GH In The News: The PC Press Club

[dubbel zout]

I don't know why this is a shock. Amanda Setton was on mat leave, not fired. Briana Lane did a nice job, and I'm curious if Setton will adjust her portrayal a bit to match.

 Lane shared that she “still had tears in my eyes from Wally and I’s last scene as father and daughter.”

*rage blackout builds*

[Sake614]

Sometimes a temp recast goes over better than the original actor. I think Briana showed more vulnerability. Amanda’s version was more abrasive. It’ll be interesting to see if she changes her style at all when she returns.

[GHScorpiosRule]

42 minutes ago, dubbel zout said:

Lane shared that she “still had tears in my eyes from Wally and I’s last scene as father and daughter.”

 

42 minutes ago, dubbel zout said:

*rage blackout builds*

B

13 minutes ago, Sake614 said:

Sometimes a temp recast goes over better than the original actor. I think Briana showed more vulnerability. Amanda’s version was more abrasive. It’ll be interesting to see if she changes her style at all when she returns.

Brianna was also very abrasive, smug and and unbearable when she first showed up.

[TeeVee329]

42 minutes ago, dubbel zout said:

I don't know why this is a shock. Amanda Setton was on mat leave, not fired.

Yeah, what?

I am obviously biased, but I do think the writers got a bit of a better handle on Brook recently.  I would have liked to have seen Amanda Setton play the aftermath of Brook's attack.  For all of Kimberly Andrews' ferocity on OLTL, Setton also excelled in those moments when Kim let her guard down (i.e. around her cowboy Clint, sigh!).

[ByaNose]

Yeah, I was all set for Kimberly Andrews from OLTL to show up and was really disappointed with AS as Brook Lynn or any character for that matter. She was so good on OLTL but that was a different character. Now, I’m curious to see if show turns it down a notch of two for AS in either the direction, writing or acting from AS herself. She has the talent but she might not be the right fit for the role. Time will tell. 

[dubbel zout]

15 hours ago, TeeVee329 said:

I do think the writers got a bit of a better handle on Brook recently. 

I agree. They toned down the chip on her shoulder a lot, which makes watching whoever plays her more bearable. I think they still don't know quite what to do with the character, but I'm mildly interested. I just hope Brook isn't pregnant. We already have Maxie, which is bad enough.

[statsgirl]

I assumed that they made Brook Lyn pregnant so that AS could come back during her pregnancy.

[Ambrosefolly]

29 minutes ago, statsgirl said:

I assumed that they made Brook Lyn pregnant so that AS could come back during her pregnancy.

I am more than happy to pretend a pregnant person is not pregnant even if it is totally obvious. I would rather have BL and Lucas decide to have a baby than for this Valentin bullshit. You know it is because if the show was to survive, they would want a BL's vs Lulu's kid as siblings. Frank is totally unimaginative.

[GHScorpiosRule]

52 minutes ago, statsgirl said:

I assumed that they made Brook Lyn pregnant so that AS could come back during her pregnancy.

But Amanda left when she was very pregnant and took her maternity leave. I'm assuming she's had her baby and it wouldn't make sense for her to come back with her still pregnant. At least, that's what I recall reading when the show came back--that she was very pregnant and took her maternity leave early, what with the pandemic and all.

[rur]

So, I guess what we take from this is that Brook won't be onscreen for a while, and when she does reappear, it'll be Amanda playing her. 

[ouinason]

I would L.O.V.E. for Brook to be having a baby with/for Lucas.

I don't hate the idea of Brook/Val getting together and scheming to have their kid get all the Quartermaine cookies though.  Scout has Aurora, Danny is mob destined probably, and Michael is a dweeb who won't even use his family name while he shits on the company (and Willey will probably be a doctor or something).  Skye and Lila don't care and Dillon.... well he obviously doesn't care about the family business since he's making his own career (and more power to him really).  Brook is it for the future of ELQ as far as I can tell.  

Seduce Val, have his spawn, marry him for control of your family's company.  Get it girl!

