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GH History Lessons: Because History is Always Repeating Itself

Stinger97

By Stinger97
in General Hospital

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Tiger

Tiger

I think Carly had a natural character progression from her debut in the spring of '96 to Tams' exit in the spring of '05.

Then the character was completely changed with the Jennifer Bransford recast. And I think Laura Wright's version initially continued a progression of that character up until Wolfe where the character underwent another personality transplant, and to me this third iteration is who is currently on screen.

That said, on occasion Laura Wright has the played the 'real' Carly when the writers have written that version. She is more than capable of playing it. But outside of Carnaj, a few scenes with Jax, Monica, and Tracy, the 'Carly' currently on screen bears no resemblance to the 'Carly' on screen from 1996 - 2005.

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Dandesun
Dandesun

She was his friend. She was his friend! She drugged him and dumped alcohol all over him to get him to leave town not because she was afraid of his drinking... she knew very well how hard he was workin

dubbel zout
dubbel zout

Michael is so mean not to forgive Sonny for all of this.

HipOldBat
HipOldBat

"Goaded him."  No.  Classic excuse, but...no.  Sonny chooses to get angry.  It is not the women's fault.   The mothers were at fault for not taking the kids out of the room.  Again, no.  It's Sonny'

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jsbt

jsbt

(edited)

I think the character took a hard shift many times - first when they turned Tamara Braun's Carly into the ultimate ride or die/weeping ingenue with Sonny in 2001-4, putting up with shit Sarah Brown's never would, then with Jennifer Bransford's apeshit Carly who collapsed under the weight under what initially seemed to be a bit more grit than Braun.

 

I think LW does very well in the role - especially when there are longtime writers who know Carly's long history, which there currently are very few of - but I also think the role took another hard shift when she took over. They put her with Jax almost immediately, a pairing Carly had never really bothered to entertain or seemed like the type for (and I am including TB's Carly flirting with him in 2001-2 back when JFP and Megan McTavish wrote the show and everyone was a pod person, that never worked for me). It worked with Ingo and LW because they had chemistry and they sold it, and it seemed like Carly had evolved her life in some ways. She was now this man's wife, mother of these kids but still Carly, and because LW has such brass and is so relentless in her bulldozer approach she could make it work most of the time without seeming like a soccer mom. Other times I do think Guza and co. relegated her Carly to being the town gossip and "Jax's wife now" - I think they knew she could mix it up anywhere and do good work, and sort of left her there while they decided to play with new toys.

 

I think Tamara Braun did great work and came into her own as Carly, especially after the pairing with Ted King, but I do think LW is probably my second favorite after Brown. She's incredibly strong and blazes through even weak material, and they could never totally relegate her to being either a soccer mom or Franco's/Johnny's/etc.'s woman. As much as Ron and Frank have mauled her character there is still a core of Carly that LW retains because she has been playing variations on this hardbitten heroine (or in Carly's case, antiheroine) for her entire daytime career. Any time these last 3-4 years when the show has hired some other big starlet and people have been like, "look out, Laura Wright" I've always said no - Carly is going nowhere, especially not played by her. LW is too much of a force and she is very shrewd BTS. Is Carly still an insane bitch in many ways? Is she always and forever wrong about Robin and deserved everything she got when Robin told the truth about Michael? Yes, yes and yes - but that's Carly.

Edited by jsbt
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cmahorror

cmahorror

(edited)

Here's a fun little one from when Noah set Patrick and Robin up on a date. This was right before Patrick operated on the AIDS-stricken April and stuck himself with an infected needle.

 

 

Sorry, GHScorpiosRule, couldn't find the exact scene of Robert and Robin as anything less that a part of a hour long clip.

Edited by cmahorror
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WendyCR72

WendyCR72

No. No. No. I will not get sucked into Scrubs clips. I can't, y'all. They were so damn good.

"Is that your foot?"

I'm fine.

 

Let me guess: The 2006 reconciliation lunch. By the by, both looked great there. KMc looked so much better and more adult without those bangs she so seems to adore!

 

ETA: Duh! I whizzed right by the clip above. LOL. But my post stands: It was great.

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UYI

UYI

These scenes were perfection. Sad that the show can't do this anymore, for whatever reason. And by "this", I mean let the characters actually speak.

