GH In The News: The PC Press Club

[standbyme]

I like Michael Easton just fine, but his run on GH, to me personally, cannot be compared to JJ. I can see a lot of people are displeased about his return, and I feel bad about that, because there's so little left to enjoy on GH. But nothing can kill my buzz about seeing my favorite soap actor return to the role he created as a child.  That is, until the show writes a terrible storyline for him, which is sure to happen. 

[tessaray]

2 hours ago, tessabq said:

GH has a sad modern history of not knowing what to do with truly talented actors, male and female. 

I'm cynical enough to wonder if it's really cluelessness or if it's intentional. If you showcase an actor, what do they usually want? More money, more perks like long vacations or out of their contracts. 🙂

[tessabq]

7 minutes ago, tessaray said:

I'm cynical enough to wonder if it's really cluelessness or if it's intentional. If you showcase an actor, what do they usually want? More money, more perks like long vacations or out of their contracts. 🙂

GH is willing to do that for some actors, but not others, and the ones they choose aren't always the most talented. Of course, viewers' opinions vary widely on who is talented and who isn't. LOL I wrote about soaps for years and TPTB motivations were often financial but often simply dumbfounding.  

 

[jsbt]

17 hours ago, tessaray said:

 I think ME's daytime status was pretty comparable to JJ's overall.

Maybe 20 years ago. And never on GH.

18 hours ago, FilmTVGeek80 said:

I think that's a bit unfair, especially since I think you're including Caleb (or whatever the character's name ended up being on GH.) That character was on simultaneously as Silas and wasn't meant to be a regular character. If it weren't for circumstances outside of ME's control, he would probably still be playing John McBain here. They gave up on Silas too quickly, but I liked Finn better. He played Finn for 7(?) years. That's not a failure, in my book. 

I included Caleb because he played that character on this show. He played four characters on GH. Silas was unpopular and was killed. Finn was unpopular and was written out. Our personal takes on these characters can vary and that's fair and valid, but that's the reality for the majority of the general audience at GH. These characters did not move the needle.

ME (like many other unpopular stars still on GH atm in fairness, and like Roger Howarth in the past) was only kept on this show for over a decade due to institutional inertia, network disinterest in GH's quality for the majority of those years, and an EP in charge who has kept favored status for him on this show owing to their personal and professional relationship from another soap opera (a show I loved my whole life, for the record) for 20+ years. That's a failure, but it's failing up. It happens all the time, especially on soaps. We all know about that kind of preferential treatment.

I don't think Michael Easton is a bad guy or untalented. I've never heard an unkind word about the man. I thought as McBain, he actually worked on GH. But Finn stopped having the minor amount of juice he had years ago. Silas never worked. The OLTL employment office should've closed in 2014. But it took a network act of God to get Roger fired twice, and it took Jonathan Jackson (and probably some renewed network oversight) to make ME go. That's just the way it is. 

As for Finn's arc: Yes, it was rushed as Easton rightly says, but they clearly wanted to broom the character out and move on and it was past time. So I was fine with that. I thought he did some good work and some of the scenes were very good surrounding his downward spiral. Though if it was me I'd have started it earlier and made it much darker. Finn's paranoid rants about the Quartermaines to Scott were like something out of GH 1999, and his irrational aggression with Liz, Portia, etc. and the nasty intellectual crossing swords with Alexis were all scenes visceral and compelling to watch. He could've had a longer, darker disintegration for a couple months if the show had played things out earlier overall, the kind of material this show has done before (including with Lucky, and it is so stupid that anyone let multiple scenes with Liz suddenly being newly educated about addiction go to air given her past with Lucky among others), and frankly I would've ended it in Finn drunkenly crashing his car into GH or something with Violet in the passenger's seat. Say what you will about Guza but that's how this would've ended vs. just a whimper. I wouldn't need to kill Finn, but any kind of action and high drama that gets this moribund show's heart rate up is desperately needed right now.

