(Shelley Curtis Litvack in the comments)

https://www.instagram.com/p/DY8ytsUAMVh/
May 29, 2026
michelevaljean
Happy Heavenly Birthday, Tony. ❤️❤️💔💔

Edited Wednesday at 01:43 AM4 days by janea4old

3 hours ago, titan1978 said:

I loved the Brownstone. In the 90’s it also had a courtyard or some kind of green space. We saw Felicia’s place the most as far as the units during the 90’s IIRC. It was a great setup for having characters interact and as @Vee said, the steps leading up to the entry were used a lot back then.

I think you're referring to the backyard, which will end up hosting Frisco & Felicia's wedding. I believe it's also where Tony proposes to Bobbie, and it might also have hosted Felicia & Colton's wedding (complete with Terry doing "After All" as a solo!).

2 hours ago, Chris 2 said:

That Laurelton story was a dog. I don’t care about Laurelton; I care about Port Charles. And if I were to care about Laurelton, it wouldn’t be because of Bobbie’s spoiled stepdaughter by a marriage to a huge a-hole. Why she is still on the show is a mystery.

There's so many things I ended up loathing about Laurelton: the overwhelming insistence of how menacing and mysterious the place was, the absolute refusal for there to be a coherent narrative (which continues all the way up to Terry and Patrick's last scenes at Jennifer's place), and how much airtime it wasted.

2 hours ago, Chris 2 said:

This is a weird era for GH. Anna is a dynamic character, but they decide to saddle her with Buzz, a nondescript character who is 20 years older? Don Galloway was a supporting actor in a primetime series from over 10 years earlier. Was he that much of a “get”?

@Vee has touched upon this in previous posts. Anna & Buzz seems to have been an attempt at a young, grey woman gets tamed by the older, paternalistic male storyline. There's other examples, but the first that comes to mind is Rachel and Mac.

2 hours ago, Chris 2 said:

Tony and Tania are a snooze - she should have disappeared from the show after the Grant Putnam/Andrews story concluded.

Tania's getting a little bit more to do thanks to the Buzz storyline. She and Tony are often seen at his bedside for speech therapy and checkups. They really shot Tania in the foot by making speech her field. She'll never figure in emergency scenes the way most of the other hospital characters would.

2 hours ago, Chris 2 said:

The show needs a good housecleaning.

2 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

Wes Kenney dropped several characters when he arrived. Does someone have a tally? I know Bryan and Claudia went for starters.

Rest assured, I will start keeping a tally.

Before I started watching, December 1985 included the departures of Robert, Grant, and Lee & Gail. At this point in 1986, we've lost Celia and Kevin, and are about to lose Lorena. I'm limiting my tally to characters who didn't exist solely for a single storyline, like Jennifer.

2 hours ago, Vee said:

I find some of Judith Chapman's strained reactions to Mike's relationship with Derek real and compelling, but I have a very limited tolerance for JC in most roles and I have no idea why they thought they should replace Lesley Webber with a character like Ginny who is a real ice queen most of the time. She just makes me uncomfortable.

I've already watched the episodes for this weekend's recap, and let me tell you, it's unintentionally hilarious watching Ginny bond with Lucy. Ginny's rationale is that a town outcast who's been redeemed should give back to another gal trying to make good.

2 hours ago, Vee said:

And possibly use it as an entry point to bring on either a renamed Rick Jr. or another kid, or Mike's kid - any number of options for a hunk for the hospital.

If it's the Hunk Formerly Known as Rick Jr., maybe he models for Deception on the side. There's a cute moment in Tuesday's episode where Lynn and Judith are balancing what Lucy and Ginny are supposed to be doing, watching their pretaped interview on chairs in the Webber kitchen, with trying to keep the infant they're acting with from lifting his hands too high and screwing up any shots.

I remember thinking how cheap the Frisco/Felicia wedding looked, done on a set with no location shootinng.

I never liked Frisco as a police officer. I thought he was more interesting as an outsider, à la Luke, who got caught up in these capers.

