GH: Classic Thread

[Contessa Donatella]

When you think about this, it is maddening! GH essentially stole DA from DAYS by offering so much money that it couldn't be turned down. At that time she was said to be the highest paid person in daytime. At DAYS she not only had a character but one with a backstory, family, a future, etc.

We know at least that Bill Bell didn't think that. He valued Lee & considered them to be a partnership. He looked at her as his equal.

Agnes Nixon & her husband Bob didn't treat each other as problems to be solved. 

Clearly the Cordays were equals also. 

Irna, of course never married.

 

Edited 4 hours ago by Contessa Donatella

[DRW50]

Sadly, in some ways, they were "right" in that Audrey and Steve never had major story again after they married, although part of that is probably down to aging out of a central narrative. At least efforts were made to keep them with more of a focus than Lee or Jessie got. 

This is still a common view now, to the point where one soap I watch (Home & Away) only has characters have children if they are about to leave the show. 

It's amazing that Lesley did manage to connect with viewers, unlike many high-priced poachings from other networks (one of them being Gerald Gordon a few years later). They seemed very close to bungling the whole thing. I know the main reason given is the Laura story. I wonder how much is also down to Michael Gregory. They have such a natural connection which I don't think she has with Chris Robinson. 

Watching the individual episodes is worthwhile, but I'm not sure how I would have felt watching GH in the '60s or early '70s knowing the characters could never progress and would just have to relive the same traumas again and again, only stopping along the way for another dead baby. 

Maybe that's where the patient stories served as a palate cleanser for viewers.

Edited 4 hours ago by DRW50

[titan1978]

Until the Jeff is Steve’s son story, which also ends as soon as Jeff is gone in 1981. Then they languish until they decide to age up Tom and pair him with Simone. IMO one of the places where Wes Kenney did right by the show was bringing that focus back. Audrey had a couple of years in the mid 80’s where she barely appeared. IIRC, Ames was taken off contract or didn’t renew and complained publicly about Steve and Audrey having nothing.

Lee actually fares better with a return of his alcoholism story, and his handwringing over messy Scotty post 1981. He even has to lose to Luke for Mayor.

Lesley seems to take off once they start the Laura story, before we get to the Vinnings. A testament to Denise Alexander and her fans I am sure.

Edited 2 hours ago by titan1978

[DRW50]

This isn't directly GH related, but I was looking around Youtube and see that last year someone put up a 1949 episode of the Herb Shriner Show they'd managed to piece together from a rough tape. This was Herb's first TV show. Herb was the father to three kids, one of them being Kin. I wonder if he knows about this video.

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Edited 1 hour ago by DRW50

[Khan]

Even Joe and Rhoda faced this same dilemma back in the '70's.  In their case, however, it wasn't so much that they weren't as interesting anymore as it was that the producers' hands were tied by Standards and Practices over what kinds of stories they could write for a modern, married couple, especially on a half-hour series that aired during the so-called "family hour." 

So, what happens?  Joe and Rhoda get divorced, and "Rhoda" almost immediately goes down the tubes, as the show now has no premise upon which to hook their stories.

Anyways.  That's one reason why writers hold off on marrying off their characters for as long as possible.

Edited 1 hour ago by Khan