Edited July 2 by jsbt

[ciarra]

JJ's return is like the Backstreet Boys doing a Downy commercial.  It's retro, it's nostalgic, but is he relevant to this show any more?  Liz is all grown up, his Oyrish nurse, Siobhan, is dead.  Other romantic prospects? 

He could go visit Nik in jail, and Laura at the mayor's office, but how long will that take? 

I wonder if the kid who plays Aiden will tower over him?

[GHScorpiosRule]

1 hour ago, ciarra said:

JJ's return is like the Backstreet Boys doing a Downy commercial.  It's retro, it's nostalgic, but is he relevant to this show any more? 

Yes. He's a Spencer. There is a lot of story still to be mined with him. As has been stated up thread, JJ is one of the best actors out there, who started on this show, and I, for one, am thrilled and looking forward to seeing Lucky connect, reconnect with everyone, SAVE that heifer of a Shebeast.

Edited July 2 by GHScorpiosRule

[jsbt]

1 hour ago, ciarra said:

JJ's return is like the Backstreet Boys doing a Downy commercial.  It's retro, it's nostalgic, but is he relevant to this show any more?

Compared to 90% of the current cast?

[Grinaldi]

There are plenty of stories to tell with Lucky. Hell, he could bring story with him. Is he running from something? Is he bringing someone with him? How does his presence affect his kids? There is plenty to mine with Jake alone.

And my spec on the Aiden story was just that. I hope my concern is unfounded. Without those reports of deleted scenes I wouldn't have considered it. He is a pro from everything I have heard about him.

[jsbt]

32 minutes ago, Grinaldi said:

There are plenty of stories to tell with Lucky. Hell, he could bring story with him. Is he running from something? Is he bringing someone with him? How does his presence affect his kids? There is plenty to mine with Jake alone.

Considering the show has never really dug into Lois' own sea change about the Quartermaines (I rewatched her exit scenes from 1996, and they were very good but brutal in her autopsy of the family right down to Monica and Lila - a precursor of the harsher writing re: the family that came in '99) to where she's now lovey-dovey about them and Tracy, I don't expect this nuance to appear in any future writing but I do wish they'd address that for many years Lucky was a very devoted parent and father to those boys. As he once told Luke, Cam and Jake were his sons, period. For years they bore his family name. I hate that that has fallen by the wayside and he's been supplanted by Franco or Drew or whoever, and I hope some of it can be repaired. Jake won't really have many memories of Lucky and Aiden none, but Cameron would.

Edited July 3 by jsbt

[driver18]

I still don't think that Finn leaving is because of JJ coming back. It's because Korte wanted to give her precious Chase/Brooklyn an insta family and decided that Violet was the perfect fit. If it was about getting rid of Finn for Elizabeth for Lucky so much of that story wouldn't have revolved around, oh, setting Violet up with Brooklyn and Chase. This, despite the fact that Finn had already designated Elizabeth as her caregiver.

Since Korte took over, Chase/Brooklyn have been the #1 spotlighted couple. This was her way of continuing to do so. Giving them an insta-family.

[jsbt]

Chase and BLQ are not that popular let alone interesting. It's not about them. It's about freeing up money for a male star. Offloading the kid onto whoever is around is just a side issue.

[driver18]

That's what makes sense on paper, but when you look at all the ways Finn could have gone and yet the way chosen one was that put Violet with Chase and BLQ... Even though Brooklyn never interacted with Violet like that before but Elizabeth did. And Elizabeth literally has the custody because it was spoken of. And Korte has made Chase/BLQ the main couple focused on. 

Everyone is just assuming it was ME for JJ. But you don't get Violet to Chase/BLQ without getting rid of Finn. And it wasn't a side story. A huge component of Finn's addiction story this go round was what is going to happen to Violet? And she was with Chase/BLQ. Legal papers were drawn up, and they already had her living with them EVEN before Finn left.

