I guess at the time, Don Galloway was something of a get for the show, as he was a prime time star. He was on Ironside in the 70s. Not surprising they would try to make his character something of a lead. I wonder why he would want to put in a couple of years on GH. They must have paid him nicely.

Don Galloway was getting sporadic primetime work in the 80's, so maybe having a steady income on GH suited him at the time.

He didn't score another series apart from a sitcom flop 'Hizzoner' in 79.

He had a prior relationship with Gloria Monty as they had worked together on secret Storm in the early 60's.

5 minutes ago, Jdee43 said:

I guess at the time, Don Galloway was something of a get for the show, as he was a prime time star. He was on Ironside in the 70s. Not surprising they would try to make his character something of a lead. I wonder why he would want to put in a couple of years on GH. They must have paid him nicely.

And with Chris Robinson on the way out, maybe they were looking for a similar charcter to fill the void. They were only a year apart in age and even looked similar

Edited February 1Feb 1 by Paul Raven

He's an amiable and charming presence, but plopping him in with all the youngsters is just odd. To say nothing of his name.

The Decline and Fall of the Monty Empire

Week Six (Feb. 3-7, 1986) -- Part I

Stella: "Sometimes this house is just too big."

Monica: "(after she exits) And too lonely."

Sean vs. the Quartermaines, the Alan & Monica stuff: Leslie Charleson wins the acting crown for this week with her heartbreaking work as Monica reaches what feels like the end of her marriage. This isn't the first time she's been there, and it won't be the last -- Jason's parentage even gets a shout-out! -- but it's being written and played as if the depths of despair are new. I'm giving special attention to that moment when Monica looks at herself in a hallway mirror with resigned acceptance -- there's little to nothing left at the Q mansion, so she's going to sleep with Sean. I know that eventually we'll get to the extreme stuff, namely Alan faking his death and trying to set up Monica for murder, but right now, their estrangement feels real and relatable. It's things like Monica feeling like she's being taken advantage of, or Alan and Monica disagreeing on if the marriage is worth saving, and exactly how to do so.

Alan: "... Have you lost all interest in me physically?"

Monica: "Oh, hey, wait a minute, pal, we haven't even gotten to that area yet."

Thursday's episode includes Monica and Sean doing the deed. "How could I regret feeling alive again?"

Sean vs. the Quartermaines, the Celia stuff: Most of Sean's airtime this week is devoted to conning Edward, Alan, and Celia. Dimitri Cassadine comes to town, and the Qs are tricked into holding a dinner party for Sean's phony illustrious guest. Leading up to it, Celia is encouraged by Edward to get friendly with Dimitri. I still think it's sleazy, but there is something fascinating about Celia accepting that it's something she must do for the good of the family and that type of actions and behavior are just what a Quartermaine does/who a Quartermaine is*. I don't regularly watch the current show, but I still read the discussions, and it feels like Celia's scenes at this point in 1986 work thematically with what's going on in 2026.

*Lila's apparently the exception. Monica notes that Lila probably wouldn't have did what she did at the party, spill champagne on Dimitri so that his suit jacket would have to be removed and quickly taken away. The jacket was containing sham papers that Sean & Dimitri knew that Edward & Alan would want to see.

I've got some errands to run, so I'll give my thoughts on Laurelton, Frisco & Felicia, and the Mike situation a little later. I just wanted to get down my thoughts on the Qs stuff while it was fresh in my mind.

Week Six, Part II

Frisco & Felicia: Oh god, now Felicia's involved in the Laurelton story. Okay, that's a little harsh. It's not completely a case of "Crap, we need to give Kristina something to do!" Wednesday's episode has Felicia sharing nice scenes with Sean, then Bobbie, realizing and talking about her wanting to recapture and hang onto the excitement she's had with Frisco from the beginning. I feel like GH is trying to negotiate with the audience. "If you let us continue with this long, long story, then we'll at least feature the characters you like for as long as we can." That said, it's high time for Felicia to get past her hostility towards "walking centerfold" Sam, but she seems to be moving in the right direction.

Laurelton, the Anna stuff: The negotiating feels more blatant here. "We're going to keep going with this umbrella story, but we're also going to keep Anna prominent, so that's good, right? Right?!" Aside from a brief, frosty interaction before she and Frisco question and pay the derelict for information, Anna and Buzz is ignored this week. Anna's conflict is over what reopening the Brownstone case could mean to her career. If it's unnecessary, she'll likely get fired and have to shamefully leave Port Charles, a place that Robin's grown to love. I should mention I'm having a hard time believing that there would be so much scrutiny in Port Charles about the murder of an out-of-towner, an earlier murder in another, out-of-state town, and the death of the supposed murderer. Port Charles is a metropolis, man. That kind of attention to the deaths of three more or less randos feels more at home in Laurelton.

I'll talk about the mystery/Terry stuff and Mike situation in my next post.

