GH: Classic Thread

[BetterForgotten]

Was this the only scene VM and SJB shared?

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[carolineg]

The first scene SJB Carly/Brenda ever interact in is at the police station with Sonny in 1997 during the Tin Man stuff.  They exchange pleasantries like they are at least aware of one another and Brenda asks Carly if she has a ride home.  I think Jason, Sonny, Brenda, and Carly were all brought in to the Police Station.

There is one more scene aside from the above where Carly/Brenda are snarking at each other around her breakdown where Carly says something about Brenda needing a designer straightjacket or something.  I'd have to go through a Carly playlist to find it.  

They did interact at group functions like the Docks Gala and I believe the Nurses Ball, but after the first interaction they always disliked one another although their scenes had very little substance.  Most of the Jason/Brenda stuff during that era was Jax/Brenda or Brenda yelling at Jason over Robin/Sonny.  Carly was obviously in the picture, but not of much consequence to Brenda or Jax. 

I have a really good memory and I had all the S&B/Brenda edits on VHS and watched them a million times when I was 18 or 19 and had my own place and no cable before youtube existed lol.   If a character interacted with Brenda between 1992-2003 I probably could tell you about it.

[allmc2008]

Wasn't the show basically solid until Riche left?

[carolineg]

1997 was really bad when Guza left and Richie was starting up PC, but overall yes.  It was solid up until 2003ish with JFP maybe even until 2005-2006 to be honest.

[amybrickwallace]

Can you imagine those two sharing the screen on a daily basis? That was great!

[titan1978]

It had pockets of mess during her tenure.  I actually liked a lot of the show under her and Levinson even before Labine arrived.  Even though I watched GH a lot as a kid, I was just the right age to fall in lust with Jagger, and I loved Brenda, Karen, Jason and Robin.

Up through Guza’s first run it was excellent.  It falls apart when she launched PC and Culliton/Harris ran out of Guza/Harris story projections.  Then it was pretty amazing again when Guza came back, and was often great, but also not quite often.  The whole show kind of stalled out as I recall after Lucky died.  Jacob Young was miscast, Tyler’s replacement wasn’t as brooding, and even before that Billy Warlock just didn’t seem like AJ.  New characters came in as blatant replacements for Vanessa Marcil, and didn’t work.  Riche has even admitted that she should have left a year or so before she did.

[Vee]

I have that memory for a lot of stuff at OLTL. It's a sickness lol.

The worst of Riche/Guza's first run was still better than most of the last 20 years. It helps that the exemplary dialogue staff that had been there a long time still helped carry through a lot of dross all the way up til about 2012.

2005 was one of the show's worst years until the 2010s. I thought 2003 and 2004 got pretty bad with the Fab 4, but 2005 is when the show bottomed out on many levels, which led to a considerable reset late in the year with bringing back Kimberly McCullough complete with new love interest (Patrick), a renewed focus on the hospital around the time of Grey's Anatomy and its ascent, and the hiring of LW.

Sorry to bump this, but I've been rewatching a lot of '79-'80 during the pandemic and they very often play it like they just had a ONS at the Disco and have like, jealous lover's tiffs over it. It's so strange. They seemed to try to deal with it a bit later but it never fully took.

[carolineg]

The teen scene under Levinson was really good I have to agree.  I think that time period was good for new cast members, but the show was in flux with losing a lot of it's 80's stars.  I remember Holly in particular doing nothing exciting at all.

I think most of Guza/Riche was solid.  1997 without Guza and 99 being full of misses as well.   In GH's defense, they lost a lot of key characters at the time due to actors just leaving so I can't blame it all on them.  Lucky, Nik, and AJ were misses, but they weren't awful and it was a mistake to try to so obviously try to replace Vanessa and then lose KMC shortly there after, but they were suddenly stuck without any heroine's in that mid 20's age range besides Carly.

Lol!  I can't remember what I did 4 hours ago, but I can tell you all about the time Katherine Bell took over Deception and tried to replace Brenda with a blonde or the names of Lois's brothers and the girl that dumped Sonny at the Prom.  It is a disease.   I remember having to ff scenes with characters I hated and hoped I could find the right spot where I wanted to pick up the story again.   Youtube really is the best.  I really appreciate those people who did those edits for couples and characters and sold tape and now upload to you tube.  That's true dedication.

GH is mostly intact, but it kills me some of those amazing Days playlists got deleted.  There was some amazing stuff.  I used to love the Marlena ones that told her whole story practically.

[amybrickwallace]

In the late 1990s, Carly was more of an antiheroine/antagonist, but I see your point.

[FrenchBug82]

You know how they suggest to people who get older to do crosswords and things like that to exercise their brain and not lose neurones as fast as they would otherwise?
I have been arguing for decades now that I watch soaps to exercise my memory so that I don't get one of these horrible mind diseases that too often go with getting old.
As long as I can list all the Presidents and Brooke Logan's lovers in order, I am good.
 

Edited October 8, 2021 by FrenchBug82

[carolineg]

For sure.  I can't even think of a female established lead in that age range besides Carly that was popular in 1999.   Anyone the show tried from 1995 until 1999 was a dud-Lily, Miranda, Gina Cates, Hannah, Chloe, and Angel all spectacularly bombed (one literally).  Lois, Brenda, Robin, and Keesha (I think?) were gone and they put Karen on PC instead and every good hire was either younger or slightly older.  In fact if you think about it PC got all the good 20 something GH new hires in that era with Eve, Julie, Karen, etc so that might be a casting issue as well.

[amybrickwallace]

Definitely.

[MissPalmer]

Yes| Of course

[Faulkner]

Gotta say, as campy as Brenda’s breakdown scene at the photo shoot was, VM was pretty wonderful in the aftermath, I thought, upon a rewatch:

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Edited October 8, 2021 by Faulkner

[BetterForgotten]

VM really thought this was going to be her Emmy winning storyline, lol, but I think she lost to Julia Barr that year.