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News for the week of 07-Sep-2015

by Carol Banks Weber

Soap Opera Digest snagged the first exclusive interview with the new GH co-head writers Shelly Altman and Jean Passanante, aka Jelly. In the current edition of the publication (out in newsstands now), Jelly gave an overview of their intentions as story tellers. Like the head writers before them, these two revealed very little, other than promising to amp up the romance, screentime for the Quartermaines, and the hospital itself, and pumping up the fans. “There is nothing more passionate than a GENERAL HOSPITAL fan,” Passanante said in a preview of the interview, from SOD online. “We hope that they will invest their commitment in the show and give us a chance, because I think they will be rewarded.” Many fans who were able to read the full interview were dissatisfied with the lack of substance. Chris tweeted on September 4: “There is just nothing there. Vague, generic interview.” Michael wrote, “It doesn't sound to me like they have any passion for this job at all. I don't get a sense that they are excited.” And Brandon’s Buzz really nailed it with, “If you worry about Jelly's #GH based on their #YR work, their new ultra-vague 6-pg SOD interview does utterly nothing to allay your fears.”

Good news for GH fans: the ratings are back up for the week of August 24th. According to Michael Fairman’s September 4th assessment of the ratings, “GH was the only daytime drama series to gain total viewers for the week with +62,000. Y&R, B&B, and even DAYS, which was expected to perform much better with the first murder in the serial killer storyline, and the return of Stephen Nichols as Patch, albeit for a millisecond at the end of the Friday episode, all ended up in the minus for that category in the ratings period.” What caused GH’s turnaround that week? The reveals of Silas’ murderer and Ava.

Breakdown writer Daniel James O’Connor will also leave GH, based on his tweet last week. O’Connor has been with GH since 2014, and first worked on a soap over at OLTL as a writing assistant in 2007-2008. He’s not leaving ABC, though, and plans to focus on a new project.

Finding her place in acting hasn’t been easy, but Brytni Sarpy (Valerie) is gifted with an ability to embody a potential legacy character she inherited when Tony Geary (Luke) left the show this summer. Playing a Spencer isn’t easy for anyone. But Sarpy came to the role armed with a strong theater background, forged since high school. She can sing and dance. She graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a Bachelor’s in Fine Arts-Acting. And she understands what it takes to take on a character with the best of intentions. “The emotional aspect of acting has always come fairly easy to me, but the dissection of human behavior, the human condition, and conveying a message through a story, is one of the most exhilarating processes I have ever dove into,” Sarpy told Kristin Downer in a May 12, 2015 interview at Nerd Problems. Once she made it onto GH as Valerie, “the first multi-ethnic Spencer,” she found the right role, effortless in the portrayal. “Valerie’s introduction on GH, has not been a gradual one, she’s come in with quite a lot on her plate. Finding her place among the ranks of her iconic family, with the trauma of losing her mother, and getting to know a family that she just found out she has, makes for a lot of raw emotion and character development. Valerie is the first multi-ethnic Spencer, who I believe brings a new energy to the Spencer clan. She is strong, courageous, passionate, and wears her heart on her sleeve.” If given another role to play, Sarpy gravitates toward that of a “badass,” comic book superhero, or maybe a villain. Those badass roles require a ton of athleticism (check), stuntwork (check), and responsibility as a type of role model for young women (check). She’s into all that.

Michael Fairman — god love him — brought up the elephant in the room in his usual diplomatic, suave way in a September 1, 2015 interview with Hayley Erin (Kiki II) for On-Air On-Soaps. You know the one, where “Denise” reveals she’s really Ava on the witness stand and the camera goes to Morgan and Kiki, but only Kiki’s reacting much. Erin didn’t really address the controversy surrounding Morgan’s lack of a reaction. Instead, she focused on the fun of filming in the courtroom, providing a behind-the-scenes look at the actors “having a blast” and laughing uproariously after Roger Howarth (Franco) finally noticed that Parry Shen’s lab tech character shared the same name as movie star Bradley Cooper. “I loved it!  I thought it was awesome … the two of us sitting next to each other playing the reactions to the situation totally the opposite of each other. I thought it was perfect,” Erin described. “We were having a blast doing these scenes. That was one of the most fun days on set I have had at GH. We were all buddy-buddy in the courtroom. Honestly, we were all joking around, because they brought up the character of Brad Cooper (Parry Shen). I never noticed it before, but Roger Howarth (Franco) realized that’s the motion picture actor, Bradley Cooper’s name. So we were goofing around with that before the cameras were rolling. Then I had hard time when we were taping every time they said the name, ‘Brad Cooper’ and trying so hard not to laugh. It was hilarious.” Trying to summon up the right response to learning her character’s mother was playing a dangerous and selfish game parading around as Denise? Not so hilarious. Erin grappled with what to play, eventually going for the obvious — “It’s my mom. She’s alive” — in the initial response. “That was kind of all I had playing over and over in my head. But then there is also the level of the absurdity of the situation, and so I tried to bring that into it too. It was like ‘Denise? Ava?’ (Laughs) Bless his heart, Bryan Craig’s character of Morgan is sleeping with this woman, and doesn’t apparently know who she truly is! (Laughs)”

While Hayley Erin (Kiki) was kind to former head writer Ron Carlivati, leaving out any negative commentary in her interview with Michael Fairman, Donna Mills (Madeline) was more critical. “Ron Carlivati was a big fan of mine, and I really liked him a lot! He is a really nice guy. But, I think the storylines got a little unreal. I think there was too much of that going on. So, I think it’s probably a good thing to bring it down to a little more reality again,” Mills told Fairman in an August 31, 2015 interview. What’s interesting is that Mills had no idea Michael Easton (ex-Silas) had been released or who killed his character until late into the filming of the murder scene. She revealed that they filmed “different characters stabbing Silas, and when I came into that I didn’t know Michael Easton was leaving the show. I had no idea, and so I said, ‘Michael, you must be going off to do a big movie or something, right?’ Michael answered back, ‘No.’ So, I hope Michael gets a big movie. He is a lovely guy.”

Bradford Anderson (Spinelli) returns to GH, but it’s not clear whether he stays or films a few episodes before leaving again.

Casting wants a Caucasian child actor (9-11) for a recurring day player role.

Gossip for the week of 07-Sep-2015

by Carol Banks Weber

Is GH looking to recast Josslyn (Caucasian child actor)? Hannah Nordberg may be too busy in the Dolly Parton bio-pic, Coat Of Many Colors, coming up soon on NBC.

Bradford Anderson (Spinelli) may return to stay, according to Soap Opera Digest insiders.

What about little Jake? Surely the kid didn’t come away from Helena’s kidnapping unscathed. Stay tuned.

What happens to Sonny and Carly’s wedding now? The couple may get married at GH after Sonny’s surgery, or may reschedule for Nov. Sweeps when Jake fully regains his memories as Jason Morgan Quartermaine.

When Sonny goes down, T.J. and Morgan may also go down with him. Don’t worry, none of it’s fatal. If T.J.’s hurt badly though, look for Sean Blakemore (Shawn) to rise up out of Pentonville and help Sonny beat back the bad mob.

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