POLL- HOW CAN GH BE IMPROVED!Posted by Anglee on the Port Charles Online Message Board on June 21, 1997 at 6:55 PM PST
As part of Kissed Off which is a club dedicated to quality on GH, I am curious to get everyone's opinions on how GH can be improved. This is espcially important right now since GH is currently without a headwriter. I would like to send the results of this poll to GH to give them feedback on what fans would like to see improved. Any responses you give will be greatly appreciated.
Responses
From: lylas
Add more scenes of the Quartermaines getting along, bring back Tracy, Lois, Robin, and Frisco. JMHO
From: jcarlil
Well, since Sonny is leaving, and most of us don't want Brenda back with Jax, I was thinking it would make for a good storyline to put Brenda with Garcia. Let's face it, he needs a storyline, and she's not going to be alone forever. We all know how she is. Although I'm a die-hard Sonny/Brenda fan, I have finally accepted the idea Maurice is leaving. Sad as that fact is, Brenda's going to need to new guy. She can't just sit around moping all the time after he leaves. It would be funny if Garcia started falling for her after trying to connect her with the murder. Just think, the cop and the ex-mobster's woman!
From: Artemis
I think GH is doing just fine now. It was pretty bad for a while there but, its doing ok now. If every storyline went the way I wanted it too, I wouldn't have to watch, and I wouldn't watch. I think its just fine the way it is.
From: pamazonne
1. Get a head writer who will have the characters do things which are consistent with the character's history. (I could list many examples, starting with Stefan Cassadine.)
2. Get a head writer who will move things along at a somewhat brisk pace. (I hear Bob Guza's a free agent!) And PLEASE - NO MORE DRAWN-OUT TRIANGLES!!!!! (Ditto, re: Dorman's murder.)
From: Marty
I agree regarding consistancy of storyline/characterization. I'd also like to have more adventure--and hang the #$%^&*( triangles for a while!! Let the characters deal with situations, conflicts, but let them do it in a one on one manner.
I'd like to see more time dedicated to Luke's place--I thought it would have made a better spinoff--we've already got a doctor's show--GH!! Given the incredible assortment of people that Luke is connected with, there would be justification for all sorts of storylines there. One might well make the same remark about The Outback, as well. Give us more romance, adventure and excitement!!
Witty dialogue is always a plus--like the bantering between Alexis and Ned, or Alexis and Luke.
Bring back the humor that used to be so much a part of GH!!
From: coggie
The most important foundation which has been sorely lacking and which has been mentioned by many other fans here is continuity. Many of the actions of characters are far fetched and not in character. Many storylines are far fetched too. When TPTB bring in a character, work it through, don't go off half-***ed then quit, i.e. Gina, Miranda, the casting of Taggert. Write for the story NOT the ratings, and then only then will the ratings come. Use EVERY actor on this show to the best of their individual ability.
And introduce more diversity to the show. I can't believe Port Charles doesn't have any other ethnic groups around.
From: pamazonne
Write for the STORY not the ratings...
From: trek
Well said Carol! I also think GH could stand a little more humor. Without humor the show ( for that matter any show) can become depressing and even painful to watch. I also think the show needs to explore friendships in a more indepth manner. Most of the friendships we see are at best superficial and at worst simply used to further someone's 'plan of the day' .
From: bonkers
I think they need to bring Lucy & Kevin back to GH where they belong and in my opinion they need to put Brenda back with Jax!
They need to let AJ grow up and take responsibility for his own actions and they need to let Jason grow closer to Monica.
They should put Bobbie and Tony back together, Carly is too conniving for Tony.
THEY NEED TO BRING BACK ROBERT, SEAN AND TIFFANY!!!
From: robi
I really don't like how the writers insist on dragging out every single storyline!! And like some of you said--they should finish what they start. I was looking forward to the Miranda/Cassadine connection, but they just left it. And when are they going to reveal to Bobbie the truth about Carly??? I really wish they would bring back Lucy and Kevin and Get Rid Of Emily!!! She is without a doubt the Worst actor on the show.!!!
From: Lucille
Amber Tamblyn is a good actress who is just portraying the role she is handling. Blame the writers, not the actress. She is acting as the ''troubled teen'' that has been written!!!!
