GH: Classic Thread

[depboy]

@FrenchFanGlad you're getting a kick out of these!  How hot was July '71?  Let's find out!

Thursday, July 1, 1971: After a six hour surgery, Steve reports to Jessie that it was a success.  Howie stalls on the payment of the first installment of the loan.  Steve finds out that Tom is going to Boston to try to find out the circumstances surrounding his child's death; Steve is annoyed and they argue.  

Friday, July 2: Brooke makes another approach to Lee and Lee resists, with an effort.  Audrey makes plans with Steve for adopting a child when they marry; Mrs. Nelson telephones about Stevie, and Audrey hides her identity from Steve, but is shaken.  Howie gets Brooke's permission to sell the motorcycle.

Monday, July 5: Lucille and Sharon discuss what love is; when Lucille asks Al what love means to him, he is embarrassed.

Tuesday, July 6: Diana feels her baby move; Phil opens his eyes and says "Jessie". 

Wednesday, July 7:  Audrey is surprised when a teen-aged babysitter answers at Mrs. Nelson's; Audrey tells Mrs. Nelson she does not want Stevie left in the care of anyone else; Mrs. Nelson asks for more money.

Thursday, July 8: Jessie reports that Phil has spoken; Diana questions Phil about the night of the accident, but he says he doesn't remember.  Jane learns from the police that Wheeler was a crook and that Howie knew and said nothing.

Friday, July 9: Steve tells a distressed Jessie that Phil will not remember anything that happened since the accident.  Jessie sits with Phil and tries to be reassuring, but loses her cool a little when he asks her about Peter.  Audrey apologizes to Steve for being absent and promises things will be better after they marry.  Brooke kisses Lee in his office and tries to tell him that they are doing no harm.

Monday, July 12: Audrey lies to Steve that Mrs. Nelson's baby is a foster child and hopes that if the baby is put up for adoption she and Steve might have a chance to adopt him.  Diana hopes that Phil loves her, as he remembers seeing Peter and Jessie together on the night of the accident.

Tuesday, July 13: Jane explains to Lee that Wheeler was arrested in Florida; she gives Howie every chance to explain, but he doesn't.  Audrey learns the baby is sick, decides he has to see a doctor; Mrs. Nelson disapproves when Audrey suggests they lie and say the baby is Mrs. Nelson's cousin's; Dr. Dunlap recommends plenty of juice and baby aspirin.

Wednesday, July 14: Mrs. Dawson learns that Howie forged Jane's name on the loan; Howie tells Brooke more about losing the money on the investment deal; Mrs. Nelson taunts Audrey about lying.

Thursday, July 15: After Peter asks Jessie what she will do if Phil willingly gives her up, Jessie tells Peter she loves him.  Brooke woos Scotty, and the audience see that she is using his affection to win Lee.

Friday, July 16: Brooke talks about her future with the Baldwins and ends up crying.  Lucille urges Al to talk to Steve about the job of building superintendent of GH.  Dr. Dunlap tells Audrey that Stevie should go to the hospital, he is afraid the child has pneumonia.  Jessie is concerned because Phil hasn't made much improvement in the last few day.

Monday, July 19: Brooke refuses when Howie asks her out for a beer.  Peter gets Jessie's permission to tell Phil that Jessie was not disloyal to Phil when she married Peter.  Dr. Dunlap gives Audrey instructions on taking care of Stevie; she refuses to go out to dinner with Steve because she insists on staying with Stevie.  Brooke reassures Scotty and Lee that she is not interested in Howie.

Tuesday, July 20: Al tells Lucille he has an appointment to see the hospital's Business Manager about the maintenance job.  Tom tells Audrey that he found no trace of the baby in Boston.  Diana tells Phil she loves him, and he tells her he isn't angry about her not telling him she knew his identity.

Wednesday, July 21: Al tells Lucille that Mr. Brady has offered him the job as head of plant operations and he accepted. Dr. Dunlap plans to ask another doctor in as a consultant for little Stevie. Jane tells Howie she knows about the Wheeler deal and forgives him.

