GH In The News: The PC Press Club

[Cattitude]

ABC SID has a little interview with Constance Towers about Helena's return.  Sounds like Hells has got some good story coming up, yay!

 

http://abc.soapsindepth.com/2014/09/the-secrets-of-helenas-return.html

 

 

Well this sounds exciting. Thanks for that.

 

And I got an extra chuckle out of that Indepth cover. Even in a picture Patrick manages to look like a bored douche.haha

Edited September 18, 2014 by Cattitude

[HeatLifer]

And I got an extra chuckle out of that Indepth cover. Even in a picture Patrick manages to look like a bored douche.haha

LMAO. He looks like he's phoning it in. Like, "Oh, a photoshoot? Ok. We done? Ok."

[Tiger]

My sincere condolences to those of you watching Y&R.   I think Chuck Pratt may be even worse than Guza!

Edited September 20, 2014 by Tiger

[BestestAuntEver]

Are TPTB attempting to kill that show? Pratt & JFP? Hahahaha, makes me appreciate Cartini

[WendyCR72]

Are TPTB attempting to kill that show? Pratt & JFP? Hahahaha, makes me appreciate Cartini

 

Eh, Cartini is just the opposite side of the crap coin, to me, as far as all of these other show killers go. They are all part of the same pack.

[ulkis]

Oh, Kin. This cracked me up.

 

https://twitter.com/kinshriner/status/512712899807019008/photo/1

Edited September 20, 2014 by ulkis

[Chairperson Meow]

Lol. What's worse. .....

The name on the soda or his pornstache?

[OnceSane]

The pornstache is worse.

[Tiger]

I love how the cover of the CBS soap rag has Steve Burton and Melody Thompson posing like a supercouple, when they play mother and son . . . 

[jsbt]

From the Relationships thread, ulkis and I were discussing some of the writing for characters like Dante and Lulu:

 

 

 

Oh, no, I mean I do think they are writing him slightly better than they used, but of course how they are writing him now is no comparison to the Guza days, in terms of character. But I don't think the writers are capable of writing that even if they wanted to. Maybe for characters they knew better. I mean, everyone talks about how good Scott Sickles was on OLTL, and I kinda did see that, when he wrote those episode where Blair came to visit when Starr started at the Haunted Star and she announced her engagement to Tomas. But on GH, he's been one of my least favorite writers.

 

A lot of people online (not you) seem to go back and forth on Scott Sickles and it cracks me up. I remember when he used to be called Ron's one good writer, then he was Ron's worst and now people talk about how they despise him. I think the truth is somewhere more human and in-between.

 

IIRC, yeah, he did write those scenes for Todd and Blair in the summer of 2012 which were really very good and mature, and honestly without those scenes their semi-rushed reunion on OLTL 2.0 would have had much less preexisting foundation. He also did a lot of good work at OLTL, IMO. But he's also written a lot of just straight-up comedy or in-jokes that have driven people nuts, especially at GH. I don't have a problem with comedy or in-jokes, I have had a lot of time for it in the past with this team, but when it's wall-to-wall, as it often is these days in Sickles or others' scripts, it's honestly kind of suffocating and becomes just so self-satisfied and obnoxious. Like, I get that you're amusing yourselves and in another context this might all be very witty, but these stories are all terrible.

 

I think the real takeaway for me from all of that is that a lot of (but not all) staff writers are only as good as whoever's at the head of the ship, and what the directive is - Karen Harris, Michele ValJean, etc. all scripted over a lot of absolute dreck Guza and Pratt wrote, and not all of those daily scenes they wrote were gold; while Harris has talked often about how little time they had to turn something of substance out by the end of her tenure (2010-2011), many of the scenes did get slacker and lazier as the years went on. And there was really, really broad stuff in 2003-2005 that was definitely almost at this level. The summer of 2005 is, IMO, one of the worst periods in GH's post-McTavish history, and I think that's when they knew they had to make some real changes.

 

Anyway, FV and RC brought a lot of people from OLTL over, and to my knowledge the only preexisting GH writer left is Liz Korte who they may need to corral the troops. A lot of the best OLTL staff writers went over to DOOL (where Ron did not hesitate to diss them when they won that Emmy or nom or whatever the other year) so they're not here. But some of these people have done good work, Sickles included. I think it's the larger vision's that the mess.

