20 minutes ago, carolineg said:

In the beginning when Carly was pretending Jason was the father I could almost get behind some of the reasoning. ALMOST. Once Sonny got involved the show had to work far too hard to make me believe Sonny was the better option as a father.

Carly

People forget she was still very much wanting to be close to Bobbie but hadn’t revealed herself yet. She liked Tony’s money and had some feelings for him, but her manipulations were unraveling. Jason was someone she did have feelings for, and had come into a lot of power that would help her keep her baby from being taken away by Tony or the Q’s. She was afraid of that, but she was also afraid of not having any money and leaving Bobbie who she had a push/pull relationship with.

The fact that Jason fell in love with Michael so quickly and knew the truth about Carly gave her a safe place and also an inroad in her mind to being with him. The later stuff with Sonny didn’t work as well because there were not as many layers. And as you said, Warlock was not the right recast at all.

38 minutes ago, Vee said:

I was very into Sonny and Carly with Maurice and Sarah, and later in the early period with Tamara before Lorenzo came along and things got really grotesque in '03. But I never liked the A.J. situation or how he was treated. It was always just plain wrong to me. I was baffled in '98/'99 when the show tried to paint Robin as being in the wrong.

Robin being practically shunned out of town by Jason and Sonny was awful. While the initial lie about AJ made some sense for Carly the show should have worked harder to make a more even playing field after the truth came out.

36 minutes ago, Taoboi said:

I remember that!!!

In hindsight, their attempt at a soft reboot. Something Jax needed since sadly Brenda was not coming back any time soon.

I would assume the idea was to get Ingo and Vanessa back at the time. Brenda was back a year or so later, so rebooting Jax was kind of a moot point in the end. Nothing Jax did in that year really changed the character or was memorable. I guess romancing Skye, but I believe that was only ramped up once the show knew they had secured Vanessa.

29 minutes ago, titan1978 said:

People forget she was still very much wanting to be close to Bobbie but hadn’t revealed herself yet. She liked Tony’s money and had some feelings for him, but her manipulations were unraveling. Jason was someone she did have feelings for, and had come into a lot of power that would help her keep her baby from being taken away by Tony or the Q’s. She was afraid of that, but she was also afraid of not having any money and leaving Bobbie who she had a push/pull relationship with.

The fact that Jason fell in love with Michael so quickly and knew the truth about Carly gave her a safe place and also an inroad in her mind to being with him. The later stuff with Sonny didn’t work as well because there were not as many layers. And as you said, Warlock was not the right recast at all.

When Carly went to the institution after shooting Tony I could understand her fear of losing Michael. It was valid. Jason saving her from that made sense.

Once Carly/Sonny were together and married Carly was established. There wasn't a real need to keep AJ away from Michael all together. Once there were multiple acts of violence taking place in Sonny's world putting Michael in danger the reasons to keep AJ away from Michael became increasingly flimsy.

29 minutes ago, carolineg said:

I would assume the idea was to get Ingo and Vanessa back at the time. Brenda was back a year or so later, so rebooting Jax was kind of a moot point in the end.

I don't think Jill had any plan there, no. She and likely the network were just snatching Ingo back up once he was free hoping for a ratings bump. Like most longtime GH characters, she and Megan McTavish clearly had no idea what to do with him or who Jax was. That was evidenced by the crap they had him playing with Angel, then the insta-romance with Skye who was Jill's favorite.

As far as I can tell JFP had very little affinity for GH's history or characters. She was about her favorites. That's evidenced again by the strike in 2008, when Guza is gone for a few months and suddenly GH becomes The Rick Hearst Show and resembles early-mid'90s Guiding Light, when Jill was in charge. Not that I don't love Hearst, but suddenly having A-story spinning around Ric and some immigrant woman he married was crazy. But that was Jill.

Edited 2 hours ago2 hr by Vee

4 minutes ago, Vee said:

I don't think Jill had any plan there, no. She and likely the network were just snatching Ingo back up once he was free hoping for a ratings bump. Like most longtime GH characters, she and Megan McTavish clearly had no idea what to do with him or who Jax was. That was evidenced by the crap they had him playing with Angel, then the insta-romance with Skye who was Jill's favorite.