Thursday, July 22: Lee and Scotty agree that Scotty should go to his grandparents' for a visit.  Peter has high hopes that things will work out for him and Jessie.

Friday, July 23: Phil recalls Peter and Jessie's wedding; Jessie tells him about the annulment, he asks her to kiss him and she does.  Dr. Dunlap asks Tom to look at Stevie Nelson.  Brooke and Lee discover they are alone, when Scotty leaves to visit the Bentleys.

Monday, July 26: Audrey realizes that Tom is Dunlap's consultant.  Jessie tells Peter she thinks Phil needs her.  

Tuesday, July 27: Diana learns that Phil kissed Jessie.  Tom and Audrey meet in Stevie's hospital room, he tells her it could have been their child.  Even though he is tempted, Lee resists Brooke's effort to get closer to him.

Wednesday, July 28: Howie is outraged when he learns Brooke is alone with Lee; Brooke tries to get Lee to go swimming, and fails; she asks him if he plans to stop living because Meg is sick.  Diana tells Phil she needs him more than Jessie does.  

Thursday, July 29: Jane wonders if Howie is jealous when he tells her he thinks it's indecent for Brooke and Lee to be living alone.  Mrs. Nelson comes to visit Stevie in Tom's presence; Audrey tries desperately to prevent Tom and Mrs. Nelson from conversing.  Al tells Sharon his office door has his name on it, so she goes to see it.

Friday, July 30: Lee kicks Howie out of his office when Howie tell Lee off about living alone with Brooke.  Jessie questions Phil why he didn't reveal himself to her sooner; Peter gifts her a stay at the Seaside Inn so she can get away and think things through.  When Stevie's temperature rises,  Audrey breaks when Tom tells her that the problem is the baby's heart.

[Vee]

These are so invaluable. Howie is always insufferable.

On an unrelated note, I am baffled by another piece of history: The inexplicable recast of Duke with the very American Greg Beecroft (Tony, GL), who could not be more different from Ian Buchanan. How on Earth? It seemed to not last very long - less than three months, allegedly. You don't often see that kind of turnaround on a disaster with a major character today, usually they just dig in for as long as possible. Is there any backstory on that messy recast?

[DRW50]

I think I remember some saying that viewers had grown to accept him by the time he was killed off and the decision wasn't that popular, but I don't know if that's true or not. 

[Vee]

That was the claim in Connie Passalacqua's column at the time, per a Wikipedia link. I am watching them and I just think it's very bizarre. I don't see it.

Edited June 24, 2023 by Vee

[Vee]

Also, sorry to spam people: What exactly went down with Jake Meyer's exit? It seems like Sam Behrens may have gone for a long stretch of 1988 before he finally exited, but maybe I'm misunderstanding. He's so good with Jackie, it's too bad.

[Dion]

I think after Gloria Monty left he was dissatisfied with the direction of Jake's character so he left, did a brief stint on LA Law and then came back to GH a short while later to wrap up Jake and Bobbie's story before exiting for good.

[Franko]

I don't know if there was necessarily drama so much as Sam wanted to try his luck with primetime. It was good that he came back in November and early December to wrap up Jake and Bobbie's relationship.

And was apparently also set to be the male lead if The Facts of Life continued or had a spinoff with Blair running Eastland.

[Vee]

I had no idea on that one. How long was he gone in '88?

[Franko]

For a long time, I was under the impression that Jake's last episode was Thursday, Dec. 31, 1987, when he decided to leave Bobbie. He is in the Monday, Jan. 4, 1988 episode, when she's dealing with the fallout of his leaving (and the hospital's swamped with patients!). I get the impression, but I could be wrong, that from there up until the big return in November, Jake functioned as an offscreen character and mostly during the winter. Things like "Jake sends Bobbie a letter, which Scotty sees first," or "Jake and Bobbie are unable to talk on the phone."

