General Hospital: July 2023 Discussion Thread

[reallyhateskateonlost]

^^^^^It might be a little better that it is now.

Please register in order to view this content

[carolineg]

I enjoyed Jackson for sure.  I just think at some point I draw the line.  I can see how David Hayward would work on the cast, for example, but I would be pissed if that was a hire over Brenda or Lucky or Lulu.

If we ever get through that crazy logjam of kids that are the exact same age on this show I could see Aiden/Danny as a couple.  I would place Alec at Joss's age.  It has to be the rivalry between them.  I would even say hook Joss/Alec up if he's straight or bi, but I don't wish Joss on anyone especially my favorite character's son.   I actually don't understand why GH has so few gay or bi characters.   It's unbelievable dated that none of these kids in the Joss age range know a single character part of the LGBTQ community. 

Isn't Lucas technically on the canvas off screen?  Like there's an actor that plays him when Lucas is deigned to be brought out of the closet?

[Contessa Donatella]

@Paul Raven 

"Bolen claimed that doubling the time slot more than doubled the budget, but the substantial increases in ad rates across this period made it worth the network's while." 

Elana Levine. (2020). Her Stories: Daytime Soap Opera & US Television History. Duke University Press. p.94. 

[Liberty City]

At some point, Lulu has to return to the canvas... unless they re-tell the Laura storyline with Lulu. I suspect Nik is back by the end of 2023/beginning of 2024.

It's because of the Disney side of Disney-ABC. Heaven forbid we show non-heterosexuals. Remember the Aiden storyline that was dropped and now he just occasionally bakes? Mhmm... and, honestly, Dev was another bisexual/sexually fluid character that should have been. His jealous of Cam shouldn't have been because he liked Joss, but because he liked Cam and wanted him for himself. But, you know, nice things don't often exist.

Matt Trudeau is living outside of California, doing real estate and acts on rare occasion. So, we'd have to recast again to bring the character back.

[dragonflies]

 

[carolineg]

Lol!  The fact that Aiden is implied to be gay because he liked to bake is the silliest thing ever.  Is that even a stereotype?  I know baking is really hard and it generally implies you are good at math to get the measurements correct but cupcakes don't=gay to me.    Dev was a really weird situation.  It's so strange they liked the actor so much they kept him on, but then dropped him without really delving into anything the show was hinting at.  Something must have been scrapped or some casting fell through.  I do actually wonder if they were toying with making Sonny/Brenda's kid.  Anyhow, I still struggle with what audience Disney-ABC is going for.  I am not exactly their target audience anymore (but I am of viable age to play Molly lol) and it just seems unrealistic that teenagers in 2023 don't know even a bi character.  I guess I should be happy they let Trina hang out with Joss and date Spencer. 

I am going to be honest, I don't exactly remember the guy that played Lucas after Ryan Carnes?  Is he too busy to come back because I think that would probably be the best.

[Vee]

I would still make Jake gay/bi. Aiden would be the misdirect. Hudson West is really, really good IMO and GH can and should lock him down while they still can. That kid should be the future of their teen set and they are letting him slip away because they have a huge traffic jam of kids and people under 40. Plus it might make Steve Burton shít a brick.

Jake would be the damaged ingenue in the mix given his Cassadine Island demons, and I would put Jake with some boy from the Asian Quarter and let Alec be the unrelated troublemaker who is also LGBT so you have two sides of the coin, and maybe further down the road you could pair the two lead boys up. The contrasting personalities also is a nice parallel to Jason and Brenda.

I would use Skye and Lila Rae in some way, I just don't know how. And yes, like I think @Darn suggested here I would bring back Ryan Carnes and pair Lucas with Zeke Robinson.

Edited July 22, 2023 by Vee

[carolineg]

It really feels natural to make Jake the base of the teen scene actually.  After all the crap with him dying/not dying his life story should be pretty important at this point.  I know you have mentioned HW being really good before and I do agree with that, but he's so rarely used I forget him.   It's ridiculous the show spends so much time on people that have no history when you could easily use actual characters and their kids in ways we care about.

I would add Emma into this mix as well.  It might make it a little female heavy with Lila Rae in the hypothetical teen set though.   

I would also send all Maxie, Dante/Lulu, and Sam's kids off to boarding school and deal with that later.  Sonny's identical little girls too. And get rid of that lisping Violet kid ASAP.  

[Liberty City]

I think they were trying to allude that baking is a "woman's job", and therefore, by doing a "woman's job", Aiden is therefore gay. I always thought the actor who played Dev was either Alec or at some point retconned to be Spencer. And I don't even think Disney-ABC knows what audience they want... but they need to figure it out.

He's the one doing real estate outside of California. I follow him on Instagram and he's rarely doing acting gigs.

I mentioned this on the previous page.

To me, Jake being gay/bi would be the right avenue, and while I like Hudson West, I just don't think he'd play that storyline at all. I'm just baffled they are not trying to play the younger set of Aiden/Jake/Rocco more, honestly. It's a huge missed opportunity.

I unfortunately don't think Ryan Carnes would return as Lucas in a semi post-COVID environment. But Lucas should be an integral part of the canvas, especially at the hospital. Re-build the staffing there, stat!

As much as I want Hayden back... I'd take her coming back for two-weeks, getting Finn & Violet, and all of them leaving town.

[ranger1rg]

Daytime is so woefully behind the times that it's beyond belief.

This is a world where Love, Victor and Heartstopper are huge TV/streaming hits, yet daytime is afraid -- yes, AFRAID -- of gay and bi storylines. And no, I'm not talking about Carlivati's approach on DAYS, which is to make a joke and farce out of most everything or a two-day titillation fest.

