GH: Classic Thread

[Vee]

Wild. I hadn't seen her since pre-Code Hollywood.

[DRW50]

Thanks again.

[MissPalmer]

Thank you very much!!! Great!!!!

[depboy]

We're getting closer to the reveal of Phil's murderer -- and the end of the summaries I have.

March 1975:

Monday, March 3, 1975: Steve finds Jessie unconscious.  Augusta tells Audrey that Diana’s confession has frayed her nerves.  Peter wonders if Diana has confessed to murdering Phil because she is trying to protect him; Diana’s sister, Beth, arrives.  Steve is exceedingly worried about Jessie’s condition.

Tuesday, March 4: Beth urges Diana to consider their mother’s feelings.  Joel tries to reach Lesley, but Cameron intercepts the call.  When Peter tells Lee his theory that Diana may have confessed because she is trying to protect him, Lee is slightly skeptical.  Beth mentions that she might try to fill in for Diana at General.  Peter learns that Jessie is going to have surgery this afternoon; he tells Diana that she had better change her testimony or face years of imprisonment.

Wednesday, March 5: Beth tries to understand Diana and doesn’t.  Ross warns Lee that Murdock is going to try for the maximum sentence against Diana.  Jessie is in intensive care. Audrey admits to Lee that she doesn’t know how she can continue to live with Jim.

Thursday, March 6: Joel tells Kira that Cameron is constantly with Lesley, and Kira is surprised that Lesley has been swayed.  Audrey remembers the high hopes she had for Jim when she married him.  Joel runs into Cameron who is waiting while Lesley visits Jessie; Kira arrives and learns that Lesley is moving into a house she once liked for herself.  Jim comes home drunk and wants to kiss Tommy goodnight, but Audrey refuses; she doesn’t want Jim to be alone with the boy again.

Friday, March 7: Lee is granted permission to see Jessie, who is somewhat better; Lee tells her that Diana is going to plead guilty.  Audrey tells Jim that she is the reason he wasn’t rehired at the hospital; furious, he slaps her.

Monday, March 10: When Audrey calls Johnny’s bar looking for Jim, he won’t let Johnny tell her that he is there.  Ross tries to explain his error in Jessie’s prosecution.  Cameron tells Kira he is eager for their children to meet Lesley.  Jim returns to the apartment angry and bitter; he begins to pack his bag; Audrey is hurt and angry.

Tuesday, March 11: Cameron is pleased with Lesley’s enthusiasm over her new house; Joel calls and is angry to discover she is with Cameron.  Augusta admits to Jane that she is haunted by terrible dreams and that she is worried she is going crazy.  Diana visits Jessie and she talks of the unhappiness she has caused Peter; when Jessie asks Diana if she killed Phil, Diana is unable to answer.

Wednesday, March 12: Beth arrives on the seventh floor asking if she can fill in for Diana; she meets Ross and tells him she doesn’t believe Diana is guilty; Steve sends Beth to Mrs. Adamson to apply.  Kira hears from Lucille that Jim has left Audrey; Steve reassures her that, while he is worried about Audrey, it will not interfere with their relationship.  Joel comes to Lesley’s house uninvited; she tells him that she has to find her real self, and be independent of him; Joel insists he loves her and wonders if Cameron Faulkner can give her the kind of love she believes in; Lesley is shocked.

Thursday, March 13: Diana tells Lesley that tonight is her last night with Peter and she doesn’t plan to waste it; Augusta calls Peter to see if he can come over to talk tonight; he refuses saying it is his last night with Diana; a frantic Augusta has no one to turn to for help; Peter and Diana have a romantic evening.

Friday, March 14: Ross mentions to Beth that he thinks the key to the murder case might be Jim’s memory.  Augusta tells Jane she is pregnant.  Diana is sentenced to ten years in the state penitentiary.

Monday, March 17: Beth is stunned by Diana’s sentence.  Joel tells Lesley he has a lot to learn about his feelings for her.  Jane suggests that Augusta get professional help.  Diana leaves Beth and Peter to go to prison.

