GH: Classic Thread

[Franko]

Thanks. I just feel like it would have been a good hook.

[Kristin]

This short film is 12 years old. So some of you may have heard about it before. But I just ran across it. Chris Robinson’s real life sounds like it has been a bit of a soap opera!

 

[carolineg]

Agreed.  I think it would have been better to say Karen came to town to be an intern in PC to bond with her newfound dad and then her marriage to Jagger fell apart due to long distance.  It's much less damaging to the characters and the couple to say that over Jagger is a horrible cheater.  Pretty crappy for Karen/Jagger fans especially without getting ASJ or Jagger's POV or an appearance or anything. 

I was never a fan of Karen or Jagger and Karen, but I always considered them the hook that first brought you into that teen scene.  They were your root for couple and made you care about the other characters in their group.  By 1997, I guess GH didn't care because they had Brenda/Sonny and Jason/Robin, but you realistically could have put PC way ahead of the game if you were still able to tease a Jagger/Karen reunion.  

[victoria foxton]

 

  

[Planet Soap]

Never really seen much of Tony pre BJ's death. First coming across Tania's death story line it's just as tragic as BJ's. It featurs basically all of the same players: Friscoe, Felicia, Bobbie, Lucy. Wow, Tony just couldn't catch a break. To make matters worse, he basically became irrelevant after 1998.

I forget Tony was on as late as 2005 when I saw him in this clip concerning Faith Roscoe's death.

 

[titan1978]

I think Tony suffered from always being connected to someone more dynamic.  First Frisco, then Lucy, then Bobbie.  He was a solid supporting player, and I didn’t really pay much attention to him until Labine got there.  She really gave him incredible material to work with.  And Guza took the pieces that were left and took him on a really dark journey.  The problem was he had no interest in Tony to either further explore that darkness to the ultimate ending or help him heal.  They kind of half-assed the whole thing.

I loved his relationship with Laura during the Labine era.  The had a good friendship.

[j swift]

Tony is an interesting case. 

On paper he has a fascinating backstory of boffing the nurse while his mother was dying in the other room (or was it their father?)  And throughout a variety of writers there was always constant through line of a straight arrow, who could easily be swayed into darkness when he got overwhelmed by the stress of being a doctor.  I think the sign of a well developed character is that his vulnerability to women like Carly and Lucy was easily understood and the motivation was substantive to the character. 

But, Brad Maule could not escape being seen milquetoast.  Unlike other chisel-jawed soap actors who were always able to still show a bit of a dark side, like John Callahan or Jed Allen, Maule lacked the same charisma. 

Perhaps the most amazing thing about both the character and the actor is that according to our re-read of SOD from the early 90s, GH wanted to fire Brad early on in his run.  It seemed like he was always rumored to be on the verge of being axed, back burnered, or forgotten, and then would some how always persevere.  He was truly the Phoenix of Port Charles. 

[titan1978]

I remember reading that he was almost fired a couple of times.  Once during Monty, but she changed her mind after audience response (I think he was in a coma?).

Tony was always someone that things happened to, not often in charge of his own destiny.  Back then that made him stand out, because pretty much every other character, especially the men, were action oriented or otherwise in control.  Tony was like a classic heroine that kept having his heart broken or afflicted with various ailments.  He was blind for a period of time, a couple of comas, lol.  Nobody was as unlucky in love.  And he was often judgmental and unforgiving.

[j swift]

And don't forget when he had erectile dysfunction (classically misnamed as impotency on soaps) that was magically healed by hearing Terry Brock sing

[titan1978]

I had blocked that out for many reasons.

Terry Brock- never more than a solid c player, no matter how hard they tried.  But there used to be room on soaps for characters like Terry.

[Planet Soap]

Tony was another casualty of Sonny/Carly/Jason along with Aj and Bobbie.

The show backburnered a whole class of charachters in the early 00s including: Mac, Felicia, Bobbie, Scott, Lucy, Kevin (went over to PC). Alan & Monica kind of drifted to backbuner. Having grown up on mid 2000s GH you'd never realize the aforementioned were major players at one time. 

Edited September 7, 2022 by ironlion

[carolineg]

Words cannot express how much I hate Brenda's breakdown and these set of scenes in particular.  I can easily say it's my least favorite Brenda story ever and the worst acting Vanessa Marcil has ever done lol.

It's very strange how Carly revitalized Tony/Bobbie's stories, but Tony was dropped just as quickly once Carly hooked up with Jason/AJ.  It seems like the show should have kept that thread going with Tony/Carly or revisit it, but once Carly/Tony ended and he had his breakdown he just disappeared.

I never really considered Mac a main player.  He rarely had his own stories except the tale of two Macs-which I still don't understand lol.  He was utilized a lot, but he was often reacting or a player in other characters stories.

[victoria foxton]

 

  

[titan1978]

I think you can throw Ned on that list too.  Guza (especially during JFP) kind of lumped all the Q’s together.  They became the two days a week crew, and often their stories revolved around Jason, Emily, or Tracy and her kids (especially Dillon and Georgie/Lulu).  Or just scenes of the entire family arguing.  Luke being moved into their orbit gave them more screen time, but they were shells of their former glory.

Once Tony kidnapped Michael and Carly shot him in open court his days were numbered as far as having an actual story.  He stomped around complaining about the dangers of Sonny, but the show was so clearly written from Sonny’s perspective that he was painted as the bad guy long after he actually did anything awful to anybody.  I can even remember Jackie Zeman saying that she hoped Bobbie and Tony would eventually reunite because that was the trajectory Monty set them on and she wanted that redemption for them and felt that was who Bobbie was supposed to be with.

Same thing happened with Alan- once the drug storyline wrapped up he wasn’t driving his own story again as far as I can remember.  To this day I think the loss of Alan Q was a huge mistake.  Tony I can take or leave.

[carolineg]

IA about Ned.  I think Ned did have more to do than, say, Tony until 2004 ish.  I do think JFP/Guza did want to do something with Ned and did Ned/Alexis, Kristina 1.0, changed Skye from a Q to a non Q just so Ned/Skye could date, and brought recast Lois back.  That didn't work, but I think they had a little more interest in Ned than Mac or Tony. 

Alan did have the whole Skye/Rae storyline and a few cancer scares with Monica.  He also was pretty involved in AJ trying to get custody of Michael.  Take those stories for what you will, but he had some material.  Again,  SD was wasted, but I literally can't remember what Tony did in that period or if he was even on the show lol.