Steve Coming Back to GH

Steve Burton is coming back to General Hospital. But as who? That's the main question. His role that he had for 20+ years off and on has been taken over by Billy Miller. Here's a short recap of Jason and the two actors (from my point of view, of course):
GH experienced a new Executive Producer and Head Writer change after One Life to Live and All My Children were cancelled. Steve's favorite executive producer, Jill Farren Phelps, was deservingly fired and went to work at The Young & The Restless. Steve stuck around for several months, Jason did get interesting storylines but he wasn't part of the trio (Sonny, Carly, and Jason) hogging the show screen time any more. Steve was actually part of an ensemble cast! I guess he missed Jill a lot. He was her teacher's pet. Around the same time, Steve moved his family to Nashville, Tennessee and was voicing his anxiety to be with them. Pretty reasonable... So Steve quit GH as it wasn't accommodating him as much to travel to see his wife and children. Jason was shot, killed, and kicked into the freezing waters of the harbor, floating away to become fish food. Steve flew off to Tennessee in the sunset. Except, a couple of months later, Steve announced he had a role on Y&R! Where Jill is! Look, I get he needed to pay the bills, but surely he could've found work in Nashville? Seemed like Y&R had the means and needs to accommodate Steve to travel back and forth that GH didn't have. I saw this as bit of a betrayal. I bet GH does have the ability to make things work for their actor. Roger Howarth commutes between California (where GH is filmed) and New York (where his wife and kids live).
Billy, I guess since Jill arrived and quickly realized what a sucky EP Jill was, quit and about 2 years later since Steve left the role, took over the role of Jason.
Jason was rescued from the freezing cold harbor and recovered from his wound on Cassadine Island. Surprise, surprise, Helena had something to do with it as she always does. Helena liked Jason's skills as a mob enforcer and hated Sam, her husband's illegitimate granddaughter, so it was her psychotic revenge. Jason was transferred nearby to Port Charles to Helena's brother-in-law Victor Cassadine's clinic. He escaped but was hit by a car (Ava, by accident) she drove off. Jason's face was so badly mangled that after surgery, he had a brand new face! He also suffered from severe memory loss and became Jake Doe. He eventually discovered who he really was and gained his memory back.

What I don't like is that some actors, major example: Rebecca Budig who played Hayden Barnes, get fired or laid off for budget cuts and to accommodate the return of Steve Burton. If this had happened 10 years ago, I would've been thrilled at the return but I grew, started liking other actors that were more colorful than the one-note "cold stone" performance. I have no clue who Steve will play, the tale of two Jason's, or different character, or even how long other than it will be long term.
So... What? Nothing available at Days of Our Lives or The Bold & the Beautiful? Tyler Christopher just joined the cast of DOOL instead of returning to GH.

Obviously to say: I'm not ecstatic over the return...

My 'General Hospital' Tally

Favorite 'Modern’ Couples:

1. Dillon and Kiki
2. Ned and Olivia
3. Franco and Nina
4. Dante and Lulu
5. Jason and Sam
6. Franco and Elizabeth
7. Kevin and Laura
8. Hamilton and Hayden
9. Valentin and Nina
10. Nathan and Maxie

Favorite Bromance or Platonic Couples

1. Nathan and Dante
2. Scotty and Ava
3. Nikolas and Ava
4. Franco and Dr. O
5. Curtis and Jason
6. Tracy and Hayden
7. Tracy and Hamilton
8. Anna and Andre
9. Lulu and Maxie
10. Hamilton and Roxy

I betcha…

1. Nelle is Carly's daughter. Father could possibly be Carly's teenage former best friend, the late Reese Williams (the real Carly Roberts) but was raised by Carly's adoptive wayward father Frank Benson.

General Hospital Flashback: Skye & Luke

"There's that chemistry that we have as actors that they can't help but write in. We can't help but play it even when it's not written. Tony and I like each other so much, and it translates in how well we work together"

"What Skye had with Luke was immature love. They'd never make a sacrifice for the other or be equal in any way. He was bad for her and she knew it. But they 'get' each other."