 

Is he kissing her boob in that screenshot? I'm at work so I can't watch it, lol.

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HeatLifer

HeatLifer

Is he kissing her boob in that screenshot? I'm at work so I can't watch it, lol.

Ha. He's kissing her arm.

But that part when he says "Be with me? I miss you." Just...guh. Their chemistry is ridic. Sometimes I can't believe KMc left in 2012 because their acting connection was at an all-time high.

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GHScorpiosRule

GHScorpiosRule

These Rabbit Holes are DANGEROUS!!!!

 

Aside from his unfortunate hair style, I love this scene if only because of these words that come out of Jason's mouth:

 

"You're not an easy person to forget."

 

Me: inner tween original JasonnRobin fan: Even after they broke up and you and Cujo continued to play house with Michael, you were still in love with Robin! siiiiigh...

 

And then there's Patrick gettin' all jealous! That's always amusing to watch.

 

 

AND JAX!!!!! And original Kate!!!

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GHScorpiosRule

GHScorpiosRule

(edited)

Man! I wish I'd found this clip first! It's the scene right before the one above.  I firmly believe that's Steve who is sooo happy to see Kim. Or, Jason happy to see Robin!  And look! Hospital scenes! With doctors! And family members of patients!

 

 

 

Okay, Pod!Robert! but machine gun totin' awesome Robin!

 

Edited by GHScorpiosRule
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Tiger

Tiger

It's crazy, Wolfe had Lisa terrorize Scrubs which included an attempt to disgustingly weaponize Robin's HIV+ blood, but he also wrote some truly amazing scenes for them.

I remember in late 2011 reading at least rumors that Kimberly was leaving becsuse she wanted to Direct, and thinking Robin going off to die alone because her protocol had stopped working was actually a great exit.

On a shallow note, she should go back to her 2011 hair. It was so long, dark, and shiny!

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Asp Burger

Asp Burger

Death is not an option: Sonny and Olivia talking constantly about nuns and cops and fruit vendors in "the neighborhood," or Patrick and Lisa talking constantly about their wild drunken nights as students? I think those were going on simultaneously. Guza (?) was so one-note in his attempts to get unseen history in and establish new characters. 

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UYI

UYI

(edited)

I don't know why I suddenly wanted to watch scenes with Holly from 1992, but they came up so that's what I've been doing! Here's her and Robin. I love Robert & Anna/Anna herself more, but I can see why Holly was once a great character, too.

 

Edited by UYI
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jsbt

jsbt

(edited)

That was back when the networks were willing to shell out for real music, most of it great stuff stolen from films - Linda Gottlieb did a lot of this at OLTL (with Platoon, various symphonies, etc.) and supposedly revolutionized the music process on daytime, but I remember Gloria Monty swiping material from, I think, Michael Mann's Thief soundtrack by Tangerine Dream during the '80s. She also did it in '91 during the wretched mystery of who killed Nancy Eckert - a bunch of flashbacks playing with Danny Elfman's theme from Beetlejuice. And in the above clips you have a bunch of material from A Few Good Men.

Edited by jsbt
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UYI

UYI

The storyline of R&A's "death" alone had a mourning montage set to Eric Clapton's "Tears in Heaven", and Robin listening to both REM's "Losing My Religion" and Guns N' Roses' "Live and Let Die" in her bedroom. 

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TeeVee329

TeeVee329

Everything leading up to Maxie and Spin's non-wedding and then the actual non-ceremony and reception was freaking GOLD. Mac is making my cheeks hurt from laughing so hard.

 

Mac fainting from happiness and relief is one of my favorite moments ever.

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peachmangosteen

peachmangosteen

(edited)

Spinelli doesn't even feature that much.

 

Music to my ears!

 

Right now I'm watching all the Ethan/Kristina clips on youtube. I gotta say, I really like Ethan. Sorry, ulkis!

 

Next I'm gonna watch Liz's beginning. I have never seen it and I feel like maybe it'll help me not hate Liz so much.

Edited by peachmangosteen
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ulkis

ulkis

Music to my ears!

 

Right now I'm watching all the Ethan/Kristina clips on youtube. I gotta say, I really like Ethan. Sorry, ulkis!

 

Next I'm gonna watch Liz's beginning. I have never seen it and I feel like maybe it'll help me not hate Liz so much.