[Auntie Velvet]

9 hours ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

But Amanda left when she was very pregnant and took her maternity leave. I'm assuming she's had her baby and it wouldn't make sense for her to come back with her still pregnant. At least, that's what I recall reading when the show came back--that she was very pregnant and took her maternity leave early, what with the pandemic and all.

Although some postnatal actresses wouldn't want to think of themselves as still looking somewhat pregnant, physically it makes sense. I vaguely remember a couple of soaps doing that.   

[ByaNose]

I just want to know why they dressed AS as if she were pregnant long before she really was. Her wardrobe was horrible. She wore big coats & skirts in black from the 90’s. I thought it was so odd.

[UYI]

13 hours ago, Auntie Velvet said:

Although some postnatal actresses wouldn't want to think of themselves as still looking somewhat pregnant, physically it makes sense. I vaguely remember a couple of soaps doing that.   

There's also the weird example from this show of Sarah Brown, who got pregnant with her daughter Jordan RIGHT before Carly had Michael--which meant that, all of a sudden, the show had to deal with an actress who would have to go on maternity leave only a few months after her character had given birth. 

(It also led to a dispute between SBr and Wendy Riche, who is alleged to have told SBr that she should have kept her legs closed if she didn't want to end up with a situation like this--JFP isn't the only female executive producer of this show to engage in misogyny, folks! Classy. -_-) 

[Auntie Velvet]

2 hours ago, UYI said:

There's also the weird example from this show of Sarah Brown, who got pregnant with her daughter Jordan RIGHT before Carly had Michael--which meant that, all of a sudden, the show had to deal with an actress who would have to go on maternity leave only a few months after her character had given birth. 

(It also led to a dispute between SBr and Wendy Riche, who is alleged to have told SBr that she should have kept her legs closed if she didn't want to end up with a situation like this--JFP isn't the only female executive producer of this show to engage in misogyny, folks! Classy. -_-) 

There was one daytime actress who had to act out a stillbirth labor either just before going on maternity leave, or just back from one. Either way, I remember she indicated, as diplomatically as possible, that it was a pretty intense experience that she wouldn't have chosen for herself. I just can't remember whether it was GH or another soap. (Sorry this is another vague memory!) 

[UYI]

1 hour ago, Auntie Velvet said:

There was one daytime actress who had to act out a stillbirth labor either just before going on maternity leave, or just back from one. Either way, I remember she indicated, as diplomatically as possible, that it was a pretty intense experience that she wouldn't have chosen for herself. I just can't remember whether it was GH or another soap. (Sorry this is another vague memory!) 

Lynn Herring had to act out a miscarriage VERY late into her pregnancy with her oldest son, Hank (in 1991, when Lucy was married to Alan, but carrying Scott's child, unbeknownst to the former). That might be what you're thinking of--that scene is on YouTube and is INCREDIBLY painful to watch--either that or Kassie DePaiva from OLTL acting out the miscarriage/stillbirth of Blair's son, Brendan, when she was near the end of her pregnancy with her son, J.Q., in 1997.

Speaking of which, I recently watched another of Alan Locher's Guiding Light reunions, this one with Jay Hammer (Fletcher) and Susan Pratt (Claire). Alan asked SP about her experience playing Annie Logan on GH, which led to a discussion of how she left the show. Annie was, quite famously, a virgin, and one day, Susan went to Gloria Monty and revealed that she was pregnant, and she suggested that this lead to the story of Annie FINALLY losing her virginity, and becoming pregnant herself. Gloria told her that she would think it over, and shortly afterwards, SP was fired--essentially for poking a hole into Annie's eternal virgin status by getting pregnant in real life. HOW DARE SHE? Ugh.

She apparently considered suing ABC over that (hiring a lawyer, etc.), but reasoned that she might work there again in the future, so she never went through with it--and she was working at AMC by the end of the 80's, so she was right about that.

It is interesting, though, because she probably had a legitimate case there, unlike Kari Wuhrer--who, when she was fired by GH from her role as Reese in 2005, actually DID sue ABC/GH for wrongful termination, as she was pregnant herself at the time. From what I've read, however, her firing had more to do with Reese going over like a lead balloon with the audience, and she was let go at a time when GH could opt to do so at that particular point of her contract cycle--she just HAPPENED to be pregnant by then, she wasn't fired BECAUSE she was pregnant (her case was dismissed), whereas it sounds like SP definitely was fired because of her own pregnancy. 

