GH: Classic Thread

[Liberty City]

SOAPNet never gave a definitive reason why a third season wasn't produced. Frons stated after the first season crews were "getting tired" from the dual-serial production. And TV Guide Canada reported in December 2008 the network had "no plans" to work on a third season. Shame. And Jagger returned to California following Night Shift.

[depboy]

I apologize if these recent summaries seems a bit disjointed. 

The 1970 episode summaries I have ended in early April and pick up again in mid-July, so I had to dig into the character sequence documents (Meg, Jane, and Jessie), and pull daily information from those.  The lack of info on Audrey/Tom and Steve/Denise is due to this gap...From what I gather from story projections, Audrey was apprehensive in marrying Tom, developed vertigo and had to miss their first wedding date because she passed out.  Her symptoms are deemed psychosomatic. Denise tried to make Steve jealous when handsome patient Bruce Andrews showed an interest in her, but it doesn't work.  An overworked Henry has been unable to sleep, and started taking pills.

July 1970:

Wednesday, July 1, 1970: No info.

Thursday, July 2: Phil insists an ill Diana see a doctor.

Friday, July 3: Diana is admitted to the hospital with possible mononucleosis, and when Jessie takes her history, she hears all about Diana's boyfriend, Harold.

Monday, July 6: After Howie tells Carol that Jane is calling it quits, Carol agrees to end their relationship. Diana gets a call from Phil while Jessie is in her room.

Tuesday, July 7: Meg returns and questions Lee about his stay with Brooke while she was away, and he is unable to calm her fears.

Wednesday, July 8: Diana meets Peter, quizzes Jessie about him and compares him with Harold, who can't marry her because his wife hasn't given him a divorce.

Thursday, July 9: Jane tells Steve that Howie quit his job at the magazine; Steve suggests a job in the hospital business office.

Friday, July 10: Diana discovers that Jessie is wearing her old wedding ring on her right hand; she reports to Phil, who is stunned.

Summaries resume: Monday, July 13: Tom remembers some unhappy moments with Audrey, and asks Steve if there is anything more than friendship in his feelings for Audrey.

Tuesday, July 14: Diana is feeling low, and calls Phil; she tells Jessie she is afraid of losing him.

Wednesday, July 15: Steve tells Tom that some narcotics and his narcotic prescription pad is missing; Steve asks Henry about them, who denies knowing anything about it.

Thursday, July 16: Steve urges Henry to confess if he indeed has been stealing the drugs and prescription pads to avoid prosecution.

Friday, July 17: Jessie denies that Peter's mother trapped her into setting a wedding date.

Monday, July 20: Phil learns the date of Jessie's wedding from Diana.  Sharon catches Henry taking pills, while Lee briefs Jessie on the stolen narcotics problem, and that narcotics agents are now involved.

Tuesday, July 21: Lucille returns from a self-improvement vacation and joins Tom and Audrey for dinner; Lucille notices strains in their relationship and after she leaves, Tom tells Audrey he can't take their pretense of marriage any longer.

Wednesday, July 22: Meg hurts Brooke's feelings and Lee comforts Brooke; Meg sees their embrace.

Thursday, July 23: Diana returns home from the hospital and tells Phil she would like to see more of Jessie.

Friday, July 24: Henry meets with his pusher, Arnie, who pressures him to get more narcotics prescription blanks.

Monday, July 27: Diana tells Phil that if his wife won't divorce him, she will pretend to be married anyway.

Tuesday, July 28: Tom overhears Lucille accusing Audrey of not being in love with him.

Wednesday, July 29: Diana invites Peter and Jessie to the restaurant.

Thursday, July 30:  Tom tells Meg he is so tense he feels like he will explode.

Friday, July 31: Phil learns that Jessie and Peter are coming to the restaurant on Wednesday, and invents an excuse to not be there. When Audrey pleads with a drunk Tom not to leave her, he rapes her.

[carolineg]

Thanks!  So strange.  Probably a budget thing, but Soapnet stayed on the air for a few more years after that.  I swear I couldn't remember what happened to Jagger.  I thought he ended up with that pretty doctor.

[FrenchFan]

Audrey's rape. Such an important part for the storyline to come with Tommy's conception. Fascinating to read. I love the Jessie/Diana/Peter/Phil dynamics.

I like reading about Henry's addiction. Didn't know that.

Meg is boring to death though. First she was insecure about Iris for years, now Brooke. I understand the reasoning of course but reading the storyline it seems very repetitive.

[Forever8]

Billy Warlock (ex AJ Quartermaine) gives his fair share of tea of his stints on DAYS, Baywatch and GH. 

 

BTW: He talks about how he knew himself he wasn't the right fit for AJ before the audition. 

 

[Darn]

If you ask ME Steve Burton and Sean Kanan were wrong for the parts (they just had the right look for the early 90s) of Jason and AJ, Billy was perfect. I'll die on this hill

[Vee]

I always thought Billy was great, but when Sean Kanan came back he owned the part again in a very different way.

