GH In The News: The PC Press Club

[geauxaway]

I was just thinking about Soapnet, which was a great channel.  I remember the 50 hours of GH for the 50th anniversary and watched all of it.  They could mine some of the classic episodes from that offering.

[TwoBitUsherette]

It's such a shame that Disney/ABC will probably never consider making their back catalogue of soaps available, even in a limited capacity. They would fit in perfectly on Hulu, who already runs the most recent episodes of GH.

[makelemons]

I don't understand if YR can figure out how to air such old episodes (Vic and Nikkie's first wedding) why can't GH.... I know ABC/GH gives the excuse of paying what I'm guessing are residuals to actors no longer on the show ( or under Contract) ...but how much $$ can that really be?

[dubbel zout]

Frank is notorious for holding to the bottom line. He's not going to pay a penny more for anything. It's one reason GH is still on the air, as terrible as it is.

[KittenPokerCheater]

13 hours ago, TwoBitUsherette said:

It's such a shame that Disney/ABC will probably never consider making their back catalogue of soaps available, even in a limited capacity. They would fit in perfectly on Hulu, who already runs the most recent episodes of GH.

I wonder why they won't.  Soaps have a buy-out, and I am sure no actors are getting any money from re-airings by now that 20 years have passed on a lot of episodes.

[ffwbe]

11 hours ago, makelemons said:

I don't understand if YR can figure out how to air such old episodes (Vic and Nikkie's first wedding) why can't GH.... I know ABC/GH gives the excuse of paying what I'm guessing are residuals to actors no longer on the show ( or under Contract) ...but how much $$ can that really be?

The weird thing is that they picked an episode that heavily featured recurring cast members so it probably wasn’t one of the cheaper options. I didn’t mind that part since it was one of the better episodes from last year but is reairing the anniversary episode really that much cheaper than going back a decade or 2 and finding an episode that heavily features some variation of Laura, Sonny, Jason, Alexis, Jax, etc and just paying the ones who are no longer with the show? While those might not be “classic” episodes, at least it wouldn’t be ones fresh on people’s minds. In the last couple years, they reaired holidays eps from 2000 and 2005 so it’s not just they haven’t done it before.  

[sunnyface]

On 4/5/2020 at 9:13 AM, dubbel zout said:

Frank is notorious for holding to the bottom line. He's not going to pay a penny more for anything. It's one reason GH is still on the air, as terrible as it is.

I hope that one network exec is stuck home recently and has tried to watch a soap opera called General Hospital and instead finds him/herself watching seweragy stories about serial killers who are holding Port Charles hostage. 

[ulkis]

I've seen people summarizing some stuff from MB's book and wow he does not flatter himself. He says he and Steve made fun of the Sonny shoots Carly/Carly coma stuff that they made TB cry. 

[ffwbe]

I’ll agree with you about the stories people are posting. With some of them, all I could think were yikes. And not sure how well he got along with TK but MB always seemed to be annoyed by Lorenzo if the rumors were to be believed so the way he acted about the CarLo storyline doesn’t surprise me, especially since he doesn’t like Sonny being seen as the bad guy. 

[30 Helens]

 

Quote

My book(NOTHING GENERAL ABOUT IT). When @duellyfirst came on @generalhospitalabc i’m not proud to say I wasn’t a very nice guy to him(more specific in the book). But now I love him like a 10-year-old son. 

That’s appropriate, since Michael acts like a 10-year-old.

[dubbel zout]

7 hours ago, 30 Helens said:

 

Quote

My book(NOTHING GENERAL ABOUT IT). When @duellyfirst came on @generalhospitalabc i’m not proud to say I wasn’t a very nice guy to him(more specific in the book). But now I love him like a 10-year-old son. 

Duell probably didn't kiss the mighty Benard ass enough. Ugh. This sort of thing makes me really dislike MB. Duell was around 22 when he started on GH. Cut the guy some slack. Soap work is tough to get used to. 

[YaddaYadda]

14 minutes ago, dubbel zout said:

Duell probably didn't kiss the mighty Benard ass enough. Ugh. This sort of thing makes me really dislike MB. Duell was around 22 when he started on GH. Cut the guy some slack. Soap work is tough to get used to. 

