Ghosts of GH Past Viewing Party: '80s, '90s, And All Eras Of Non-Suckitude!

[UYI]

Since it came up in the News thread, here are a few examples of the brief Zander & Carly tease of early 2002.

 

[Hiyo]

Remember when the Jason/Liz/Zander triangle was heavily hyped but just kind of fizzled out?

[Pete Martell]

 

[dubbel zout]

That is quite the freeze frame.

[UYI]

These scenes break my heart:

From 1993: Devastated by her recent miscarriage and Sean's betrayal, Tiffany attempts to commit suicide, only for Holly to find her and get Tony & Bobbie to save her life. Damn, Sharon Wyatt is underrated as hell. (The video is old enough where it doesn't embed.) 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-igTr5_Au1541PksASNQKw

[UYI]

Alan & Emily. <3

 

[UYI]

I'd be hard-pressed to find an Alan & Monica scene better than this one. From the breast cancer storyline.  No words necessary.

 

Edited June 29, 2021 by UYI

[UYI]

 

[Hiyo]

Here is Alan's wedding to Lucy.

 

[GHScorpiosRule]

24 minutes ago, Hiyo said:

Here is Alan's wedding to Lucy.

 

Original Ned!!!!

[statsgirl]

That episode was fun as well as soapy. When did this show stop being fun?

[Ambrosefolly]

13 hours ago, statsgirl said:

That episode was fun as well as soapy. When did this show stop being fun?

When JFP took over. It has been a shit show since then. 

[UYI]

This scene is very sweet, but when Alan & Emily were talking about the death of her biological mother, it suddenly hit me: They died the EXACT same year (2007). :'(

 

[SlovakPrincess]

After, like, a million years I picked back up my weird little watch-80s-GH project ... John Reilly's passing  :,( reminded me that I never finished the '85 Aztec Treasure storyline.  

Anyyyywayyyy ... watching now where Robert finally tells Holly the truth about Anna.  Holly was (rightfully) angry at him.  But ... she had a pretty shady past herself, including the big oil scam (how she met Luke), in which at least one innocent guy got murdered.  And repeatedly asking him "did you actually love Anna?!" and flipping out when he says yes is a bit much.  I mean ... he married her?  So ... he probably used to?   Robert really dug himself into this hole, but the poor bastard just looks like he wants to die while Holly yells at him that he's a total fraud.

Meanwhile, Frisco and Felicia have the same conversation about fifty times ("OMG should we go to the police about the shit we stole from Sean's penthouse that proves he stole the whole treasure ... or just, like, do nothing and obsess about it secretly together?!").   Anna and Sean have a different, equally annoying conversation fifty times in a row ("Just tell Robert where the treasure is, Sean!" "I can't, Anna, I don't know where it is!!" "I don't believe you!" "Well, I don't trust you!").  After not watching soaps for so long I'd forgotten about that charming little feature somehow LOL.  

Edited July 15, 2021 by SlovakPrincess
typo

[SlovakPrincess]

On 5/16/2020 at 7:00 PM, Jan Spears said:

I've made my way through the three week period in November 1981 which encompassed the run-up to the Luke and Laura wedding, the event itself and the immediate aftermath.

Rewatching it all again from a now distant remove, I would say that enjoyment of the entire event depends on two factors: (1) how much you can still buy into Luke and Laura as a "fairytale come true", and (2) how much screwball comedy and how many wacky characters you can stomach. Regarding the former, I find that Luke and Laura were more interesting in the pre-island, pre-wedding period when they were navigating some very real problems in their relationship and trying to reconcile their individual hopes and dreams for the future. ...

The weirdest part of the wedding was that nobody sat down.  The whole time.  Even eating food, everyone had to stand around in little circles.  Could Luke and Laura not afford chairs??

Speaking of real couple problems, it cracked me up a little when Helena gifted the couple the yacht ... and a few episodes later, Luke is like "well, shit, now we have to pay docking fees for this thing!"  And then they couldn't find anyone to buy the boat because there was a recession or something.  Just weirdly realistic details in a story that involved a giant cursed yacht formerly owned by a the Evil Weather Machine family.  

The Scotty-catches-the-bouquet scene was gold, of course.

[Cara]

On 6/29/2021 at 6:06 PM, UYI said:

I'd be hard-pressed to find an Alan & Monica scene better than this one. From the breast cancer storyline.  No words necessary.

 

I agree that is an absolutely fabulous scene! There never will be anyone else like Alan and Monica!

Here is one of their many times making up after their friends locked them in the apartment upstairs from Kelly’s.

 

Edited July 30, 2021 by Cara

[Dr.OO7]

On 7/1/2021 at 3:48 PM, Hiyo said:

Here is Alan's wedding to Lucy.

