GH History Lessons: Because History is Always Repeating Itself

[dubbel zout]

1 minute ago, statsgirl said:

Bobbie said today that Scott was taking her out to dinner.

To console her after her firing. That doesn't necessarily mean they're dating. 

[TeeVee329]

4 hours ago, statsgirl said:

Bobbie said today that Scott was taking her out to dinner.

☹️Boo.  Scott deserves better.

Scotty at least deserves a woman who isn't a Corinthii supporter/defender.  I'll never forget Bobbie screeching and wailing and dumping him when he prosecuted Carly for a crime SHE 100% COMMITTED! 

[Mirabelle]

I hope it's just a "Sucks you got fired no matter how justified that was" dinner and not the prelude to anything more because REMEMBER KAREN, SCOTT. 

[ouinason]

Scott just wanted to settle for Bobbie because he was lonely and the only woman he was interested in (Ava) friend zoned him HARD.  Even Franco pointed out that that was a bad idea.  

[Ambrosefolly]

Quote

Lucky drug Storyline was supposed to be GV emmy storyline, GV was so happy to do that storyline. Unfortunately for him, it was Guza with no other headwriter written that story. TG only like JJ as Lucky, KM was in contract negotiating, it was like a year or two after she did Dancing with the Stars and that storyline with Ric was her possibly getting written out and that meant Jason had to be with someone so pretty soon it stop being about Lucky drug addiction after getting hurt storyline, became about just graduated high school Maxie manipulating Lucky, to Jason is a hero to Elizabeth is just the worse isn't she storyline. Lucky was nowhere to be found. 

When Guza was with Pratt, he sucked equally as much so a 2nd head writer might not have helped. Instead of trying to do a compelling storyline about the dangers of prescription drugs, we got another homoerotic valentine from Guza to Jason, again. While I was slightly sympathetic to SB being denied the same perks as RH, even though he had been on the show for over 20 years, I was put off by the fact he also took issue with Jason not being portrayed as his stoic perfect self. Any flack that Liason got, it was put on Liz's shoulders, from Liz going all the way to Jason's penthouse during a blackout, to Liz asking Jason not to tell anyone about Jake's paternity, thereby giving people like Monica carte blanche to blame Liz for keeping a new Q away from her family and giving Jason another free pass. Greg wasn't Lucky, but he wasn't the worst actor on the show or even the worst Lucky. It was heartbreaking seeing Lucky's family completely abandoned him without even trying to get him into some sort of therapy, especially Luke calling him a loser. So my blood pressure went way up she they did an intervention for Luke when his own drinking problem caused him to "kill"Jake. 

[dubbel zout]

12 hours ago, Ambrosefolly said:

Monica carte blanche to blame Liz for keeping a new Q away from her family

Jake has been pretty ignored by the Qs ever since. I applaud Elizabeth for not letting them swallow up her kid.

Jake being part Q reminds me: Does he have ELQ voting rights?

[Mirabelle]

Considering Edward's will apparently had an "anyone who came from the loins of any of my acknowledged or unacknowledged children or grandchildren get a percentage of my stock", I think Jake does have a percentage. 

Can I take a moment to rant how stupid it is that everyone who finds out they're a Q apparently gets a share of ELQ stock? What dumbass lawyer allowed something like that in a will? How is that at all fair to the kids and grandkids who were named that their shares keep getting smaller because they keep finding more long lost relatives? How was Oscar, a minor, able to write a will and why was the part of about his shares going to Shiloh honored? 

[dubbel zout]

32 minutes ago, Mirabelle said:

I think Jake does have a percentage

He's never mentioned, but I guess Ned likely has his proxy.

33 minutes ago, Mirabelle said:

How was Oscar, a minor, able to write a will and why was the part of about his shares going to Shiloh honored? 

Because the plot demanded it so Nelle eventually got those shares for her dumb story.

[ffwbe]

10 hours ago, dubbel zout said:

Jake has been pretty ignored by the Qs ever since. I applaud Elizabeth for not letting them swallow up her kid.

Jake being part Q reminds me: Does he have ELQ voting rights?

He does. During the showdown with Valentin, Michael mentioned that Liz gave him Jake’s proxy for the vote. 