I remember Duell saying that he was scared of Mo when he started on GH and how he would not speak to him. Mo was angry that the previous actor had been replaced. 

It seems he decided to swing his over inflated ego at CD because he's a total nincompoop.

Edited April 9, 2020 by YaddaYadda

[rur]

17 minutes ago, YaddaYadda said:

It seems he decided to swing his over inflated ego at CD because he's a total nincompoop.

I just took a look at one of the publicity articles about MB's book where he recounts that when he first started (emphasis mine) at GH he had a severe bipolar episode, so bad that he couldn't work. I know he has acknowledged in the past that someone behind the scenes (I don't remember who) literally saved his job during that time. Considering the kindness that was extended to him, the way he's treated newcomers he didn't like makes him look like even more of a tool. 

[ciarra]

15 hours ago, 30 Helens said:

That’s appropriate, since Michael acts like a 10-year-old.

♪ And he looks like one too. ♪

(and so does Molly)

[Auntie Velvet]

On 4/3/2020 at 3:45 PM, HeatLifer said:

Pls someone find out how to air ‘96/97/98 reruns. Thank you.

Yes! I was just thinking about the "Return of the Cassadines" era when LuLu was sick and Nikolas and Stavos came to town, which was ALSO when Luke was looking for his niece as a potential donor, and realized it was Carly, who was in the midst of her ruin-Bobbie extraveganza. (Bonus: Jason was still a Q in the early days of that.)

[HeatLifer]

22 minutes ago, Auntie Velvet said:

Yes! I was just thinking about the "Return of the Cassadines" era when LuLu was sick and Nikolas and Stavos came to town, which was ALSO when Luke was looking for his niece as a potential donor, and realized it was Carly, who was in the midst of her ruin-Bobbie extraveganza. (Bonus: Jason was still a Q in the early days of that.)

LITERALLY MY FAVORITE ERA WITH MOST OF MY FAVE ACTORS

[dubbel zout]

That was a retcon that actually worked, and rather brilliantly.

[Ambrosefolly]

3 hours ago, dubbel zout said:

That was a retcon that actually worked, and rather brilliantly.

Which is the only time a retcon should be used.  If your story gets incredibly convoluted and makes little to no sense, then abandon it. 

[dubbel zout]

Yeah, it never felt forced, like when the show insisted that Scott and Heather could be Franco's parents because it was maybe possible they slept together for a few months, or whatever convoluted bullshit they tried to sell us.

[TeeVee329]

On 4/9/2020 at 10:04 AM, dubbel zout said:

Duell probably didn't kiss the mighty Benard ass enough. Ugh. This sort of thing makes me really dislike MB. Duell was around 22 when he started on GH. Cut the guy some slack. Soap work is tough to get used to. 

Did Bernard like Drew Garrett, is that why he was hard when Chad Duell came on?  Because wasn't that a very quick fired/hired switch?

[UYI]

On 4/4/2020 at 7:25 PM, geauxaway said:

I was just thinking about Soapnet, which was a great channel.  I remember the 50 hours of GH for the 50th anniversary and watched all of it.  They could mine some of the classic episodes from that offering.

Near the end of its run, Soapnet was starting to drift away from its roots, showing a lot of movies and reruns of shows like One Tree Hill. The 50th anniversary marathon for GH in 2013 was a HUGE exception, mere months before the network signed off.

For those interested, the guy who has brought together cast members of ATWT and GL for mini online reunions is doing one for dual cast members/former cast members of GH and GL, which of course will include LW and CW, at the very least. It takes place on April 22nd at 3 PM Eastern. I definitely recommend it--the first three I've seen (one of GL, two for ATWT; there's another one for GL scheduled for April 15th) have been a LOT of fun. 

Here's the link for those here who want to set reminders (the video doesn't embed):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QxK_eHsL0E

[UYI]

On 4/7/2020 at 9:08 PM, ffwbe said:

I’ll agree with you about the stories people are posting. With some of them, all I could think were yikes. And not sure how well he got along with TK but MB always seemed to be annoyed by Lorenzo if the rumors were to be believed so the way he acted about the CarLo storyline doesn’t surprise me, especially since he doesn’t like Sonny being seen as the bad guy. 