Edited November 21, 2020 by UYI

[Sake614]

Yikes! I can’t say I disagree with the sentiment but talk about burning bridges...

https://www.generalhospitalblog.com/2020/11/20/general-hospital-news-william-devry-slams-gh-writers-to-fan-youre-not-wrong/?fbclid=IwAR2Jg5KA16mn1NhFg6OFQuHSmCSdgDhf4ByiIWhI0HmQ-CwZ9TaPKTwMV9g

[dubbel zout]

I wonder how long he'll stick to the "never coming back to GH" stance. Bills don't pay themselves. (Does he have family money?)

[ulkis]

FV won't ask him to return, so it's moot. 

[dubbel zout]

Probably not. I forgot that Frank hates him. So he might as well burn that bridge.

[ouinason]

If that fan hadn't gone to the "keeping a Corinthos child from it's true family" place, I would agree wholeheartedly.

[KittenPokerCheater]

4 hours ago, dubbel zout said:

Probably not. I forgot that Frank hates him.

Any reason why?

Edited November 22, 2020 by KittenPokerCheater

[ulkis]

53 minutes ago, KittenPokerCheater said:

Any reason why?

I think he just annoys him. 

[ByaNose]

It is funny how soaps can rationalize anything and bring back dead people but Julian couldn’t ever recover with putting a knife to Alexis’s throat. They were a HOT over 50 year old couple and the writers ruined them. It seems like the show made it impossible for the character to ever recover from that. Whereas Jason is a murderer and bomber that goes home to his adoring family. I think I agree that FV didn’t want Julian to ever recover from any of his misdeeds. That said, I think William DeVry was okay with FV because I think he thanked him in departing Instagram post. Now, the writers on the other is a different story. I’m sure FV has a lot of influence but he seems to blame the writers more. With the state of the pandemic who knows when or if we’ll see DeVry in daytime or prime time ever again. I could see him in a year groveling and begging GH for a job. You have to pay the bills in the end. Look at Bryan Craig who was openly begging for a job in daytime. There are two soaps available that DeVry hasn’t been on which are Days and Y&R so we’ll have to wait and see. 

[ffwbe]

1 hour ago, ByaNose said:

It is funny how soaps can rationalize anything and bring back dead people but Julian couldn’t ever recover with putting a knife to Alexis’s throat. They were a HOT over 50 year old couple and the writers ruined them. It seems like the show made it impossible for the character to ever recover from that. Whereas Jason is a murderer and bomber that goes home to his adoring family. I think I agree that FV didn’t want Julian to ever recover from any of his misdeeds. That said, I think William DeVry was okay with FV because I think he thanked him in departing Instagram post. Now, the writers on the other is a different story. I’m sure FV has a lot of influence but he seems to blame the writers more. With the state of the pandemic who knows when or if we’ll see DeVry in daytime or prime time ever again. I could see him in a year groveling and begging GH for a job. You have to pay the bills in the end. Look at Bryan Craig who was openly begging for a job in daytime. There are two soaps available that DeVry hasn’t been on which are Days and Y&R so we’ll have to wait and see. 

I don’t think it’s that they couldn’t, especially on a show where Sonny, Jason, and Franco are in long term pairings. They just weren’t interested in it. I think RC was the only HW interested in writing for Julian. Things really went off the rails for his character after Ron was fired. 

Edited November 22, 2020 by ffwbe

[dubbel zout]

Ron created Julian, I think, so he also had a financial interest in keeping the character going.

[ffwbe]

20 minutes ago, dubbel zout said:

Ron created Julian, I think, so he also had a financial interest in keeping the character going.

I don’t know if that applies given Julian was a recast. They did add a whole backstory to tie him to Alexis and Sam but they used his history early on with Duke/Anna, made Lucas his son, etc

[dubbel zout]

Oh, right, I forgot he'd existed before WdV. I was on a break with GH then.

