GH: Fan Fave Fired. Actress Blindsided

[titan1978]

EIGHT MONTHS?!? It feels like years!

I can’t imagine this is to pay for Lucky, that decision was made way before this. Was she just informed?

[Vee]

It really does.

I think this must have happened very fast - what is the tape-to-air delay now, a few weeks? A month tops? Maybe slightly over? I always assumed if Sam died she'd get it from one of the mob's enemies (or now, the WSB's re: Dante) but I am beginning to wonder if she might get some old fashioned Irna Phillips-style traffic accident exit lol.

It depends on how long the air delay is. If Sam goes digging for help for Lulu she could easily run afoul of whatever is up with Lucky.

[titan1978]

I know. Sometimes I just can’t keep my figurative mouth shut.

[Taoboi]

Same. 

[Contessa Donatella]

If she did so in her book, I do not recall it. But, of course, the statement that if people did not go along with this unprecedented out of cycle cut, that some people would go, I am positive was said, but it wasn't an empty threat. It was a fact. 

Well, I believe what some people had, who had preferential contract is 26 week cycles, double the standard 13. I am almost positive that KZ' cycle was 26 weeks. 

I completely get the view about not asking this. But, if you look at other industries, like airlines. There is definitely a case to be made that it's in everyone's best interest under certain extreme circumstances, IF YOU ASK EVERYONE AT THE SAME TIME, to take, say a 10% across the board cut, to save the business from going under. If the show goes under hundreds of people lose their jobs. That is the bottom line in that scenario. I believe that Wheeler already had an agreement in place for this to happen with the crew & their union had passed on it. That suggests that SAGAFTRA would not have been an impediment. 

Two more things. Totally disingenuous to be the person who brings something up & then is somehow horrified that replies are made. Marley or Vicky either one or both, have zip, nada, zilch, goose egg, to do with this. Couldn't be more off topic & off point if one's goal was to be so & do so. 

Edited August 27, 2024 by Contessa Donatella
blah blah

[Chris B]

Kelly Monaco has been phoning it in for around 10 years. Seeing her fans lose it on Twitter has been a sight to see. She's lucky she kept her job as long as she did when you consider there effort she put in on screen.

[Taoboi]

Yes...seeing it online...is something else. 

[DaytimeFan]

That's how I feel - I've never understood the appeal. It's a bad time to get the axe given she's a 48 year old woman in Hollywood. But once upon a time, Kelly was the young actress whose arrival unseated one or more middle aged veteran women. Circle of life at ABC Daytime.

[titan1978]

She actively tanked her Jason reunion story because she wanted to act with her boyfriend. That pretty much sealed the deal, she never was used heavily again after that happened. And then publicly shamed the show when Miller wasn’t offered a new contract. Valentini is not going to forget that.

I do feel sympathy for her. She has clearly been through it in the last couple of years in her personal life. Miller’s death was a tragedy.

[Antoyne]

This is shocking. I really like Sam with the Davis girls and echo others that they could’ve just hired LH instead of killing Sam off entirely. KM looked pretty bored for a lot of her run except when she was with BM.

[DRW50]

That's a great idea. And now your idea has even more grounding as Alexis mentioned losing her sister in a recent episode. 

I've always had a soft spot for Kelly as Sam, as I did in her often-terrible role on PC - she is a quietly charismatic and at times strong performer who never felt cookie cutter. With that said, she has never actually been a strong character. She was thrown pairings, thrown family members, but the character never had a core. I think the only reason she lasted the last 5-10 years was down to longevity and the old fans of the character. 

There are other longtime cast members I would have gotten rid of over her, but she has been so checked out for years that it doesn't surprise me.

I wonder if Valentini had to choose between her and Becky Herbst as it wasn't long ago Liz seemed to be on the chopping block.

[Vee]

Frank tried to cut Becky around 2015-2016 and learned the same lesson JFP and Guza did around 2010-11. I don't think it happens again unless Jonathan goes (who made it very clear last time that he wanted to be reunited with Becky, and that he left in large part because the show failed to deliver while giving him depressing, ugly stories), but I've been wrong before. I know they allegedly were gunning for her earlier this year, but I had a feeling it wouldn't happen. Becky is the third rail at this point IMO.

I think when Kelly came to work she was very good. She just hasn't much over the last 15 years at minimum IMO, and even before then at times. She got comfortable with Steve, until she wasn't. I think she had periods with real potential again after Jason's 'death' in 2012, and again with Drew/Billy Miller but it has never lasted. I think she worked hard with DZ this year, possibly because she knew she was in jeopardy. But Sam has been a spent shell for me for so long. Her best period, again, was when they thought she was leaving the show in the mid-2000s and therefore leaned into making her a villain and town shít-stirrer opposite GV's Lucky. If they'd let her do what she's best at she could've become not unlike Ava is now - I think it was @titan1978 that said Ava should be a Roger Thorpe-esque character, not a heroine, and that's where she works best and how she has survived on the margins. That, and Maura always comes to work.

[detroitpiston]

Oh wow. Its clear the assumption of there being BTS beef with Kelly is valid. Budget cuts were just the excuse needed to finally get rid of her.

This is a nasty spin tweet from Hinsey I’m glad she’s being fried up in the quotes. It makes me wonder though if this is how TPTB feel about Kelly and why this exit was done like this.

Edited August 27, 2024 by detroitpiston

[John]

Didnt FV do this at OLTL except in reverse? Al who needed the new liver died after recieving a new liver from his mom. Well rumor is Lulu gets her liver from Sam & Sam dies afterwards.

[Vee]

I think a lot of soap twitter people (including but not limited to Hinsey) come in with their own spin both for and against their favored or disfavored actor. I suspect the truth is caught somewhere in between the BTS gossip about KM's alleged troubles or behavior, and FV's own axe to grind.

Again, this is another example of how soap twitter is not real life. People acting like this will 'shake GH to its core!!' and be some massive shift have not been paying attention to how marginalized Sam has been for years and how much Kelly has phoned it in - or they've just been stanning too long to acknowledge it. Sonny, Carly, Jason, Laura - that is a massive shift. (I'd argue even Becky/Liz would've been a blow too simply because like Laura she is so foundational and ubiquitously popular now, JJ has just returned and they have tried and failed to fire her twice before.) Sam would've still been a huge shock too even ten years ago. But now, after the last four years or more of disuse, she has merely suffered the same fate as Courtney or Reese almost 20 years later.

Edited August 27, 2024 by Vee