General Hospital Watching General Hospital

[Daniel Avery]

[googles] Michael Easton is 53? Oh, ok...

[googles] Gregory Harrison is 70!?!

 

[Ray&Donna]

[googles] Michael Easton is 53? Oh, ok...

[googles] Gregory Harrison is 70!?!

It's almost as egregious as Greg Evigan being old enough to date Betsy Frank, although if Fin's mother was his high school love, it's biologically possible

 

[Daniel Avery]

Part of the shock (okay, a lot of it) is recalling Harrison as Gonzo Gates, the young, sexy doctor on Trapper John, MD and now knowing he qualifies for Medicare.

I got to see the show today for the first time in like...ever, and I see Kelly Thiebaud (Britt) still hasn't done anything about her hair. Such a pretty girl, but she seems to refuse to wash her hair for whatever reason.

 

[Ray&Donna]

Part of the shock (okay, a lot of it) is recalling Harrison as Gonzo Gates, the young, sexy doctor on Trapper John, MD and now knowing he qualifies for Medicare.

I got to see the show today for the first time in like...ever, and I see Kelly Thiebaud (Britt) still hasn't done anything about her hair. Such a pretty girl, but she seems to refuse to wash her hair for whatever reason.

Poor Dev and Dustin have joined the same Dustbin, as mina's nursemaid and Ryan carnes

 

[Daniel Avery]

Yeah, a lot going on in the casting quarters, isn't there?

I have liked Mark Lawson (Dustin) for years and was sorry to see him go, but it appears his story options would have been limited with Emme Rylan (Lulu) apparently also on her way out. I think Dev was supposed to be involved in a plotline that was scrapped for whatever reason, and killing him off was just 'housekeeping'.

I always thought they had decided to have Dev be the Trojan Horse who would allow Cassandra and her associates to get close enough to Sonny to endanger him and his family (if he wasn't brainwashed to kill them himself). Obviously that never happened, probably because the Cassandra angle was dropped. So instead Dev just sort of lurked around with little interesting to do (at least until he got blowed up real good).

In addition to Carnes, Lawson, Arbab and probably Rylan, I'm pretty sure they've put the skids under William DeVry, as well. They've screwed up the character of Julian so badly that I can't imagine they'll try to reboot him--more likely, they'll have him disappear and come back at a later date with another new face. Frankly I'm glad they've decided to recast Lucas, as Ryan Carnes never really struck me as being a very good actor. I'll never know if Lucas's glaring absence from what should have been Emmy Bait situations was because the writers did not structure the stories correctly, or if they "wrote around" Lucas because they had no confidence in Carnes's ability to carry the material. He was the biggest victim in the Wiley story, even more so than Michael in my opinion because they wrote the story as if the year or so that Lucas and Brad raised the baby counted for nothing--as if he doesn't deserve to feel bad over having the baby taken from him. It's too late for the new actor to play all that (I have yet to see anything other than his photo) but one would assume that if NuLucas suddenly is on our screens regularly while OGLucas has barely been seen all these years, that they purposely did not give him much to do. If NuLucas ends up being just as ghostly as OG Lucas, then I guess it's just the character they don't want to write for.

 

[Monzo]

Maybe in a few weeks Lulu wakes up played Julie Berman again. She was the best Lulu in my opinion, she and Dante had great chemistry. Emme Rylan did a nice job, just like the current Nikolas does or Billy Miller did as Jason (when we thought he was Jason), but I always prefer the actor who made the character unique. I wonder if Tyler Christopher might also return, now that TC announced he has moved back to LA.

 

[Daniel Avery]

I think GH has given Tyler Christopher several chances to clean up his act, only for him to fall back into his bad habits. When they recast the role, I think it was a signal to him that they've moved on for good.

I would love it if they brought back the character of Drew Cain, regardless of whether he's played by Billy Miller (which I highly doubt anyway) or someone else. The palpable lack of emotion between Kelly Monaco and Steve Burton on-screen cannot be ignored forever, and given how Monaco seems willing/able to play such emotion with other screen partners (Miller's Jason/Drew, Jason Thompson's Patrick Drake, all of Michael Easton's characters), a viable triangle between Drew, Jason, and Sam might be a better story to allow all the remaining JaSam fans to ease into having Jason and Sam finally break it off. Also, Drew could return with proof that Peter was the one who engineered the plane crash that supposedly killed Drew, helping end this whole Peter August nightmare and get him off our screens.

