GH In The News: The PC Press Club

[Auntie Velvet]

Cynthia and Finola got nominated for a Best Actress emmy. No best actor noms from GH.

[Sake614]

That’s because GH doesn’t have any leading male actors except Mo. Did he actually not submit anything for last year?

[Grinaldi]

5 hours ago, Sake614 said:

That’s because GH doesn’t have any leading male actors except Mo. Did he actually not submit anything for last year?

I was actually trying to figure out who they would submit for last year other than Mo. Donnell is supporting. I guess Cameron but even Braedan could out act him among the nominees. The only person even worthy of this cast in the last several years was Jon Lindstrom for the Ryan return story. In any event, Mo did not have the material in 2023. Good for Cynthia and Finola though neither had material to compare to their previous wins in the category.

[ffwbe]

Here’s the full list of the nominations. Light year for GH:

Supporting Performance In A Daytime Drama Series: Actress

Jennifer Gareis (Donna, BOLD AND BEAUTIFUL)
Linsey Godfrey (Sarah, DAYS OF OUR LIVES)
Courtney Hope (Sally, YOUNG AND RESTLESS)
Allison Lanier (Summer, YOUNG AND RESTLESS)
Emily O’Brien (Gwen, DAYS OF OUR LIVES)

Supporting Performance In A Daytime Drama Series: Actor

Robert Gossett (Marshall, GENERAL HOSPITAL)
Bryton James (Devon, YOUNG AND RESTLESS)
Wally Kurth (Justin, DAYS OF OUR LIVES)
A Martinez (Nardo, THE BAY)
Mike Manning (Caleb, THE BAY)

Guest Performance In A Daytime Drama Series

Linden Ashby (Cameron, YOUNG AND RESTLESS)
Ashley Jones (Bridget, BOLD AND BEAUTIFUL)
Alley Mills (Heather, GENERAL HOSPITAL)
Guy Pearce as Mike Young, NEIGHBOURS)
Dick Van Dyke (Mystery Man/Timothy Robicheaux, DAYS OF OUR LIVES)

Lead Performance In A Daytime Drama Series: Actress

Katherine Kelly Lang (Brooke, BOLD AND BEAUTIFUL)
Tamara Braun (Ava, DAYS OF OUR LIVES)
Finola Hughes (Anna, GENERAL HOSPITAL)
Annika Noelle (Hope, BOLD AND BEAUTIFUL)
Michelle Stafford (Phyllis, YOUNG AND RESTLESS)
Cynthia Watros (Nina, GENERAL HOSPITAL)

Lead Performance In A Daytime Drama Series: Actor

Eric Braeden (Victor, YOUNG AND RESTLESS)
Scott Clifton (Liam, BOLD AND BEAUTIFUL)
Thorsten Kaye (Ridge, BOLD AND BEAUTIFUL)
John McCook (Eric, BOLD AND BEAUTIFUL)
Eric Martsolf (Brady, DAYS OF OUR LIVES)

Writing For A Daytime Drama Series

THE BAY
BOLD AND BEAUTIFUL
DAYS OF OUR LIVES
GENERAL HOSPITAL
YOUNG AND RESTLESS

Directing For A Daytime Drama Series

THE BAY
BOLD AND BEAUTIFUL
DAYS OF OUR LIVES
GENERAL HOSPITAL
YOUNG AND RESTLESS

Original Song

“Shine” GENERAL HOSPITAL
“Unexpected Truth” UNEXPECTED
“We’re Home” RECONNECTING ROOTS

Casting

AFRICAN QUEENS: NJINGA
DAYS OF OUR LIVES
GENERAL HOSPITAL
START UP
YOUNG AND RESTLESS

Daytime Drama Series

THE BAY
BOLD AND BEAUTIFUL
DAYS OF OUR LIVES
GENERAL HOSPITAL
NEIGHBOURS
YOUNG AND RESTLESS

[Auntie Velvet]

Thanks for posting the full, @ffwbe! Oddly, they split the nominations between last night and this morning, so in terms of soaps, only the shows and the lead actor/actress categories were announced last night.

