27 minutes ago, titan1978 said:

They got their money’s worth out of that Puerto Rico remote!

They did.  They used that boat scene with Luke and the outdoor tram scene with Sonny/Brenda for a decade.  To be fair, it looks cool and it's sort of hard to make out who is in the scenes so I suppose GH didn't care.

Add me to the list of FOTH fans. My favorite part was always the overlapping opening notes and dissolve to the graphics, too.

5 hours ago, Khan said:

TBH, I never cared for the "Faces of the Heart" opening.  I didn't think it was "high energy" enough for a show that was all about energy.  Plus, the first time I saw the opening, with the visuals and the safe-for-the-'90's music, I thought, "This is gonna look even more dated than the old opening five years from now."  And in a way, it IS dated, although it certainly holds up better than the openings that have come afterward.

IMO, all Wendy Riche needed to do was to film a new shot of an ambulance speeding toward the hospital and maybe get a new arrangement for the Urbont theme.  Otherwise, just leave the sequence as is.

I think it's ironic how the larger our TV screens have become, the more reticent GH, DAYS and Y&R are to do those intense close-ups that they used to be known for.  Maybe they're afraid HD will expose all that cosmetic surgery to the light of day, lol?

I think it's also easier to just film flat scenes. I suppose we should be grateful to not get as many slo-mo shots. When I watch Neighbours now, the characters get a slo-mo shot when they walk to the bathroom.

I've always had mixed feelings about Faces of the Heart. I think it's a lovely opening for the era it debuted in, and I think it has held up better than some of the period (OLTL's 92-95, AW's last opening, The City's endearing but very much of the era torn up paper opening, etc.), but it starts to seem very jarring once we get to the Guza years. The show was absolute misery so when they'd cut to smiling faces and that breezy Dave Koz theme, I would be reminded of how increasingly fake the Riche years felt. 

I wish they had managed to go back to the ambulance when FOTH was retired...maybe extended as I felt the ambulance opening was just a tad too short. 

I love the closing theme for the ambulance years too. I think that may be what I miss most of all when it is gone - the FOTH close is fine but feels too much like my trying to avoid Kenny G on my old radio station.

See, I'm not fond of any opening sequences that include actors' headshots, simply because soap casts are so fluid, and it's almost impossible to update openings fast enough in order to keep up with the changes.  You'll often see cast members on openings weeks after their characters have left or been killed off - and I hate that.  I really, really, REALLY hate that.

My all-time favorite soap openings - AMC's 1st opening, GH's "Autumn Breeze" opening, OLTL's openings in the '70's and early '80's, EON's first two openings, "As the World Turns On and On," DAYS - kept it brief and to the point: the theme song, the title, maybe an object (a family album, a spinning globe, an hourglass) that evoked an emotional response of some kind, maybe a little narration (as in DAYS' case), and that's it.  The only exception would be Y&R's openings, and that's because Y&R's cast, for the most part, was pretty stable throughout most of the Bill Bell era.

Edited January 3Jan 3 by Khan

6 minutes ago, Khan said:

See, I'm not fond of any opening sequences that include actors' headshots, simply because soap casts are so fluid, and it's almost impossible to update openings fast enough in order to keep up with the changes.  You'll often see cast members on openings weeks after their characters have left or been killed off - and I hate that.  I really, really, REALLY hate that.

My all-time favorite soap openings - AMC's 1st opening, GH's "Autumn Breeze" opening, OLTL's openings in the '70's and early '80's, EON's first two openings, "As the World Turns On and On," DAYS - kept it brief and to the point: the theme song, the title, maybe an object (a family album, a globe, an hourglass) that evoked an emotional response of some kind, maybe a little narration (as in DAYS' case), and that's it.  The only exception would be Y&R's openings, and that's because Y&R's cast, for the most part, was pretty stable throughout most of the Bill Bell era.

That does bug me at times. The one time it really worked for me was GL's early/mid '90s open. I just loved the design so much.

The same for the mid '80s GL.

To take this back to GH, I do think they managed to mostly keep photos updated compared to some shows, although I think they kept FOTH a few years too long. 

Edited January 3Jan 3 by DRW50

9 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

To take this back to GH, I do think they managed to mostly keep photos updated compared to some shows

They did. It was never difficult to update FOTH.

3 hours ago, carolineg said:

I think it looks cool even if I don't understand why the ambulance at the end is about to run someone down.