From: FireBird
First, they need to be true to the characters and the storylines. Good examples are when Stefan came on he was extremely intelligent, able to manipulate people without their knowing it and barely made any mistakes. The Timoria storyline looked like it was weaving a delicate web into several diverse plots in GH (wheels inside of wheels, so to speak). I couldn't hardly wait each day to watch that day's episode. I enjoyed our villian Stefan, and boy I knew that Luke was going to get up EARLY and eat his wheaties to get one up on him!! In short I loved it! Then came the wars and ''musical head writer chairs''. The delicate webs of Timoria were abruptly severed into other storyplots and Stefan began to act smarmy and having ''accidents''. What a disappointment. What they need is someone with a ''brain'' and ''intelligence'' and ''heart'' to start writing again. Someone who KNOWS the characters of GH and their histories, and writes material consistent for them. Romance and adventure are both important elements of GH to me.
From: Suzi
I believe that whoever becomes the new head-writer should spend some time before starting on the show to review past episodes to find out the history of the characters. TPTB have to realize that a lot of the fans have been watching the show for a VERY LONG time, in my case for close to 20 years. We know for instance that L&L just celebrated their 15th wedding anniversary on the show and yet they created a 16 year old son for Laura. This son was born after Laura was abducted 2-3 months following her wedding to Luke. The most that Nik could be is around 14-15 years old.
I'd like to see more adventure on the show and definitely more comedy. One of the best episodes in the past several months has been the recent Thanksgiving episode with all the dreams/nightmares. We need more episodes like that, maybe make it a holiday-type event.
From: MsRowdy
They need to quit bringing in new characters to ''pair up'' with yatta yatta and just get on with giving the mainstays a storyline. Examples--
Give Amy a LIFE, whether it's a man or even a home. More of Lila's temper. It's wonderful to see her with her dander up. More of Edward's conniving and grumpy side. Expand on Alan's talents. They have him all washed out and left out of the loop. And give Leslie back. We get teased for a few weeks and then nothing. Denise Alexander deserves a spot next to Audrey in the GH Hall of Fame. Just think if Luke and Stephan had the storylines comparable to the old Cassadine days. Balance out the sex with adventure.
From: zakuseless
We defenitly need at least one well played well researched punk rocker.
From: bitohoney
The first thing comes to my mind are the Quartermaines and Luke and Laura. If you concentrate on these characters it will bring the romance, adventure and humor back to GH. You need one couple that no matter what, the fans know they love each other(Ned &Lois, Luke and Laura, Sonny &Brenda)You need an evildoer and that should have been Sonny so instead GH uses Stefan. Stefan should get more evil. You need a heroine or vixen, that is definitely Carly and Bobbie. I am behind her 100% and I used to hate them. Once a couple is together and it works, keep them together. Also they had great location shots. Back to Alaska with Jax, back to Australia with Mac, back to Texas with Felicia, back to Puerto Rico with S&B, back to the dinner table with Quartermaines. More past flashbacks because new viewers are lost about the Cassidines (I still don't know the story). A day to remember I couldn't see and what I did see didn't asnwer a lot of questions. Quit being politically correct. Stay true to characters, S&B are getting back, Mac, Jax, Lucky but Dara yesterday was not true. Monica would never agree with Ned she had more backbone. Alan or Jason would have killed Dorman a long time ago. Alexis would not have agreed with using the virus during that time (their intelligience was lacking there). So I will end, don't drag out the drug storyline, drop it now. Don't bring anyone back from the dead.
From:SIPort
We start by....bringing GUZA back!!!..then,....
2. Need to ditch the cop, Sarah Webber and the new girl that they have coming on.
3. They need to start writing for people already on the show (Justus, Dara, Keesha, Gina).
4. They need to decide that they are gonna write a real triangle between Bobbie/Stefan/Katherine.
5. They need to get stories for Mac, Jax.
6. They need to recast AJ..
7. Return more of the humor to the Q's....
8. Get the murder thing over with....
9. Need an old-fashioned adventure story....
10. More romance....
11. They need to not drop stories on a dime and use the ''connect-the-dots'' way of telling stories...the audience is quite sophisticated and can handle complications....
From: SonnyLois
Top 10 Reasons how GH can be improved:
10) No more triangles-well at least ones that are going to be dragged on more than a month.
9)Bring back our Lucy and Kevin to GH (and more Kat and Lucy together)
8) Hook Felicia and Mac back up
7)No more boring Kat and Bat scenes!
6) Come to think of it...make Kat more interesting!
5)More Carly and Jason together-they're friendship is great!
4)More comedic scenes (ex. Lucy and Felicia as nuns)
3)Stop bringing on new characters when they're are many that aren't used(Dara,Mike,Justus,etc.)
2)Ned and Alexis remaining just friends and nothing more.
And the number 1 reason of how GH can be improved is...
Rena coming back as Lois!!!!
From: Sumiko
First of all they should lose the cop following Jax around. She's worse than Miranda every was! I see even less chemistry than Jax had with Miranda!