BOLD is the most obvious fail, with its fashion industry background written as devoid of gays. Y&R has been afraid to do anything since viewers with blue hair complained about Katherine Chancellor having feelings for a woman DECADES ago.

GH is good for subtext and hints that go nowhere -- as if writers tried to move to a gay story and were shut down. When they did have a good gay relationship with Lucas' marriage, they got rid of them. As others have pointed out, it's just ridiculous and not believable that young people would not have contact with young gay/bi people.

FEAR motivates the soaps -- fear of losing viewers -- when they should worry about how to GAIN viewers. The crazy thing is that the viewers they worry about losing are DYING OFF.

I love the soaps but it's hard to accept or understand a genre that refuses to change. In some ways, it's amazing that there are ANY soaps left.

[Vee]

I would add Emma too, but I would make her sort of the more benign Esme replacement (I don't think Esme needs a permanent place on the canvas in any way - she needs to come in and out for stints raising hell and being nuts). Emma Drake is the absolute last person Port Charles would expect to be trouble and that's exactly what she would be, a classic secret vixen/mischief maker.

Hudson West gets a fair amount of work outside the show and it's amazing to me they haven't tried to secure him. They just don't see it.

I also would ship all those kids off, and de-Spencer Charlotte the hellspawn after slaughtering Valentin. She would never be seen again. Violet and Finn, the same. Rocco might hang around for a little bit (slightly deSORASed) to give Dante's character and new responsibilities as a single parent more weight and grounding for the audience, since frankly it does not feel like almost any of these characters under 50 actually have these children and it's never felt real that Dante and Lulu do. But he would be a kid for a long time, since I also wouldn't recast Lulu right away (Dante would be paired up having hijinks with BLQ for awhile).

It's because they have entirely too many people under 50 jammed up on the show, and too many instant kids. They can't deal with the actual next generations well because Frank won't fire a lot of played out characters he favors or thinks the older audience is more comfortable having around and doesn't want to unsettle them, and that means that beneath those people you have Spencer, Trina, Joss, etc. and almost nothing else coming up behind them or properly planned for. Just a bunch of kids getting older and older and overcrowding the wings. I lost my shít a year or two ago when they had a pair of teenagers showing up as Rocco and Danny at Sam and Dante's Thanksgiving. I had no clue who they were. Now Aiden's a teenager and so is Charlotte the mutant, and meanwhile the current successful youth set has barely gotten a chance to bed in and take the center stage, while the other 'young' set (BLQ, Dante, etc) are barely written for like human beings vs. sanitized Hallmark movie mannequins. It's too much.

I don't know why you think HW wouldn't play it, or why RC wouldn't work post-COVID but maybe I'm missing some details.

Edited July 22, 2023 by Vee

[carolineg]

I could be onboard with Emma being a vixen.  It would be unexpected at least.  I don't actual know if I would keep Esme.  She's very Nelle 2.0 to me and while the actress is talented I don't know if she has the potential to be a long term villian.  Probably, but I am just pretty neutral on Esme.  I don't think she's anything special at all.

@Vee you know I think Charlotte/Violet are the same person so they can obviously both go.   Dante/Sam have like 3 kids in that penthouse, but Spinelli used to have to sleep in the weight room.  Maybe all the kids sleep in Brenda's pink room or something. 

I don't bake or cook, so that probably is what GH is thinking.  The only baker I know is Cake Boss and he's a straight guy lol. 

It would be nice if RC could return for Bobbie's funeral and then maybe the role being recast after that.

It's strange they never brought RB as Hayden after CM was cast.  I am not advocating a Rylee reunion, but it seems like a place FV would immediately go. 

[Vee]

I think she can just do recurring stints like Heather, but that's JMO. A long-term contract place for Esme or defanging her does not work and I think the current story proves that despite their clearly fervent hopes.

I never bought into Hayden on any level and have no real use for her, but I think a purpose she'd serve by briefly appearing would be to write off her unfortunate relations and also be used to demonstrate the true messy, ugly nature of a recast Jeff and Carolyn who would continue to make things dramatic at the hospital for Liz and later Sarah. I don't see Jeff or Carolyn embracing Hayden in any way.

[Liberty City]

Carnes seems focused on his music right now, and he was posting some... questionable things during COVID, so....

And Charlotte can go. She's such a non-presence that I forget about her until she's on-canvas. Who TF is watching her, any way? Wasn't she staying with Laura? So I assume Esme & Spencer are responsible for her, now?

It's clear Rebecca Budig is up for it... but the story is not going to be told. It seems like they invest and immediately revoke that interest, so.... it's a damn shame, too, because there's potential there, especially when Jeff Webber was in town.

If Sarah were to return, who would you cast in the role?

[Vee]

LOL, don't get me going on this again, I have discussed it on here at length in various threads. Long story short, my plan was always to bring on Gina Tognoni as Sarah, a brilliant and well to do surgeon with a seemingly perfect marriage and several kids who would leave working single mom Liz (who, unlike Sarah, gave up her dreams due to circumstances) struggling in her shadow again after many years. Sarah's marriage would fall apart over time and the idea a while ago was to ultimately pair her with Cameron Mathison's Drew, now working for the WSB. That was before we spent the last year-plus dealing with Cameron giving his worst Access Hollywood performance onscreen and being little more than a maniacally grinning spare part for the show. Now, short of making Cameron regrow Drew's hostage beard and dramatically retooling the character again I have no clue who I'd put her with.

The Carnes news is annoying but tbh there are so many religious/whatever crackpots on daytime, including many beloved stars. So long as they shut up and do the job or follow mandates re: that stuff (unlike Burton, Ingo or Marcus Coloma) I don't care. But if Carnes did quit over the vax mandate then forget it - there are a zillion talented guys out there.

Unrelated: If it's true that 

Please register in order to view this content