"Unfortunately, I didn't get to see Tony Geary, who was away while I was there. It's always a treat to see him."
Robin Christopher (about Tony Geary)

Goodbye Michael Q.

This is the only time I liked Michael Quatermaine, rather than Corinthos. Even when he was a child (being played by a different actor) I couldn't stand him. When Michael was shot in the head and was in a coma for a year, it was the best year ever! Then, his biological father A.J. came back and they reconnected, despite all the bad things his mother and stepfather Carly and Sonny Corinthos told him. Once Michael heard A.J.'s  side of the story and gave him a benefit of the doubt, I realized that I started to like Michael. It broke my heart and anger when Sonny shot and killed A. J. for 'killing' his fiancé Connie (Ava was the real killer- the look on Sonny's face was priceless) yet Sonny wasn't at all sorry regardless. I could go on and on how Sonny is a self-righteous bastard, the worst kind of human that loves power, money, women, possessiveness... The point is that once Michael became a Quatermaine and hated Sonny, all was perfect. But it all ended when Sonny got shot (and unfortunately survived) and Michael returned as Sonny's golden child. Such a shame and loss. Michael is back to being my non favorite character. It didn't even last a year!

End of a Love Story... or Not?

I have been a fan of the pairing of Dante Falconeri and Lulu Spencer from the beginning when they first encountered in 2009. Since then, I survived a recast, a few breakups, a custody battle with another couple, struggles and joys of parenthood, them verses the town of Port Charles, and now infidelity and divorce. It is heartbreaking. I will admit though, I applaud Lulu and especially Dante for lasting this long without any cheating after 6 years of being devoted to each other. Of course I was angry at Dante for giving in on having sex with his wife's newly discovered cousin. It was something that his mobster boss father Sonny Corinthos would've done. Sonny has slept with a mother-daughter duo (granted not knowing about it at the time but the moment he found out, let's just say it was a Kodak moment), had babies with them (one of the babies was a stillborn), was in a relationship with his best friend and enforcer's sister, had sex and conceived a baby with an enemy (who was his son's girlfriend) on top of his other enemy and biological father of his son's grave, was in a rebound relationship with cousins... you can say that Sonny sure got around. Dante, on the other hand, didn't know that Sonny was his father until he became an adult and worked undercover in his organization- Sonny went as far as shooting him for being an undercover cop just before the father-son connection! Oy, it is a soap opera after all and infidelity is one of the rules of a good soap opera. Dante lasted a good 6 years of being a faithful boyfriend, later husband who only had eyes for Lulu. A true romantic. Unfortunately, it was a matter of time. About two years ago, Dante got jealous of his wife getting into business with her ex boyfriend who happened to have his own mob connections. Then things came to head when Dante believed Lulu was cheating on him with another old flame of hers when they went off together to save her brother(s). Lulu lied to him of her actual whereabouts on the insistence of her parents (Luke and Laura). Dante tracked her down, saw a messy hotel room where he got the wrong idea, and with a little push by her cousin Valerie, hopped into his own marital bed with her. Ouch... Well, eventually Dante found out that his wife did not cheat on him after all yet he did on impulse and realized "oh crap, what have I done!?" mistake. He tried to cover it up, lied to his wife until it blew up in his face: Lulu was devastated and left him. I don't blame her. After another round of miss-signals and sleep with the cousin again with revenge to get rid of Valerie (not death, more of leaving town) in hopes of reconciliation. Recently, there was an attempt but... well... the night sadly ended with Dante and Lulu signing the divorce papers.

I honestly believe that somewhere down the line that there would be a reunion. It happened before and it can happen again. Dante and Lulu were not just your ordinary lovers, they were also a team.

