I wonder why Starrett never appeared on another soap? I could picture playing Dina Abbott (Y&R), Beth Logan (B&B), Myrna Clegg or Paula Denning (Capitol).

I can't find the initial Valerie Starrett interview that was posted here at the time (maybe it's on Wayback?) but here is a followup from weeks later.

https://sixtiescinema.com/2013/05/28/valerie-starrett-responds/

18 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

I can't find the initial Valerie Starrett interview that was posted here at the time (maybe it's on Wayback?) but here is a followup from weeks later.

https://sixtiescinema.com/2013/05/28/valerie-starrett-responds/

Thanks for re-posting. It would have been nice if she had joined another soap.

24 minutes ago, SoapDope78 said:

Thanks for re-posting. It would have been nice if she had joined another soap.

No problem.

Here is the original article on Wayback:

VALERIE STARRETT: THIS ANGEL CAN ACT AND WRITE! | Sixties Cinema

Looks like she left acting not long after GH to open a bookstore.

Here's what she said about leaving GH:

You were one of the General Hospital’s most popular actresses during the seventies. Fans were outraged when you left in 1977. Was it by choice?

I left—I love this term—because of creative differences. Tom Donovan replaced the director I had always worked with. It was a volatile relationship. I didn’t fall into the mix nor would I meaning that I rarely said the lines as written. I had always been sort of the darling of the previous director and I was the antithesis of that with Tom Donovan. It was amazingly bloody. I remember being called to his office right before I was let go and he screamed at me, ‘You’re Marilyn Monroe!’ I yelled back, ‘You’re worse!’ It was not a happy relationship.

Edited Wednesday at 10:39 PM1 day by DRW50

1 hour ago, DRW50 said:

I left—I love this term—because of creative differences. Tom Donovan replaced the director I had always worked with. It was a volatile relationship. I didn’t fall into the mix nor would I meaning that I rarely said the lines as written

Not saying the lines as written was pretty much fully supported by Monty if you were good at keeping the intention of the scenes and the story going forward while making things work in character or making moments have that spontaneous feeling she liked. But Monty wasn’t live to tape, and that kind of thing could have been very disorienting for some actors, and self indulgent. It sometimes looked self indulgent when Tony Geary did it, and that was when they were making a more modern product with editing and post production.

I wish there was more of her Diana available to really get a feel for her performance and the original version of the character.

On Maurice’s YouTube show, Genie Francis told a story about her and Leslie Charleson doing one of those scenes and Leslie went up on her lines and then went blank, and it was kind of traumatic for GF who basically had the fear of god put into her about making a mistake. Doing it on essentially live television must have been very stressful. Something the New York actors probably had more comfort with to be honest.

15 minutes ago, titan1978 said:

On Maurice’s YouTube show, Genie Francis told a story about her and Leslie Charleson doing one of those scenes and Leslie went up on her lines and then went blank, and it was kind of traumatic for GF who basically had the fear of god put into her about making a mistake. Doing it on essentially live television must have been very stressful. Something the New York actors probably had more comfort with to be honest.

Speaking of NYC and changing things: I know Erika Slezak (and Tim Stickney) has talked about rewriting a lot of clunky dialogue (including others', like Jerry verDorn) at OLTL with tacit permission from upstairs. The one thing she never did was change actors' cues.

GENERAL HOSPITAL FEBRUARY 25 1983 W/vintage ABC daytime commercials

@Vee @Paul Raven @depboy @slick jones @titan1978 @Franko @carolineg @AdelaideCate007 @SoapDope78 @Khan @Dion @Taoboi @melanatedbtgfan @Liberty City @janea4old @Chris 2

Tagging people because of the uploader's note:

This Feburary 25th General Hospital episode is making it's youtube debut for the first time. This show has been missing for years in another posters 1983 archive of episodes. The episodes commercials are from the previous days February 24th 1983 episode and are included for nostalgia purposes.

2 hours ago, Vee said:

Speaking of NYC and changing things: I know Erika Slezak (and Tim Stickney) has talked about rewriting a lot of clunky dialogue (including others', like Jerry verDorn) at OLTL with tacit permission from upstairs. The one thing she never did was change actors' cues.

