GH: Classic Thread

[Contessa Donatella]

I am looking for a GH episode. If you by any wild chance know of anyone who has the GH episode of 9-4-2001, holler at me. 

[titan1978]

I will never forgive Frons and I assume JFP for Alan Quartermaine. I blamed Guza for years too but according to Michele Val Jean Guza didn’t want to kill Alan.

[Khan]

Why did they want to kill Alan, though?  Was it because of Stuart Damon's real-life medical issues?

If SD had decided he was no longer physically able to work, then I could understand killing off Alan.  But it seems like TPTB just wanted to be rid of the Quartermaines and most actors over a certain age.

Edited December 25, 2023 by Khan

[Vee]

Money.

[OzFrog]

Just started watching 2005+ Sonny and Carly, just after Laura Wright assumed the role. I can see a lot of similarities here between Laura’s early run and that of SJB. The sheer level of neurotic between S&C in these years is off the frickin charts - I have no idea how anyone managed to survive watching all that. Sonny being a complete and utter controlling ass, Carly being pulled between Sonny and Jax - it’s enough to throw stuff at the TV.

And speaking of throwing things at the TV, there’s the added “bonus” of early Spinelli in these scenes - am I the only one who thought this guy needs to calm the f*** down? 

[Khan]

Nope.

[titan1978]

Exactly.

[carolineg]

Just wanted to say Happy Holidays to everyone on this thread!  Thank you for you endless insight and great discussions!

[OzFrog]

Watching more late 2000s Sonny/Carly (I wasn’t closely following at the time), and not knowing until today that Carly giving birth to Josslyn happened on the same night as Michael killing Claudia (as well as Sonny completely ripping Claudia to shreds publicly at her birthday party). If anything, GH definitely knew how to climax storylines at precisely the right time…

[Paul Raven]

 The San Francisco Examiner May 23 1971

Three Sisters Who Sob, Long Distance By Dwight Newton Television Critic

IN A GREAT, BIG, gorgeous bedroom overlooking scenic Bidwell Park at Chico, young and beautiful Mrs. Jerome Dobson, wife of an almond farmer, is wont to talk, laugh, sob and cry out loud in the middle of the night. It is not the sound of sobbing, that occasionally disturbs Farmer Dobson's sleep. It is the sound of Mrs. Dobson's typewriter in the wee small hours.

"I sometimes dream there is a machine gun in the house," confided Dobson last week. "I shall have to invent a typewriter with felt keys." Meanwhile, Mrs. Dobson-nee Bridget Hursley, creative writing major, Stanford University, class of '60 goes happily and/or emotionally about her network commitment: the midnight writing of three episodes per week of one of America's most watched soap operas. '"General Hospital" (3 p.m.weekdays, ABC-TV).

Bridget Dobson has been writing about the interlocking lives, loves, problems and pregnancies of "General Hospital" people, putting words into their mouths, for six years. She inherited the job.

HER CO-HEIRESS and co-writer (usually two episodes a week) is her sister. Dr. Deborah Hardy, history professor, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyo. When the turbulent affairs of Dr. Steve Hardy (John Beradio),Nurse Jessie Brewer and all the others-Nurse Meg. Nurse Lucille, Dr. Peter, Dr.Tom, Audrey, Sharon, Jane, Phil, Howie, Lee Baldwin become too tangled to readily unravel, they could even put in an SOS call to a third sister. Polly Keusink, who with husband Richard owns and publishes a weekly newspaper,The Brookings Harbor (Oregon) Pilot. '

Though "General Hospital" is jammed to the gurneys  with big city sin and suspense, the plots are firmly planted in grass roots America - Northern California, Wyoming and Oregon. No other soap opera can make that claim.

The plot-planting process is unique to television. Every Sunday like religion,. Bridget in Chico and Deborah in Laramie receive a phone call from their parents, Frank and Doris Hursley, down in Beverly Hills. The senior Hursleys outline the next five episodes; a paragraph per episode does it: "Diana wishes Jessie would choose between Peter and Phil"... "Brooke confesses to Lee that she loves him" . . . "Sharon shows cheesecake photos of herself to Lucille and Henry." Then the daughters hit the typewriters to fill in the action and the dialog.

