GH: Classic Thread

[Paul Raven]

Jessie's brother is mentioned. Does he have a name?

Years later her niece and nephew come to stay. Are they this brother's children?

Seems Jessie was offscreen for a while.

I recall reading about a time time that Emily was suffering from exhaustion and was hospitalized. Perhaps at this time?

[depboy]

Yes, her brother is a doctor and his name is David. I believe a surname is mentioned later, and I’ll be sure to post it when I come across it again.  I believe when the niece and nephew are introduced, this character is intended to be the same brother, but his name is changed. I have the summaries/character sequence for Jessie for that era as well.

[depboy]

Here’s the blurb from Jessie character sequence sheet from 1972.

[Hunnibunni1025004]

Thank you, thank you, thank you for the rich history regarding the character of Jessie Brewer.  I know she had a lot of loss, but I am thankful that she had a lot of people who loved her as well.

[depboy]

Ready for more 1966?  Here you go!  Farewell, Eddie and Angie!

Monday, August 22, 1966: Al Weeks tells Mike that he'll give Angie money for a down payment on a second hand car if Eddie agrees to ditch the motorcycle.

Tuesday, August 23: Lee and Meg discuss Peter Lindsay retaining Lee as his lawyer.

Wednesday, August 24: After Angie and Eddie quarrel over Eddie's friend Joey, Eddie tears off on the motorcycle.

Thursday, August 25: Eddie is brought into the hospital after crashing his motorcycle.

Friday, August 26: Scotty and Lee become increasingly devoted to each other.

Monday, August 29: At Phil's new apartment, Audrey and Phil listen to records. Al Weeks tries and fails with Eddie.

Tuesday, August 30: Eddie is being released, but doesn't want to go back to work for his father.

Wednesday, August 31: Audrey and Steve encounter Meg and Peter at the Isle of Capri.

Thursday, September 1: Peter finds out from Lee that Carol has asked for a postponement of the divorce hearing.

Friday, September 2: Peter fails to make a hit with Scotty, but asks Meg to marry him nonetheless.

Monday, September 5: Sharon grouses about having to work on Labor Day, and that the new intern Dr. James doesn't know she's alive.  

Tuesday, September 6: After being frustrated that Eddie hasn't learned a lesson from the accident, Al tells Eddie that Angie begged him for the job.

Wednesday, September 7: Angie learns that Al told Eddie she begged for the job and that Eddie has quit.

Thursday, September 8: Eddie gets LSD from Joey.

Friday, September 9: Carol Lindsay arrives to see Peter.

Monday, September 12: Peter tells Meg that Carol's visit has not changed his feelings...he wants to marry Meg as soon as possible.

Tuesday, September 13: Angie and Eddie quarrel and Eddie takes LSD.

Wednesday, September 14: The Weeks rush to the Isle of Capri to find Eddie out of his head.

Thursday, September 15: Steve arrives at the Isle of Capri to help Eddie, who admits he took LSD and that Joey gave it to him.

Friday, September 16: Eddie agrees to help Steve in trapping the LSD pusher.

Monday, September 19: Steve and Eddie work on Joey to expose the LSD source-man.

Tuesday, September 20: Carol insists she won't give Peter a divorce and goes to see Lee, who unwillingly likes her.

Wednesday, September 21: Steve suggests that Eddie go back to college.

Thursday, September 22: Eddie and Angie say goodbye to their General Hospital friends -- they are leaving for State University tomorrow.  Mike gives Angie and Eddie a car, and Mike decides to go to Italy.

Friday, September 23: Patient Mrs. Pamela Carter returns to the hospital with an embolus, and Phil worries that he missed this complication when she was in the hospital before.

[Vee]

I still remember Angie Costello appearing in the '93 anniversary ep - I'd have to go back and rewatch, but the dialogue with Steve made it seem like she was there for a brief patient arc, whereas apparently she was there for over three years lol.

[FrenchFan]

It's sad they didn't bring the original actress - Jana Taylor - for this appearance. It was not as noteworthy as it should have been.