I hate that The Hat's story is such Emmy bait. 

 

Edited April 19 by Auntie Velvet

[Grinaldi]

I'm not outraged by any GH omissions - saving all my ire for the lack of Colleen Zenk in Guest. She alone was more entertaining than anything on GH last year and I don't even like Y&R.

Seeing Neighbours among the US soaps is kind of a hoot though. Wonder if Guy Pearce shows up? My guess is he will be busy. And Van Dyke will almost certainly win.

[jsbt]

Neighbours fully deserves it.

[ciarra]

On 4/19/2024 at 10:16 AM, ffwbe said:

Original Song

“Shine” GENERAL HOSPITAL

I would pay money for this not to win.

[DanaK]

Actress/soap writer and GH alum Meg Bennett has died at 75 after a battle with cancer. She wrote for GH from 1993 to 2011 and played villain Allegra Montenegro 

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/meg-bennett-dead-young-and-restless-1235878548/

[CanaryFan98]

 This took me by surprise. May she RIP even though I had issues with her husband's writing on GH at times.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/meg-bennett-dead-young-and-restless-1235878548/

Quote

 

Meg Bennett, Soap Opera Actress and Writer, Dies at 75
She multitasked on ‘The Young and the Restless,’ ‘General Hospital’ and ‘Santa Barbara’ and worked on ‘Search for Tomorrow’ and ‘Sunset Beach’ as well.

Meg Bennett, the Daytime Emmy winner who did double duty as an actress and writer on the daytime soap operas The Young and the Restless, General Hospital and Santa Barbara, has died. She was 75.

Bennett died April 11 after a battle with cancer, her family announced.

Bennett portrayed Marty Maraschino for more than two years during the original Broadway run of Grease that kicked off in 1972, then began her long run in daytime two years later with a turn as Liza Walton on CBS’ Search for Tomorrow, where Kevin Kline and Morgan Fairchild were castmates.

She joined CBS’ The Young and the Restless in 1980 as Julia Newman — wife of Eric Braeden’s Victor Newman — but as her character was being written off, she was asked by Y&R creator Bill Bell to stick around as a writer.

“I’d been acting on the show for almost two years when this happened, so I knew the characters,” Bennett said in a 1985 interview. Still, she continued to show up as Julia on and off throughout the years, the last time in 2020.

Bennett wrote for NBC’s Santa Barbara from 1991-93 (and played author Megan Richardson) and wrote for ABC’s General Hospital from 1993-2011 (and portrayed the villainess Allegra Montenegro).

She shared her Daytime Emmy for her work on G.H. in 1995 and was nominated for writing Y&R in 1986, G.H. again in 2000 and 2012 and The Bold and the Beautiful in 2003. She also wrote for NBC’s Generations from 1989-91 and NBC’s Sunset Beach from 1997-98 and won a pair of WGA awards during her career.

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Helen Margaret Bennett was born on Oct. 4, 1948, and raised in Pasadena. Her mother, Margaret, was a psychologist at Pasadena City College.

Bennett attended John Muir High School in Pasadena, and while majoring in drama at Northwestern University — where Shelley Long was a classmate — she was a homecoming queen, a Miss America contestant, a model in Life magazine and a performer in summer stock.

She moved to New York after graduation in 1970 to pursue acting, landed a modeling job for Cadillac and appeared off-Broadway in Godspell before joining Grease. She also won cash, a car, three rooms of furniture, a sailboat and a trip to Jamaica on the NBC game show Three on a Match, hosted by Bill Cullen.

In her 1985 interview, she wondered if concentrating on either acting or writing would have been enough for her. “I’ll admit, acting makes me a little crazy sometimes: You wait to audition. You wait for the part,” she said. “When you’re writing, you’re in control. I can initiate things on my own when I’m writing.”