[mbluecpa]

Do I remember correctly that when Brook Lynn went to Ned about her producer sexually harassing her (or worse), Ned either didn’t believe her or basically told her to get over it?  Their feud centers on the ELQ shares now and seems to have forgotten that other very recent history.

[Asp Burger]

I think he believed her about the sexual harassment, but he found out that the contract she had signed was iron-clad and then just pivoted to, "Well, there's nothing I can do. You're stuck. Maybe now you'll be smarter about what you sign." We were supposed to think about how, as fathers go, Ned is no Sonny, who , if he found out Linc had preyed on one of his children, would have had hate-sex with him on a grave.

Good point, though, that the story is all about the most recent thing.

Edited September 30, 2020 by Asp Burger

[dubbel zout]

I think Ned even confronted the slimeball producer about the harassment, and the guy basically shrugged and said, "So buy out her contract," and Ned wouldn't do it. (Ned wasn't wrong about BL reading what she signed, though.)

[teenj12]

Skip to 3:25, Carly tells Liz that "Lucky's upstairs having sex with Maxie"

The way she just says it like that LMAO. I mean, there was no other way to phrase it, but damn!

I just love Laura Wright in this scene. Her thinking face when she considers whether or not to tell Liz, The  "I guess if it were me, I'd want someone to tell me-" part, and how she tries to stop Liz from walking in on it: "You don't wanna go up there and see that".

Didn't watch during these times, but so glad I came across this gem of a scene.

[cleo]

I'm watching Dec 1981....so this is pretty much it for Laura right, she left Feb 82?

I continue to be appalled that anyone thinks L and L is this true love couple. I prefer them both separately. 

Anyway. Evil Scotty  is kind of fun.

I don't know anything about storylines  in 1982. I assume Robert and WSB take a bigger role? 

[Ambrosefolly]

Here are the clips of Karen running into Sonny, Jason and Robin on the docks. 

Part One: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NRpx6ZCO_A

Part Two: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NRpx6ZCO_A

[Melgaypet]

So I got mildly snarky about this latest EVENT THAT CHANGES EVERYTHING on Twitter...

...but it made think, what was the last time an EVENT ACTUALLY CHANGED EVERYTHING? AJ's murder almost did, but they walked back everything within a year. Except for AJ being gone and Avery existing, it might as well have never happened. For all that the show flogs these sweeps stunts for ratings, I think the last time the show really had a real seismic shift (from one event, I mean) was probably Clink-Boom.

[Ambrosefolly]

52 minutes ago, Melgaypet said:

So I got mildly snarky about this latest EVENT THAT CHANGES EVERYTHING on Twitter...

...but it made think, what was the last time an EVENT ACTUALLY CHANGED EVERYTHING? AJ's murder almost did, but they walked back everything within a year. Except for AJ being gone and Avery existing, it might as well have never happened. For all that the show flogs these sweeps stunts for ratings, I think the last time the show really had a real seismic shift (from one event, I mean) was probably Clink-Boom.

Not a great look when the last major changing event happened almost 25 years ago.

[Asp Burger]

On 11/25/2020 at 3:20 PM, Melgaypet said:

For all that the show flogs these sweeps stunts for ratings, I think the last time the show really had a real seismic shift (from one event, I mean) was probably Clink-Boom.

Loath though I am to admit it, S/C hate sex in 1999 changed everything. It slammed the door once and for all on Jason/Carly as potential romantic partners. In the same episode (in fact, one motivating factor for the S/C hate sex), they were establishing Jason's connection with Liz, which would blow hot and cold for decades. It set Carly on the path to being the central female figure of the whole town/show, through four actresses. And even though the S/C baby conceived that first time would not survive, it was the beginning of "the Corinthos family," love them or hate them.  

Even though it appeared at the time to affect only a few characters, I think it had farther-reaching effects than all the fires, earthquakes, monkey viruses, serial killers, etc., that pulled the whole cast in.

Edited November 27, 2020 by Asp Burger

[UYI]

On 11/26/2020 at 10:24 AM, Asp Burger said:

 Even though it appeared at the time to affect only a few characters, I think it had farther-reaching effects than all the fires, earthquakes, monkey viruses, serial killers, etc., that pulled the whole cast in.

