GH In The News: The PC Press Club

[Sake614]

3 hours ago, General Days said:

actress who tried to convert younger actresses Michelle Stafford?

The one and only.

[ciarra]

Has anyone purchased a Cameo from a celebrity?  Who was it? 

(Just curious, I don't have any disposable income for this kind of thing.)

[Auntie Velvet]

On 3/13/2021 at 6:09 PM, Sake614 said:

The one and only.

I remember there was an older actor on Y & R who had "gone clear," and it was apparently AWKWARD 

[UYI]

Okay, so I knew that Michelle Stafford is a Scientologist (as is her Y&R co-star, Sharon Case--herself a former GH cast member; she was one of four actresses to play Monica's late daughter Dawn) but I did NOT know she had tried to convert people behind the scenes of GH! WHOA!

I have absolutely NO idea where to post this, but this randomly appeared on the front of my YouTube page and I thought you guys would appreciate it.

 

Edited March 20, 2021 by UYI

[Cheyanne11]

15 hours ago, UYI said:

Okay, so I knew that Michelle Stafford is a Scientologist (as is her Y&R co-star, Sharon Case--herself a former GH cast member; she was one of four actresses to play Monica's late daughter Dawn) but I did NOT know she had tried to convert people behind the scenes of GH! WHOA!

I'm curious as to who she tried to convert.

Not surprising, though, as that's the Scienos' M.O. 

[Asp Burger]

That was a rumor in places where one reads such things; no one has publicly commented to back it up. What I'd read was that it was the portrayers of Kiki (#2), Valerie (#1), and others in that approximate age group with whom she'd become friendly.

It would be consistent with the group's practices. They encourage members to spread the word, to put it mildly. Leah Remini has talked about how much pressure she was under to recruit costars on her sitcom. Scientology likes celebrities, and their celebrity contingent is aging. The ones under 50 like Elisabeth Moss are mostly second-generation. Millennials and Zoomers have grown up in the internet era and have read so much, so they're wary. (I know that the ones above wouldn't have been major celebrity acquisitions, but they were also young and beautiful and who knows where they could end up with a good role.) 

The current Nikolas has also been a Scientologist, but I don't know if current or former. 

Edited March 20, 2021 by Asp Burger

[UYI]

4 hours ago, Cheyanne11 said:

I'm curious as to who she tried to convert.

Not surprising, though, as that's the Scienos' M.O. 

It is, but sometimes it seems that they at least have to pretend to downplay that aspect in public, depending on where they are. It makes me wonder what MSt (and SC, for that matter) has done at Y&R, given her longer history there. 

[UYI]

9 hours ago, Asp Burger said:

The current Nikolas has also been a Scientologist, but I don't know if current or former. 

Given the lengths that the COS will go to if you leave in a particularly public fashion (see, as cited above, Leah Remini), if he did leave the cult (oh, sorry, "church"), he would have had to do so VERY quietly.

Like I said, though, there are some celebrities in COS who do seem to try to play somewhat closely to the vest, probably due to all the negative publicity it has gotten (rightfully so, IMO) in recent years. Not the bigger stars who are already known for it (or, in the case of Jenna Elfman, is clearly a crazy ride or die who doesn't give a fuck WHAT being a Scientologist might do to her career, even in a negative manner), but I could see someone on a lower level of fame not bringing it up on their own. 

Edited March 21, 2021 by UYI

[Asp Burger]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't MSt's departure abrupt? Normally, when an actor on GH is playing a front-burner role such as Nina Reeves, we're hearing about negotiations or the possibility of a departure months in advance. I remember a lot of talk about whether Tyler Christopher would leave, whether Rebecca Herbst would leave, whether Billy Miller would leave, whether Kelly Monaco would leave. It seemed to me with MSt that one day I just read here out of nowhere that she was leaving and that CW was the new Nina, and that was that. And it was just as GH was beginning a story about a spiritual group that: (1) encouraged members to disconnect from skeptical family and friends, (2) used "touch assists" to cure physical problems such as headaches, (3) extracted secrets from its members and used those secrets as leverage, and (4) made a sacred text of a reportedly "badly written" book by the founder, with an orange cover illustration of mountains. And the story prominently featured a young-adult female character who had been brought in by her mother.

