GH: July 2024 Discussion Thread

[John]

The Only HW GH will have for the foreseeable future are those who agree to write whatever FV and NV tell them to write. 

[Khan]

It breaks like down this:

Pro: With Chuck Pratt, Jr. in as EP/HW, no longer would Frank Valentini be calling the shots.

Con: With Chuck Pratt, Jr. in as EP/HW, CPJ would.

[John]

I really dont know who could EP and HW GH and get it back on track. It seems all the greats are retired, deceased or working on The Gates. 

[Liberty City]

I'd really bring back Shelley Curtis as executive producer. She can still run a tight ship, and was doing it on Bold as a director, and I do think she could handle it on a budget and the canvas wouldn't suffer.

This is what she had to say with Maurice Benard back in December 2021 (published time) concerning budget, etc:

It's riveting to hear someone, especially a female, talk about her process and how she does things. It's amazing. But again, we need Nathan Varni gone and for ABC Television to not be running things.

[DRW50]

The show has been unraveling for such a long time, but one of the main reasons for why (protecting Sonny, Carly and Jason) goes back through multiple EPs. It goes back nearly 30 years in the case of Jason and Sonny. I can't see any of the major issues changing with a new producer.

I would say the situation with Rauch and Labine was much worse, both for how jarring the onscreen changes were (Blake suddenly being written as Lucy Coe, the bizarre and woeful Mary Mae the cigarette girl, shootouts in the Bauer kitchen, Selena suddenly being a former mob moll who is berated and banished by the newly evil Santos granny - beyond lengthening scenes and resetting a few character relationships, GH under Mulcahey didn't have any huge jolts from what came before), and for ugly drama spilling out. I believe actors who were let go by the show went to the press and directly blamed Labine in a way I often did not see in exit interviews. It felt like Rauch playing games. IIRC some even made sure to praise him. There was a great deal of hostility fanned toward Labine as a result. 

Emphasis on [!@#$%^&*]. I'd rather watch a test pattern.

Edited August 1, 2024 by DRW50

[titan1978]

That is not exactly accurate as far as GH goes. Not only did the tone of the scenes change abruptly when he arrived, the power struggle became apparent onscreen within 6 weeks. All of a sudden several characters decided to pursue new jobs, clearly to restructure character hubs. We have had a constant back and forth for months as stories started, gained traction, and then unraveled due to bts shenanigans.

Look at Finn- dead father to raging alcoholic to rehab and off the show in like 15 days. Cyrus is a victim of Sonny’s, Laura and Anna are also after him, Molly is literally carrying the paperwork around to charge him, story dropped. So many more examples. The Sonny flip flop has been a disaster IMO.

I am not disputing that Labine was a bad fit at GL and it showed. I’m just saying I think the abruptness/severity of bts drama playing out for the audience to see in their product is much worse here.

[DRW50]

I don't disagree with you about the abruptness of a number of changes, in careers, and outlooks on Sonny, and how sloppy the handling was, and trying to slowly reset the show in certain other ways. The show briefly flirted with trying something new and then reverted to norm at whiplash speed, in a very ramshackle way, but aside from the extra sloppiness I don't know if I can say it was different than other attempts along these lines over the years. Late Guza, or the brief tone differences with Wolf in how characters like Carly were framed, or the tonal jolt of the early JFP period followed by the other jolt when Pratt/Guza came in, etc. all come to mind for me.

What was so jarring about the GL shift at the time was that while the show had been bad and had been full of whiplash before her arrival and the struggles with Rauch, it had never been quite...like the way it was. Selina going in a few months from Buzz Cooper's girlfriend to having her mob moll tea spilled in Blake's book and TV interview and being beaten up by Tony Santos before fleeing Springfield for good is still disorienting to me all these years later, whereas with Sonny, I never thought the changes were anything but lip service anyway.

Taking away any GL mentions, the rushed exits of Finn (although surprisingly I thought that was well handled) and Austin do show a much more out of control backstage element, although it's another case where I wonder if something is just reverting to type after relative stability for most of Valentini's run (the increased network interference in this case as I imagine Valentini desperately wanted his OLTL pals to stay).

Edited August 1, 2024 by DRW50

[John]

July was a mix of excitement & meh

Edited August 1, 2024 by John

[Antoyne]

July 25th

I’m finally accepting the Molly recast and today went a long way to helping with that. The way she read Kristina down was PERFECT. Kristina is completely out of line. A couple has a fight so now she wants to keep their baby for herself? GTFOH. I don’t think TJ and Molly are overreacting at all.

[Contessa Donatella]

Really? You honestly think her not giving Pisser Hilton info about the baby was out of line?!!! I do not get that. I never will. She was just keeping private things private, as she should! There is no doubt in my mind that if she had explained who she was being a surrogate for and why that Tolly would possibly have killed her, after the baby was born, of course. Can you truly imagine a good outcome if she'd talked about endometriosis & NO EGGS & her sister Molly & her significant other, since they didn't marry .... 

BTW, I think the acting in this absurd story has been amazing, incredible, exceptional & I long ago accepted KVaganos as Molly & Kate Mansi as Kristina. I never had a problem with that. My problem is only with the writing of this stupid story. I had Staqe 4 endometriosis & I knew from the first week that we were in a lot of trouble!!! 

Edited August 1, 2024 by Contessa Donatella
more to say

[Antoyne]

7-26

Oh I’ve just about had it with Kristina at this point. Has she accepted the fact that her sister will NEVER speak to her again if A. They have to go to court. B. She somehow wins and takes this baby Molly and TJ. I’ve disliked Kristina off and on through the years but right now and especially after what she said in the Perez interview, I’m just completely over her. Which sucks because she’s played by one of my favorite actresses in daytime

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.

I despise Sonny but I’ve always loved the casting of DZ as Dante because he and Maurice genuinely look related. It doesn’t happen all the time on soaps but I love it when it does.

Loving Ava with Jagger. Unfortunately that means both of them will be losing to the three hero’s of PC Sonny, Jason, and Carly . I’ll enjoy it while it lasts.

[Planet Soap]

How to get GH back on track? Some suggestions:

Properly plan out and consistently stick with focused storylines for at least a year. Bell era Y&R was masterful at this.

Dump unnecessary characters from the overloaded canvas.

Make "the mob trio" part of the ensemble, not the show leads.

Make scenes longer with more in depth dialogue.

Stop stunt casting and bringing back old faces just for them to have no storyline.

Make Jason have emotion and stop making him this ever patient wise soul

SB: I think Jagger's return is the perfect catalyst to bring back Brenda, especially as a love interest for Jason. That last one was controversial LOL.

Edited August 2, 2024 by Planet Soap

[Taoboi]

Facts.

 

Hehe. The shade! But...also facts.

 

 

OMG! I totally forgot about that. Anna and Laura slowly, but surely were setting up for the downfall of Sonny (at last?) BTS with the added fact of Ava knowing about his meds. 

 

That could have been such a great story, but alas. 

[titan1978]

In 2002 that was the direction they were headed, Jason/Brenda. They ported most of Brenda’s planned story onto Sam as far as the Sonny affair, baby that dies and Jason taking care of her.

[John]

Fixed

Edited August 2, 2024 by John