This is a little different, in that it only involved a few characters rather than the entire cast, but I would argue that Georgie's murder in 2007 led to some long term developments:

1. It led to Maxie and Lulu burying the hatchet (cemented after Logan's murder), and becoming best friends. They certainly weren't on that track when Georgie was still alive, that's for sure.

2. It led to Maxie committing to and honing in on her love for fashion and clothes and her career at Crimson.

3. It led to Maxie & Spinelli's friendship and eventual pairing--and, in time, to the birth of their own daughter named Georgie.

4. It led to Patrick & Robin conceiving Emma and eventually getting married.

Obviously, it's sad that a sweet, loving character like Georgie had to die in order for any of this to happen (although the Spixie pairing is more polarizing, lol, and it didn't last in the end anyway, at least not romantically), but in a way, it's fitting to think that someone as nice as her left behind the foundation for positive change in her loved ones lives--a sort of "life is short, so you might as well live it to the fullest" mentality that her death gave them going forward. :) 

 

[Ambrosefolly]

8 minutes ago, UYI said:

This is a little different, in that it only involved a few characters rather than the entire cast, but I would argue that Georgie's murder in 2007 led to some long term developments:

1. It led to Maxie and Lulu burying the hatchet (cemented after Logan's murder), and becoming best friends. They certainly weren't on that track when Georgie was still alive, that's for sure.

2. It led to Maxie committing to and honing in on her love for fashion and clothes and her career at Crimson.

3. It led to Maxie & Spinelli's friendship and eventual pairing--and, in time, to the birth of their own daughter named Georgie.

4. It led to Patrick & Robin conceiving Emma and eventually getting married.

Obviously, it's sad that a sweet, loving character like Georgie had to die in order for any of this to happen (although the Spixie pairing is more polarizing, lol, and it didn't last in the end anyway, at least not romantically), but in a way, it's fitting to think that someone as nice as her left behind the foundation for positive change in her loved ones lives--a sort of "life is short, so you might as well live it to the fullest" mentality that her death gave them going forward. 🙂

 

A lot of things could have happened without Georgie dying. And while Maxie searching for Georgie's killer is one of my favorite storylines because of Maxie (no seemingly temporary character development), I have always hated the Maxie/Spinelli pairing because the caveat that Spinelli was somehow a better person than Maxie, even though Spinelli is throughly a garbage person. Matt Hunter was the one that deserved a ending, not Spinelli when he got to leave Port Charles with baby Georgie in a relationship with the adorable Ellie.

[UYI]

1 hour ago, Ambrosefolly said:

A lot of things could have happened without Georgie dying. And while Maxie searching for Georgie's killer is one of my favorite storylines because of Maxie (no seemingly temporary character development), I have always hated the Maxie/Spinelli pairing because the caveat that Spinelli was somehow a better person than Maxie, even though Spinelli is throughly a garbage person. Matt Hunter was the one that deserved a ending, not Spinelli when he got to leave Port Charles with baby Georgie in a relationship with the adorable Ellie.

Completely understood, especially on the Spixie part. I was just trying to look on the bright side, it's an incurable habit of mine, lol. :) 

[Melgaypet]

Question: Does Lucas have a middle name?

[Melgaypet]

I have names on the brain. To amuse myself, I've decided to list all the characters with middle names that I can remember without looking them up (I won't include the full strings of married names for some our much-married ladies, however).

• Lucas Lorenzo Spencer (Senior and Junior, Luke and Lucky)
• Lesley Lu Spencer
• Dante Angelo Falconieri
• Nikolas Mikhail Stavrosovich Cassadine
• Stefan Darius Mikkosovich Cassadine
• Spencer Stefan Nikolosovich Cassadine
• Elizabeth Imogen Webber
• Cameron Steven Webber
• Jacob Martin Spencer
• Aidan Nikolas Spencer
• Steven Lars Webber
• Emma Grace Scorpio-Drake
• Noah Robert Scorpio-Drake
• Mariah Maximiliana Jones
• James Malcolm West
• Caroline Leigh Benson
• Morgan Stone Corinthos
• Josslyn John Jacks
• Donna Courtney Corinthos
• Avery Jerome Corinthos
• Alan James Quartermaine (Senior and Junior, Alan and AJ)
• Lila Rae Alcazar
• Trina Campbell Robinson
• Edward Lawrence Ashton, now Quartermaine (Ned)
• Brook Lynn Ashton
• Daniel Edward Morgan
• Emily Scout Morgan
• Serena Lee Baldwin
• Jerard Aloysius Jacks

I'm missing some, I'm sure, but I think a lot of characters either don't have middle names at all (I'm pretty sure Georgianna Jones didn't) or one has never been mentioned - like Robin, Jasper Jacks, Laura, Kevin, Lucy, among others. We've had three generations of Michael Corinthos, but no middle name, though Michael did call himself Michael Alan Quartermaine for an all-too-brief time.

