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BREAKING NEWS: Ron Carlivati OUT As Head Writer & Shelly Altman and Jean Passanante IN at General Hospital!

Courtesy/ABC

Courtesy/ABC

Major breaking news this afternoon in the daytime landscape! Ron Carlivati is out as the head writer at ABC’s General Hospital!  The scribe, who was the WGA winner in the daytime drama series category earlier this year, and has created the stories in Port Charles for the last 3 years has been replaced.

Rumors have been fast and furious this week that a change was being made behind-the-scenes, and they have been confirmed as true. Carlivati’s replacements are the former head writing team of The Young and the Restless, Shelly Altman and Jean Passanante! Jean and Shelly starts their duties on August 10th!

In a statement from Vicki Dummer, Executive Vice President Current Series Programming ABC, said: “We are pleased to welcome back two esteemed writers to our ‘General Hospital’ family,” said Vicki Dummer.  Shelly and Jean’s combined talents and experiences promise to continue the show’s legacy of compelling storytelling that will resonate with our impassioned viewers. We’re delighted with what they have in store for the show as they continue honoring the rich, diverse environs of Port Charles.”  

Passanante recently returned to the General Hospital writing team after being let-go by the CBS sudser when Chuck Pratt Jr. came on to the scene in Genoa City.  Jean has served also as head writer and co-head writer for As the World Turns and All My Children, and has received four Daytime Emmy Awards, six Writer’s Guild awards and five GLAAD Media awards.  As for Altman, she was also co-head writer at General Hospital at one time, and written for One Life to Live and Another World.

So, what do you think about the news that Ron Carlivati is out … and Jean and Shelly are in as head writers of General Hospital?  Good move … not a good move?  Surprised?  Share your thoughts below!

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I’ve been a fan of Carlivati’s work since OLTL, so I’m sorry to see him go. I suspected it since Passante joined the team again. I’ll give it a shot with the new writers, but I’m not a fan of their past work on GH and other shows. Carlivati’s writing may not have been flawless but he was instrumental in saving the show from cancellation and for that I am grateful.

I wont knock you if your a fan of RC’s BUT the writing has been absolutely terrible!

Umm, that is the very definition of “knocking” me. The enjoyment of art is subjective.

Knock, knock. I don’t know how bad the other two are. What is wrong with a good story? The smaller, younger characters on GH are just terrible and have terrible storylines. I’m hoping the new Dillon and Paul stay on, they are very good. Now give them something to do.

LOL..he blocked me on twitter which must have been eon’s ago since i tried to tweet and thank him for the surge..oh wait..that’s not what i was trying to do..LOL..but i wasn’t nasty to him by any means..he just did not like dissatisfaction with his storylines and that’s his choice..but yeah..ok..now??

I totally agree with you! Loved his work on OLTL.

Unfortunately RC didn’t realize that people who watched GH didn’t want to see OLTL. He wrote for himself instead of the GH audience. And those of us who DIDN’T watch, much less “love” his work on OLTL, hated what he did to the show we no longer recognized.

Based on Passanante/Altman’s work on Y&R I think we can look forward to a second hour of The Chew by this time next year….

Altman’s work, she did the Delia thing and it was great, and the Chew is good also.But anything has to be better than that mess Ron was throwing out there!He was brining dead people back left anf right and he should have brought that dead kid back, that was gross, and why Liz got enough kids no one see already!

Actually Altman came in at the end of the Delia story and “great” is not the word I would use.

As for Ron’s writing, I personally enjoyed it — never a dull moment. As for bringing back little Jake, I don’t think “Liz has other kids” is a good rebuttal. Helena stealing the boy and allowing everyone to think he was dead and that Luke had killed him was a decent way of ret-conning a big mistake the show made years earlier. The boy’s return puts Liz and Sam on a level playing ground for Jason’s affections and in the right writer’s hands could generate years of story. Unfortunately I don’t think Passanante and Altman are the writers for the job….

Stopped watching 2 & half years ago. Without a doubt the worst writing maybe in the history of daytime. He has brought it to record low ratings and on verge of cancellation.i watched for 25 years and thought no writer could get me to tune out… RC did. Dummer took way to long to make this change.

I think Ron is the best and most creative writer in soaps and especially GH. 3 years ago Gh was to be cancelled. Frank and Ron turned it around within a year. No mean feat. Not everyone is going to like everything they do. As long as Guza is not writing some dark writing with kids dying, I was happy. Now I think this is the beginning of the end of GH. I hope GH continues. Rating go up and down, just like stocks.

Yes, Mary, and three years after that it was just tanking in the ratings again, perhaps to be cancelled yet again. RC had one good year in him. That I will grant. However, he hadn’t the chops to sustain it and his story choices began to demonstrate disdain for GH, its history, and its fans. Perhaps because this kind of over-the-top praise blinded him to his obligation to write a show called “General Hospital,” which had a half-century legacy that he continually trashed, either by design or because he lacked conceptual insight. And his immaturity in calling out fans on Twitter…suggested he was just out-of-his depth. No one invested in the job they are paid to execute spends that much time trying to prove his superiority over fans (and critics) by warring with them over Twitter when he should be working to figure out why not having stories make sense is a problem for those very fans and critics. That is the mark of a kind of insecurity that can interfere with doing a job properly. Again, his 50th anniversary year was fantastic. Loved it. But a complete inability to sustain that quality suggests a much more shallow talent than his cheerleaders seem willing to grant. GH has been in huge huge trouble. As the writer for the show, he must take the blame for the decline, as he reaped the praise for its successes. But, in the past year his failures far outweighed his successes. The ratings proved it. Thank goodness ABC cared enough to try to save the show he once saved, and then was systematically destroying, perhaps not by design but by a clear inability to handle the pressure of the legacy and meaning of “General Hospital.” ABC made the right decision and I look forward to actually supporting the new writers and my GH!!!! RC had his chance. It is over, and this fan looks forward to a return to the actual GH and and a move away from Three Stooges style silliness that was killing its brand as penned by Mr. Carlivati.

Oh man…I am tired.
But what that guy (Tristan) said. Tristan nails it yet again.

I agree with you Mary, I watched GH along with AMC, and OLTL when I worked the night shift. I started to get bored with GH and I never missed OLTL, and I thought Ron and Frank did a wonderful job, and when OLTL got cancelled I was not going to watch any soaps ever again, but when I saw they were going West to GH I tuned in and did not miss an episode since, but I hope it does not tank. I know that many people love Young and The Restless, but that is their option, my Grandmother watched Y and R, and I know all the characters, but I find it to be a boring soap with the same story lines over and over. Well, everyone has a right to their opinion so you just got mine. Good Luck RON, and Good Luck General Hospital!

Uh Ron killed quite a few kids during his GH tenure…He killed Starr’s baby Hope, Tea’s baby, Sabrina’s baby, Maxie’s first baby. We can also count Rafe. He was just a kid. Selective memory is great folks, but no one took GH to more grim places than Ron.

Sorry, but Ron was terrible writer, and he seems to think its all about what he wants, and its not, He messed up OLTL and day one started destroying GH, He destroyed Luke&Laura, Tracy ok but it was all Luke with Laura!Sorry but evry year Ron have been on GH he came with that mess he sis on OLTL.No need for ME/RH and Kiki. The cast is totally to big and his stories make no sense!I see Frank V. dodged the bullet,but he know now that he is not bullet proof,like they thought!

ABC DID NOT EVER intimate that GH was about to be cancelled. It is SO disingenuous for people to say Ron saved GH…. GH was saved before Cartini was hired. They were just the next in line.

I agree with Tristan on this.

I agree Mary. What a stupid mistake!

RC spent more time on twitter than writing good stories. I hope the new writers trim the cast

Maybe we can get a storyline and less stuff off scene! I wish they would undo the return of the dead kid who donated his organs to another kid,that is gross, had nothing to do with anything!I hope they move the storylines and stop the dragging from year to year!They need to down size the cast.Like to see Ava back and do something with Julian!Bring back Spinelli and Robin!

Where I come from, “Knocking” someone means criticizing someone. I said I wouldnt knock you if you enjoyed his writing. I did not enjoy it. In other words, I respect your opinion although I dont agree with it.

GOOD RIDDANCE!! This is the best news to come out of General Hospital. The ratings all-time low clearly has sent a shockwave to ABC, and given Ron’s recent silence on Twitter, we all knew he’d be OUT of a job faster than you could put together the half-assed scripts he’s been doing. Jean and Shelley did great work at The Young and the Restless, and I know that their work at GH will be equally great. Hopefully some stability comes back to the storytelling, and that we get some core stories and character development happening. Drop the schtick and recurring back-from-the-dead storylines that Ron seems heavily invested in constantly making happen. I only hope they’re able to undo this Jake storyline, can write Sonny out and bring back the almighty and powerful Ava Jerome. Jean wrote for Maura West on As the World Turns, and knows her strengths as an actress, so I hope we see more depth in the character come this fall. And I hope that the campy-style storytelling is done and over with. I hope to see strength return to the soap. This is a positive movement, let’s see this change happen soon!

There just had to be a change. Pure and simple..

Passanante wrote for Maura and Howarth on ATWT. Even with better writing, if GH is the Franco and Ava show, viewers will not come back. GH needs to be GH, something that Cartini promised to do, but then pulled endless baits and switches.

Yes, the writing is campy and nonsensical, but even if that changes and the writing gets better, GH will not reach it’s full potential unless it gets back to GH core characters and families, gets rid of many of the characters and actors that came with Cartini, and integrates the one’s that stay better.

I can live with Ava hanging around as the villain she should be, not the joke wearing a wig. But Franco and Nina just need to go. They can not be taken seriously, we’ve seen too much, they can’t be repaired and the actors just don’t have the supposed fan bases that people talked about. None of them do. People watch GH to see GH, not actors who used to play characters on other shows.

If you get rid of RC, but keep all the damage he created walking around, it won’t work. GH needs a reboot that takes it back to its roots.

Tis true, Matilda. I was a long time fan of Roger’s but I cannot bear to watch his goofy interpretation of Franco. It’s because I know how good he can be which makes watching him so unbearable and that is how most OLTL fans feel.
You’re completely right in asserting that just because they’ve changed captains, the ship will continue to sink if they don’t get rid of the baggage.

