31 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.

Laura originally lived in the apartment until Janine Turner left and Heather took her room despite nobody liking her. Tiffany and Jackie actually ended up disliking each other by the end of Jackie's run, but Jackie was pretty much a full heel by that point.

32 minutes ago, ER Tosh said:

Laura originally lived in the apartment until Janine Turner left and Heather took her room despite nobody liking her. Tiffany and Jackie actually ended up disliking each other by the end of Jackie's run, but Jackie was pretty much a full heel by that point.

Ah, yes, good point -- I forgot that Jackie's bridges were pretty much nuked when Demi left. I guess that, and Heather as the friend nobody likes, adds to the Apartment 3-G on crack vibe.

21 hours ago, DRW50 said:

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

Thanks for posting. I love that stuff is still being discovered. Makes he hold out hope for more of 1978, especially Alan/Monica and David Hamilton.

21 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

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.

It was part of his issues with Conboy as time went on and why he ended up moving his family from Chicago to be where the show was produced!

27 minutes ago, titan1978 said:

Thanks for posting. I love that stuff is still being discovered. Makes he hold out hope for more of 1978, especially Alan/Monica and David Hamilton.

I'm going to keep throwing it out into the universe -- the Alan and Monica wedding. Surely someone had the Betamax running that day.

40 minutes ago, Franko said:

Ah, yes, good point -- I forgot that Jackie's bridges were pretty much nuked when Demi left. I guess that, and Heather as the friend nobody likes, adds to the Apartment 3-G on crack vibe.

It's funny to think that if Demi didn't become famous than maybe she would have spend a few more years in her supporting role on the show where Jackie would continue to use her job to annoy Robert and his friends during the Asian Quarter and Laurieton storylines "Bobbie Spencer my readers want to know why your step-daughter walked down the street in a wedding dress singing and acting creepy?"

Just now, ER Tosh said:

It's funny to think that if Demi didn't become famous than maybe she would have spend a few more years in her supporting role on the show where Jackie would continue to use her job to annoy Robert and his friends during the Asian Quarter and Laurieton storylines "Bobbie Spencer my readers want to know why your step-daughter walked down the street in a wedding dress singing and acting creepy?"

That's another good point. I guess Ginny kind of carried on Jackie's role as the intrepid reporter, but by Laurelton, Ginny was part of respectable Port Charles society as opposed to an unmistakable outsider, someone who could poke the bear. I think Tiffany also had the insider prestige during her WLPC years, while Shep Casey didn't.

Didn't Tracy bring an ex fiancee of Alan's to PC to try and break up Alan and Monica? Wonder who played her? There was a lot going on in Marland's first year that has been forgotten.

3 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

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.

Poor David Groh. First, he dumps Rhoda; then, he beats the [!@#$%^&*] out of Bobbie and Terry before getting bumped off. (And I'm not even gonna talk about what he did on "Law & Order," lol).

The reason(s) for why the team at "Rhoda" let him go have always been a bit murky. I can believe that they had a tough time writing for a happily married Rhoda (spurred on by the fact that contentment was antithetical to Rhoda's neurotic nature and that the show was in a "family hour" timeslot that prevented the team from telling more "adult" stories) but there's also been the suggestion that producers realized too late that Groh was not funny and had no chemistry with Valerie Harper. (I think even Allan Burns admits in his Academy of American Television interview that they never found the right guy to play Joe).

Thanks, @Paul Raven , for posting that article!

Edited 6 hours ago6 hr by Khan

3 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

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.

I am not sure I knew that Jackie and David were involved, although as he tells us with remarkable frankness, they were only casual. I do wonder if this show helped his career. It's tough for me to watch DL - he goes all out.

1 hour ago, ER Tosh said:

It's funny to think that if Demi didn't become famous than maybe she would have spend a few more years in her supporting role on the show where Jackie would continue to use her job to annoy Robert and his friends during the Asian Quarter and Laurieton storylines "Bobbie Spencer my readers want to know why your step-daughter walked down the street in a wedding dress singing and acting creepy?"

Did Demi want to leave? I didn't know that. I thought she was let go, for the character flopping or being such a mess.

2 hours ago, Khan said:

The reason(s) for why the team at "Rhoda" let him go have always been a bit murky. I can believe that they had a tough time writing for a happily married Rhoda (spurred on by the fact that contentment was antithetical to Rhoda's neurotic nature and that the show was in a "family hour" timeslot that prevented the team from telling more "adult" stories) but there's also been the suggestion that producers realized too late that Groh was not funny and had no chemistry with Valerie Harper. (I think even Allan Burns admits in his Academy of American Television interview that they never found the right guy to play Joe).

Both Burns and James Brooks were pretty blunt in those interviews in saying they thought David Groh was miscast and they had the wrong actor. IIRC there is a period article the great Tommy Krasker (of Knots Landing blog fame) put up where an anonymous exec or set source says outright they cast a dud actor.

I don't think Groh was too bad as Joe (or too great), but it was a mistake to marry them so fast and I do suspect the one-two punch of being the guy who walked out on Rhoda and then beat the shít out of Nurse Bobbie did not do wonders for his career lol.

Edited 4 hours ago4 hr by Vee

GENERAL HOSPITAL FEBRUARY 28 1983 W/ORIGINAL ABC COMMERCIALS .

@Khan Philip Brown is in this episode.

Edited 3 hours ago3 hr by DRW50

1 hour ago, Vee said:

but it was a mistake to marry them so fast

MTM didn't want that-they wanted to play the romance of Joe and Rhoda and have the audience get to know (and like) them but Fred Silverman wanted a wedding for Nov sweeps so it was pushed up. It paid off in that the wedding had huge ratings, but long term....

After watching that episode (February 28), I appreciate the visceral work from Emma Samms and Jackie Zeman, but I'm not sure how I felt about Bobbie so harshly telling Holly had lost the baby. That's a good way of being true to the Spencers though, being unafraid to make them human (something I can't say I see with most of the Spencers now).

Luke and Holly's song playing every time Holly was losing her baby felt ghoulish. That bad other song I hadn't heard before was also ghoulish, for other reasons.

I just don't connect very much with Luke no matter the time period.