GH: Discussion for the Month of March

[AllMyDaysatGH]

Caught up on last weeks GH. A true struggle

Carly: "You can't make up your mind between a snobby bitch w/a fake name and a piece of trash"

RIGHT. ON!!

[MissLlanviewPA]

You are wounding my soul there, Selena. That song is GLORIOUS!

I will say this, though: it was retired at the right time. In fact, it may have been a few years overdue, given how dated that opening must have looked by 1993.

[Ryan Chamberlain]

Probably very dated.

[MissLlanviewPA]

I seem to remember reading that Gloria Monty, during her second GH stint in 1991-1992, said she wanted to keep AB as the theme forever, because of the tradition that it represented for the show. I can definitely understand where she was coming from, but clearly Wendy Riche disagreed, as FOTH debuted about a year after she became EP.

[Ryan Chamberlain]

Riche made the right desicion

[alexisfan07]

I was reading a little bit about Gloria Monty in the PEOPLE Magazine special. Can anyone elaborate on the major changes she made to the show that set it on its course to being as popular as it was? It sounded like adventure stories were the main thing she added. It also indicated she let go a lot of older cast members - is that true? Vets were let go or were they just dropped to recurring?

Side note but sort of related: when did Steve Hardy and Jessie Brewer stop being used as "major" players? Were they both on contract throughout their runs or when did they go recurring and how often were they used? Thanks guys.

[Ryan Chamberlain]

Steve was still involved in major storylines in the early/mid 90s.

[MrQuartermaine]

When Gloria took over, the cast was relatively small. She expanded it by adding some of the most popular characters in GH history such as Luke, the Quartermaines, & the Scorpios. The only veteran that really saw the axe due to Monty was Lucille Wall, who had suffered several strokes and was basically a vegetable. She made a final appearance a couple years before her death and it was very sad.

Beradino remained on contract until his death in 1996. He appeared regularly even while dying of pancreatic cancer. His final scene, which he shared with Sarah Brown, Leslie Charleson, Anne Jeffreys, Shell Kepler, & Brad Maule, aired just weeks before he died.

Emily McLaughlin on the other hand had many serious health problems for most of the 80s and nearly died on several occasions. At one point, the role of Jessie was even recast with Aneta Corsaut. Her appearances were so infrequent, many believed she was on recurring, but in fact retained second billing after Beradino until she died. McLaughlin too made one last appearance weeks before she died of cancer. She shared it with Rachel Ames, Beradino, Charleson, & Stuart Damon.

[dragonflies]

Someone mentioned Jessie Brewer, what ever happened to her?

[Cheap21]

she died

[alexisfan07]

Thanks for that information. Thanks to our very own rockstar Addie, I just saw some clips of Jessie for the first time, one as late as 1987. I so wish I could go back and watch those early years.

Found this in my random YouTube-ing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=0QXdK5JSAYQ

[DRW50]

Behind the scenes, Gloria insisted on a much faster pace. She brought in a new editing team and scenes became quicker (not as quick as what rushes through today, quick for that era). She would snap her fingers and say, "Pick up the pace." She changed the lighting, as she was amazed that Jessie Brewer had the exact same lighting as young ingenues on the show. She also redid the sets, having characters say that the hospital was being rebuilt. She junked a week or several weeks of already completed episodes as soon as she arrived, horrifying the suits, but she just didn't want to use any of that material. This is all from Chris Schemering's Soap Opera Encyclopedia.

Steve, Audrey, Jessie, Lee, and Gail did have less and less airtime (with Monty writing Lee and Gail out entirely around 1984 or 1985), although, as mentioned already, Emily McLaughlin was ill (the first time she almost died was in 1975 or 1976, which is when Aneta came in. By the time Gloria arrived Jessie had already stopped being a major character, with a lot of her long-suffering type stories being passed down to Diana Taylor. I think her last major story was the one where a con artist, Teddy Holmes, got involved with her niece, and was conning Jessie (this story became famous later mostly because Mark Hamill played her nephew).

saynotoursoap and romabriere, among others, also have some clips; if you want to see the earliest, MST3K played some of their episodes, one or two of them, to make fun of them.

[VirginiaHamilton]

The first of many...

Count me among those who think of Dave Koz's FOTH (1993-2004) as the best GH theme song.

[Marco Dane]

It's Memory Lane Monday, GH fans!

Who remembers when PCPD's Burt Ramsey turned out to be notorious mobster "Mr. Big?"

[OldGHFan]

Oh I loved Burt. I was sad when they made him Mr. Big - although it was a good story.