5 hours ago, titan1978 said:

Damn. I’m 10 episodes behind, went to catch up on Hulu, and they have replaced Howarth with Laura Wright on the title card that plays when you start the show. It’s been Howarth (and has annoyed me) for years. ABC is done with him.

I got it changed. Carly started last Monday. I msged Hulu & they said they'd love to give us someone new but it was up to the show, of course. I msged Frank, boring, old, same for 2 years, it's Franco glaring at Denise & he's dead & next thing you know, Big Roger head gone!!! You're welcome! LOL!

The thing that was so very funny is that someone made an ironic post poking the idea that you cannot please everybody. 

Edited November 21, 20232 yr by Donna L. Bridges
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Leading? 🤣 This is long overdue. Now, if only Michael Easton & Robert Gossett could follow!

38 minutes ago, titan1978 said:

Damn. I’m 10 episodes behind, went to catch up on Hulu, and they have replaced Howarth with Laura Wright on the title card that plays when you start the show. It’s been Howarth (and has annoyed me) for years. ABC is done with him.

I noticed that, too. It switched from Franco to Carly... and now it makes sense.

Maura West scenes with Roger were good because of Maura.
Not because of Roger.  He responded to her excellence.

I think she carried the scenes.

2 minutes ago, janea4old said:

Maura West scenes with Roger were good because of Maura.
Not because of Roger.  He responded to her excellence.

I think she carried the scenes.

She was amazing one day last week when she finally got in touch with her anger at the same time that Austin was there, at the studio. Maura really likes to stay in tight control, and play nuanced, and this was the furthest I'd ever seen her go out on that limb expressing absolute rage. Very exciting to see. To me she was so good as Carly Tenney on ATWT but Ava Jerome on GH is just the role she was born to play!! This past 2 weeks I feel like we've seen Emmy reel material from 3 women - Maura, Finola & Ari! 

You know, when he came on as Austin, I wasn’t thrilled, but was hopeful for another Quartermaine. I remember when he first was Franco and they tied him to the Q’s and thought RH fit well with them. Perhaps if they had kept him in that orbit, Austin would have received a different fate. Oh well, after this many characters I am ok with a break. We should have seen this coming when they didn’t at least give him and Kassie a pass by scene. 

5 minutes ago, cityfan01 said:

You know, when he came on as Austin, I wasn’t thrilled, but was hopeful for another Quartermaine. I remember when he first was Franco and they tied him to the Q’s and thought RH fit well with them. Perhaps if they had kept him in that orbit, Austin would have received a different fate. Oh well, after this many characters I am ok with a break. We should have seen this coming when they didn’t at least give him and Kassie a pass by scene. 

I thought they really missed the boat. They should have made him Alan's long lost unknown son & we should have had a magnificent Stuart Damon/Alan Q tribute as Monica introduced Alan's new son (proved by DNA) to his father through photo albums & stories. 

8 hours ago, Vee said:

Yep. Susan turned them down, then Sarah was approached because I guess in his mind who could resist the casting coup of her and Michael Easton lol. IIRC she turned it down for some of the same reasons (I think Susan both didn't like Higley's pitch and was pregnant) and that's how in the eleventh hour we got Christina Chambers.

Thank god Sarah turned down that role. Marty Freakin' Saybrooke would have become another "what's her name" to me and we can't have that. Thank god Susan Haskell came back, but at the same time I was disgusted that she became obsessed with Todd, her rapist, and went psycho over him. Gross.

Roger Howarth is one of the last of his kind in one way.

He's the last quirky looking male romantic lead that we've seen.  Everyone else looks so bland and conventional next to him.

 

 

10 hours ago, Vee said:

I still can't get over Frank trying for the Hail Mary of getting her to play NuMarty in 2006.

I could see it... but at the same time, I can't...? If that makes sense?

10 hours ago, Vee said:

Yep. Susan turned them down, then Sarah was approached because I guess in his mind who could resist the casting coup of her and Michael Easton lol. IIRC she turned it down for some of the same reasons (I think Susan both didn't like Higley's pitch and was pregnant) and that's how in the eleventh hour we got Christina Chambers.

I've seen clips, and Christina Chambers was not necessarily bad. But you can tell the material was suffering from Susan Haskell not returning.

9 hours ago, Vee said:

Like Howarth but even moreso, Easton is limited. He reached the upper limits of what he was capable of a long time ago lol. Finn came on surprisingly interesting at first despite my disgust for ME's return hire; he was a quirky, strange character who had instant chemistry with Jane Elliot in their intro story together. But they moved him away from Tracy (which could've been a real May-December romance) into more conventional, McBain-esque limp mystery/intrigue storylines with 'hot' stars like Rebecca Budig that didn't pan out, then later desperation throws with fan faves Finola and finally Becky.

