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

[Contessa Donatella]

It's worth pointing out that use of the actor's name is useful as ID but we must remember that they don't choose what & how they play a character. That is the responsiblity of the writers. And also SJB was Carly for 5 years, although they were memorable, and LW has now been Carly for 18 years. The underlying problems with Carly-Sonny-Jason have been going on for a long damn time. 

And also the two characters I see fans asking for the return of, the most, are Lucky & Lulu. 

[Vee]

He couldn't act on GH. He was embarrassingly bad in the role. Twinkdom or former twinkdom does not entitle you to a job.

Frankly I'm still not convinced he can act. He got a lot of attention on AMC but a lot of that was just yelling to me.

Well, first, Mulcahey would never have permanently killed off Lucky. He wrote a lot for the Spencers. Second, he was a staff writer at the time, not HW. And third Lucky's death was always shown to be a fakeout; Jonathan pre-taped material showing him imprisoned before he exited.

Edited January 24, 2024 by Vee

[janea4old]

 

Oh! Thanks on all three points.  I wasn't able to watch regularly during that time period so I missed a lot.

Edited January 24, 2024 by janea4old

[dragonflies]

but she CHOOSES to play the smirky stuff up, I doubt that's in the script lol! 

[Lye-C]

It doesn’t matter how long an actor played a role. What matters is their impact. Sarah Brown made a significant impact on GH and its viewers whereas LW simply hasn’t and never will. She’s just a recast with a job for life. 

[Vee]

Mulcahey was a key and prominent part of the writing team at GH in the late '90s often name-checked by actors and other writers and journalists (like Karen Harris, or Michele ValJean who created the Liz rape saga from her own experience, another close friend of PM's who is still at B&B), but he was never HW. Before that, his storied resume goes on and on in this thread - Santa Barbara, GL under Marland and Curlee, etc, one of their key writers too. He apparently had a tough co-HW stint at GL with others(?) in the early-mid '90s but my understanding is that by then there were many, many cooks in the kitchen and JFP micromanaged everything. @DRW50 would know more. Or @Khan perhaps.

Edited January 24, 2024 by Vee

[Contessa Donatella]

Well, YMMV but personally I love good smirk & you can count on some people to deliver it. Three of my favorite smirkers happen to be Maura West, Tamara Braun & Laura Wright. When you got it, sometimes you gotta flaunt it. 

[janea4old]

Yes I have been reading about that. But I never watched any of the shows Santa Barbara or Guiding Light, not at all. So all the comments about what went on with those shows don't really register in my mind.  However I am familiar with JFP micromanaging on AMC and Y&R so I get the general idea.

Edit, not AMC. 

Edited January 24, 2024 by janea4old

[Contessa Donatella]

It matters how long a character was written a certain way. It matters quite a bit. Who knows how many viewers know a character this way compared to the OG way. So, if you're in a position to "write" some wrongs, this is a big part of your challenge & that takes us right back to where we are now, what we hope for Carly under PM. 

[Mitch64]

Agreed...hopefully it is like Marland and Long's runs...I new instantely when Long was back and when Marland took over ATWT I knew that something had suddenly changed.  It will be interesting to see someone with an individual "good" style back. 

Edited January 24, 2024 by Mitch64

[Contessa Donatella]

Uh, JFP wasn't at AMC. 

[janea4old]

Maybe I'm confusing her with McTavish. Someone fans hated.

[Contessa Donatella]

Yes, probably! McT was responsible for the UnAbortion among many other awful things at AMC. 

[Mitch64]

GL was going through a ROUGH time at that time..coming off being nearly perfect soap (IMO) Curlee left and JFP was rumored to say "NOW we can do it MY way!" So, I think she of course had a LOT of time spent in the writers room. I also heard he didn't want to or like being head writer so this is surprising. 

 

 

[Vee]

She tried this again at OLTL in 1999, where she went without a HW for most of the year after Pam Long split in either late '98 or early that year (I still wonder what if anything Long wanted to do at that show - I only remember her commenting on Roger Howarth being difficult to write for in '98). ABC ultimately made her take McTavish, and they became a gruesome twosome.