GH History Lessons: Because History is Always Repeating Itself

[UYI]

12 hours ago, Asp Burger said:

Juan did not make much of a mark in his year and a half or so on General Hospital, did he? He would probably be even less well remembered if the actor had not married Becky in real life. 

The same could probably be said for Hannah Scott had Lisa Vultaggio not married JJ (and, um, the fact that they met when she was 26 and he was 16 or 17--although they were apparently so committed to being celibate in accordance to their Christian beliefs that according to an interview JJ did once, they didn't even share their first kiss until they were ENGAGED!).

[Asp Burger]

Hannah, Juan, and Chloe were the hot new faces of spring '99. It's a toss-up which character was most forgettable.

Juan was the one who had the worst material when he was on, but he's also the only one who's been mentioned/has returned since being written out. He was Emily's first real romance, so there's that.  Of course, now the show probably has viewers who never saw Emily, or never saw Original Emily. 

Chloe lasted longest, and she was the one they tried hardest to connect with various major characters: Jax, Ned, Alexis, the Quartermaine family, Stefan, Stavros. She hung in there almost until Endgame, when Stavros strangled her. Melissa Bedford (Jensen Buchanan) was the goodhearted blonde that Megan and Jill wanted to make happen; they didn't need two. (Melissa was goodhearted for most of her duration. She got turned into a serial killer of the terminally ill for the WTF rapid write-out.)

Hannah got the biggest initial push, but she blends in with several similar Sonny love interests. Brunette; law-related career; falls for him. They tried to keep her viable by making her Roy's daughter and putting her in a triangle with Taggert and AJ, but it never really went anywhere. The most vivid memory I have of her that is not associated with Sonny is the time AJ dressed up in a gorilla suit and danced to Prince's "Kiss" at her workplace. Or did he just hire someone else to do it? It was the Billy Warlock AJ, so he wouldn't have had to be a disgustingly fat gorilla. 

[Oracle42]

I think Chloe actually worked with Stefan and I enjoyed her as part of the mixed marrieds and as a Q. 

Never enjoyed Juan and only vaguely remember Hannah

[UYI]

7 hours ago, Asp Burger said:

Hannah got the biggest initial push, but she blends in with several similar Sonny love interests. Brunette; law-related career; falls for him. They tried to keep her viable by making her Roy's daughter and putting her in a triangle with Taggert and AJ, but it never really went anywhere. The most vivid memory I have of her that is not associated with Sonny is the time AJ dressed up in a gorilla suit and danced to Prince's "Kiss" at her workplace. Or did he just hire someone else to do it? It was the Billy Warlock AJ, so he wouldn't have had to be a disgustingly fat gorilla. 

Guza totally would have had BW do something like that, just because he could. 

[stlbf]

I like Chloe. Hell, I even liked her with Ned. More than with Jax. But I liked her. Hannah was awful. And the less said about Juan, the better. Terrible character, stupid SORASing waste.

[ulkis]

Trivia: DZ auditioned for Juan. I don't know if he would have been able to much with the role either though, it was bland and making him the son of Lily and Miguel just so they could try and tap into Ricky Martin's popularity didn't help. Who knows though, maybe he would have been the one who ended up married to BH, heh.

[Oracle42]

That would've been ridiculously cute, but then he wouldn't have been on BSG. 

And BSG > GH, despite the shitastic finale

Edited May 27, 2017 by Oracle42

[Melgaypet]

21 minutes ago, Oracle42 said:

That would've been ridiculously cute, but then he wouldn't have been on BSG. 

Poor Jammer, I felt so bad for him, even if he was a collaborator.

Um, topic? Juan sucked. Chloe was cool, though. She was super bland with Jax, but the mixed marrieds was fun and I loved her friendship with Alexis. Female friendships! Remember when they were a genuine thing? And I liked her with Stefan, even in that embarrassing story where a tumor gave her psychic visions of Helena or whatever that was. I was so mad when fucking Stavros killed her.