Their deadline is always the following Thursday. They write six weeks in advance of airdate. The senior Hursleys are seasoned hands at writing and creating broadcast entertainment. They wrote "Search for Tomorrow" for years. They created "Bright Promise" and subsequently sold it to Bing Crosby Productions.

 "General Hospital" has been their baby from birth. , They have been at it since 1941 when Doris, then a Wisconsin lawyer, and Frank, a University of Wisconsin professor, wrote their first script and parlayed it into a radio series called "Aunt Jenny." Came the deluge: "Those Websters," "Trouble With the Truitts," "Light of the World," "That's Rich." And then on to Hollywood, television, and the second generation of Hursley writers. Bridget went lo Stanford because, "I never thought of going anyplace else; it was thing to do."For every hour of study she expected a bonus barrel of fun, and collected. She became a wheel with the Institute of International Relations, and supervised its Stanford Sidewalk Cafe.

During her four-year tenure, Bridget variously lived at the Eranner, Olivo, Union Court and Alondra houses and fell passionately in love with a tall, lean, handsome, Alpha Sigma Phi who was studying to be a farmer. One Jerome Dobson from Chico. And then they were married. They have two children, Andy and Mary.

THEIR CHICO HOME is big enough to house the entire "General Hospital" cast and then some. But Bridget won't use one of the spare rooms to write in. She is set in her ways, as most writers are. Like the horse that headed for the barn, I head for the kitchen table when I write at home. Bridget heads for the bedroom.

"Because It's big and comfortable and I like it." he told me. "Besides, It's a multi-purpose bedroom. Everything happens here. Why not write here?" She writes mostly at night so she can concentrate better, so her days can be free. She laughs, moans, mumbles, sobs and cries because she does her best writing when she talks her dialog out loud.

She lives all the roles, often with anguish. But it's not the anguish that disturbs the tranquility of Farmer Dobson dreams. It's that "machine gun in the house."

[depboy]

Amazing article! Thanks for sharing a look into the process!

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Here is April '74!

Monday, April 1, 1974: Jane speculates that Howie may want a divorce.  Steve tells Jessie he hopes a night at the Chinese ballet will somehow shed light on the mysterious mail; Steve remembers the game he used to play with coins in China; he thinks that whoever sent the coins knew him or his family in China; an unidentified pair of hands (distinguished by a small dragon tattoo on the inside of the right thumb) unpack a woman’s suitcase, finds a tattered, old Bible, and pastes a page into it; they then return the Bible and contents of the suitcase to their original position.

Tuesday, April 2: Lucille is skeptical when Audrey tells her that she thinks that Jim will be performing surgery again soon.  Jessie tells Peter that Diana was terribly afraid that she upset him; Peter tells her to stop matchmaking.  Jane admits to Mrs. Dawson that she gets queasy when Howie touches her.  Jim reminisces with Audrey about the exhilaration of performing surgery; Audrey urges him to start with simple procedures.

Wednesday, April 3: Jim arranges to do surgery Friday.  Diana and Joel have lunch outside of the hospital.  She reacts angrily when he urges her to enjoy life more.  Jim tells Audrey his hands don’t bother him as much when he drinks.  Audrey, concerned, suggests that maybe he isn’t ready for surgery yet; he asks her not to lose faith in him now.

Thursday, April 4: Audrey tells Steve she is afraid she urged Jim into surgery before he was ready; Steve talks to Jessie and they both agree that the Hobart surgery is more important than their night out at the Chinese ballet; Steve gives the ballet tickets to Henry.  Henry invites Augusta to go with him to the ballet.  At Jessie’s suggestion, Peter and Diana meet in a patient’s room in an effort to reassure her; the patient is going to have a hysterectomy, and both Peter and Diana agree that their personal experiences with hysterectomy made no difference in their feelings for each other.

Friday, April 5: Audrey asks Lucille and Al to babysit Tommy so she can be at the hospital for Jim’s surgery.  The Dawson’s have dinner; Mrs. Dawson urges Howie to be gentle with Jane; when Mrs. Dawson retires, Howie tries to become amorous with Jane; Jane admits that when he comes near her she gets queasy; Howie tells her he’ll be more than happy to stay away from her.   At the ballet, Henry and Augusta are seated; the dancers come down the aisles; one of the dancers, Mai-Lin, bows and slips a note to Henry; he reads it and it says “Dr. Steven Hardy - please help me.”