I love your posts, Matilda. You have the talent of simplifying “things”.

Here, here, Matilda! Although I’m sending good wishes to the new ladies at the writing helm and hoping for the best, a MAJOR housecleaning still must be commenced before any real improvements are evident. Until the abysmal likes of Sappy, Nina, Val-Chops Jordan, and even Ric, Molly, TJ, Alexis, and other deadweight are tossed overboard, then all the good scripts in the world won’t save this sinking ship. First and foremost, we need characters about whom we care…without that basic ingredient, no soap can survive, even if the stories become better and more engaging. Adding in some old favorites in place of the RC-invented interlopers also wouldn’t go amiss….let’s see the returns of Diane Miller, Frisco, Noah, even Jeff Webber, and definitely, Robert Scorpio!!!! (Plus more frequent glimpses of such beloved peeps as Alice, Max and Epiphany….) Oh, and please make Hayden’s recovery brief and her departure imminent….I’m already gritting my teeth at the thought of having to endure that heinous hussy again!

Well, I for one, love Nina and especially Franco. If they were to get rid of Roger Howarth, I woul no longer watch.

Let’s get the stories back to the hospital and core characters

I agree! Diane was amazing and where has she been?? Max, Milo and give Anna a good storyline, hopefully bringing Robert back too! Right now, every single day is the Franco/Nina saga which I detest!! There is no reason for either of them to be on screen. No ties to anyone in PC and no real pleasure in watching them. Ava was at least interesting before the stupid wig. Silas was minor entertainment but I don’t care if he stays or goes. We need to see the real GH back. Write for the characters that we the fans love and stop with the stupid guest celebrities!

Was certainly time for a change! I’ll say that Ron had his strengths, but it seemed the further along he went the more I disliked his work. I especially did not like his attitude on Twitter. I’m having trouble remembering the new writer’s story lines from Y&R but am optimistic that a fresh take will be good. Unfortunately, you can ALWAYS count on firings & new characters when new writers come on. New writers always want to create some of their own characters as it’s more royalties for them. Sometimes that’s a good thing. Sometimes that’s a bad thing.

“Write Sonny out”…. Wouldn’t hold your breath waiting for that to happen….

It nearly happened during contract negotiations; him going to prison was the potential of an exit, until at the last hour, he re-signed for another year.

Fair point, Maurice could certainly choose to leave and he has… I just strongly doubt that they’d ever write him out…. Especially how his true love (Jason) is back lol….

What he did for Tony Geary’s exit story was nothing short of abysmal in my book. He deserved to be fired for it.

Elizabeth, absolutely agreed about what he did to Geary and this exit. An atrocity. A probably intentional atrocity, hence Geary’s completely valid disdain for “the writer.” Yes, if he were to be fired for anything, this was it! I wish Frank, whom Geary respects, would actually bring Tony back for two weeks down the road and write him off respectfully! This leaves a bad taste in my mouth, as though RC purposely spit on Geary’s farewell.

And perhaps even get a goodbye scene with Laura, as it appears even that isn’t in the works for this one.

Thank God!

LMAO .JEAN N SHELLY MESSED UP Y&R.

So here we go, bashing two new writers who havent even written ONE episode! Give them a chance!

Putting Altman aside for a minute, Timmm, Jean Passanante has been a headwriter on enough shows now for people to have formed an educated opinion. Occasionally, it’s true, somebody shows up who simply seems to “take to” one show better than another and shows surprising ability in one job over another (Lorraine Broderick’s special affinity for All My Children, for example), so maybe that will happen here–but I’ve been watching soaps 40 years now, and a bad HW tends to be a bad HW. And Jean Passanante’s writing on As the World Turns was absolutely dreadful–even more unwatchable, I often found, than Guza’s version of GH. So unless Altman (whose work I am not familiar enough with to judge) can make up for Passanante’s weaknesses (and in a big way), this is not good news, and that’s independent of how anybody feels about RC (as I’ve said before, I’m somewhere in the middle). Think things can’t get worse? Don’t bet on it, folks. They very well may just have done so.

No timmm here’s the truth of Altman/Passanante and why they were dumped..this is the gist of their reign as HW’s of Y&R…The beginning of the end of Adam..chloe was stealing billy’s sperm..a doll full of diamonds..Jill was kidnapped..Mariah was supposed to be a double for Lilly and not Cassie..smh..the tattoo lady..AUSTIN..SUMMER..Ian Ward..Sharons daily visitations by Cassie..the whole neil/devon/hillary/leslie debacle..Neil went blind and etc..it was a mish mash of a mess because no network bites the bullet and brings on fresh talent. Remember Michael Malone for OLTL..This has to stop with this roundelay of writers laughingly going from one soap to the next and steaming the same pile of diry clothes without even bothering to freshen them up. Hogan Sheffer was a reminder of a new type of Douglass Marland when he came on the scene..Daytime is an integral part of television the entire globe over..not just here..you just can’t toss the genre to the dogs and make like the whole of TV primetime was never influenced by the on going structure of drama instead of closed end episodes. All shows today rely on the soap model of storytelling..or you can forget about long term investment. Our shows need and deserve a rejuvenation as if it’s the first show to air…in 2015..not 1934…soaps are not and long ago left the radio and 50’s 60’s era..please adapt..at this rate Days may generate viewers for a month or so..but fade back into oblivion..Gh might be embraced for a month or so..viewers will again get restless..come out of the dark age of soaps as an embarassment and revive the remaining four with an updated model..or forget it…these writers are in their 60’s ..these stories and method of telling them are firmly in these writers laps and it has to change..or just cancel them all and move on..we have UK soaps on Hulu..we have youtube…something has to change because the state of our soaps are heading into a talk show food filled diy future.

Right, Timmm. At the risk of sounding repetitious, I have never paid much attention to the writers. I don’t read any of that “stuff”…. Does not interest me who writes what, as long as the storyline is fulfilling.
All I can say is that something’s “gotta” give……we can only hope that GH will take us to a new direction….a positive one that will be somewhat campy, but, credible and realistic, at the same time. I, personally, would like to relate to the characters and their ‘normal’ and ordinary lifestyle…..not expecting cadavers to resurface from any given ‘freezer’……or ‘Flukies’ lurking in a character of the writers’s choice of the day. How’s that, Timmm? LOL. I just want Jason, Nina and Ava to have a LIFE and a sooooo deserved, meaty storyline, as themselves, before I leave for Europe. Arrivederci…..Au revoir!! LOL.

Hey dimwit. What do you think of these 2 horrible women writers now? They are killing GH way more and faster than RC ever could.

BYE BYE GH! It was nice knowing you.

Yes, they mess up Y&R good!
They were not up to Y&R standards and both were fired/let go ..
While they there the stories went on for a year.. very loooong drawn out boring stories / Music Box story for one..
How quickly people forget how terrible Y&R became ..

The SUOOOSTER, fan of campy, disjointed, over-the-top, plot driven writing has spoken! Now any writer The SUOOOSter does not like is okay by me.
I, for one, liked Jean’s writing for Y&R. It was good, character driven stories.
Yes, the Music Box story was abysmal and disappointing but Jean was stepping things up a bit and Y&R was suddenly becoming interesting when they canned her.

As far as I’m concerned, su, Y&R is dragging, regardless of the ratings. This show is unrecognizable. I am sick of Jack and the way he is being made to look the victim. Jack is not a nice guy….never was. He is no different from Victor, I say! Anyone who has been watching Y&R for a few years is well-versed in Jack’s past and his lack of integrity. The dialogue and storylines are no better than GH’s.
DOOL has come a long way.

The music box story was the worst! Yes they may run GH in the ground but SOMETIMES change is necessary and it COULD be good. Lets wait and see these next couple months.

I agree!

They were not a team there was long. Shelley came over from Gh

I was wondering about that, too. IIRC, didn’t Genie Francis, Maura West, & Billy Miller all leave Y&R under these writers? I know it’s not always the fault of writers for actors choosing to leave. Still, if they didn’t know how to use their talents on Y&R, how are they going to write for them on GH?

Forgot to add Michelle Stafford to this list of Y&R expats.

No most of them left during Josh Griffith writing tenure and most likely because of the JFP coming in at the same time– nothing to do with the writing

The actor departures were the result of JFP being brought on as EP. In Genie’s case JFP immediately fired her, wanted to show her the her vindictive power trip was still a factor from their brawl in 2002. And Billy Miller and Michele Stafford departures also were less about the writing than the business end of things (EP related).

No! Most of them left during the phelphs/Griffin Era!

I’m glad to see Ron go but have no idea what new writing will be like. Wish Claire Lebine (sp??) was brought back. She co-created Ryan’s Hope and from what I remember, she was part of Robin & Stone’s AIDS story. Mentioned earlier… the thing that always makes me cringe when new writers come aboard is the new characters. Every new writer creates new characters while we are usually screaming for our old fav’s to get story or return all together. Some new characters work out great. Most don’t.

claire labine is exactly what this show needs. gh was at its best during the wendy riche and claire labine days. it was truly general hospital.

Ick. I’m so sorry, GH, but maybe that’ll keep them far from Y&R for a while!

oh and CARMINE

#nomoremob..there have been so many guns and gunshot wounds on this show it’s become de rigueur the must have accessory..playing off the same theme because it’s what ABC wants..these shows have become mind numbing to say the least…oh what’s the point of more typing..by January 2016 one soap will be headed to oblivion…point blank

WOW!!!!
i didn’t think this would actually happen but the writing has been horrible for quite some time………………………

Be careful what you wish for. I will reserve judgement for now. But, with Y&R fans saying, “Ouch! Good luck,” the previews don’t look good. I admit I like the fast pacing & broad humor of GH. That’s why I don’t like the other soaps. They move too slow for me. If Y&R fans, who are used to a slower paced show than I, are saying this new writing team slowed down the pace of their show too much, I’m going to get impatient very fast.

Yup.

The two writers that made Y&R drag on are now the writers for GH? Good luck with that ABC.

I know!!
frightening!!
they are the worst of the snore writers..
looooong boring go nowhere stories, so bad that Y&R brought Pratt in to try to save it after Jean and Shelly ruined it …..lol this is crazy!