[ulkis]

I was shocked at how much I like Chloe and Stefan. Maybe they killed her off because SN was leaving? Does anyone know if he actually left on his own or they let him go? In any case, his exit was great (well, maybe that's a bit of a stretch, but I remember really liking the scene of him and Luke having a drink), and of course, Guza brought him back just to fuck it up.

In fact, I will go out on a limb and say it was worse/more pointless than AJ's return under Ron. Although at least Luke never made me go "hypocrite!! You killed Stefan!!" the way Carly and Sonny make me do when they lecture anyone. 

Edited May 27, 2017 by ulkis

[dubbel zout]

Luke was a lot of things, but he was never a hypocrite. I always appreciated that.

[Bringonthedrama]

19 hours ago, UYI said:

The same could probably be said for Hannah Scott had Lisa Vultaggio not married JJ (and, um, the fact that they met when she was 26 and he was 16 or 17--although they were apparently so committed to being celibate in accordance to their Christian beliefs that according to an interview JJ did once, they didn't even share their first kiss until they were ENGAGED!).

JJ also said (when asked along with other soap stars about the most daredevil thing he'd ever done) his response was 'I guess proposing to Lisa when we hadn't even dated.' So not kissing before they got engaged  - while they were just close friends - makes sense. JJ's not the type of guy to kiss a woman outside of  an official dating or married relationship.

[jsbt]

17 hours ago, ulkis said:

I was shocked at how much I like Chloe and Stefan. Maybe they killed her off because SN was leaving? Does anyone know if he actually left on his own or they let him go? 

I don't, but I am pretty sure JFP canned Tava Smiley (Chloe) with no thought to SN. I did like them together, even if the story Guza/Riche/etc. had for them made little sense and was never resolved (IIRC). I always liked poor Chloe; it was forcing her with Jax that was a mistake.

I never thought Lisa Vultaggio was as bad as some said, but forcing her and those other stories was the mistake that cost Wendy Riche her job. I did like her with A.J. but that was no recipe for success.

Edited May 28, 2017 by jsbt

[ulkis]

20 hours ago, dubbel zout said:

Luke was a lot of things, but he was never a hypocrite. I always appreciated that.

I think that's one thing at least TG has done right out of all the crap he's insisted on.

[SlovakPrincess]

Gotta disagree that Luke was never a hypocrite.  He could be, especially in the later years.  He had disdain for the Q's wealth, which he felt wasn't earned through hard work -- but he sure liked the lazy good life when he lived with them.  He flipped out about Laura's son Nik, and the fact that she kept it a secret ... but we're now supposed to believe he was getting some on the side throughout his whole marriage, and even managed to have a secret kid with Holly (that he didn't know about, but still ... big hurtful lies).  

And he hurt and disregarded Tracy on a number of occasions over the years ... which is funny in light of his freak out over Robert and Holly back in the day, and that was even a situation where Holly never meant to hurt him (in fact, it was kinda Luke's own fault she moved on to someone else).  

I mean, I guess in terms of yelling at someone about murder, Luke hasn't been too much of a hypocrite.  But other than that ...

Edited May 30, 2017 by SlovakPrincess

[ulkis]

He has his moments. But there have been a lof of times where he was very unjugemental compared to how others would have been.

[dubbel zout]

Luke also wasn't one to keep whining about his crappy childhood to excuse current actions. Ahem, Sonny.

[ulkis]

Does anyone remember why Sonny refused to sell Laura Deception? Why didn't he just buy Carly her own company? He offered that to Laura.

ETA: okay, it was because Carly didn't want to sell. But why did he make Laura take on Carly anyway instead of proposing to Carly to start her own thing in the first place?