Edited September 24, 2014 by jsbt

[Ambrosefolly]

My feeling about writers, I think that most present day soap writers can be really good, even excellent on one soap, but flounder when they move onto another, or at least that is what I found with ABC daytime soaps. 

 

What RC/FV did was the opposite of what Douglas Marland would have done, which is get rid of most of the staff and replace them with their own. Now there are a few people who know the history of the show and probably why when history is mentioned, it sounds like characters are reading wiki articles. 

[Tiger]

What I find interesting sting about the Guza staff as opposed to the Cartini staff is that under Gaza I always knew if a particular episode would suck or based on that days' scriptwriter, whereas under Cartini I've seen the same writers script both fantastic episodes and crap episodes.

Edited September 25, 2014 by Tiger

[Fylaki]

I wonder to if the leeway given to the days writers varies from Head Writer to Head Writer, did Guza keep a tighter reign, as much as his stories were far to Sonny-Carly-Jason centric at least he did not have things happen off screen that we were suppose to find out later on, and I think he would have handled block taping better. We never would have had the three week lag between Maxie meeting Frisco at the Rib, to a conversation later on in another location. The next day would have picked up right there, block or no block.....now granted it would have picked up with Jason coming in and punching Frisco for leaving Maxie and Georgie, or Sonny reading him the riot act about what a bad Dad he was, but at least it would have picked up right there.

 

Ron is to erratic, all over the place with what seems to be no direction and it shows in the daily writer. Do the writers get notes saying "Don't worry about explaining this, I already mentioned it on twitter"? 

 

Also how much input do the day-writers get? Can they say "Ron, This thing with Patrick and Robin, it's not a love story" or does he shut them down.

[Chairperson Meow]

I'd love to be a fly on the wall.

I still say Roger is going to write a tell all one day. And it will be glorious.

[dubbel zout]

Also how much input do the day-writers get? Can they say "Ron, This thing with Patrick and Robin, it's not a love story" or does he shut them down.

 

He probably shuts them down. Or threatens to fire them. Look what happens when viewers dare comment.

Edited September 25, 2014 by dubbel zout

[ulkis]

Can Ron fire the other writers? I thought it was only Frank V. with that power.

[HeatLifer]

Ron seems like the type you have to be like, "Well, I LOVE LOVE LOVE this this and this about what you're doing. You're SO AMAZINGGGG. But, maybe, you could..."

 

That's the only way I see any type of criticism or changes flying with him. Ha.

[Fylaki]

 

Can Ron fire the other writers? I thought it was only Frank V. with that power.

I wonder, aren't they suppose to be great friends? Would Frank just take Ron's word? How much power, other than budget, does Frank have, can he change story lines?  If he can that he is as much a hack as Ron for allowing some of the drivel on the air, and he like Ron is looking to make GH a spoof of all things soap

[TheGourmez]

Oh, Kin. This cracked me up.

 

https://twitter.com/kinshriner/status/512712899807019008/photo/1

 

That's hilarious.

[Cattitude]

Okay sometimes it scares me where Ron's mind is. This is a random picture he tweeted. It looks like bad photoshop and WTH? Spencer Really?

And what was the point anyway? #random

 

https://twitter.com/carlivatiron/status/516081736904884224/photo/1

[Chairperson Meow]

Um.....I guess this means we get Tequan Richmond scripts, a new agent, and a protection order from Ron now?

Seriously, stay away from Tequan. I will get Chris Rock to mess you up if you keep putting his baby brother in shit storylines, Ron.

(If you get that, I love you and you get a Cake!)

[dubbel zout]

I love the "They're all so short!" comment. Hee.

[rur]

 

And what was the point anyway?

 

Maybe it was supposed to be an homage to the old GH opening w/ all the guys in tuxes?? That's all I've got. 

[MichaelaRae]

Brought over from the episode discussion thread:

 

The overall ratings are up and down AFAIK, but the individual reaction to those performers [Franco, Silas, Kiki] has been, uh, mixed at best from the start. They did focus groups or something on them starting last year, and it wasn't looking good IIRC. It's been a while, but what I recall is that it may have looked half-decent (but not great) for Silas and Sam once upon a time but the rest were a debacle. And of course, Silas and Sam are now kaput.