I bet Slezak made sure to quick rehearse her changes with scene partners too. The whole thing reminds me of Dorothy Michaels in Tootsie throwing everyone off balance when she just does what she wants.

16 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

Tagging people because of the uploader's note:

This Feburary 25th General Hospital episode is making it's youtube debut for the first time. This show has been missing for years in another posters 1983 archive of episodes. The episodes commercials are from the previous days February 24th 1983 episode and are included for nostalgia purposes.

Awesome! Thanks for sharing this! :-)

I think vets like Slezak were given a little more leeway with changing dialogue etc within reason, but a relative newbie doing the same would be frowned upon.

I guess in Starrett's case a new director suddenly confronted with an actress changing dialogue would be off putting. And if Val dug her heels in,the clash would escalate.

I read that Bill Bell insisted on actors being word perfect to his scripts and a lot of them in the 70's found it hard to deal with.

Going through this episode, I will say Demi Moore is much better and more forceful than her 1982 work, even though Monty was still right to get rid of the character.

I have a limited tolerance for soap slaps so I liked the part where Heather tries to slap Jackie and Jackie grabs her arm, warning her not to try it.

There's a good Ruby/Bobbie scene in this episode too.

There's also a random as hell scene with Scotty in his cell where we start hearing "Behind Blue Eyes." I kept thinking this would lead to a montage, but no. I wonder if that song is why this episode hasn't been on Youtube.

Edited 22 hours ago22 hr by DRW50

TV/Radio & Cable Week, Sunday, June 24, 198

Groh wild about villain role on 'GH' By STEVE WEINER

lt’s no more Mr Nice Guy for Rhoda’s ex, actor David Groh, who once wooed and wed TV’s Rhoda Morgenstern in a ceremony that rivaled that of Charles and Diana. Groh is now thriving on ABC’s daytime super-soap “General Hospital,’’ weekdays at 3 p.m. This often intense veteran actor has built up the role of D.L. Brock, a paranoid wheeler dealer type, into one of the most well-liked bad guys in daytime drama.

Lately, it seems that nothing is going right for the demon of Port Charles. To begin with, his business has failed, his wife Bobbie walked out on him and he’s gone out on occasional drinking sprees. Quite to the contrary, as an actor, Groh has struck gold with the Brock character. “I love the character. I think it’s going to stand me in good stead for the rest of my career,” Groh told TV Week. “Brock is a real wild guy; he’s crazy! He’s paranoid and thinks anyone who disagrees with him is out to get him. It’s me against them. He’s diamonds in the rough. That’s an interesting type of character to play and I want to move in that direction. You don’t get very far playing Mr Nice Guy.” Brock has earned quite a reputation around Port Charles with his shady business deals and general lack of charm and finesse Long time fans of the show might even recall Scotty Baldwin, a scheming attorney who was practically ostracized from the make-believe Long Island shore town for equally backstabbing propositions.

However, there are some good qualities underneath Brock’s snakeskin You can safely say he works hard at what he does and he does it well, even if he is pulling the rug out from under his fellow Port Charlestons. The curly haired 40-year-old actor is quick to admit he shares many similarities with the Brock character “I’m not paranoid but I think I’m ambitious. I'm a hard worker like he is, but I believe in the positive way of doing things He’s just more extreme I have D.L Brock in me but he’s under wraps Acting gives me the license to drop those wraps and try to express what I think is really there.” David Lawrence Groh even loaned his initials to D.L. Brock, whose first name is Donald — a name Groh isn’t too keen on for his devilish character. “Danny would have been a great name for him.” Groh pauses “Dan Brock" he enunciates as if imagining the name for the first time on a Broadway marquee.

