GH In The News: The PC Press Club

[testardo]

I always liked Sky no matter what show she was on.Its probably the one from OLTL.

[testardo]

None of tiic would know actual talent if it bit them on their butts. Its like they are running a race too get the stories over  and done with. they pull stuff out of their butts so they can surprise the viewers surprise NO one is !

[TeeVee329]

I blame myself. I asked Ron on twitter while drunk a week or so ago if he ever thought of bringing her or Josh Kelly.

I'm sorry. But dammit. Chimicangas and two for one margaritas. And wifi. Sorry.

 

Don't blame yourself, blame the scorching hot chemistry Melissa and Josh had on the OLTL revival.  I think he's got a job, though, on some Lifetime series.

[MSquared]

I always liked Sky no matter what show she was on.Its probably the one from OLTL.

 

Have to say, I did love her brief scenes opposite Todd (and Blair) in 2012.  Infused with lots of good history and I really wanted her to roll her eyes at how hard Carly was throwing herself at him.  I really needed a scene where Skye explain just what can happen to people who come between Todd and Blair (as she was one of the bodies left in their wake.)

[TeeVee329]

I loved Skye's return in 2012 - her joy at AJ being alive and her disinterest in Jason's death, the thawed relationship with Monica, her putting Carly in her place, all the OLTL and AMC nods.  So if she wants to come back and poke at Carly for dating a SERIAL KILLER, I say have at it!

Edited August 26, 2014 by TeeVee329

[Chairperson Meow]

Omg it totally made blind gossip so it's legit.

Blind gossip is my secret pleasure.

[tvgoddess]

No worries, it's not our soap.

 

http://www.soapoperadigest.com/content/exclusive-melissa-archer-joins-days

[TeeVee329]

Phew.  I couldn't stand seeing her saddled with Michael Easton again.

[OnceSane]

Thanks to the soap gods!

[jsbt]

Good for her.

[TeeVee329]

Do we think Jamey Giddens learned that SOD had the exclusive on this and threw in that "blind item" this morning just to be a jerk?

[ulkis]

Yes.

[Lillybee]

YTD appearances on GH. Sonny wins of course. He was in 25 more episodes than anyone else.

 