NO su0000. Crazy is what RC did to GH. It is tanking in the ratings for a reason. Y&R was NOT tanking in the ratings. You just don’t like measured, adult drama, as your comments make clear. I suspect you’ll soon be gone with the wind like RC.

Can someone help me out?? not familiar with eithers work. will this be good or bad for GH?

I enjoyed Jean’s reign at both As the World Turns and The Young and the Restless, so I have faith that both she and Jean will do good work on GH in their term as head scribes.

If they both were so good why would Y&R fit/let them go lol
because Y&R ratings were falling and falling ..
Most were falling asleep watching Y&R under them .. sigh

Su, it’s simply because their stories moved a bit too slow-paced, though, their writing was fantastic.

GOOD! One reason, its a change. RC was killing the show! Lets see what these two can do and not judge them for their work on Y&R.

I didn’t watch ATWT, but Y&R became very dull and boring under Shelley and Jean. Neither one seems like a good fit for GH, especially pacing wise. GH needs a jolt with its story pacing, but Shelley and Jean wrote very slow, boring stories at Y&R.

Perfect word, Jimmy…’JOLT’.

I’m not familiar with Jean’s work. Shelley was briefly a co-head writer of GH in the Garin Wolf era, and she was beginning to clean up the mess he made of the Spencer family, and other idiotic stories like the mute blonde girl who was squatting at Windemere while the Cassadines were all out of town. No telling what direction she would have gone, because she only had about three months before the OLTL regime was forced on us all.

I am in the same boat as you, Dan. I was never one to care who wrote the scripts, until the craziness of Fluke and Fack started….so, I ask your same question.

I, for one, am going to miss the style and humor of Ron Carlivati. Even though the other two writers coming are seasoned professionals, they don’t have the freshness that Carlivati had. His sense of humor was conveyed in each of the characters and they never seemed trite or like every other daytime show..

These writers will step back and let the actors fuse humor into their dialogue. Ron has Alexis and Jullian repeating lines from Seinfeld.
If want to watch Seinfeld, I will find reruns on the television, not on my soap.

Humor has always been the big draw for me w/GH. The ABC soaps always seemed to excel in humor, with Erica Kane on AMC, the Buchanan boys on OLTL & an entire line of quick-witted, sly antiheroes on GH (Luke, Robert, Frisco, Duke). I’ll wait to see what the new writing team does for the characters of Franco & Nina, Madeline & Rick, Dr. O, Silas & Ava, Brad, Lucas, & Sam & Jason (who have developed a nice banter between them) before making any judgements.

Well Mateo, that makes one of you. Or maybe even five. But the rest of us are extremely appreciative and relieved.

Not true Elizabeth. Many of us loved Ron and the SL’s. I personally have watched #GH for over 35 years because of the intrigue (mob, spy’s etc) It sets it apart from the other smarmy “love in the afternoon” dreck. I’ll miss Ron and his injecting humor and campy scenes into the mix. What I really want to know is how Vicki Drummer, who clearly knows nothing about soaps made this decision. And btw, Guza is the one who sent #GH down the tubes. Carlivati had a hard job bringing it back to life. Very sad. I’ll miss him

Mateo – count me as another that agrees with you!

These ladies are total pros. They made Y&R actually watchable after many years of it feeling like a chore. GH remains in great hands going forward.

Does anyone think it’s a coincidence Carlivati is leaving w/Geary? Geary’s exit was announced over 6 months ago. But, do you think Carlivati got his walking papers a while ago, and just kept it quiet? Or was this done as quickly as the the announcement?

Carlivati was fired as the ratings were in their twelfth week of declining to record lows. The atrocious exit story RC wrote for Tony was the last straw.

I don’t know but the storytelling got really bad over last few months that it wouldn’t surprised me if we found out they told Ron they would not be renewing his tenure with the show come August a while back. It might explain how shabby the work got over the last few months. I mean Ron always had his flaws, but the work for the last while has been really sub par. It was like after the 52 anniversary show he just gave up, so yes I think it is possible they told him months ago about this. It has been my experience that people rarely get fired in any business without any inkling that it is coming. Also Frank is his friend so I would surprised if he didn’t get a heads up about this at some point. But it is all speculation because with all these types of announcement the public never fully gets the whole truth, just a lot of spin.

I think it’s just the opposite, Mary SF. Corporations play dirty most of the time. They expect employees to give two weeks notice if they intend to leave, but spring it on the person they’re letting go. Happens all the time.

One down, one (Frank Valentini) to go…

Frank is not the problem at GH; it’s always been RC. Frank is a brilliant executive, and I think with the proper head-writing regime he’ll be able to work more effectively, especially now that I see some casting cuts happening.

Frank’s job is to keep things within budget & on schedule. He’s doing that. I think people are too wrapped up in the “Cartini” idea that they forget these are two separate individuals.

Well, Frank is certainly more affable but he contributed to the problem by hiring every Y&R actor he could get his hands on.
I am not excusing Ron’s poor writing, however, it could not have been easy trying to write stories for such a bloated cast.
I saw call I 800-Got-Junk? And haul away Nina, Ava/Denise, Ric, Donna Mills, Valerie, Kiwi, Morgan, etc. etc.

Recommendation for character cuts:
– Valerie Spencer
– Rosalie Martinez
– Kiki Jerome
– Silas Clay
– Kyle Sloane
– Sabrina Santiago

Would like to see the following recasts:
– Michael E Knight as Ned Ashton
– Christie Clark as Dr. Sarah Webber
– Christian LeBlanc as Dr. Kevin Collins
– Alexandra Chando as Kristina “Krissy” Davis {Corinthos}
– Texas Battle as Dr. Tom “Tommy” Hardy
– Merrin Dungey as Dr. Simone Hardy
– Stephanie Gatschet or Val Bloom as Serena Baldwin
– Robert Newman as Jimmy Lee Holt
– Hilary B Smith as Celia Quartermaine

Would also like to see the return of Robert Scorpio, Dr. Robin Scorpio-Drake, Dr. Britt Westborne and Sean and Tiffany Donely

Frank is definitely part of the problem. The bloated cast – including too damn many castoffs from other soaps immediately in lead roles at the expense of actual GH characters – is as much to blame for the decline of this show as the horrible writing. And writers aren’t involved in casting, so firing Ron isn’t going to resolve that part.

Totally agree Satan. Frank is responsible for MUCH that ails GH. Including the PP debacle. That said, he has to be realizing that his OWN job is on the line, maybe he’ll rethink his casting approach at this point.

Also have to say that (I think) Frank is the one who has wanted a faster paced show at GH. Perhaps with better writers we can have the best of both worlds – stories that move along, but also ones that make sense, integrate around one another, and don’t exude cartoonish camp.

I enjoyed a few of RC’s storylines. But the lack of story for Molly and TJ , the teen scene hurt the show. Rosalie’s secret and Nathan’s paternity issue should have been frontburner storylines. And Brad’s secret should have been the “A” story instead of “D” storyline.

Thats it Lou, all these tidbits floating around and no conclusions! RC just wanted our jaws to drop and then the other four days were suppose to scratch our heads!

No disrespect meant but having stories featuring Molly, TJ, Rosalie, Nathan, and Brad would have done nothing for the ratings. The show needs to feature characters people care about.

My thinking EXACTLY. Molly & TJ are no Luke & Laura, Frisco & Felicia or even Robin & Stone. Nice actors. But, they don’t draw in viewers. Except for Nathan. Mr. Tall, Dark & Handsome is clearly meant to be a Cassadine, and a foil for Nikolas. So, they need to hurry up and make it so.

Very good move, Gh is in trouble. They need better storylines and please bring back Alan Quartermaine and Emily. Rumor is they are alive together locked in a room. I hope this is true. Celebrity dirty laundry reported that Ron was fired yesterday. This is wonderful, that Ron was let go.

Stuart Damon is reportedly in poor health. I doubt he would return. I would love it, though! Emily would be great and would get Nick straightened out!

I was excited when Ron C. was named headwriter. I hated Guza’s focus on the mob. I loved what RC did with OLTL in its last few months. I loved the fact that OLTL characters were coming to GH. However, I was LIVID over the hamhanded way he broke up Natalie&John and Sam&Jason, so he could put Sam&John together. And killed off Starr’s fiancee and child so he could put her & Michael together. I should have seen the writing on the wall then. RC has his agenda, and he’s not subtle about it. He makes what he wants to happen HAPPEN, whether it makes sense from a character POV or not. That’s it in a nutshell. His stories are plot-driven, not character-driven. There have been moments of greatness, and I really loved it when he brought back Frisco & Felicia! Didn’t care for the way Frisco left town, but hey, that’s no different than what other regimes have done to him. I loved all the returns of old favorites, in spite of the fact he didn’t give them the great storylines that were due them. At least he brought them back! Faison, Duke, Lucy, Kevin, Robert, Anna, even Richard Simmons, LOL .. Guza would have never brought them back. He would have never resurrected the Nurses Ball. Yes, RC had his moments, he created Naxie and Lake, my two favorite couples on the scene right now. He brought back Baby Jake! But he ended up ruining everything when he decided to put the focus back on the mob. And mobsters. And sex. And hookups. And camp. Instead of love, romance and core families. I am hopeful that, with women at the helm once again, we will put the focus back where it belongs. On General Hospital and the NON-MOB families of the show.

I had forgotten about the car accident that killed Starrr’s fiancée and child. That seemed so unnecessary and heartless. And then GH writers turned her into a Kiki. Not sure either actress could make this role work based on what they had to work with from the writers…maybe that’s why so many want to see Kiki gone.

Those OLTL characters worked because they already had histories and were already fleshed out. But when RC kept the actors but gave them new characters, it was very forced. Todd as Franco? He’s had a field day with it, and he can be very funny, but seriously! I love Michael Easton and Roger Howarth, but I don’t care about Franco or Silas and especially not Kiki!

Wasn’t the genesis of Kiki trying to make work for a contract actor (who is paid while not on set, but not permitted to work anywhere else) that wasn’t permitted to play the character she was originally hired to play, and somehow keep her opposite Chad Duell? That lawsuit did put GH in a pickle because they had 3 highly paid contract actors they couldn’t put onscreen. It’s interesting how quickly Ava gelled as part of the cast, which is probably a testament to Maura West, and an indication that the writing staff writes better material for adult characters than young adults. GH writers don’t write good stuff for college-age characters IMO.

