I haven't returned to watching soaps yet - crazy-busy work and life continue, though in a minor miracle September was the first (and last) month this year in which I did not get on a plane - but I have been keeping an eye on the blogs and the news.
And boy, has there been some news.
Is it just me or did this last week seem a lot like an ever rolling game of one-upmanship in the casting announcement stakes? With the one man of the one-upmanship being Brian Frons? With a little help from Brad Bell seeming to suddenly be taking things seriously with that Emmy in hand?*
In a general approximation of chronological order we have:
- finally the confirmation that Emmy Winner Gina Tognoni is in fact returning to OLTL as Kelly Cramer, which can only be a good thing.
- the bittersweet news of Greg Vaughan's departure from General Hospital to make room for a returning Jonathan Jackson as Lucky. On the one hand I feel really bad for Vaughan, who has been Lucky for as long as Jackson and who I think grew a lot in the role, and got generally treated like crap. Also, he's very pretty. On the other hand, I don't see how - even in the hands of the current regime - Jackson's return can be anything but a really good idea. Good for a better focus on the Spencers, good for generally shafted characters like Liz and Nikolas, generally just all around good.
- the announcement of who of the AMC cast is going with the show to LA. Here there were in fact almost no surprises. As expected Thorsten Kaye and Alicia Minshew said no - though the attempt of the press release to imply Minshew hadn't made up her mind and would just be on maternity leave was somewhat transparent - and almost everyone else said yes. I'm guessing the new budget has a much larger travel line item and that the new production model will almost certainly make substantial use of GH's block taping method, but really, was there anything here that was a surprise? Even down to Chrishell Stause moving to LA and continuing on the show but without a contract lined up with what had been rumoured for months.
- much more of a surprise was that Sarah Brown's already announced departure from GH was in favour of a new role on B&B. Is it just me or does all the jabbing at B&B's horrible acting appear to have been heard? Has the Emmy made Brad Bell etc pay attention to the fact that they should be making the show less incestuous and have more actors who can rise to the level of Susan Flannery and Katherine Kelly Lang, rather than fall to the level of the others? First they lure Rick Hearst back, and now Sarah Brown? Please tell me that is not a coincidence and they are going to make use of some of their spectacular chemistry so wasted on GH?
- I think they decided to replace that girl who 'plays' Colby on AMC.
- finally, in what I'm sure everyone would have taken to be an April Fools joke had it appeared earlier in the year, it was announced that James Franco would be joining GH for a short block-taped run for November sweeps. I could only call that unexpected. Frankly, I don't yet know what to make of it, and if, as reported, he approached them, I can only hope the writers can deliver something interesting. And by that I don't mean a mob war (just in case you weren't sure).
I guess the question Mr Frons would like to know is whether this will get me back to watching GH in particular, which I haven't been near in over a year. Answer: not immediately. I'll keep an eye on what the story spoilers are to see if it's vaguely interesting, but at the moment it's not enough to be dragging me back to the TV. But I'll keep watching the news.
And I'm fairly confident that there won't be a week of casting news to top this one perhaps ever.
And congrats to Daytime Confidential for their various scoops. You guys don't get enough credit.
*The cynic in me can't help but wonder if all this was timed to coincide with Crystal Chappell's stabby return to Days (I may have glanced at You Tube) and the increased Venice publicity.