Same reason GH was probably let go after the wedding. Dealing with his deteriorating ALS would have been about him rather than him being all about Chase/BLQ. 

Look, I'm sure other factors came into it, but I think the first and main thing was that Korte wanted Violet for Chase/BLQ. They are clearly her new faves.

Edited July 3 by driver18

[Tenshinhan]

I'm not sure I would like to see Lucky return to be a father to his kids.  I don't really see JJ pulling that off.  Especially now that the boys are teenagers.  I think that he might as well leave the parenting up to Liz at this point.  

Fatherhood and GH just doesn't seem to click.  Maybe there are some exceptions, but in my view the male characters on this show seem to fare better when the stories revolve around their lives away from their children and families.

[driver18]

Lucky, when played by JJ on canvas, has always been an exceptional father.

[KerleyQ]

1 hour ago, driver18 said:

Look, I'm sure other factors came into it, but I think the first and main thing was that Korte wanted Violet for Chase/BLQ. They are clearly her new faves.

I think it was more about keeping Violet than anything else. Frank has a habit of getting attached to child actors and wanting to keep using them. And putting her with the Q's as a whole gives her a lot more opportunity for storyline than putting her at Liz's house (we barely see her two kids who live with her). I think that, if this was only about Chase/BLQ, Violet would have called Uncle Chase when she found Finn out cold on the floor. Instead, she called Tracy. I predict that, as time goes on, we're going to see a lot of her interacting with Tracy. The story gave Chase and BLQ some story right in the heat of it, when they were getting temporary custody, but I don't see it being some big story going forward. Now that they've got her, we'll see them with her just as much as we see any other GH parents with their kids. I'd predict we're going to see her spend at least as much screen time opposite Tracy as Chase/BLQ, possibly more with Tracy. 

[tvfanatic13]

I thought that JL (Violet) is also leaving. If so, isn't it moot as to who TPTB wanted Violet to be with? 

[jsbt]

3 hours ago, KerleyQ said:

I think it was more about keeping Violet than anything else.

Exactly. FV would cut half this show before dumping that fucking kid. He has a long history of spoiling the little rascals he cultivates on his shows. (Until, like Kristen Alderson, they grow up and ask for a standard pay bump at contract renewal time.) He held the Spencer role open for years praying Nicolas Bechtel would somehow grow into a gigachad twunk.

Edited July 3 by jsbt

[mostlylurking]

On 7/2/2024 at 11:48 AM, standbyme said:

like Michael Easton just fine, but his run on GH, to me personally, cannot be compared to JJ. I can see a lot of people are displeased about his return, and I feel bad about that, because there's so little left to enjoy on GH. But nothing can kill my buzz about seeing my favorite soap actor return to the role he created as a child.  That is, until the show writes a terrible storyline for him, which is sure to happen. 

 

21 hours ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

He's a Spencer. There is a lot of story still to be mined with him. As has been stated up thread, JJ is one of the best actors out there, who started on this show, and I, for one, am thrilled and looking forward to seeing Lucky connect, reconnect with everyone, SAVE that heifer of a Shebeast.

Make this a party of three!  I’m excited, and there is so little to be excited about in soaps (and life) lately.

I liked Brooklyn and Chase better before they got together.  They just took too damn long to actually admit their feelings and were so childish about it, I lost interest.

Michael Easton is such a pro.  He didn’t burn bridges, and he’s been good natured about everything.  I’ll say the same about Roger Howarth.  The Austin character never really got off the ground, but he took it in stride when he was let go, also for questionable reasons.  These guys know how this business works, and how to roll with it.

[Auntie Velvet]

I was looking at all the roles that ME has played in the Port Charles universe, and some of them seem to have morphed into others, while others were distinctly new roles....Anyway, it's at least six. So he's certainly had his shot.