Does anyone know the story behind Tristan Rogers’ departure from the show in late 1985 after the Asian Quarter storyline? They sent Holly to Australia ahead of Robert’s departure in September 1985 and then he followed her a few months later. But then Robert came back to visit for the Mr Big storyline in 1986 and then returned permanently in 1987 with news of Holly’s death. It felt like his departure was never meant to be permanent, but instead Rogers got some time off and the audience got some distance from the popular Robert/Holly coupling.

14 hours ago, Chris 2 said:

I remember thinking how cheap the Frisco/Felicia wedding looked, done on a set with no location shootinng.

I'll keep that in mind as I watch. It's funny how 1986 will end up having five weddings and five varying degrees of effort from the show:

Terry & Kevin (location shoot)

Lorena & Derek (happened off screen)

Frisco & Felicia (set intended to look like it's outside)

Bobbie & Jake (the Hardy living room set)

Jimmy Lee & Charity (her living room set)

14 hours ago, Chris 2 said:

I never liked Frisco as a police officer. I thought he was more interesting as an outsider, à la Luke, who got caught up in these capers.

I don't necessarily mind Frisco as a cop, but it feels like it's out of necessity rather than merit. If I had to guess the show's rationale, they figure it was time to cement Frisco/Jack as the male lead and crimefighter by having him fulfill as much of the duties Robert/Tristan had. I'm also wondering if there was some sexism at play; if Anna/Finola bombed as the female lead and crimefighter, they could easily have Frisco take the full reins.

I ran across this photo on eBay of Genie Francis and Michael Gregory. This appears to be sometime in the 1980's long after MG left GH. MG remained very close friends with Denise Alexander and commented on her death when she passed. I'm not sure if he and Genie keep in touch but she always speaks highly of him when she talks about her early days on GH.

I have been re-watching the 1977-78 episodes/scenes that are available and MG had amazing chemistry with DA and GF. It's a shame he opted to leave the show when Monty took over. Chris Robinson's version of Rick acted like he could care less about Leslie. I do know there was supposed tension between DA & CR and it often shows onscreen.

Well, darn the luck, it looks like my retro recaps are once again on hiatus. Until this gets resolved, I'll leave you with the Line of the Week from June 6, 1986.

Anna: "We should all live together as friends ... Sometimes those friendships are severely tested. But we all have the ability to forgive, and to love again, and, uh, this has been clearly demonstrated by my friends here tonight."

Edited 22 hours ago22 hr by Franko

Aww, phooey. Someone let me know if this stuff turns up again.

27 minutes ago, Vee said:

Aww, phooey. Someone let me know if this stuff turns up again.

Same, guy, same.

Before I move on, I'll give a rundown of highlights from my notes.

Obviously, I loved the vibe of contrition, renewed friendships, second chances, etc. running through the week. It was all the better to contrast with Duke's introduction and the Quartermaine men's intentions to get Sean and Monica. As Alan put it, "Fortunes come and go, Jimmy Lee. Betrayal is forever."

Edward's off to bring Tiffany back to Port Charles, so she can seduce and distract Sean. We won't see Tiffany for several weeks, and she's not yet named, but I imagine a good chunk of the 1986 audience knew who Edward had in mind.

I've lost track of how many times Patrick's been disowned by his parents.

The lead-up to GH's wedding of the year continues, as Felicia asks Samantha and Anna to be bridesmaids, and Robin to be a flower girl. I really don't like that Felicia asking Anna took place on the waterfront, amid police business. Frisco and Sam had tracked down Angel, believed to have played a role in Buzz's attack. I wish a longshoreman had heckled Felicia and asked if he could come, too.

Steve's "on vacation" this week, meaning Rick's acting chief of staff. This week sees blatant chem testing between Lynn Herring and Steve Bond, and I feel like they were setting up the groundwork if they wanted to go there for Lynn and Chris Robinson.

Lucy and Jimmy Lee are friendly to one another at the hospital, especially since she frequently provides Buzz with books. At the end of the week, when Buzz is felled by an infection that requires emergency surgery, Jimmy Lee comes to the Webbers to check in with Rick. He instead finds Lucy, who has let her hair down, tried on Ginny's spare shawls, and dances with him to "On My Own" (the Patti LaBelle-Michael McDonald one).

