GH: Classic Thread

[carolineg]

I think time has shown us Jensen Buchanan isn't a very good person or at least has a lot of issues.  Hopefully she's doing better now.  

I don't blame her for taking the job at GH.  That's not her fault.  It's work on a popular soap and she's an actress.  

I side eye her ridiculous contract demands at AW, but again, that's on AW for not telling her no and to go kick rocks.  AW put themselves in that position and it was among a series of bad decisions made before the show was cancelled.

You can blame Jensen for mediocre performances and lack of chemistry with the GH cast.  It doesn't appear she has worked since.  I squarely blame JFP for greatly overestimating JB's star power and doubling down instead of pivoting when it was clear Melissa and Roy/Melissa were flops.

[Contessa Donatella]

It may have been JFP at AW thinking that JB was who she had to have, perks & all, when the show could have had Wheeler playing both twins, not one, and no perks, just a std contract. AW fans were plagued with EPs like JFP & opportunistic actors at a time when it could afford neither!!! 

And, no, as far as I can tell JB does not go even out in the world, so it's possibly now a sad situation & I honestly hate that for her, if so. But who knows, maybe karma. 

[Vee]

Buchanan was always mid, and she was never big or charismatic enough a star to compete on the GH of the late 90s-early 2000s. But JFP was arrogant enough to believe it would be just another show for her to steamroll with her favorite actors.

IIRC Jill did use her briefly at Y&R. Before that whole drunk driving thing.

[carolineg]

I think we both agreed Watros brief stint as Vicky elevated the character much more.  

I think Jensen was passable in the early to mid 90's being an ingenue.  But once she got a bit older it didn't translate and she didn't try to expand her acting or take any real chances.  Even if they introduced Melissa slowly as a side character that beefed up the hospital staff a bit I don't think it would have been successful.   There was just way too much talent not being used in her age range.  If JFP just correctly used the actresses she already had instead she would have been labeled as a hero-or at least not gotten put in a corner by Guza for the rest of her tenure.  

Then again epically fumbling the ball with both Genie and Vanessa is probably one of the dumbest moves she could have possibly made, so JFP was always going to screw the whole thing up.

[Contessa Donatella]

This is from last year, the Daily Drama podcast, Charles Mesure was the guest, Steve & Bradford, sorry don't have the link, one of them asks this question, then his reply. More meaningful now than before. 

"How did GH come about for you?"

"What's the polite version of this story? My agent loves the show and we know that last year was this crazy year with the the actor strike and the writer strike, that was an unprecedented shift in the industry. I've never come across anything that dramatic and then it came through in October ‘would I like to read for this show’ and for me it had nothing to do with the show, it had to do with at my age I thought it was like 10 years long gone from being a romantic leading man and also I knew that starting in about 2016 I started to have trouble remembering lines just because I'm middleaged now you know and so the idea of learning massive amounts of dialogue and being a romantic leading man for someone who looks like she's just won Wimbledon for God's sake, that is so what I don't want to be doing at this point in my career. I've been doing mentor roles and character roles and antagonist roles for 10 years now you know but in the end my agent bullied me and said ‘just go in’. I said ‘okay I'll go in for the workout’ and then I went in, this was last October, and Mark was just a phenomenally impressive ambassador to the show. He was so gracious and so welcoming I thought ‘well if this is how they do things I'm impressed by that’ and then I read with Laura Wright and she was so ridiculously good, so present. The tiniest thing I did she would pick it up and run with it. She was so present, so breathtaking in terms of her craft, so impressive and just the way she ran with that chemistry. She was so warm and welcoming I thought ‘wow totally against my better judgment, I think I'd really like to work with her’ and that was it.”

[AdelaideCate007]

I always thought that her plan was to basically replace one of the female vets with Melissa and thought fans would just be fine with it, along with just slotting in Roy into that crew. Someone else will remember all the details, but I think Bobbie was going to lose it over Melissa and it got pretty close to happening until Tony Geary steps in.

Even if she wasn't fully successful in that attempt, It's crazy in hindsight how quickly she managed to clear out so many of the vet women. Felicia and Laura were gone a year or two later, and Bobbie basically ceased leading stories until she was just gone. I think Lucy was fully on PC by that time and the GH crossovers had stopped.

I was a kid so not the best judge of acting skills, but I'd always liked JB on AW. She was just not what anybody needed on GH. It felt like Mary Beth Evans all over again. A big name from another soap that probably should have been short term, but they just couldn't let go so they kept shoving them into stories trying to make it work.
 