'General Hospital' Character Mistake

Not every TV show is perfect- there will be mistakes that were bad decisions. They seemed right at the time but once it succeeds, the realization knocks it right off its feet. Soap operas are no different. General Hospital have made quite a number of blunders through it's 51 years. In my opinion, the most recent mistakes have been killing off Alan Quatermaine and Georgie Jones, the firing decision of Anna Lee (who played Lila Quatermaine)- she died not long afterwards, as did her character. The decision could come from a number of different directions. It could be the actor who wants to leave/quit, storyline purposes, fired by the Executive Producer/The Powers That Be (TPTB), the network suits. But in this situation, it's not about a firing or a departure of a character and actor. It's more about the actor being a recast of a character-- Roger Howarth, who originally played Todd Manning from One Life to Live and General Hospital (there's previous entries about this) and due to the legal tangle web with Prospect Park over One Life to Live that Todd Manning had to disappear and no longer exist. Luckily for General Hospital, the actor- Roger- did not have to disappear. The Headwriter had to create a brand new and past characters for the actors. Kristen Alderson and Michael Easton both got brand new characters- father and daughter team of Silas Clay and Kiki Jerome. Roger got the recast of Franco, aka Robert Frank, previously played by James Franco. Big mistake!

James Franco have the same agent as Steve Burton (Jason Morgan) and decided to further his acting talents to soap operas after being in movies, television, theatre, and now soap operas. It was arranged for James to come on and play a serial killer yet popular artist obsessed with Jason. The part was especially written for James- just like Helena Cassadine was for Elizabeth Taylor. Granted, the part of Helena Cassadine was eventually replaced by Constance Towers but there's a couple of differences:

1) It had been well over a decade between the recast of the character. Elizabeth got the part in the early 1980s while Constance took over in the mid 1990s.

2) By the time Constance took over the role as Helena, Elizabeth had already retired from acting. The only exceptional acting role Elizabeth did after retirement was a TV movie written by her former stepdaughter Carrie Fisher.

With James Franco and Roger Howarth as Franco, it had been less than 5 years when the recast happened. The character was originally killed off by the previous headwriter and when the new headwriter came in and had to come up with three "new" characters, the idea of Franco somehow came up. I believe the original intent was because Franco was already connected to many people in Port Charles. At the time, he was believed to be a Quatermaine and interacted with others during James' tenure on the show. For some reason, it became a brilliant idea to resurrect the much-hated character (honestly, I didn't hate that James Franco was on the show- I am a fan of his- but the character was made to be hated), somehow redeem him by saying that many of his ideas were made to twist their minds of believing something bad happened but it didn't really happened or it was pushed too far and turning out that he had a brain tumor, becoming a changed man. Not only that, but as the chemistry between Todd and Carly worked before, the headwriter teamed Franco up with one of his victims- Carly. The headwriter said that he was aware of the risk and took it anyway. But somewhere along the way I feel some backpedalling going on. Eventually, Franco turned out not to be a Quatermaine after all, but instead was the son of Heather Webber and Scott Baldwin. The problem that I've seen surface a lot is not the actor- the viewers enjoy the actor- it's the character that is the error. And I agree. I've been trying my best to try to accept the situation because at this point, it's way too late. It's been very close to one year and it's already been cemented. It's a difficult go-with-the-flow to be on. I've been pretending that the character isn't named Franco, but instead a James or a Fred. Any name but Franco. I don't mind Heather and Scott being the parents, I don't really mind Roger's character is romantically involved with Carly...although I really wish he interacts with other actors more than just the same ones over and over. When James was Franco, he was romantically (to put it mildly) with Maxie and believed to have raped Sam, making her believe that her baby was his rather than Jason's. James was in Kirsten Storms and Kelly Monaco's age range. Roger, on the other hand...well...with his height and size compared to James, even Kirsten and Kelly, it's like a decade older giant. There's like a decade age difference between Roger and James. Plus the height, body mass, all different. I know it's what happens when a recast happens but every time those 'memories' were brought up for Roger with Kirsten and Kelly, it just does not bode well with me.