Survivors include her husband of 19 years, Sunset Beach co-creator and nine-time Daytime Emmy winner Robert Guza Jr. — they met on G.H. and were frequent writing partners on soaps — two stepdaughters, four grandchildren, a brother and a sister.

She and Guza purchased a home in Beverly Hills in 2003 that had been owned by Boris Karloff and then Gregory Peck.

 

 

[tessaray]

On 4/20/2024 at 1:27 AM, Grinaldi said:

Seeing Neighbours among the US soaps is kind of a hoot though. Wonder if Guy Pearce shows up? My guess is he will be busy. And Van Dyke will almost certainly win.

I had no idea that Neighbors was airing here but found it on Freevee. I remember trying to watch Eastenders and Coronation Street back when I had Britbox but could never get into them. Is Neighbors any easier?

[jsbt]

Oh, that's sad. Meg Bennett was a soap lifer in many roles in front of and behind the camera. My sympathies to her loved ones (including Guza).

12 hours ago, tessaray said:

I had no idea that Neighbors was airing here but found it on Freevee. I remember trying to watch Eastenders and Coronation Street back when I had Britbox but could never get into them. Is Neighbors any easier?

I think so, as a non-fan who only really watched the previous finale. There is a bit of a recap/intro video on Amazon I think (though I haven't seen it), and I think a lot of the opening episodes are skewed around recapping/introducing people and the town through a variety of somewhat clumsy narrative devices, like one of the senior characters going through a scrapbook. Tonally it's a much more family show though, and a bit slight/goofy in some ways. But full of heart.

Edited April 22 by jsbt

[DanaK]

Laura Wright talks about Carly getting the MetroCourt back

https://www.soapoperadigest.com/content/exclusive-ghs-laura-wright-opens-up-about-carlys-metro-court-comeback/?taid=66267b914b593a000110be67&utm_campaign=true_anthem_soapoperadigest&utm_content=manual&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

[dubbel zout]

From the interview:

During rehearsal, I don’t really play too much because I know that there’s so much emotion in any scene with Steve [Burton, Jason] that I like to wait and see what happens during taping.

LW brings the emotion, but I honestly rarely see any from SBu. If it's there on the set, it certainly isn't coming through the camera for me.

Edited April 22 by dubbel zout

[Auntie Velvet]

I will CAUTIOUSLY say that for the moment, Jason has a bit more emotion to him. He's teared up more than once, and he's more focused on "wimmin stuff" like friends and family than previously. We'll see what happens after he and Sonny are reconciled. 

[ComeWhatMay]

Chris Van Etten, fired head writer, remains on staff per Alley Mills, who said he pitched the cobalt hip. It seems none of the podcasters or X insiders had or could share this information. Always treat any tea being served to you by anybody with a healthy spoonful of skepticism. 

[jsbt]

It's very possible and not uncommon for a fired HW to still be on staff at a lower level, but tbqh I'll believe it when I hear more from someone else. These actors don't always know what they're talking about or play a game of Telephone. I still remember Thom Christopher and Tonja Walker going on and on at length in the OLTL oral history about the genius of former EP Paul Rauch pairing them up as Carlo and Alex 20+ years before and how brilliant he was for doing it. Rauch had been fired many months before either of them were ever paired up - by a completely different creative team who wanted to try them together. Time and tide.

Edited April 23 by jsbt

[mariah23]

Now they can start looking for a recast…or not.

https://tvline.com/casting-news/general-hospital-nicholas-alexander-not-returning-spencer-leaving-1235223352/

[PatsyandEddie]

😪

[ComeWhatMay]

The “unnamed sources” at this point are something. I had a feeling I would not see Chavez return back in December, and not because of the mostly wrong except gone board scuttlebutt I posted in the spoilers thread. It was something in his performance. 