Edited June 1, 2017 by ulkis

[SlovakPrincess]

On May 9, 2017 at 6:21 PM, Melgaypet said:

And seriously, Lucas is the only one (besides the various stepparent adoptions) that I can think of. Is that weird? I think that's weird. And it was kind of soapy and bonkers - didn't Bobbie, like, buy him on the black market to begin with? Without Tony's knowledge and when he found out, that was the first big crisis of their marriage?

Yes, Bobbie couldn't adopt one legally, I think (she might've been turned down because of her prostitute background or something), and so she illegally got baby Lucas while letting Tony think it was all legal.

Of course -- because Bobbie has no luck and this is a soap -- the kid ended up being the exact same baby Robert's ex Cheryl had had with Julian the mobster and given away ... or had taken away from her, can't quite remember.  Anyway, Cheryl of course felt drawn to the baby, as you do in soaps, and eventually the truth came out.  

There was then some drama over whether Robert was the father (ok, only tween Robin seemed to care all that much), but eventually they did a paternity test and the dad was Julian (who may have been dead by that point).   Cheryl left town, conveniently died offscreen in an accident, and left the baby to Bobbie in her will since she at least knew Bobbie loved the kid.  

[Melgaypet]

Hmm. Yes, that lines up with my vague memories of that time. Except Bobbie didn't get Lucas back right away, I don't think, wasn't there a big custody battle between her and Cheryl's sister Tiffany? Though I don't recall if Bobbie won outright or if Tiffany conceded.

[SlovakPrincess]

9 minutes ago, Melgaypet said:

Hmm. Yes, that lines up with my vague memories of that time. Except Bobbie didn't get Lucas back right away, I don't think, wasn't there a big custody battle between her and Cheryl's sister Tiffany? Though I don't recall if Bobbie won outright or if Tiffany conceded.

Yes, Tiffany wanted a kid so badly and then was crushed when she found out her own sister had chosen someone else to raise Lucas.  The custody battle got super ugly - Tiffany brought up Bobbie's hooker past, Bobbie brought up Tiffany's early movie roles in soft porn.  As one does, lol.  I think Tiff eventually backed down, but I can't remember why.  

[Melgaypet]

A comment in the episode thread got me thinking - Except for Lulu's abortion (you may have heard of it), when has GH done a teen pregnancy story? Onscreen, I mean, not backstory like Olivia and Dante or Bobbie and Carly? I can't think of any, which can't be right. Who have I forgotten?

Not that I want a teen mom story, because this show has been too baby-obsessed for years, and I'm still rolling my eyes over Starr and Destiny over on OLTL, but surely this show has gone to that well at some point.

[Asp Burger]

There have been so many worse characters and actors that Chloe is not worth getting worked up about 15+ years later, but I never cared for her. Tava Smiley was cute and likable, at least, but her line readings were awkward in that over-deliberate amateur way (no accusing her of muttering!) and I did not see a lot of range there when she was on GH. She was going to be The Nice Woman, no matter what. The three established GH stars in the mixed marrieds story were more interesting to watch.

That story also got old fast. I'm sure I've exaggerated it in my mind, but it seemed at that time that we went through months of Aunt Gertrude entering rooms, seeing something potentially compromising, and saying "I knew it!" and then the mixed marrieds managing to wriggle out of it. It hummed along in the same gear too long, and I kept waiting for some surprising development that never came.   

Chloe was yet another GH character who developed psychic powers. Olivia, Robin (Night Shift? Never watched), others? 

why did he make Laura take on Carly anyway instead of proposing to Carly to start her own thing in the first place?

The real-world answer is writing contrivance. We were supposed to enjoy watching Carly and Laura having catfights over their business disagreements, especially over which model would be the face of the product line; Gia and Elizabeth having catfights as their youth-group proxies, and Nikolas and Lucky having...puppy-squabbles in support of their girlfriends. The in-show answer was just two birds with one stone. Laura wanted a favor from him, and Carly had been pestering him for something business-related that could be her baby. My pointed allusion to the then-recent miscarriage is intentional, and she had also put herself in danger a couple of times stomping around on the docks and getting mixed up in the mob crap. 