in 2014: 169
Maurice Benard (Sonny Corinthos) – 123
Kelly Monaco (Sam Morgan) – 98
Michael Easton (Dr. Silas Clay) – 94
William deVry (Julian Jerome) – 92
Ryan Paevey (Nathan West) – 90
Maura West (Ava Jerome) – 87
Laura Wright (Carly Jacks) – 83
Dominic Zamprogna (Dante Falconeri) – 80
Rebecca Herbst (Elizabeth Webber) – 79
Roger Howarth (Franco) – 77
Finola Hughes (Anna Devane) – 75
Jason Thompson (Dr. Patrick Drake) – 73
Emme Rylan (Lulu Falconeri) – 71
Tyler Christopher (Nikolas Cassadine) – 69
Kelly Thiebaud (Dr. Britt Westbourne) – 69
Chad Duell (Michael Corinthos) – 68
Kristen Alderson (Kiki Jerome) – 67
Nancy Lee Grahn (Alexis Davis) – 67
Bryan Craig (Morgan Corinthos) – 63
Anthony Geary (Luke Spencer-8/“Luke”-48) – 54
Jane Elliot (Tracy Quartermaine) – 53
Lisa LoCicero (Olivia Falconeri) – 52
Sean Blakemore (Shawn Butler) – 49
Kirsten Storms (Maxie Jones) – 48
Tequan Richmond (T.J. Ashford) – 47
Marc Anthony Samuel (Felix DuBois) – 47
Michelle Stafford (Nina Clay) – 47
Kathleen Gati (Dr. Liesl Obrecht) – 41
Haley Alexis Pullos (Molly Lansing) – 41
Vinessa Antoine (Jordan Ashford) – 39
Teresa Castillo (Sabrina Santiago) – 39
Ryan Carnes (Lucas Jones) – 37
Zachary Garred (Peter Harrell, Jr./"Levi Dunkleman") – 37
Nicholas Bechtel (Spencer Cassadine) – 36
Rick Hearst (Ric Lansing) – 34
Parry Shen (Brad Cooper) – 34
Sean Kanan (A.J. Quartermaine) – 32
Liam & Oliver Friedy (Rocco Falconeri) – 31
Brooklyn Rae Silzer (Emma Drake) – 30
Kimberly McCullough (Dr. Robin Drake) – 29
John J. York (Mac Scorpio) – 29
Ian Buchanan (Duke Lavery) – 28
Jeffrey Vincent Parise (Carlos Rivera) – 27
Jimmy Deshler (Rafe Kovich) – 26
Lynn Herring (Lucy Coe) – 26
Kin Shriner (Scott Baldwin) – 26
Wallace Kurth (Ned Ashton) – 24
Michael Leone (Cameron Spencer) – 23
Kristina Wagner (Felicia Scorpio) – 21
Jacklyn Zeman (Bobbie Spencer) – 21
Robin Mattson (Heather Webber) – 20
Leslie Charleson (Dr. Monica Quartermaine) – 18
Linda Elena Tovar (Rosalie Martinez) – 16
Jon Lindstrom (Dr. Kevin Collins) – 15
Donna Mills (Madeline Reeves) – 14
Thaao Penghlis (Victor Cassadine) – 14
Sonya Eddy (Epiphany Johnson) – 12
Bergen Williams (Alice Gunderson) – 12
Jakob & Jaxon Kring (Danny Morgan) – 10
Nick Chinlund (Mickey Diamond) – 9
Carolyn Hennesy (Diane Miller) – 9
Jamil Walker Smith (Jeffrey Scribner) – 9
Ilene Kristen (Delia Ryan) – 8
Hannah Nordberg (Josslyn Jacks) – 8
N/A (Gabriel Santiago) – 8
Drew Cheetwood (Milo Giambetti) – 5
Mitchell Fink (William Eichner) – 3
Tristan Rogers (Robert Scorpio) – 3
Kelly Sullivan (Kate/Connie Falconeri) – 3
Bradford Anderson (Damian Spinelli) – 2
Natalia Livingston (Emily Quartermaine) – 2
Emily Wilson (Ellie Trout) – 2
Tamara Braun (Carly Jacks) – 1
Sarah Brown (Carly Jacks)-1

[Sake614]

Michelle Stafford (Nina Clay) – 47

Considering she's only been on the show for two months, that's pretty scary!

[KerleyQ]

And of the top 10 there, how many even existed like 2-3 years ago?  Four of them? 

[OnceSane]

And of the top 10 there, how many even existed like 2-3 years ago?  Four of them? 

 

Five.  Sonny, Sam, Dante, Liz, & Carly.  Anna & Patrick are just outside the top 10.

[KerleyQ]

Oops!  How did I skip Dante? 

[ulkis]

Guza started wrecking the show from the instant he took over as head writer.  He's the one who engineered the CarSon disaster, he's the one who decimated the character of Tony Jones beyond redemption, he's the one who decided that we should cheer for a guy who put another man on a meathook so he could steal his child, he's the one who trashed a major legacy character for years on end, who turned the character of Courtney from a somewhat appealing girl-from-the-wrong-side-of-the-tracks into SWMNBN, who shat on the character of Alexis because NLG ended up having more chemistry with MB than his pet TB*, who decided to make a mob thug and his brain-damaged sidekick into romantic leads and the stars of the show... and all this was before he started sadistically killing off Quartermaines practically every sweeps period.  There is no one - No. One. - who wrecked General Hospital as thoroughly, completely, and with such speed as Bob Guza.  [spits on ground].

 

 

I think he did a lot of good things . . . early Carly, clink-boom, Jax, return of the Cassadines, the rape revisited. But yeah, you could seeds of the habits that later got out of control, especially in his debut episodes of 1997 (Nikolas' shooting).

