2 hours ago, Franko said:

Eleven months. Her last episode was Monday, Dec. 28, 1981, and then she came back Wednesday, Dec. 1, 1982. I don't know if it played a role in her departure or absence, but Jackie's husband, DJ Murray "the K" Kaufman, died of cancer on Feb. 21, 1982.

Thank you for these dates!

11 hours ago, Franko said:

I'm curious how long this boy Jeff lasts. I don't remember seeing him later in the year at Bobbie & Jake's wedding, which ended up being something of Rick & Ginny's last hurrah.

I'd love to see Celia back, even for just a catchup period. I guess the ship sailed when she didn't attend Monica's funeral.

Yeah, it's funny to think about half of the people on the show had been on for only a few years at this point.

I finished next week's episodes early. It's pretty much all Laurelton, where most of the population apparently has nothing better to do but slut-shame. Paraphrasing MAD's "The Wretches of Ecchflick," "In a repressed, tight-assed town like (Laurelton), that is normal behavior!"

Oh, very much so. And to keep the Cher thing going, I kept humming "Living in a House Divided" during these scenes.

Bryan gets some screentime this week. He's apparently a patient advocate at GH, which means he's around for scenes with Willie and Jeff.

Steve and Audrey will pop up next week to further Jade & Yank's relationship. Jessie's still off in the twilight zone. I thought for sure I might see her at Terry & Kevin's party.

All Laurelton? You have my sympathy...

Oh good, another MAD fan.

Sadly, you are probably right about Celia, although who ever would have expected them to bring in a son for Charity and Jimmy Lee.

I guess Jeff must just be a plot point for Mike angst with Rick and Ginny, but I'd still consider bringing the character back (maybe with a name change if he's paired with Liz).

Glad Bryan is still getting a bit on by this late stage.

11 hours ago, titan1978 said:

It’s hard to find accurate information online but I believe not long after this is when Rachel Ames leaves the show for a bit. She apparently balked at a lowball contract or recurring offer, and like Beradino was pissed the show had sideline the OG’s. Much like Jackie Zeman’s 1982 break, online sources claim they didn’t leave until JFP bumped their contracts. But they did, Jackie was gone longer than her time filming a movie.

It remains remarkable to me that the show survived staying number one for the year in 1982 after so much turmoil. They took a huge hit, but still held on. Jeff Webber and Diana Taylor gone early in the year, and Steve and Audrey get more marginalized with Jeff gone. Laura disappears/killed off. Bobbie leaves. David Grey is a huge dud. Jackie and Laura Templeton are not a hit with the audience. The writing suffers. Monty was mostly out with an illness for the first quarter of 1982. It’s wild they hung on that year.

I loved Anna, stupid scar and all right away. Even with a weak story Monty knew how to cast key parts most of the time. Anna arrives with that stupid scar and coming between Robert/Holly, and still becomes a fan favorite and soon the lead of the show. Finola was perfectly cast. The loss of so much core foundation and questionable writing at times was really only saved by excellent casting and onscreen camaraderie and chemistry being so present with the main characters. And I think the Quartermaines became such a stalwart that it felt like they were there longer than they were. Plus Rick and Lesley and their family kind of became the main family, supplanting the Hardy’s.

I do wonder what contemporary fan opinion was on so many OG figures being sidelined. I read a Daytime TV complaint from 1985 or 1986 but not much is available. I'd imagine many longtime fans were unhappy, but maybe so many new fans had started in the late '70s and early '80s, the complaints were muted.

Interesting to compare to the very real fan disgust at how Anna Lee was treated, even though that was a situation where you might be able to understand the show's decisions more (having the soap press swoop in to run interference for them probably didn't help).

GH in those later Monty years seemed to have some real flop castings and then others who would end up lingering for decades. I do think Finola and Kristina Wagner both had such sheer presence and charisma to help them win viewers over. I'm glad Kristina has been able to recover from the place she was put in during the late '90s and '00s, even if she's obviously never going to be a lead character again (and Felicia may never have worked at her best as a lead anyway).

GH likely benefited from having so far to fall in 1982, but most of the other soaps weren't in a position to be a threat. I can't remember which other soaps even had strong 1982s...AMC, I suppose, and some might say GL's first half...