 

[isalicat]

On 7/3/2024 at 5:33 PM, Auntie Velvet said:

I was looking at all the roles that ME has played in the Port Charles universe, and some of them seem to have morphed into others, while others were distinctly new roles....Anyway, it's at least six. So he's certainly had his shot.

 

I can only think of three: Caleb, the police detective, and now Finn. Who else was he? (just 'cause I am wondering and can't figure out how to Google this).

[KerleyQ]

6 minutes ago, isalicat said:

I can only think of three: Caleb, the police detective, and now Finn. Who else was he? (just 'cause I am wondering and can't figure out how to Google this).

He also played Silas, who was, if I remember correctly, Kiki, Willow, and Nelle's father. 

[jsbt]

1 hour ago, isalicat said:

I can only think of three: Caleb, the police detective, and now Finn. Who else was he? (just 'cause I am wondering and can't figure out how to Google this).

ME has played four characters on GH proper (Hamilton Finn, John McBain, Silas Clay, Caleb Morley/Stephen Clay). The poster appears to be counting characters from PC in the same universe though, and that would potentially include at least Caleb's alternate personality 'Michael' from PC who IIRC was initially believed to be his twin brother. I don't know of a sixth character though, unless we're counting PC's Caleb as a different Caleb from the crossover iteration on GH. (Ron Carlivati did give them a different origin - suggesting that this Caleb was just a lunatic who thought he was an immortal vampire - but the end of the storyline highly implied that it was in fact the original vampire Caleb from PC, and that his magic spell had simply tricked the world into believing otherwise.)

Edited July 5 by jsbt

[ciarra]

Maybe Lucky stayed away all this time to keep Carly from going to prison.

[Desperado]

9 hours ago, ciarra said:

Maybe Lucky stayed away all this time to keep Carly from going to prison.

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

[methodwriter85]

23 hours ago, ciarra said:

Maybe Lucky stayed away all this time to keep Carly from going to prison.

Thank God there is no possibility of Lucky falling in love with her. Lol

[ciarra]

1 hour ago, methodwriter85 said:

Thank God there is no possibility of Lucky falling in love with her. Lol

Everyone loves Carly!  Wasn't there a very special episode, many years ago, where Patrick Drake fell for Carly? 

[methodwriter85]

3 minutes ago, ciarra said:

Everyone loves Carly!  Wasn't there a very special episode, many years ago, where Patrick Drake fell for Carly? 

I meant sexually. Lucky is Carly's first biological cousin. 

[Bringonthedrama]

On 6/29/2024 at 8:11 PM, Desperado said:

What I will say now will be a very unpopular opinion, but here it goes… As far as I know, JJ is still an orthodox christian and after Steve Burton, Amanda Setton, and Josh Swickard, I am done with watching soap actors who refuse to do any type of sex related scenes the show on a consistent basis, 

JJ is an orthodox Christian, but he did a tasteful (sweet) sex scene with Rebecca Herbst for the episode where Lucky and Elizabeth conceived Aiden during their engagement. (I recall that JJ also had his shirt off in at least one scene when his character Avery was with his love interest in Nashville.)  Steve Burton had several sex scenes with Rebecca Herbst, the blackout night when Jason and Elizabeth conceived Jake due to a failed condom and then when they were seeing each other "secretly." I remember because fans of the Jason/Sam pairing were upset that compared to Jason and Elizabeth, Jason and Sam had never had a decent love scene. Years later, Burton played sexy again when Jason and Britt had a hot sex scene while on the run. 

As for Josh Swickard, he did have some sex scenes with Kate Mc_? and the two actors played Chase and Willow as very believably in love.  However, Chase's sexuality has been toned down since he and BLQ got together. JS has gotten married and become a father of two since Chase started on the show and quickly became attracted to Willow.  I can see how becoming a parent and being paired with a conservative actress would change his feelings about doing sex scenes. 

[mariah23]

Weekly Promo:  I didn’t think GH would go there but it looks like it.