The gloating and duhs toward other fans from some of his supporters and detractors online are too bad. He had a contract so no one is foolish for thinking and hoping he would finish it. Coming back for a short stint didn’t make sense. I get that… I think a lot of people do. I think the show could have handled this better and he could have too. The unfollowing on IG was tacky and a bad look. 

Chavez’s Spencer and Sprina 2.0 are so, so popular. Recasting is a tough proposition and I personally would give it a lot of time. You don’t want to ruin it for people throwing someone in there and I always remember how JJ’s return was mucked up by the recasts tenures and stories. 

[Artsda]

Its not surprising. They removed him from credits awhile ago and he wasn't going to sign a new contract. 

[jsbt]

1 hour ago, ComeWhatMay said:

The unfollowing on IG was tacky and a bad look. 

It's common practice many times with something like this these days, though. I don't think it's personal. It's also not uncommon for a soap to let a young star out early for another opportunity. I didn't think he would be back either, but I also never saw any sign of bad behavior onscreen.

[ComeWhatMay]

22 minutes ago, jsbt said:

It's common practice many times with something like this these days, though. I don't think it's personal.

Yeah, I’m familiar given my job. It was more who in particular he unfollowed for me. It wasn’t everyone, but his unfollowing included his two leading ladies. Sprina, with ample encouragement from him, fed his Patreon well. It just felt icky to me. 

[Grinaldi]

I would bet money it was the agent/social media manager not him who did the unfollowing. A lot of those types still see soaps as a ghetto particularly for young stars.

With Nik out of the picture Im not sure a recast is necessary. The Cassadines aren't looking like a priority for this team. And a new love interest for Trina may be smarter than trying to nail a recast. Im sure the character will come back eventually but I thought the same about Morgan who had a similar no body death. But I can't fault him for leaving. Unless you want to be a lifer, do your three years and go. 

[jsbt]

3 minutes ago, Grinaldi said:

With Nik out of the picture Im not sure a recast is necessary. The Cassadines aren't looking like a priority for this team. And a new love interest for Trina may be smarter than trying to nail a recast. Im sure the character will come back eventually but I thought the same about Morgan who had a similar no body death. But I can't fault him for leaving. Unless you want to be a lifer, do your three years and go. 

I think Spencer will be back sooner than Morgan, recast or otherwise. But I'm willing to bet they hold the role open for a bit a la JJ in the hopes Chavez's career fizzles and he starts looking to pay the rent. Which is probably a good idea.

[ComeWhatMay]

Adam Huss is back as Nik for a stint per SOD. 

Also newsworthy is that GH still releases/confirms comings and goings, occasionally. Ha! ;-)

Huss is not my cup of tea and as cute as the twins playing Ace are, I think all things Esme should be in the Goings column like Avery was the day after Esme flung herself and Spencer off the boat. 

[superdeluxe]

Adam Huss is actually back for one episode because that’s all he shot.

[ComeWhatMay]

1 hour ago, superdeluxe said:

Adam Huss is actually back for one episode because that’s all he shot.

Ah! A very short stint. Thank you. 

[Sake614]

21 hours ago, ComeWhatMay said:

was more who in particular he unfollowed for me. It wasn’t everyone,

I checked today and he’s only following Frank. If there was bad blood between the two, he’d have unfollowed Frank as well. I don’t know why he’d unfollow former cast mates, but I’m sure he has his reasons. Hes actually only following three accounts now: Frank, Ryan Murphy Productions and Netflix and hasn’t posted anything since January. Maybe he has a private personal account where he follows friends. Whatever, he doesn’t owe me anything other than what he showed on screen. I always thought he gave it his all and wish him all the best in his career.

[racked]

 

On 4/25/2024 at 9:29 PM, ComeWhatMay said:

Chavez’s Spencer and Sprina 2.0 are so, so popular. Recasting is a tough proposition and I personally would give it a lot of time. You don’t want to ruin it for people throwing someone in there and I always remember how JJ’s return was mucked up by the recasts tenures and stories. 