[DRW50]

I never liked Billy as AJ, although a lot of that was the writing. The biggest issue for me was I didn't think he had any real chemistry with most of the people in AJ's life.

Edited May 25, 2023 by DRW50

[Liberty City]

Re-watching clips, Billy Warlock was amazing as AJ. If anything, bring him back as AJ, bring back Robert Adamson as Michael and you've got casting GOLD!

[Darn]

Bring it on! Billy would have to keep the gray he currently has though because he still looks incredibly youthful, they could be mistaken for brothers.

With a headwriter who didn't have some weird personal grudge against him Sean could have turned AJ into a character with prominence. Give him a real win or two against Jason and Sonny, people who had his back with no conditions, a love that didn't drop him or run to the other side as soon as he made an error in judgment. You know, all those things the two thugs get all the time.

But they didn't want to put in the work because there's some bizarreness on this show about AJ.

[Vee]

I think his intro was very strong for that, and perfectly timed: A.J. turned up alive within a day or two of Jason's death in 2012. It was very deliberate and smart. He was great with Chad, with Jane, with a lot of people and had scorching chemistry with Laura Wright. They allowed the character to be sympathetic and rootable, redeemed. Brenda welcomed him back to town with open arms, and later Robin did the same. But they soured on him fast and then it became Ron writing in jokes about A.J. was fat for a year til he died.

I loved BW in his day but for me it is Kanan now, period. I'd still have him back.

[Khan]

I've always felt sorry for Billy Warlock.  I think he's a good actor - much better, in fact, than some people will give him credit for.  DAYS, however, never knew what to do with him once he'd aged out of the "teen love" stuff with Melissa Reeves.  And as for GH - well, I thought it was clear from the beginning that somebody at the show or at the network didn't want him there, at least not as A.J.  I'm glad to know I wasn't wrong in my suspicions, lol.

However, I can see the GH situation from both points of view.  On the one hand, BW was right: he was, in his opinion, and in mine, completely wrong for A.J. Quartermaine.  For one thing, he was too short.  (I'm sorry, but he just was).  For another, A.J. was always written as the chip-on-his-shoulder type; the rich, pampered kid who grew up under the weighty shadows of a turbulent backstory, a dysfunctional family and a persistent belief that his father's bastard son by his one-time mistress was the true "golden boy" of the clan and not him.  IMO, BW is too quirky-looking to portray that kind of character.  (It's interesting how often BW compares himself to Michael J. Fox, because that's sort of who he reminds me of.  Him, and Kin Shriner).  GH and ABCD would have been much better off bringing BW on the show as a Ned recast (I've never been a Wally Kurth fan) or as a new character instead.

On the OTHER hand, just because Barbara Bloom forced BW on Wendy Riche and Bob Guza, that was no excuse for them basically to [!@#$%^&*] on A.J. in the writing, turning someone who was as dark and complicated as his physician father into Port Charles' answer to Charlie Brown.  While BW was still on GH, it really got to the point where it was almost laughable the way Sonny, Jason and others would treat A.J. as their personal punching bag.  It's like you wanted Thelma Evans from "Good Times" to possess A.J. for just a few moments and say, "Does it look like I have 'Everlast' written across my face!?"

Often, I'll wonder if BW would've had an easier time on soaps had he stuck with the East Coast shows.  There, you had shows that knew what to do with an actor who didn't possess conventional, good looks.  (BW is attractive, in a boyish sort of way, but he's no Drake Hogestyn, lol).  On the West Coast shows, unless you're a Kin Shriner or a Nancy Lee Grahn, they really don't know what to do with someone who isn't a total hunk or babe (and I say that as someone who is a huge fan of Kin Shriner's and Nancy Lee Grahn's, lol).

Edited May 26, 2023 by Khan

[Liberty City]

Definitely!!!!!!

And give him a genuine romance that was worth while. But, because the "writer" wasn't attractive, he ended up doing everything he said he wouldn't, and ruined it.

[Khan]

Frankly, @Darn, I've seen three actors portray A.J. Quartermaine over the years, and I don't think any of them were "right."  I've already said why I thought Billy Warlock was wrong for the part.  Sean Kanan nailed the "rich and spoiled" part of A.J.'s personality, but I didn't find him to be particularly empathetic.  (He could be an [!@#$%^&*], but at least be an [!@#$%^&*] who doesn't make me want to punch out my TV screen everyday, lol).  And Gerald Hopkins, who proceeded Kanan, was...okay.  He looked like someone whose parents would look like Leslie Charleson and Stuart Damon.  But I also remember him as being so, so green, lol.

I say bring back Nikki Langton and see what could happen there!

Edited May 26, 2023 by Khan

[carolineg]

I didn't like BW as AJ, but I think he did a good job with the material he was given.  He never felt like AJ to me.  I always thought SK was pretty good in the part.  He's my AJ, but that probably also correlates to the fact he was my first AJ. 

I do see the argument that SK's AJ wasn't very sympathetic though.  I do think he nailed the overall character of AJ.