Monday, April 8: Peter is in high spirits, while Lesley is low; they decide to go to dinner; at the last minute, Lesley changes her mind.  Audrey is angry when Lucille asks if she is worried about Jim’s surgery because he has been drinking.; Steve offers Jim his assistance; Jim is defensive; Audrey asks about Jim and Steve says he is tense; Audrey insists that she will wait at the hospital until the surgery is over.  At the theater, Mai-Lin faints in front of Henry.

Tuesday, April 9: Peter is pleased with the results of the meeting he had in the patient’s room.  Henry starts emergency first aid on Mai-Lin; he asks Augusta to get his medical bag and call Steve; he takes Mai-Lin to the lobby as the theater manager tries to calm the audience.  Peter goes to Diana’s apartment, hopeful that they might have reached an understanding; when she questions him, she realizes that his only commitment to Martha is a feeling of responsibility; hurt, she asks him to leave.  A nurse reports to Steve that things are going well in Jim’s surgery; Steve gets the call from Augusta, who tells him about the note and the ballerina who fainted; he tells her he will send an ambulance right away.

Wednesday, April 10: Al finds Jim’s large liquor supply and is impressed; Lucille frets about Audrey and decides to go wait with her at the hospital.  In surgery, Jim is irritable, he finally asks Boswell to relieve so he can rest his hand.  Henry and the ballet troupe manager argue; Henry wants Mai-Lin taken to the hospital, the manager doesn’t want her to go; finally, after Henry asks if he is willing to take responsibility for her having a subdural hematoma, the manager agrees to let her go - - with a bodyguard.

Thursday, April 11: In the back of the ambulance, with the bodyguard watching, Henry tries to reassure Mai-Lin.  Steve is frustrated when he tries to examine Mai-Lin under the watchful eye of the bodyguard; Henry shows Steve the note; Kira tries questioning Steve about the dancer.  Peter admits to Augusta that he is feeling low after seeing Diana; Augusta tries to cheer him, without success.  Steve gets a call from the surgical nurse who tells him that Jim is having problems; Steve calls Joel and asks that he come to the hospital in case Jim can’t finish the procedure.

Friday, April 12: Steve points out to Jessie that the handwriting on the note is similar to that on the envelopes he received.  Steve tells Joel to scrub and go into surgery with Jim.  Howie tells Jane that their marriage isn’t going to work; Jane is upset; she tells him that he is selfish.  Jim is sweating, angry and scared; Joel enters and Jim is outraged; he lets Joel take over, angry and embarrassed.

Monday, April 15: When Augusta asks Peter for change to take the bus home, he offers to drive her.  Jim, angry and defensive, waits for Joel outside surgery; Jim is annoyed to learn that Steve sent Joel in in the middle of the operation; he is irked that Audrey is there; he tries to convince them that he could have finished without Joel; Audrey urges him to come home, but he refuses; he has a few things he wants to say to Joel.  Augusta invites Peter in and she starts to make him feel relaxed.

Tuesday, April 16: Audrey calls Lee because she is afraid of what the disappointment may do to Jim; Lee advises her not to anticipate problems; Joel and Jim argue; Jim accuses Joel of wanting to show Jim up, while Joel accuses Jim of thinking of himself more than the patient.  Kira stops to see her mother after Steve refuses to see her; it is apparent that Amy doesn’t approve of the way Kira lives.  Jim comes home inebriated; he says he feels as if he let Audrey down.

Wednesday, April 17: Steve won’t talk to reporters about the Chinese dancer; Jessie tells him that she has arranged for privately run tests on Mai-Lin; Kira tries to get more information out of Steve; she wheedles and charms, but Steve admits nothing; he agrees that if there were more, he wouldn’t tell her.  Audrey tells Lee she doesn’t know how to cope with Jim. 

Thursday, April 18: Diana tells Lesley that things are no better for Peter and her; she has gotten her hopes up for the last time.  Jane and Lee have lunch.  Howie watches himself on television, after having held a press conference on the Chinese dancer case; he is pleased; Jane is less than enthusiastic, and it irritates him.  Steve is furious when he watches Kira’s newscast and hears her say that Dr. Hardy admits there may be more to the case than what has officially been released to the public.