 

And isn't that just typical Ron? The one thing that people were responding to, even somewhat, he throws away the minute something shiny comes along (and by shiny, I mean, one or more former Y&R actors he can poach) but the things people appear to hate, by God, he will hang onto them with perversity. Hell, he more than hangs on - he pushes harder.

 

I despised the way Guza et al. apparently felt they needed to "train" us as viewers. But between Ron's insistence on "making fetch happen" CONSTANTLY, with idea after idea, and his God-awful social media behavior, I really am thinking that he actively HATES what he views as the typical soap fan. He may "love" soap operas, but I do not believe for an instant he actually loves the soap opera audience. I think he hates it and takes some twisted pleasure in fucking with it.

 

(Caveat: I do NOT want GH run by focus group. Lord knows that's what gave us the Decade of Suck. But in that case, by most accounts, those focus groups were cherry picked and basically reaffirming what TIIC already wanted to do - all Sonny/Carly/Jason and the mob, all the time. I find it fascinating that they are doing focus groups now sound as if they are somewhat less biased and maybe telling them what they're doing wrong - for once - and Ron is so petulant that he'll go out of his way to do the opposite.)

Edited October 1, 2014 by MichaelaRae

[Chairperson Meow]

Yeah, if focus groups are like fb posters, no. I don't need All Sonny, Sonny is Awesome, Sonny My Lives, Yay Sonny. No.

[jsbt]

Somewhat germane to everyone's recent discussion of the mess that is Kiki, Kristen Alderson is interviewed at SON. I think a lot of her commentary on the character and how TPTB at the show view her, while misguided IMO, is very telling.

Edited October 1, 2014 by jsbt

[HeatLifer]

I'm sorry, is she trying to say she's a core character?

[Chairperson Meow]

She's a core character like Sonny is a great guy.

[WendyCR72]

I'm sorry, is she trying to say she's a core character?

 

What the hell?

[HeatLifer]

She's a core character like Sonny is a great guy.

LOL. She's only there bc of her personal relationship with those in charge. Like, she needs to take a large seat.

[dubbel zout]

“I think that we’re really focusing on the core characters again; for awhile, we were bringing in a lot of [past characters], and I think now, they’re kind of like, ‘Ok, the characters that we have now, let’s really broaden their horizons,"

I'm sorry, is she trying to say she's a core character?

 

I know! And the that last part: "Let's really broaden their horizons." Also LOL that there's a difference between Lauren and Starr. The only difference is Lauren hasn't gotten pregnant (yet).

Edited October 1, 2014 by dubbel zout

[jsbt]

To me, the most telling bit is Ron saying he can't stop writing Starr. That has been evident from the jump.

[HeatLifer]

I know! And the that last part: "Let's really broaden their horizons." Also LOL that there's a difference between Lauren and Starr. The only difference is Lauren hasn't gotten pregnant (yet).

Even worse, she's like the poor man's Starr.

To me, the most telling bit is Ron saying he can't stop writing Starr. That has been evident from the jump.

Ron needs to stop writing in general.

[TeeVee329]

She also seems to think Kiki sticking her snout into other peoples' business, business that has nothing to do with her, is a positive (!!!) character trait that makes her cool and independent or whatever.  Girl is trippin'.

Edited October 1, 2014 by TeeVee329

[Lillybee]

Can we chip in and send her to directing school? Anything to get rid of her vortex of suck.

[Chairperson Meow]

Oh great then poor Chad is naked all day, everyday.

[Fylaki]

Does any one else think that Sonny could be compelling if he was just allowed to be evil? It is not that he gets away with stuff that bothers me, villains on TV, especially soaps always get away with things, it is that Ron and Wolfe continued the Guza Era white washing of Sonny into a "good mobster". Same with Jason. Jason as a brain damaged killer, corrupted by Mob Boss Sonny, whose family and friends still try to find the Jason Q they once loved, would have been a tragic character, Jason the borg or Jason the hero hitman were not. Sonny as a powerful crime boss whose web of lies effects all around him would be great. Sonny the Gummi Bear Mafia Head sucks

 

(Not that I am saying SB or MB could have pulled off deeper....though MB might have years ago)

[LegalParrot81]

Kristen Alderson needs to just not speak.  First, blatantly dissing the actors who are brought back to play characters that the viewers have watched for years and can totally relate to is incredibly disrespectful. Without those actors and those characters, she wouldn't have had the possibility of having a job handed to her.  To then claim her character is somehow a "core character" shows just how out of control her ego is and lastly, she needs to acknowledge that without Frank and Ron creating a character for her, she'd probably be doing something not in the entertainment industry.