[jsbt]

I think Guza did a lot of good for GH. But he had a fundamental conflict of interest with the larger tapestry and ethos of the show, which is why he always needed someone like Wendy Riche to keep him in check. Even then the cracks began to show. When she was gone, he turned GH into something for him, his fiefdom, not for GH itself. It had a lot to do, I think, with his desperately wanting to be out of soaps and in primetime or cable. So he tried to bring primetime to him. He tried to graft a cynical, grittier sensibility onto a brand he'd been working in for years, and if he had to mutilate large swaths of his own characters and the show's wealth of history, that was fine - he thought he was just being more 'honest' about the characters and the world. Sometimes he was, back in the '90s. By the end, it was just adolescent misanthropy. He couldn't see what he'd done to so many of his old favorites like Stefan, Nikolas, Alexis, Jax, Carly, Brenda, etc. or maybe he was just so tired of the grind and past caring.

 

There are a lot of writers in soaps like that, who do good work and then lose perspective over time - they go from writing for the thing they love to, for a variety of different reasons, warping it into something that only they can love, that is the way it is because this is the way they have come to understand the show, because they say so and their ego or vision or both has come to supercede the fabric of the show. Ron Carlivati has gone the same way at both OLTL and GH, over time. For different reasons than Bob Guza.

Edited August 30, 2014 by jsbt

[CPP83]

Guza started wrecking the show from the instant he took over as head writer.  He's the one who engineered the CarSon disaster, he's the one who decimated the character of Tony Jones beyond redemption, he's the one who decided that we should cheer for a guy who put another man on a meathook so he could steal his child, he's the one who trashed a major legacy character for years on end, who turned the character of Courtney from a somewhat appealing girl-from-the-wrong-side-of-the-tracks into SWMNBN, who shat on the character of Alexis because NLG ended up having more chemistry with MB than his pet TB*, who decided to make a mob thug and his brain-damaged sidekick into romantic leads and the stars of the show... and all this was before he started sadistically killing off Quartermaines practically every sweeps period.  There is no one - No. One. - who wrecked General Hospital as thoroughly, completely, and with such speed as Bob Guza.  [spits on ground].

 

 

 

Guza had his favorites and he had a certain style of writing that he never compromised on, but I don't agree he immediately started ripping apart the show as early as I feel Ron has been doing.

 

To me I can't think of a single story line so far from Ron that I liked, enjoyed, at the very least found interesting, or thought the end results justified some of the crappier middle parts. He starts off bad and gets worse, and worse and just when I think it can't get any more painful/stupid/insulting/ridiculous he goes and proves me wrong. .

 

Guza built up his awfulness and then it just became like a choke around this show's neck, Ron, imo, attached his choke right off the bat, perhaps he carried it over from OLTL.

 

Guza had some high points, I will give him that begrudgingly, but so far Ron's track record on the show, for me, has him at zero, he has had no highs, no semi-highs, it's all been down hill, and at a speed I just don't feel anyone else has matched.

[Chairperson Meow]

Dude. GH is so high with ratings because it has no real competition. Let Brad Bell sell one of his unicorns and make a one hour soap to compete with it and watch the ratings fall.

And I'm scared at that episode count. Micheal Easton is bored as fuck. And Maurice, it's vacay time. I hear anywhere but the set is good this time of year.

[Francie]

As to the episode count, three of Finola's 75 episodes consisted of three lines of dialogue -- total -- as she walked the red carpet for the nurses ball, told Dr. O. not to mention her daughter's name, and then just sat there.  She's also showed up halfway through a couple episodes, just to deliver news ("your embryos are fine") or play boss to Nathan and Dante. And I mean literally and not in a fun, wink-wink kind of way. What a waste.

 

As to scheduling, I grew up watching GH and it was only because it was at 3:00 p.m. and I could watch it after school. It was the soap that all my friends watched.  When I was about 12, I moved to the West Coast. GH was on at 2:00 p.m. and I only made it home in time for the last 10 minutes, and then when my school schedule changed the following year, I wasn't home in time at all.  No one I knew at the new school watched GH. They all watched Days, which was on at lunch-time, instead.  I always wondered if there was a big East Coast/Midwest and West Coast difference in the under 18 demo, because it seemed to me like the East Coast was the only side of the country where the show aired at 3:00 p.m.

Edited September 1, 2014 by Francie

[cgoff0704]

 

 

Billy Miller and Michelle Stafford

Edited September 2, 2014 by cgoff0704

[jazzyscreenname]

Um, ride em cowgirl?

