29 minutes ago, carolineg said:

I can't really picture Robert/Anna in Riche/Labine's GH.  It definitely would have changed Robin's trajectory which I think was perfect at the time.

Sri Rao proved Tristan was capable of playing a more grounded Robert. But we had a break between super cop/spy Robert and older more pensive Robert. I just don’t see it being sustained by Labine. Especially with Luke and Laura back.

Which brings me to Laura. I wonder if Monty had cast a different actor as Bill and had lured Tony and Genie back, would the audience have stayed while she reshaped the rest of the show? Genie has said they tried to get her back for a couple of years before she finally agreed.

Edited September 23Sep 23 by titan1978

58 minutes ago, titan1978 said:

Which brings me to Laura. I wonder if Monty had cast a different actor as Bill and had lured Tony and Genie back, would the audience have stayed while she reshaped the rest of the show? Genie has said they tried to get her back for a couple of years before she finally agreed.

Idk.  I think Tony was the main inspiration for the entire Eckert family so it's hard to say if they would have been viable with random casting.

I think a Luke/Laura return would have bumped up the interest in the audience enough for Monty to stay on for a few more years.  I still think she was very out of touch with what 90's audiences wanted, but JER did make that sorta camp work on Days.  It's an interesting discussion.

4 hours ago, Vee said:

The irony lies in Monty apparently thinking Eastenders from the UK was the wave of the future, and modeling the working-class Eckert influx around that. She wasn't really wrong about EE, but her approach and execution were way off.

Monty's attempt at EastEnders boiled down to everyone naming their ethnicity. The Eckerts were German. Angela and Joey were Italian. The Spencers were Irish. Everyone's favorite Connor Olivera (Michael Lynch) was Mexican-Scottish. If the characters had been richer in characterization, it would have worked. 

She really did see what had been coming down the pike with a more grounded reality needed for soaps as the 1990s came around, though I also have an unhealthy curiousity about how she would have produced a show in the post- JER/possession era. 

2 hours ago, titan1978 said:

I think by all accounts she drank her own kool-aid by this point. What she accomplished during her first run was remarkable. I do think Riche came onto a troubled production but the tone of the show was closer to what she was going to do than it would have been before Monty’s attempts. If Monty had invested in strong writers she would have been more successful. In my opinion the two strongest periods of her GH were the ones with strong writing- Marland/PFS, and then again when PFS returned for a second run. It is beyond messy between them, held together by strong casting, umbrella action/thriller stories, and romance.

I have said this before, and I know Wendy went to both of them and tried to get them to stay/come back, but I really cannot imagine Robert and Anna being a great fit with Riche’s tenure in the beginning. Robert especially.

Luke and Laura works because while they went off into flights of fancy, they were both very grounded characters at their core thanks to Marland and PFS. Focusing their return as being on the run with Lucky, but it was the mob again and not some supervillain, really worked well overall.

Monty went through so many co-writers with her sister. You had Norma Monty, Gene Palumbo, John Whepley, then you had Monty and Whepley, then you had Monty and Arthur Bernard Lewis, and then you finally had Monty and Linda Grover. 

Robert and Anna's departure reduced the cop shop element. Riche didn't keep Guy Lewis around or Remi, the female cop who basically replaced Sam Welles. I'm not sure if you could have had all those cops on the canvas without increasing the criminal element a little bit. I could see Anna / Robert fitting better into Labine's world than in Levinson's. Though in watching some May, 1992, episodes I see Anne Howard Bailey listed as a consultant (and John Porterfield and Linda Schreyer listed as storyline consultants) so maybe Howard Bailey could have made that work, but probably not well. 

2 hours ago, titan1978 said:

Sri Rao proved Tristan was capable of playing a more grounded Robert. But we had a break between super cop/spy Robert and older more pensive Robert. I just don’t see it being sustained by Labine. Especially with Luke and Laura back.

Which brings me to Laura. I wonder if Monty had cast a different actor as Bill and had lured Tony and Genie back, would the audience have stayed while she reshaped the rest of the show? Genie has said they tried to get her back for a couple of years before she finally agreed.

I think others have suggested that Robert could have worked as Luke's voice of reason or an antagonist in the relationship between Luke and Sonny. I do think there was something to explore there, and a part of me would want to know if Anna and Robert could have survived as a couple Stone and Robin's HIV diagnoses. 

I think viewers would have stayed if any of the stories had been maintained prior to the boating accident. You cannot drop every single story at the same time and keep the audience.  

59 minutes ago, carolineg said:

Idk.  I think Tony was the main inspiration for the entire Eckert family so it's hard to say if they would have been viable with random casting.

