4 hours ago, janea4old said:

There have been large many-year gaps in my watching of GH since I started in 1969. Many years missed.
This is the first time I've ever seen Mary Mae Ward, although I've heard much about her. Thanks so much for posting. She's amazing.

She was a special character that was perfectly cast. That whole backstory was so well told. We get the beginning of an introduction to the history of that family when Luke and Laura hide out in what eventually becomes their home. Laura sees images of a black family living in the now abandoned house. Later we learn it was the Ward family home.

I hate what Guza did to that house. They turned it into something ugly and it was originally something beautiful. Laura seeing it for the first time and walking around inside it feeling the history and the love is one of my favorite set of scenes from their return. I loved that set.

6 hours ago, titan1978 said:

I hate what Guza did to that house. They turned it into something ugly and it was originally something beautiful. Laura seeing it for the first time and walking around inside it feeling the history and the love is one of my favorite set of scenes from their return. I loved that set.

I would still have Lucky or someone (or Luke, if you could get Tony back for a stint which is highly unlikely) bring it back and rebuild it. I never got over losing it. It was a place with real character and resonance for all the reasons you've explained, both for the Wards and for what it came to represent in that period of GH and with the Spencers.

Edited Friday at 06:48 AM4 days by Vee

John Ingle, a few years before playing Edward.

I keep forgetting AMC legend Lorraine Broderick very nearly took over as HW in 2012 when Frank came on. He wanted her because Ron Carlivati was supposed to be indisposed (at Prospect Park, I think). A real what might have been, same as Nancy Curlee almost going to GH in the mid-'90s (or am I wrong about that?).

Michele Val Jean is on the Soapy podcast with Rebecca Budig and Greg Rikaart today and does discuss her time at GH. That show has been surprisingly candid and in-depth - I am still working through some other good episodes. She does discuss the rape revisit in '98 as well.

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by Vee

MVJ also discusses writing this brilliant series of scenes (timestamped at its beginning, but you can skip through the other segments throughout) from 1998, where Luke tells Lucky about the rape. The editing, sound design (or lack of sound/music), slow motion, fades to black are still masterful, some of the best work I have ever seen in daytime. And TG's very unsettling mix of shame, some self-pity and denial, and a touch of continued fetishization are what make his performance so mesmerizing.

MVJ comments above that the only available clip of these scenes on YT for many years was very poor quality. I know which one she's talking about. Someone send her this, it's better!

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by Vee