GH History Lessons: Because History is Always Repeating Itself

[LexieLily]

He was? Oops. My bad.

I just wanted someone to go off on Liz once they found out she was involved. Hell, CARLY went off on Liz post-wedding than either Jason or Sam did.

[HeatLifer]

7 minutes ago, LexieLily said:

He was? Oops. My bad.

I just wanted someone to go off on Liz once they found out she was involved. Hell, CARLY went off on Liz post-wedding than either Jason or Sam did.

That's what made it so anti-climactic. Who really cared about Carly? There should have been a huge Liz/Sam/Jason confrontation. And Jason should have gotten his memory back for it.

Edited August 17, 2016 by HeatLifer

[LexieLily]

I am also SO ANNOYED that so much of this stuff related to Jason/Liz/Sam and post-Lie fallout is apparently happening off-screen. Sam apparently found out about Liz's DNA switch re: Danny off-screen and it was relegated to a throwaway line. Sam got to tell Jason about Danny's cancer and Jason got tested to be a match off-screen. I guess Sam told Jason about Franco off-screen, or does Jason remember? (It's not made clear what Jason remembers and what he doesn't.)

Does Jason even remember that legally he's not Jake's father because he signed rights away? I understand why Liz would want to keep that piece of history to herself, but you'd think Sam or even Alexis would tell him. BTW if Lucky was the one going to raise Jake (right?) now that Jake is alive, shouldn't Laura/Lulu/the Spencer clan be putting in some claim for visitation or what not? Is that part of why Laura inexplicably kept the secret for Liz?

[Oracle42]

43 minutes ago, HeatLifer said:

Poor Ron was fired by then. But I do think his reveal would have been SO much better. Like, Jason gets his memories back at the altar and goes OFF. 

I think RC was really good at those moments. He just sucked at laying a foundation for his stories  and build-up and fallout and characterization and pacing

[HeatLifer]

(It's not made clear what Jason remembers and what he doesn't.)

And this is the problem. No one knows. They need to just allow Jason to be Jason. It's stupid at this point and it makes all these moments with characters feel incomplete.

[jsbt]

7 hours ago, ulkis said:

It's hard to pick but I have two worst moments of Ron's reign: the kiddie conversation where all, er, confronted each other about their love and secrets in Kelly's and the vampire stuff. I looked around in embarrassment as if there people in the room with me, which I knew very well they were not.

To me the worst day of Ron's reign will always be the big day where Franco poisoned the stars of ABC's The Chew with tainted Pickle-Lila, and they all began vomiting convulsively and presumably shitting themselves on live television. Liz, A.J. and Tracy were also possible victims, I can't recall. I just remember the insane ending where the annoying Chew chef, his face smeared with relish, staggers towards the camera and cries, "Why?"

The kiddie quad stuff is a close second, as is much of the Fluke Saga. But there's a lot of close seconds tbh. And a lot I've blocked out.

I think the show ranged from flawed-good to great mixed with bad or messy until May 2013, when they brought the OLTL 3 back and permanently fucked the show. There were good stories, ideas, scenes, moments after that - especially the big finale with Robin that fall - but it never fully recovered. And when they brought in people like Stafford, Budig, etc. or doubled down on terrible stories and couples things only got worse and worse. Also, the scripts were never what they'd used to be. But until a certain point they at least had a lot of heart.

Edited August 17, 2016 by jsbt

[TeeVee329]

It was probably my mistake to be even a little excited about the vampire stuff, but I was.  Lucy was going to be in a big story, Kevin was coming back, Alison was stopping by, I thought introducing Rafe into Molly's age group was a smart, idea etc.  But for the most part, it ended up being bananas terrible instead of being bananas fun and, honestly, did more damage to that show than any his stories did to "One Life to Live" or even "Ryan's Hope".

With Ron, when he first came to "General Hospital" it felt like there was always a storyline I really hated, but then also something I was really into or at least was semi-curious about.  That balance started sliding in the wrong direction when Kiki and Franco swanned into town and never really recovered.  But I feel like I was never really bored the way I am now.  And, while he was terrible at the fallout, he did pretty well with the big reveals/climaxes, which the current writers are terrrrible at.