I would have preferred Roger to be a completely different and brand new character like Silas Clay and Kiki Jerome. My ideas were having Roger play Lucy Coe's brother, or, as he's now being as Heather and Scott's son, but not as Franco. Keep the storyline of when Heather and Scott conceived their baby and Heather selling him off as she had done with her other son, Steven. Then have this brand new man coming to Port Charles trying to find his biological parents. Yes, it's been known to happen so many times before (Carly was one!) but at least it would've been much better than resurrecting a negative-reacted character like Franco. 

General Hospital's 50th Anniversary

Today is 'General Hospital''s 50th Anniversary.
I started to watch General Hospital in 1996. I can recall Lily Rivera Corinthos being blown up by her own father (who was really after her husband, Sonny Corinthos- who is still on the show) and Carly Roberts coming on board as an intern nurse while looking for her biological mother Bobbie Spencer (who gave her up for adoption as a teenager while working as a prostitute before becoming a nurse). Ever since then I've been hooked. I've been loyal even during their worst years. It was in danger of being cancelled about a year or two when ABC cancelled All My Children and One Life to Live- if it had been, ABC would've been the only major network without a soap (CBS has The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful while NBC has Days of Our Lives). Luckily, under a new Executive Producer and Head Writer, fresh off from OLTL, GH managed to be saved from the chopping block. Thank goodness! But to be honest, when the news that OLTL was cancelled, I wanted GH to be cancelled rather than OLTL. At the time, it was in it's worst years (I blame Head writers Robert Guza, Jr., Garin Wolf, and Executive Producer Jill Farren Phelps at this point of time) while OLTL was doing very well with their storylines. I had quit OLTL a few years before because it was all about Spencer Truman- he was in every freakin' storyline imaginable and I just got sick of it. But when I heard that Todd Manning (at the time was being played by Trevor St. John, a good replacement during Roger Howarth's absence) was going to have a long-long daughter Dani, I was intrigued so I came back. At the same time, my past favorite couple Natalie Buchanan Banks and John McBain were on the road to reuniting, so it was a double treat for me to return. Anyway, at the time I was willing to sacrifice GH for OLTL but thankfully Frank and Ron went to GH and even brought over Roger Howarth's Todd (who did return back to OLTL just before the cancellation announcement was made), Kristen Alderson's Starr Manning and Michael Easton's John McBain to Port Charles. I thought they fit in well until the Prospect Park/OLTL mess that's currently happening.

There's so much to remember after watching for quite a long time, so I'll try my best with my lists. There's no particular order- just what comes to mind. I can always edit whenever something to comes to mind later!
Favorite Couples (Past and Present)
1. Dillon and Georgie
2. Dante and Lulu
3. Jason and Sam
4. Luke and Tracy
5. Johnny and Olivia
6. Luke and Skye
7. Jax and Skye
8. Jax and Chloe
9. Ned and Alexis
10. Luke and Laura
11. Mac and Felicia
12. Nikolas #2 and Gia #1
13. Mac and Katherine
14. Max and Diane
15. Ric and Reese
16. Nikolas and Nadine
17. Damien and Ellie
18. Damien and Georgie
19. Ethan and Rebecca
20. Coleman and Kate #1
21. Lucky and Elizabeth
22. Ric and Elizabeth
23. Shawn and Alexis
24. Edward and Lila
25. Alan and Monica
26. Jerry #1 and Bobbie
27. Nikolas and Courtney
28. Stefan and Katherine
29. Cesar and Liesl

Favorite Couples That I Wanted to Get Together
1. Jason and Carly* #1 (Sarah Brown)
2. Todd and Heather
3. Nikolas and Claudia
4. Cameron and Alexis
5. Lucky and Claire
6. Johnny and Lisa*
7. Ric and Claudia*
8. Steve #1 and Carly #2
9. Nikolas and Britt
10. Milo and Ellie
*they did had sex a few times but there was never anything cemented to be a serious romantic relationship

Favorite Couples That I Used to Loved But Now What Was I Thinking?
1. Jason and Courtney
2. Logan and Lulu
3. Sonny and Hannah
4. AJ and Courtney