One of the rumors being that he requested that Sonny get a leather jacket after Lorenzo started wearing one and he got jealous about looking less "cool." 

[Asp Burger]

2 hours ago, TeeVee329 said:

Did Bernard like Drew Garrett, is that why he was hard when Chad Duell came on?  Because wasn't that a very quick fired/hired switch?

According to reports of that time, not only Benard but also Ingo Rademacher and Laura Wright were upset about Drew Garrett's being replaced. Garrett first appeared on April 24, 2009, and Duell took over on April 20, 2010. So there was almost exactly a year of Garrett's Michael. 

In a 2016 piece, Duell looked back to his early months and said the GH set was a very difficult place to be at first, and he thought he was not doing good work. One can read between the lines that he wasn't getting the warmest welcome. 

[YaddaYadda]

7 hours ago, Asp Burger said:

According to reports of that time, not only Benard but also Ingo Rademacher and Laura Wright were upset about Drew Garrett's being replaced. Garrett first appeared on April 24, 2009, and Duell took over on April 20, 2010. So there was almost exactly a year of Garrett's Michael. 

In a 2016 piece, Duell looked back to his early months and said the GH set was a very difficult place to be at first, and he thought he was not doing good work. One can read between the lines that he wasn't getting the warmest welcome. 

They're not very nice people, are they.

It's like they forgot that they were newbies on a show. It's already intimidating arriving anywhere, there's really no need for this.

[UYI]

There DOES seem to be a very cliquish atmosphere at times on this show. Some of it is just certain newbies hitting it off onscreen while others don't, of course, but it's clear that there are some actors who never fit in backstage, even if they are doing well on the show itself. 

[Asp Burger]

I don't know if we ever got a definitive word on why they let Garrett go and replaced him with Duell. Garrett was popular with fans, well reviewed (to the extent that soap actors are "reviewed"), seemingly well liked by actors who worked with him, and an award nominee in his first year of eligibility. Didn't Lexi Ainsworth say or post that she cried herself to sleep when she heard the news? 

But one popular theory was that Duell was someone's pet. He had been on The Suite Life and Wizards of Waverly Place on Disney, and ABC Daytime is under Disney's umbrella. As this theory went, he was put in a major contract role on one of the few remaining soaps to fulfill an obligation, while the actor who had won the role a year earlier and had proved himself was tossed aside.

I don't know if that's true (and there were some other theories/rumors), but many people outside the production of GH believed it. If people on the set (who had personal fond feelings for Garrett) also believed it, I could see Duell being resented at first, and some of his costars going to more trouble than others to conceal the resentment. 

I agree that whatever was going on, it didn't make sense to hold it against Duell himself, and the veteran actors should have known that this kind of thing happens in show business. But this was one of the murkier recasting episodes in GH history. If you think about other cases when an actor has been replaced, it's been because two sides couldn't come to terms on contractual matters, or there was a chance to get back a bigger name who had played the role before, or they'd given someone a shot and the consensus was that it just wasn't working (Jennifer Bransford), etc. None of the typical reasons seemed to fit here. 

Edited April 11, 2020 by Asp Burger

[dubbel zout]

16 minutes ago, Asp Burger said:

I don't know if we ever got a definitive word on why they let Garrett go and replaced him with Duell.

I always thought it was because they were changing the character a bit and wanted an actor who looked "softer" for the rape story.

[driver18]

So Nathan Varni is OUT at GH, per his Twitter from April 11, 2020, 1:05 am.

I'm having trouble embedding the tweet, but I'm sure someone else can. This is good, nay, great news? Yes? YES!

[dubbel zout]

What exactly did Varni do? "Oversee" is very vague. He didn't seem to have creative input, and Frank knows how to work a budget.

[driver18]

27 minutes ago, dubbel zout said:

What exactly did Varni do? "Oversee" is very vague. He didn't seem to have creative input, and Frank knows how to work a budget.