 

[Monzo]

It's hard for me to believe GH would break up Jasam, because they chose not to when Steve Burton returned and Drew got another storyline. I read that fans think Drew might return sooner or later, but I don't get why. If Drew returns should he go on without his memories, which is boring, but if he gets his memory back, he would reunite with Kim. The only way his return would work is getting his memory back, Kim has died (suicide maybe), so he could move on.

When it comes to Billy Miller, who obviously doesn't want to act just to be on screen, I wonder how an actor can affort to have this attitude. As far as I know he's into restaurant / bar business, so his income must be lower than usual this year. I'm surprised he doesn't return to acting just to earn money. I heard Days wants him, but they can't afford to pay him.

 

[Ray&Donna]

I think GH has given Tyler Christopher several chances to clean up his act, only for him to fall back into his bad habits. When they recast the role, I think it was a signal to him that they've moved on for good.

I would love it if they brought back the character of Drew Cain, regardless of whether he's played by Billy Miller (which I highly doubt anyway) or someone else. The palpable lack of emotion between Kelly Monaco and Steve Burton on-screen cannot be ignored forever, and given how Monaco seems willing/able to play such emotion with other screen partners (Miller's Jason/Drew, Jason Thompson's Patrick Drake, all of Michael Easton's characters), a viable triangle between Drew, Jason, and Sam might be a better story to allow all the remaining JaSam fans to ease into having Jason and Sam finally break it off. Also, Drew could return with proof that Peter was the one who engineered the plane crash that supposedly killed Drew, helping end this whole Peter August nightmare and get him off our screens.

Kelly Monaco has to be the most unenthusiastic actress since Lois Chiles appeared in Moonraker

 

[Ray&Donna]

Apparently Cyrus has some connection to Tad the Cad, perhaps they were both fans of The Prince of Tides

 

[Daniel Avery]

From the stuff I saw today, it seems they want us to believe that Martin Gray is related to Gordon(?) Gray, Laura's biological father. Furthermore, Cyrus could be related to them, as well. On today's episode Laura explained her 'birth story' to Curtis (the real story they wrote forty years ago), making me think--right now--that Martin Gray and/or Cyrus (changed name?) are half-brothers of hers. I recall thinking it was odd that GH would hire a big name like Michael E. Knight as a glorified day-player, so now it appears they're finally writing the story for him that Covid likely delayed. How Cyrus factors in, I'm still debating--perhaps Cyrus is the son of Florence Gray and stepson of Gordon, while Martin was the child of both, and Laura is the biological child of just Gordon....who knows? I was trying to put up my tree while the show was on, and I missed the last ten minutes because my cable company lost the signal. Or maybe they just lost interest.

 

[Ray&Donna]

From the stuff I saw today, it seems they want us to believe that Martin Gray is related to Gordon(?) Gray, Laura's biological father. Furthermore, Cyrus could be related to them, as well. On today's episode Laura explained her 'birth story' to Curtis (the real story they wrote forty years ago), making me think--right now--that Martin Gray and/or Cyrus (changed name?) are half-brothers of hers. I recall thinking it was odd that GH would hire a big name like Michael E. Knight as a glorified day-player, so now it appears they're finally writing the story for him that Covid likely delayed. How Cyrus factors in, I'm still debating--perhaps Cyrus is the son of Florence Gray and stepson of Gordon, while Martin was the child of both, and Laura is the biological child of just Gordon....who knows? I was trying to put up my tree while the show was on, and I missed the last ten minutes because my cable company lost the signal. Or maybe they just lost interest.

I have been doing physical therapy two mornings a week, so sometimes my interest has waned before the final segment of the episode, I guess they really were saving a lot of story for November sweeps, if someone from the past had to show up to say goodbye, I am certainly glad it was Jane Elliot and not Tony Geary

 

[Daniel Avery]

This is the second Thanksgiving/Christmas period in a row that JE has appeared, so I'm hoping this will be another "holiday tradition" on par with Quartermaine pizza on Turkey Day. We all need a little more Tracy Q in our lives. Well, maybe Monica doesn't, but most of us can take it.

Given Tracy's propensity toward gangsters, I wonder how she'll react to that sleazy Cyrus running "her family's" hospital. She'll either chop off his ponytail and hand it to him.....or he will have her in bed by NYE.