[UYI]

42 minutes ago, dubbel zout said:

Oh, right, I forgot he'd existed before WdV. I was on a break with GH then.

Yeah, he originally existed in the late 80's. He and Tiffany's sister, Cheryl Stansbury, were involved, and while he turned out to be Lucas' biological father (after he was presumed dead, though), Cheryl had hoped against hope that Robert would be his father, as she was involved with him for awhile in 1988 (after Holly's "death" in 1987, but before his relationship with Katherine Delafield from 1989-1991/reunion with Anna in 1991; he also briefly dated some chick named Autumn before Cheryl and Katherine), and she held on for a long time to the idea that they were meant to be.

(I've actually heard before that the show originally WAS going to make Robert Lucas' biological father, but that TR objected, thinking that Robin should be his only biological child; I have no idea if that's true, though.)

Edited November 22, 2020 by UYI

[ouinason]

If that is true, it's silly and I'm glad that Finola didn't hold such objections.

[nilyank]

5 hours ago, ouinason said:

If that is true, it's silly and I'm glad that Finola didn't hold such objections.

I find it ridiculous that Robin would be Robert's only kid. You mean to tell me if Holly didn't "die" that they wouldn't have had a child of their own?

As to Anna, I am still pissed that they killed off Leora on All My Children.

[Asp Burger]

Re:  "You're not wrong." It's worth noting that both head writers of the story in which Julian held the knife to Alexis's throat (Jean Passanante and Shelly Altman) are long gone now. That was in summer 2016. I can understand why DeVry and fans of his character wouldn't be in a mood to look on the bright side, but Julian did get a four-plus-year run following that, in which he did achieve some measure of rehabilitation. He became owner of a legit small business and was onscreen a lot, and he even had a civil, sometimes supportive relationship with Alexis. I'm neutral on Julian, and this is much more than I was expecting for him. In summer 2016, I thought all signs pointed to the character being either dead or shipped off to prison by November sweeps.

In related news, I'll never stop finding it funny when Google gets confused about two people with the same name.

[ouinason]

50 minutes ago, nilyank said:

As to Anna, I am still pissed that they killed off Leora on All My Children.

Yeah, and I'm completely pissed that not only did they give those shitty twins to David as kids, just to kill them BOTH but that he has a son he doesn't know as well.  

 

I .... feel the need to block a lot of AMC stuff.... I'll just pretend that David brought Leora back from the dead with magic and they live in Upstate NY somewhere where Anna often visits in secret.

[xfuse]

On 11/18/2020 at 3:05 PM, Harmony233 said:

It's crazy and sad that there's not any gay characters in any stories on the U.S. soaps.

Meanwhile over on hollyoaks there LGBT characters are usually the ones that get the meatiest and most dramtic storylines.

Meanwhile on Neighbours; there is a married gay couple, a lesbian, bi-sexual and a transgender teen. All having or had major storylines

[UYI]

11 hours ago, nilyank said:

I find it ridiculous that Robin would be Robert's only kid. You mean to tell me if Holly didn't "die" that they wouldn't have had a child of their own?

As to Anna, I am still pissed that they killed off Leora on All My Children.

Like I said, I could be COMPLETELY wrong, I just seem to remember hearing that at one point. And I could see TR not objecting had Ethan turned out to Robert's child with Holly. Maybe his issue was Robert sharing a child with a woman who was neither Holly nor Anna? I don't know. 

Edited November 23, 2020 by UYI

[Asp Burger]

GH alum Natalia Livingston (ex-Emily and ex-Rebecca), now an Atlanta mom of two, on whether she would ever return as one character or the other.  

https://soaps.sheknows.com/general-hospital/news/584545/general-hospital-natalia-livingston-interview-new-life-emily-return/

Whatever anyone thought of her portrayal or the writing choices, it really was a bad idea to kill Emily off.

[TeeVee329]

And didn't they kill Emily and Georgie within weeks of each other?  Such a bad call to kill one of them, let alone two.  That's what foreign countries are for, Show, to house characters you don't want to use right now! 

[dubbel zout]

Aw, NL's kidlets are adorable.