[dubbel zout]

12 hours ago, LexieLily said:

(It's not made clear what Jason remembers and what he doesn't.)

It's a mess. Jason contradicts himself sometimes about what he remember and what he doesn't.

[Chairperson Meow]

I liked the water poison crisis, the initial chemistry ME had with FH (seriously that's who he needs to be paired with),SK's original return, the Hallowedding, Michael learning Sonny killed AJ.  Hell, the script writing was even better with Franco coming back at the HS.  Had they actually revealed "Franco" was undead Jason,that would've been better.   RoHo could've been Jason, BM could be Lucky or an unknown AJ son.  The show is too married to Sonny/Carly/Jason.  

[LeftPhalange]

I wonder what this show would be like if the OLTL 3 never showed up. Still a disaster, probably, but maybe at least a little more watchable. 

[TeeVee329]

I agree with jsbt that the problem was the returns as Silas/Franco/Kiki.  That's where things really started going off the rails, IMO, the way they were jammed back in, with the same scene partners.

[Oracle42]

37 minutes ago, Chairperson Meow said:

I liked the water poison crisis, the initial chemistry ME had with FH (seriously that's who he needs to be paired with),SK's original return, the Hallowedding, Michael learning Sonny killed AJ. 

I mean, I think the Sonny/AJ story would've been drastically improved if AJ had just been in a coma, but I agree on the rest. 

[Chairperson Meow]

3 hours ago, Oracle42 said:

I mean, I think the Sonny/AJ story would've been drastically improved if AJ had just been in a coma, but I agree on the rest. 

Definitely.   AJ is and always has been more interesting than Sonny/Jason.  He is actually Carly's OTP.   Which is probably why she hates him so much.

[jsbt]

I thought the show was pretty good in the couple months the OLTL 3 were off. The problem is Ron and Frank seemed to see it as just marking time.

[HeatLifer]

How Mo didn't quit after filming these scenes with Sonny/Spin, I'll never know.

[WendyCR72]

I think a big problem with GH now is a lack of romance/couples. That is huge because this is what soaps are about, along with family. (Also something GH lacks.)

Guza was mob obsessed and was way too invested in Jason (and Sonny and Carly), but even so, he and his staff did romance well and there were a lot of popular pairings [even if I didn't care for some of them] under his pen. (Scrubs, Jason/Sam, Jason/Liz, Maxie/Spin, Ric/Alexis, Ric/Liz, and so forth...) I'm hard pressed to name one couple that has serious traction from under RC and/or JP/SA that were created by them and not holdover pairings.

Bad stories plus no families plus no romance equals the suck of current GH.

[ulkis]

16 minutes ago, HeatLifer said:

How Mo didn't quit after filming these scenes with Sonny/Spin, I'll never know.

Hee. I think they probably had fun. Either that or by the time contract renewal rolled around he forgot about it.

lol at Sonny flinging his hand up at Spin.

[HeatLifer]

5 minutes ago, ulkis said:

Hee. I think they probably had fun. Either that or by the time contract renewal rolled around he forgot about it.

lol at Sonny flinging his hand up at Spin.

I laughed and had fun watching it, too! For all the wrong reasons. :/

[Oracle42]

Man, I do not miss SBu 

[HeatLifer]

4 minutes ago, Oracle42 said:

Man, I do not miss SBu 

SBu still had certain moments and scenes I liked throughout the years, but I was over him as an actor for a long ass time now. Not entirely his fault....his character/the writing did him no favors.

Edited August 18, 2016 by HeatLifer

[dubbel zout]

Ugh, weren't those scenes from when Spin got clocked and thought he was the Jackal? That was so embarrassing to watch.

6 minutes ago, HeatLifer said:

I was over [SBu] as an actor for a long ass time now. Not entirely his fault....his character/the writing did him no favors.

He and Guza collaborated pretty closely on Jason. Not the day-to-day beats, but the overall feeling, like Jason being so stoic all the time, being a "good" guy, and the action stuff. So a lot of it is his fault.

[ulkis]

And I would like to know whose idea it was for him to wear the same outfit every single damn day.

[HeatLifer]

16 minutes ago, dubbel zout said:

He and Guza collaborated pretty closely on Jason. Not the day-to-day beats, but the overall feeling, like Jason being so stoic all the time, being a "good" guy, and the action stuff. So a lot of it is his fault.