[ulkis]

I don't think Lu or Lynn are supposed to be middle names, but two word first names.

What about Barbara Jean? Oh and I think Tracy is Tracy Angelica.

Edited December 29, 2020 by ulkis

[UYI]

This might be cheating, but:

Elsie Mae Crumholtz, the real name of one Tiffany Hill.

There was also her sister, Cheryl Ann (Crumholtz too, I guess? She became Cheryl Stansbury, though).

Also: Brenda Veronica Barrett (her middle name comes from her mother), and Robert Xavier Scorpio.

And while I don't think we know her middle name (if she even has one), Lucy's real name is, in fact, Lucille, per her wedding to Alan in 1990. 

 

Edited December 29, 2020 by UYI

[Cheyanne11]

Also, Jason's name was Jason Morgan Quartermaine, Morgan being Lila's maiden name.

[UYI]

I THINK that Dillon is Dillon Albert Quartermaine, but I can't remember for sure. I DO remember that Tracy named him after her favorite poet, Dylan Thomas (despite the different spelling), with Albert (if I'm right about that) being after a relative of Paul's. 

ETA: Yep, I'm right, I just looked it up and it's Albert. I originally thought it was Edward, but I knew Dillon was one of the Q offspring that escaped that name. 

Speaking of which: Edward Louis Quartermaine (hence ELQ!). 

Edited December 29, 2020 by UYI

[Melgaypet]

I am embarrassed to have forgotten some of these! Especially Barbara Jean (and her namesake, Barbara Jean Jones). I even had her in mind when I started my list.

32 minutes ago, Cheyanne11 said:

Also, Jason's name was Jason Morgan Quartermaine, Morgan being Lila's maiden name.

I do remember that now. I wonder when he got that name? Because he was born Jason Moore. Most likely after Monica adopted him.

[UYI]

Another one:

Lois Marie Cerullo

Here's another topic idea:

What are some examples of characters with the same first name where it's clearly a total coincidence, and NOT because they were named after another character on the show? The first example that came to mind for me was Katherine Delafield (Robert's love interest after Holly's "death" and his breakup with Cheryl, but before his reunion with Anna in 1991) and Katherine Bell (she of "falling off a parapet to her death...twice" infamy), but there are other examples, too.

Lucille March (the original head nurse of GH and Audrey's older sister) and Lucille "Lucy" Coe.

Kevin O'Connor (from the Laurelton storyline that introduced Lucy) and Kevin Collins (yes, Lucy has been involved with TWO Kevins!).

Damian Smith and Damien Spinelli (yes, even with the different spelling). 

Olivia Jerome and Olivia Falconeri (yes, I know they wound up on the show together eventually, but still)--if the Port Charles universe is counted here, Olivia "Livvie" Locke qualifies, too.

John "Jagger" Cates, John "Johnny" Zacchara, and John McBain (again, those last two had a brief overlap, until McBain got McRedacted, that is).

Before the arrival of his father and his many spawn (stolen and otherwise, ahem), Michael "Sonny" Corinthos and Michael "Stone" Cates were another example of two characters with the same first name who weren't related.

And then of course, there's the weird case of Kristina Corinthos-Davis (herself named after her late aunt, Kristina Cassadine) and Christina Baldwin (Scott & Lucy's adopted daughter from their PC days). I've always suspected that part of the reason the latter Christina has never returned is to avoid confusion with the former Kristina, as they are within the same age range (although that problem could be solved by calling Kristina "Krissy", as she often is anyway by her family). 

There's also Robert Scorpio and Robert Franco, but ew, who wants to think about that? ;) 

There's even a last name example in Cooper Barrett, who was never established as being related to Brenda, Veronica, Harlan or Julia Barrett (Brenda's mother, father, and older sister, respectively). 

