Members DRW50 Posted June 1, 2013 Members Share Posted June 1, 2013 I knew people were going to make this about Ron and Frank. Some of us despised everything about Guza's writing, but were choosing to stay out of this thread because it was for fans of his work. I think Ron and Guza are both misogynist hacks who hate soap operas and only care about press hype. One doesn't cancel out the other. I also don't believe that anything Guza did in his second run was different than his first. His first run was Jason worship, sneering at the Quartermaines, and writing Luke and his whiny little turd of a son as woman-hating jerks. The only difference was that Wendy Riche held him somewhat in check. The best thing I can say about his run was SJB as Carly, although frankly that was in spite of Guza's writing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Cat Posted June 1, 2013 Members Share Posted June 1, 2013 On paper, some of Guza's stuff about the insidiousness of mob life on relationships and people did sound interesting. I say this as a huge fan of The Godfather movies which to this day I find compelling to watch. I also give props to Guza for Click-Boom which was an amazing moment in soapy cliffhangers. But in practice, Guza's material was hokey, misogynistic, mean-spirited, self-aggrandizing nonsense. The deck was continuously stacked in favor of Sonny, Carly and Jason and against the rest of Port Charles (including a host of beloved characters). Guza seemed to take sadistic pleasure in those three yahoos besting Mac, the PC police department or the Qs and having poor John J. York or John Ingle mouth some humiliating deference to the four-foot mobster and his heel-lifts. I'm not even going to talk about the humiliating, violent, drawn-out deaths of characters he hated (AJ suffocated by his pre-teen son!) or the way he reduced Laura to a crazy freak who was cramping Luke's whore-carrousing style. The misogyny was truly vile, capped off by Carly disparaging every woman in town because, dontcha know, all women are bitches and Carly can only be friends with men because they are straight talkin' and honest. Then we have Sonny's infamous "kill the bitch" referring to Faith Roscoe whom he had earlier punched in the face, and his "bullet of love" while Carly was giving birth. Let's not forget that good little woman Sam waiting at home patiently for her heroic man Jason while he roamed PC shooting people he judged a menace. But he helps old ladies and loves children, folks! Let's not forget the self-involved Sweeps stunts and Emmy reels designed to prop up a few select actors. The soap press fawned over "best actor in the whole world EVER" Tony Geary and "method acting master" Maurice Benard, two men who slept-walked through all kinds of hokey, melodramatic set-ups. Remember Mo boohooing over Sam's lost baby Adela Lila? TG looking like he couldn't give two shits when he turned his toddler grandson into roadkill? Ron and Frank are no gift to the soap genre by any means, and I have tuned out of late due to the dire relish dispute, but at least they have made Sonny and Carly somewhat palatable members of an ensemble cast (and Maurice looks happier and more invested for it), brought back AJ as played by the chemistryful Sean Kanen, returned Tracy Quartermaine to the frontburner, and Anna is a heroic female police commissioner on the show. Like ANY of these things would have EVER happened under Guza's reign of terror. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Antoyne Posted June 1, 2013 Members Share Posted June 1, 2013 Did you really say Mo looks happier and invested? I've never been a fan of his, but I don't think I've EVER seen an actor as checked out as he is at this point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Cheap21 Posted June 1, 2013 Members Share Posted June 1, 2013 Id have to agree with this. I don't think he's particularly enjoyed ANY of the work he's been given since the new regime change last year. He literally is just showing up for the check. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Cat Posted June 1, 2013 Members Share Posted June 1, 2013 LOL, yes, you read right. I don't know, I guess it's because I can hear what he's saying now! There is rise and fall in his voice whereas before it was just incoherent mumbling. He seems happier and playing Sonny with a lighter touch over the past year. He blazed awake when VMG came back for that Nurse's Ball cameo. JMHO. But I wouldn't blame him if he has been phoning it in recently because anything involving notKate/Connie has been a disaster. Oh, one good thing Guza did -- introducing the character of Kate, and Megan Ward interpreted her masterfully. But then the writing started to tear her down, and when she was shot at her wedding to Sonny, all I remember were Olivia, Claudia and Carly laughing and snarking about the fact that she was at death's door. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Y&RWorldTurner Posted June 1, 2013 Members Share Posted June 1, 2013 Well, I watched religiously during that time, and the Sonny worship had already begun. They had already started with the "poor Sonny had a bad childhood" to excuse why he treated Brenda (and all women) like crap and why we, the audience, should love him despite being a criminal.These elements had already existed, Guza just kept them and furthered them along. Sonny was no more a pariah during that period than he is now. In fact, I would say he was a lot more romanticized back then. Who knows where Claire would have a taken that Jason story, but she put the wheels in motion for telling it in the first place. I'm not exonerating Guza from anything, but I do see people attributing things that were pre-existing on the show to him all the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members soapsnstuds Posted June 2, 2013 Members Share Posted June 2, 2013 Actually, weren't these couplings and story lines the ones that resulted in General Hospital succumbing to it's worst ratings ever in early 2009. I agree with the majority here that Bob Guza was semi-decent in the mid-late-1990's but wrote some extremely out-of-whack and disrespectful stuff with Charles Pratt, Jr. from 2002 and on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members VirginiaHamilton Posted June 3, 2013 Members Share Posted June 3, 2013 Quoted for truth and a lovely summation as to why the majority of Cartini haters are full of sh!t and have been since Day One. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Winchester91 Posted June 3, 2013 Members Share Posted June 3, 2013 Hmm, I hated what they did at OLTL after about October of '09 or so... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members cassadine1991 Posted June 3, 2013 Members Share Posted June 3, 2013 I think you are reaching.... not all "Cartini haters" were fans of Guza.. I really wanted Michael Malone to return so bad... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Winchester91 Posted June 3, 2013 Members Share Posted June 3, 2013 As long as Frons was demanding John McBain and FiFi to be the centerpieces of the show, no writer could've saved that mess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members cassadine1991 Posted June 3, 2013 Members Share Posted June 3, 2013 True.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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