Edited March 17 by AdelaideCate007

[carolineg]

Yes! Now that you say that I completely remember she was supposed to replace Bobbie or something of the sort.  JFP wanted to get rid of Zeman.  I am not sure if that's more of a BTS tidbit or actual facts that were reported but I know people on here have discussed it before.

I thought MBE was better than JB.  She at least gave it her all.  The writing for Katherine was just so off.  I do agree MBE would have worked better short term.

[DRW50]

The idea of her getting a helicopter, and not having to play Marley, was always too much. Buchanan was never a great choice for the part, she made both ladies feel like caricatures, but once they molded Vicky to her talents, she got better in that part. It still wasn't worth keeping her around. By the end she just felt too generic, too golly-gosh, and would probably have been more suited to stuff like When Calls the Heart if it had been on at that time. She always felt very out of place on GH. JFP's arrival coincided with the end of so many of the actresses on the show (beyond those mentioned, Sarah Brown and Amber Tamblyn also left soon after she showed up), and she just ended up shoving all these new women at the camera. I think Hannah also left somewhere in that timeframe (no big loss).

[Contessa Donatella]

Agree, with everything! And, she mounted a campaign to get herself named "the star of Another World" which was just ridiculous & was not going to happen as long Victoria Wyndham was in place as Rachel. Eddie Drueding just showed me a quote from Doug Watson where he said it was part of his deal with the show that he would never say he loved anyone but Rachel!!!" BTW, the Another World Home Page is gearing up to celebrate their 30th anniversary from their inception date of April 6, 1995! Stay tuned for details. 

 

 

 

[carolineg]

The helicopter and all her demands were way too much and made Jensen look bad.  In the end I am not sure much of it mattered.  AW was always going to go whether it outlasted Sunset Beach or not.

I know SJB and Amber both had problems with JFP, but I believe Sarah at least worked it out with her eventually.  I think Amber actually wanted to stay and the show wouldn't give her an acceptable contract or just wrote her off.  I can't recall which.  I think Lisa Vultaggio (Hannah) had issues with GH BTS in general not specifically JFP.  To the point there were long standing rumors JJ was pissed at GH and possibly Mo for the way the show treated his girlfriend (now wife).  I don't have anything positive to say about LV's acting or Hannah's story, but no actress could have made that character work.   It was a really stupid plan to hire an actress that looked just like Vanessa Marcil months after Brenda left-even if that was part of the story.  The Hannah character got much better once she started mixing it up with AJ and Taggert, but it was too little too late.

[Vee]

I remember this mess well. Jill drove them both off the show early because she was trying to throw her weight around. It was idiotic and a major blow. Neither had to happen AFAIC, but she was sure she could retool GH for her favorite actors. I absolutely believe Sarah could've and would've stayed, and I know Amber would've for a few more years.

LV getting dumped was inevitable so I didn't have an issue with it, even though I liked her with A.J.

Edited March 18 by Vee

[carolineg]

Amber definitely would have stayed longer.  I do sometimes think Sarah was just over it all at that point, but still would have probably stayed a bit longer.  I think pretty much everyone at the time did think Sarah was destined for stardom though.

LV/Hannah getting dumped was obvious.  I am actually surprised she lasted as long as she did.  I just remember hearing rumors Mo (and possibly Steve?) treated her badly, which checks out with everything we have heard about them in the early 2000's.  And that JJ held a grudge for years.  JJ's career was pretty hot back then and he would not have returned to GH in 2001 or 2002 so that could also be fans making something out of nothing.  I tend to believe MB was pretty mean to Lisa if only because this was Sonny's return and first major flop of a story.

[Vee]

Agreed, but I do think she would not have dipped quite so fast if not for JFP trying to flex.

I heard the same re: Mo, Steve and Sarah towards LV.

[carolineg]

The GH set has always sounded toxic.  I am a little surprised that Sarah was involved in the LV stuff since it seems like she was bullied by at least Steve as well.  The stories Mo tells openly in his book about Tamara make me think a lot of the rumors are true.  I am sure JFP just encouraged it all.

[Vee]

I think Sarah was on the inside until she wasn't. I think that happened a lot at GH back then, including probably with Tamara. The aggression Steve displayed onscreen towards her when Carly got with Lorenzo for breaking up the Sonny/Jason/Carly trio felt very real to me, and it was ugly.