Again, not accusing anyone of anything, but I'm sure I'm not the only one whose eyebrow got raised by the timing. 

Edited March 21, 2021 by Asp Burger

[rur]

This came up in my news feed the other day. You can guess which parts made me want to roll my eyes.

https://www.soapoperadigest.com/content/maurice-benard-on-his-amnesia-storyline/

[Asp Burger]

10 minutes ago, rur said:

You can guess which parts made me want to roll my eyes.

All of it. I'm so glad they managed to find actors who meet his high standards.

I personally think the actors who play Phyllis and Lenny kick his ass, and Ms. Guy's prestigious credits include a regular role on The West Wing. 

[dubbel zout]

11 hours ago, Asp Burger said:

11 hours ago, rur said:

You can guess which parts made me want to roll my eyes.

All of it. I'm so glad they managed to find actors who meet his high standards.

I personally think the actors who play Phyllis and Lenny kick his ass, and Ms. Guy's prestigious credits include a regular role on The West Wing. 

Yes, how nice of MB to deign to act when he's with scene partners he deems worthy of his talent. Ugh.

For all his talk about how he's differentiating Mike and Sonny, all I see is a Sonny who doesn't wear tailored suits and is a bit stupider than usual.

[Melgaypet]

8 minutes ago, dubbel zout said:

Yes, how nice of MB to deign to act when he's with scene partners he deems worthy of his talent. Ugh.

Reminds me of that (in)famous quote, "you're cute, but you can't act" to Vanessa Marcil. As if Marcil being a chemistry machine isn't the biggest reason Sonny stuck around instead of being the short-term villain he was initially meant to be.

[YaddaYadda]

Quick! Someone nominate Mo for a Golden Globe and an Oscar for his performance as Mike which is so different from his performance as Sonny!

Edited March 21, 2021 by YaddaYadda

[UYI]

6 hours ago, Melgaypet said:

Reminds me of that (in)famous quote, "you're cute, but you can't act" to Vanessa Marcil. As if Marcil being a chemistry machine isn't the biggest reason Sonny stuck around instead of being the short-term villain he was initially meant to be.

And that when he was a relative newbie on the show, too! I've said it before, but unless he was classically trained and I missed it, he had some nerve doing that when he only had Nico Kelly on AMC and Desi Arnaz in a TV biopic to his name prior to GH.

And of course, he's clearly only gotten worse since then. Sigh.

Edited March 21, 2021 by UYI

[Ambrosefolly]

3 hours ago, Melgaypet said:

Reminds me of that (in)famous quote, "you're cute, but you can't act" to Vanessa Marcil. As if Marcil being a chemistry machine isn't the biggest reason Sonny stuck around instead of being the short-term villain he was initially meant to be.

As Hatpin from way back when said, Vanessa Marcil was an extremely open actress and back then they were able to utilize that quality without having her secretly related to anyone. Openness in actors is an underrated quality. And yes, it is the main reason Sonny did so well in the beginning. 

[ffwbe]

2 hours ago, UYI said:

And that when he was relative newbie on the show, too! I've said it before, but unless he was classically trained and I missed it, he had some nerve doing that when he only had Nico Kelly on AMC and Desi Arnaz in a TV biopic to his name prior to GH.

And of course, he's clearly only gotten worse since then. 

I’ve seen some interviews and a summary of his book. That is a common theme for him when it comes to actors on a similar level of experience as him or less. He thinks very highly of himself and his abilities and genuinely believes that he can mentor others or carry them through scenes. The only time he doesn’t speak about costars that way is when they are much more experienced, like with KS, TG, NLG or GF. It’s baffling to me and very off putting. Even if you think your God’s gift to acting, feigning a little humility wouldn’t hurt. 