I think a Luke/Laura return would have bumped up the interest in the audience enough for Monty to stay on for a few more years.  I still think she was very out of touch with what 90's audiences wanted, but JER did make that sorta camp work on Days.  It's an interesting discussion.

The Eckerts were more than likely developed for the soap that Monty was shopping to ABC in 1990 set in Portland. She was trying to develop a film studio in Oregon in order to produce the show as well as some of her other projects. Maybe she was hoping she could land Geary to star in that. 

I found early Monty 2.0 fairly dull after the initial disaster story, which wasn't even something I was that enthralled with. There was some fun comedy bits with Mac and his community service work, but so much just faded into the woodwork for me. Monty just takes such a wide swing from that to telling the story with Cartel and them getting people sick that it's very much about whiplash. By the tailend of Monty 2.0, the show is better, but nothing to write home about. Even Riche's early plotless months are more engaging to me, though I'm not sure that was the view of the public at large based on the ratings. 

Edited September 23Sep 23 by dc11786

12 hours ago, dc11786 said:

The Eckerts were more than likely developed for the soap that Monty was shopping to ABC in 1990 set in Portland. She was trying to develop a film studio in Oregon in order to produce the show as well as some of her other projects. Maybe she was hoping she could land Geary to star in that. 

I found early Monty 2.0 fairly dull after the initial disaster story, which wasn't even something I was that enthralled with. There was some fun comedy bits with Mac and his community service work, but so much just faded into the woodwork for me. Monty just takes such a wide swing from that to telling the story with Cartel and them getting people sick that it's very much about whiplash. By the tailend of Monty 2.0, the show is better, but nothing to write home about. Even Riche's early plotless months are more engaging to me, though I'm not sure that was the view of the public at large based on the ratings. 

Interesting tidbit about Monty/The Eckerts.  I didn't know she was trying to develop a studio in Oregon.

I found the Cartel story too complicated.  Aside from what I'd mostly consider B players being involved, it had a lot of extraneous details that made it confusing yet boring. 

I obviously didn't watch early Riche in real time, but I do find her early months engaging as well.  I don't know if that's because I know what's to come.  To me it feels like she's tying up loose ends and repositioning the canvas to her vision.  I suppose it could be considered dull day to day though.

On 8/17/2021 at 1:30 AM, FrenchFan said:

1975/1976 was a very troubled time for GH which had only know the Hursleys and the Dobsons as head writers. When the Dobsons left for "The Guiding Light" in June 1975, Richard and Suzanne Holland were brought to the show. They wanted to make the show their own and fired many cast members: Victoria Shaw (Kira Faulkner) left in July, Shelby Hyatt (Jane Dawson) in August, Peter Kilman (Henry Pinkham), Rod McCary (Joel Stratton) andJudith MacConnell (Augusta McLeod) in September.

The Hollands tried to make their own characters work. They introduced in August Augusta Dabney and Ted Eccles (Caroline Chandler and her son Bobby). Marla Pennington joined the same month as Nurse Samantha Livingstone, Bobby's love-interest. Even if they paired Caroline with long-running character Lee Baldwin, the characters were a failure.

@FrenchFan No offense, but this article basically indicates that it was Kimberly Beck, not Marla Pennington, who initially played Samantha Livingstone on GH in 1975.  However, it's my understanding that Pennington did replace Beck somewhere down the line.  I don't know Beck's reason(s) for leaving the show.  Yes, I am aware that Pennington was let go along with a bunch of other GH cast members (including future Hill Street Blues regular James Sikking) in early 1976.  The 1975-76 period may have been a particularly rough one for GH, but I still find it unfortunate that most (if not all) of the GH episodes from that period have been "wiped."  *sigh*

Edited September 24Sep 24 by FlyRightOrchestraGuy

Gloria Monty forgot that while she made massive changes to General Hospital when she arrived in 1978, and introduced several new characters, the established stuff didn’t disappear overnight. We still had the buildup to revealing Jeff was Steve’s son, Anne living with Audrey. Lesley’s troubled daughter ended up with Laura killing David Hamilton and Lesley taking the fall for it. Peter and Diana Taylor were still in story. Jesse was not a major player, but she still had stuff to do. Nurse Bobbie was being trained by Jessie, and they tied the Quartermaines to Monica and the hospital. She insisted on a quicker pace and more drama, but the show wasn’t unrecognizable.

Had she done more of that slow integration maybe she would have found some success.