Friday, April 19: Steve calls Kira because he is angry over her news broadcast; Kira is pleased that Steve is thinking about her.  Henry goes to see Mai-Lin and tries to make her smile.  Joel annoys Jim by telling him that he thought Jim did a good job in the part of the surgery he was able to perform; later, Jim talks about quitting; Audrey boosts his spirits and he promises he won’t go off and get drunk; to celebrate his newest resolution, he pours a drink; to stop him, Audrey throws herself at him and begs him to take her; he succumbs to her invitation.

Monday, April 22: Lesley is annoyed when she witnesses Augusta flirting with Peter.  Mai-Lin’s tests reveal no physical problems.  Lesley recalls how Augusta stole her husband from her; she admits to Jessie that she thinks Augusta is ruthless.  Steve is reviewing the envelopes, the coins, and the note from Mai-Lin, then he gets an idea; he and Jessie go to Mai-Lin’s room where he plays the game he learned as a child with Mai-Lin.

Tuesday, April 23: Audrey is worried when Jim shows her a letter he has written to the hospital board about Joel; she advises him to show it to Steve.  The manager of the Chinese dance troupe insists Mai-Lin be released from the hospital; when he and Steve go to visit Mai-Lin, Steve realizes that the girl is disturbed by the manager’s presence; the troupe manager tells Steve he is going to have his doctor check Mai-Lin; Henry tries to reassure her.  Jim and Steve argue over the letter; Jim gets angry when Steve suggests it is unwise to send it; Jim says that both Joel and Steve are against him, that Joel wants his job, and Steve wants his wife.

Wednesday, April 24: Jane tells Mrs. Dawson that she is considering moving out of the apartment.  Augusta finds Peter responsive to her flirting; Jessie observes; Peter tells Jessie that Augusta is merely a distraction from the breakup of his marriage.  Jim’s uncertainty that he could have finished the surgery himself makes him angry.

Thursday, April 25: Mrs. Dawson meets Howie and tells her about Jane wanting to move out; Jane and Lee have lunch; she admits that Howie and her are not getting along and begins to cry.  Kira finds Steve hostile; she urges him not to hold a grudge over the newscast.

Friday, April 26: Steve tells Henry that the lab tests on Mai-Lin indicate no physical problem.  Joel invites Diana out for a date and she turns him down.  Jim admits to Audrey that Steve agrees with her that he shouldn’t send the letter.  Joel surprises Diana with dinner at her apartment; he tells her about his brother, Owen.

Monday, April 29: Lesley tells Jessie she is going to set up a free clinic.  Lucille is in a dither because she has to leave suddenly to take care of her cousin’s sick child.  Lesley warns Augusta not to interfere with the Taylor marriage; Augusta tells her she would prefer Lesley allow her to run her own life.

Tuesday, April 30: Audrey admits to Lee that she is worried about the letter Jim has written about Joel.  Steve, the troupe manager, and the troupe doctor go to Mai-Lin’s room; after examining her, the doctor suggests that she should be released in his care; Steve refuses.  Jim senses Audrey’s disapproval over both his drinking and of the letter he wrote; he tells her he needs her support now more than ever.

[j swift]

It is such an interesting contrast to the interview that she gave to We Love Soaps years later

Search led to General Hospital and to one of their two daughters (me) wanting a job working from her parents. I did not just want a job.  I was obsessed.  I was adamant.  I was furious.  I was outrageous.  I pleaded.  I begged.  I threatened.  I had trained for this.  They stonewalled me.  No.  No job.  We'll hire your sister.  Which they did.  Why not me?  “Because you're a party girl.”  Come on.  “Because you'll never meet the deadlines.”   What nonsense.  “Because Debby needs the money.” 

"My parents never accepted that I was a success on my own. (My mother apparently was furious to learn that our bosses at P&G were talking to Jerry and me about shows, not to them. This is according to my sister, who was visiting them at the time of an hysterical outburst.) They never watched any of my shows. When they were asked why not, they said, 'Because we want to be proud of Bridget. That's why we don't watch.'

[Khan]

I have said it before and I will say it again: Bridget Dobson is one very complicated lady.

[cassadine1991]

Does anyone know when Jenny and Paul left and when did Sly leave?

[dc11786]

From CurlyQGrl´s site

The site is sometimes a little bit harder to find minor supporting roles. The last reference I can find to Sly Eckert is 

If anyone else remembers seeing him beyond this, please jump in.