I think they should bring back Miranda but not to pair her up with Jax. The character was actually not that bad until she started whining and being a sneaky bitch. Okay, so Brenda does the same things but they sort of set Miranda up as being a little above that. I would just like to see what her connection was with the Cassadines. Now that would have been an interesting story I think.
Stop creating all these ''coincidental'' conflicts between Nikolas and Lucky. First there was the possibility of conflict over Gina and now there's the potential conflict over what's her name Webber. Just once I'd like to see them at least decide to be civil and tolerant of each other. They don't have to suddenly become pals but at least friendly enough to not want to hit each other at first sight. The sibling rivalry thing is getting a little tiresome.
I'd like to see Nikolas get wise to Stefan and covertly rebel by sabotaging Stefan's plans.
From: vesna
1. BRING BACK LOIS NOW
2. Two major recasting suggestions, Tony Jones and Robin. Its nothing personel, but they need to go. Please they bore me to death.
3. Please do not put Mac and Felicia back together. Give Mac a storyline and another girlfriend.
4. Either get rid of that trooper chick who is stalking Jax or put her together with Mac.
5. Please reveal to us exactly what does Sonny do as a Mob Boss?
6. Use good charecters that are seldom used and that are being wasted such as Dara, Mike, Gina, Garcia.
7. The Cassidines, bring on Helena, now that is one evil women. I want to see her battle Stefan and Nik.
8. Bring back Rick Webber isn't he still technically married to Lesley?
From: GH-777
1. more adventure stories-ex. wsb days
2. Bring Lois back
3. too many new characters
Some of my favorite stories were the ones like WSB days with Sean, Robert,and Anna. When Frisco met Felicia. When Luke,Sonny and Brenda were in P. R. Thats what we need. I'd rather have a hero to the rescue of the women he loves rather than a third person all the time. Love the Cassadines but they need a little umph! in their stories.
From: Johnny
1. I would like the writers to go for ORIGINAL story lines. Reading some of the messages on the GH Online Message Board reminded me of a story line with Carly that I thought was really neat and original. Without explanation, Carly's agoraphobia(I think that's what it is called) was gone and unexplained. Topics such as agoraphobia are original and interesting and GH should find more of them.
2. Another problem with the show is the vast amount of unanswered questions. (Miranda's Cassadine connection, who was Alexis writing to, Lucy's vision of Kevin in ice, and many others) These questions need to be answered and the GH writers really shouldn't miss stuff like that.
3. I also think that it is obvious when a story line is finished and should be resolved instead of being carried on past its welcome.(S/B/J triangle is just ONE ex.) The GH writing staff should be aware of this.
4. I would like to see some SURPRISES! Kill off a popular or important character once in a while or something unexpected as long as it is reasonable and believable to the audience.
5. I would like to see an Adventure story....similar to vintage Luke/Laura stories.
6. Enough triangles!
Those are a few suggestions off the top of my head.
From: Jay1099
Keep Bobbie/Stefan together!!!!!
From: BRM
Return to the action adventure stories of the WSB days and the Aztec Treasure adventure and the Mr. Big story with Bert Ramsey. Bring back Robert to interact with Luke and add more humor to the show as well as a sense of serious purpose. Sean and Tiffany would also add some humor. If possible get Anna and Frisco as well; but a major start in the right direction would be the return of ROBERT!
From: writes
The writers need to up the stakes and the complications. I don't care about the Cassadine virus because I don't know what the stakes are. Stefan and Katherine don't excite me because they don't have any real forces fighting against them. I didn't care enough about Dorman to care about his murder. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to feel about Carly and Tony, Carly and AJ, Tony and Bobbie, etc.
In contrast, my favorite GH stories were about passionate people fighting for high stakes. Luke and Laura's fight to be a couple. Alan's jealousy driving him to kill Rick and Monica. Sonny and Brenda's battle with the Mob. Jax's initial pursuit of Brenda. Bobbie and Tony's breakup and Frisco and Felicia's reunion with BJ's death. And most recently, Laura and Nikolas' fight to reconcile and Stefan's secret love of "Lasha".
It seems to me that in recent months the writers have taken passionate, complicated characters and made them confused, murky and weak willed.
From: SnBeliever
Okay, this could be a long one.
1) Pick up the pace a little! (For instance, nobody cared if Katie Bell walked last December, but we care even less now in June.)
2) Character-driven stories would be nice. Stupid plot devices that make no sense might be the easier way to write a soap, but they're not the best. Viewers do have intelligence, so gaping holes in the plot don't go unnoticed.