Kansas and Maddie…yesterday while watching Michelle playing Nina, I caught myself thinking , “is this really the high powered Phyllis from Y&R?” I hadn’t watched her before, but from what I can see about the Phyllis role now, Michelle really went into Roger, Michael, and Kristin/Kiki (?) character land when she came over to GH.

All we really know about the demise of OLTL and AMC, and the crossover of some actors to GH or Prospect Park, is that it has been messy and complicated. Everybody has some blame…ABC, Prospect Park, the actors union.

In the meantime ABC has the rights to two shows they axed that are probably in a safe deposit box in some expensive lawyers office, actors/writers are out of work, and fans have been left with nothing except more incessant reality shows. And they come and go frequently because the afternoon viewing audience hasn’t embraced them like they did the soaps.

Oh I know, the soaps were more expensive than the unscripted and clips from youtube some reality shows are now using as talking points. And the audience wasn’t growing…but at least it was a built in, loyal audience in the dog-hours of the afternoon.

Enough of that…just hope the new writers give GH a new boost.

Ya see, everyone thought Tony Geary was off his rocker! He wasnt being a diva, he only spoke his mind because he could! All these other actors are afraid for their jobs. That is not a criticism on their part. Line up peeps and apologize to Mr. Geary! Have a good weekend.

I didn’t think he was off his rocker–I thought Geary was spot on in that exit interview.
And you can only imagine that Sean Kanan is thoroughly enjoying this news.

Amen to those thoughts, Harry! It truly is like Christmas in July with this news….such a shame it had to come as a “parting gift” for Mr. Geary. His Luke deserved a far better send-off!

Well, sheet happens lol
I knew Ron was out his twitter went off/last tweet 7-16 .. after nothing..
Anyways;

One Life to Live from 1992 to 1996. In 1996 she was promoted to the top position of Head Writer, only to be replaced in 1997.
(5 years- 1 year head writer)

1998, at which time she was made Co-Head Writer of the ailing soap opera Another World. Passanante wrapped up the show’s 35-year run in June 1999.
(one year)

1999 Passanante’s contract with All My Children expired/not renewed in 2001, and she was replaced by Richard Culliton
(less than 2 years)

CBS’ As the World Turns in 2001, where she served as Co-Head Writer (second in command to Hogan Sheffer) until she was promoted to Head Writer in early 2005; she continued in that role through the show’s 2010 cancellation.

hmmm OK–
If she wrote the Y&R Music Box story and the other huge snore stories at Y&R, then I’m frightened lol
She was let go and replaced by Pratt who has upped the ratings..

Ohh well… time will tell..
Perhaps the Jean and Shelly team will be good or very bad as when with Y&R..

Also–
one problem..
RC was/is in New York and seldom on set in CA / GH ..
that was not an ideal situation..
I always was and am a Ron fan, he never put me to sleep as Jean and Shelly did before they were fired from Y&R..

I know Claire Labine has been out of the soap writing world for awhile, but I wish they would have brought her back. Her orginal concept and approach to Ryan’s Hope was great. She did some very memorable stories for GH during her time there. I remember reading an interview of her’s where she recalled how much fun she had writing the comedy stuff for Louis & Ned… which I really miss! She also WANTS to be back working in daytime.

What about Gary Tomlin? I’m only familiar with his work on DAYS, but it always seems like he wants to save DAYS. So I think he would bring that same approach to GH, if he were available.

I’m with you on Geary, Timmm. I was lTe to respond but I posted last nite and today on TG’s interview. Loved it…and is candid views.

I am soooooo fed up with attempting to correct my typos! I think the auto correct on my iPad is possessed!

I was “late” to respond… And his, not is, candid views. Sigh.

Did you read Geary’s interview in TV Guide? Best comments I’ve read in a long time. Loved his blunt honesty. I enjoyed watching him over the years, and am grateful to Carlivati for giving him so much rich material to play this past year as his swan song. If you ask me, RC should start writing for cable, HBO or Netflix. His type of writing be greatly appreciated there.

Not everyone! I loved Geary’s interview and agreed with him.

Tony’s interview was TRUTH. His problems with “the writer” are probably why “the writer” purposely wrote Luke a dreadful send off. Kind of an F.U. to Tony for daring to care about quality writing and call out dreck.

I agreee Tristan. A pathetic send off for Luke!!

Not I, Timmm. I’m a Tony convert, remember? I wish I could have had a little more time watching him in action, as Luke.
In the midst of it all, I never thought of him as a divo…..someone actually called him a Prima Donna (should be, PRIMO UOMO) Was he ever one? I never got that impression……A diva? I do not find Anthony Geary effeminate at all. Is he a DIVO? I don’t know if I should believe everything I read.
If truth be known, Anthony Geary could care less what is thought of him, at this point. It changes nothing. I am sure he gave his work his all, and then some. I truly believe he has earned all the benefits and accolades given him. He should be proud; and, I do not think it is fair of us to give him such a pathetic send-off. I disliked him with a passion because of Fluke. But, even I was not very kind…he was playing a part. I do get carried away, sometimes. LOL. I wish Tony well. He will be living in the land of my ancestors…who knows, Timmm…I may see him sooner than later.

Your right CeeCee, he doesnt care what any of his critics think or say! Regardless of the negative backlash, those who pointed fingers will be the same who one day want Lucas Lorenzo BACK in PC! Fluke was frustrating, for sure. I did focus on the acting more than the story. Some will pick apart all the lose ends and point to the fallacies but I just took it in stride. I rarely let these soaps rattle me. I watched to be entertained. TCB baby! PS: Tony lives in Amsterdam and one of his favorite things is he can walk around freely in his hometown and he rarely gets a second look or people will just say hello and go about their business. So, you may have the pleasure of meeting him some day. PS II: Give him a hug for me!

RC had to go. The storytelling at GH has been horrendous,and the Luke exit has been a joke. After months of collapsing demos,and then the Geary interview, was tprobably the last straw for ABC. I do question if Altman and Passanante are the right people for the job. I felt their stories at Y&R were boring,they were good at romance however. They start writing August 10,so their stories should start airing right about when the new broadcast season begins. Their are major problems at GH that need to be fixed,starting with the cast. Franco,Nina,Denise,Kiki and some others need to go. The last two writing regimes of Y&R are now writing DAYS and GH. Daytime feels like a revolving door of the same people going from door to door. I would like to see some fresh blood for a change. We will see what happens

I agree with you. It is a revolving door of the same writers. I don’t think fresh blood will be coming in since this is a dying genre. I think ron is a good writer. He makes those special moments magical and I dont think other writers do. Most of his work on oltl I loved. And I think he helped save gh from cancelation but I think he ran his course on this show. I think his downfall came when he killed off AJ quartermaine. Then brings back duke just to kill him again. Makes no sense. Hopefully the new writing regime will focus on those core families and start to cut down on their cast. I still have alot of confidence in frank valentini to bring the gh we love.

While I never like to see someone lose a job, I also was not a fan of the “campy” style of storytelling that Ron seemed to favor. I hope the two new HWs will return heart and soul to GH, will have better continuity, depth to characters, longer scenes so that viewer investment is allowed to happen…the list goes on. Good luck to Shelly and Jean…I hope they succeed in steering GH in another hew direction. As a fan of over 50 years, I want to see GH continue and be great!

Very gracious!

Next? YR? Hope so.

This is not surprising. GH’s ratings have been spiraling downward for a while now, and the writing is hugely to blame. The Fluke story took WAY too long to rap up, as is the exit story for Tony, which should have happened months ago. This final “adventure” story was poorly-conceived, poorly-written and very convoluted. I enjoy having little Jake back, because he never should have been killed off in the first place, and the acting was superb as always by Tony Geary, Jonathan Jackson, Genie Francis, et al. But the rest of the story was pointless.

The Jake/Jason reveal is taking WAY too long to come, too. It’s coming up to a year that Billy Miller has been on the show, and the truth still hasn’t come out. So many people know, and truthfully, I don’t even know why no one is spilling. Lucky just found out and should have told Jason the truth, but instead he left. Why? Liz has kept this secret for months, and now that little Jake is back, she’s still keeping it! Why!? Also, are we to believe that the only reason Nikolas wanted ELQ was for money? And why is HE still keeping this secret?

There’s also the Denise/Ava story, which needs to end ASAP. I don’t care how they do it, but keep Ava on the show and wipe her criminal record clean, so this Denise crap can finally end. It was fun for the first 5 minutes, now it’s beyond annoying. And are we seriously to believe that Morgan hasn’t realized Denise is Ava, even after they slept together?

Then there’s this new story between Lulu/Dante/Valerie, which is also contrived and ill-conceived, because of how stupid every character is acting. Lulu lied, Dante went full-throttle revenge, Valerie was all too happy to play along… Now Maxie is blaming herself for not stopping it, and Nathan has agreed to hide the truth… it’s all such a mess.

There are also so many characters that have such little story, or are just not needed. I would be thrilled if GH gets rid of Valerie, Kiki, Nathan and Sabrina. And as much as it pains me to say it, because all of the actors are great, the characters of Franco, Nina, Silas, Leisl, Madeline and Sloane all need to be written out. They serve no purpose and are taking screen time away from characters who should be front and center, like Tracy and Monica.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m very glad Ron and Frank came to GH and saved the show from cancellation, but Ron’s firing has been a long time coming. The last year on GH has been full of ups and downs, mostly the latter. His ideas were creative and fun at the beginning, but when all those masks started, then the cryogenic revival nonsense, the Fluke craziness, the mob war which killed Duke, and now Jake returning too… it all reeks of poor writing.

But I’m not too confident with the incoming writers. Why would ABC hire Shelley and Jean? Did they not see how slow and boring Y&R became with their writing? The one thing you can say about Pratt is that he rejuvenated Y&R with energy and excitement after Shelley and Jean turned it into a snooze-fest. I don’t think these writers were the right hire, and I’m worried about what GH’s future looks like.

Amen Jimmy, you said it perfectly! I would LOVE to see some housecleaning too. Would love to keep Genie on and trade her for a handful of characters starting with Kiki. Im not a fan of recycling writers from show to show but I’ll give them a shot and see what they clean ip first. Eluzabeth needs to get What is coming to her; let’s start there!!

