GH: Classic Thread

[vetsoapfan]

 

Word.

 

I loathed Luke. And I detested how GH turned from an intelligent, adult drama under Douglas Marland and Pat Falken Smith, to a low-brow cartoon in the 1980s. UGH. The only time I began to tolerate Luke was under Labine's pen. Otherwise, I spent the years wanting him gone.

 

#LauraAndScottyForever

[Planet Soap]

On that note, alot of DTS commemtators cite Luke and Laura's Ice Princess saga as the turning point of soaps from a theater play like tv drama to over the top plots. Guiding Light, DAYS, and ATWT especially seemd to be influenced by this, particularly in the 80s. Wondering if you all agree?

Edited October 7, 2019 by ironlion

[victoria foxton]

 

 

[Contessa Donatella]

 

Gyah! I have been trying to get on this thread since supper! Whew. For starters, yes, I agree but with some serious qualifications - I do not think she was brilliant. - I do not think she was a visionary. - She was a journeyman workhorse Director at a few soaps & then they grabbed her up & said, "Here, be a Producer," And, then, they said, we'll give you *this* much time & then we're cancelling this soap. They meant it too. Now, she also meant it when she said she didn't even like soaps! But, she knew how to do things & who to hire. People think that the biggest thing she did was to introduce the sci-fi element. Not true. Yes, she did do

that. And, she did point Luke & Laura on their way to romance & adventure. They didn't spend the night in that department store for no reason! And, she changed the narrative, which is huge. Compare the narrative to ATWT, GL and DOOL! Last up, she changed the pace of the show & literally flew with it! And, lo & behold, she had done it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Contessa Donatella]

Here's a quote/unquote from a very old book about GH & Gloria Monty, etc.

 

Warning: There could be errors.

Inside the Soaps by Paul Denis © 1985

GH: Gloria Monty
GH began on April Fools' Day in 1963. The show kept falling in audience ratings so ABC network brought in a NY producer, Gloria Monty, in 1978, to wrap up the storylines and close out the show. But Miss Monty amazed ABC by saving GH, working closely with HW Doug Marland and focusing on the Luke and Laura storyline. Luke, played by Tony Geary fell in love with a married girl, Laura, played by Genie Francis. He was from the wrong side of the tracks. She was upper class. Her parents were wealthy doctors. He raped her, though she didn't resist too much. Instead, she fell in love with her rapist. And, apparently the show's viewer loved it so much that the show became #1 in the Nielsens. The Luke rape became the soaps' first "acquaintance rape," and Geary became the most popular actor on the soaps.

 

 

 

Edited October 8, 2019 by Donna B
quote/unquote

[titan1978]

I think Gloria had an eye for talent, and could spot chemistry, and knew what to do with it.  Because even when her show was not well written (outside of Marland’s tenure and both of Falken-Smith’s), it was still compelling and entertaining television.

 

As far as Luke goes- the Labine era made me love him.  He was still dangerous (all that Frank Smith stuff), and wasn’t really a “hero”, but he had so many rich relationships and had chemistry with all of them.  Sonny, Lucy, Bobbie, Lucky, Tony, Robin, Stone- not just with Laura.  I loved his relationships with those people.

 

The thing about Tony that drives me crazy as a fan of this show is he was always trying to sell a Luke I did not see on screen as the version of Luke.  I get he didn’t want to be turned into Steve Hardy, but he he was elected mayor!  At the height of his original run he was everything he claimed he hated about the character once Labine arrived, and blamed it on her.

 

If anything, Laura was the one that kind of lost her way under Labine.  Guza’s first tenure as HW brought her back.

Edited October 8, 2019 by titan1978

[Contessa Donatella]

Another thing I've read about Monty is what she did first & that was re-light the show. If the set were all dark when she got there & the ratings were in the toilet, then, you know, morale was abysmal when she came on. I've always wondered if that "smart cookie" exec in the movie TOOTSIE was an intentional homage to Monty.

[vetsoapfan]

 

Yes, IMHO, that one, single, heinously-stupid story, and its influence on the genre, ended up crippling the soaps.

Edited October 8, 2019 by vetsoapfan

[Contessa Donatella]

 

You put the sci-fi element of the Freezing of Port Charles ahead of Luke's rape on the disco floor? I still can't hear that song without having feelings of being ill.

 

Of course Monty wasn't the only one to do a "Is it rape or was it seduction?" storyline. We have to add in Bill Bell, Pat Falken Smith, etc. and maybe more.

 

I was watching what they did to Susan Hunter on DOOL as a teenager, with my mother, and what they did to Laura Horton, same way, etc. And we were sure of what we had seen and they had not been seductions! They were rapes plain & simple!

[AbcNbc247]

Did Gloria Monty or Pat Falken Smith ever say in an interview or something why they chose to make it a rape instead of just having Luke and Laura have consensual sex at the disco that night? 

Edited October 8, 2019 by AbcNbc247

[Contessa Donatella]

 

 

I think that they said. There used to be someone on RATS, who went by MacAmy who was a huge Luke & Laura scholar. She posted about it & she indicated that they seemingly were themselves convinced of it! IOW, that they convinced themselves that it was a seduction & not a rape.

 

I think that whoever wrote on DOOL where Bill Horton came into the doctor's lounge, drunk one night, when he & Mickey both were in love with Laura, and raped Laura, that they never said why they let it be a rape. They just let Bill be helpless, Mickey be sterile, only Tom & Laura know that Mickey was sterile & hold out till Mike was a teen before they did the reveal that Bill was actually his father.

 

I'd like to know what any of these writers said.

[vetsoapfan]

 

Luke definitely raped Laura, there was no question about that. Even Pat Falken Smith said so. When it was clear that Tony Geary's popularity with the audience was soaring, however, ABC and Gloria Monty tried to back-track and call it a "seduction," but it was not. It was rape. Period. Genie Francis admitted that "it made my blood run cold" the way the network twisted the situation to avoid taking responsibility for glamorizing a rapist. Leslie Charleson lambasted the twist on the Phil Donahue show, saying she was aghast that GH would be so irresponsible as to let Luke off the hook for his crime AND even get rewarded for it by ending up with the girl. (I was surprised she did not get fired or at least reprimanded for her strong, vocal criticism, but I guess that if ABC had tried to do that, all hell would have broken loose and the network would have faced even MORE criticism.)

 

Many, many years later, the show (slightly) redeemed itself by having Luke tearfully, and finally, admit to Lucky that yes, he had indeed raped the boy's mother. Laura even (again, finally) raged at Luke for what he had done. But to me, it was too little, to late (although I was glad GH cleared the air once and for all), because the heinous crime had been ignored, denied and excused for far too long.

Edited October 8, 2019 by vetsoapfan

[Contessa Donatella]

 

Good for Leslie Charleson! I  knew that when we had Lucky deal with it that they seemed to try to make it better. Do you think that's why they did Elizabeth's rape? To use it as a means of fixing the past?

[AbcNbc247]

I always thought it was rape too. Maybe they were under the belief that controversy means higher ratings, which is some cases was probably true. 

 

I'm glad they revisited it years later and at least tried to provide closure. I think the one of the subwriters at the time was a rape victim herself, and admitted that she was never comfortable with the way GH handled Laura's rape. 

 

And though I do give props to Leslie Charleson for calling out how irresponsible it is for someone who commits a terrible crime to get away with it, I find a little funny considering the turn the show took when the mob was brought in.

 

If only she knew what was to come lol

[Contessa Donatella]

Well, I can't get Google Groups to load it for me but there's a post from McAmy about Luke going too far.