GH: January 2024 Discussion Thread

[Vee]

I definitely heard that Bobbie was going to be the psycho heavy for Roy and Melissa. They were the A-couple for Jill at that time, two of her favorite actors. Do I think they were going to kill her, no, but Jackie was on the chopping block.

Watching the worm turn and Melissa be revealed as a Kevorkian-esque psycho was extremely rewarding for me. I watched those scenes where she gets caught and jailed again recently for the first time in 20+ years and they seem outright defiant; I think they were written in Jill and Megan's last days, and the scripts almost seem resentful, lashing out at the audience as well as Roy for not accepting Melissa's goodness and sacrifice lol. (And also clearly trying to get Jensen Buchanan an Emmy.)

[Khan]

I tend to think those pairings tanked because MB tanked them himself.

[Vee]

Oh, I don't think he tanked the show's gross attempt at Sonny and Sam. Or Sonny and Kate #2/Connie. Or Sonny and Emily, the brainchild of his wife and himself, and something I in my role as Nostradamus warned people about for almost a year over on ol' Television Without Pity. I saw it coming miles away when they started moving them together onscreen while pushing her and Nikolas apart, yet somehow when they finally kissed I still couldn't believe my eyes.

[carolineg]

Melissa was just an absolute mess of character.  The idea was never fleshed out well at all. 

Not everyone is Vanessa Marcil.  MB can't expect lightning in a bottle every time he's paired with a short brunette.  I think he tanked some, but I also think it's lore to put non-chemistry pairings of his as "tanking".   That's just making chemistry-less pairings look intentional when I don't think that's the case.  He's probably had upwards of 20 love interests and was successful with 3 or 4 (I am giving him OG Kate and Alexis)?  That's a him problem.  People like KMc, Steve Burton, and Becky Herbst have oozed chemistry with all their love interests.  

Edited January 4, 2024 by carolineg

[Vee]

I have always wondered about the early version of the character supposedly sketched out by Michele ValJean's brief HW regime shortly before Jill brought in Megan. IIRC the rumor (which may be bunk) was that "Melissa" was instead supposed to be linked to Stefan and instead of a nurse would be a psychiatrist played by Bobbie Eakes, who was fresh off B&B or close to it. I'm not sure Roy was ever a part of that iteration, or if their backstory was merely her entry point.

Edited January 4, 2024 by Vee

[carolineg]

I would love to find more out about it.  It seems like it was bungled from the start with the lawsuit and everything.  JB and AM were big names at the time so there had to be a more solid idea.  Or they were just names they could get and figure it out later which they didn't lol!

[Antoyne]

Watching today’s episode and man this show does not let any of the emotional stuff breathe at all. I’m really trying to give it a chance but the immediate cuts during the Carly scenes when Laura is really giving it her all, gosh it totally kills this.

[Vee]

I don't think MVJ's alleged early concept had anything to do with JFP's own interests, really. Her focus was on hiring Jensen and frontburnering her and AM as the new stars of GH, and that's exactly what she tried to do. I don't think she ever had any grander unrealized plan for Melissa, I think what you saw is all she had. Their story and handling followed exactly the same overbearing playbook as her favorites and their characters over on AW or OLTL. The only difference is that you couldn't play that shít at the flagship soap of ABC, and that's what got JFP relegated to the existential broom closet when Guza returned.

I will be watching today's show, but I really hope Frank lets up on his usual 90 second scenes when the memorial episodes come around.

[carolineg]

Makes sense.  I don't think Jensen was the fire charisma ball JFP thought she was either.  You can try to fly her in on helicopters on a dying soap, but not at GH.

I also think A. Martinez struggles in roles that aren't Cruz.

I don't hate Guza for putting JFP in the closet.

Excited for today's show.  You didn't like it?  I have to wait on Hulu.

[Vee]

Nor I!

I actually really liked A Martinez as Roy early on. I was one of the few. I wasn't happy he supplanted Julian Stone's Jerry, but I liked him and I liked his relationship with Luke. (I also thought he had chemistry with Laura, and I wonder if those stories about their testing him with Genie were true.) But once JFP turned it into The Roy Show, forget it.

[carolineg]

I remember him being the guy that shot Sonny in the Amazing Grace montage and thought that was pretty extra for a fringe character.   He had no business being involved lol. 

I also remember him being good with Genie.  She just left so abruptly it's hard to say. 

[Beachstorm]

If GT had been cast as anyone other than my beloved Phyllis Summers then I might have cut her some slack.

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[Vee]

From today's show:

 

[carolineg]

Lovely tribute.

Why doesn't Lucas have Lucky's phone number?  The show goes out of it's way to shade Lucky as a deadbeat.

[Vee]

I'm a little annoyed they didn't show a vintage Laura/Bobbie fight scene or Scott/Bobbie stuff there. What would be the harm? Bobbie was absolutely ruthless to Laura in the '70s, lol. Terrifying. There was also a very brutal scene from the same era they showed on some soap awards show way back when, where Bobbie tore Scott apart after his initial rejection of her. Maybe the best work I've ever seen Jackie do. I wish I knew how to find it.