Week Six, Part III

Laurelton, the mystery and relationship stuff: Terry is pissed about Anna reopening the Brownstone murder case. She wants so, so badly for the case to be closed, so she and Kevin can marry in Laurelton, and she can move forward from what happened on Valentine's Day, 1983. We still don't have all the pieces yet, so right now, it just seems like Terry's ashamed of a drunken episode. Which, fair enough, but it wouldn't explain why Jennifer & Ted are so determined to keep things so hush-hush. Anyway, the older folks create a phony motive for Mr. Russell (he supposedly was embezzling from Purity Water and killed Earl Moody before he could get fired), Patrick is presented to the audience as the most likely suspect or at least most outwardly suspicious (in both senses) individual, we waste a day or two with the question of whether or not Kevin did know Russell when he worked as a Purity Water delivery boy, we waste a day with the reveal that Russell was using Jennifer's gun, which he could have easily obtained from her house (and Felicia verifies this), and finally, Anna has both the murder weapon Purity Water medalllion and Jennifer's medallion (taken from her house during the latest excursion to Laurelton) and intends to use them to suss out which of the Laurelton five is likely to try obtaining the murder weapon. I think I have all my facts straight of what happened. This all started to bore me. Oh, and we've also got Burt still very much rooting for Anna, defending her to the mayor, etc.

Mike's Paternity: Rick spends much of the week concerned about the fate of Jeff, one of Mike's classmates. Jeff was named after Jeff Webber, a close friend of his father's. On Tuesday, there's a serious car crash. Jeff's father is DOA at GH and his mother finally dies on Friday. Not wanting the youth to wind up in the foster system, Rick persuades Ginny to allow their being Jeff's guardian. In the end, Rick and Ginny end up with two teenage boys, since they put the kibosh on Mike's plans to move in with Derek. A while back, I lamented that GH never did anything with an older Mike and Rick Jr., and that goes double for this kid Jeff. Imagine if he wound up raised by Jeff Webber and grew up alongside Elizabeth and Sarah. Missed opportunities. Also, I get where Lorena was coming from, figuring that Derek needed to take the opportunity to get what he wanted, but exploiting Mike's irrational, unspoken fear that Rick & Ginny would figure, "Oh, who needs Mike, we've got another kid!" is just plain tacky.

Other thoughts:

-- "Love dies a lot slower than it grows." A surprisingly poignant line from Lila to Monica.

-- Hey, It's Early 1986!: "Party All the Time" and "Conga" play at Terry's shower. Well, really it's Terry and Kevin's engagement party, but they keep calling it a shower.

-- I'm not 100% sure, but I think that's Lynne Moody as the mother of Willie, the other boy involved in the car crash.

-- I also got a kick out of Bobbie trying to gently find out when Jennifer and Ted are eventually going to leave the Brownstone. It's better than Bobbie's outright comedy scene, where she convinces Jake to get a new tuxedo for Terry's wedding. What clinches it is when Jake splits the ill-fitting one he bought at a thrift shop.

I'll try to be more concise next week.

Edited 12 hours ago12 hr by Franko

A favorite of Stuart Damon's, and reportedly only up for a few days. Alan and Monica are in rare form. Luke has just dispatched David Grey with his psychic powers and is about to head off on his camping trip where he will meet Holly Sutton and her mullet.

Quick question re: these recent classic 1982 episodes. Am I mistaken or was Demi Moore's Jackie originally intended for Luke before they quickly pivoted her to Robert? That would at least be some variety after LNL. It seems insane to me that even Monty at the height of her powers and ego would've seriously believed she could put over a same-name Laura doppelgänger (Laura Templeton) with Tony Geary. Just looking at her in this episode feels wrong. I have no idea what became of Laura #2.

Losing Denise Alexander in a couple years really was such a huge unforced error. Not unlike how Monty ultimately x'ed herself out by taking punitive measures against Finola in '91, which brought the whole empire down.

@Franko No need to be concise. I enjoyed reading all of your posts.

I had no idea Rick and Ginny took in another child before leaving Port Charles. That was something of a throughline for Rick and Lesley - I'm sorry it rarely continued (and when the show tried, like Monica and Alan taking in Emily, the story ended up being marred by Guza).

Connecting Celia and what she felt she had to do as part of a family code with current story is a good spot. I could see Celia fitting in better with the more recent Qs than her era of them. She was more low-key.

It's hard to remember sometimes that Anna hadn't even been on the show all that long by this point but was already very important to fans. It seemed like the show was so hollowed out by the late '70s that fans were more willing to embrace new characters. Sometimes I wish the show still remembered today.

Laurelton is a struggle to read about. I can't imagine watching it every day.

I've always liked Lynne Moody. I wish they'd kept her around.

I wonder why Monty decided to bring in a Cassadine at this late stage. Nostalgia for the peak of her success? Was it Pat Falken Smith's idea? The actor who played him only has one other credit. He was also married to the odious Mary Matalin, who later became "famous" because of the road show she did with James Carville about how party labels can't stop two narcissistic vipers from finding love.

The Alan and Monica material seems very poignant - Leslie always did well with any opportunity to explore Monica's loneliness and loss of identity.

I guess there was nothing for Bryan and Claudia or the oldest vets...

9 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

I wonder why Monty decided to bring in a Cassadine at this late stage. Nostalgia for the peak of her success? Was it Pat Falken Smith's idea?

Didn't John Colicos also come back briefly as either another Cassadine or a random guy who was a Mikkos ringer? Or am I mixing him up with this dude?

Like Franko, I also have always wanted to see them use Rick Webber Jr., and sort of try to play off that name brand fame (as DAYS tried and failed to do with Doug III recently, but I think that was a fault of the writing and having him scam widow Julie as opposed to a problem with another young troublemaker like Doug Sr.). I remember silly rumors in the early '00s that Zander would turn out to be Rick Jr. which of course did not happen.

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by Vee