Edited March 21, 2021 by ffwbe

[GHScorpiosRule]

23 minutes ago, ffwbe said:

I’ve seen some interviews and a summary of the book. That is a common theme for him with actors on a similar level of experience as him or less. He thinks very highly of himself and his abilities and genuinely believes that he can mentor others or carry them through scenes. The only time he doesn’t speak about costars that way is when they are much more experienced, like with KS, TG, NLG or GF. It’s baffling to me and very off putting. Even if you think your God’s gift to acting, fringing a little humility wouldn’t hurt. 

This coming from a guy who was captured on film with dialogue written on his hand because the mumbling , stuttering stutter barker can’t remember his lines, let alone act. The new regimes didn’t need to humor his ass after most of the GH writers were let go. 

[dubbel zout]

1 hour ago, ffwbe said:

The only time he doesn’t speak about costars that way is when they are much more experienced, like with KS, TG, NLG or GF.

Seeing him attempt to "mentor" Tony Geary is something I'd have liked to see.

To be fair, I don't think there's anything wrong with MB taking a newbie under his wing and giving them advice, like do X when the camera does Y, or here's how to pace yourself when you have a heavy emotional scene followed by something more mundane. The technical stuff can be daunting, especially when the pace is so relentless. But for him to act as if he's soap opera's answer to Stanislavski is a bit much.

[Sake614]

So Mo wants to play Mike like there’s an animal inside him? And thinks that he becomes the Hulk when someone makes him angry? Well okay then. 🙄

[YaddaYadda]

2 hours ago, Sake614 said:

So Mo wants to play Mike like there’s an animal inside him? And thinks that he becomes the Hulk when someone makes him angry? Well okay then. 🙄

Mo watches Mark Ruffalo in the Avengers: I can toytes do that! Mike should be Bruce Banner.

They gave him a hammer so that he can pretend to be Thor.

[Sake614]

31 minutes ago, YaddaYadda said:

They gave him a hammer so that he can pretend to be Thor

Thor’s hammer is a better actor than Mo!

[Kiki777]

On 3/19/2021 at 11:29 PM, UYI said:

Okay, so I knew that Michelle Stafford is a Scientologist (as is her Y&R co-star, Sharon Case--herself a former GH cast member; she was one of four actresses to play Monica's late daughter Dawn) but I did NOT know she had tried to convert people behind the scenes of GH! WHOA!

I have absolutely NO idea where to post this, but this randomly appeared on the front of my YouTube page and I thought you guys would appreciate it.

 

I wonder what effect the super-sucky current theme would have on the poor pup.

[Sake614]

https://daytimeconfidential.com/2021/04/01/rumor-report-abc-nixes-roger-howarth-as-todd-on-general-hospital?fbclid=IwAR0Z2Tn6awrxMlXEShu4DImC1sQQXq4B7ZcYo7jgZL7hAFr28cuoeXeSbTE

 

[rur]

Well, I'm glad that we won't be stuck with Todd. But I wonder if it has dawned on anybody at headquarters that perhaps part of the controversy surrounding him (not his character or past characters) is related to his performances over the last few years when he apparently didn't like his role or storylines. Heaven knows there were a number of discussions here about how he was half-assing it. 

[GHScorpiosRule]

I don't know if the Asshats in charge are "suggesting" she do this, but I can't help but roll my eyes and give Finola the side eye, when I see her tweets about what a "powehouse" of an actress Laura Wright is and conveying excitement over those scenes yesterday and Tuesday. UGH. Yes, Finola, James, and Tristan are the powerhouses, but not Laura Wright, who can only screech and yell.

[YaddaYadda]

Shouldn't ABC have said something much earlier, I don't know, like when FV decided to bring RH back as Franco? They could have just created a brand new character for him. 

[dubbel zout]

18 minutes ago, YaddaYadda said:

Shouldn't ABC have said something much earlier, I don't know, like when FV decided to bring RH back as Franco? They could have just created a brand new character for him. 

I know! Audience rejection of nuFranco shouldn't have been a surprise. OG Franco was an awful, awful person who killed for sport, basically, and then dressed it up as art. That is extremely fucked up. A tumor isn't going to erase any of that any time soon, no matter how much the writers want it to. The audience isn't stupid (well, most of it isn't).

