43 minutes ago, titan1978 said:

The 90’s talk in the monthly GH thread has me thinking about what didn’t work on GH in the 90’s under Riche.

I love Shelley Curtis. I think she has a great understanding of the genre, especially now with her comments on working within the constraints, and still knowing that each episode should have an emotional core somewhere. She was part of some of the greatest stories at GH and DAYS. But part of the problem with GH while she was on the producing team was casting DAYS folks in roles that didn’t suit them, and I have to assume that came from her influence.

Mary Beth Evans never quite takes flight as Katherine beyond a C level player. She has some moments, but another actor might have made more of that. Billy Warlock was woefully miscast as AJ and again, another actor might have made him seem like an actual player in the Jason/Carly/AJ era. Matt Ashford was terrible as Tom, and again, another character that might have had a chance with a different actor. SN as Stefan was the only one that was a revelation and excellent at GH. These are good actors too, but just not right for the roles or GH.

I think MBE did as well as anyone could have with Katherine. The only complaint I have is I don't think she was able to bring enough layers, but the writing didn't either. The biggest issue with Katherine is she was brought in for a specific story and there was no reason for her to be there after Scott left. I do wonder if having MBE in the part made them keep the character for much longer than warranted.

Billy had his moments, but I don't think he was ever suited to play such a complex lead role. I know AJ was rarely treated as a leading man even with Sean Kanan in the part, but he had the potential. Maybe nothing would have changed given Guza's love of Jason and hatred for the Quartermaines, but if nothing else Sean had more chemistry with Sarah Brown.

I don't know what happened with Matt Ashford. I think that is another case where the story they had planned for him was thin and didn't last long. Then John Beradino died. They waited too long to bring Tom back. I don't think they had any idea what to do with him by the point of him having romps with Felicia.

1 hour ago, Khan said:

What if Rick Hearst and Billy Warlock had swapped roles, with Hearst playing A.J. and Warlock playing Ric?

I think AJ might have had some legs, and I think Ric would have lasted a couple of arcs and been killed by Sonny. Ric lasting past marriage to Alexis was 1000% due to JFP. I wonder what Michael Lowry could have done with AJ. Kanan played the spoiled privileged jackass well, but he also had a sweet side with Monica and vulnerability/guilt with his alcoholism. AJ should have been what JR was like on AMC!

29 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

I do wonder if having MBE in the part made them keep the character for much longer than warranted.

That was absolutely why she lasted as long as she did, and why they even attempted Stefan/Katherine.

4 minutes ago, titan1978 said:

I think AJ might have had some legs, and I think Ric would have lasted a couple of arcs and been killed by Sonny. Ric lasting past marriage to Alexis was 1000% due to JFP. I wonder what Michael Lowry could have done with AJ. Kanan played the spoiled privileged jackass well, but he also had a sweet side with Monica and vulnerability/guilt with his alcoholism. AJ should have been what JR was like on AMC!

I thought Lowry was pretty bad on AMC at that time, although he eventually got a little better. Still, he could have been a departure. I agree they should have made him more like JR. They may have with another writer.

Katherine was a really ill defined character and MBE doesn't really work for the part as written. It makes me mad sometimes they derailed Stefan's arcs to appease some recreation of Patch/Kayla that DID NOT WORK at all.

Matt Ashford as Tom was another odd choice. Writing aside, I don't know why on earth anyone would think MA's style was right for Tom Hardy. The only time MA worked for me as Tom was when he was helping Luke/Sonny cover up Laura's "death".