GH History Lessons: Because History is Always Repeating Itself

[UYI]

30 years ago today: The final day of the "Autumn Breeze" theme/visuals.

1976-1993: The end of an era.

 

[Grinaldi]

Thanks for that! That Baby Jessica news tease really took me back. Fun fact: OLTL's Robin Strasser played one of the mom's in the TV movie.

[UYI]

60 years ago today.

 And 30 years ago today: The debut of the "Faces of the Heart" era on the show's 30th anniversary show.

 

[nilyank]

The Haunted Star formerly known as Titan. I thought it would be bigger and fancier.

 

 

[Blackie]

1 hour ago, nilyank said:

I thought it would be bigger and fancier.

 

This is what I had in my mind that it looked like. I thought it wasn't even really sea worthy anymore. I never really considered it a yacht and I think it would stick out like a sore thumb sailing through the Great Lakes that anyone would easily spot it and a fast police boat could easily catch it.

[Auntie Velvet]

I do recall that once they were underway they had some swanky dinners (and a viewing of the Charles/Diana wedding!) going on, and it looked a bit more impressive on those sections of the interior.

Updated: I just caught some of the clips, and it definitely didn't have the grand spaces that we saw in later years. It was still an impressive multi-episode shoot, though! 

Edited April 13, 2023 by Auntie Velvet

[jsbt]

6 hours ago, Blackie said:

This is what I had in my mind that it looked like. I thought it wasn't even really sea worthy anymore. I never really considered it a yacht and I think it would stick out like a sore thumb sailing through the Great Lakes that anyone would easily spot it and a fast police boat could easily catch it.

I wish they'd just say it has some weird Cassadine gadgets buried within its circuitry or something. Or that it's an undercover sub or some shit like Stefano's toys on DAYS. These are the Cassadines, it might as well have the cloaking device from a Klingon Bird of Prey.

Edited April 13, 2023 by jsbt

[dubbel zout]

Especially since we've heard Victor gas on about his plaaan for way too long. His big move is to put the transponder on a buoy?

[SlovakPrincess]

None of the sets or outdoor shots they used for the Haunted Star seemed to really match during the storyline when Luke, Laura and Robert were hiding on it during the Ice Princess story.  It was a Frankenstein boat of disconnected images connected together.

[dubbel zout]

I think Nik redid the interior of the Haunted Star somewhere along the line. It was a nightclub/hot spot for a while. 

The outside shots are probably whatever they can get on the cheap or for free at the time they need them.

[Cheyanne11]

Apparently there was a Delia Reid mention on today's show and how she's Ava's mother.  She's made several appearances on GH--synopsis from GH Wiki:

Quote

 

On October 28, 2013, Sam and Silas go to NYC to investigate Ava's past to see if she is related to Sam. Delia initially denies any relationship to the Jerome family, but eventually admits that she is Ava's mother, but that she did not raise her. Sam and Silas tell Delia that she has a granddaughter, Kiki, and Delia tells them to tell Kiki where she can find her grandmother.

Delia comes to Port Charles in July of 2014 at the request of Ava. Ava tells her mother that she is being held prisoner in mobster Sonny Corinthos' mansion and asks her to move in. Ava drops another bomb on Delia by admitting that Sonny has her imprisoned because he's trying to kill her. Delia is shocked and appalled. Ava tells Delia that there is a tape with incriminating evidence on it and she needs her help to find the tape. Possession of the tape could be the key to saving her life. Although Delia and Ava have never been close, Delia agrees to move into Sonny's and help Ava find the tape to save her daughter's life.

When Ava is spending July 4 as a prisoner at Sonny's house, Delia tries to divert Sonny's attention away from Ava by asking him questions about his two sons. Sonny then diverts HER attention away from his personal life and his belongings by giving Ava (who sneakily walks into the living room) and Delia a moment in private. Mother and daughter take advantage of this time to formulate a plan for Delia to infiltrate Sonny's stuff. Ava suggests that the key to get in is upstairs in his room.