Anything that was novel about Finn at the beginning has been gone for years, and he was best on this show as McBain - a character I utterly loathed on OLTL but who had found a decent niche on GH IMO, always chasing the next caper for the police with no regard for the mob. Like Todd for Howarth, it should've ended there for ME.

I don't believe for a second that Maura West dropped a dime on him, Donna. Those two have gotten along like gangbusters since their first scenes as Franco and Ava ten years ago (and they had real chemistry back then despite the disgusting character RH was playing). She gushed about him as recently as this past summer. She's been doing it off and on for the past decade.

Maura's always spoken well of Roger, yes. And, I agree: the roles for Easton & Howarth should have ended at McBain & Manning, however, I cannot be made at Howarth becoming Franco for the simple fact we got Maura as Ava.

1 hour ago, j swift said:

Roger Howarth is one of the last of his kind in one way.

He's the last quirky looking male romantic lead that we've seen.  Everyone else looks so bland and conventional next to him.

Roger Howarth & Michelle Stafford had some real good chemistry!

10 hours ago, Errol said:

That's why I hate soap hopping. You'll never be as successful as your noteworthy character. 

Sarah Brown is one of my all-time favorite actors and she's never been able to recapture the magic of OG Carly. Not with Claudia, not with what's her name on As The World Turns, what's her name on The Bold and the Beautiful, or what's her name on Days of our Lives. Heck, I still don't know what's her name on Studio City. Her Carly was just that impressive!

I feel bad for Sarah Joy Brown. I feel like she's often given the short-end of the stick in daytime. I liked her as Julia on As the World Turns, and thoroughly liked her as Madison on Days of Our Lives... until they uprooted that character by hiring Ian Buchanan.

10 hours ago, Vee said:

Yep. Susan turned them down, then Sarah was approached because I guess in his mind who could resist the casting coup of her and Michael Easton lol. IIRC she turned it down for some of the same reasons (I think Susan both didn't like Higley's pitch and was pregnant) and that's how in the eleventh hour we got Christina Chambers.

Well, when she was cast on Days of Our Lives, Brown did say in daytime it's difficult to step into someone else's role, but wouldn't rule out being a recast. But, I think the reasons you've mentioned, mixed with the notion of being a recast is part of why she turned it down.

Chambers was awful.

3 hours ago, Errol said:

Thank god Sarah turned down that role. Marty Freakin' Saybrooke would have become another "what's her name" to me and we can't have that. Thank god Susan Haskell came back, but at the same time I was disgusted that she became obsessed with Todd, her rapist, and went psycho over him. Gross.

I will never understand the decision to do that with Marty. Beyond tone deaf. I was excited to have her back for a minute. I knew they couldn’t recapture the weight of her original run but it ended up worse than I could imagine.

13 minutes ago, titan1978 said:

I will never understand the decision to do that with Marty. Beyond tone deaf. I was excited to have her back for a minute. I knew they couldn’t recapture the weight of her original run but it ended up worse than I could imagine.

I still wonder what exactly happened there, because Susan and Howarth were both very vocal as recently as a few years ago on a non-soap interview about turning on the show when they attempted to possibly pair them romantically back in the '90s. I still suspect Susan was sold a bill of goods on that story and how it would play out; rumors years later suggested that Ron and Frank had attempted to nab Roger in 2008, hoping to do a Two Todds switch in the middle of that story, revealing then that "Todd" was not Todd. Regardless, we know Susan left in fury and disgust a few years later.

9 hours ago, Errol said:

Thank god Sarah turned down that role. Marty Freakin' Saybrooke would have become another "what's her name" to me and we can't have that. Thank god Susan Haskell came back, but at the same time I was disgusted that she became obsessed with Todd, her rapist, and went psycho over him. Gross.

That belongs on a short list of real travesties that some writers have foisted upon the daytime scenes, just really awful. 

Edited November 21, 20232 yr by Donna L. Bridges

Susan Haskell is such a professional that she played all that unhinged stuff to the hilt. But it’s so strange to write Marty Saybrooke as a campy joke.

Daytime’s piss-poor writing of the last 25 years has laid waste to a lot of gifted actors. RH could soar in the right role, but not on daytime. He was SO miscast as Paul. And FV’s attempts to make fetch happen were so labored.

1 hour ago, Faulkner said:

Daytime’s piss-poor writing of the last 25 years has laid waste to a lot of gifted actors. RH could soar in the right role, but not on daytime. He was SO miscast as Paul.

It was such a disaster. But as I said, Roger was clearly just happy to no longer be playing a role that had weighed very heavily on him (as he talked about in that recent outside podcast). And I think when he came back to ABC that more calm ethos he's talked about a lot in recent years remained, including while playing Todd. He had put all the agita behind him and was just happy to be there and act. But he has only a certain range, he has limitations and weaknesses, and only so many abilities when faced with not one but two overplayed dud characters foisted on GH (not unlike his messy run as an overly reinvented Paul).

Edited November 21, 20232 yr by Vee