I really thought JJ would never come back so when it was announced I was so excited and they truly did muck it up and a good part of that was him coming back in the middle of a story built around another actor. 

Much as I enjoyed NAC, he’s no JJ to me and I think they can find a good young actor to fill his shoes eventually. But the younger scene needs more men in general. Bring on a Cam recast too. I know the cast is bloated but it’s certainly not with people in that age range. 

As for his unfollowing people on insta, I have to say I have such a soft spot for when actors seem to truly want to stay in touch. Tom Pelphry still follows and interacts with his GL costars (including LW) and it makes me smile. But since he follows so few people it’s probably some social media manager who has curated his account. Ah well. I hope Teschner can work his magic again. 

[ComeWhatMay]

13 hours ago, Sake614 said:

I always thought he gave it his all and wish him all the best in his career.

I was referring to his IG. And it probably was a staffer. And, most importantly, I do too. 

[CanaryFan98]

 

[Sake614]

30 minutes ago, CanaryFan98 said:

 

That’s so sad! Then again, it means Jon is available lol!

[DanaK]

2 hours ago, CanaryFan98 said:

 

Aww, that's sad. Hope they can find happiness with others

[Adeejay]

I am heartbroken to hear about Jon and Kady.  However, I can't say I am surprised. I follow Jon on Instagram and I can't tell the last time I saw a picture of them together.   In February, I went to Jon's book signing in Manhattan.  A lot of people asked about Kady, and he didn't seem too eager to talk about her.  All he said was that she was busy.  Doing what he didn't say.  This is so sad.  

[Asp Burger]

Mo ain't goin' nowhere, he says.

[dubbel zout]

Where would he go? He's a soap lifer, not that there's anything wrong with that.

I'm cautiously encouraged that the new writers are starting to have characters call Sonny out on his behavior (however late in the game), so maybe we'll get some new directions for him. 

[ciarra]

I thought Nina was a new direction for Sonny.  He quit drinking.  He seemed happy. 

[DanaK]

Haley Pullos (former Molly) has been sentenced to 3 months in jail, among other things, for her drunk driving accident

https://www.soapoperadigest.com/content/former-gh-star-haley-pullos-receives-jail-time/

[Asp Burger]

18 hours ago, dubbel zout said:

Where would he go? He's a soap lifer, not that there's anything wrong with that.

Oh, if there were a Sonny exit story taking shape, I'd expect it to be like the Luke exit story: Mo having decided to retire or semi-retire from acting. Not a situation in which he planned to go hard after parts in primetime and on cable/streamers. I don't know what his financial situation is like, to say whether hanging it up at 61 (like Daniel Day-Lewis) is a realistic possibility. But I expect Sonny to be around until ABC shuts off the lights on its last soap.

One thing I do know from that tweet is that Mo throws extraneous commas around like they're glassware! 

[dubbel zout]

6 hours ago, Asp Burger said:

I don't know what his financial situation is like

He's got some college tuitions to pay if his kids go that route, so I'd say he probably needs to keep working regularly.

[nilyank]

29 minutes ago, dubbel zout said:

He's got some college tuitions to pay if his kids go that route, so I'd say he probably needs to keep working regularly.

His eldest had already graduated years ago, been married and is a mom herself. The other daughters are in Air Force and the other one is in her mid 20s. His youngest Joshua would be the only one but he is also has acted and is also a musician. So I think it is this is less of a factor than a decade ago.

[jsbt]

2 hours ago, nilyank said:

His eldest had already graduated years ago, been married and is a mom herself. The other daughters are in Air Force and the other one is in her mid 20s. His youngest Joshua would be the only one but he is also has acted and is also a musician. So I think it is this is less of a factor than a decade ago.

I agree. I also highly doubt he isn't still being paid pretty well for the last 20+ years (and if he's taken anything from Steve, it's hopefully business advice - that dude is about the dollars).

