GH: Classic Thread

[Forever8]

I would love to see more scenes with Josslyn/Bobbie together. It is a shame they write Joss and mostly the teens on most of the soaps out of an episode of Happy Days. Josslyn should've had an issue or two about Carly marrying Jason. Instead of essentially sounding like she wanted to throw them a wedding reception. 

 

I hope we get some stories at PCU with the teen canvas. i.e. sorority hazing, steroids, something. 

[Vee]

There is a lot of crazy fog of war stuff about 1977-1978 and the creative turnover - sources contradict each other as do actors, all of whom have foggy memories and Wikipedia isn't reliable either. None of this stuff is wholly certain. I still don't know who created Bobbie, for example. I am pretty sure Jackie and co. have always cited Marland, but I believe Bobbie (and Alan, the first Quartermaine) came on in '77. I had heard Marland was there before Monty, if not in official capacity then in deed in 1977, so that would likely be the answer there. But you then hear that oh, the Elmans(?) tried to revamp the show in the fall of '77 with the hurricane that killed Diana and Peter Taylor's daughter and Lisa/Lana the mental patient falling in love with Jeff Webber, or was that the Hollands, etc etc. And then you get to questions like who made Laura and Scotty a major couple, something Genie has always cited as being Gloria Monty's idea (starting in '78) and that she could scarcely get airtime beforehand. Yet we know Kin was hired the summer before, and Scotty and Laura may have begun to be paired then.

I had always wondered where the whole Webber brothers/Monica/Lesley drama first came from, but now it seems it must have been the Pollocks or the Hollands or something? I'm a bit surprised that stuff didn't goose the show more than it did at the time initially, and that it was so close to cancellation. (Especially if Alan was already there in '77 and in the mix)

Edited July 7, 2021 by Vee

[DRW50]

Chris Schmering (not wholly reliable) claimed the Pollocks wrote a lot of the quad, saying it was a forerunner to their Dynasty material. He also panned all of their material, citing dialogue along the lines of, "You're my heaven and my hell," and, "I've got a fever in my blood for you."

Edited July 7, 2021 by DRW50

[Vee]

Good lord!

[titan1978]

There is that old interview from Jackie Smith that I read someplace on SON as well that credited some writer I had never heard of with creating the Quartermaine family.

 

I wish there was an oral history of GH like that great OLTL one from a few years ago.  Even if things contradict, it might help make the overall picture clearer.

 

I do believe Genie’s recollection about Monty- maybe Laura and Scotty were already in the works but I don’t think they were planning to focus so much story on her, as in she became a lead.  And Stuart Damon has said Alan didn’t really have a personality until Monty got there and they leaned into him having an edge.  We know she casted Jane and Tony, but I have also read Jackie was already there as Bobbie, and Marland was there for a period of time before Gloria.  Geary told an anecdote about her making Mary O’Brien miserable, yelling at her that she was the worst actress she had ever hired, except she also started airing in 1977.  Of course, that story could have been embellished.  And from that same interview when Tony didn’t get cast opposite Jane, she said they created the Luke character for him.  Now was that Marland, Monty told him what to do, or a little of both?

[victoria foxton]

Having watched the Pollocks run on the Doctors. The Pollocks were good at creating new characters. And weaving them in. But the day to day episodes were slow as molasses. So i can see why their run at GH didn't work out. But they did give us The Webber's and Monica.

[amybrickwallace]

Ha!! That sounds like most of the dialogue they had written for TD - terrible!!

[Vee]

And this is from a 2013 interview, but again it's apocryphal. I had thought it was the Elmans or Donovan the EP or the Hollands or someone who did the hurricane in fall '77 but I am inclined to believe Kin Shriner, though it could easily be faulty memory. This is what I mean by fog of war.

That one has a few whoppers, despite being a great text. For example, both Tonja Walker and Thom Christopher seem convinced Paul Rauch is a genius for putting them together onscreen on OLTL. Rauch was fired and long gone by the time Gottlieb, Malone and Griffith paired them up.

Edited July 7, 2021 by Vee

[Paul Raven]

From what I have read, Marland had already been at GH maybe 4 to 6 weeks before Monty taking over. Apparently,  she was happy with his story projections and set about updating production. ABC agreed to scrap 4 60 min shows that had already been taped. Her first credited show was the first 60 min episode, Jan 1 1978.

I believe that Bobbie was a Marland creation as Jackie Zeman had just been killed off at OLTL and went straight to GH. It's hard to get exact dates but it seems Bobbie debuted in Jan 78.

All of the other major players were already onscreen and Marland wisely developed their stories rather than have another onscreen cast wipe out.

[Vee]

Depending on who you ask Jackie was there in '77, so I don't know what to think. I have no problem believing Marland created her, but it's all very foggy these days.

[amybrickwallace]

Exactly. I wonder if they included the same garish visual effects for flashbacks as they did on TD!!

[Vee]

There are a couple funky flashback bits in the '78 episodes, but of course that wasn't them. I don't know what they did on The Doctors but I wonder if it was similar to Dark Shadows.

[Vee]

Anybody else do a spit-take at this [!@#$%^&*]?!

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2007: Dillon is investigating the murder of Rick Webber, probably on some Lulu mess. Alan rather comically assumes Monica killed him, but Monica and Alan casually start discussing how Monica had resumed her affair with Rick in the summer of '02. Say what?! I've never seen this before but I was watching in '02 and I am 99.9% certain this resumed affair never actually happened.

Edited July 8, 2021 by Vee

[titan1978]

I am also not remembering them rekindling an affair.  He wasn’t even on that much!  There was a hospital storyline that was barely talked about, and then the storyline with Laura.  Whatever it was supposed to be- either she was molested by him which is what I have heard the original story was before she quit, or she murdered the nurse he was sleeping with and had repressed it and he was protecting her (which was another version I have heard of that didn’t end up airing due to Genie leaving).

 

What we got was a mishmash and horrible to Rick and Laura.

 

I vaguely recall a scene with Rick, Monica, and Alan where Rick and Monica had kind of a moment.  Or just expressed fondness to each other.

[Dion]

It was a rewrite pretty much designed to give Alan and Monica stronger motives for killing Rick.