On another board, someone said that he was: "Mainly working with writing team to approve storylines, budgets, ensuring actors contracts are fulfilled (number of episodes, etc), timelines for story arcs. He was basically the "police" for the writers/producers."

And someone else said that "He apparently had his finger in the pie too often, pushing for certain characters and stories."

And we certainly know he had his favorities!

[statsgirl]

3 hours ago, driver18 said:

And we certainly know he had his favorities!

Who do you think they are? (Wondering if we can get less mob emphasis.)

[driver18]

17 minutes ago, statsgirl said:

Who do you think they are? (Wondering if we can get less mob emphasis.)

He apparently pushed for SBu to come back and was a big JaSam proponent.

[ffwbe]

I know he just announced it but I’ve seen people speculating that he was gone for a few weeks since he removed GH from his twitter bio and hasn’t posted anything about the show since 3/1. I wonder if they plan to replace him. 

Edited April 12, 2020 by ffwbe

[Sake614]

IMO Drew Garrett was a fine Michael for when he emerged from the coma. He was angry at the world and DG did that well. But I'm not sure he could have sold Michael's rape story. He lacked the vulnerability. Duell had that look and ability, I think they also SORASED the character when CD took over. 

[Asp Burger]

6 hours ago, Sake614 said:

IMO Drew Garrett was a fine Michael for when he emerged from the coma. He was angry at the world and DG did that well. But I'm not sure he could have sold Michael's rape story. He lacked the vulnerability. Duell had that look and ability, I think they also SORASED the character when CD took over. 

I do think Duell handled the prison story well (he hadn't impressed me at first), but it might have had more impact with Garrett. I think he would have been able to play Michael's arrogance and invincibility turning into terror and trauma. The Duell version was softer from the get-go, and I don't believe they made a replacement because that was to be the direction and they didn't think Garrett was up to it. I think, once Duell was the new Michael, they just went with what they had. The actors' ages are pretty close. 

EDITED: Reactions to something now removed from the thread.

Edited April 13, 2020 by Asp Burger

[GHScorpiosRule]

2 hours ago, Sake614 said:

IMO Drew Garrett was a fine Michael for when he emerged from the coma. He was angry at the world and DG did that well. But I'm not sure he could have sold Michael's rape story. He lacked the vulnerability. Duell had that look and ability, I think they also SORASED the character when CD took over. 

I think Drew would have been able to do it. I don’t know if it was before he was cast here or after he was fired, but he guest starred on original recipe CSI. He was amazing as a traumatized teen. I think Constance Towers was also in that same episode.

[yowsah1]

On 4/11/2020 at 4:08 PM, Asp Burger said:

If you think about other cases when an actor has been replaced, it's been because two sides couldn't come to terms on contractual matters, or there was a chance to get back a bigger name who had played the role before, or they'd given someone a shot and the consensus was that it just wasn't working (Jennifer Bransford), etc. None of the typical reasons seemed to fit here. 

Another reason for actor's being replaced is BTS issues, which soaps traditionally stay VERY tight-lipped on.  Although that doesn't seem to be the case with Drew Garrett, if he was so popular with his colleagues.

[30 Helens]

On 4/11/2020 at 12:15 AM, Asp Burger said:

In a 2016 piece, Duell looked back to his early months and said the GH set was a very difficult place to be at first, and he thought he was not doing good work. One can read between the lines that he wasn't getting the warmest welcome. 

Hmmm... I guess we now have an origin story for the Eeyore persona. 

[makelemons]

10 hours ago, driver18 said:

He apparently pushed for SBu to come back and was a big JaSam proponent.

Wasn't Varni the one that was Facebook messaging people saying Billy Miller was a more emotional Jason Morgan/ better actor than SBu ever was/could be?

[TeeVee329]

I honestly don't think Varni had a ton of power or influence, my impression was more that he was a liaison between the show and the network. 

And it's interesting that he's not leaving ABC - he's even working on a new show that's about to premiere - just GH.  Maybe that's a promotion lol, just working on primetime versus having to handle the one soap.