First, I admit I came back to GH upon the 50th special, and had hoped Ron and Frank would really develop s/l with the vets. I was sorely disappointed and the drop and rewrite of stories history was appealing. It’s a soap but too many people brought back from the dead, cartoonish writing, over bloated cast for no reason, etc. I don’t know these writers, so I will wait to see if I hear that vets are back w real story lines. Lets be honest, many of the original daytime watchers when GH was in its prime are the ones who will tune in if there beloved characters are actually on screen!! Anna, Felicia, Scotty, Lucy, etc, so much history to play and to be able to bring in their children to have a balance…and bring back Frisco please! Now we have a show!

Hip, hip hurray!
Now, these co writers have a big mess to clean up.

Honestly my prayers have been answered lol! I loved gh back in 2011 & 2012. I’m really hoping that the new writers do good by Sonny and Carly and get back down to the basics of what a soap opera is.

sonny and carly need to go

She killed my beloved ATWT. She filled it up with actors from ABC soaps and left legacy characters in the dust. She didn’t even write an exit storyline for Eileen Fulton. Jean PassTheSalami SUCKS!

Interesting. I am so very sorry that some writers didn’t come on board sooner so that they could have kept the Luke and Laura love story intact.
BTW, I found Genie Francis’ farewell post to Tony Geary very interesting also. In it she says directly to Tony: “I hope you can find a way to be proud of the work you have done.” For me, that says it all.
I think that’s what we’ve all been trying to say. If Tony believed in the character, he should not have violated it–or devised some heavy-handed tactics with TPTB to violate it. And those PTB should NOT have succumbed to his demands. He was obviously tired and too close to be objective; otherwise, the fans might have been less divided on their affection for Tony Geary. I have often posted my dismay and disappointment at the way TG was allowed to ride the character “off the rails” in the last several years. The brass at ABC would not have these low ratings to face had they cared more about keeping GH’s legacy intact and thus have kept the most loyal fans that were there in the beginning, kept holding on hoping for more, and who finally threw up their hands at the (gag!) so-called Fluke storyline and the touted 52nd anniversary show which was the last straw for the most loyal fans of the unique, funny, sensitive character that Luke Spencer was written to be, and developed by a then-caring, obviously less cynical actor.

That’s the funny part of the redemption. Luke was a very moral good guy so how did he become a bad guy who beams his mother with a baseball bat? I’m shocked that the police mistook her death for appendicitis. That baffles me still. What Geary was trying to portray was Gloria’s vision of Luke as a troubled character who might have gone very wrong in life. Laura was portrayed as his humanity and the person who steered him away from the bad and brought out the goodness in him. So the only possibility for his redemption is to return to Laura.

Well said.

Yes Ron’s GH right now is not great. Parts are unwatchable. But this man saved GH from cancellation in 2012. He saved our show. We would not have GH right now if not for him. We’d have Good Afternoon America. So yes it was time for a change but Carlivati is to be thanked to some extent. As for Jean and Shelly… they wrote for GH during Ron’s peak on the show so hopefully they will remember those stories and expand GH to a better show. Shelly was there until just after Jason’s death and Jean was there until Robin’s return home to Port Charles. Those were great times for the show. So on behalf of all GH viewers I hope Jean and Shelly clean up the storylines and tell good stories. Lastly, get rid of NINA, FRANCO, KIKI, VALERIE and other useless characters that viewers will tune out for when they are on our screens. Give us the characters we want to see. That is all!

I am so tired of people saying that Ron saved GH. This is simply not true. The brass at ABC saved it by not canceling it and they named Ron as head writer after the canceled AMC and GH.
Had they named someone else we still would have GH.
But I do agree with the rest of your post.

EXACTLY. THANK YOU FOR SAYING SO.

Harry..
yah well, I’m tired of hearing of a 30 year old wedding/ Luke and Laura’s wedding
😉

Thank you, Harry. It is the RC fan club in its last ditch effort to canonize someone who was clearly out of his depth. RC gave us a really special 50th year. I applaud him for that. He hadn’t either the talent or temperament to sustain that quality. The proof is in the ratings. He needed to leave.

he did not save this show. i wish people would stop saying that

I am shocked and love Ron but I think its time for some change in Port Charles or it wont be around much longer! I am so shocked though!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It bothers me that ever since this news broke, people have been taking to any website, Facebook post, or Twitter to bash Ron & gloat over his firing. Yes, there’s also been praise and well-wishes, but the majority of what I’ve seen is negative. Many people may not have enjoyed his writing, fair enough to have that opinion, but in the end, this is a man who just lost his job – publicly. That can’t feel good. Anyone who’s ever been fired knows how it feels, but to have the entire soap press and fans alike, commenting, celebrating, lamenting, etc., has gotta sting. I for one, liked his writing and his willingness to engage with fans on Twitter. I am sorry to see him go and will miss his brand of storytelling. His love of soaps was legendary. I also feel for him personally to have to endure the endless commenting that will ensue over the next few days till the story dies down and a new one takes its place. I know, he’s a grown man and will move on, this is just a bump in the road. In the meantime, I wish him all the best and hope to see him down the road on some other show. All this to say I wish people didn’t feel the need to bad-mouth and pile on in the face of someone else’s misfortune. Sign me “Pollyanna” 😉

You are so right!I totally agree with every word you said!

Ah, now I feel bad. DW, you’re such a buzz kill.
Kidding, but I do appreciate your sensitivity. Maybe RC will use the time to write that movie script I bet he’s had teeming in his mind all of this time.
He will be okay–don’t worry.

exactly. I wish him the best. I just started rewatching GH and DOOL. GH needs work but in comparison to DOOL, its head and shoulders above. Hopefully the new writers can keep the ship afloat.

Ron was quick to use Twitter in a really arrogant fashion.
Live by the sword, die by the sword.

People were horrible to him on his twitter..
He held back, politely for the internet..
If it would have be me I’d of slap more than few basher up against the wall but I’m not as internet polite as Ron 🙂

Elizabeth you are so right. RC might have done himself and GH favors by spending less time trying to prove his superiority via Twitter, and more time demonstrating his superiority by writing FOR GH and the fans he so disdained. His immaturity — mark of a shallow, insecure talent — did him in while almost doing in GH.

DW – I totally agree with you. Thank you for standing up to the anonymous – social media bullies!

he should have wrote better gay stories. he made felix look foolish. felix should have gotten milo not the fat woman.. also lucas and brad were two ugly sex addicts.

No one should have been surprised.

Would have preferred new/fresh blood.

I am excited to see what they can write for my two favs…Maura West and Finola Hughes!

amen to that!

Are putting on a ,black dynel wig ,a preposterous hackneyed accent ,gum chewing and scenery chewing your idea of good acting?Silly stuff like Martha Byrne as Rose on ATWT but far less well
executed.

I’m really surprised! Haven’t been following any behind the scenes intel…lol.

Fingers crossed that these two writers, who I’m not familiar with, can maintain and/or improve GH. There were great things Ron did for the soap…but somehow he always dropped the ball. And killed AJ. And Duke.

Wishful thinking but I hope they bring back the vets for good this time…and although many are tired of the resurrections I’d love to see the return of the aforementioned recently deceased!

This is great news that Ron is gonen. The writing for the last year has been bad so any change is good!

This Merry Go Round with the same writers playing musical chairs is annoying as #ell! Why don’t these soap network honcho’s invest in some “NEW” talent that isn’t afraid to rock the boat. All this mob crap, mind altering and dead bodies rising is played out!

Seriously!!!!! Stop playing merry go round and bring in some new fresh blood to the genre. Some of these writers are old and recycled!!!! Where is Hogan Sheffer?? Lol

i agree.

It always amazes me that the remaining soaps seem to play musical chairs with soap head writers. I agree that Luke’s farewell story line was less than stellar. He deserved a better send off. I am familiar with both new writers but haven’t both writers been let go from other soaps for what ever reason, Is there really no one new that can step into role of head writer?

It’s always been this way. The writers, EP’s, actors-they all soap hop.

i’ve wonder about the recycling of writers and producers of soaps, maybe we all assume that anyone can write for the genre, i’m surprise of the lack of new talent, wish is clearly the problem soaps have, i’m sorry RC loss his job, i have no idea how things play out behind the scene and what he’s being held accountable for, you always hear that stories have to get approve by the higher ups so whose really responsible for the crap that makes it on the air ?

I can’t tell you how happy this made me and I stopped watching soaps after the cancellation of OLTL and AMC. I tried to give GH a chance but was so upset as well that they messed up JaSam. Sure in soap world, couples break up but they did it for a stupid reason. I love Michael Easton but to pair John with Sam simply because they used to be vampires together? Kelly Monaco is not the only actress or character that he has chemistry with; for that matter he had chemistry with Florencia Loziana but was it too much to ask for him to be true to the characters? I don’t see Sam moving on so easily from Jason nor do I see Jason abandoning her the way he did over something that was beyond her control. It’s not at all that I was rooting for John and Natalie but I do agree that John would not just up and leave her like that especially not his son which he went nearly a whole year without. The things we loved about all the characters integrity and personality was rewritten to force John and Sam together. I just felt that once AMC and OLTL wrapped up their stories; they should leave it as is. If OLTL stayed on, Todd & Blair and John & Natalie would have broken up anyway; that’s just how soaps roll. And it would have been anywhere from 2-5 years before they got back together like they made Nora and Bo wait 10 years. But to destroy John’s history with his father and concoct that crap? And I was no fan of Port Charles but think of all the Caleb and Livvie fans that got screwed over because he wanted to re-write history! Even Steve Burton said things that let us know that he wasn’t happy; not just because of his family. If they accommodated him, he would have stayed. I miss Steve; Billy Miller is a great actor but I will always be partial to Steve. I hated Starr and Cole but I still didn’t like how he killed her child; what was the point of Cole getting out of jail and faking his death only to be killed anyway? He killed the reboot with those stories; clearly Prospect Park had a lot of crap to work through but they had little work with anyway. So good riddance and maybe next time, he’ll care a little more about his stories instead of the contrived mess with Jake and other old character he brought back that to be honest, no longer have a place on the show. And don’t let me get started on what he did to Franco! SHEESH!