Unlike the character he portrays, Groh followed more traditional methods in his quest for success. The Brooklyn-born actor attended Brown University where he received a prestigious Fulbright Scholorship in drama allowing him to study in England at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. He appeared on and off-Broadw|ay in such critically acclaimed plays as “Hot L Baltimore" and “Antony and Cleopatra” with Katherine Hepburn. Groh, who rarely watches the soaps, eventually moved to the daytime serials including “The Guiding Light”, “The Secret Storm” and “Love is a Many Splendored Thing” Later, he led the cast of Neil Simon's Broadway play “Chapter Two” and did several TV movies including “Smash Up on Interstate 5” and “Victory at Entebbe.”

Perhaps, Groh’s best known for his role as Joe Gerard, the handsome young husband of Rhoda Morgenstern played by Valerie Harper on the CBS series “Rhoda” in 1974. A spinoff of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “Rhoda” was a huge ratings success. Still, the show’s producers decided to divorce Groh from “Rhoda.” Groh explained with apparent signs of resentment. “They (the producers) just said they didn’t feel it would be as good to write for a happy wedding which I didn’t particularly go for because Lucy had a happy wedding and that was some of the greatest sitcom ever. I think the character of Rhoda had to be a loser and she was losing that image. She was too happily married to the ideal guy and Brenda, her sister, became the new Rhoda and was getting better parts. Perhaps, they felt the audience wouldn’t identify with her. The producers said we think that it will be very good for your acting if the marriage split up and ended in a bittersweet romance.” And so it did.

Much like the Joe and Rhoda romance, Groh has learned once again that love and marriage isn't all that it’s cut out to be. His “General Hospital” marriage to Bobbie Spencer (Luke’s sister) played by the attractive Jackie Zeman has crumbled to pieces ending with a physical argument in which a drunken Brock kayos Bobbie.How did audiences feel about that dramatic scene depicting wife abuse on television? “Thus far the response has been very good” says Groh. People keep saying we don’t like a guy like Brock but we sure love you. Personally, I think that it’s very good because there’s a lot of wife abuse in this country and generally women don’t do anything about it. Therefore they try to brush it under the carpet and pretend that nothing has happened and you see them walking around with black eyes and broken noses. It’s good to present it and get it out in the open. Bobbie left him because of that. She acted in a positive way and maybe in a small way it might help somebody.” Groh confirms rumors of his off-camera romance with his TV wife Ms Zeman, although there’s no future plans for marriage. “We go out. I think we both date other people. I think the world of her. Besides being a fine actress she’s a fine person," he said.

Their close relationship and respect for each other off-screen is beneficial to the couple on screen, he says. However, Groh admits there are difficulties, though. “I guess it could hinder if you have a real master fight or jealousy occurs and you’re in a situation where everything is going peachy on the show. It’s difficult if you have to go against what’s going on between the two people.

19 hours ago, DRW50 said:

Going through this episode, I will say Demi Moore is much better and more forceful than her 1982 work, even though Monty was still right to get rid of the character.

I have a limited tolerance for soap slaps so I liked the part where Heather tries to slap Jackie and Jackie grabs her arm, warning her not to try it.

There's a good Ruby/Bobbie scene in this episode too.

There's also a random as hell scene with Scotty in his cell where we start hearing "Behind Blue Eyes." I kept thinking this would lead to a montage, but no. I wonder if that song is why this episode hasn't been on Youtube.

I forgot to thank you for letting us know about this episode, and I also can't get over the oddity of Tiffany, Jackie, and Heather living together. I wonder if Laura Templeton would have been in Heather's place if Janine Turner hadn't flamed out.

Maybe it should have been a running thing over the years ... two normal (or normal-ish) gals and a vixen living together. In 1986, it's Samantha, Jade, and Lucy.

21 minutes ago, Franko said:

I forgot to thank you for letting us know about this episode, and I also can't get over the oddity of Tiffany, Jackie, and Heather living together. I wonder if Laura Templeton would have been in Heather's place if Janine Turner hadn't flamed out.

Maybe it should have been a running thing over the years ... two normal (or normal-ish) gals and a vixen living together. In 1986, it's Samantha, Jade, and Lucy.

That makes sense, as Laura was hung up on Scotty and worked for him.

I agree they should have kept the idea. Or even something like Trina, Emma and Joss living together.