 

[mostlylurking]

2 hours ago, mariah23 said:

Weekly Promo:  I didn’t think GH would go there but it looks like it.

Well damn.  Things might actually get interesting.

[KerleyQ]

I'm legitimately excited about this. I didn't think the show had the balls to go there. (Plus, I actually think the two of them have chemistry).  Now let's see how the show fucks this up to kill my enthusiasm. 

[DanaK]

GH alumni Doug Sheehan has died at 75, cause not given. He played Joe Kelly in his first major TV role in the late 70s and early 80s

https://tvline.com/news/doug-sheehan-dead-cause-of-death-knots-landing-1235279864/

[Daisy]

On 6/25/2024 at 3:14 PM, CeChase said:

I'm sincerely happy for his fans and those who wanted this.  If Lucky was coming back, and I thought he might be, I wanted Greg Vaughn.  I'm shallow and I want hot  men on the show, and JJ never did anything for me.  But that's me, and I really am happy for his fans and I hope this return helps the show, because it needs help. 

the show needed lucky
but i'm with you. I wanted Greg. 

[tessaray]

30 minutes ago, Daisy said:

the show needed lucky
but i'm with you. I wanted Greg. 

When it looked like GV was available, I was totally fine with him coming back as Lucky. Even though JJ's return is huge and I'm excited to see how they handle it, the odds that JJ stays long term are slim. And I want Lucky to stay more than I care who plays him.

 

[Daisy]

4 minutes ago, tessaray said:

When it looked like GV was available, I was totally fine with him coming back as Lucky. Even though JJ's return is huge and I'm excited to see how they handle it, the odds that JJ stays long term are slim. And I want Lucky to stay more than I care who plays him.

 

exactly
and i even though okay he comes back - and then they use this to introduce a NEW lucky but then it will be all "oh this isn't really lucky." (sigh)

[Jan Spears]

2 hours ago, DanaK said:

GH alumni Doug Sheehan has died at 75, cause not given. He played Joe Kelly in his first major TV role in the late 70s and early 80s

https://tvline.com/news/doug-sheehan-dead-cause-of-death-knots-landing-1235279864/

I read the news and came right here.

Doug Sheehan was such a big part of GH during the late-70s/early-80s. Even though it was the Luke-and-Laura 'Love on the Run' era, Joe Kelly was a central player in the Diana Taylor/Heather Webber murder mystery storyline, which went on for a long time and had a great twist resolution.

[CanaryFan98]

50 minutes ago, Jan Spears said:

I read the news and came right here.

Doug Sheehan was such a big part of GH during the late-70s/early-80s. Even though it was the Luke-and-Laura 'Love on the Run' era, Joe Kelly was a central player in the Diana Taylor/Heather Webber murder mystery storyline, which went on for a long time and had a great twist resolution.

Joe was also around the L&L stuff too he briefly dated Bobbie at one point also.

[Auntie Velvet]

Joe Kelly always got the short end of the stick. I think his father had stolen his crush out from under him when he married Rose. (That was all backstory, not on canvas, so I may be remembering it wrong.) But certainly Annie Logan, Bobbie, Heather, etc, always seemed to leave him or cheat on him for/with other men.

I was thinking about him not long ago and looked him up. It seemed like he had been involved in a theater company out west, but otherwise been pretty much retired for a long, long time.

 

On 7/4/2024 at 8:49 PM, KerleyQ said:

He also played Silas, who was, if I remember correctly, Kiki, Willow, and Nelle's father. 

I was counting his Port Charles (the show) roles. I didn't watch it, so it's hard to count the alter egos, etc. Six might be too high, but as I said, he's certainly had plenty of screentime in PC.

[Asp Burger]

9 hours ago, Auntie Velvet said:

Joe Kelly always got the short end of the stick. I think his father had stolen his crush out from under him when he married Rose. (That was all backstory, not on canvas, so I may be remembering it wrong.) But certainly Annie Logan, Bobbie, Heather, etc, always seemed to leave him or cheat on him for/with other men.

