GH: Classic Thread

[titan1978]

She really starts to soften in scenes I have seen after Roy’s death, and she and Laura have a kind of truce once Luke & Laura are fully together (although Bobbie still gets annoyed by Laura many times over the years.)  Somebody else might have more specific info.  I know she moves on from wanting Scotty and that takes some of the edge out of her.

What I loved about Bobbie as a character is that she could always be bitchy, all the way to Labine’s era.  Her insecurities were still there.  But she also recognized that behavior and worked hard to not let those insecurities get the best of her.  And even back then, she wanted Scotty and to do that had to face off with Laura.  But she wasn’t just a vixen.  She wasn’t just a bitch. She had layers, and even back then her schemes were not as awful as someone like  Heather or even as outright villainous as Tracy was in her original run.  She even often had scenes where she recognized Laura was very troubled.  Laura was layered too!

Which brings me to one of my most hated things about Luke & Laura- just because they called each other Angel and Hero doesn’t mean they were angelic or heroic by nature- she was his Angel, he was her hero.  Trying to force them to be that for their entire character personalities really kind of ruined them both at times.

Edited July 22, 2021 by titan1978

[Dion]

I believe Bobbie woke up to herself a bit when one of her schemes to come in between Laura and Scotty caused Laura such emotional distress that Laura took off and got into a serious car accident. Bobbie stopped pursuing Scott and got into a relationship with Roy, only to have her past as prostitute exposed shortly afterwards. Roy didn't take it well and got drunk and caused a scene at the disco on the same night as Luke raped Laura; as a result Roy was one of the suspects after Laura was found in the park. Roy was later "killed" after taking Luke's place during the botched hit which left Bobbie alone. Over the next year or so she mainly concentrated on her nursing work and being a supporting player in Luke and Laura's storylines and had definitely matured a lot by the time Noah Drake came to work at GH.

Edited July 22, 2021 by Dion

[Vee]

We discussed it recently but I still would love to determine who exactly introduced Bobbie. Jackie I believe has always maintained it's Marland (though I haven't checked in awhile) but she allegedly started in '77. Marland could've been writing before Monty officially took over in January '78; it's happened many times with people's names not quite on the scripts yet (see: Malone at OLTL in late summer '91, Labine in '93 in the same period). But I just don't know.

[Franko]

And, of course, she had lapses through the years, like faking blindness to keep Noah by her side (a plot development that didn't last nearly as long as I expected), trying to keep Tony from finding out that Lucas was illegally adopted, the custody fight with Tiffany, affair with Damian, etc.

[MissPalmer]

Does anyone know the date of this episode?

 

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[amybrickwallace]

I loved Bobbie and Laura’s relationship all through the years. They've been sworn enemies, sisters-in-law, and now - friends. Something I've really appreciated is that the show really hasn't tried to whitewash their history. 

[depboy]

 

Edited July 25, 2021 by depboy

[Vee]

HWs often come in ghostwriting before their names are on the credits, yeah. I'd assume Jackie's recollection is correct, then.

[j swift]

I agree with @Franko that Bobbie's blindness scheme to keep Noah Drake, followed by her humiliation over his sudden departure from Port Charles really changed the character.  From there she went on to her relationship with the abusive DL Brock, which resulted in her becoming an empathic stepmother to Terry, buying the brownstone, and becoming a de facto Mom to many of the youth of General Hospital.

However, she backslid significantly during the adoption of Lucas, which caused her to be fired from GH (although that was swept under the rug when Gloria Monty returned and Bobbie was somehow back at the nurse's station when Bill Eckert was brought in), as well as during what I think was her most interesting period when she married Stefan Cassidine.  I always felt the Damien Smith stuff was out of character, and her brief foray into undercover work to help Melissa was ridiculous.  But, I really enjoyed the setup of the Stefan story and how it played on her history with Luke and Laura.

[titan1978]

One of my soap what if’s- Sunset Beach doesn’t get picked up, so Guza never leaves, and we see how those first stories he plotted with Karen Harris end up.  Lesley’s return, Nikolas’ true paternity, how far Luke would have gone with his vendetta against the Cassadines, Bobbie and Stefan, the Cassadines hostile takeover of the hospital…so many threads that were intriguing and had a lot of promise that just didn’t go far enough under Culliton. 

[Franko]

It also helped that Jacklyn Zeman took a year off (December 1981-December 1982), so Bobbie could come back (a little) older and wiser. I wonder if the show even remembers Bobbie's time off canvas?

[j swift]

Is that when there was so much press about her salary?  I recall that she returned with a large contract

[Franko]

That's correct. I want to say Jackie left GH to try her luck in movies. She made two in 1982 -- Young Doctors in Love (the soap spoof, a cameo) and National Lampoon's Class Reunion (as Gerrit Graham's WASP fiancee) -- and both were produced by ABC Motion Pictures.

[Vee]

It amazes me how they dumped all of Bobbie's foster kids (2-3, 4?) minus Lucas and I don't think we ever heard of any of them again.

[victoria foxton]

 The only ''foster kids'' i can think of are Terri and Melissa. Maybe i'm overlooking someone. Terri and Melissa were completely forgotten. The moment they left town. Never to be mentioned ever again.

Edited July 26, 2021 by victoria foxton