Yeah, exactly. They're both to blame. It's why I can barely stand Jason in the '00s overall. Like I said, there are moments I like, but it was never enough to make me care.

[dubbel zout]

16 minutes ago, ulkis said:

And I would like to know whose idea it was for him to wear the same outfit every single damn day.

And whose idea it was to make him such an utter baby when it came to wearing anything other than the same outfit every single damn day. He was like a toddler throwing a tantrum. Ditto for when he was at GH. In the time he fussed about having to be there and not wanting to be, he could have been in and out or had the procedure or whatever it was he was there for.

[HeatLifer]

I'm trying to think back to when the black tshirt became an everyday thing. 2006? 2007? At least before that he would kinda alternate. 

[Chairperson Meow]

1 hour ago, HeatLifer said:

I'm trying to think back to when the black tshirt became an everyday thing. 2006? 2007? At least before that he would kinda alternate. 

Lol.  I remember when RC made him wear a blue shirt to Sonny's birthday party.  SBu looked really handsome too.  He wears colors on Y&R.  He's an attractive guy, which is a big reason all black baffles me.  But then again BM looks better in suits.  He's stuck in the Jason uniform.

[HeatLifer]

3 hours ago, Chairperson Meow said:

Lol.  I remember when RC made him wear a blue shirt to Sonny's birthday party.  SBu looked really handsome too.  He wears colors on Y&R.  He's an attractive guy, which is a big reason all black baffles me.  But then again BM looks better in suits.  He's stuck in the Jason uniform.

And the shirts were always so freaking tight. Man, that was irritating.

[jsbt]

God, that whole thing where he turned into a noir detective! What the fuck! It was one thing to take on the persona but to insist on a weird Jimmy Cagney imitation, why?!

What was the story with that? Why did that happen with Spinelli? I barely saw any of it.

[teenj12]

1 hour ago, jsbt said:

God, that whole thing where he turned into a noir detective! What the fuck! It was one thing to take on the persona but to insist on a weird Jimmy Cagney imitation, why?!

What was the story with that? Why did that happen with Spinelli? I barely saw any of it.

I'm pretty sure it happened after he was shot by Lisa Niles. He went into operation, and woke up like....that.

Edited August 18, 2016 by teenj12

[NiqueAlexis]

3 hours ago, jsbt said:

God, that whole thing where he turned into a noir detective! What the fuck! It was one thing to take on the persona but to insist on a weird Jimmy Cagney imitation, why?!

What was the story with that? Why did that happen with Spinelli? I barely saw any of it.

Long story short Spin decided to play captain save a ho 2 try & save Maxie after being told by Lucky  I believe to stay his ass put & got a cap put in his ass a result. Exactly what he deserved. He couldnt save himself how in the hell you going to save Maxie when she was having to save his ass.

So Maxie, Robin, Steve & Patrick were being held hostage by the sociopath Lisa & she said something about Robin(By words) in her speech to Patrick & that's when Maxie went the fuck off on her. Maxie said some thing about her at the end & she had a gun on her & Maxie without an ounce of fear on her face stared down the barrel of a nutcase with a gun. Like bitch shoot go ahead then Spin dumbass came crawling through a vent & fell out.

He tried to reason with her with some pity party shit about unrequited love(when he knew exactly what he was getting into no point of whining about it know) & Lisa started calling him Pathetic.

Here is the dialogue leading up to it between Maxie & Lisa.

Lisa/Charging Patrick: Because something along the way scared you & you decided to settle for safe, bland ^ boring re: Robin

Maxie: Oh my God Lisa how barking mad are you get thearpy! Do you honestly think you're the 1st woman in history 2 be dumped? What do you expect he was married and any woman I should know I was 1 of them who mess around with a married man should expect nothing less than to get there heart trampled on. That doesn't entitle you 2 run around here with a gun.

Lisa: Like I'm going to take advice from a slut like you.

