GH 50: Discussion for the Month of April - May 3, 2013

[Eric83]

Agreed. It's not that serious. Some get worked up over the most petty, miniscule and irrelevant things.

[Cheap21]

Not really. They used a wide range of clips. Someone had to edit all that into the special. That stuff took time. Whether it came from YT or the vaults, doesn't change that.I wasn't debating whether the relish avenue is a lucrative business venture or now. I simply stated that Tracy has more means to market her product than a local redneck

[Eric83]

Huh? I am not getting what you're saying pickle relish is a common condiment like ketchup and mustard. When has anyone went "wild" over any condiment?

[Marco Dane]

abc still sucks in general....

[AllMyDaysatGH]

Catching up on GH...Mr. Marbles Seriously, what a TERRIFYING mug. Throw it in the garbage Mac. Why is he talking crap about Frisco through a puppet anyway?!

Brenda: "THAT. WOMAN. Has to make everyones life as miserable as hers" LMAO at the hand motion Brenda made when she said "That Woman" (Glad that lines back )

"What That Girl wants is to split us up"

[jcar03]

Most of the clips shown where from episodes shown during the SoapNet marathon. I am pretty sure the blurred out in the corner is the SoapNet 50th Anniversary countdown tag in the corner not LoriJo SMALL little tag. I would also think that this was edited and finished before the marathon aired and the clips provided were already tagged for use during the marathon.

[carolineg]

I personally preferred when she called her a miserable skank and enormous bitch. She was being feisty for sure.

Is the 20/20 special worth watching? I forgot to DVR it, but maybe I will catch it on you tube. Were MB and VM interviewed or just MB?

[Mr. Vixen]

You should check it out, it was great. MB was interviewed but VM was not.

[Vee]

The more they keep rerunning this marathon, the more the deficiencies in not only the current show but the one Guza put on which massacred the core of the history show through. Which puts me back on my soapbox for no good reason.

Take Carly. I am still working through my DVR backlog of the marathon and finally got to the episode where Carly drugs A.J. and pours liquor on him, which I haven't seen in years and years - until now. People often reference that incident as the worst thing she ever did, etc etc. and why they can never see A.J. getting back with her but what I think is forgotten is how wrecked Sarah Brown's Carly was during that whole thing, sobbing, guilt-stricken and giving a soliloquy to him about their broken childhoods and her irrational, delusional belief that she can make something better for her baby with Tony Jones. That is something Sarah could do that no other Carly could, really plumb the contradictory depths of that character, and that is why while TB and Laura Wright are sometimes good place-fillers, sometimes not so good, Sarah is still desperately needed back.

If it was me, and I was to pair A.J. and SB's Carly - which I would, after playing a triangle with Liz for a few years and giving A.J. and Liz a real shot, because I think A.J. and Liz are lovely together - the first thing I would do is show that scene where she douses him with liquor and gives that speech in full, as a flashback. People need to see it and see the show be honest about it, about her, which fans often complain that GH has not been, but they also need to see how broken she was a person, not just laughing and enjoying hurting him, which came later, unfortunately. But I think the essence of that character is what is seen in that episode, a woman crying and shaking in the dark, looking out a window at the terrible thing she has done.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

It's strange that such a pivotal and on-going moment (Michael's conception/AJ/Carly) happened during a very strange HW regime and time for GH - that brief moment when Janet Iacobuzio & Christopher Whitesell were HW's in between Richard Culliton and Guza's second stint.

While Guza may have come to define the character, initially, Carly (the character) was created by committee. Claire Labine apparently left the character behind in outlines before she departed in '96, Guza & Karen Harris introduced her, Guza left a few months after she was introduced to HW Sunset Beach, Richard Culliton was HW for most of her first year, and Patrick Mulcahey, Elizabeth Korte, and Michele Val Jean all apparently had a huge hand in creating her characteristics and background.

I think Brown's Carly had the best writing, but I also think it was perfect casting for the way the character was intended to be. I can't see either Tamara Braun or Larua Wright playing most of the material Brown played for the majority of her 5 year run as Carly. It's almost a completely different character now.

[jfung79]

Richard Culliton was head writer then, I think. I'm not sure, what date is the episode? It could have been the transition period. It's stuff like this that made me a Richard Culliton fan for life. Yes there were apparently a number of cooks who contributed to the Carly pot in her first year, but it all gelled together, and Sarah Brown really was great at bringing out her vulnerability even as she was doing all these horrible things. I think a great decision Culliton made too was for Carly not to tell Bobbie she was her daughter for the entire time he was writing the show, although there were fakeouts. It meant we really got to see what made Carly who she was. Dragging it out really worked.

[Vee]

It really is (and I know that episode was Culliton or rather the transition team, but I suspect Mulcahey, etc. had a lot to do with those scenes). And I think both Tamara and Laura have done some good work in the part - especially Tamara - but I think it is so compromised by the way Guza and co. mutilated their own character in the last twelve or so years. Sometimes I wonder if part of the reason GH never brought her back as Carly is because they knew Sarah had too much control over the character's development vs. simply turning her into a shrill moll for Sonny. Granted, Sarah also asked to play someone different last time, and she did wholeheartedly support S&C back in the day. But the Sonny and Carly of 2000 is also something very different, IMO. I adored them as a teenager, for as crooked as the show was already becoming (something particularly pronounced in the marathon, watching the focus shift from 1993-1996 and then hitting 1997, 1998, 1999 - it was still a good show but the core was becoming dysfunctional). It was a pairing which went from shocking and repulsive to hot as hell overnight. I thought they were GH's last supercouple. It's over now, of course - you could never put them back together if you cared about her character, after everything since then, and I cheered for Braun's Carly with Alcazar. But for a brief moment I loved them, I admit it.

Can anyone tell me if Guza originated the Stefan/Bobbie pairing? I was under the impression he had, and I'd loved them together as a kid because I loved Bobbie.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

The original air date was August 18,1997, and Janet Iacobuzio & Christopher Whitesell were Co-HW's between May and December of 1997, before Guza came back for round #2 as HW.

[Vee]

That reminds me, WEHT Miranda? Man, she was boring.

[jfung79]

Probably was Guza. I remember people were pissed since Culiton and Wendy Riche broke them up to put Stefan with Katherine Bell because of the actors' DAYS supercouple history. I did like Stefan/Bobbie -- breaking them up didn't really come from the characters and was a mistake, one of the few I'll ever concede Richard Culliton making on any show.

Also, I agree, August 1997 would have been during the Iacobuzio/Whitesell transition period. How would you do flashbacks to it though? AJ is played by Billy Warlock in that scene, right?