He is wearing a black shirt.

[GHScorpiosRule]

He is wearing a black shirt.

 

Yeah, but not a black T-Shirt.

[jazzyscreenname]

NuJase. Same color, different look.

[CPP83]

Well those pictures send a chill down my spine. Oy. Though he is sturdy enough to lug Michelle around so there's that, I guess...I need a drink.

[Tiger]

I hope they put NuJasus and Nina in lots of scenes together so I can fast-forward them both. Even better if they are paired romantically.

[ulkis]

Suzanne Lanoue ‏@SuzanneLan 8h

@carlivatiron Why do you have educated people like Shawn saying "me & my boys are watching her"? It's fine for Sonny but Shawn was a teacher

 

Ron's response

@SuzanneLan Jesuit high school, Jesuit college & law school. C'mon, Suzanne, do you really think it was in the script that way? Be kind.

 

 

Mmm. Yes Ron. Yes I do think it was in the script that way.

[Kitty Redstone]

That guy is such an asshole.  He never takes responsibility for anything.  It's always the actors' fault, or the editors, or (more often) the fans.  His stories and pacing are crap and his ego is huge.  I wish GH would replace him.  Writers who have talent, self-awareness, sense, and social grace are out there.

[jsbt]

Yeah, come on, Suzanne!

I remember Suzanne Lanoue from somewhere, I think we may have crossed paths back on RATSA in the '90s and early 2000s. What a blast from the past.

[dubbel zout]

What makes this even funnier for me is that Ron is CONSTANTLY tweeting lines from the show. Suddenly this is the one he didn't write?

[SlovakPrincess]

"Be kind"? A ha ha ha! The man writes a show that basically extols evil and acts of cruelty over good at this point, in the name of camp.

[Melgaypet]

Yes, how unkind it is to assume a line of dialogue was actually written in the script. That's clearly ridiculous and mean-spirited.

 

Ron is such a petty child on Twitter, it still amazes me.

[Tiger]

Actually, I am going to give Ron the benefit of the doubt here.  Given that they don't do second takes or rehearsal, I can see lots of situations where Ron or whoever scripts the scene one way, but the actor flips a few words around or changes a few words and it comes across as poor grammar even though it was was actually written correctly.

[ulkis]

It's not that it's out of the realm of possibility, but that Carlivati is acting like it's not. And plus generally throwing the actor under the bus. Couldn't he just say "Sometimes both the writers and the actors slip up here and there"? Instead he had to throw out how he went to LAW SCHOOL and would never make such a mistake!

[Carrie Ann]

Or he could have just not responded to the tweet at all, but he seems pathologically incapable of doing that, so....

[Chairperson Meow]

I can't believe he actually threw one of his best actors, who could legitimately walk away and have a film career, under the bus. Defend your actors.

[Ambrosefolly]

I can't believe he actually threw one of his best actors, who could legitimately walk away and have a film career, under the bus. Defend your actors.

 

If the scripts that Sean Blakemore gets on a regular basis from TIIC isn't making him try to book pilot season, I don't see this doing it. 

This show made one classical beautiful man, a man so gorgeous that Tamara Taylor's character on Bones (a beauty in her own right) believable drooled over him on sight, almost completely unappealing (though Guza did paved the way).

[Chairperson Meow]

I'm surprised Shondra Rhimes hasn't snatched him and TRi up already. Especially for the new show. They are too good for this shit show. And Ron is a jerk for throwing this man under the bus.

[ulkis]

nevermind

Edited September 7, 2014 by ulkis

[Francie]

I'm with SlovakPrincess as to Dr. O and Anna teaming up. Look, it'd be one thing if they had Dr. O locked up, Hannibal Lector style, and Anna went to her and they collaborated that way. Even that would be tough, given what Dr. O did to Robin, and Robert, and Duke.

 

This would be more like Hannibal Lector getting a pardon and walking around, poised to eat people when the opportunity and craving strikes, and Clarice Sterling being all, "Yeah, what are you going to do? Not let my grandchild in the same room as her? You're crazy."  It's too far on the other side of the believability line.