Recasting Franco should have been a no-go from the start. I still haven't heard why they thought it was such a good idea. There are plenty of characters they could have recast before Franco. It's one of the biggest mistakes the show has made in the past decade, IMO. I'm surprised RoHo was interested in Franco in the first place, TBH.

[rur]

29 minutes ago, dubbel zout said:

I know! Audience rejection of nuFranco shouldn't have been a surprise. OG Franco was an awful, awful person who killed for sport, basically, and then dressed it up as art. That is extremely fucked up. A tumor isn't going to erase any of that any time soon, no matter how much the writers want it to. The audience isn't stupid (well, most of it isn't).

And let's not forget that the audience -- if not the other characters --  saw him doing heinous things AFTER the tumor had been removed, pretty much negating the tumor-made-him-do-it excuse. 

[GHScorpiosRule]

35 minutes ago, dubbel zout said:

I still haven't heard why they thought it was such a good idea.

It was a lame excuse, but I recall Carlivati tweeting nonsense that even "murderers/serial killers could be redeemed" or some such bullshit.

[nilyank]

1 minute ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

It was a lame excuse, but I recall Carlivati tweeting nonsense that even "murderers/serial killers could be redeemed" or some such bullshit.

Which he has carried over to Days of Our Lives with Serial Killer Ben Weston.

[FilmTVGeek80]

31 minutes ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

It was a lame excuse, but I recall Carlivati tweeting nonsense that even "murderers/serial killers could be redeemed" or some such bullshit.

It's not really nonsense. Soap opera audiences forgive characters for a lot of stuff they probably shouldn't - including murder and rape - as long as the actor is hot enough, talented enough, entertaining, or in a pairing with "chemistry." It's why writers like Carlivati get away with a lot of their heinous storylines. I didn't love Franco, and would be happy for less murderers on the show, but I'm not sure why the idea of redeeming Franco was any more ludicrous than having characters like Jason (an actual serial killer) and Sonny running around being beloved by most of the characters and being popular (not necessarily here) with a huge part of the audience?

[jsbt]

I'll just say what I said elsewhere, and have been saying for awhile: 

Frank is honestly delusional. I grew up watching OLTL. I grew up watching the whole line-up, but OLTL was my #1 soap. I'll always appreciate some of the work Frank (and Carlivati) did there. And I loved Todd, warts and all. I often have thought Todd would have real value to GH as a mover and shaker to come in and out and make trouble in story, like Marco Dane or Tracy did in the 90s. But that’s all stuff you could’ve done before 2017 and MeToo. The world is different now. It’s just not responsible or forward thinking, if you’re thinking about modernizing the genre, to let a serial rapist lead a soap. It's part of the same reason Franco ultimately failed. Todd has to be put away. As someone who has gamed out many scenarios for bringing that show back, that was the first thing I knew had to happen. And Frank has to stop trying to remake OLTL just as it was on another soap. It's pathetic and sad.

Edited April 1, 2021 by jsbt

[dubbel zout]

41 minutes ago, FilmTVGeek80 said:

I'm not sure why the idea of redeeming Franco was any more ludicrous than having characters like Jason (an actual serial killer) and Sonny running around being beloved by most of the characters and being popular (not necessarily here) with a huge part of the audience?

OG Franco was much worse than Jason or Sonny, IMO, because he killed for sport, as I mentioned earlier. His victims were people in the wrong place at the wrong time. Sonny and Jason at least had the cover of the business, and most of the people they killed were also in the mob. I can't feel too badly when a criminal dies by another. It's absurd Sonny and Jason are the leads and moral center of the show, but I can accept their violence as part of their world. I don't like it, but at least there's some internal logic.

One reason Franco's redemption didn't work is that it was so badly done. I could have accepted the tumor excuse, as ridiculous as it was, if Franco hadn't later basically stalked Elizabeth and terrorized Tom. Even if Tom was a rapist, Franco had no right to put him in a dog cage.

However you felt about Luke, I think his redemption worked. The show took the time to have him work through his rape of Laura (as problematic as that was). He didn't hand wave it and insist everyone get over it immediately. He didn't go around town whining about how people wouldn't let it go. He took his lumps. The show also kept him as an anti-hero, so he didn't have to become 100 percent good. Franco at the end was portrayed much more positively than Luke ever was.

