General Hospital: May 2023 Discussion Thread

[Khan]

In that case, I guess the thrill is gone for old man Corinthos, lol.

[carolineg]

I think most would say this has been the case for at least a decade and a half for Sonny lol!  He's had so many wedding disasters I can't think of anything to top those with a dumb Sonny/Nina wedding.

[AMCHistory]

It breaks my heart watching Molly. Finally, the actress is getting some meaty material. The storyline is pulling at my heart strings, partially because I literally watched Molly grow up in front of my eyes. 
 

So much wasted potential here with Haley off canvas indefinitely.  I hope the recast closes-out the story and Molly leaves town. Seeing her character just breaks my heart with all the real world tragedies associated with it. 
 

This TJ is a real find. I think he has soap leading man potential. 

Who would have thought we would get so many of the Q Mansion rooms in active rotation again:

- Foyer/ Living Room

- Kitchen

- Carriage House

- Solarium

- Drawing Room

The Drawing Room was always my favourite. It was perfect for action/reaction scenes since there are entrances on both sides. What I would do to have Monica and Alan plopped on the couch while their kids dude it out with Edward or Tracy. 
 

This wood panelled/ chinoiserie look is much more to my liking. This is what an upstate estate should look like. The mix of classic architecture with modern touches. 
 

I hope this means the Q’s getting more front burner time is not just a temporary thing. 
 

I know there is so much talk on this board about Olivia/ Lois being the same character. I think they are very different and can each have their own role in PC. Olivia is like the traditional Italian Mama Bear, who loves being in the kitchen and having big Sunday dinners. Lois rebelled from those traditional concepts. Where Olivia has stepped into a more traditional wife role, Lois is a free spirit, an entrepreneur, a boss. 
 

I hope Lois comes back, and stirs the pot. Brooklyn, Tracy, Olivia will all be on edge with Lois back in town. 

[Liberty City]

I don't think they got complaints. The previous set was also a pain to shoot, according to set designer Jennifer Elliott, and that Frank Valentini wanted to put some budget into the mansion.

She told Soap Opera Digest:

Her plan was to do a traditional soap set, but Frank Valentini told them to go modern:

And watching HGTV, it makes sense. So many homes you see on those renovation shows also resemble what Monica did to the Q house, and I imagine her sitting watching one of those shows and going, "This is what I'm doing! Alan gave me this house and Tracy is gone! Now's the time!"

And I think that's also why Sonny's home got the remodel; shooting was difficult, plus, it needed to happen.

[Vee]

The problem is that both those homes now look exactly like an HGTV show. They also look too close in identity. Sonny's overcompensating mansion (Greystone) should not have the same kind of off-brand Nancy Meyers look as the poorly-chosen Q remodel IMO.

I'm very glad we're at least seeing the parlor/drawing room again with the wood. That set and its color scheme are a constant for me through the years.

[Khan]

Now you've got me thinking Sonny was "nervous, but excited" to see how the renovation of his home had turned out.

[Darn]

But so much of daytime is about familiarity. Changing a set that drastically should happen gradually, it could have even been a story point.

There has to be a balance between the Abbott living room on Y&R remaining virtual unchanged in 40 years (you can breathe in the dust mites through the TV screen) and the Quartermaines suddenly living in an Ashley Furniture showroom. 

They've also, similar to what @Vee said, stripped these residences of their ability to tell us more about these characters beyond "they live here".

Just so this isn't totally negative I think my favorite current home set is Portia and Curtis', I know it was previous Jax's and someone else's idk but I like it a lot. It's got a good use of space and the entryways to the back area/kitchen are different than typical soap sets. I also like the African prints they have draped over some of the furniture because I gotta be honest, affluent black people do love their African prints.

[Vee]

Portia and Curtis' home is great, which is why as I've said before Curtis should not live there lol.

My recent favorite set that is long gone was Jax and Carly's colorful home with the kids, with the checkerboard foyer from around 2008 or 2009 - whenever Michael came out of the coma.

Exactly. I don't want both the Q mansion and Sonny's kitchen looking like an identical furniture showroom for upper middle class yuppies. I know the Quartermaine parlor/living area when I see it after decades, so I am glad to see it back in some fashion. Frank caught a bit of the JFP bug on this issue - she mangled the Y&R ranch, IIRC.

Say what you will about AMC and OLTL 2.0 with the smaller dimensions and the doors that opened the wrong way lol, but they did their damndest to replicate the original locations (with some somewhat smaller) while updating the looks on locations like La Boulaie, and they accomplished that. They didn't throw it all out to make it look like Bed Bath and Beyond, which is what a lot of the Q house currently looks like.

Edited May 25, 2023 by Vee

[Liberty City]

It was Jax's home, rented it out to Brook Lynn after he left town, and then it was sold to Curtis & Portia. The set was previously used on All My Children for David Hayward and later Michael Nouri's Caleb.

This one?

Please register in order to view this content

Or the one they had before?

[Liberty City]

Oh. Don't remind me of the backwards doors. My goodness.

[Darn]

Anna also has the re-re-remodeled Chandler mansion. It works much better for than it did Adam.

And I think he's referring to this house which somehow doesn't have a page on GH's wiki but is listed here: Jacks House (607 Braidwood Terrace) - Former residence of Morgan Corinthos, Carly Spencer, Jasper Jacks, and Michael Corinthos

No mangling will ever beat what Y&R did to the Chancellor estate. Completely rearranged the layout, repainted the walls, the camera angle was different. It was hardly the same location. And they did it for no good reason, simple because they could.

[Liberty City]

I agree. I love that she has that. And Ava's former penthouse/Nina's current penthouse was Ava's former NYC apartment / Lucy's former NYC apartment and was taken from Erica Kane's final penthouse set. And the "bar" set they use whenever in New York or somewhere overseas is Krystal's restaurant.

Ah yes, that set. Felt very small-town. I remember that well. But did Michael ever return to that house?

The change in angle was unfortunate, even though it did appear to be a bigger set after all. But you could tell when they did not want to build the dining room, because the doors would be closed in the entryway. Hah.

I didn't necessarily hate the re-paint... but I hate it in Elizabeth's home now.

[AMCHistory]

You have to give Frank credit that the AMC sets are still in heavy rotation in Port Charles:

- The Wildwind Chapel is now a general church set

- Chandler Mansion is now Anna's home

- Wildwind is now Portia's home

- Erica's penthouse is now Laura's apartment

I think these are the "better" sets in rotation. They seem less "flat" to me. There are interesting angels and hallways. It does not look like a theatre stage.

Edited May 25, 2023 by AMCHistory

[Liberty City]

Pieces of Erica's penthouse are also Nina's apartment (formerly Ava's NY penthouse/Lucy's NY penthouse). That set has pieces that have been recycled many times.

[Khan]

I agree.  One of my all-time favorite soap sets was AMC's original Cortlandt manor drawing room, which fitted the gothic undertones of the original Cliff/Nina/Palmer/Daisy/Myra storyline so well.

JFP didn't mangle just the Newman ranch.  She also took an axe to the original and much-beloved Chancellor living room - again, as @Darn said, for no good reason other than she could.  Fortunately, she didn't stay any longer at Y&R, or else God knows what the Abbott living room would look like today.