primetime/cable ready, especially with Maurice, especially when they first put them together, and I'm not talking necessarily about sex. I am fine with Laura, but I'd still bring Sarah back in a heartbeat if control was no object.

[carolineg]

I feel like GH was in a space with Carly where they could have written her off temporarily when TB left and didn't. GH could have spent time looking for a good recast.  Most of the things JB's Carly did were of little consequence in the long run including her marriage to Alcazar.  For some reason I thought talks with LW began before her contract ended at GL and she left when it was up knowing the GH job was her.  I think she had objections to the story (was it Josh/Cassie?), but I think LW is savvy enough to know she was on a sinking ship regardless.

 

Lol!  We probably have been over this before, but I hardly remember what I wrote yesterday 

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.  I do believe LW's Carly can hold a grudge like no other.  The fact she gleefully wanted to ruin Brenda, Dante, Lulu so she showed up fully dressed as a guest at S&B's wedding just to set the whole thing on fire publicly is epic.  LW has her good moments, but this place Carly is in now is something I could never imagine SJB playing.  I could never imagine her with marrying Jax or flirting with Drew, but that's how Carly is written.  If SJB had been playing Carly the entire time I don't think a lot of things would have played out the way they have.  Carly has become tailored to LW's strengths-which is fine.   I would love SJB back, but I almost couldn't even imagine her in the role now.  I know it's been 20 plus years, but the role has deviated so far from what it was it's hard to picture, IMO.

[Vee]

I don't think Carly is tailored to anyone's strengths anymore, lol. They gave up on writing for Carly as Carly around at the latest 2012. She is a utility character with a few key traits who is there to move plot, shore up Sonny or get plugged into the lead of the moment (or just sidelined with Drew, who they don't know how to write for - that is a holding position for her).

I can imagine the latter-day, more mature Sarah from DAYS, etc. doing the Metro Court and Jax as her ex stuff but still keeping the OG throughline threaded into the new iteration. She could pick it back up like that because again, Laura has fire. But you could also easily reposition her and revert the character to her type.

I do think LW knew GL was going down and acted accordingly, but I don't know how long it was in the works.

Edited July 14, 2022 by Vee

[Contessa Donatella]

Yes, I think that is the way the situation with LW & GL & GH came about. Yes, Josh with Reva's sister, Cassie. As to how much LW sensed the decline of GL, I can't remember when it was or I'd be able to give a good estimate.

 

 

[Faulkner]

Josh/Cassie turned my stomach. Such a betrayal of those characters IMO, especially during Reva’s cancer story.