Delia is reluctant at first but -- since this could save her daughter's life -- eventually agrees to do it. Sonny barely misses walking in on their plan when Ava and Delia pretend to argue. During their "fight" Delia berates Ava that since she find her so annoying she's going back to NYC to a family that appreciates her more than Ava does. Ava begs for another chance but Delia doesn't wanna hear it. She goes upstairs, pretends to collect her things, steals the key as planned, thanks Sonny for letting her stay and exits. Instead of going home, she infiltrates the Metro Court that night to go to the Crimson office. She can infiltrate the place with the key she stole.

Delia got into Sonny's office and even got her hands on the flash drive, but just as she was about to leave, she was caught by Olivia Falconeri. Olivia confronts Delia about what she was doing and then called Sonny. Sonny came down to the office and was surprised to see Delia and hear that she lied about her name to Olivia. While Sonny is confronting Delia, Ava calls Delia and inadvertently gives away their whole plan to Sonny when he answers Delia's phone. Sonny makes Delia return the flash drive and then orders Shawn Butler to escort Delia back to her home in New York. Before Delia left, she warned Shawn that she knew all about what Sonny was planning to do to Ava once the baby was born, and threatened to make Sonny and Shawn pay if anything happened to Ava.

On May 29, 2015, Delia returns to shed some light on Denise DiMuccio, Ava's look-a-like, who ends up being Ava in the end.

 

 

[NotMySekrit2Tell]

Before Curtis, what other characters have been temporarily paralyzed? I can think of Jax (shot by Alcazar) and Sonny (Jerry). Nik too? Or was that "unable to talk"? 

[JMO]

7 hours ago, NotMySekrit2Tell said:

Before Curtis, what other characters have been temporarily paralyzed? I can think of Jax (shot by Alcazar) and Sonny (Jerry). Nik too? Or was that "unable to talk"? 

Duke Lavery, Bobbie Spencer (Meyer at the time).  When Bobbie was paralyzed (DVX serum of some sort), GH introduced Nancy Becker-Kennedy, quadriplegic in real life, and gave her an actual storyline.   

[GHScorpiosRule]

7 hours ago, NotMySekrit2Tell said:

Before Curtis, what other characters have been temporarily paralyzed? I can think of Jax (shot by Alcazar) and Sonny (Jerry). Nik too? Or was that "unable to talk"? 

 

1 minute ago, JMO said:

Duke Lavery, Bobbie Spencer (Meyer at the time).  When Bobbie was paralyzed (DVX serum of some sort), GH introduced Nancy Becker-Kennedy, quadriplegic in real life, and gave her an actual storyline.   

Also Luke. When everyone thought he died in the snow avalanche. Which precipitated Robert and Holly's marriage of convenience, and had them fall in love. And became the Nick and Nora of this show until Anna showed up.

[Gam2]

I just cannot warm up to NuNuMolly. Her babyish voice and squinty eyes take me out of the scene every time.

[Ambrosefolly]

 I think Lucky's characters was intentionally trashed in the aughts, usually in service to that Xanax in person form, Jason. The first go around of Lucky being an asshole to Liz was when Liz and Jason where romantically circling each other and because Lucky was no longer being played by JJ, Guza saw it fine to turn him to a big cheating jerk. They break up, and with Lucky no longer being a rival with Jason, he returned to somewhat normal and inoffensive, especially when the more earnest Greg Vaughn took over. Liz moved on with other romantic relationships, Lucky moved on with other relationships and Guza stopped giving a shit about either one of them, so what the heck, why not have her become a nurse and him become a cop. 