 

Alan's reaction to that ridiculous dress was PRICELESS. As well as Stuart Damon trying not to crack up every time the hat hit him in the head.

[Melgaypet]

40 years ago today, this episode aired. My mom and grandma, both big GH fans, missed it because they were a little distracted by me being born. This episode featured: no Luke and Laura but endless talk of their imminent wedding, a side dish of the Diana Taylor murder story, the most hideous jacket I have ever seen, and, oh yeah, ELIZABETH TAYLOR!

 

Edited November 13, 2021 by Melgaypet

[Hiyo]

I always loved that oh-so-80s music that would play whenever Helena 1.0 would appear. I wish someone would make an edited supercut video with that music playing whenever Constance Towers' Helena would show up.

Edited November 13, 2021 by Hiyo

[UYI]

40 years ago today (and yesterday, for the first half). They were controversial, they were inescapable. But boy, did they make history. Record breaking ratings history.

(Also: Happy Belated Birthday, @Melgaypet!)

 

[SlovakPrincess]

To summarize my experience of watching Aztec Treasure '85 a bazillion years after the fact:

The good:

- The acting!

First, they really threw FH into the deep end of the pool: the character of Anna on paper is a giant ball of crazy, she has a ridiculous amount of expositional and melodramatic dialogue, and a lot of her early scenes are super intense confrontational scenes with either TR or John Reilly -- and she made Anna a sympathetic and fascinating character.

Reilly just had such gravitas and presence.  And in the scenes where Sean finally feels remorse, he completely sells it.  

TR ... this was probably the first story where Robert is really doubting himself and has to face his flaws, and he does a good job shifting into a quieter, more pensive mode of acting.  

KW does really well in the emotional scenes where Tony gets shot and then Frisco blames Felicia.  

- The flashbacks to Robert and Anna's backstory.  Just so durn pretty and really effective in getting the audience to understand why these two have such intense reactions to each other.    

- The fight to (almost) the death on the tram/ski gondola thing. 

- The complex character interactions: Frisco and Felicia as the young kids in way over their heads and not really understanding the messy Sean/Robert/Anna dynamic (or who in that trio they can actually trust), the relationship building for Frisco and Felicia, Sean/Robert/Anna all having complex feelings toward each other, etc.  

The bad:

- The handling of Holly.  Having her mostly sit around sad and angry (justifiably!) that Robert is shutting her out, and then sit around being kidnapped by one of Sean's henchmen for the rest of the story, is the most boring choice they could have made.  They try to balance Robert forgiving /befriending Anna with him still choosing/loving Holly (and TR looks appropriately anguished / conflicted the whole time), but they didn't seem to really know what to do with Holly here.  Both ES and '80s Holly deserved better.

- The fake scar thing is just weird and didn't work for me.  TR and FH act their little hearts out, but even they can't sell this.  

- Obviously Robert disguising himself as an elderly Asian man would not fly today (for good reason!).

The unintentionally hilarious:

- Frisco being petulant about literally everything, all of the time.

- Anna taunting Sean's henchmen until, and even after, they threaten to shoot her in the head for being annoying. 

- The treasure itself getting lost, misplaced, stolen from the last person who stole it, stolen back by the first person, and being moved around fifty times until the audience has utterly lost track.  But it's really just a backdrop for the characters' emotions, so it doesn't actually matter.  

Edited November 24, 2021 by SlovakPrincess

[SlovakPrincess]

It's almost skiing season, folks.  Be careful out there, with the avalanches and random muggings on snowy mountains!

(Only Luke would manage to get mugged while hiking and then squished in an avalanche)

 

[Hiyo]

Circa 1981. Mostly Monica and Lesley, but we also get to see Laura, Alan, Amy, Steve Hardy, and Susan Moore...

 

[SlovakPrincess]

An added note on the Aztec Treasure madness of '85 -- Celia and Jimmy Lee's wedding is insane.   Like, they make all their guests dress up in uncomfortable 1800s costumes for days and travel on an old-timey train to get to the wedding destination.  (I would've RSVP'd "no" and unfriended these people).  

Here's a clip: At this point in the story, Robert and Anna are pretending to hate each other so Sean will trust Anna and bring her back into his treasure-stealing plans.   Anna is supposed to wear a tracking device so Robert can follow behind; at the end of the clip, Robert decides he's ... placing it in her cleavage himself.  LOL the writers were not feeling subtle that day.

 

And ... the famous trams scenes:

 

Edited November 26, 2021 by SlovakPrincess

[jsbt]

Austin has a lot of nerve hating on the Qs after that wedding. I would've never spoken to those people again either.