So he gave Laura what she wanted in funding with the very big string of Carly attached, and he retained a small percentage of voting interest for himself. When the two wimmins were deadlocked on something, Sonny himself would be the tiebreaker. Ugh.

Deception (the company) was a very big deal on the show for a short time. It had its own set, and Laura's assistant, Elton, got a lot of screen time. Then it utterly vanished in the TB Carly era. When Sonny turned on Carly for her FBI plaaaaaan, Sonny ceded complete control to Laura, Carly was out of the company, and we just stopped hearing about it. 

[Jazzy24]

2 hours ago, Melgaypet said:

A comment in the episode thread got me thinking - Except for Lulu's abortion (you may have heard of it), when has GH done a teen pregnancy story? Onscreen, I mean, not backstory like Olivia and Dante or Bobbie and Carly? I can't think of any, which can't be right. Who have I forgotten?

Not that I want a teen mom story, because this show has been too baby-obsessed for years, and I'm still rolling my eyes over Starr and Destiny over on OLTL, but surely this show has gone to that well at some point.

Shhhhhh, they'll hear you and then age Josslyn up and make her pregnant:-(

[Asp Burger]

...by SORASed Danny.  

[dubbel zout]

I'm sure that's already in the works. This show ticks off the soap clichés like nothing else. Also, it's easy to write, which is probably the most important thing.

[UYI]

11 hours ago, SlovakPrincess said:

Yes, Tiffany wanted a kid so badly and then was crushed when she found out her own sister had chosen someone else to raise Lucas.  The custody battle got super ugly - Tiffany brought up Bobbie's hooker past, Bobbie brought up Tiffany's early movie roles in soft porn.  As one does, lol.  I think Tiff eventually backed down, but I can't remember why.  

Sean felt that Tiff had gone too far and was playing too dirty during the trial, so one day, he refused to show up with her in court, and that led to the judge siding with Bobbie and Tony. This is what led to Sean's affair with Jessica Holmes, Tiffany's pregnancy that ended when she found out about Sean's affair right before she went into labor, her suicide attempt after the miscarriage (during which she refused to see Sean and Holly was taking care of her), and Jessica winding up pregnant right before she turned up dead (Sean was wrongfully accused of killing her). 

It was that story that got Sharon Wyatt her only Emmy nomination (and GH's only nomination of 1994...there was a relative Emmy dry spell for the show in the early 90's--with a few notable exceptions--before the Labines came along and the number went up again). 

Edited June 6, 2017 by UYI

[UYI]

10 hours ago, Melgaypet said:

A comment in the episode thread got me thinking - Except for Lulu's abortion (you may have heard of it), when has GH done a teen pregnancy story? Onscreen, I mean, not backstory like Olivia and Dante or Bobbie and Carly? I can't think of any, which can't be right. Who have I forgotten?

Not that I want a teen mom story, because this show has been too baby-obsessed for years, and I'm still rolling my eyes over Starr and Destiny over on OLTL, but surely this show has gone to that well at some point.

No, I don't think they ever have, and I'll bet you anything Robin's HIV story--in addition to being about a relevant topic at that time--was in part because fans would have REVOLTED had teenage Robin (who, tbh, still often looked 12 or younger in the face) been knocked up. And rightfully so.

OTOH, how old was Liz when she had Cameron? I know Becky was already in her mid 20's (and had already given birth once before the pregnancy that resulted in Liz getting Cam), but how much younger was Liz? 

10 hours ago, Asp Burger said:

Deception (the company) was a very big deal on the show for a short time. It had its own set, and Laura's assistant, Elton, got a lot of screen time. Then it utterly vanished in the TB Carly era. When Sonny turned on Carly for her FBI plaaaaaan, Sonny ceded complete control to Laura, Carly was out of the company, and we just stopped hearing about it. 