3) How about a little more balance of the characters? GH has a much larger cast than they utilize. Maybe if every character were on 3 days a week, instead of 10 characters being on 5 days a week, GH might attract a wider variety of viewers. Giving stories to minority characters would be a big improvement too. But if GH can't find it in themselves to give everyone a frontburner stories, at least not having characters vanish for a week or more would be nice...
4) Let's end the cliched stories. I mean, what do we have now? A whodunit, a "Who's the daddy?" story, several triangles, and a temporary paralysis story. Nothing I haven't seen before, nothing I particularly want to see again. Some originality might be nice.
5) How about some humor? The only humor we seem to be getting is that which is ad libbed by several actors (both of whom are leaving soon, although one will return). Fantasies, etc. can be nice occasionally. Also, showing characters having fun might make the show more enjoyable. Love scenes (which don't lead to "Who's the daddy?" stories) can also be good.
6) Plots that are dropped completely can get confusing. For instance, is Alan addicted to painkillers? If he was, it might have made sense to do it during March Against Drugs, but I can understand TPTB's hesitation, what with all the other drug stories. It would be nice, however, to know either way.
Just some suggestions...
Mike
From: DCTroy
Mike,
Believe it or not - ITA with the whole post!!! You made some very good suggestions - I only hope TIIC are listening, but probably not. Some of the things you mentioned are things we've all been screaming about for a while now (the
From: KTSean
Fire Cruella
From: Shelly318
Bring back Rena as Lois and keep Ned and Alexis from pairing up!!!!!!
From: JLeather85
I TOTALLY AGREE . GIVE CRUELLA THE OLD HEAVE HO
From: JRMMilton
I agree with Mike on two points:
1 - The humorous shows are the ones everyone remembers and talks about ...Lucy and the duck, the Thanksgiving show, the fantasy scenes. There should be more of this when appropriate and there seem to be plenty of times these could be worked into the show, especially when there are some characters locked in very serious situations. This would seem to be the time for other characters to have those funny situations to break up the heaviness of the plot lines. You know, a little comic relief.
Also, not dropping story lines. We don't forget and what's worse, we keep looking for the dropped plot (for instance, Alan's drug addiction or Audrey's Alzhiemers) to recur and we are disappointed when it doesn't.
From: Rachie3132
First of all, Alan's drug addiction wasn't ignored it sometimes takes several months to develop an addiction.
There are lots of people that care about Kathyrn (not Katie) Bell... and whether she walks or not, she is a talented actress and she is playing out the storyline very well.
Humor? Humor? Helloooooo...... you must have a weird sense of humor cause all that I have seen on GH is humor... actually its really funny stuff, all of Luke's punch line's and Sonny's too, and the dectective from hell can bring in a few laughs every now and then... another thing, soap opera does that mean anything to you?.... that means not sitcom, not talk show (Rosie or Jay) it means soap opera. Soap Opera's are meant not to be funny!
From: SnBeliever
Well, hello yourself. Actually, soap operas (when they're well-written) can and do make use of comedy. GH did too, until recently. Ned/Lois/Kat was like a sitcom - and it was great. Lucy's duck was priceless. The Nurses Ball have thrived on hilarious acts since it began (that and the message of AIDS Awareness, of course). And what about the Quartermaines? Their hilarious squabbles have been a part of GH for decades.
From: Claire613
Character driven plots, where the people stay within their characters and make the mistakes they would really make, will help the story. Changing a person's character to fit a plot line is a terrible mistake (eg. Laura lying to Luke for so many years when we have always known her to be honest)
Bring back Lucy and Kevin. They were great characters. PC is not nearly the soap that GH is. While they're at it, they should bring back Scott, too.
It's great to do wild adventure plots like the computer virus and ice princess, but don't drag them out too long
Forget Sweeps week. Lately, everything has been geared toward big doings during sweeps week. If the soap is solid and the stories good, the viewers will be there during sweeps week. For two years, people have been behaving in bizaare ways just to create tension prior to sweeps week.
Another comment for this one...the more Luke ad libs, the better. His jokes have been wonderful. Loved his bit on Disco today.
From: JuBee100
First of all...by having Tony Geary dance more often!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
and, by paying more attention to what the viewers want. I'd like to believe we're an intelligent, observent bunch, who don't need elementary-school like stories force fed down our throats! Give us some romance, give us some *real* stories that we can really sink our teeth into. Lately, the writing had been awful,and some major character assasination was going on
Then, there's also the idea of TPTB not using characters to their fullest potential. There was so much that could be...and can be done with Nik, Stefan, and the storylines.
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