 

Oh, I liked him with Kristina, and with Johnny, and sometimes with Lulu and Lucky. I just didn't like him when he tried to explain Spencer history to people who were actually there for it and aren't huge retcons.

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dubbel zout

dubbel zout

(edited)

The only thing I really liked about Ethan was that he didn't hold his adoption against Luke or Holly. (Ahem, CARLY.)  Otherwise, I thought he was a waste of time and space. It didn't help that Nathan Parsons chuckled his lines way too often. That drove me nuts.

Edited by dubbel zout
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peachmangosteen

peachmangosteen

(edited)

It didn't help that Nathan Parsons chuckled his lines way too often. That drove me nuts.

 

Yea, that got really annoying. It didn't reach LW's laugh on the unbearable scale, but it got close.

 

I just really enjoy Kristina/Ethan together. I think it might just be almost entirely because I like the idea of them. Age differences are my jam. And that height difference! But honestly the writing is pretty bad and LA is bordering on terrible acting-wise imo.

Edited by peachmangosteen
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camussie

camussie

(edited)

I always felt like Ethan should have been a Mac/Holly baby.  They were living together and taking care of Robin together after Robert and Anna "died" and before she ran off with Bill Eckert.   It would have been easy enough to retcon that one night during that dark time they had a comfort roll in the hay and Holly didn't know she was pregnant until after she took off.  It also would have been a good contrast if you had Mac mentor Lucky at the PCPD while his child (Ethan) takes up with Luke and his criminal ways.

 

As for Robin dying because Lisa messed with her meds I thought it was a terrible idea for an ending for her.  Not only has her HIV story always been about hope but also I too couldn't see a way that Patrick could have recovered from that as a character.   Not after he stood idly by while Lisa terrorized Robin for over a year.  

 

Regarding Carly, I think they should have used that explosion that both Tamara's Carly and Faith Roscoe were in to do a "Face/Off" story and at that point recast Carly with Cynthia Prescott.   A bit outlandish but I think it would have worked for them to think Faith was the one to survive the explosion so they gave her plastic surgery to look like Faith again.  Come to find out it was Carly who survived.  

Edited by camussie
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Oracle42

Oracle42

(edited)

I liked Ethan when I thought he was going to be Robert/Holly's son but as soon as they destroyed history/relationships and story potential in service if TG's gross ego? I lost all interest in the character.

Edited by Oracle42
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camussie

camussie

(edited)

As a Robin fan I always wanted her to be Robert's only child but more than that as a Mac fan  wanted him to have a child of his own after raising everyone else's girls.  And as I said it would have been good story for Lucky have a better relationship with Mac than with his own dad while Mac's son had a better relationship with Luke than Mac.

 

On another note

 

And then there's Patrick gettin' all jealous! That's always amusing to watch.

 

 

It was which is why I will never understand why it most of the time it was Robin written as the jealous one because of all of the options Patrick had.

Edited by camussie
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Oracle42

Oracle42

As a Robin fan I always wanted her to be Robert's only child but more than that as a Mac fan wanted him to have a child of his own after raising everyone else's girls. And as I said it would have been good story for Lucky have a better relationship with Mac than with his own dad while Mac's son had a better relationship with Luke than Mac.

I think that story would've made more sense for Robert/Luke given their friendship even if Robert wasn't there.

More than that, i think it would've been great for Robin to have a sibling. Someone to have her back when Patrick screwed up and a reason for her to tell stories about Robert.

And I don't believe Holly would've slept with Mac anymore than she'd have slept with Luke. She adored Robert and sleeping with his brother craps on her character just as much as the gross Luke retcon.

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TeeVee329

TeeVee329

As for Robin dying because Lisa messed with her meds I thought it was a terrible idea for an ending for her.  Not only has her HIV story always been about hope but also I too couldn't see a way that Patrick could have recovered from that as a character.   Not after he stood idly by while Lisa terrorized Robin for over a year. 

 

IIRC, Lisa messing with Robin's HIV meds and Robin fearing that they weren't working/that she was going to die took place almost a year apart, right?  It's hard to tell given the whole thing was rewritten, but I don't believe those two things were connected.  

 

As a Robin fan I always wanted her to be Robert's only child but more than that as a Mac fan  wanted him to have a child of his own after raising everyone else's girls.