Maxie: Screw you you loony bitch

Lisa : You"re going to apologize for that

Maxie : God to hell

Lisa: Say goodbye Maxie 

After Lisa calls Spin Pathetic 

Maxie: Lisa Niles a Hostage taking certified wack job who is just a jilted 1 night stand with a gun in her hand. Your Pathetic 

Edited August 18, 2016 by NiqueAlexis

[NiqueAlexis]

10 hours ago, WendyCR72 said:

I think a big problem with GH now is a lack of romance/couples. That is huge because this is what soaps are about, along with family. (Also something GH lacks.)

Guza was mob obsessed and was way too invested in Jason (and Sonny and Carly), but even so, he and his staff did romance well and there were a lot of popular pairings [even if I didn't care for some of them] under his pen. (Scrubs, Jason/Sam, Jason/Liz, Maxie/Spin, Ric/Alexis, Ric/Liz, and so forth...) I'm hard pressed to name one couple that has serious traction from under RC and/or JP/SA that were created by them and not holdover pairings.

Bad stories plus no families plus no romance equals the suck of current GH.

GQ(Though I'm not sure if it was Pratt or Guza) Maxie & Cooper & someone correct me if I'm wrong but I read that Carly & Lorenzo were popular & MB threw a fit & that's why TB ended up leaving. 

[Tiger]

1 hour ago, NiqueAlexis said:

someone correct me if I'm wrong but I read that Carly & Lorenzo were popular & MB threw a fit & that's why TB ended up leaving. 

The story ive always heard, and frankly believed, is that Tamara walked because she wanted to be paired with Ted King and do business stories with Robin Christopher, and Guza refused on both. 

Whats weird is that with Jennifer Bransford he actually had CarLo get married and then with Laura Wright did sorta-business stories.  

Ill never forget in Tamara's last scene Carly walks in on Sonny banging Reese, and Tamara smirked as if to simulteanously say 'big surprise Sonny has sex with the latest female brunnette/im outta here suckas'.

And then Jennifer Bransford played the same scene completely different the next Monday.

[TeeVee329]

15 hours ago, WendyCR72 said:

I think a big problem with GH now is a lack of romance/couples. That is huge because this is what soaps are about, along with family. (Also something GH lacks.)

Guza was mob obsessed and was way too invested in Jason (and Sonny and Carly), but even so, he and his staff did romance well and there were a lot of popular pairings [even if I didn't care for some of them] under his pen. (Scrubs, Jason/Sam, Jason/Liz, Maxie/Spin, Ric/Alexis, Ric/Liz, and so forth...) I'm hard pressed to name one couple that has serious traction from under RC and/or JP/SA that were created by them and not holdover pairings.

What was weird to me about Ron is the way he took the few couples that had some traction - Ava/Morgan and Britt/Nik, for example - and trashed them beyond repair over and over again.

And the big problem with JP/SA/Frank now is the push to pair soap superstars with no mind paid to it making narrative sense, a la Franco and Liz.

[Ambrosefolly]

4 hours ago, NiqueAlexis said:

GQ(Though I'm not sure if it was Pratt or Guza) Maxie & Cooper & someone correct me if I'm wrong but I read that Carly & Lorenzo were popular & MB threw a fit & that's why TB ended up leaving. 

Technically it was Pratt and Guza, but remember with that regime, there were writers that had been on the show since the resurgence in the 90s. I believe with early GQ, there was a writer named Michael C. that was credited with the early beats of GQ that made them so popular. When Guza realized how popular GQ(and by extension, Scott Clifton, because lord knows they weren't going to give a girl any credit for the coupling's popularity) and Tony Geary took a liking to SC, GQ really started going down hill when Guza took control.

[Chairperson Meow]

8 hours ago, jsbt said:

God, that whole thing where he turned into a noir detective! What the fuck! It was one thing to take on the persona but to insist on a weird Jimmy Cagney imitation, why?!

What was the story with that? Why did that happen with Spinelli? I barely saw any of it.

That was my intro to Spin.  I was having surgery and freaked out 

[ulkis]

His name was Michael Conforti. 

[Sake614]

Mo did a Twitter chat yesterday

https://twitter.com/MauriceBenard/status/766023587517968384

[ulkis]

Conversation in another thread reminded me how amused at Tyler Christopher with how adamant he was that Nikolas was NOT a virgin when he was being asked around the time Nikolas first slept with Katherine (which was the first time Nikolas slept with someone on the show.) Nikolas was fifteen/sixteen years old (Tyler was not and definitely didn't look it, but that was his age) when he first came on the show, having had grown up on an isolated island with a super controlling uncle. It was like calm down man, no one is confusing your sex life for Nikolas'.