I argue that pill addiction had everything to do with making Lucky the heavy with Liason and nothing to do with showcasing addiction, because it didn't seem a single person in his family seemed to give a shit that he had developed a life threatening addiction to prescription pills. It wasn't like Lucky was an addict before and the family were exhausted after years with dealing with him. Luke even called Lucky a loser and told Liz to give up on him. That might be okay if Luke was going to do something to help out Lucky himself, but no, it seemed that family was content to let him die in the gutter. Then fucking Lulu was passing around notes between Liz and Jason, despite everything that Lucky had done for her growing up. 

Now contrast all of this to when Jonathan Jackson reprised his role as Lucky. I never seen a 180 turn on a character. His family gave a shit if he was relapsing! Lucky was a smart, cool detective.  And since this came mid affair between Liz and Nicholas, so now Liz was made to look like the  jerk, complete with Lulu slut shaming her at the hospital. 

[WendyCR72]

And I still remember how eager Liz was to get Jason's attention even BEFORE Lucky cheated. Don't recall the exact details, but I do remember Liz shredding some PCPD files or something which I think Sam got in trouble for or some such.

Liz was no victim of Lucky before she climbed those stairs to take a ride on Jason. Lucky's addiction and subsequent cheating was just her opportunity to get with Jason while looking all poor Liz.

(Yep, 17 years later, and I still hated that whole thing. And I was never even much of a Lucky fan. But come on now.)

 

 

[Ambrosefolly]

I would those storylines could have been really interesting, but Guza is such a binary thinker and writer, there was zero nuance. Nothing was every really explored, like drug addiction or the longterm aftermath of sexual violence. It was either to make GV's Lucky or Liz look like assholes without any real redemption or examination. Of course Jason is mister perfect, mister blameless, a completely reactive character with no passion, because Guza was too afraid to make him look bad. 

Weirdly because of Guza lack of attachment to GV's Lucky, the last few months of GV's run of Lucky was my favorite. Because they repaired Sam and Jason, strangely they didn't have go against Jason. He even kept up the Jake secret, maybe out of love for Jake and penance for kind of driving Liz to Jason because of his drug addiction and affair with Maxie. But he also wasn't a Jason super fan. He just had no use for the guy. I even like his relationship with Luke. He loved Luke, but no longer idolized the guy, which was the storyline thread that started near the end of JJ's first go around. 

Unfortunely Guza corrected both when JJ returned. 

[squeezel]

I have a request:  can someone explain some of the current kids to me?  I'm getting confused because I think some of the actors have changed and I can't tell them apart.

Elizabeth has 3: 

Cam (I know him.)  His dad is a character that I don't know, who could possibly be most sincerely dead, since I saw Cam talk to his ghost at the cemetary.

Aiden.  Jason is his father.  Aiden is tall and thin with lighter color hair, who doesn't look like the three mentioned below.

Jake.  Who is his father?  Is he the one who bakes and was close with Franco?  He has dark hair and may have been SORASed recently.

Sam has Danny.  Jason is his father.  Is this a new actor?  He has dark hair that sticks up in the front.

Dante has Rocco.  LuLu is his mother?  Is this a new actor?

I can't tell Jake, Danny, and Rocco apart.  It would be helpful if when they were onscreen, there was a bubble over their heads with their names and pictures of their current parents. 

There was a recent conversation between Elizabeth and Finn.  She asked if Finn was comfortable with XXXX being gay -- but I can't remember if she said Aiden or Jake.  And how did I miss a coming-out conversation?  I need to pay better attention, especially now that we have better writers.

Thank you!

 

[GHScorpiosRule]

7 minutes ago, squeezel said:

Aiden.  Jason is his father.  Aiden is tall and thin with lighter color hair, who doesn't look like the three mentioned below.

No. Lucky is Aiden's father.

7 minutes ago, squeezel said:

Jake.  Who is his father?  Is he the one who bakes and was close with Franco?  He has dark hair and may have been SORASed recently.

Jason.

7 minutes ago, squeezel said:

Sam has Danny.  Jason is his father.  Is this a new actor?  He has dark hair that sticks up in the front.

Dante has Rocco.  LuLu is his mother?  Is this a new actor?