As far as I can tell JFP had very little affinity for GH's history or characters. She was about her favorites. That's evidenced again by the strike in 2008, when Guza is gone for a few months and suddenly GH becomes The Rick Hearst Show and resembles early-mid'90s Guiding Light, when Jill was in charge. Not that I don't love Hearst, but suddenly having A-story spinning around Ric and some immigrant woman he married was crazy. But that was Jill.

Perhaps I was giving the entire team too much credit. I assumed the show snapped up Ingo when Titans flopped, were hoping to get Vanessa and it fell through, and scrapped together some wacky plot for Jax last minute, hoping something would stick. I was always a bit surprised they didn't try to repair the coupling of Chloe/Jax.

I can see the idea of tying him to the Cassadines in his return via Alexis, but that story was just odd. Jax left his entire life in PC to find Brenda and gave up after less than a year and somehow ran into Cassadine intrigue?

I could go on and on about the Skye romance. They were barely together and then were getting married. It wasn't anywhere near Jax's worst pairing, but everyone in the audience knew the show was ramping up the obstacles for Brenda's return and nothing was organic about it.

Honestly though I always laugh when I think about Ric and Marianna? What a silly story no one ever mentioned again. Did JFP really think THAT story was going to elevate RH to lead status?

32 minutes ago, carolineg said:

I could go on and on about the Skye romance. They were barely together and then were getting married. It wasn't anywhere near Jax's worst pairing, but everyone in the audience knew the show was ramping up the obstacles for Brenda's return and nothing was organic about it.

They had ardent fans on certain forums. It drove me crazy because Skye was so poorly shoehorned into the show and nothing about any of her relationships (except maybe the friendships with A.J. and Ned) were believable to me. Liking an actor does not make a character fit!

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by Vee

32 minutes ago, Vee said:

They had ardent fans on certain forums. It drove me crazy because Skye was so poorly shoehorned into the show and nothing about any of her relationships (except maybe the friendships with A.J. and Ned) were believable to me. Liking an actor does not make a character fit!

Oh, believe me I know. There used to be a lot on this board. I am not sure why though. The coupling was okay, but Jax did Skye kind of dirty by immediately dumping her for Brenda. Why would you want them back together?

Although the Jax/Brenda/Skye triangle and her descent back into alcoholism was probably the best material she got on GH.

4 hours ago, carolineg said:

Personally, I was never a fan of Sonny/Carly vs. AJ for Michael. In the beginning when Carly was pretending Jason was the father I could almost get behind some of the reasoning. ALMOST. Once Sonny got involved the show had to work far too hard to make me believe Sonny was the better option as a father.

Carly/Sonny had tons of support on message boards in the early 2000's though. The most ardent Sonny fans wanted Sonny to have a child because there was a time long ago where Sonny didn't have any kids (that he knew of) and Carly had trouble getting pregnant again.

The writing was always an issue for AJ, but I would argue the recasting to Billy Warlock was also a big shift for AJ as anything other than a loser bad guy.

Sorry, that's my longer answer to your initial question lol.

I remember Ingo being gone for like a year and came back when Titans flopped. They announced his return at the Emmys, there was a good amount of promotion, and then that was the re-intro. He originally left to find a not dead Brenda and failed but found Alexis's long-lost sister instead. Yay? Lol

The show never really knew what to do with Jax outside of Brenda and later Carly's orbit. It's amazing Jax lasted as long as he did on the show.

Never apologize to me for giving me a history lesson on negative reactions to Sonny 😂😂 😂. It’s amazing Sonny went from no kids to still having kids in his freaking 60’s. I’m shocked they’ve kept Morgan dead but I don’t mind, I literally never had any use for adult Morgan or the actor.

Edited 20 minutes ago20 min by Antoyne

Yeah, it was a big fúckin' deal when Sonny did have a live kid (Kristina) who didn't immediately die lol. Now he has far too many.

Edited 16 minutes ago16 min by Vee