ETA: This one might be stretching it, given the different spelling/gender, but there's also Jessie Brewer and Jesse Beaudry (one of a few of Maxie's boyfriends who is now dead). 

Edited December 30, 2020 by UYI

[Asp Burger]

One of my favorite conventions in television is when we casually learn a character's middle name after years, often because of some legal proceeding. Like, a character will be on the stand and the attorney will say, "And if she is sitting in the courtroom today, would you point out to the members of the jury Ms. Lucille Faye Coe," or whatever.  

[UYI]

One example I forgot to mention of two non-related characters with the same first name that actually WASN'T a coincidence is Laura Spencer and Laura Templeton (Jackie's younger sister); the latter originally being brought on to fool people into thinking she was the real Laura after the former was presumed dead. She was played by Janine Turner, later much better known for playing Maggie on Northern Exposure. 

[dubbel zout]

7 hours ago, Asp Burger said:

One of my favorite conventions in television is when we casually learn a character's middle name after years, often because of some legal proceeding. Like, a character will be on the stand and the attorney will say, "And if she is sitting in the courtroom today, would you point out to the members of the jury Ms. Lucille Faye Coe," or whatever.  

And the audience is all "Who?" LOL.

[Asp Burger]

Twenty years ago this week! Here's what was happening in the last week of 2000, with help from Soap Central's recaps.  

Bobbie and Roy confronted a fresh mystery involving a letter from a woman named Melissa. 

Laura had to explain to little Lulu that Daddy would not be home for Christmas. 

Liz and Lucky shared a romantic Christmas with gifts of paintings (for him) and a necklace (for her). He picked up the guitar for the first time in more than a year to serenade her with their song. 

Florence invited Gia and Nikolas over for Christmas dinner. Gia was upset with Nikolas for accepting. 

Sorel's men fired on Sonny, Alexis, Zander, and Emily as they were leaving the PCPD. Zander and Sonny shielded the women. Zander sustained minor injuries, but Sonny was left in critical condition. Alexis was traumatized.

After her brush with death, Alexis and Ned reaffirmed their love for one another.

Taggert launched an investigation into the attempted murder of his sworn enemy, concluding that it had been professional and well planned. 

Felicia nagged Mac to allow her to put her investigative powers toward finding the cop on Sorel's payroll. 

Monica tried to make Emily see that Zander was no good for her, while Alan took a sterner approach, telling a bedridden Zander to get out of Emily's life immediately.

Juan's visit to Zander was no more encouraging.   

Chloe told AJ not to sell himself short, and they grew closer.

Alexis assured Zander he had a place to stay -- with her -- following his discharge from the hospital. 

Sonny responded slightly to the touch of Michael's tiny hand, giving the frantic Carly new hope as the year closed.

*** 

Actors still on the show today, some returning after absences or dropped to recurring: Réal Andrews, Maurice Benard, Leslie Charleson, Genie Francis, Nancy Lee Grahn, Rebecca Herbst, Wally Kurth, Kristina Wagner (?), John J. York, Jackie Zeman.

Only MB, NLG, and RH have been consistently on contract status for all of the following 20 years, although RH did have that notorious firing/unfiring at the start of this decade. 

For newer viewers: Florence (Campbell) was the mother of Marcus Taggert and his sister Gia, and was employed at the hospital as an administration bigwig at the time. Sorel was just mob rival du jour. Melissa, ultimately played by Jensen Buchanan, would become a major character over the next year, her main connection being A Martinez's Roy (love interests).

Edited December 30, 2020 by Asp Burger

[dubbel zout]

36 minutes ago, Asp Burger said:

Melissa, ultimately played by Jensen Buchanan, would become a major character over the next year, her main connection being A Martinez's Roy (love interests).

Ugh, I despised Melissa. She was so badly written, as usual, which didn't help.

[UYI]

Actually, that's another example of two non-related GH characters with the same first name: Bobbie's foster daughter Melissa McKee, who was played by Ami Dolenz (daughter of Micky Dolenz, the Monkee) from 1987-1989, and then Nurse Melissa Bedford. 

2 hours ago, dubbel zout said:

And the audience is all "Who?" LOL.

In all seriousness, though, is Faye really Lucy's middle name? I thought she was one character whose middle name we didn't know, so I'm genuinely curious.

