GH: Leading Man Out

[Contessa Donatella]

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. 

Please register in order to view this content

Edited November 21, 2023 by Donna L. Bridges
more info

[Liberty City]

Leading? 

Please register in order to view this content

 This is long overdue. Now, if only Michael Easton & Robert Gossett could follow!

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

[janea4old]

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.

[Contessa Donatella]

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! 

[cityfan01]

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. 

[Contessa Donatella]

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. 

[Errol]

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.

[j swift]

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.

Please register in order to view this content

 

 

[Liberty City]

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

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

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.

Roger Howarth & Michelle Stafford had some real good chemistry!

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.

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.

[Vee]

Chambers was awful.

[titan1978]

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.

[Vee]

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.

[Contessa Donatella]

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

Edited November 21, 2023 by Donna L. Bridges

[Faulkner]

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.

[Vee]

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, 2023 by Vee