As for Lucy and Rick, I just feel like the combination of Rick having greater power, his seeming indifference towards Lucy, Lucy hanging around the Webber house now that Ginny decides to mentor her (and she's doing that partially because Amanda insulted both Ginny and Lorena), and Lucy's ease in picking up identities and wrapping folks around her finger all would have added up to a trashy love triangle if GH wanted it to. I wonder if I'm reading too much into coincidences, or if the show decided it was better to prop Guy Mack and Robyn Bernard and/or knew that Chris and Judith Chapman weren't staying that much longer.

Now, really, could anyone say no to a dance invitation from Ian Buchanan in 1986?

Also, I don't care that the show played it for comedy, with everyone thinking, "Ha-ha, Frisco's got blue blls!" It's still not cool that they had a scene where he non-consentually entered Felicia's bedroom. And apparently Tony & Tania have a two-bedroom apartment?

I know this has been posted before, but this is a really nice behind the scenes look at GH. I bet this made this lady's day of appearing on her favorite soap and spending the day with the cast. The last segment is touching with cast presenting her with flowers and a plaque. Too bad there is no sound. I wonder of the episode of the show she won on hosted by Peter Marshall still exists?

@Franko Thank you again for your weekly recaps. I especially appreciate the time you spend on smaller characters I barely know of or just know the basic story of. For instance, the medical dramas Buzz is now speedrunning through.

I don't really care for Jimmy Lee (although Steve Bond did look better early on without the tan and more haggard presence) but it's interesting seeing them try to fit him around before he's written out at the end of the year. (did Bond want to leave?)

I think your recaps are the only way I'd likely go through anything with Rick, Ginny and Mike. I just don't have a great deal of use for Robinson and Judith Chapman depends on her material and screen partners. I know Chapman thought highly of playing Ginny (I believe her words were "God gave me a good one"), so I'm glad she enjoyed herself.

I hope you can see "new" episodes again soon.

12 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

@Franko Thank you again for your weekly recaps. I especially appreciate the time you spend on smaller characters I barely know of or just know the basic story of. For instance, the medical dramas Buzz is now speedrunning through.

Aw, thank you again. And that's precisely why I'd prefer to see full episodes as opposed to storyline edits, as thorough as they can be. I forgot to mention that Bryan & Claudia get a whopping one minute devoted to their marriage woes on Friday. They're at the Policemen's Ball, and Bryan asks if Claudia can at least be peaceful with him long enough for a dance.

12 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

I don't really care for Jimmy Lee (although Steve Bond did look better early on without the tan and more haggard presence) but it's interesting seeing them try to fit him around before he's written out at the end of the year. (did Bond want to leave?)

I'd love to know that answer, too. I was thinking about how Bond's time on Santa Barbara wrapped around the time of Lucy's marriage to Alan. If they weren't already committed to the storyline of Lucy passing her and Scott's unborn baby off as her and Alan's, they could have did a Ruthless People storyline with Jimmy Lee and (a dying) Charity having kidnapped Lucy.

12 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

I think your recaps are the only way I'd likely go through anything with Rick, Ginny and Mike. I just don't have a great deal of use for Robinson and Judith Chapman depends on her material and screen partners. I know Chapman thought highly of playing Ginny (I believe her words were "God gave me a good one"), so I'm glad she enjoyed herself.

That's nice that Judith had such a positive experience.

3 hours ago, SoapDope78 said:

I know this has been posted before, but this is a really nice behind the scenes look at GH. I bet this made this lady's day of appearing on her favorite soap and spending the day with the cast. The last segment is touching with cast presenting her with flowers and a plaque. Too bad there is no sound. I wonder of the episode of the show she won on hosted by Peter Marshall still exists?

Well, I recognize longtime GH producer/director Jim Young, but who was the man escorting Rosalie around the nurses' station at the beginning of the video? Was that Tom Donovan?

Thanks, @SoapDope , for posting (or reposting)!!

Edited 1 minute ago1 min by Khan