 

[Ray&Donna]

This is the second Thanksgiving/Christmas period in a row that JE has appeared, so I'm hoping this will be another "holiday tradition" on par with Quartermaine pizza on Turkey Day. We all need a little more Tracy Q in our lives. Well, maybe Monica doesn't, but most of us can take it.

Given Tracy's propensity toward gangsters, I wonder how she'll react to that sleazy Cyrus running "her family's" hospital. She'll either chop off his ponytail and hand it to him.....or he will have her in bed by NYE.

Jason told Sam that Julian knew about Wiley being the Corinthos heir, but didn't she go somewhere with Julian to destroy Wiley's adoption papers during the Shiloh story, so she's not exactly been in the dark this whole time

 

[Daniel Avery]

When they got rid of the adoption paperwork, I think they were both operating under the assumption that the baby was Willow and Shiloh's baby (the one Brad and Lucas adopted that secretly died soon after), not Nelle and Michael's. Willow (and everyone else except Brad) was still under the impression that Wiley was her baby, and Sam's motivation was solely to keep Shiloh from trying to take the baby from Lucas and Brad. She enlisted Julian's help despite their having been on the outs. I don't think he knew about the baby switch yet.

I read that Sam finally 'got off the pot' and told Jason not to return to the penthouse when he announced he was going off to do another of his errands for Sonny. I admire the show's ability to build up to this decision, having sprinkled her doubtful remarks and scenes through scripts ever since they came back to filming. It's more realistic to have it build up that way, rather than just having her snap and suddenly decide the Loviest Love That Ever Loved wasn't working for her and the kids any more.

 

[Daniel Avery]

Coby Ryan McLaughlin (I think I got that right) has posted a photo on Instagram showing the door of his dressing-room trailer from the Dynasty studios (their studios being in Atlanta). No idea of how big or small the role is, but here's hoping he's not playing another smirking, sex-cult leader. Dynasty already had a ex-soap actor playing a cult leader (Pierson Fode of B&B) last season.

 

[Monzo]

Coby Ryan McLaughlin is a good actor. I'm happy for him that he's getting other acting jobs.

What I love about GH is that they cast great actors for villians: Shiloh, Nelle, now Cyrus, once The Balkan, Suzanne, Madeline... Nothing is worse than a not-so-good actor playing a villian, just look at Ben on Days.

 

[Daniel Avery]

And old-school villains like Helena Cassadine (Constance Towers) and Heather Webber (played to the hilt by Robin Mattson) always made it fun. I had grown tired of Cesar Faison and Jerry Jacks because of their tendency to chew on the scenery.

Though she's not being as naughty as she once was, Dr. Obrecht (Kathleen Gati) is one of my favorites of this era, and seeing her being brought back into the mix is making me so happy. They might even be chem-testing her with Scotty Baldwin!!! I remember wishing Helena and Dr. O had become friends, sitting around drinking tea and comparing notes on their heinous pasts and moaning about how disappointing their children were.

 

[Monzo]

I love Obrecht, too! Speaking German it's funny how often Kathleen Gati (who's Hungarian) mispronounces German words. Sometimes I need to go back and listen to it again to know what she means. Once Jax talked to Obrecht in German and even though he had that English accent you could feel that Ingo Rademacher speaks German and not just learns his lines like Gati.

I'm still surprised that they wrote Dr Kirk off. Is it just because Christopher Cousins isn't avaliable anymore? His recast was good, too, maybe too young for Obrecht. I wonder how Obrecht was cleared and nobody in PC knows about it.

 

[Daniel Avery]

Though Ingo is Australian, he has a German family background so he likely speaks the language. Kathleen Gati, however, is from Canada so she's just saddled with playing the role with the Swiss/German accent because they never expected the role to turn into such a scene-stealer. Dr. O was meant to be a day-player role in that story where Robin was being held in that clinic. In fact, I'm kind of surprised they didn't (over time) allow Obrecht to lose the accent. Maybe Gati uses the accent to help get into character--I've heard actors sometimes use such devices to help their performance. Lord knows Kathleen Gati is one hell of an actress, and Obrecht is so much fun to have around.

Years ago, the show hired an Aussie actor to play a con man involved with Maxie. As the plotline unfolded, we discovered the guy was actually American and just putting on an Australian accent to help with the con. Dr. Obrecht met the guy (saw through his act) and after he left the room, she quipped "If that man is Australian, then I'm a Canadian." I nearly died laughing.