[ulkis]

I don't have standards! I just expect TPTB to always do the wrong thing, which they do. It also doesn't help when I watch Past!GH! Everything looks horrifying in comparison.

Come now @HeatLifer. Everything?

[Melgaypet]

MY EYES!!

I don't know why you want to hurt me, ulkis.

[HeatLifer]

Girl, I ain't talking about the '00s! Although, yes, all that is better than now.

[ulkis]

4 minutes ago, HeatLifer said:

Girl, I ain't talking about the '00s! 

So what decade do Scrubs and and GQ take place in huuuh? 

Quote

 

Although, yes, all that is better than now.

I would take now over the Yelly and Saxophone, Umily, and Demon. Ethan is better than now I admit. Although Franco is worse than all of them. Hmm now I'm confusing myself.

Edited August 18, 2016 by ulkis

[Oracle42]

I have gone back and watched stories from the 70s through the 00s.  I don't think I've re-watched anything on GH that has happened under FV 

2 minutes ago, ulkis said:

I would take now over the Yelly and Saxophone,

You forgot Lila's Memwahs

[HeatLifer]

4 minutes ago, ulkis said:

So what decade do Scrubs and and GQ take place in huuuh? 

I would take now over the Yelly and Saxophone, Umily, and Demon. Ethan is better than now I admit. Although Franco is worse than all of them. Hmm now I'm confusing myself.

I'm not saying I didn't like all of the '00s! Obviously there are things I love and it's so much better than anything Ron and Frank have done (minus letting Michael yell that he's Michael Quartermaine), but when I refer to Past!GH!, I'm rarely talking about that time. I'm mostly living in the '80s/90s.

But I'll take all those '00s peeps, including Demon Spawn, over Franco, Nina, Sabrina, any.day.of.the.week.

[ulkis]

21 minutes ago, Oracle42 said:

I have gone back and watched stories from the 70s through the 00s.  I don't think I've re-watched anything on GH that has happened under FV 

You forgot Lila's Memwahs

Oh, I've re-watched some stuff here and there, especially the earlier stuff. 

Confession: I didn't hate the beginning of Luke/Felicia. I mean, I wasn't shipping them or anything at all but back then I pretty much liked Luke all the time, so I didn't mind. And it couldn't've been that good cause I don't actually remember any of the scenes I may have liked. I only remember Faison kidnapping her and putting her in some stupid blue dress and I was like, "okay, this turned dumb."

14 minutes ago, HeatLifer said:

But I'll take all those '00s peeps, including Demon Spawn, over Franco, Nina, Sabrina, any.day.of.the.week.

Poor Sabrina. ;)

Edited August 18, 2016 by ulkis

[TeeVee329]

There's so many horrors ulkis didn't include.  Sage Alcazar and Summer (the Laura-esque prostitute who got with both Luke and Lucky) spring to mind.

[UYI]

4 hours ago, Ambrosefolly said:

Technically it was Pratt and Guza, but remember with that regime, there were writers that had been on the show since the resurgence in the 90s. I believe with early GQ, there was a writer named Michael C. that was credited with the early beats of GQ that made them so popular. When Guza realized how popular GQ(and by extension, Scott Clifton, because lord knows they weren't going to give a girl any credit for the coupling's popularity) and Tony Geary took a liking to SC, GQ really started going down hill when Guza took control.

Was that writer Michael Conforti? 

ETA: haha just kidding ulkis got there first because she's awesome. :)

Edited August 18, 2016 by UYI

[jsbt]

I remember Conforti getting the lion's share of credit. That guy was around a while, IIRC.

Also is this board having a shitfit or is it just me

[Oracle42]

35 minutes ago, jsbt said:

I remember Conforti getting the lion's share of credit. That guy was around a while, IIRC.

Can we have him back?

[dubbel zout]

1 hour ago, jsbt said:

Also is this board having a shitfit or is it just me

It's not just you. I posted something in the Bugs thread about it.