 

I actually like this.  Given the tendency on soaps is for characters to shit on their adopted parents and cling to the birth parents who, most of the time, had good reasons to give them up, I like that Mac considers Robin, Maxie, and Georgie his girls and that he doesn't act resentful that he doesn't have any bio children.

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HeatLifer

HeatLifer

IIRC, Lisa messing with Robin's HIV meds and Robin fearing that they weren't working/that she was going to die took place almost a year apart, right? It's hard to tell given the whole thing was rewritten, but I don't believe those two things were connected.

No, they were connected. Robin told Patrick that it was possible that what she was going through as far as her HIV was bc of Lisa. It was never 100% known, though.

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camussie

camussie

(edited)

Robin knew in November 2011 that her meds were failing.  That was right after the cruise where Lisa came after Scrubs one last time and was killed by Matt.  The story at the time was the knife or gunshot wound she received was not healing like she thought it should and both her and her doctor thought her meds had been messed with in the months prior.  It wasn't 100% confirmed but given all that Lisa had done to her I think it was a safe bet that she did that too.

Edited by camussie
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cmahorror

cmahorror

(edited)

The other reason Robin thought that Lisa had messed with her meds was because she tried to inject Patrick with Robin's blood. I think the reasoning was that Lisa knew Robin's viral load was unstable and it was far more dangerous than when she was on her meds and her viral load was nearly undetectable. It was her ultimate revenge against Robin - using Robin's HIV-positive blood to infect the man she loved.

 

BTW, as much as I am not a fan of the writing right now, it is still miles better than that thoroughly distasteful and sickening plot twist. I hated it then and I still hate it today. Not alone in my feelings as I heard that both KMc and JT almost walked off the set when they found out what had been written.

Edited by cmahorror
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peachmangosteen

peachmangosteen

BTW, as much as I am not a fan of the writing right now, it is still miles better than that thoroughly distasteful and sickening plot twist.

 

Yea I mean I'm watching the Ethan/Kristina stuff now and there's some other stuff mixed in with the clips like Lisa drugging Kristina and before that the stuff with Luke killing Jake and like tbh none of it is written any better than the stuff we're getting now imo.

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TeeVee329

TeeVee329

(edited)

Robin knew in November 2011 that her meds were failing.  That was right after the cruise where Lisa came after Scrubs one last time and was killed by Matt.  The story at the time was the knife or gunshot wound she received was not healing like she thought it should and both her and her doctor thought her meds had been messed with in the months prior.  It wasn't 100% confirmed but given all that Lisa had done to her I think it was a safe bet that she did that too.

 

Oh, what I thought you were referring to is when Lisa threw away or tampered with Robin's medication the first time she went all bunny boiler on her and Patrick, before Robin even learned about Patrick cheating on her.  That, I believe, happened in 2010.

Edited by TeeVee329
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camussie

camussie

(edited)

Unfortunately Lisa messed with Robin's meds more than once.  As for the 2010 incident that is when I really started to think Patrick was worse to Robin than Jason ever was*.  Even after Lisa did that he didn't come clean about his cheating and instead let Robin think that she misplaced her meds.  It was only when Lisa took Emma the first time that he finally came clean.  And even after all of that he was "no proofing" Robin, still working with Lisa, and telling Robin sometimes Lisa was right and she was wrong.  I know Patrick is a wimp but the one piece of leverage he had was saying either Lisa leaves GH or I do.  Considering he was supposedly the best and brightest of the GH staff that is the least he could have done to protect Robin.  Yet he didn't do it.  Instead he agreed with Lisa that they made a good team.

 

*Not that I ever want Jason/Robin again.  Cottage hell ruined that forever but after that Lisa mess I  really feel that when it comes to which significant other screwed Robin over the most, Patrick wins by a country mile.  As I said in another post as bad as it was that Jason stood by while Carly wrecked havoc during cottage hell at least Carly wasn't trying to kill Robin.  

Edited by camussie
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Oracle42

Oracle42

(edited)

Serious question, has there been a new couple in the past few years on this show with great chemistry?

The last one I can think of that even had potential was AJ/Carly - which was doubly amazing because I don't think LW tends to generate romantic/sexual chemistry.

Maybe Ava/Morgan? Though I think RC ruined it by trying to make it into some romantic love story

Edited by Oracle42
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