All the kids have been SORAS'D except for Jake. And Yes, Lulu is Rocco's mother.

 

8 minutes ago, squeezel said:

There was a recent conversation between Elizabeth and Finn.  She asked if Finn was comfortable with XXXX being gay -- but I can't remember if she said Aiden or Jake.

It was Aiden.

[tessaray]

1 hour ago, squeezel said:

She asked if Finn was comfortable with XXXX being gay -- but I can't remember if she said Aiden or Jake.  And how did I miss a coming-out conversation?  I need to pay better attention, especially now that we have better writers.

I didn't see the actual conversation between Aiden and Elizabeth but there was practically no follow-up.  I think there was more here, where no one was impressed that they made the kid who liked to bake gay.

There's been way more attention paid on-screen to Blaze, than the son of legacy characters. Of course, that might be a good thing when you look at how they wrote for Lucas.

[JMO]

1 hour ago, squeezel said:

Aiden.  Jason is his father.  Aiden is tall and thin with lighter color hair, who doesn't look like the three mentioned below.

Jake.  Who is his father?  Is he the one who bakes and was close with Franco?  He has dark hair and may have been SORASed recently.

Sam has Danny.  Jason is his father.  Is this a new actor?  He has dark hair that sticks up in the front.

Dante has Rocco.  LuLu is his mother?  Is this a new actor?

I can't tell Jake, Danny, and Rocco apart.  It would be helpful if when they were onscreen, there was a bubble over their heads with their names and pictures of their current parents. 

There was a recent conversation between Elizabeth and Finn.  She asked if Finn was comfortable with XXXX being gay -- but I can't remember if she said Aiden or Jake.  And how did I miss a coming-out conversation?  I need to pay better attention, especially now that we have better writers.

You just mixed up the names for Aiden and Jake.  Jake is the middle son, who doesn't resemble the other three, and whose parents are Elizabeth and Jason.  Aiden is the third son, the baker, who is gay and his parents are Elizabeth and Lucky.  

I'm with you.  I wish they would wear name tags, and with an on-screen annotation about who is related to whom and how.  

[squeezel]

Thank you so much.  I definitely confused Jake’s and Aiden’s names.  I will try to do only one other thing while watching GH 😆.  I like Blaze and Kristina as a couple.  Kate Mansi is a great choice for Kristina.  I think physically she bears a strong resemblence to Alexis and Sonny.  And good casting for adorable little Donna; she looks like Sonny’s daughter too (I won’t mention her mother). Full disclosure, I really like Donna because my IRL name isn’t Squeezel.

[lilabennet]

On 9/13/2023 at 5:16 PM, Ambrosefolly said:

 I think Lucky's characters was intentionally trashed in the aughts, usually in service to that Xanax in person form, Jason. The first go around of Lucky being an asshole to Liz was when Liz and Jason where romantically circling each other and because Lucky was no longer being played by JJ, Guza saw it fine to turn him to a big cheating jerk. They break up, and with Lucky no longer being a rival with Jason, he returned to somewhat normal and inoffensive, especially when the more earnest Greg Vaughn took over. Liz moved on with other romantic relationships, Lucky moved on with other relationships and Guza stopped giving a shit about either one of them, so what the heck, why not have her become a nurse and him become a cop. 

I argue that pill addiction had everything to do with making Lucky the heavy with Liason and nothing to do with showcasing addiction, because it didn't seem a single person in his family seemed to give a shit that he had developed a life threatening addiction to prescription pills. It wasn't like Lucky was an addict before and the family were exhausted after years with dealing with him. Luke even called Lucky a loser and told Liz to give up on him. That might be okay if Luke was going to do something to help out Lucky himself, but no, it seemed that family was content to let him die in the gutter. Then fucking Lulu was passing around notes between Liz and Jason, despite everything that Lucky had done for her growing up. 