That Deception is the same perfume company that Lucy started, right? When she give it up and sell it to Laura, if that's what happened? 

Edited June 6, 2017 by UYI

[Melgaypet]

1 hour ago, UYI said:

OTOH, how old was Liz when she had Cameron?

Huh. Good question. Old enough to have been married and divorced from Ric. Cam wasn't Liz's first pregnancy, either - she had miscarried Ric's baby. Soap characters' ages get amorphous once they're out of the teenage years. Liz was 15 when she first showed up in the summer of 1997, so going by that she would have 22 in 2004 when Cam was born. But I think she was  softly SORAS-ed after Lucky's "death," so it's hard to say.

Which reminds me, I was a little sad that Lucky and Liz never slept together before his death, because I WAS A WRECK and I thought it would be totally romantic for her to have his baby to remember him by. I was just a teenager myself at the time, which is some small excuse. That would have been really dumb. Besides the sheer triteness of the idea, those two actually talked about condoms and protection and whatnot when they discussed having sex in New York. What a novel concept! Looking at you, teenagers of Llanview!

This show used to be so much better about that sort of thing, no doubt because of the Robin story. It's sad what it's come to. How Sonny, who watched Stone die of AIDS, has apparently never used a condom in his life is baffling. Since we were talking about Liz, - okay, they established years back that she has some allergy to birth control pills, but you'd think that would make her even more insistent about other means. She's known Robin for years, too, and during her rape storyline, the show was responsible enough to mention that she had to be tested for HIV (and other STDs, I assume, but I remember the HIV test) and showed her worried over that. Okay, the Enduros were defective when she and Jason conceived Jake, that's not her fault. But she had a ONS with Zander and later on was sleeping with both Lucky and Nikolas without any contraceptives at all? Really? Zander, okay, she was young and foolish and wasn't expecting that to happen. (Weren't they trapped in a tomb or something? Was that the original Crypt!Sex? Elizabeth!), but later with Nikolas and Lucky? She knew what unexpected pregnancy meant! Good lord! Was that part of her crazy? Let's all cross our fingers that she's being fucking religious about birth control with her current...partner.

I got off on a tangent. I meant to say, I'm pleasantly surprised at the lack of teen pregnancy stories. I've probably doomed us all to a knocked-up-Joss story now, Sorry, y'all.

ETA: I forgot your question! Yes, Deception was Lucy's company and Elton was originally her assistant. I have no memory of how Laura got it.

Edited June 6, 2017 by Melgaypet

[UYI]

I suppose it IS possible there was a pregnant teenager in the 60's or 70's--during a time period where a lot of us weren't even born yet or wouldn't remember the character--or a minor character from later on that didn't stay on too long, but I certainly can't think of any major character on this show who had one. 

And to go slightly off topic and mention OLTL, Erin's Jessica and Yorlin's Cristian at least talked about safe sex/avoided sex altogether until JFP came around and decided to have Jess get knocked up by Will. That show wasn't really teen pregnancy happy either until then (and then even later on after that). 

Edited June 6, 2017 by UYI

[SlovakPrincess]

40 minutes ago, UYI said:

I suppose it IS possible there was a pregnant teenager in the 60's or 70's--during a time period where a lot of us weren't even born yet or wouldn't remember the character--or a minor character from later on that didn't stay on too long, but I certainly can't think of any major character on this show who had one. 

I wonder if Laura was the product of a teen pregnancy... although I'm not sure how long Lesley would've been on the show when she "found" teen Laura, then being raised by her adoptive family in the late 70s (conveniently for Lesley, they apparently got killed off somehow and Lesley got custody).  

From clips I've seen, Laura's birth father is never alluded to, and Lesley didn't get to meet and raise her until Laura was already in her teens.  So maybe Lesley got knocked up young?

[dubbel zout]

57 minutes ago, Melgaypet said:

But I think she was  softly SORAS-ed after Lucky's "death," so it's hard to say.