As for The Facts of Life, Sam was in the finale two-parter, alongside Kathleen Freeman as Blair's new secretary and Meredith Scott Lynn, Mayim Bialik (in the Tootie role), Seth Green (Eastland would have gone coed) and Juliette Lewis among the students. It's like watching the original Good Morning, Miss Bliss pilot, where Hayley Mills' classroom would have included Jaleel White, Brian Austin Green and Jonathan Brandis.

Edited June 24, 2023 by Franko

[Vee]

Thanks - shame they couldn't get Behrens back over the years.

[titan1978]

Jake was my favorite pairing with Bobbie.  Especially after Brock.

IIRC The audience knew Duke survived the explosion, and then had to watch Anna and Robin grieve him being dead. He was incredibly popular paired with Anna. Beecroft was nowhere near as charismatic as Ian.  He was starting to win the audience over but I don’t think anyone bought him as Duke that well until Anna was crying over his dead body. All of a sudden he had some supporters.  I’ve always heard he was difficult to work with on both GL and GH.

And that second death lead us to exploring Anna’s time as a double agent, introduced Faison (who was awesome back then), and also Casey the Alien (not so awesome).

[Hunnibunni1025004]

Diana had a baby and gave it up for adoption before Tracy ?? Wow, this is the first time I heard about this child! Does anyone remember if they even mentioned this mystery child anymore after this conversation?

[j swift]

I found it fascinating that the same man who was on the writing team for Luke and Laura's rape, went on to write Eden's rape storyline on SB, and got praise for trying to correct the mistakes of his past plot.

http://santabarbara-online.com/articleSB-GH2.htm

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Especially because, as most SB fans know, the resolution of Eden's rape, in terms of revealing that her gynecologist was her rapist, and his kidnapping her daughter, was insensitive given their initial intent to show the realistic consequences of sexual assault. 

Edited June 25, 2023 by j swift

[kalbir]

@j swift Not to derail this thread, but if you watched the Y&R 50th anniversary special and saw the segment where Lauralee Bell talked about Cricket's date rape from Summer 1989, you'll recall that she commented how Bill Bell wanted to tell that story properly. To me it sounded like a swipe at how other soaps told rape storylines and I think two of the rape storylines that were being swiped were General Hospital Laura (which was about a decade earlier) and Santa Barbara Eden (which was about a year earlier).

Edited June 25, 2023 by kalbir

[dc11786]

I'm still stumbling through 1990 (I got to August but now I am jumping around to periods that capture my interest better). Joe Hardy takes over as EP in late 1989 or early 1990 I believe. He was the one who wanted to open up Anna for new possibilities, hence Duke was out and Casey was in. Hardy initially dumps the mob all in the same period (late February/early March) having Duke, Julian, and Olivia all quickly killed off. 

I'm very mixed on Casey. There are elements I enjoy (the early stuff mostly where Casey is experiencing the world for the first time), but I found the backend of the story drags until the conclusion. 

This will probably be unpopular, but I find Faison such a camp figure it's hard to take him as a serious threat. His opening story with the Crystal, his partner in crime Jacques, and the general sense of Faison's personality is just too much for me to take him seriously. The only thing I find mildly (and I do mean mildly) is the timeline of Faison and Anna's affair in terms of Robin's conception. I don't think they ever suggested onscreen that Faison might be Robin's father, but it was definitely something I was wondering. 

I struggle with most Robert/Anna material from this period. Katherine Delafield doesn't interest me. It seems pretty clear from about March 1990 that there is no Robert/Katherine story left to tell and there seems to be a slow build back to Robert and Anna with the double agent reveal in June. I saw some episodes from March, 1991, and Robert is fighting for his life after some bombing. Anna is crying a lot. Mac receives more visitors in jail than most people get during any hospital visit. I feel like that era of "General Hospital" no longer works in the early 1990s, but maybe I just haven't seen enough.