Do you think Anne Howard Bailey deserves the credit for GH turning around later in 1982?

15 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

All Laurelton? You have my sympathy...

For my sanity, I've decided that the people in Laurelton must be under the influence of PFAS and/or meth. It's the only way to explain their behavior.

16 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

I'm glad Kristina has been able to recover from the place she was put in during the late '90s and '00s, even if she's obviously never going to be a lead character again (and Felicia may never have worked at her best as a lead anyway).

I agree. I did think of her as kind of lead adjacent back in the day- more than Tiffany, less than Anna. She really saved their ass as the last popular lead left standing when Riche arrived though and they had Ryan and a slow burn with Mac, which all did hinge on KW. She still has a lot to offer and I am glad Felicia recovered from Guza.

21 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

Do you think Anne Howard Bailey deserves the credit for GH turning around later in 1982?

She certainly helped, as did the show deciding to move on from science fiction and characters that were not working. Holly Sutton helped quite a lot, as did the influx of new characters in 1983 that worked better than the Templeton sisters.

25 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

I do wonder what contemporary fan opinion was on so many OG figures being sidelined.

I do think several things worked in the show’s favor. First Marland/PFS and Monty made Lesley a real focal point, and she was kind of a crossover between the OG cast and the new folks. Jessie had already been made supporting, and Diana was not Valerie Starrett anymore. The audience was primed for change.

The influx of great characters was also incredible. When fans complain about newbies being forced onscreen too much and fast, it’s often really about the story. GH in less than a year has a significant focus on the Quartermaines, Luke and Bobbie, Scotty, Laura, and a newly recast Rick Webber (and those Webbers and Monica were relatively new too). I can’t think of an influx of newbies that successful that quickly except for maybe the Bradys on DAYS and Snyder family on ATWT.

I am sure there were complaints. But the story and production were rocking and by the time 1982 rolls around and becomes a problem, they had a huge audience filled with people that were not there when Jessie cried in the medicine room and Steve and Audrey were so tortured. And most of the older viewers that stayed must have liked the new characters because the ratings didn’t completely collapse.

What I've never understood is why Jessie and Dan Rooney never went anywhere. Or him and Ruby for that matter. I figured it was Emily McLaughlin's BTS issues in the first case, but who knows.

12 minutes ago, titan1978 said:

I do think several things worked in the show’s favor. First Marland/PFS and Monty made Lesley a real focal point, and she was kind of a crossover between the OG cast and the new folks. Jessie had already been made supporting, and Diana was not Valerie Starrett anymore. The audience was primed for change.

The influx of great characters was also incredible. When fans complain about newbies being forced onscreen too much and fast, it’s often really about the story. GH in less than a year has a significant focus on the Quartermaines, Luke and Bobbie, Scotty, Laura, and a newly recast Rick Webber (and those Webbers and Monica were relatively new too). I can’t think of an influx of newbies that successful that quickly except for maybe the Bradys on DAYS and Snyder family on ATWT.

I am sure there were complaints. But the story and production were rocking and by the time 1982 rolls around and becomes a problem, they had a huge audience filled with people that were not there when Jessie cried in the medicine room and Steve and Audrey were so tortured. And most of the older viewers that stayed must have liked the new characters because the ratings didn’t completely collapse.

That's very true. I can't think of many either.

All we have to do is compare to the mass exits around 75-76 and the new people, who got a much more negative response.

9 hours ago, Vee said:

What I've never understood is why Jessie and Dan Rooney never went anywhere. Or him and Ruby for that matter. I figured it was Emily McLaughlin's BTS issues in the first case, but who knows.

Emily McLaughlin had a lot of tragedy in her life. It’s a shame.

Frank Maxwell outlived Norma Connolly by 6 years. When they were honoring the passing of Aunt Ruby on screen in 1999, did they ever mention Dan Rooney? In fact, was Dan ever mentioned again after he retired and left the show, circa 1988/89, after a 10 year run?

Edited 10 hours ago10 hr by Jdee43

I don't think GH has ever been a show that's featured great writing. It's a show about charisma.

It's also never really been a show about an ensemble. It's really about lead characters. They've been lucky in casting, that their lead characters have had such charisma, that they carried the show to ratings success: Leslie and Laura in the late 70s, Luke in the early 80s, Robert and Anna in the mid to late 80s, into the early 90s.