I think she was, too, and they made Elizabeth/BH close to the same age. Since it was the same actor, it was kind of invisible.

57 minutes ago, Melgaypet said:

How Sonny, who watched Stone die of AIDS, has apparently never used a condom in his life is baffling.

It's always the woman's fault anyway with Sonny.

Edited June 6, 2017 by dubbel zout

[Melgaypet]

20 minutes ago, SlovakPrincess said:

From clips I've seen, Laura's birth father is never alluded to, and Lesley didn't get to meet and raise her until Laura was already in her teens.  So maybe Lesley got knocked up young?

This is so weird, I read this and my mind went, "Laura's birth father was named Gordon Gray and he was Lesley's med school professor." I have no clue where I got that information - I also can't recall any conversations about that on the show. I don't even if it's accurate, it could be an Andrea Trent Webber sort of thing. Does anybody know anything about this?

Edited June 6, 2017 by Melgaypet

[nilyank]

32 minutes ago, dubbel zout said:

It's always the woman's fault anyway with Sonny.

I would only say with Claudia who was actively poking holes in condoms/sleeping with Ric to get pregnant.

I honestly don't know why they gave Sonny so many oopsies pregnancy storyline. With Lily, they were married. Morgan was planned. But all the other women, Sonny got pregnant were women who were sexually active for years and were not getting pregnant until they slept with Sonny. Then he was in fairly steady relationships but they never was a pregnancy scare  (Brenda, Emily, Connie, Olvia). All the oopsies pregnancies were plot points.

Edited June 6, 2017 by nilyank

[ulkis]

45 minutes ago, nilyank said:

I would only say with Claudia who was actively poking holes in condoms/sleeping with Ric to get pregnant.

I honestly don't know why they gave Sonny so many oopsies pregnancy storyline. With Lily, they were married. Morgan was planned. But all the other women, Sonny got pregnant were women who were sexually active for years and were not getting pregnant until they slept with Sonny. Then he was in fairly steady relationships but they never was a pregnancy scare  (Brenda, Emily, Connie, Olvia). All the oopsies pregnancies were plot points.

I remember Claudia poking holes in his condoms. bleh.

[dubbel zout]

Ugh, that was so gross. Claudia was the worst in so many ways. I wonder if SBr regrets returning for that role.

[Cheyanne11]

1 hour ago, Melgaypet said:

This is so weird, I read this and my mind went, "Laura's birth father was named Gordon Gray and he was Lesley's med school professor." I have no clue where I got that information - I also can't recall any conversations about that on the show. I don't even if it's accurate, it could be an Andrea Trent Webber sort of thing. Does anybody know anything about this?

No, that sounds familiar to me to--and there's a very detailed plot line on wiki that I feel like I knew from years ago when I had a book that GH put out on their history.  From Wiki:

Quote

 

In 1974, Dr. Lesley Williams (Denise Alexander) is shocked to learn that one of her patients, Florence Grey (Anne Collings) is actually the wife of her former lover Professor Gordon Grey (Sherman Howard) who had fathered her deceased daughter. Gordon wanted to be with Lesley, but she convinces him to stay with his wife and they eventually leave town. Lesley then marries the wealthy Cameron Faulkner (Don Matheson) and only to learn from dying patient Doris Roach (Meg Wyllie) a former nurse at General Hospital that her daughter is actually alive.[1] Lesley's father paid Doris to switch Lesley's healthy baby with the deceased child of Jason Vining (Richard Rust) and his wife Barbara (Judy Lewis).[2] Jason, a teacher struggled to make ends meet to take care of his family. Laura (Stacey Baldwin) hoped for a new type writer for Christmas in 1975 but Barbara had to tell her 'no' because they can't afford it. Lesley's determination to make contact with Laura put a strain on her marriage. Lesley is overjoyed when she finally sees Laura for the first time at a candy store. Lesley follows her to park and Laura is captivated when they meet. Lesley promises to buy Laura a new bike and a new typwriter making Amy jealous and the Vinings uneasy. Lesley finally confesses that Laura is her daughter and Laura is thrilled. Lesley launches a custody suit and the judge postpones the final decision to allow Laura to get to know her biological mother first. Lesley receives temporary custody of Laura for 30 days.[3] Though Laura enjoys her new life, she is not sure about making it permanent. At Laura's request, the judge extends the trial period for another 30 days. Laura becomes ill and Lesley's colleague Psychiatrist Dr. Peter Taylor (Craig Huebing) deems that it is due to emotional stress. Lesley made the devastating choice to call off the custody suit and sends Laura back to live with the Vinings. To keep Laura out of his life for good, Cameron pays a nurse to claim that Laura was not Lesley's daughter after all; fortunately, Lesley knew it was a lie. In the summer of 1976, Cameron pays the Vinings to leave town with Laura for good.[4]