Tuesday, March 18: Lesley tells Cameron she may have misled him about her feelings, but he is content with being her friend…for now.  Ross tells Beth that he’s taking a job out of town, but repeats that Jim is the key to the mystery.  Jessie tells Lesley that she thinks Diana murdered Phil and didn’t confess earlier because she thought Jessie would get off.  Beth questions Peter about the night of the murder, she thinks Diana is covering for him; Pete is angry, how could she think that he would let Jessie and Diana suffer for something he did?

Wednesday, March 19:   Audrey tells Lucille that she is going to look for Jim today; Jim tells Johnny the ghost of Phil Brewer haunts him.  Steve and Kira are happy, and Jessie notices; Steve doesn’t deny a possible future with Kira when Jessie asks.  Audrey finds Jim in Johnny’s bar and begs him to come home, but he refuses.

Thursday, March 20: Henry boldly invites Jane on a serious date and she turns him down. Beth irritates Augusta by asking questions about the night Phil died; Augusta tells Jane that she can’t stand Beth.  Cameron tells Joel he appreciates Joel’s staying out of Lesley’s life; Joel informs him that it may look like he’s out of her life, but she isn’t out of his.  Jane asks Peter to talk to Augusta professionally, she thinks Augusta is on an emotional ragged edge.

Friday, March 21: Diana writes to her mother asking her to have faith in her.  Peter, worried about Augusta, asks to talk to her; she pretends that everything is fine.  Joel insists to Lesley that he loves her and means it; Lesley melts.  Peter visits Diana in jail.  Augusta slips a note under Peter’s door saying she desperately needs him.

Monday, March 24: Beth catches Augusta slipping the note to Peter.  Joel and Lesley plan an uninterrupted evening.  Beth urges Jim to try and remember the night of the murder.  Peter promises to talk with Augusta tomorrow.  Jim asks Augusta to help with his memory by restaging the night of the murder.  Lesley tells Joel she was afraid of a future without him.

Tuesday, March 25: In the morning, Cameron arrives at Lesley’s and is shocked to find Joel there.  Jane agrees to go to a resident’s party with Henry.  Cameron, hurt when Lesley says that Joel has become important in her life again, warns her that Joel has not been honest with her.  Peter is mystified when Augusta asks him if the baby she is carrying isn’t more important than anything else.

Wednesday, March 26: Steve tells Lee that when Jessie is released she will have to be careful; Lee and Scott are anxious to have Jessie released and will take good care of her. Kira and Steve agree that they can be compatible even though she’s in the public eye and he avoids it; she hopes she can make him forget Audrey.  Lee cautions Audrey to not push Jim into trying to get his memory back.  Jim tells Audrey that he is considering going to the seventh floor and relive the night Phil died; when she encourages him, he says she’s asking him to find out if he was capable of killing Phil.

Thursday, March 27: Jessie is encouraged when Lee tells her that if Jim regains his memory it may help Diana.  Augusta admits to Jane that it might have been a mistake to not get the abortion.  Lee makes sure Lesley doesn’t use her office while Jim is restaging the murder. Augusta is most uncomfortable when Jim says he hopes she will meet him early just like they met the night of the murder.

Friday, March 28: Steve thinks the restating is a good idea if Jim finally gets his memory back.  Augusta tries, without success, to get out of being involved in the reenactment.  Diana is troubled when Peter tells her of Jim’s plan.  Jessie helps Lee put the geodes in Lesley’s office.  Jim remembers riding up the elevator with Augusta the night Phil was murdered; Augusta and Jim ride up in the elevator together; as the others watch from the sunroom, Jim throws out his flask of alcohol.

Monday, March 31: Jessie organizes the nurses into staging a repeat of the night of Phil’s murder.  Peter grimly remembers the argument he had with Phil – the one he told Phil he would kill him.  Augusta goes to answer a pretend call board ring; she returns and Jim goes down the corridor towards Lesley’s office.  Lesley and Joel speculate whether it would be different if they were married.  Peter admits to Jessie that retracing his own steps have revived the intense feeling of hatred he had for Phil.  Jim looks around the murder room; he is horrified by what he remembers.