 

Let's not forget Dr. O nearly killed Duke in an attempt to kill Anna. Is she still supposed to be that dangerous or not? The fact that people walk around here like she's just a bad, cranky boss and not a murderer who would do you in if she felt the craving and had the opportunity is preposterous. It makes characters like Anna and Patrick pod people.

 

Which is why I'm not DVR-ing tomorrow's show in spite of the fact that I'm one of the biggest Anna fanatics there is. I'm done with Ron's GH. I'll take my memories rather than his pathetic scraps.

 

 

also don't understand why the cast is so large. How is that possible when the budget is repeatedly slashed? Unless the lesser shown people get paid peanuts and wasting our time with Milo and Spencer and the other kiddies makes it worth it somehow because the major players are super expensive? How much $$ was wasted on Richard Simmons coming back to be annoying last year? Or even Jack Wagner, since it seems very little, story wise, came from Frisco visiting town?

 

Let me give you a glimpse (as scary as it may be) inside Ron's mind:

 

It really isn't ADD so much as he has eyes bigger than his canvas: He really, really wants the kid storyline, and the Scotty/Lucy/Kevin/Bobbie quad, and the Franco/Nina possibility, and lots and lots of Dr. O., and Donna Mills ... and Heather! How can he give up Heather? Oh, and the Cassadines! They are so delicious! And speaking of delicious .... Lucas and Brad and Nathan, errrr, and Felix. And Laura and Deception ... and Milo! And Epiphany! And Richard Simmons!

 

I also don't think Frank wants any actor or character to get big enough to be able to hijack the show. He doesn't want a Tony Geary or a Susan Lucci who can dictate salary demands. So, 80 characters and 12 to 15 storylines (seriously! when you add them up, it's that many!) There isn't a single actor on the show nowadays they couldn't drop, and there isn't a single storyline they couldn't just end poorly on a dime. They've done it before. They'll do it again (bye Burton! bye Tristan!).  They could even wrap up the Fluke storyline without Tony returning, if they really wanted. It wouldn't be good, but they could. Besides, will it really be any good even when Tony finally returns (and I bet he isn't back until January, and not airing until February).

[WendyCR72]

I hope they put NuJasus and Nina in lots of scenes together so I can fast-forward them both. Even better if they are paired romantically.

 

Better still they return to the land of the dead and/or coma land. Why can't I have nice things?

[Francie]

Check out these responses at the ABCDaytime site:

 

"ABCDaytime wants to know what are your favorite #Nina meltdowns? LMAO that went over really well http://mb.abc.go.com/discussions/General_Hospital/_/_/abc0000d4/13056.1 "

Edited September 8, 2014 by Francie

[ulkis]

Kristen has stated she prefers to play the heroine - she used to actively speak against Starr 'going back to her old ways' on OLTL.

 

For all I know she's changed her mind since, but for years she did not want to play to her strengths. And I'm sure she may be somewhat cognizant that keeping her as the ingenue continues to perpetuate the image Frank and Ron have of her as youth demographic gold.

 

 

Sometimes I wonder, despite her mugging with her Emmy, if she doesn't realize her limitations. Why else would a 21 year old sign with another soap for years instead of trying to get other gigs? She should have tons of cash from her decade plus on OLTL, and this is the time for her to try to make it big, or bigger. I just feel like most early twentysomething actors who were in her position who had faith in their own acting ability would go out and try to strike while the iron's hot.

[Sake614]

ROFLMAO!!! I love those responses! Bet ABCD is sorry they asked lol!

[dubbel zout]

Hee. I'm sure ABCD is thinking either "haters gonna hate" or "lalalalalala, I can't hear you."

[testardo]

Never ask a question you don't already know the answer to. Guess no one like jazz hands.

[yowsah1]

I also don't think Frank wants any actor or character to get big enough to be able to hijack the show.

 

I wonder if that's not a bit of a reaction to the Guza years, where there was an actor (Maurice Bernard, later Steve Burton) that was big enough to hijack the show.  Although I wouldn't say they "got" big, more they were "made" big.

[Chairperson Meow]

That's the coolest thing I've read all week.