One example of a character with a nickname that's very different from their birth name: Andrew "Frisco" Jones (I used to think he got that nickname from working as a cop in San Francisco, but apparently not). 

[Asp Burger]

The McTavish year had so many large and small dumpster fires that I didn't mind Melissa so much. But yeah, she was a textbook example of overselling a new character because the actor is a producer's favorite. They introduced her as if it settling up a triangle with Bobbie and Roy. Of those three, Bobbie was certainly the character with the most fans (even though JZ was already at that point overdoing the face work, and it was getting distracting and limiting her expression). But then the triangle was over in the blink of an eye, Bobbie graciously lost, and it just became MelRoy's Place.

Then, apart from Melissa's airtime-consuming relationship with Roy, and those two constantly talking about their past history offscreen and things we had never seen, they started integrating her with the rest of the cast. She was friends with Liz, she was friends with Luke, she wanted to be involved in fighting Stavros, she was the nurse working at GH whenever a patient was brought in. Connecting a new character to others on the canvas is fine and necessary, but her case was all kinds of too much too soon.  

I thought the saving grace was that Buchanan acted the part well and did have chemistry with the other GH actors. In other circumstances, she might even have made a good pairing for Geary. Another World had never been my jam, so I'd only seen a little of her work there, but I could see why she had a lot of fans and had won awards.

Linda Dano, on the other hand, who kept showing up to chew scenery as Rae that year, I didn't get at all. 

Edit: No, "Faye" as Lucy's middle name was just my for-instance.

Edited December 30, 2020 by Asp Burger

[nilyank]

11 minutes ago, Asp Burger said:

Then, apart from Melissa's airtime-consuming relationship with Roy, and those two constantly talking about their past history offscreen and things we had never seen, they started integrating her with the rest of the cast. She was friends with Liz, she was friends with Luke, she wanted to be involved in fighting Stavros, she was the nurse working at GH whenever a patient was brought in. Connecting a new character to others on the canvas is fine and necessary, but her case was all kinds of too much too soon.  

 

I thought there were rumors that they were going to make her Janine's sister/Courtney's aunt, but then Melissa was written off the show.

[dubbel zout]

18 minutes ago, nilyank said:

then Melissa was written off the show.

Wasn't that because Buchanan was being helicoptered to the set or some such nonsense, and the expense/time was getting too much?

I was not sorry to see Melissa go, whatever the reason. She dominated the show in a completely unearned way.

[nilyank]

1 minute ago, dubbel zout said:

Wasn't that because Buchanan was being helicoptered to the set or some such nonsense, and the expense/time was getting too much?

 

I know that she had that in her last years at Another World but I don't think that she got that when she came to GH.

[Asp Burger]

Yeah, I'd never heard about any problems or special accommodations at GH with Buchanan. I think 2002 was just a year of a lot of change. Characters who were perceived as not working out were scrapped, actors were let go, and there were some returns and new people to fill the void. This accelerated when Pruza took over the writing reins, but there was already a lot of scrambling going on in the first several months.  

I don't remember much about the ratings, but it wouldn't surprise me if they'd fallen quite a bit when McTavish was writing in '01. She actually had earned the nickname "The Destroyer" before she started.  

I do recall that Melissa's write-out was quick and weird. She was revealed to be a mercy killer of the terminally ill, and she got this big "mad scene" at GH when the authorities came for her, concluding with her holding out her wrists to be handcuffed. Completely out of sync with the way the character had been written (such as it was) for the prior year.

[UYI]

3 hours ago, Asp Burger said:

 

No, "Faye" as Lucy's middle name was just my for-instance.

Thanks, I was just curious. :) 

2 hours ago, Asp Burger said:

I do recall that Melissa's write-out was quick and weird. She was revealed to be a mercy killer of the terminally ill, and she got this big "mad scene" at GH when the authorities came for her, concluding with her holding out her wrists to be handcuffed. Completely out of sync with the way the character had been written (such as it was) for the prior year.

Her tenure as Melissa was botched from the beginning; JB was still airing as the ghost of Vicky (don't ask) on ATWT when she started on GH, leading P&G/Telenext (then Televest)/maybe CBS to sue her and/or ABC over breach of contract, IIRC; a temp actress replaced her until she was done airing on ATWT. 