Favorite Friendships
1. Jason and Carly (#1 especially)
2. Jason and Damien
3. Jax and Alexis
4. Luke and Alexis
5. Luke and Skye
6. Alexis and Diane
7. Alexis and Chloe
8. Todd and Carly
9. Todd and Heather
10. Carly and Olivia
11. Lucky and Dante
12. Anna and John McBain
13. Felicia and Bobbie
14. Georgie and Brook Lynn

Who I Want to Come Back
1. Georgie (from the dead)
2. Blackie (from prison)
3. Lucas (from out of town)
4. Claudia (from the dead)
5. Dillon (from out of town)
6. Skye (from out of town)
7. Ned (from out of town)
8. Lucky (from out of town)
9. Ethan (from out of town)
10. Chloe (from the dead)
11. Ric (from out of town)
12. Faith (from the dead)
13. Justus (from the dead)
14. Jason (from the dead- but at the moment I can do without him)

Characters That Should Stay Dead & Not Return Alive
1. Sage
2. Diego
3. Emily
4. Luis

GH vs. OLTL

There's been quite a drama lately on daytime television with a battle between Prospect Park and ABC.
After ABC canceled One Life to Live last year, Prospect Park brought the rights- including the characters- to bring the show back to life but online. However, the project failed when they didn't raise enough money until recently when they did get funds. Now, they've got some actors signed up to return back to their characters (same with All My Children), including new Executive Producers and Head Writers. I believe they even got studios lined up to film and will start production in mid-March. For some reason, Prospect Park seem to think that Todd Manning, Starr Manning, and John McBain (who are currently on General Hospital, as a crossover transplants after One Life to Live bid farewell on ABC) would help publicize the new launch on Itunes or Hulu or Hulu Plus. This is what is causing the drama. While Prospect Park own the characters, ABC have the actors under contract. It's a very unique situation. I've heard that they've been trying to work out a deal so that they can cross over but remain mainly on General Hospital as the actors are very happy to be on the show. I personally think that they are a perfect fit to the cast. Roger Howarth and Michael Easton, in particular, pretty much sizzle with everyone on General Hospital has to offer, great chemistry. Kristen Alderson is not bad herself (Starr has been annoying me lately- she's gotten to be Ms. Goody-Goody Two Shoes. Where's that Cramer/Manning spazz? Where's that girl who used to use her snakes as weapons against Max Holden? I'm thinking that if Starr and Max ever cross paths today, they would have tea and muffins without any tricks). Now, Prospect Park has an idea to recast the roles of Todd, John, and Starr which would possibility mean that ABC/General Hospital has to rename their characters on their show. What? Why? That's stupid. Some actors do come back to the soap opera as a completely different character as before (Sarah Brown is one prime example- she was the original Carly Corinthos and left; few years later she returned as a completely different character as Claudia Zacharra before she was killed off) but there's a few years in between. Not back-to-back. How would you explain the storylines that Todd, Starr, and John have been a part of and then turn around, pulling a Dallas (when Bobby Ewing was thought to be dead but was found showering in the shower instead- turned out to the a dream). That's such a hassle and a big waste of time. Big waste of anything really!

There's another issue I'm carrying on my shoulders: to tell you the truth, as much as I do love One Life to Live and was very heartbroken when it was canceled, I'm over it. I really don't want it to return. It's a little too late if you ask me. Prospect Park had their chance during the first go-around but now, a year later, it feels not right. In fact, I still don't believe that it's a 100% deal, no matter how much confirmation there is from all over the place. I will believe that it's back the day after the show airs. Anything can go wrong from now till the day the actors come to the set for the first day of filming. I've moved on. Another issue: Roger Howarth shouldn't use his talent craft on the computer. He's the TV kind. A High-definition big screen TV kind. He's my eye-candy.
I really hope and pray that whatever Prospect Park/ABC decides, it should make the fans happy. That should be the important thing, right?