It wasn’t his fault OLTL or AMC was cancelled. It was because of Brian Frons (sp) . If GH could have kept the OLTL characters, it would have been a much better situation. Roger Howarth plays Franco more like his Todd character than James Franco’s Franco. I just hope we don’t have any more of the soaps cancelled!!

I never said it was RC’s fault that OLTL or AMC got cancelled. Soaps have lost a lot of popularity; it isn’t the same as it was when I was growing up. There’s a different audience and these days; folks don’t like dragged out stories. I expect it should be a few months before a storyline wraps up but he has always dragged out bad stories or came up with stupid “back from the dead” scenarios. Yes, it’s a soap but it is not science fiction. And then after he destroys characters and past storylines, he writes some quick little makeup scene. So I hope GH gets news great stuff and will continue to last.

Anacarrie, I was one of the OLTL Fans that followed ME, RH and KA over to GH and quickly stopped watching once they started destroying their characters. I HATED McBam and always knew JOLIE would be endgame. With the PP fiasco we fans were not able to see that happen and it was terribly disappointing and you know what the actors knew it too. RC can and did write some amazing stories. He also wrote some shtick and alienated too many viewers. The stories on GH now are awful from what I’ve heard. Why keep doing that if its not working? And another thing, Valentini is aware of what is being written , he also bears blame for the current state of GH.

Stephanie, I was a OLTL fan as well and I did watch GH when the OLTL characters first joined. I’ve watched GH in the past in particular because I liked JaSam. I also liked Anna, Patrick and Robin, Maxie and Lulu. But as the stories went on, I was completely aghast at the destruction of not only the characters but the history of the characters. All soap characters at some point face a little destruction but to change John’s history with his dad; concoct the craziness that John RAISED Cole when we all know good and well that Cole was at least 16 when he met him and that whole business with Jason abandoning Sam? And for the record, Jolie was a good couple but I was speaking more so of the damage he did to GH then to OLTL because I try to be objective. He hurt the history of OLTL and jacked up GH. I agree with Anthony Geary’s take. I also think that FV is part of the blame but I also think that FV is a good producer. I think he went along with too much nonsense but that he is good as a producer. I do know that RC is capable of good writing; he was on the head writing team for years at OLTL and wrote some good stuff but it seems that after he won the Emmy for the “rape-mance” which I didn’t like; he felt he could do no wrong. But that is my speculation. In the end, we’ll never fully know what goes on behind the scenes. But I do recall Michael Easton making a statement after OLTL was cancelled to the effect that you can’t keep bad stories going on for a long time. And I agree. At the end of OLTL; you could see that ME wasn’t playing John the way he usually did. He lost his dad; had a baby but he was really stiff. His best scenes came later with Liam and Natalie of course but even he was a shadow because as much as I loved OLTL, the last year was not at all its best and I blamed FrankenRon for that.

Sorry to here someone lost their job

Frank & Ron were great together on OLTL and I loved their stories. I also have enjoyed most of the GH stories. Yes, they were dragged out too long but one was due to AG back surgery and recovery. Jason story has been a long time coming but no matter who the writers are, there are always ups and downs, I will stick by GH through thick and thin as I believe any fan should. I find it strange how many are criticizing these two women for ruining Y & R when everything I read about that show blames JFP and now Chuck Pratt. Chuck Pratt wrote for GH at one point, too and he has said he doesn’t care about he characters which I think shows on Y & R. I feel bad for Ron as I would for anyone who gets let go from their job. I just want all of us fans to be able to watch the remaining soaps and keep them on the air.

I will miss Ron!

Seven months back-

February 16, 2015:
“General Hospital” and their writers our congratulations, as they won this year’s WGA award at Saturday’s ceremony for best writing in a Daytime Serial.

Thanks Ron.. You did justice to GH..
You brought in new viewers and got the numbers up near 3 million..

Ron honored vet history .. He brought vets back even if for a short stint I loved that.. He would make mention of past stories and characters…………../

The team of Jean and Shelly do not do history I would not be surprised if the Q’s were eliminated by the dual team, and they will without a doubt bring in new charaters of their own, they truly are not up to the challenge of keeping GH alive..
Jean and Shelly were kicked out to be hauled away by the #1 soap Y&R and GH picked them up, sigh ..
(there was a reason they were fired / numbers plummeting) Pratt has brought the numbers back up..

Jean & Shelly could be good or it could be very bad..
Neither has a longevity record with any soap and always have been let go 🙁

LOL .. I’d bet Michelle and Billy are thrilled to be with the two again ahhha!
yah can run but you can’t hide, they will fine find you / poor Billy and Michelle and others who ran.. lol

Michele and Billy left because of Jill Farren Phelps, not because of the writers.

Shelly & Jean did a great job @ Y & R – Chuck Pratt sucks!!!

Pratt has brought Y&R up and up !!
He need to undo the plummeting ratings, the downsprial from Jean and Shelley’s poor writing of long boring stories that did not keep the viewers,,
Since Pratt took over Y&R has greatly gained in ratings..

Only in the executives suites of the broadcast networks is failure rewarded.The revolving door of headwriters on the handful of remaining shows is pure idiocy.A writing team destroys a show and drives it off the air and soon get hired to ruin another show.Passanante is a hack with a capital H.Pratt who hammered the nails into the coffin of AMC is now killing Y&R.Carlivati is clever and talented guy who inherited a depressing mess at GH and actually with Valentini saved it from extinction.OLTL with Carlivati’s stories was running on all cylinders when one of the stupidest of network executives-Brian Frons- (and they are a stupid breed)killed it when it actually had the highest ratings and the most credibility of the 3 ABC soaps.Carlivati may not have been a good fit at GH but he is more in the class of Claire Labine or Henry Slesar than the hacks boring audiences with idiotic storytelling.Y&R is unwatchable,Days is laughable B&B celebrates what?California freedom?Depravity?Such a shame to see our beloved genre so demeaned and degraded by bad,boring writing.

As someone above said, Cartini did NOT save GH, ABC had decided it would NOT be cancelled and THEN brought in Cartini.

Yes,they gave the new team the opportunity to save the show.And they did.
The two “new” tired,re-cycled hacks will boring you soon enough.

Thank God.. Love love love GH but the writing has been going down for a long time now! New blood new ideas Yay

Also..
this past week with ”couples” has been very good..
Ron just need time to pull out of the Fluke stuff..
GH that past days has rocked!! and will continue to rock up for the next upcoming month under Ron..

Ron is history su0000. The ratings did him in. Glad he is gone.

Camp is amazing when written well and based in high emotional stakes. He started off strong and then starting running out of ideas. I loved that he brought some of the action adventure storytelling back and I’d really love to see that come back full circle. There is room for all kinds of story telling on Gh and action adventure is one of them.

Na na na na
na na na na
Hey Hey Hey
GOODBYE! (and good riddance)

Now ABC needs to make an ultimatum to Frankie:

Cut the OLTL pets and the other useless newbies and make this show GENERAL HOSPITAL again (not some OLTL/Y&R hybrid sewer) or you can hit the road too.

This show is seriously wounded without Tony Geary. Cartoon characters and dragonshit plots aren’t going to save it.

Finally…. is anybody else laughing at the irony that killing off Jake ended Guza’s career…. and resurrecting him ended ReRon’s!

For Jake to be resurrected it had to be done/ok’d by the suits of ABC..
Jake needed to be hired and paid for, it was an OK for the resurrection..
Having Jake back had nothing to with Ron being let go, it was Ok’d..
Ron is in New York and rarely on set in CA,,

His Fluke story should have been killed when Tony was medically out for 6 months, a mistake but Tony went on to win his 8th emmy from that story upon his return..
The anniversary story, black n white was very powerful!!! It will give Tony his 9th and last emmy ..

There are other circumstances that lead to Ron being let go..

Yeah, the ratings. And the abominably lame exit story for Tony Geary. And the fact that, no matter what they try, RoHo is stuck in a horrific character that the audience despises. Just off the top.

I love Franco!
I could watch him everyday, as could others 🙂

RC was too shallow a talent to sustain his real success with the 50th year. And when fans and critics called him out, instead of writing the show, he wasted his time on “mean girl” Twitter feuds. Perhaps had he kept his mind on his actual job, he wouldn’t be leaving and the ratings would not be tanking.

Black and White=9th Emmy win!

SU – I agree that the”The anniversary story, black n white was very powerful!”
The Fluke story was dragged out too long due to AG’s back surgery. ABC should have given RC two more months to turn things around.
I think that most of the audience loves RoHo and MStafford. I don’t think he should have killed off AJ and Duke. He should have let them go off on a trip.
The two new writers wrote snooze-fest material at Y&R. When they killed Delia, the ratings plummeted. That is when I stopped watching. Finally with Pratt, the ratings are up even though he show is ridiculous and unwatchable.

I love that song, by THE GLENWOODS, Satan. Good thing you left out “Kiss Him Goodbye”. LOL.
I agree with most of what you said. But, I would like for Roger to stay. He brings much sardonic , albeit strange comic relief to some of the dismal fare we have been served. I do not want to lose that madness; which is so uniquely new Franco…..and, Michelle Stafford…..no, no, can’t take her away from me. Later.

I hope they reboot Roger and Michelle. Roger as a Cassadine and Michelle as a Q!

@Timmm.
Hiyeeee. That sounds good to me, Timmm. As long as they stay put, I don’t care in what way, shape or form.

Hopefully Valerie gets shown the door along with Ron.

Well I am shocked, but as a fan of Y&R, I can tell you a change in a head writers will not necessarily help the show– for every fan that will be thrilled with the changes there will be an equal number that will hate the new writers.

As I said before a good soap story is a bit like making love, and Ron was a lousy lover because he always wanted to get to the climax, and skip the foreplay. He was too focus on the outcome, the shocking twist, the unexpected surprise, the ironic turn that he couldn’t see that he wasn’t arousing his lover, us the viewers, he was just fumbling along. He never allowed himself to believe his lover was in pain even when we made that very clear to him. He didn’t seem to care and went on doing what he was doing, thinking he was being the greatest lover in the world and we were the problem because we didn’t response like we were suppose to. So I am not sorry to see him go.

But I will say after experiencing Altman and Passanante style of writing over at Y&R, I already know some viewers at GH used to rough and fast style of Ron, will not like the slower and gentler pace of these two ladies.