Edited December 30, 2020 by UYI

[UYI]

26 minutes ago, dubbel zout said:

Wasn't that because Buchanan was being helicoptered to the set or some such nonsense, and the expense/time was getting too much?

 

I know she had moved to Vermont during the final years of Another World--she had been considering leaving the show, but the producers didn't want to lose her, which is when she started getting helicoptered to the AW set a few times a week.

That's probably what you're thinking of, although she may have been commuting out to LA to do GH, too. 

ETA: Someone above beat me to it! 

Edited December 30, 2020 by UYI

[UYI]

18 minutes ago, Asp Burger said:

I don't remember much about the ratings, but it wouldn't surprise me if they'd fallen quite a bit when McTavish was writing in '01. She actually had earned the nickname "The Destroyer" before she started.  

 

She and JFP came to GH straight off of being fired from their infamous reign together at OLTL--which in itself leads to questions about what ABC was thinking there, but that's what happened. 

[GHScorpiosRule]

I LOATHED Melissa. That is all. And Edward wasn’t  terminal, but had suffered another coronary/heart attack. I just remember Skye being blamed.

I’ve never been a fan of Jensen, so that might have colored my feelings. Wheeler’s portrayals were the only Marley/Vickie for me, and well anything else is off topic, so I’ll stop here.

[TeeVee329]

4 hours ago, Asp Burger said:

Chloe told AJ not to sell himself short, and they grew closer.

Did they try and pair these two, I don't really remember that.

Oh Chloe, so boring.  The only thing I really remember about her is Stavros leaping out from behind some curtains to murder her and frame Stefan.

[nilyank]

4 minutes ago, TeeVee329 said:

Oh Chloe, so boring.  The only thing I really remember about her is Stavros leaping out from behind some curtains to murder her and frame Stefan.

Chloe was a genuinely, nice person. That's nothing wrong with that especially in a show filled with such horrible people. She and Stefan had chemistry and I wished they explored that more than they did.

[Asp Burger]

No pairing. Chloe was bucking up AJ's spirits about his standing with the Quartermaine family. He was down because Emily had nearly died in the PCPD shooting, and he talked with Chloe about how he and Emily had been so close, but then she had sided with Jason in the Michael saga and it was never the same between them. And I think there was other Quartermaine stuff going on that had him down -- Edward being Edward.

I too found Chloe boring. The do-no-wrong girl everyone loves. Chloe...Sabrina...Willow.     

While we're reminiscing on an awful period in GH history, the spring 2001 to spring 2002 McTavish/JFP era, I'll say something I've said before. You know that saying about even a blind squirrel managing to find a nut once in a while? McTavish, oddly, wrote the best Zander. She was clearly fonder of that character than the Gooze was.

There were negatives, sure. He was all about Sonny; he turned down a good legit job offer from Ned because of his mob loyalty; he played a role in Sonny's imprisonment/coercion of AJ. But he had a lot of characters around him who were really fond and supportive of him -- characters on both sides of the law -- and he was shown maturing. He did heroic things and got credit for them. He was on the way up.       

Part of it, surely, was that we were in a Jason hiatus and there was a vacant spot for "Sonny's most loyal guy, contract player" he could slide right into.  

When Pratt/Guza took over and Burton returned and TC and an Emily recast were there to do Nem, Zander got a brutal nuking. He lost everything and backslid into being a whiny, immature perpetual loser. He became the AJ of the youth set.

[UYI]

I think Jax/Skye is generally considered to be the best couple to come out of that era, too (JFP/McTavish, that is). 

Edited December 30, 2020 by UYI

[dubbel zout]

5 minutes ago, Asp Burger said:

I too found Chloe boring. The do-no-wrong girl everyone loves. Chloe...Sabrina...Willow.     

Sabrina was the worst of those three, IMO, as the show shoved her down our throats as practically the Second Coming. Chloe and Willow had/have a lightness Sabrina didn't.

[Melgaypet]

I liked Chloe. She and Jax were boring, I'll never deny that, but Chloe was a positive, kind person, she was also smart, professional, and had a backbone. She was a good friend to Jax, Ned, and Alexis, she was grateful - not entitled - that they were all willing to go through with that silly Mixed Married caper to help her keep her company. She had chemistry with Stefan and I was intrigued to see where that was going. Then they fridged her and I was pissed.