Edited April 1, 2021 by dubbel zout
grammar

[Ambrosefolly]

5 hours ago, FilmTVGeek80 said:

It's not really nonsense. Soap opera audiences forgive characters for a lot of stuff they probably shouldn't - including murder and rape - as long as the actor is hot enough, talented enough, entertaining, or in a pairing with "chemistry." It's why writers like Carlivati get away with a lot of their heinous storylines. I didn't love Franco, and would be happy for less murderers on the show, but I'm not sure why the idea of redeeming Franco was any more ludicrous than having characters like Jason (an actual serial killer) and Sonny running around being beloved by most of the characters and being popular (not necessarily here) with a huge part of the audience?

I think the expiration dates on Sonny & Jason are way passed due. Sonny & Jason should be in prison or dead, instead a random Q (biological, adopted or by marriage) is killed instead.  I can't imagine there was that much of an uproar demanding the return of Steve Burton. If there was, it was only because that is all that is left of 80s & 90s audience. Like Dr. Steve Hardy & Dr.Alan Quartermaine, at the very least, Sonny's storylines should have changed and he should have had his screen time reduced. Unlike Steve or Alan, there isn't anything remotely respectable about Sonny to be a pillar. At least Alan was good at his legal job as doctor, so he made a plausible replacement for Dr. Hardy.

Part of the problem is that everyone has been trying to replicate Luke & Laura, even Luke and Laura when the show got them back together in the early aughts.

Quote

However you felt about Luke, I think his redemption worked. The show took the time to have him work through his rape of Laura (as problematic as that was). He didn't hand wave it and insist everyone get over it immediately. He didn't go around town whining about how people wouldn't let it go. He took his lumps. The show also kept him as an anti-hero, so he didn't have to become 100 percent good. Franco at the end was portrayed much more positively than Luke ever was.

  @dubbel zout   One of the other reasons that worked is that Laura, the person he victimized, forgave him. When you murder people, they can't forgive you and family can't serve in their place.  It is the reason I can't embrace Ava- if she was truly sorry for killing Kate, she would have turned herself in and gone to jail for 2nd degree murder. Instead they have a bunch of bad shit keep happening to her, as if constant bad shit doesn't happen to the innocent or she didn't partially bring some of it on herself at times. I never thought the show would get to the point where one main character can murder another main character, without being possessed by Satan or suffering a psychotic break that we watched the build up. Yet Sonny gets a pardon for murder and gets storyline after storyline. 

I agree about keeping Luke's anti-hero, though I wish more people told Luke to grow the fuck up and not saddle Leslie with taking care of Lulu. 

The other difference is that people liked Luke. They didn't have to constantly change his backstory in the 1980s. They changed Franco's paternity twice and maternity three times, they kept shifting around his love interest. He commits serious crimes post-tumor that would land a normal person in prison for decades, even gas lighting someone into killing his own brother. They keep neglecting or cutting loose so many other characters that would be much more beneficial. I don't think it is the audience reaction that keeping Roger Hogworth around, but FV refusal to let the actor go when less name actors would have been (and have been) shown the door years ago even if they didn't have to work nearly as hard to weave them into the canvas. 

[dubbel zout]

nuFranco was a failure on just about every level. I think RoHo has good chemistry with BH and WL, among others, but that doesn't mean Franco wasn't terrible.

[Cheyanne11]

2 hours ago, dubbel zout said:

nuFranco was a failure on just about every level. I think RoHo has good chemistry with BH and WL, among others, but that doesn't mean Franco wasn't terrible.

I'll never not blame it on James Franco and his freakin' vanity role. 

[ouinason]

Y'all know I like Friz, so I'm going to say this once.

Bringing back Franco was a terrible idea and no matter how hard they tried there was always a disconnect in the character that made no sense.  Now, I did like certain things that they did with the situation, including giving a little more reason for why Franco fixated on Jason (Andy) and I ADORE the Friz family unit, but overall I get why it wasn't really working for a good majority of the audience.  I will basically ship Becky with a brick wall, so I will get over the loss, but I bet there are a lot of people breathing sighs of relief right now.  