[SlovakPrincess]

Is Austin the spawn of Celia and Jimmy Lee?   I haven't watched in a while, but I can just imagine how annoying any child of theirs would be.   

[GHScorpiosRule]

5 minutes ago, SlovakPrincess said:

Is Austin the spawn of Celia and Jimmy Lee?   I haven't watched in a while, but I can just imagine how annoying any child of theirs would be.   

No. he's the spawn of Jimmy Lee and that woman he married when he left the show. She had had an affair with an amnesiac Alan before she and Jimmy Lee...had a whirlwind courtship.

[SlovakPrincess]

1 minute ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

No. he's the spawn of Jimmy Lee and that woman he married when he left the show. She had had an affair with an amnesiac Alan before she and Jimmy Lee...had a whirlwind courtship.

Well, goodness.  At the wrap up of Aztec Treasure-palooza, I got the sense that Celia and Jimmy Lee were on their way out as characters and getting a rare soap opera happy ending to wrap up -- but I guess not!  

What a shame - Jimmy Lee and Celia were both such selfish morons, they were perfect for each other.  

[ouinason]

How whirlwind exactly?  Like, are we a hundred percent sure that Austin is Jimmy Lee's?

[GHScorpiosRule]

2 hours ago, ouinason said:

How whirlwind exactly?  Like, are we a hundred percent sure that Austin is Jimmy Lee's?

I don't know. I was watching sporadically at the time. All I recall is that Amnesiac Alan was playing house with her, and continued to do so after he got his memory back; I think Jimmy Lee found him? Then next time I watched, there's Jimmy Lee, spinning in circles with the woman in his arms after they got married. That was the last we saw of Jimmy Lee.

Just as Nik being Laura's is a retcon; Austin being Jimmy Lee's is probably the same.

[Hiyo]

On today's episode of General Discotheque Hospital...

 

Edited December 5, 2021 by Hiyo

[SlovakPrincess]

Who's the blond guy - is this a private investigator Monica hired to tail Alan (I should remember this, but it was like 6 years ago when I went through the '82 ('83?) episodes).  He's cute, should've been one of Monica's many affairs!  LOL.  

Hee, at the prop glass of "wine" when Monica pretends to love her drink.  "My favorite!"  It's clearly apple juice, Monica, calm down.  

[Hiyo]

Yeah, he was someone Monica hired, but he seemed to be ok at his job, nothing more. Heck Amy was better at finding things out...

Also, he was in the original V miniseries and series.

Edited December 7, 2021 by Hiyo

[Hiyo]

As much of a hosebeast as Carly is, SB and SK had smoking chemistry together. I do wonder how different the trajectory of AJ and Carly's relationship (and the show in general) would have gone had SK not left the show.

 

[threebluestars]

Remember when this show had a budget and was fun?

 

 

[SlovakPrincess]

Heh, I actually remember watching this after school.    Lordy, TG likes to yell.   

[threebluestars]

That whole 1993 return was crazy ... blown up trucks, skydiving, river rafting, helicopters. GH was on at 3 here, and I used to race home from school to catch it.

 

[SlovakPrincess]

I remember it starting with the three Spencers happily living in Canada and then the little diner they were running got blown up.  So explosions galore LOL.  

[SlovakPrincess]

Tracy in one of her earliest episodes .... when she was a blonde.  Mind.  Blown.  🤯

Tracy is in first part of the clip, and then around the 27:50 mark ... Tracy already trying to dig up info on her new sister in law, Monica, and she ain't that subtle about it!   

(Most of the clip is people discussing Lesley about to get indicted for murder ... she's taking the fall for daughter Laura, who actually pushed the dead guy into a fire place and cracked his head open - oopsie!  Around the 20 minute mark, Bobbie and Scott argue over how much attention he pays to Laura)

 

[Dr.OO7]

On 12/16/2021 at 10:17 PM, threebluestars said:

That whole 1993 return was crazy ... blown up trucks, skydiving, river rafting, helicopters. GH was on at 3 here, and I used to race home from school to catch it.

 

That whole year of 1993, when I started watching on a regular basis (after spending the last few months of 1992 watching sporadically), was one of the show's best.

Edited January 7, 2022 by Dr.OO7

[cleo]

Can someone tell me- in 1983 with Luke's supposed death- did Geary try to leave GH and then come back or was it planned all along he would return? 

I'm assuming it was planned.

[GHScorpiosRule]

Just now, cleo said:

Can someone tell me- in 1983 with Luke's supposed death- did Geary try to leave GH and then come back or was it planned all along he would return? 

I'm assuming it was planned.