[Ambrosefolly]

31 minutes ago, Asp Burger said:

GH alum Natalia Livingston (ex-Emily and ex-Rebecca), now an Atlanta mom of two, on whether she would ever return as one character or the other.  

https://soaps.sheknows.com/general-hospital/news/584545/general-hospital-natalia-livingston-interview-new-life-emily-return/

Whatever anyone thought of her portrayal or the writing choices, it really was a bad idea to kill Emily off.

It was always a huge mistake to kill off the character. And I can't blame Natalia completely for how Emily's 2nd iteration came off. Now that Daytime Acting Emmys real worth is having it, since it doesn't get you any meaty primetime jobs since Sarah Michelle Gellar became Buffy (and that was for marketing purposes), now I am glad she has it in order to continue working in the acting profession. 

I was watching a Simpson's clip with he kids watching a Christmas film so bad that even Martin hated it. In the Youtube comments, it sums it up and basically described the GH storyline (and most of the storylines during that time):

I love how "specifically" bad this is: the plot that's somehow both predictable and makes no sense, the actors are moderately talented but come off as worse because of the script, certain scenes are so boring that they feel like they last two hours.

11 minutes ago, TeeVee329 said:

And didn't they kill Emily and Georgie within weeks of each other?  Such a bad call to kill one of them, let alone two.  That's what foreign countries are for, Show, to house characters you don't want to use right now! 

The shitty thing was right before Georgie was killed off, she was talking about doing study aboard. The only good thing about that storyline is that it turned Maxie it a living, breathing 3 dimensional for a little while, a modern day Lucy Coe, and I mean that in the best possible way. It wasn't fucking Spinelli that helped her change. If anything, Maxie was to one that had to force him to see past the childish stereotypes he tends to hang on people. Maxie even dragged him into Georgie's room for him to see Georgie in a more mature light in order to get him to help her. 

[UYI]

1 hour ago, TeeVee329 said:

And didn't they kill Emily and Georgie within weeks of each other?  Such a bad call to kill one of them, let alone two.  That's what foreign countries are for, Show, to house characters you don't want to use right now! 

Yep. Emily right before Thanksgiving 2007, Georgie right before Christmas 2007. Because according to JFP, Guza, and Frons, NOTHING says the holiday spirit like strangling two young female characters to death. 

[dubbel zout]

I feel like this rehash of the David Hamilton case is like the big sekrit that Alexis ran over Keifer. Both of these cases were resolved ages ago. Where's the blackmail potential? Where's the potential for anything nefarious? Laura was a minor when all of this went down. Ugh. The writers and their illogical use of History! drives me nuts.

ETA: This is the wrong place for this post, so I'm moving most of it to the episode thread.

Edited November 23, 2020 by dubbel zout
wrong thread, d'oh!

[YaddaYadda]

12 minutes ago, dubbel zout said:

I feel like this rehash of the David Hamilton case is like the big sekrit that Alexis ran over Keifer. Both of these cases were resolved ages ago. Where's the blackmail potential? Where's the potential for anything nefarious? Laura was a minor when all of this went down. Ugh. The writers and their illogical use of History! drives me nuts.

I think they're going with the exact same scenario that they did with Keifer's sister going after Alexis. Cyrus will turn out to be this David Hamilton character's son who took his mother's maiden name and wants to get vengeance on the person who murdered his father. I bet the person he moved from that house is his mother.

[jsbt]

Killing both Emily and Georgie was incredibly stupid and shortsighted. I'd still undo it and I've outlined how before. It's not like this show hasn't trafficked in far more ridiculous OTT sci-fi storylines. You could do it in a month, send one or both off to a happy life and bring 'em back at your leisure.

Edited November 23, 2020 by jsbt

[nilyank]

5 minutes ago, jsbt said:

Killing both Emily and Georgie was incredibly stupid and shortsighted. I'd still undo it and I've outlined how before. It's not like this show hasn't trafficked in far more ridiculous OTT sci-fi storylines. You could do it in a month, send one or both off to a happy life and bring 'em back at your leisure.

Mine way was simple and based on character history.