Except I really don't thing bringing RH back as yet another character is a good idea.  Love him, but maybe switch him out with someone on Days or Y&R or something.  ME's musical characters was bad enough.

[statsgirl]

16 hours ago, Cheyanne11 said:

I'll never not blame it on James Franco and his freakin' vanity role. 

And everyone who enabled him.

And later everyone who thought that it was a good idea to recast and redeem the role with RoHo. Which is why I have no optimism for how they do bring him back.

[jsbt]

They could've brought Howarth on as literally anyone. After the vanity project/fuck you that was his double character addition in 2013, most people would have forgiven it by now if he'd had chemistry with Becky and the kids and the character was reasonably well-conceived or written and positioned. It didn't work bc Frank and Ron Carlivati made the deliberate choice to choose a poisoned chalice as close to "Todd" from OLTL as possible - they felt other options weren't edgy enough. You could've introduced an edgy character who wasn't a serial killer or rapist. But back then they felt they could do anything and that they would always have the last of the soap press and fans on their side. Ron tried to do it again at DAYS, too, with middling success - he made another serial killer into a romantic lead on the strength of a handsome performer with certain skills. And some of the audience buys it, but a lot doesn't. You can't tell these dudes anything in the dying days of a genre, and then they still throw up their hands and blame cable and streaming for all their problems. Meanwhile, how's the (single) Black storyline?

[Hater]

I just think it’s pretty shitty that Roger and Michael seem to be guaranteed jobs no matter how many times their characters fail, die or whatever. While others are just fired. It just smells rotten from Frank Valentini. 

[bannana]

On 4/1/2021 at 12:28 PM, dubbel zout said:

However you felt about Luke, I think his redemption worked. The show took the time to have him work through his rape of Laura (as problematic as that was). He didn't hand wave it and insist everyone get over it immediately. He didn't go around town whining about how people wouldn't let it go. He took his lumps. The show also kept him as an anti-hero, so he didn't have to become 100 percent good.

But wasn't Luke at the end also a serial killer?

[Asp Burger]

I wasn't as strongly anti-Franco as some were, but in all the years of GH selling him as a sympathetic character, I always felt as if I were seeing a too-heavy boulder being pushed up a hill. The character's past was so dark, and the tumor excuse wasn't enough to erase it. The character was still hanging around Port Charles among people he'd victimized, going by the same name. Sympathetic characters like Elizabeth were reduced to telling people just to get over it.

I had one other problem with it, which I seem to be unusual in having: I thought the character and Howarth himself as an actor were hamstrung by the setup. This character couldn't be written with the normal emotional range available to every other character, because any display of, say, rage or jealousy -- human emotions and certainly soapy ones -- would ignite viewer fears that he was going to start serial-killing again, and the show was constantly megaphoning at us that Franco was a nice guy now. So, for most of the time, he was stuck being "gentle farmer" Franco, and it was boring. 

It was a bad experiment. I know Howarth was under contract, but he should have balked hard and sent them back to the drawing board for a second character for him. He did work well with Becky Herbst, with the actors who played the sons, and with Maura West, Kathleen Gati, Kin Shriner, and others. I had no complaints there. But no matter how much I enjoyed the Franco scenes on a particular day, the shadow of the character's ugly and malignant history was always there. Franco was created to be ugly and malignant. Not every villain should be redeemed. 

BTW, I know that James Franco is a controversial topic on several levels, but I do think he's a great actor and I found him magnetic in his first run as Franco in '09. He should have been short term, though. Giving even that version of Franco complicating family ties was mistake number one.

[WendyCR72]

I get wanting Roger Howarth on the show (even if I find him underwhelming). But there was absolutely NO REASON to have him play a psycho killer - especially if the plan was to keep him long term. Besides, "Franco" was an obvious riff on his original actor, and it should have been left there, the whole of it. Since it was more or less performance art than true soap acting on JF's end, as far as I'm concerned.