[Vee]

Oh, they didn't? I had no idea. I was under the impression it was definitely the same actress.

Edited January 18, 2023 by Vee

[FrenchFan]

Oh sorry, you were right. It was the same actress. I just checked. I wonder why I was so sure it had been a recast. My apologies !

[Darn]

Has any other soap done what GH did from 2000-2013 and become nearly solely focused on the lives of four characters? First Sonny/Jason/Carly/Courtney then Sonny/Jason/Carly/Sam with the other characters largely supporting their A stories or used as filler. Even soaps with clear cut leads didn't feel as suffocating as the constant sturm und drang as what they all went through.

[Vee]

It is worth noting that there is some demarcation between 2000-2005 IMO. 2002 but especially 2003-2004 were almost all mob all the time and it felt like it lasted 5-10 years. But when the show tanked on a profound level in '05 (something we've discussed here a lot) with Sonny and Reese, the Michael murders A.J. story, the Nikolas/Courtney affair, etc. they were forced to recalibrate and shift a lot of the show. A ton of stories were hastily rewritten or scrapped, Pratt either quit or was fired around this time, and Guza and co. seized on Steve Burton's suggestion to ask Kimberly McCullough back.

This was also when Grey's Anatomy was hitting big. They rehired Kimberly, hired Jason Thompson to be her love interest (since Kimberly allegedly did not want to revisit Jason/Robin, which would have shifted the show even more) and most importantly of all capitalized on the Grey's synergy by refocusing a ton of the show's canvas around the hospital hub and hiring a ton of recurring supporting players like Epiphany, Leyla, Kelly Lee, Nurse Nadine, etc. Elizabeth also went to work at GH around this time, and then they began doing medical crises stories like the monkey virus (not exactly genius work, but a good concept). That was when the hospital finally came back into play for GH again, and despite a strong mob focus from 2005-2012 it's never really stopped being in play since. It became the other integral half of the canvas again.

[Darn]

You're right, I think in my mind I lumped those years into the SJCS hour because every time I tuned in there they were. And the Grey's synergy always felt like something they were forced to do (it was obviously but I hate that I felt it when watching), telling a story about the trials and tribulations of a hospital staff is the whole point of the show and it was done begrudgingly.

[Vee]

I think it was half and half. Yes, Guza definitely wanted to tell crime stories, but his GH back then also very often followed its nose re: heat from primetime or movie synergy (like when he infamously tried to model his revamped version of Jerry Jacks, closer to his original intent for the character, on Daniel Craig in Casino Royale right down to his alias being "Mr. Craig" and having a big torture scene for him). The hospital worked out for them given that synergy. They also really committed to real story for Robin and Patrick, using the hospital constantly, then did Night Shift and so on. Was it all genius work? Hell no, and many of the recurring hospital characters were annoying to me. But it still signaled a sea change in the right direction for the overall show that has stuck since.

It's also notable that Guza clearly hated Courtney (almost entirely Frons and Pratt's baby, I think) and marginalized her in C-story with Jax and then killed her off the first chance he got.

Edited January 18, 2023 by Vee

[titan1978]

There were periods of time in its last decade where it felt like AMC was Zach/Ryan/Greenlee/Kendal focused.  Even if stuff happened for other characters, it felt like those 4 were the main leads to me.

Once Cary and Sonny were paired, it automatically roped many Quartermaines into their orbit, which is when the imbalance became really noticeable to me.  And even though Sonny was starting to be sidelined, his episode counts were still in the top 5 for the year, well over 200 episodes.  And while Dante became Guza’s last obsession, he was Sonny’s son.  So again, tied to the nightmare lol.

Luke moving into the Q orbit was kind of like throwing a bone to the vets- here’s Luke to react to instead of Sonny.

[j swift]

 

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Meanwhile, I still want to know what that angry tweet over the summer was all about when he was mad at GH and Jackie Zeeman seconded the emotion about the vets being disrespected. (I looked back to August and it seems to have been deleted).