Saturday, March 9 1991

Blue-collar characters are at the fore of 'GH' by Connie Passalacqua

Based on just the three or four weeks of "General Hospital* scripts we've seen air since the return of executive producer Gloria Monty to "GH," she looks to be sparking a second soap revolution. First, let's chart the cast changes Monty has made. As you now know. Tony Geary's new character (Luke Spencer's cousin) is named Bill Eckert. He has been away from Port Charles as a merchant seaman for seven years. Around Bill. Monty has built a German and Italian blue-collar family. His mother, bakery owner Angela Eckert. is played by Carol Lawrence, who first came to fame in Broadway's "West Side Story." Also in the family are Bill's son Sly. played by 7-year-old Glenn Walker Harris Jr. and Bill's grown sister Jenny, played by newcomer Cheryl Richardson. By the way, the Eckerts have supposedly resided in Port Charles for years: they've just been living off-screen. Only on soaps!

Monty loves character actors, and Geary plays well off them. (Remember cabdriver Slick Jones, played by Eddie. Ryder?) Also joining "GH* under Monty's regime is a hunky younger brother for Robert Scorpio (Tristan Rogers) named Mac. Playing Mac is John J. York, a non-Australian actor who played the title role in the Fox series "werewolf." Why do we call this a second soap revolution? Well, even before the above people began to air, "GH" scripts began to change radically. These scripts began to include both non-soap reality and sitcom-like humor. Two weeks ago. we hailed the episode in which the casually deadpan Frisco (Jack Wagner) played a hilarious Mr. Mom to some day-care center kids. Telling Anna Lavery (Fiona Hughes) about it, Frisco's wife Felicia (Kristina Milandro) cracked: "Yon should have seen Frisco! He looked like Donna Reed in drag." This is Felicia, who normally is daytime's Barbie Doll? Even those scenes disposing of characters leaving town to make room for the new Eckert bunch were radically different. Normally compassionate psychiatrist Tom Hardy Jr. (David Wallace) told off a bored, suburban matron: "There's nothing wrong with you that can't be cored by getting a job." be said. "I'm sick of rich people." So, apparently, is Monty, as proven by the creation of the above blue-collar family. Wealthy white-collar characters who overpopulate the soap world should take cover, there are big changes ahead!

5 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

So, apparently, is Monty, as proven by the creation of the above blue-collar family. Wealthy white-collar characters who overpopulate the soap world should take cover, there are big changes ahead!

Thanks for posting this!

I have said it many times before in this thread. She had the right instincts, she just didn’t execute it well. Stronger writing, and playing off the wealth of the Quartermaines within the commentary of the new non wealthy characters would have probably given her more success, or at least more time to get there.

I know there are folks that liked Bill, but for me Geary on GH as anyone but Luke was just not going to be accepted by the existing audience.

Riche, especially with Levinson and Labine, did what Monty tried to do, but it took her time too. And instead of telling the Quartermaine actors their time was over, she embraced using them effectively, and had stories like the incinerator project showing ELQ taking advantage of the economically challenged part of town. That was more effective than what Monty was doing.

Even with stronger writing, I don’t know that GH would have gotten to where Riche went under Gloria Monty though.

On 10/19/2026 at 4:24 AM, MrEdge80s said:

Again I think I mentioned this before--- but the doctors that released Grant Putnam from the asylum in 1987 after he committed two known murders as well as other criminal activities, they should have been brought up on charges and disbarred. But hey it's a soap after all at least that's what they tell me!

Ah, the Anna/Grant story! This was really my first big introduction to US daytime soaps. GH aired for a few years here in the early 1990s, and this was the story that hooked me. It's great to finally see the pivotal episode where Grant kidnaps Anna. I missed that one all those years ago.

It's odd that in the 1980s and beyond that the soap was called General Hospital.. but the majority of characters weren't connected to the hospital whatsoever.

The scene here with Anna and Grant reminds me of a scene a few years later in 1990 when Anna was on the run with Casey the space alien and she had to shower and Casey the alien was fascinated by her body much to her embarrassment. LOL. Who would have thought space aliens that exist in Port Charles world would have such great eye for beauty.

Hilarious segment here as Alan is out to lunch with the older folks Dan and Steve and Edward and the talk about the good OLD DAYS makes Alan dream they all look like old fogey's!!

Edited 5 hours ago5 hr by MrEdge80s

March 4 to March 7 1985 all have extremely poor audio due to the person that taped them had a bad audio head on their vcr. I want to give special thanks to a regular viewer on my GH youtube page Gabriel Stern as I sent him a few of these episodes and he was able to work his magic and digitally restore the poor audio to make it more easier for us to all hear. Gabriel restored all the non Robert and Holly footage here on this particular show. The Robert and Holly footage seen in this one was mine and I edited into this show from my special Tristan Rogers edit only fan tapes that I have had for years. Those clips also helped to restore this show . Enjoy the newly restored episode for the first time ever! You won't hear or find a better copy of this excellent episode anywhere on Youtube!