But to try to humanize that wreck was a grave error, and no connecting him to legacy characters a la Scotty could hide the stench. It only hurt said legacy character to try to make it fly. Ditto Liz, and I am not even a fan of that character. But even I agree she deserved better than to try to give a psycho emperor new clothes; it wasn't happening, no matter how many years passed.

And trading Franco 2 for a rapist from a dead soap is a lateral move. Seems as if someone from ABC woke up and realized that.

Yes, it is somewhat hypocritical, since this show had Luke and still has Sonny and Jason. But at least those characters had past histories and stories that lent to the fabric of the show and its history. Franco (and Todd) had none of that.

Howarth maybe should have/could have been Steve (Lars) Webber. Of course, that would have nixed a pairing with Liz, but I'm sure she could have landed on her feet with another pairing.

And I hate that Michael Easton had character after character and I feel the same for Howarth. We already saw Todd and then this mess. Let Roger Howarth have his contract bought out by ABC. If ME and RHo weren't pets of the EP, I doubt the revolving door would exist.

These actors got more chances than 80% of the other actors put together.

[WendyCR72]

On 4/1/2021 at 1:47 PM, FilmTVGeek80 said:

It's not really nonsense. Soap opera audiences forgive characters for a lot of stuff they probably shouldn't - including murder and rape - as long as the actor is hot enough, talented enough, entertaining, or in a pairing with "chemistry." It's why writers like Carlivati get away with a lot of their heinous storylines. I didn't love Franco, and would be happy for less murderers on the show, but I'm not sure why the idea of redeeming Franco was any more ludicrous than having characters like Jason (an actual serial killer) and Sonny running around being beloved by most of the characters and being popular (not necessarily here) with a huge part of the audience?

Sure, but the trouble is, those audiences are shrinking. Probably because the audience that bolted did NOT share such views. Hell, Days of Our Lives is also in the ratings toilet, and I think a part of that is having the daughter of Bo/Hope married to ANOTHER "hot" serial killer.

Soaps used to have stark lines of heroes and villains and who to root for. With those lines gone, why watch? There is no payoff for evil deeds. They get swept under the rug instead, because X actor has six-pack abs.

Alas, the law of diminishing returns and audience with this formula is probably a big reason why this genre is facing extinction (besides bad writing overall and a zillion other viewer choices).

[Cheyanne11]

Josh Swickard and his wife had their baby on Friday--a little girl named Savannah Kaye:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CNQywJoMovp/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

[dubbel zout]

The absolute-bliss look on his face is fantastic. Congrats to the happy new parents!

[Cheyanne11]

It's such a sweet look--and the baby is adorable.  

He seems like such a nice guy--very happy for him and his wife!

[tveyeonyou]

On 4/1/2021 at 11:02 PM, Cheyanne11 said:

I'll never not blame it on James Franco and his freakin' vanity role. 

Because this can never be said enough. I can't stand that weirdo. 

[Ambrosefolly]

2 minutes ago, tveyeonyou said:

Because this can never be said enough. I can't stand that weirdo. 

They could have always said no or made James Franco the first version of Valentin since Valentin was plotted out and even cast. I heard a story that the Matt Borlenghi was in the makeup chair at GH when they let him know that his storyline was being scrapped.  Stay classy JFP!

9 hours ago, WendyCR72 said:

Sure, but the trouble is, those audiences are shrinking. Probably because the audience that bolted did NOT share such views. Hell, Days of Our Lives is also in the ratings toilet, and I think a part of that is having the daughter of Bo/Hope married to ANOTHER "hot" serial killer.

Soaps used to have stark lines of heroes and villains and who to root for. With those lines gone, why watch? There is no payoff for evil deeds. They get swept under the rug instead, because X actor has six-pack abs.

Alas, the law of diminishing returns and audience with this formula is probably a big reason why this genre is facing extinction (besides bad writing overall and a zillion other viewer choices).

On WandaVision, while I hear it was mostly a great show, the audience complained Wanda wasn't punished enough for basically enslaving the town and the show runners were all like "Sure she did- the town gave her bad looks!" It still didn't pass the smell test. (Though is seems to be more of a punishment then everyone person who commits so violent crime get. At least no one died.)