Same with Doug Sheehan's Knots Landing character, Ben Gibson. Val and Gary were the supercouple who were always going to end up together eventually, and Ben was Val's second husband, who got the thankless writing of "great guy, but not the love of her life."  

Sheehan was good at playing that kind of character, though. He had nice comedic timing and a lot of charm, like an Old Hollywood leading man from the Cary Grant era, and he could make you feel for him too. I missed him when he wasn't on the series anymore. (Back when I was a teenager still living at home, Thursday night at 10 was appointment TV!)

RIP. 

Edited July 9 by Asp Burger

[GHScorpiosRule]

4 hours ago, Asp Burger said:

Sheehan was good at playing that kind of character, though. He had nice comedic timing and a lot of charm, like an Old Hollywood leading man from the Cary Grant era,

Oh yes, he did. He was the recast in the tv version of Clueless as Cher's dad. I can't recall who they had initially-not the movie-but there was a short-lived television series.

I loved Joe Kelly. And it's so sad to read about his passing because I was hoping maybe they could bring him back. Then again, I remember who's running this clusterfuck.

[Pristine]

😓 I loved him in Day by Day, too!  

[Palimelon]

Quote

I wanted Greg Vaughn.  I'm shallow and I want hot  men on the show, and JJ never did anything for me

I'm the opposite. JJ is Lucky as far as I am concerned, while GV was just...meh.

[CanaryFan98]

8 hours ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

Oh yes, he did. He was the recast in the tv version of Clueless as Cher's dad. I can't recall who they had initially-not the movie-but there was a short-lived television series.

I loved Joe Kelly. And it's so sad to read about his passing because I was hoping maybe they could bring him back. Then again, I remember who's running this clusterfuck.

Michael Lerner played him in the first season. I preferred him in the role. 

[DanaK]

Part 2 of SOD’s interview with Michael Easton

https://www.soapoperadigest.com/content/exclusive-michael-easton-on-finns-gh-exit-his-painful-farewells-and-more/

[dubbel zout]

That's a nice conclusion to the first part; thanks for posting it, @DanaK.

[jsbt]

I'm repeating what everyone else has said, but Doug Sheehan was so fine and yes, so Jimmy Stewart both on GH and Knots Landing, which I've been discovering in recent years. It was always beyond me as a later GH viewer, any time I saw one of his classic-era episodes, how they could've let him get away without a major romance and pairing but that was before I realized he jumped to Knots which was one of the hottest soaps on TV at the time. KL gave him a pretty good run, though it fizzled out near the end. My understanding is Sheehan pretty much dropped off the radar entirely not long after (despite Knots attempting to bring him back near the end). I wish GH could've used him again, particularly with Jackie Zeman/Bobbie. He was so hot, so soulful and so funny.

Edited July 10 by jsbt

[Cheyanne11]

Awww, I loved Joe Kelly.  Rest in peace, sir.

[ffwbe]

On 7/8/2024 at 3:58 PM, tessaray said:

When it looked like GV was available, I was totally fine with him coming back as Lucky. Even though JJ's return is huge and I'm excited to see how they handle it, the odds that JJ stays long term are slim. And I want Lucky to stay more than I care who plays him.

 

Idk if that’s the case with him anymore. JJ hasn’t exactly been a hot commodity since Nashville wrapped. A big part of the reason he’s likely coming back is because he wasn’t getting other roles 

[tessaray]

2 hours ago, ffwbe said:

Idk if that’s the case with him anymore. JJ hasn’t exactly been a hot commodity since Nashville wrapped. A big part of the reason he’s likely coming back is because he wasn’t getting other roles 

True. But I'm a glass half empty kind of person. 🙂 At the very least, this stint will raise his profile again. I can't imagine he would turn down other roles if offered. (And who could blame him?)

[CanaryFan98]

Richard Simmons died.