In February 1977 Lesley tracks down a bitter Laura living in a commune in Canada.[5] Laura mistakenly blames Lesley for abandoning her.[6] Lesley convinces Laura of Cameron's schemes and convinces her to come home with her. However, the commune leader threatens them forcing Lesley's friend love interest Dr. Rick Webber (Michael Gregory) to rescue them

 

[Oracle42]

Amazing. I love evil soap opera commune leaders 

[Melgaypet]

Ha, I knew I didn't make that up! Thank you @Cheyanne11. I did some googling and I had that same book you mention, which must be where I learned this stuff. I wonder where the heck my copy ended up?

(If anyone's interested, the book is General Hospital: The Complete Scrapbook, by Gary Warner, published in 1995)

Man, Laura's life has been crazy since birth. Switched at birth! Dead baby lie! Rich mom out of nowhere! Custody battle! Evil stepfather! A commune! All this before becoming an accidental murderer, then a teen bride, falling in love with her rapist, saving the world, being kidnapped by Cassadines, having a secret kid, and going on the run from the mob for ten years!

[Cheyanne11]

4 minutes ago, Melgaypet said:

Ha, I knew I didn't make that up! Thank you @Cheyanne11. I did some googling and I had that same book you mention, which must be where I learned this stuff. I wonder where the heck my copy ended up?

(If anyone's interested, the book is General Hospital: The Complete Scrapbook, by Gary Warner, published in 1995)

Man, Laura's life has been crazy since birth. Switched at birth! Dead baby lie! Rich mom out of nowhere! Custody battle! Evil stepfather! A commune! All this before becoming an accidental murderer, then a teen bride, falling in love with her rapist, saving the world, being kidnapped by Cassadines, having a secret kid, and going on the run from the mob for ten years!

You're welcome, and yes, that's the book I had!  I loved the year-by-year detailed history it had.  

[SlovakPrincess]

I would happily watch the Laura and Lesley escape from a commune story, for real ... all of that sounds amazing, though I'm sure I won't be able to find clips.  :(

Took me forever to find clips of Heather/LED/lazy Susan from '79 (which was amazing), and I never was able to find clips of teen Laura accidentally killing that guy -- just clips of her dramatically sobbing to Scotty that she would be sent to "reform school" if she stayed out late and broke her court-imposed curfew (part of her probation).

 

My working theory on Sonny is that he doesn't use protection outside of relationship-sex because he's compulsive, plans poorly when acting out sexually, and self-loathing.  He may even subconsciously hope he gets an STD at times, because he hates himself yet has a bottomless need for reasons to feel self-pity at the same time.  The guy is a bundle of psychological problems.   But somehow, I have always found him super boring - like, always.  That may be the real reason I hate him -- like, how are you this fucked up but still dull??

Edited June 6, 2017 by SlovakPrincess

[Melgaypet]

Found it! Here's the clip I was just talking about in the episode discussion thread. I'm not down with the Laura-bashing, but, look, a young Cassadine doesn't just get away with being a snot! Imagine!