[victorlord75]

The interesting part of the latest synopsis shared is that I do not remember a thing about the character of Beth Maynard.

Around the same time this material aired, there was a series aired in syndication called "Don Adams Screen Test", a sort of talent show where contestants would re-enact classic movie scenes for prizes.  I remember one female contestant won a part on GH, but I lost track of what happened.  Could the actress who played Beth have been the winner?  I can't find anything about this anywhere online.

 

[Liberty City]

Re-watched some of the 2013 year (around May), and it's probably the one era where the "writer" was marginally tolerable to watch. But the production value left so much to be desired.

[depboy]

While I know very little about the contestants on “Don Adams Screen Test”, I feel like those were walk-on roles, not chances of a contract á la “I Want to Be a Soapstar”.  I could be wrong.

Michele Conaway, who was the older sister of actor Jeff Conaway (“Grease”, “Taxi”), was on GH as Beth Maynard for a small stretch, and very well could have been a contestant on “Screen Test”. I’ll have to look at an article I have about her joining the show to see if there’s a mention of that contest.

[victorlord75]

Please register in order to view this content

 

I found the clip with the contestant winner above.  It was not Ms. Conaway.  My appreciation to @depboy for offering to look into this.

 

[depboy]

Ok, so from the November 1975 issue of Daily TV Serials, when asked how she came to be Beth Maynard, Michele Conaway said:

"I got here in a roundabout way...my parents were divorced.  My older brother Jeff is a super-dynamic actor, and my mother was on the road with him most of the time when I was young.  So my grandmother raised me...then I went to Quantico's private school in Manhattan, where I met my best friend, Bernadette Peters.  That was a marvelous school!  I also knew Patty Duke Astin there...all during school, I modeled.  I was the Dial Soap girl, and I did lots of eye commercials...I made lots of money from commercials!...I came to Hollywood to audition for an Arthur Penn movie...the part went to someone else, but I decided to stay here.  I appeared in Kodiak...Petrocelli...The Nurse Killer...then along came Beth and General Hospital."

 

[Paul Raven]

Wonder if she is still friends with La Peters?

She seems to have given up acting in the mid 80's and married Gerry Goffin in 95 till his death in 2014. Goffin was composer of many hit songs with 1st wife Carole King.

Michelle is now 77 years old.

[titan1978]

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Edited July 31, 2024 by titan1978

[Planet Soap]

With Sam on current GH basically irrelevant without Jason, it got me to thinking...how relevant was Courtney after her breakup with Jason?

EDIT: Jason **Sonny and Carly have always been "The Trio" with an interchangeable fourth member. 

Edited August 3, 2024 by Planet Soap

[carolineg]

Courtney was pretty irrelevant post-Jason, but she was paired with Jax then had an affair with Nik leading to Spencer and her death.

She went from an A character to a C one, but Courtney did have a few things to do.  Guza couldn't care less about the character and it showed, but Courtney was still positioned pretty well on the canvas being Jason's ex, Sonny's sister, and Carly's bff.  The Jax/Nik/Courtney/Emily story really destroyed the character though.

Sam just walks around town having conversations with others about their problems.  I think I might be overstating Courtney's usefulness because it was clear the character was majorly sidelined, but she still gets name checked fairly often on current GH. 

Edited August 3, 2024 by carolineg

[Vee]

The only thing that made Courtney an A-player was Brian Frons and Chuck Pratt's fascination with her. The A.J. story worked early on but putting her with Jason made her unbearable and unpopular. As soon as Frons' focus shifted, Guza cast her out and then eventually got to kill her off.

[carolineg]

Unfortunately, ALW and SBu had very little chemistry as well and that pairing was so pushed on us.  Jason had interesting romantic prospects with both Elizabeth and Brenda at the time, so throwing Courtney in the mix was just unnecessary.

The AJ story was her only good story like you said.  I think Courtney may have been a bit more palatable if she wasn't Jason's new true love, Sonny's sister, and Carly's bff.  It was a lot for one single character in a short time.   

It is funny to watch the moment you know Guza has control again.  Jason just dumps her (for a pretty minor reason, IIRC) and never, ever looks back.