GH: O’Connor/Van Etten OUT! Mulcahey/Korte IN!

[Contessa Donatella]

Yes, I hated Marty's last time at OLTL but I'm not interested in GH having to be responsible for fixing things from Llanview. I'm leery of all OLTL and AMC involvement on GH. Just a healthy cynical view, which if some story were good enough, could be won over. For example Cassie De Paiva looked fantastic & did a great job of trying to rile up Marty but I'd have preferred the energy from that visit be spent on someone in & of Port Charles! I'm sort of surprised you didn't list Delia Ryan. And the highjinks with Jackson Montgomery, I was not at all *whelmed! 

[Lye-C]

Well I disagree with you there. GH is the last ABC soap and I’d love for it to feature even more characters from OLTL, AMC, LOVING/THE CITY, and RYAN’S HOPE. ABC has always been great with crossovers and integrating characters (prime example: Skye on OLTL and GH). 

Well I disagree with you there. GH is the last ABC soap and I’d love for it to feature even more characters from OLTL, AMC, LOVING/THE CITY, and RYAN’S HOPE. ABC has always been great with crossovers and integrating characters (prime example: Skye on OLTL and GH).

Maybe ABC should cut GH to a half hour and pair it with a “super soap” featuring characters from previous soaps (including PORT CHARLES). 

 

[Contessa Donatella]

Counter example: Shapiro's Folly which each HW hated! I love Linda Dano. She'd have been better served parking her on ONE show!!! 

[Lye-C]

I followed her from show to show so it did what it was supposed to do. Liked her best on OLTL but I thought PC would’ve benefited the most from having Linda Dano, especially with Skye on GH). I liked Skye best on GH but I really thoroughly enjoyed her on OLTL.

I didn’t mention Delia because I don’t like Ava! 

[Contessa Donatella]

Well, I followed her from show to show, also, but I was not a happy camper! I loved the Myrtle connection on AMC! Eve was my choice for her child so PC had an edge. Max on OLTL wrong sex & too old by at least 10 years so ridiculous there. And she was best overall to my way of thinking, on GH & having Robin Christopher as a daughter on yet another soap! 

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[vetsoapfan]

Yes, it almost always (with rare exceptions) takes new writers' material some time to gel to the point where viewers get an idea of how good their work is going to be.

I can think of Douglas Marland on General Hospital, Rick Edelstein on How to Survive a Marriage,  and Claire Labine on Love of Life as exceptions to this rule. When they came aboard those shows, the writing seemed to turn around and soar immediately. It was almost shocking. Most times, new scribes take at least a few months to settle in.

Brenda Dickson was "my" Jill too, and although her talents were modest at best when the show began in 1973, at least her Jill did originally come across as a normal human being. In her Norma Desmond phase (a perfect way to describe that, bravo), Dickson's characterization was more of a caricature; a cartoon. Jess Walton ultimately returned the character to the realm of reality.

Edited February 13, 2024 by vetsoapfan

[Liberty City]

It's my hope ⏤ given Mulcahey's connection to Douglas Marland ⏤ that a semi-immediate change takes place, but I am also realistic in that it's [likely] to take some time. I don't suspect it'll be like when the strike material began to air.

Edited February 13, 2024 by Liberty City

[vetsoapfan]

Particularly with the oppressive interference of "the suits" on soaps these days, I have a feeling Mulcahey is going to have a fight on his hands in the direction of GH moving forward. We know that's there's no chance of Josh Griffith's Y&R or Brad Bell's B&B offering us quality writing any time soon, and God knows Ron Carlivati is stinking up DAYS. GH is probably the only soap with the potential of now turning around and producing good storytelling.

Fingers crossed.

[Contessa Donatella]

Every time I use the fingers crossed emoji that is me saying I have hopes for good writing from Mulcahey/Korte! 

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[Liberty City]

My fingers are crossed; hiring a name like Mulcahey comes with having to know his history. He is infamously not a "yes" man. He has his own ideas, his own viewpoints, etc. and it is my hope that Disney-ABC allows him (and Korte) to do what they need / want to do with this soap, because it very much could be MAGICAL, and that's my hope! I agree, re: the other three soaps.

[vetsoapfan]

Soap fans are a hardy bunch, and persist in holding out hope that their favorite shows will one day improve...even after years (or decades, LOL) of bitter disappointment.

IMHO, DAYS has not had good writing since the spring of 1982, when Pat Falken Smith left for a second time. Some subsequent scribes have been mediocre, while others have been heinously bad. (The worst of the worst don't even need to be named, LOL.)

Y&R did not immediately crash and burn when William J. Bell Bell left. It was adequate for a while, if not terribly invigorating. But since 1996, when Lynn Marie Latham took over the writing, it's been a mess, with Charles Pratt's, Maria Bell's and Josh Griffith's tenures being particularly weak.

