Although I feel bad for having almost nothing to offer, I realized that GH was the only "current" soap (until now) that does not have a thread that can be used for discussing classic storylines, posting articles, etc. While never a personal favorite of mine, I do consider GH to be the second-most important soap in the genre's history (with ATWT ranking as the most important soap), given the fact that it was largely responsible for shifting the genre's direction away from the "traditional"/P&G method of storytelling to campy plots that were written in an attempt to capture the popularity of young America. (To be fair, Y&R was the first soap designed to blatantly appeal to youth. However, nobody was better at doing this--or was more copied than--GH was back in its 80's heyday.)

To get things started, here is a 1963 (partial) promo for the "new" soap:

<iframe width="420" height="345" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/QrCHlvQrnrs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Here's a 1963 opening (in poor video quality), with a very beautiful theme:

<iframe width="560" height="345" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/xGoM9CP1p2w" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

The iconic opening sequence that ran from the 1975 until 1993 had two themes (the first of which lasted just a year), as shown below:

<iframe width="420" height="345" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/qe8ZYMK1SiA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width="420" height="345" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/jSPVL8HkPfk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Edited May 2, 201213 yr by Max

1 minute ago, SoapDope78 said:

David Hamilton looks like a poor man's Robert Reed with that 70's blow dry perm. Did David and Laure have love scenes? Ick !!! if they did. I like this original (Michael Gregory) version of Rick better than Chris Robinson's version. I recently read Gregory quit the show after the 1hour expansion. I always assumed Monty replaced him.

Robinson always comes across as skeevy and having read a bit about him offscreen it fits. I seem to remember comments that Charleson and Alexander didn't like working with. I could picture someone like Chad Everett playing a recast Rick at that time.

Chad Everett might have still been too much of a name to do daytime in 1978, less than two years after Medical Center ended.

I think both Robinson and Gregory were quite good from what I've seen, but there's no doubt CR was stiffer and more patrician which probably suited Rick's evolving role on the canvas. It seems Robinson was very popular in the role despite the leading ladies' issues with him, which I think ended up water under the bridge decades later. Pity about CR's later years though.

I've always wanted GH to bring on his son Rick Jr., as sort of another swinging male medical dick at the hospital. Fulfilling some of the archetype the Webber brothers had. But you can't really do that with Ric Lansing (no apparent relation to the other Lansings!) around. You'd have to change the name.

Edited 13 minutes ago13 min by Vee