Now contrast all of this to when Jonathan Jackson reprised his role as Lucky. I never seen a 180 turn on a character. His family gave a shit if he was relapsing! Lucky was a smart, cool detective.  And since this came mid affair between Liz and Nicholas, so now Liz was made to look like the  jerk, complete with Lulu slut shaming her at the hospital. 

Lucky always had the capacity to be an abusive POS. It wasn't a sudden heel turn to prop Jason:

 

[methodwriter85]

On 5/9/2024 at 2:25 PM, lilabennet said:

Lucky always had the capacity to be an abusive POS. It wasn't a sudden heel turn to prop Jason:

I think I was blinded by how lovely Jonathan Jackson was to realize how awful Lucky could actually be. When Jacob Young took over, he didn't have that dreamy teen idol vibe and it was more apparent.

[racked]

Hmm I still 100 percent see Lucky’s side in everything he did and said during the rape reveal/revisit, just as I did when I was a 15 year old first watching it. His anger and hurt mixed into a volatile cocktail and he expressed them in the exact ways Luke and Laura had taught him to. And man was JJ a powerhouse teen actor.  

[Asp Burger]

Jonathan Jackson to Jacob Young had to be one of the worst transitions in soap history. Jackson had depth and complexity. Young is a good actor for still photographs.

Okay, that's not fair. He might have been fine as some other character (pre-Lucky, he hadn't bothered me as Rick when I watched B&B briefly), but not this one. When Lucky was angry, Young always seemed right on the edge of violence. When Lucky was sad, affectionate, or anything that was supposed to engender viewer sympathy, Young made it sound insincere and manipulative.

Edited May 16 by Asp Burger

[dubbel zout]

Jacob Young was miscast as Lucky. That wasn't his fault, and I don't know why the show didn't fix that sooner. I get that recasts are time-consuming and can be disruptive to the story, but for a character like Lucky, it's important to get the right person in the role.

[GHScorpiosRule]

25 minutes ago, dubbel zout said:

Jacob Young was miscast as Lucky. That wasn't his fault, and I don't know why the show didn't fix that sooner. I get that recasts are time-consuming and can be disruptive to the story, but for a character like Lucky, it's important to get the right person in the role.

The irony is that they waited a long time and both Geary and Genie had a say in the recast, and they agreed to Yeller McYellerson?!

[dubbel zout]

Physically I think JY was appropriate (even if he was a bit too buff for Lucky and they had to hide it with baggy clothes), and he wasn't a bad actor per se, he was just a bad actor for Lucky. Sometimes it takes a while for that to become apparent. 

Edited May 16 by dubbel zout

[Asp Burger]

Young was a hot new name on daytime then, an Emmy nominee for B&B. He was around 20, blond and handsome in a way just right for the era (that "boy band" look). If he was more traditionally hunky than Jackson and had less sensitivity in the way he presented, there was a story rationale to cover some change, with Helena having kidnapped and brainwashed Lucky.  

So, I can see on paper why it seemed like a coup for GH. A lot of fans on forums I followed were excited to welcome Young. Whether they had seen him on his other soap or not, they liked what they saw in pictures. Most of those fans were very fair about giving him time to settle in, thinking his early stiffness was just...early stiffness.

It didn't work out in the long term. Being an acceptable teen Rick Forrester was one thing, but Lucky Spencer was heavier lifting. 

I have no explanation for the Daytime Emmy he received for his work in the McTavish-written year (the return of Stavros). I'd rather not think about it.

Several years ago, Becky Herbst did an article for one of the soap magazines about 20 years of playing Liz, reacting to pictures of herself with past and present costars. She had less to say about a picture of herself with Jacob and Coltin as Lucky and Nikolas than she had about anything else. She said the era just seemed like a blip.

[30 Helens]

On 5/16/2024 at 7:12 AM, Asp Burger said:

Jonathan Jackson to Jacob Young had to be one of the worst transitions in soap history. Jackson had depth and complexity. Young is a good actor for still photographs.