Since Thudley took over B&B, it has never been great, but at least comparing it to the writing of other soap scribes, it has not been as atrocious. (Don't get me wrong; a show can still be atrocious, while still being LESS atrocious than others.)

To me, the last time GH had great headwriters was way back in 1996, with Claire Labine. While I personally did not appreciate his contribution to the show, I know there are some fans who liked portions of Robert Guza's material. But since he departed, fans of the show have been stuck with the likes of Ron Carlivati and Jean Passanante, and so-so work (at best) from O'Connor and Etten.

Certain people decree that I am being too demanding of daytime dramas, and that I should just accept, without criticism, whatever dreck the soaps dish out. They say that because soaps are in danger, viewers would offer nothing but effusive praise at all times, under all circumstances. But to me, soaps are in danger BECAUSE they are so poorly done nowadays. Pretending like mad that the emperor has beautiful clothes is not going to mask his nakedness.

There are great writers out there. Maybe they need to be brought in from other genres instead of endlessly recycling the same, failed hacks from soaps' past. I'd rather see a brand-new (to daytime TV) writer get a shot, than have to endure another reign of hell from a Carlivati or a Pratt or a Higley or a Passanante.

Knowing Mulcahey has talent, I'm really rooting for him.

[Contessa Donatella]

LML = Shock & Awe entered the vocabulary of soap fans! 

Is it accurate that they now are only shown in 8 foreign countries? 

Labine/Riche is the sweet spot for GH for me!

And we really dodged a bullet with Chris & Dan's last script, that was tossed. But I think they weakened the show. Pace, balance, stakes, pay-off. Peter too long a villain. Willow's leukemia also too long & entirely dependent on dumbing down eventually everyone but initially Willow herself. Babyitis & paternity contagion. Personally I've come to doubt whether they even should have been promoted from within. And, that's not even listing my personal pet peeve which is making up the conclusion as you go along! Liz's family, Hook once right handed, later left-handed, etc. 

There's nothing wrong with specific constructive criticism! And, I, too am guardedly optimistic. 

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[Paul Raven]

Bingo.

Y&R as an example. Day after day storyline decisions are made that further chip away at any remaining credibility.

Billionaires wander around cafes/restaurants running businesses and mounting takeovers.

A supposedly dead child is alive because her (never mentioned) crazy aunt somehow stole her from a hospital and raised her to hate her birth family (why?)

An alcoholic woman with the resources to check into the best rehab facility in the country instead sneaks around boozing from a flask.

The head of an international chain of department stores agrees to become an assistant to an alcoholic woman.

An alpha billionaire is slumped in a chair reading his lines off a menu/phone etc

Literally every plot Josh comes up with is ludicrous/ill conceived/poorly executed.

 

Edited February 13, 2024 by Paul Raven

[Vee]

Y&R is written sort of sleepily and on a whim at this point. IMO it's like they've internalized that 'these old fúcks want business stories' so they just half-ass random business names and discussions day after day and call it a business-focused story. It's not, it's just jargon strung together to fill time. Like, I still barely know what ELQ and Aurora on GH do but when they are brought up there is generally a purpose for a character or a (stupid) story point to specifically involve them or power within those companies that isn't just 'we're saying business names, happy?' There is usually something character/plot-oriented they are connected to. Same with Crimson, Deception, etc. I may find it ludicrous that Maxie or Carly or Sasha or whoever are so in charge of those companies or publications, but there are whole storylines centered around active things these businesses do; photo shoots, key fashion issues, Sasha going on that dumb TV show with Morgan Fairchild re: the Deceptor, etc. And we see them do it. It's not just vaporware. It's kind of wild that GH now regularly serves up the very basic fundamentals of this kind of story that Y&R used to make its brand.

Edited February 13, 2024 by Vee

[vetsoapfan]

And it really started the downfall of this soap.

I was putting up with GH in the mid 1970s, when it hit its first nadir. To me, Douglas Marland's miraculous resuscitation of the show was the first sweet spot, and Pat Falken Smith only added to the glory. After the wasteland of the sci-fi stuff in the 1980s, I was pleasantly thrilled to see what Labine did with Port Charles, and her tenure became the next major sweet spot.

Right, they weren't good headwriters, and made bad choices, but to give them an ounce of credit: they weren't Ron Carlivati and Thom Racina bad (damning Chris and Dan with faint praise, I know.)

It goes back to a comment I made earlier: soap fans are a hardy bunch and forever hope for the best.

It boggles the mind that there are NO executives out there who can recognize the problems, and will take constructive steps to fix them.

I've followed soaps for over six decades, and in the past, obvious and egregious issues on soaps would be remedied (or at least attempts would be made at remedies) in a timely fashion. But for the last few decades, the same crippling flaws have been allowed to fester on the soaps endlessly.

Frank Valenti has been with GH for 12 freaking YEARS!