I’m not sure hiring writers another soap recently fired is the best choice for GH right now, but I do know the way it was going a change was necessary, so only time will tell if this was right move or not.

This is a good analysis of Ron’s treatment of fans – we’re the problem for not recognizing his brilliance. it’s also a case of “you’ll like what I give you” rather than “how can I make great choices for the fans so that they’ll stay?” It’s incredibly selfish. Ron does not look at the big picture.

Well said, Andrew!

Wow. All the way from Amsterdam and no longer under GH contract, TG still has major influence. LOL. New writing team: Please, for the love of God, do not pair Laura with Scottie again. Find her someone new.

Tristan Rogers should come over from The Young and the Restless since he’s no longer being used. Laura and Robert? And then Anna too! Mary SF I think you are very right. The last two episodes have had very good Luke scenes. RC has no sense of tension, anticipation or build up.

Laura and Robert? Love the idea.
For the life of me, I cannot imagine WHY Tristan Rogers has been so woefully misused by both GH and Y&R. This man is a friggen gem.
I also see Laura with Silas. Now before anyone says Silas is too young for Laura, keep in mind that NLG (Alexis) is a a good 10 years older than William deVry (Julian). Please, do NOT pair Laura up with Scotty. After all she’s been throug, Laura deserves so much better.

Tristan and Genie played divorced spouses on The Young and the Restless for a short time. Never found anything with scenes between them except a music video but would have loved to see them. The missing in the video looked hot.

Kissing in the video! Spell check strikes again

Oh, heaven forbid! Genie/Laura and Tristan/Scorpio as an item? Golly Gee….it was tried on Y&R….she is just too delicate, beautiful and young for him…please, not another father-figure coupling!

Love Robert and Laura when they were dating. Luke wasn’t much of a father figure, he acted much younger and immature than she did most of the time. I never got to see the Young And the Restless scenes so really don’t know how they played out.

Y&R wouldnt even let Tristan come over to send off Luke! Robert and Laura would be a terrible idea. They were ex’s on Y&R and had NO chemistry!

Lol. Genevieve(Genie/Laura) and Colin (Tristan/Scorpio) hated each other on Y&R. So, I guess I have been influenced by that. I cannot see them together. I do not know how they meshed on GH, Lellingw. So, I’ll just shut up now…you got me. LOL.

They weren’t romantic per se on General Hospital and then they were too. Their dating was based on their mutual interest in Luke but they liked each other a bit too. Robert loved to drive Luke crazy by telling him that he intended to take Laura away from him while Luke called him names like Kangaroo Breath and Koala Face to Laura. Laura always reassured Luke that she had no interest in Robert but it drove Luke crazy. He told her he wasn’t husband material and their kids would be beaten up on the playground.

My question is– what characters/actors will be the first to get the cut? We know it’s a part of new writers. They have to clear the canvas to make room for the characters they wan to bring back AND the ones they want to create. I love having vets back. I recognize that you do need new characters from time to time to breath new life into new stories, but I hate it when new characters suddenly dominate the story line– especially when those new characters do not have links to the canvas.

I’m for their being more Spencer’s out there… but don’t make them boring. Especially when Bobby hasn’t had a story since….1901?? 😉 I move Maura West but this Denise story… geez. And it was like Ron tried to make GH the Silas/Ava show for so long, giving them the bulk of story time. Anyway– that’s my ranting!

Bobbie is a great character and she deserves something. No wonder they HAD to put a clip of Luke and Bobbie on for the audience who has no clue what the brother/sister team meant to each other. That’s pathetic while they have Lulu running around demanding to know if her cousin kissed her husband and if she kissed back which is really pathetic.

I hope they stop drawing out story lines for YEARS!! That is what I hate even more than bad writing!!

Um, soaps are all about the waiting for a payoff — stories that wrap up in two hours are called movies.

Jean and Shelly are notorious for loooooong boring no plot go nowhere stories that go on forever..6mo-year stories..
Why do ya think they were fired from Y&R, they were putting everyone to sleep, ratings dropping because people went into snooze mode ..

To this day some of their stories have not ended..
Who hit Delia for one.. lol ohh geezuz

Thank you Alan– in this instant trending one minute and not the next kind of world I find a lot soap fans have lost their ability to wait for the pay off. But to be fair a writer has to make the waiting interesting if they don’t it does feel like they are dragging the story along rather than building the suspense to the reveal.

i don’t even know how to feel about this,i’ve always found RC very polarizing, he had a combination of great ideas, but very badly executed, he’s like the kid who started out with great promise but was horrible at finishing them.. He made Anna clueless, How come Anna hasn’t figure out anything regarding Robin for example. And the list goes on and on, so i sure hope the two new headwriters are paying attention to what fans are upset about , i’m not familiar with their work, i have no idea what to give them credit for, but please fix some stories that need to be explained.. first one is where the hell is Robin? Give Liz back her heart and compassion, i want her with Jake/jason but not if she has to lie about it. i also hope the cartoonish aspect is gone, and lets keep the cast as is, i’m not a fan of big turnovers and the cast is great, its the writing that wasn’t measuring up…

they need to dump rick, madeline, nathan, kiki, silas, franco, ava, sonny, sabrina, morgan, alexis, julian and brad and lucas

Bad move. They should have kept Ron and made one of those two a co-headwriter. With these two at the helm I fear I will fall asleep watching GH.

ok-
Y&R the #1 soap ousted/fired the two- Jean and Shelly –
then GH ABC drags them in to save GH when Y&R got rid of them for killing their soap LOL..

This is good-
under the Jean and Shelly team;

wow! they did a hatchet job on Cady Mclain..

Jean and Shelley hired and got fired David Tom and worst yet he was replaced with the now terrible Billy
and-

remember the horrible writing for Meredith Baxter

ruined the Austen character by horrible boring writing for the character..

and their year long story that to this day is not totally wrapped up / the Music Box story

Michaels sex cancer story

Ian Ward story stuff was a snore, too .. wasted him.

Tristan Rogers wasted.. completely horrible story writing for Tristan/Colin..
he is near invisible and Tristan in a prime talent..

Niels boring looong blind story

Devon getting Kays fortune and does nothing with it, now that was a sad snore lol

Avery the in the kitchen written as a cupcake queen.. her cooking scenes were a total snore

Nikki having MS to complement her alcoholism

Delia’s death that is still ongoing .. was horribly written
It was the acting power of Billy Miller and Michael Muhney that gave short lived attention to that never ending story..

taking Cane out of the high power business world and putting him in a hotel as a do nothing manger/whatever he is when he should have been a business King taking Victor down..

If anybody believes the team of Jean Shelly will be good for GH hmm well LOL is all I gotta say.. at the least we will have great naps!
((It is a downgrade not an upgrade..
Y&R fried them. found them unfit not up to par for their soap for a reason which is the above plus more I can’t recall because I feel asleep..

Ron never put me to sleep and gave some needed laughs….

Well, cheer up, if you have cable television you can seek out the Batman hour every other day or so, you know, the one with Burt West where the bubbles give off the sounds of their action packed fights? To me that was very close to RC’s writing style….

su000 has an aversion to adult drama. Hence her fan girl adoration for RC, who also had an aversion to adult drama. I give RC credit for a remarkable 50th anniversary year. He hadn’t the talent to sustain it. Ratings are the proof.

Su…I don’t follow writers per story as a rule. But did these two ladies really write all the stories you listed? If so I can see why you are concerned if this is the team that’s going to “save” GH. Hasn’t the ex-GH Phelps lady also had her fingers in the Y&R pie? For the time being I’m going to sit back and watch and hope for the best.

I do think, though, that after Ron’s first year, when he did bring fresh excitement back to GH with the “new” and improved Nurses Ball and bringing back a lot of vets, he started to lose his way…he had too many stories and loose ends going no where or into la-lal land. And then he made some really bad moves, IMO, re: AJ, Duke, Fluke, and underusing and not writing compelling stories for some A-list actors he they brought onto the show like Roger, Michael, and Michelle.

But no matter how I feel, I don’t like hearing about all of the negative Ron bashing that has been going on in plaes like twitter. As Mom said, “if you can’t say something nice about someone, don’t say it at all,” or something like that. I’m not perfect, but I try.

And It seems the pool of talented soap writers is dwindling to the point where we see the same names all of the time. I guess it’s not seen as a long-term, good career move. On the other hand, it seems to me, if you can write for a soap with all of it’s challenges, what a great training ground for creative writing.

su0000, your scaring me!

Well said SU. I agree with everything you said!

General Hospital’s gain is “Y & R” ‘s loss – Shelly & Jean did a great job during their one-year tenure as HWs at “Y & R” – they brought Phyllis back to Genoa City in the form of Gina Tognoni (who’s kicking ass in the role!) and wrote the storyline that brought us Justin Hartley’s great interpretation of Adam Newman. They also resolved the story of Summer’s paternity. I enjoyed their stories.

What happens?!?

They get sacked for no reason and then Jill Farren Phelps brings in her old GH writing buddy Chuck “The Hack” Pratt, whose plot-driven, incongruous and convoluted stories are ruining Bill Bell’s legacy. Since then, we’ve been subjected to every hackneyed and over-used soap plot every created: doppelgangers, rape, a plane crash, murder, romantic triangles, paternity tests, etc – nothing but crap, crap, crap.

I’ve never watched GH so I’m not familiar with what’s going on there, but I wish Shelly & Jean success in their new positions.

BTW, people – Michelle Stafford & Billy Miller didn’t leave “Y & R” because of the writing – they left because of Jill Farren Phelps.

I agree. JF Phelps ruins every show she works on. All I have to say is Frankie s death on Another World . That moment was basically when the show ended.