The closest it came to ensemble and good writing was the mid 90s. By the 2000s though, it was back to lead characters and banking on charisma, writing be damned.

Not that it may matter to anyone other than me for completionism's sake, but I managed to finally track down the episode (as well as an old TV Megasite transcript) where Luke explains the whole Ethan retcon backstory re: Singapore. May 14th, 2009. I think @carolineg and I went hunting for it a few years ago and had real difficulty doing so, but if I'm wrong my apologies to her.

The episode itself is not readily on YT as far as I can tell, but I did find the clip. I still don't like anything about this story or retcon and Luke cheating on Laura, but I always wanted to revisit the details.

My only real memory of Nathan Parsons as Ethan was grimy...and I can't say that has changed.

On a better note, this is one of TG's last scenes as Bill with Sly shortly before Bill's death (timestamped). I have a vague memory of this stuff from when I first started watching at about Lucky and Sly's ages here, and this has always stuck with me. I mentioned it not long ago when Tony died.

I had always thought this was Labine and I was right; it's from November '93. I think it's quite good, with Sly challenging Bill's nihilistic view on the world. This scene and the beautiful scenes with Luke and Sly after Bill's death, where Luke puts Bill's glasses on the boy, were kind of the new team's lovely finishing note on that character.

4 hours ago, Vee said:

Not that it may matter to anyone other than me for completionism's sake, but I managed to finally track down the episode (as well as an old TV Megasite transcript) where Luke explains the whole Ethan retcon backstory re: Singapore. May 14th, 2009. I think @carolineg and I went hunting for it a few years ago and had real difficulty doing so, but if I'm wrong my apologies to her.

The episode itself is not readily on YT as far as I can tell, but I did find the clip. I still don't like anything about this story or retcon and Luke cheating on Laura, but I always wanted to revisit the details.

Thanks for this. It's actually worse than I recall lol. Luke left Laura and Lucky in danger in Argentina and ended up hooking up with Holly? Laura didn't care?

Ugh! Get a haircut Ethan.

2 hours ago, Vee said:

On a better note, this is one of TG's last scenes as Bill with Sly shortly before Bill's death (timestamped). I have a vague memory of this stuff from when I first started watching at about Lucky and Sly's ages here, and this has always stuck with me. I mentioned it not long ago when Tony died.

I had always thought this was Labine and I was right; it's from November '93. I think it's quite good, with Sly challenging Bill's nihilistic view on the world. This scene and the beautiful scenes with Luke and Sly after Bill's death, where Luke puts Bill's glasses on the boy, were kind of the new team's lovely finishing note on that character.

Those Sly scenes were really good especially compared to the rather obnoxious Brenda/Jagger and Karen/Jason scenes. I know Karen/Jagger were popular, but ugh, they can be annoying. Ditch him now Brenda!

2 minutes ago, carolineg said:

Thanks for this. It's actually worse than I recall lol. Luke left Laura and Lucky in danger in Argentina and ended up hooking up with Holly? Laura didn't care

I believe he said he drew the bad guys to him to keep them away from Laura and Lucky, fleeing out of Argentina to Singapore (because of the art scheme he himself embarked on, good job) where he got shot and ended up running across Holly. But still, it's so unnecessary.

I think others have said the only period this could have happened is maybe in late '86 or early '87, when Robert was back in Port Charles for a short stint before returning on contract later in '87. What on Earth was Holly getting up to? Was she that bored lol? And of course it doesn't account for Holly's fake 'death' not long after.

Edited 2 hours ago2 hr by Vee

22 minutes ago, Vee said:

I believe he said he drew the bad guys to him to keep them away from Laura and Lucky, fleeing out of Argentina to Singapore (because of the art scheme he himself embarked on, good job) where he got shot and ended up running across Holly. But still, it's so unnecessary.

I think others have said the only period this could have happened is maybe in late '86 or early '87, when Robert was back in Port Charles for a short stint before returning on contract later in '87. What on Earth was Holly getting up to? Was she that bored lol? And of course it doesn't account for Holly's fake 'death' not long after.

Yeah, that's exactly what he said, but it's still dumb lol. Idk, if they explained what Holly was doing and I am not sure why Tracy was so mad. Didn't it all happen 30 years ago?