[GHScorpiosRule]

🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰

[Auntie Velvet]

One thing I'll say about Chad, he's more believable as the subject of the "He's the best of us" blather that his family, especially Carly, always spouts. (Not that it's hard to be better than the unholy trio.)  

[Asp Burger]

On 4/12/2020 at 10:37 PM, yowsah1 said:

Another reason for actor's being replaced is BTS issues, which soaps traditionally stay VERY tight-lipped on.  Although that doesn't seem to be the case with Drew Garrett, if he was so popular with his colleagues.

Even though there is never official confirmation, I think it's harder to keep BTS issues under wraps these days. Or really, even 25 years ago. Just about everyone who watched Days of Our Lives in 1995 knew the juicy stories about the departures of Robert Kelker-Kelly (the show's decision) and Melissa Reeves (hers and her husband's). And that was a little before everyone was on the internet. We were slowly getting there.   

In the same era as GH's Garrett/Duell switch, the stories about Josh Duhon (Scott's son, Logan) were everywhere. But that time, they just did away with the character altogether. A shame, as that was a really striking physical resemblance. He really looked like a young Kin Shriner, if Shriner had been a gym rat with tattoos.  

[Ambrosefolly]

28 minutes ago, Asp Burger said:

In the same era as GH's Garrett/Duell switch, the stories about Josh Duhon (Scott's son, Logan) were everywhere. But that time, they just did away with the character altogether. A shame, as that was a really striking physical resemblance. He really looked like a young Kin Shriner, if Shriner had been a gym rat with tattoos.  

I will always mourn Logan, but Josh, for his physical appearance alone, was the only person who could play him.  One of the many reasons I deeply dislike Franco and him being a Baldwin, is that while the FV and RC were obsessed with connecting him to a major family, even though Scott already had a child Franco's age, Logan fit perfectly as a long lost child of Scott and Heather.

[GHScorpiosRule]

Putting this here:

I checked my DVR schedule, and for those that have Comcast/Xfinity, GH repeats at 2:30am. So even if today's wasn't preempted all the way (it was airing when I checked the schedule, so I don't know if they "returned to General Hospital, already in progress" or not). They may have put it up there for the time being.

[Kiki777]

1 hour ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

Putting this here:

I checked my DVR schedule, and for those that have Comcast/Xfinity, GH repeats at 2:30am. So even if today's wasn't preempted all the way (it was airing when I checked the schedule, so I don't know if they "returned to General Hospital, already in progress" or not). They may have put it up there for the time being.

Thanks for that - I’m near Philly where it gets pre-empted every day.  I’d taken to watching the next day On Demand, which is a pain because they don’t allow fast-forwarding over commercials.

[lb60]

1 hour ago, Kiki777 said:

Thanks for that - I’m near Philly where it gets pre-empted every day.  I’d taken to watching the next day On Demand, which is a pain because they don’t allow fast-forwarding over commercials.

If you watch on 6abc Philly, they've been repeating it during Tamron Hall's late night repeat (M-Th). Friday's show has been repeating during The Listener's time slot. However, they aren't always consistent. Yesterday, between weather updates and briefings, they literally showed one minute of the show. The whole thing repeated late night. Today, the Montgomery County briefing wasn't that long, so they may not repeat GH late night. 

Basically, it's a crap shoot, so I just set the DVR for Tamron Hall and hope for the best.

[Sake614]

I don't think ABC7 in NY is airing it in the middle of the night. But I'll survive...I'm quite sure there will be flashbacks in the not-very-distant future. After all, everyone of these episodes is using more of them than new content...

[GHScorpiosRule]

2 minutes ago, Sake614 said:

I don't think ABC7 in NY is airing it in the middle of the night. But I'll survive...I'm quite sure there will be flashbacks in the not-very-distant future. After all, everyone of these episodes is using more of them than new content...

WJLA is still airing them at 2:30 in the morning, even when the regular afternoon airings aren't preempted.

[ulkis]

1 hour ago, Sake614 said:

I don't think ABC7 in NY is airing it in the middle of the night. 

ABC7 wasn't pre-empted today.