No argument that Pratt is awful but Shelly and Jean had far more misses than hits in their Y&R run: Avery’s online cooking show; the mystery of Katherine’s music box (which they never really solved); Kevin’s on-line writings as Plato Sphere; Joe Clark; Austin Travers; Stitch’s secret; Jack and Kelly’s romance; Summer and Austin’s marriage; the revelation that Courtney was an undercover cop; Victor’s plot to renovate the warehouse district and destroy the coffee house; the complete waste of Ray Wise as evil cult leader Ian Ward; Colin’s return; and — for me — the return of Phyllis (Gina Tognoni’s interpretation is too one note and lacking the sense of humor and need to be loved that Michelle Stafford brought to the role).

i will never ever forgive ron for what he did to three veteran characters: frisco, aj quartermain & duke lavery………………
he was very rude on twitter to fans which was so uncalled for & the remarks he made about sean kean on twitter was so unprofessional……………
yes ron was right on point when he came to gh & yes he did save gh from cancellation but evidently it went to his head & he lost focus of what he was paid to do……………

And what about teasing long time fans about Blackie Parrish at the nurses ball only to make a joke out of John Stamos and the yogart sponsorship. So childish.

I only returned to GH because of Ron’s writing and I suspect I’ll be tuning out because of Passanante and Altman’s. Their Y&R was plagued by pointless stories lacking build-up and pay-off (Mariah is obsessed with Tyler until she’s revealed to be Cassie’s twin and then her obsession is suddenly over; Avery has an Internet cooking show; Kevin writes an on-line Game of Thrones knock-off; Summer marries the man who held her aunt at gunpoint despite the fact she’s known him ten minutes and he held her aunt at gunpoint; Victor secretly plans to revamp the warehouse district which could mean the closing of the local coffee house; evil cult leader Ian Ward comes to town and does some things, none of which are particularly evil, cult-related, or all that interesting).

I’m guessing ABC will be soap free by this time next year.

I wish they would hire Claire Labine. Wrote the famous Stone/Robin AIDS story & created Ryan’s Hope.

Tony would come running back and gladly die on the set.

tony geary got claire labine fired

I bet Ron Hale (Mike Corbin) would also be willing to come back out of retirement if Claire was hired!

RC filled the show with annoying.obnoxious useless characters who were not tied to any of the core families. We were stuck with 2 ppl scenes were ppl had the same conversation for weeks sometimes months. The humor was awkward and embarrassing. Heather’s BLT obsession was beaten to the ground. Port Charles doesn’t feel like a town. Beloved vets like Mac.Felicia and Monica are missing in action. We don’t see any long standing friendships or group scenes RC was very nasty and disrespectful to anyone who didn’t agree with him on Twitter.

Plus all the good stuff always happened off screen.

Twitter is exactly what made me take issue with him.

General Hospital

Nancy Lee Grahn’s Star-Studded ALS Fundraiser Reveals “I’ll Be There” Video Featuring Soap Opera Notables

Talk about your impressive line-up! It’s a soap fans dream and for a great cause. General Hospital’s Nancy Lee Grahn (Alexis Davis) is prepping her one-night only ALS fundraiser which will feature many of her friends and co-stars.

The benefit is set for May 4th in Glendale, California. Slated to participate are Genie Francis, Jane Elliot, Peter Bergman, Maurice Benard, Eileen Davidson, Thorsten Kaye, Michelle Stafford, Stephen Nichols, Rena Sofer, Jason Thompson, Kelly Monaco, Melissa Claire Egan, Maura West, Kristina Wagner, Gregory Harrison, Trevor St. John, Kate Mansi, Kirsten Storms, Cynthia Watros, and many others.

On Wednesday, Grahn took to her social media and released an “I’ll be there” video shout-out featuring, Monaco, Elliot, Bergman, Bernard, West, Harrison, St. John and more. In a touching and important moment in the new video, Michelle Strogny, who is battling ALS, is featured.

Photo: ABC

Previously, in speaking with Soap Opera Digest on the impetus of the event, Grahn recalled, “I was actually doing Zoom events during Covid and I met this woman that I just fell in love with, Michelle Strojny. At the time, Michelle had been living with ALS for four years. Now, it’s five years. She is a mom of a teenage son, she has the most wonderful husband, and she has been dealing with this [disease] for quite a while. And obviously, there isn’t a cure yet. It’s not survivable yet. But as she says, it’s not incurable. Nothing is; it’s underfunded. But anyway, I just really dug this woman. She is so grounded and filled with grace, and she spends all of her time working to raise money for the cause. We did a fundraiser for her last year and then I thought, ‘You know what? The soaps don’t ever get together to do something for charity.’ Collectively, we have this amazing community and we don’t collectively use it for a good cause, and I think it’s such an easy thing for us to do and we could potentially really make a difference.”

As GH viewers know, Gregory Harrison is playing the character of Gregory Chase, who is also battling ALS in a touching storyline that is currently playing out shedding a light on this disease.

For information on Nancy’s event, including the stars who are s scheduled to participate click here. To purchase tickets to the event click here.

Check out the video featuring Nancy’s friends and co-stars below.  Now let us know, your thought son the line-up for the benefit and helping raise awareness and funds for ALS research via the comment section.

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General Hospital

‘General Hospital’ Writer Shannon Peace Let Go, and Shares on Sprina: “One of My Only Regrets is to Not Have the Opportunity to Develop That ‘Ship’ Further”

As General Hospital’s new head writing team of Elizabeth Korte and Patrick Mulcahy gets off the ground and running, there are still changes a foot on the writing team.

Now comes word via breakdown writer Shannon Peace that she is no longer on contract with the long-running ABC soap heading into its 61st season. Peace shared a heartfelt message on her Instagram, thanking the fans, and the show for the opportunity and the importance of diversity in the writers room.

Peace began, “After almost 3 years on staff and 106 episodes penned, I am no longer on contract with General Hospital. Writing for this country’s longest running television serial drama has been an education of epic proportions; I will forever be grateful that I earned my WGA card on a daytime fixture that holds memories for so many.” (Peace pictured below with GH EP Frank Valentini and script writer, Charlotte Gibson from about ten months ago).

Photo: SPeaceIG

Shannon added “Even more importantly, as the sole Black breakdown writer (and only POC in the writers room) during my tenure, I pushed for vital interactions and discussions that prioritized inclusion, visibility, and representation”

The writer pointed to the example of vital interaction when in story, “Stella and Portia’s frank July 2022 conversation about the role race played in Esme’s framing of Trina is just one example of the impact I’m gratified to have had.”

Acknowledging former GH co-head writers was also part of Peace’s farewell expressing, “Appreciation to my former bosses, Chris Van Etten and Dan O’Connor – not only taking a chance on me, but for valuing my opinion and championing my voice.”

Courtesy/ABC

Many GH fans know that Peace was key to the development of the love story between Trina Robinson and Spencer Cassadine as played by Tabyana Ali and Nicholas Chavez. Shannon gave a special shout-out to ‘Sprina’ fans, “I also want to thank fans who were supportive of my work, especially the recognition of my love for ‘Sprina’. One of my only regrets is not having to develop that ‘ship’ further.”

She concludes her statement with,”In the aftermath of a historic writer’s strike that shed new light on the troubling ways writers are regarded in daytime, my sincere hope is that General Hospital recommits to valuing staff writer efforts and input, with a more intentional focus on diverse viewpoints — and thrives for another 60 years.”

Accompanying her post, Shannon added, “Thank you all for the love and support these last few years. I hope GH fans get all they hope for and more!”

So, what do you think about GH not renewing Shannon’s contract? Will there be more continued changes afoot? What do you think is the future of ‘Sprina’ anyway at this point as viewers wait to see if Nicholas Chavez officially returns to the show?  Comment below.

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General Hospital

GENERAL HOSPITAL: Jason Learns Britt Died and Tells Anna He Has Been Working For Cates Since November 2021

On the Tuesday, March 26th of General Hospital, Anna (Finola Hughes) and the viewers learn about where Jason (Steve Burton) has been for over two and half years. However, Jason gets some news of his own.

Anna is visiting Jason at the PCPD interrogation room. She asks him if he shot Dante (Dominic Zamprogna), which he flatly denies. Anna believes him, but she tells Jason it doesn’t matter, because video footage shows him on the roof at the time of the shooting

When talk turns to Jason not willing to speak without his lawyer present, Anna can’t grasp why Jason would instead spend an hour alone talking with John Cates (Adam J. Harrington).

Photo: ABC

It is then that Anna brings up that John went by “Jagger” and that the two of them knew each other in high school. Jason doesn’t recall much of his time in high school following his brain injury, but then he gets furious realizing John knew about “Jason’s” past. That is when Jason slams the table and tells Anna, “I’ve been working for John Cates since November 2021.”

Next, Jason explains further that he has been working as an informant for the FBI. Anna wants to know how this came about and he tells her that after the tunnel collapsed, and he couldn’t make it to Britt (Kelly Thiebaud)… all of a sudden he sees Anna’s face drop.  Anna is the first person to tell him that Britt died and was murdered. She tells Jason the killer is in custody, but he continues to be shocked, overwhelmed with tears welling up in his eyes. Realizing he has to pivot to save his life, Jason continues telling Anna how he wound up working with John.

Jason explains that after the tunnel collapse in Greece, FBI agents grabbed him and placed him under arrest and took him to Quantico where he met John. At Quantico, John played a recording of RICO violations and offered Jason a deal if he agreed to be an informant against Pikeman, the illegal arms dealer.

Anna hears from Jason that he thinks Pikeman is selling illegal arms to anyone flagged by the NSA but has ties to the WSB which they needed a civilian to infiltrate their organization as a military soldier, a mercenary.

Jason tells Anna he was a part of the team brought into eliminate Sonny (Maurice Benard). Every time an attempt was made on Sonny’s life over the last two years, a different team was sent to do the job. Anna gets furious when she learns that John told Jason his job was to kill Sonny and she was with John at the warehouse that night. Jason ensured the sniper missed Sonny and left the rifle behind. However, they were supposed to meet an extraction team. Before he was shot, Dante saw it was Jason on the roof and when he turned around with his hands over his head, Dante was shot by the other guy. Jason says if Dante dies, he’ll be charged with capital murder and then will be useless to the FBI.

Photo: ABC

Meanwhile, John visits Bobbie’s and runs into Carly (Laura Wright). She learns Jason is in custody and is going to head to the PCPD. Before she does, Carly has some words with Cates when she learns not only does John have a vendetta against Sonny, but Jason too.  Carly tells John he should recuse himself from the case.

So, what did you think about the moment when Jason learned Britt died? What do you think of Jason’s return storyline thus far and what we learned about Jagger/Jason and more? Comment below. But first, check out a moment from today’s GH with Jason and Anna.

 

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