Georgie was taken by Ryan as mean of revenge on Mac and Felicia. He watched as Diego strangled Georgie but performed CPR to save her and then gave her a death like serum from the DVX who were happy to acquire the biological child of WSB agent Frisco Jones.

Emily is even simpler. Helena. She didn't want her to marry Nikolas but she found out that Emily was pregnant. Rather than the stupid nonsense of Lulu last egg/Stavros/Valentin, Charlotte would have been Nikolas/Emily's child.

[dubbel zout]

Moving all of this to Spoilers and Speculation thread, where it belongs.

[Auntie Velvet]

On 11/22/2020 at 10:42 AM, ByaNose said:

It is funny how soaps can rationalize anything and bring back dead people but Julian couldn’t ever recover with putting a knife to Alexis’s throat. They were a HOT over 50 year old couple and the writers ruined them. It seems like the show made it impossible for the character to ever recover from that. Whereas Jason is a murderer and bomber that goes home to his adoring family. I think I agree that FV didn’t want Julian to ever recover from any of his misdeeds. That said, I think William DeVry was okay with FV because I think he thanked him in departing Instagram post. Now, the writers on the other is a different story. I’m sure FV has a lot of influence but he seems to blame the writers more. With the state of the pandemic who knows when or if we’ll see DeVry in daytime or prime time ever again. I could see him in a year groveling and begging GH for a job. You have to pay the bills in the end. Look at Bryan Craig who was openly begging for a job in daytime. There are two soaps available that DeVry hasn’t been on which are Days and Y&R so we’ll have to wait and see. 

It really does kill me that both Jason and Sonny have threatened to kill Sam and Carly, respectively, but once they reconciled it was like it never happened. 

[UYI]

6 hours ago, jsbt said:

Killing both Emily and Georgie was incredibly stupid and shortsighted. I'd still undo it and I've outlined how before. It's not like this show hasn't trafficked in far more ridiculous OTT sci-fi storylines. You could do it in a month, send one or both off to a happy life and bring 'em back at your leisure.

Hell, I'd bring Alan back if Stuart Damon was up to it (and, you know, we weren't in a pandemic where he was in the most vulnerable age group of all--and I know he's had health issues the last several years, too; in more recent pictures I've seen of him, he looked ALARMINGLY skinny to me).

It really is crazy to think that Alan, Emily, and Georgie were all killed off in the same calendar year (2007), with Emily and Georgie's occurring about a month or so between each other. Talk about taking out some major characters in one fell swoop. 

[bannana]

8 hours ago, YaddaYadda said:

I think they're going with the exact same scenario that they did with Keifer's sister going after Alexis. Cyrus will turn out to be this David Hamilton character's son who took his mother's maiden name and wants to get vengeance on the person who murdered his father. I bet the person he moved from that house is his mother.

Cyrus looks kind of old to be David Hamilton's son, right? Unless, he is like all the old hippie looking guys who are my age and younger and just love looking grey-haired and old before their time.

[ByaNose]

55 minutes ago, bannana said:

Cyrus looks kind of old to be David Hamilton's son, right? Unless, he is like all the old hippie looking guys who are my age and younger and just love looking grey-haired and old before their time.

More like his brother then his son. I agree he has to be related somehow. Why else would he care. 

[YaddaYadda]

8 hours ago, bannana said:

Cyrus looks kind of old to be David Hamilton's son, right? Unless, he is like all the old hippie looking guys who are my age and younger and just love looking grey-haired and old before their time.

I wasn't born yet when the David Hamilton story played out, so I could not say. But Jeff Kober is 66, Genie is 58, Denise Alexander is 81 years old, the man who played David Hamilton passed away in 2013 and would have been 83 years old this year. I think they could just say that Davis Hamilton had a son he knew nothing about. If the character was sleeping with a minor to get back at her mother. Dude was a scumbag as far as I can tell. His scumbaggery could have easily started early on with him having a bastard child with some teenage girl when he was 17-18 and leaving her high and dry. 

That said, I really can't bring myself to care about some recycled storyline that they did like 2 years ago with a different character. But way to victimize the victim, show!

Edited November 24, 2020 by YaddaYadda