One of the things that Riche also did was we still saw the wealth and influence of the Quartermaines. But we also developed the part of town that Laura’s house was located, introduced the Ward family, and the inherent class struggles between them was highlighted, especially with the incinerator project story. Felicia and Mac had jobs at The Outback. Everybody wasn’t well to do. Jagger lived above Kelly’s. It was more realistic.

Guza was uncredited but very involved in setting up the show story structure in 1996, and at the end of 1997 when he came back. Especially in 1997, the shift was noticeable because the writing had been rough before it. He set everything up so that when his first credited episode aired, it wasn’t jarring even though a lot happened that week. Had Monty built the bridge between the outgoing team and her creative vision, things would have been different.

On 9/23/2025 at 2:25 AM, vetsoapfan said:

Yes, that's how I remember it (I watched GH during its dark years in the 1970s), but I just wanted to acknowledge that another source contradicted my memory.

Not to sound too arrogant, LOL, but when reference material contradicts what I watched first-hand and/or recorded at the time, I trust myself over sources which repeatedly prove themselves to be in the wrong about their information. (Exhibit A: SoapCentral.🙄)

I read that in March 1976, Steve made all the arrangements for Bobby and his wife Sammi, who was pregnant, to go to NY for extensive chemotherapy tratments. Lee planned to take his wife to NY also so the family could all be together at this important time in their life.

55 minutes ago, MissPalmer said:

I read that in March 1976, Steve made all the arrangements for Bobby and his wife Sammi, who was pregnant, to go to NY for extensive chemotherapy tratments. Lee planned to take his wife to NY also so the family could all be together at this important time in their life.

That's how I remember it. I don't know where some "soap history" encyclopedia books culled the information that Samantha remained in Port Charles for several more years. Probably one author made the original blunder, and then others just copied it verbatim.

On 9/23/2025 at 3:27 PM, Vee said:

The irony lies in Monty apparently thinking Eastenders from the UK was the wave of the future, and modeling the working-class Eckert influx around that. She wasn't really wrong about EE, but her approach and execution were way off.

What Monty didn't seem to get was the stories and characters which made early EE take off. The early episodes focused on atmosphere, grittiness and reality, but the lower-end razzle-dazzle of Angie and Den captivated many. The show leaned into that while still presenting the stories with tragedy and honesty. 

Introducing a dull family and their bakery while dumping or downgrading a ton of the cast wasn't going to have the same effect, class issue buzzwords or not. 

I haven't watched much of the short-lived Monty 2.0 era, but I was intrigued by your posts and found some coverage from Entertainment Weekly in July 1991 saying that the year had been a "bloodbath" in which Monty fired "a dozen" actors. I don't think this number included Finola Hughes or Tristan Rogers, who left at the very end of 1991 and early 1992.

So does anyone know who else was fired? All I can figure out is that Jack Wagner left and the actress playing Dawn was fired. But who else was part of this "bloodbath", or is the number of firings being exaggerated?  

Nah, she cut plenty. I can't name them all.

I just realized that she must have cut Decker, who I quite liked, and Colton (who was fine, but had probably run his course). Is there anyone else who got cut by Monty that seemed like a significant loss to you? Or did it seem like she actually was cutting some of the "dead wood" from the cast?

43 minutes ago, prefab1 said:

I haven't watched much of the short-lived Monty 2.0 era, but I was intrigued by your posts and found some coverage from Entertainment Weekly in July 1991 saying that the year had been a "bloodbath" in which Monty fired "a dozen" actors. I don't think this number included Finola Hughes or Tristan Rogers, who left at the very end of 1991 and early 1992.

So does anyone know who else was fired? All I can figure out is that Jack Wagner left and the actress playing Dawn was fired. But who else was part of this "bloodbath", or is the number of firings being exaggerated?  

I am not sure of everyone but I think she also cut Larry, Charlene, and Colton. And Edge, although I guess he was never long-term, I don't know.

Did she write Cheryl out or was Cheryl already gone by then?

(I know she comes back to die under Riche)

The great casting shakeup happened in three waves over the course of 1991-92. Commentary on it starts here.

On 9/24/2025 at 11:37 AM, MissPalmer said:

I read that in March 1976, Steve made all the arrangements for Bobby and his wife Sammi, who was pregnant, to go to NY for extensive chemotherapy tratments. Lee planned to take his wife to NY also so the family could all be together at this important time in their life.

@FrenchFan @MissPalmer Which actress was hired to play Samantha Livingstone first:  Kimberly Beck or Marla Pennington?  How long was Ms. Beck with General Hospital?  Was Kimberly Beck just a temporary replacement for Marla Pennington?  Did Ms. Beck even have a contract with GH?