Are you referring to the ski accident? Luke was never offscreen during that storyline. From what I can recall, we saw him trying to recover, while in Port Charles, people were dealing with his death-Pregnant Holly marrying Robert, then falling in love.

Laura returned in 1983, and she and Luke reunited and left the show.

[cleo]

@GHScorpiosRule ah OK thanks!

I guess I haven't watched enough yet. I'm just at the part where he disappears after the avalanche.

I thought he just stayed off screen until he came back. 

[Hiyo]

Quote

Laura returned in 1983, and she and Luke reunited and left the show.

And then they came back in 1984 for one final storyline.

[GHScorpiosRule]

5 hours ago, Hiyo said:

And then they came back in 1984 for one final storyline.

Only for a few scenes. Though Luke was on more, to help Robert with that adventure. Laura was pregnant with Lucky. And then both returned full time in 1993.

[Hiyo]

It was more than a few scenes. And it was the last time they were officially seen on the show until their 1993 return.

[UYI]

On 1/4/2022 at 4:45 PM, Dr.OO7 said:

That whole year of 1993, when I started watching on a regular basis (after spending the last few months of 1992 watching sporadically), was one of the show's best.

It's interesting you say that, because on the whole, I think 1992-1993 on GH is looked at more of as a transitional period for the show-- a step up from 1991 (the domination of the Eckerts, the rushed reunion of Robert & Anna), but not quite up yet to the highs of 1994 (BJ's death, Monica's breast cancer), 1995 (Stone's battle with AIDS), and 1996 (Clink!Boom, Carly's arrival, the return of the Cassadines and Jason & Robin's initial romance). But as someone who has only watched any of this on YouTube, I can honestly say that I find myself enjoying a LOT more of what I've seen from 1992-1993 than is generally expected by most fans. 1994-1996 may have been objectively better years (and better written years--it should be noted that the Labines arrived in late 1993, so the stuff up until around the fall of that year was not them; 1996 meanwhile was the first year of Guza, but with Wendy Riche at the helm I guess there was more quality control at the time), but when I see stories from 1992-1993 like Scott & Dominique's romance/Dom's death, or the separation of Sean & Tiffany/her losing their baby, or Jagger & Karen's romance/her issues with dealing with her abuse, I can appreciate those stories in their own way, too. 

[SlovakPrincess]

The stuff the show tried to showcase as the main stories in that '92-'93 period -- Tony Geary as Bill and Holly, the beginning of Mac and Felicia and Felicia having amnesia -- actually sucked rocks (YMMV, of course).   

It was the side plots that shined, giving other, less-hyped characters something interesting to do.  Tiffany and the hugely underrated Sharon Wyatt got to do something big and tragic.  Dominique (a character that needed to be recast to work at all and still didn't fit anywhere for a while) getting a long arc and a dignified send-off with her cancer death, and unexpected love affair with Scott (who got to shine as a romantic hero for once).  Sad, well acted stories that weren't dragged out or over the top, and everyone in them acted like adults struggling in understandable and difficult situations.  I actually preferred these stories to the more hit-you-over-the-head-with-sadness stuff of the mid 90s (dead children, AIDS, etc.), and the show's permanent turn to darker stories (mob and Cassadine drama) by the end of the decade.  

[SlovakPrincess]

On 1/9/2022 at 6:50 PM, cleo said:

@GHScorpiosRule ah OK thanks!

I guess I haven't watched enough yet. I'm just at the part where he disappears after the avalanche.

I thought he just stayed off screen until he came back. 

Ooh, if you're going into the 1983 story blind, hopefully some of the plot twists will surprise you.  1983 was kind of fun for me because I knew so little about it and, even though it is decades old, there were one or two "OMG I did not see that coming!" moments.  It's deliriously silly in parts, in that 1980s GH way, but it's one of the better year-long mystery/adventure plots.  Luke has his own little side plot while he recovers from the avalanche while living "off the grid", but his stuff eventually feeds back into the main story.  

[UYI]

38 minutes ago, SlovakPrincess said:

Tiffany and the hugely underrated Sharon Wyatt got to do something big and tragic.  

My God, Sharon Wyatt in that story--there's a reason she was the only GH actor nominated for an Emmy in 1994. It was inevitable that she, and everyone else in her category (Supporting Actress) was going to lose to OLTL's Susan Haskell (who won for Marty's gang rape story and trial), but I'm so glad she got to do something worthy of her talents, and at least got some recognition from the industry for it.

I will say, the scene where Tiffany tries to kill herself by swallowing a bunch of pills (before Holly finds her) are VERY dark, but still manage, at least to me,  to not go to a place where it's too depressing to watch (and it's interesting, that, because those were from the summer of 1993, that they were actually just prior to Claire Labine's arrival).