All I remember about Jacob Young's Lucky was his near-constant aggressive attitude. There's a reason we referred to him only as "Yelly" at this house.

On 5/16/2024 at 12:27 PM, GHScorpiosRule said:

Yeller McYellerson?!

And I see I'm not the only one.

[Ambrosefolly]

On 5/9/2024 at 2:25 PM, lilabennet said:

Lucky always had the capacity to be an abusive POS. It wasn't a sudden heel turn to prop Jason:

 

Guza was also writing it, and he couldn't hid his misogyny, even when he was under the control of a competent executive producer.  And yes, while I always had trouble with this scene too, or should I say, the lack of follow up with Lucky apologizing for being so harsh with Laura, he did find out a devastating truth and wasn't any easier on Luke.  Lucky was a teenager and a vast majority of teenagers can be straight up mean to their parents, even if their parents do their best to be good parents. I was to my mom when I was a teen, so was my sister. I observed it with my cousins, and kids, past and present, in the youth group I helped with. Does that mean that me or all those kids while grow up with be remotely abusive to other people, including romantic partners? No. And Jason was even bigger asshole to the Qs and still hasn't offered a proper apologize to them when he did the same things to protect Sonny, Carly and Michael that the Qs did to protect AJ. But Guza never portrayed Jason as anything less than galant & right when he was dealing with women (even when Jason was being a shit friend and boyfriend), not because Jason was a more noble character than Lucky but because Jason was his favorite. 

[NotMySekrit2Tell]

Did we ever find out what the big secret was involving Dante and Cody and their time at camp? I remember fan speculation, some of it pretty wild, but I don't remember what the answer turned out to be. Did that story just get dropped?

[tessaray]

7 hours ago, NotMySekrit2Tell said:

Did we ever find out what the big secret was involving Dante and Cody and their time at camp? ...snipped... Did that story just get dropped?

Not to my knowledge, though if it was a line of throwaway dialog I could have missed it. 

And I hope so. You know it would have been incredibly lame and just pulled out of their nether regions at the last minute.

[methodwriter85]

On 5/21/2024 at 12:02 AM, 30 Helens said:

All I remember about Jacob Young's Lucky was his near-constant aggressive attitude. There's a reason we referred to him only as "Yelly" at this house.

Oh my God, and then Coltin tried to match that energy. Remember his hissyfit when Laura picked Liz over Gia to be the face of Deception? Aside from that, I mostly remember the rumors that were flying around about Coltin and Jacob being lovers and the Lucky/Nikolas fanfictions that went with it. Lol

Edited June 5 by methodwriter85

[Mirabelle]

On 5/28/2024 at 11:32 AM, tessaray said:

Not to my knowledge, though if it was a line of throwaway dialog I could have missed it. 

And I hope so. You know it would have been incredibly lame and just pulled out of their nether regions at the last minute.

It was probably going to be they smoked a joint.

It is the burning weed with its roots in hell!

 

[mostlylurking]

On 5/12/2024 at 10:58 AM, racked said:

Hmm I still 100 percent see Lucky’s side in everything he did and said during the rape reveal/revisit, just as I did when I was a 15 year old first watching it. His anger and hurt mixed into a volatile cocktail and he expressed them in the exact ways Luke and Laura had taught him to. And man was JJ a powerhouse teen actor.  

I agree.  He didn’t exactly let Luke off the hook either.  Plus he was helping Liz through her rape at the time so obviously he was making connections between the two.  I hate that Laura called it an “incident” and it was pretty much swept under the rug for decades.

Jacob Young is just very intense.  He stresses me out.  I wasn’t a fan of him on AMC either.  Greg Vaughn was a good Lucky.  I actually liked him and Sam together.  I can’t see Liz with anyone other than JJ’s Lucky.  Their whole friends to romantic couple storyline was just so awesome.  I am around their age so I was super overly invested and it just brings back so much nostalgia.