Edited April 30 by jsbt

[DanaK]

SOD’s GH May Sweeps preview

https://www.soapoperadigest.com/content/general-hospital-may-sweeps-preview/

[Asp Burger]

I looked for a scan to share but cannot find one, so you will have to take my word for it that 25 years ago (with summer 1999 fast approaching) was the infamous "See you tomorrow, Jason" ad campaign promoting Steve Burton.

The gist is that it was written from the point of view of a lovelorn soap viewer. She was saying that even though Jason was a character on her screen and she was a real person in her kitchen, in her mind, she walked down the beach arm in arm with the holy hitman. Then there was a dramatic paragraph break for "See you tomorrow, Jason." 

Even in 1999, there was enough of an online soap fan base for this campaign to get righteously roasted. I remember some funny parodies, like, "Even though you have gone from Quartermaine to Quarter-Brain, I close my eyes and we are walking down the beach, arm in arm. See you tomorrow, Pod-Boy."

[YaddaYadda]

14 hours ago, DanaK said:

SOD’s GH May Sweeps preview

https://www.soapoperadigest.com/content/general-hospital-may-sweeps-preview/

Looks like they might be killing off Gregory during sweeps. I'll be sorry to see him go. I really like his scenes with Tracy.

[CeChase]

3 minutes ago, YaddaYadda said:

Looks like they might be killing off Gregory during sweeps. I'll be sorry to see him go. I really like his scenes with Tracy.

I do too, and I think there are a lot of people who can go.  I was hoping for a mass incident actually.  I would have kept Gregory, but the old writers wrote him into a corner when they said his ALS was diagnosed by I forget which prestigious medical center.  But it was prestigious.   After that, I never thought they could go with a misdiagnosis.  There's so many I want gone though.  Let's start with Blaze's mom!  Finn would be second. 

[driver18]

Don't worry, I think you can all be happy. The way it was worded, I don't think it's Gregory dying, but rather Finn. The rumors swirling about Easton, the regret and time spent on Finn and Gregory's relationship, the complete and utter lack of interest in Finn and Elizabeth as a pairing. I mean, this regime makes the last look almost gung-ho for the pair. Nearly two months and Finn/Elizabeth have shared about 6 scenes total. Meanwhile, Finn is having heart to hearts with Alexis about what he's going through, and no one seems to remember that Elizabeth and Finn are dating. Oh, wait, no one seems to remember Elizabeth, period. 

Anyhoo, yeah, I dunno, I just have this funny feeling, the person we're losing at the wedding will be Finn.

[CeChase]

37 minutes ago, driver18 said:

Don't worry, I think you can all be happy. The way it was worded, I don't think it's Gregory dying, but rather Finn. The rumors swirling about Easton, the regret and time spent on Finn and Gregory's relationship, the complete and utter lack of interest in Finn and Elizabeth as a pairing. I mean, this regime makes the last look almost gung-ho for the pair. Nearly two months and Finn/Elizabeth have shared about 6 scenes total. Meanwhile, Finn is having heart to hearts with Alexis about what he's going through, and no one seems to remember that Elizabeth and Finn are dating. Oh, wait, no one seems to remember Elizabeth, period. 

Anyhoo, yeah, I dunno, I just have this funny feeling, the person we're losing at the wedding will be Finn.

Oh I feel so bad because of your avatar.  I'm sorry!  You're right, it's as if they have erased the fact that Liz and Finn are in a relationship.  

[jsbt]

Meanwhile:

Davies' character, Fergus Byrne, was mentioned by Diane as Neil's brother not long ago. This is obviously a Mulcahey move, as he wrote the bulk of NLG and LD's material at Santa Barbara (he was not around for LD's rocky stint as Cameron Lewis on GH in the 2000s).

I liked LD on GH, but it was the writing that had issues. I'm open to it, assuming it's not just a nice little cameo.

Edited May 1 by jsbt