[ulkis]

I remember after the Scooby Doo adventure, Laura and Stefan were going over it and Stefan mentioned that Laura didn't seem too put out about them going after a creep and Laura said, "I can't help but being thrilled that my sons teamed up together" and Stefan replied, "they didn't team up together for a tennis match Laura, they went after an extortionist."

[dubbel zout]

God, even the throwaway dialogue was so much better.

[Melgaypet]

Yes, I remember that, too. That was at Nikolas' 18th birthday party. Laura was all, "that's so brave" and Stefan looked at her all WTF? And Katherine Bell (boo!) was lurking around, smirking and oh-so-casually letting slip to Stefan that Tom Baker had had a gun, which detail Nikolas had neglected to mention.

[SlovakPrincess]

Ugggghhhh.  Katherine Bell.  I remember she came on as someone trying to exploit Scott after Dominique's death, and when he dumped her the day of their wedding after finding out she'd lied, it was some pretty good acting ...  also the bigamy plot with Ned and Lois was good fun.  

But I forget why Mac later dated her, and then that whole stupid deal with Nik and Stefan which I barely could pay attention to.   Getting pushed off the same balcony twice was hilarious, though.  

[ulkis]

I was watching clips from around the time Carly found out she was pregnant by Sonny the first time, and I was thinking there were quite a few scenes between Sonny and Liz, and wondering whether the show was testing out potential chemistry, when lo and behold, Audrey thought Sonny was trying to come on to Liz and started ranting against him. She said something like "Oh you wouldn't flirt with Liz? You, who seduced Karen Wexler when she was a freshman in college?" It was pretty funny.

But it was SO weird to see scenes of Sonny with pre-SORAS Lulu, Emily, and Alexis. I know he didn't end up sleeping with Lulu, but gosh, it sure felt like it did.* And, um, I was thinking, Soily might have been interesting if it were Amber playing Emily. But it was sooo weird to see Emily railing at Sonny for "having sex with my sister-in-law." Even weirder for Carly to refer to herself as "Carly Quartermaine." (As has been stated before though, Carly/AJ would have been the much better story.)

*I'd be all in favor of it, just for something to be shaken up, but Dante would probably catch them and probably be like, "Lulu, how could you seduce poor Sonny? You KNOW he's still vulnerable because of Morgan! Who would NEVER sleep with his partner's parental figure!"

[HeatLifer]

1 hour ago, ulkis said:

I was thinking there were quite a few scenes between Sonny and Liz,

That period of the show where they tried to make Liz the Robin replacement in the Jason/Sonny/Carly trifecta was laughable.

[jsbt]

2 hours ago, ulkis said:

And, um, I was thinking, Soily might have been interesting if it were Amber playing Emily.

Absolutely not. Oh my God. It was bad enough when she'd been out of the role for four years!

IIRC it was Michele ValJean who was playing around with some sort of Sonny/Liz thing during that period, as she was a huge Liz booster and took a more active role in the writing at the time before briefly becoming HW after Guza got the boot. The stories on that material for Liz range from love interest to secret sister - to this day I don't know which if any were true.

Edited June 11, 2017 by jsbt

[dubbel zout]

32 minutes ago, jsbt said:

The stories on that material for Liz range from love interest to secret sister - to this day I don't know which if any were true.

The secret sister came true, alas, though of course it's not about Elizabeth.

[ulkis]

41 minutes ago, jsbt said:

Absolutely not. Oh my God. It was bad enough when she'd been out of the role for four years!

It would have been interesting if they presented it as Sonny being the lech he was in that pairing! Of course if Amber was playing Emily they would have never considered it. I don't know, maybe just seeing amber's Emily has caused me to go nuts.

I'm pretty sure the making Liz Alexis' daughter was thought about, but I don't know about the others.