That's actually a scene taken from the first episode of Night Shift where the paramedics were affected by a gas leak in the ambulance and they had a Jane Doe in the back who was continually teased as Brenda - she was badly burned after someone lit a cigarette and blew up the ambulance

https://youtu.be/gVzcMzf6M0M?si=mg2zASgs4sLgIN2-&t=206

12 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

I've always had mixed feelings about Faces of the Heart. I think it's a lovely opening for the era it debuted in, and I think it has held up better than some of the period [...] but it starts to seem very jarring once we get to the Guza years. The show was absolute misery so when they'd cut to smiling faces and that breezy Dave Koz theme, I would be reminded of how increasingly fake the Riche years felt. 

ICAM!!

If anything, even the "Autumn Breeze" opening would've been too long in an era when shows like "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives" would just cut to a title card and then to commercial.  In that case, all GH would've needed to do is fade to the ambulance passing the hospital as the title comes up onscreen.  You wouldn't even need an official theme, as you could have played out the sting from the teaser instead.

And you're absolutely right about the FOTH close.  It's so "smooth jazz," which any jazz purist would tell you is not real jazz, but jazzy elevator music.

14 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

The one time it really worked for me was GL's early/mid '90s open. I just loved the design so much.

Because it's a new year, and because I'm an Okie, and because Okies never mince words about anything, even when they're dead wrong, I'm going to admit something for the first time: I hated the "Hold on to Love" opening.  Hated it with a passion.  I thought the visuals were too messy, and the theme song sounded like something John Williams would've cooked up for one of George Lucas or Steven Spielberg's films.  I was so glad when they finally retired it, even though the "Life Savers" opening, the "True Light" opening and the 12 different openings during the Ellen Wheeler era were awful in their own ways.

IMO, the only GL opening that worked even a little bit was "Ritournelle."  And even that opening suffered from all the [!@#$%^&*] dead leaves being blurred on purpose in the shot!

7 minutes ago, Dion said:

That's actually a scene taken from the first episode of Night Shift where the paramedics were affected by a gas leak in the ambulance and they had a Jane Doe in the back who was continually teased as Brenda - she was badly burned after someone lit a cigarette and blew up the ambulance

https://youtu.be/gVzcMzf6M0M?si=mg2zASgs4sLgIN2-&t=206

Yeah, I recall that whole story on NS.  The woman had the same tattoo and was really interested in what Jason was doing.  I wonder where they were going with that.  I think Las Vegas was still airing so I don't imagine Vanessa was interested in anything more than a cameo.  So I would assume they were testing the idea of a recast with the major burns and all.

I don't think they were ever serious about a Brenda recast. I think they were, by modern parlance, 'trolling for engagement' from the idea and maybe chumming the waters seeing if they could lure Vanessa back with an offer re: the spinoff.

44 minutes ago, Khan said:

IMO, the only GL opening that worked even a little bit was "Ritournelle."  And even that opening suffered from all the [!@#$%^&*] dead leaves being blurred on purpose in the shot!

I like the dead leaves. It's moody! You're wrong about that Koz groove too!

I figure the Brenda hints were just ways to try to get viewers interested in Night Shift.

They look nothing alike, but somehow, young Franko got it into his head that Stephen Kay (Reginald) was Dave Koz (FOTH composer). I was not the brightest of children.

43 minutes ago, Vee said:

I like the dead leaves. It's moody! You're wrong about that Koz groove too!

So that's what we're calling 8mm stock footage shot on somebody's busted camera?  Moodiness?  Okay.   

And I will never, ever, EVER be here for smooth jazz!

30 minutes ago, Franko said:

They look nothing alike, but somehow, young Franko got it into his head that Stephen Kay (Reginald) was Dave Koz (FOTH composer).

I miss Stephen Kay.  (Shut up, Vee!)

44 minutes ago, Vee said:

I don't think they were ever serious about a Brenda recast. I think they were, by modern parlance, 'trolling for engagement' from the idea and maybe chumming the waters seeing if they could lure Vanessa back with an offer re: the spinoff.

 

40 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

I figure the Brenda hints were just ways to try to get viewers interested in Night Shift.

Oh, yeah.  Probably looking to hype up NS. It was used in their promos, but it wasn't really much of a story.  I don't think a spin off on Soapnet would lure Vanessa back in 2007/8 lol.  She's not ASJ lol.  

I don't think it was serious, but paved the way to explain a recast if that need ever became a true priority for the main show and GH couldn't get Vanessa back.  I know it be the very last resort for Guza though.

It's been so long since I've seen Night Shift, but I think they left that character in a cliffhanger.  She was never spoken of again though.  Season 2 ignored that completely.

14 hours ago, carolineg said:

It's been so long since I've seen Night Shift, but I think they left that character in a cliffhanger.  She was never spoken of again though.  Season 2 ignored that completely.

The second season was definitely a reboot of Night Shift, in terms of casting and story.