GENERAL HOSPITAL February 2022 Discussion Thread

[AllMyDaysatGH]

 

Wow! Starting at 13:14, there is some really detailed & candid insight into how Maurice treated him when he first took over the Michael role. Says he was pissed when Drew Garrett was fired & he gave Chad the cold shoulder for months 

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 I remember that being such a big deal when the switch happened. Also I cannot believe this was over a decade ago & I was 16 yrs old. BYE!!!

[Soapsuds]

Drew Garrett is now 32. He has an old SID magazine with him on the cover uploaded to his Instagram account.

Same thing happened to Jacob Young when he took over the role of Lucky. Genie Francis gave him the cold shoulder and she bitched and complained about the recast with Tony Geary.

[titan1978]

DG was doing a good job as Michael too.  Jacob Young, not so much as Lucky.  Still not a great way to treat your co-workers.

[Vee]

IIRC neither Genie nor Tony wanted Lucky recast initially and drove a very hard bargain on that BTS. I have no idea how Jacob Young got through the casting process, other than Riche's power was waning and ABCD was changing a lot and likely was determined to not have another unconventional young male take the part over after Jonathan - they wanted a sellable soap hunk.

Jacob was terrible on the show. And he's developed as a performer since then, but he's never exactly been Laurence Olivier. He has learned how to ham it up and that's enough for the roles he plays.

[DRW50]

Imagine treating co-stars that way, especially a young man coming in to a high-pressure situation with little experience. Pathetic ego-driven behavior that would not be tolerated in most performers. 

I mostly remember Garrett doing a lot of hamming and being very overhyped by a dying soap press that was desperate for "finds" (Filler Miller, Garrett, dull Wilson Bethel, and I remember some attempts at hysteria over Nathan Parsons too).

[AbcNbc247]

Gee, imagine if Frank Valentini was EP at that time. What he would have done to placate Mo

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And I’m surprised that Genie Francis and Tony Geary treated Jacob Young like that, especially in Genie’s case since she was a recast herself. How would she have felt if Denise Alexander had treated her like that? 

[Vee]

Genie wasn't exactly replacing a beloved favorite with a major history in her role. I'm not condoning their behavior, but Jacob was among the worst possible choices.

As for Drew Garrett, that whole situation still seems suspect but I did really enjoy Chad's first several years in the role despite thinking DG was excellent. I think the writing has really screwed over Michael in recent years, and as a result the character needs a change and an edge and Chad has unfortunately become a bit of a joke. Personally I'd bring Garrett back if he was willing. But who knows what went down there.

[Nixor]

I never heard that Genie was actually mean to Jacob, from her or Jacob. She did famously say that she was against the recast because he lacked JJ’s charisma and he was wrong for the role. She was right on both counts. 

I will say Maurice is very willing to own up to his past bad behavior. He talked about similar things in his interview with Kim Mc too.  But interesting that Steve Burton was much kinder to Chad and helped him in those early days. Soap sets are such dramatic places. 

[YRfan23]

Sigh….these GH people are so arrogant…taking their frustrations out on the recasts….

 

say what you want about Y&R and Amelia Heinle but when Heather Tom left playing  Victoria you Never heard anything about MTS or even EB giving AH a hard time for replacing HT. They seemed to welcome her immediately. 

[John]

Or they just didnt pubically say they were aganist the recast

[DRW50]

If only Amelia had been as supportive of David Tom...

[John]

Also as for JJ I have read in many places that JJ and his reps thought Becky Herbst was gonna leave when her OG contract ended and JJ was gonna return and send Liz & Lucky off

 

Maybe when Becky renewed they decided Lucky was needed and recast?

Is she the reason his return "Failed"

[Darn]

I don't know what their relationship was like initially but MTS and AH affectionately call each other "mom" and "daughter". I think AH is a atrocious actress but that's sweet.

[Nixor]

I can see why the show thought Luke and Laura’s son was needed on scene regardless of Liz. But why they thought a beefcake type was who should replace JJ is still a mystery. And their Nik replacement at the time wasn’t much better. JY was great on AMC but he was all wrong for Lucky. Didn’t love that era of GH at all. 

[Darn]

They hired for looks. Not that soaps haven't hired for looks in the past or don't currently but in the late 90s/early 2000s it was really bad. Hair models galore. And JY was hot off of B&B. I can't explain Coltin Scott Stephen Martinez.

Edited February 2, 2022 by Darn