 

I'll never forgive Frank and Ron for forcing her on the viewers.

[Harmony233]

IA I actually liked sonny once upon a time I remember when characters were allowed to hate him and weren't thought horribly.I remember when Brenda came back you had everyone harping and how Brenda was so horrible for sonny.Say what I would have understood if it was the opposite.THen it was anytime anybody hated sonny they was the wrong ones.It wasn't sonnys fault that he shot Dante.It wasn't sonnys fault he tried to kill Jax and fired a gun in Robins house ect.Characters shoud have consquences for there actions.Personally I'm sick of sonny and wish they would reset him for about 6 months to a year.

[Chairperson Meow]

I remember a you tube clip I stumbled on where Jason and AJ were in Q Manor warning Brenda away from Sonny. I loved that.

[Chairperson Meow]

She's a core character like I'm Gwen Stefani. Holla.

[tveyeonyou]

Ugh. I'm watching Red Band Society and there's Spencer playing a young Jordy in flashbacks. At least he wasn't as obnoxious.

[testardo]

I remember a you tube clip I stumbled on where Jason and AJ were in Q Manor warning Brenda away from Sonny. I loved that.

I remember that. Ned also didn't want Brenda to go near Sonny. But Lois grew up in Bensonhurst all together. I thought it was funny the way Jason went from a good guy, about to become a doctor to Sonny's lackey. brain dead one at that.

. Sonny may have been the gummy bear mobster, his club with ple dancing. He was a fagin character using teens. He had Stone running errands, plus other teens. he put hits on everyone who crossed him. Jagger was Stones brothers. etc. and He can't be bad and good. Karen was a hurting teen, Sonny used that and pushed drugs on her. Sonny was never a character I liked.

[yowsah1]

I thought it was funny the way Jason went from a good guy, about to become a doctor to Sonny's lackey. brain dead one at that.

 

You can thank Steve Burton for that.  He apparently found Jason Q too "whimpy" and "unmanly", and pushed for a storyline that would revamp the character into something more to his liking.  Jason Morgan the character was designed almost completely to his specifications.

Edited October 6, 2014 by yowsah1

[dubbel zout]

Jason Q was pretty saccharine. I don't blame SBu for wanting the character to have an edge. But the pendulum swung totally in the opposite direction and stayed there. Blech.

[nextian]

So Nancy Lee Grahn was going off on Twitter about Gone Girl, the movie. Complaining about the ending, the price of the movie, etc. It all seemed a bit much but whatever, then she tweeted that casting Neil Patrick Harris as a man who wants to sleep with a woman totally took her out of the movie?! What the hell, sounds like she's implying that a gay actor shouldn't be cast as a straight character? That's absurd, and I thought she was supposed to be so liberal and progressive? Ridiculous, why don't people think before they tweet?

[ch1]

Maybe she was drinking.

 

Besides not being liberal, that comment seems kind of bone headed coming from a person making her living as an actor.

 

Also, she must have missed the last 10 years of NPH playing a straight guy.

[nextian]

Yeah exactly, isn't the whole point of acting playing something other then yourself? She has deleted the tweets now that people are upset with her, but she is still going off on some people, it's a bit disturbing. Maybe people should stay off Twitter when they are drinking or ranting?

[SwordQueen]

KA is the one who sounds drunk.  Core character?!  Core as in apple core, maybe.  You know, the part that gets tossed in favor of the yummy fruit surrounding it.   

 

I just hate Twitter.  Ron's on there.   'Nuff said.

[Chairperson Meow]

I'm sorry not sorry, but if I were an actor, I'd prefer NPH's career over any cast membet of GH anyday and twice on Tuesday.