On February 24th, General Hospital is revisiting one of its most memorable and literally heart breaking storylines ever penned. Maxie's dream will ask the question how life in Port Charles would have turned out if it had been Maxie Jones (then portrayed by Robyn Richards) who died that fateful day rather than her cousin Barbara Jean (BJ). Above is a clip of that great storyline that got Frisco's (Jack Wagner) butt back in PC at his daughter's side. More clips after the jump. READ MORE

General Hospital's Spinelli (Bradford Anderson) and Maxie (Kirsten Storms) helped Santa with some of his deliveries on today's Christmas episode. Each of the stories was thoroughly enjoyable but I liked the Quartermaine scenes best. Seeing Alan (Stuart Damon) and Monica (Leslie Charleson) reunite, along with the always wonderful John Ingle and Jane Elliot as Edward and Tracy, was great. If only the Quartermaines were given actual storylines. READ MORE

SOAPnet.com has confirmed what we have been telling y'all since Lassie was a pup, Natalia Livingston is indeed returning to General Hospital. The former Emily Bowen Quartermaine will be playing a new character named Rebecca.

I always liked Livingston's classic, romantic novel heroine take on Emily and am glad to see her back. I just hope TPTB don't decide to toss the amazing Claire Coffee (Nadine) to the wolves, er Russians, now that they have an Emily lookalike back for Nikolas (Tyler Christopher). Oh and by the by, what in high hell was the point of killing Alan (Stuart Damon) and Emily only to keep bringing them back? Now that the soaps are in ratings freefall, will Damon return as Alan's long lost cousin next Sweeps? Is Billy Warlock on his way to town as a new member of the Zucchini family? Oy vey.

Okay, here's definitely hoping the awful rumor that All My Children is planning to sacrifice the wonderful Jill Larson and her wackilicious character Opal at the altar of May Sweeps is NOT I repeat NOT true, but if it is and TPTB at ABC are wanting to mimic a General Hospital-style Vets-for-Ratings Sweeps Stunt, why not kill off the long missing Ruth Martin? 

The original Ruth, Mary Fickett retired what, a decade ago? Maybe more, and the replacement hasn't been seen in months. Why not kill off Ruth and use it as the storyline that brings Jake back to Pine Valley? AMC could also bring back popular characters like Phil, Tara, Charlie, Kelsey and Brooke for a memorial service complete with rich flashbacks and powerful scenes for Joe, Tad and the rest of the clan.

 It boggles my mind that soaps these days will kill of characters played by actors who aren't yet ready to retire i.e. Stuart Damon (Alan, GH), Frank Parker (Shawn, Days) and Jerry Douglas (John, Y&R), instead of writing dramatic endings to the stories of legacy characters played by actors  who have chosen of their own free will to retire.
 
It would have made so much more sense for Days of Our Lives to kill off Mickey Horton rather than Shawn Brady. The orignal Mickey, John Clarke has retired from show business and has made it clear that he has no plans of ever returning to Days. The show could have received just as much dramatic punch out of Mickey's death, possibly more and it could have led to a great new storyline for his leading lady Maggie (Suzanne Rogers). But instead of going that route they decided to kill off Shawn Brady, played by Frank Parker, who was still happily serving chowder at The Brady Pub after almost 30 years.  

Now we have a recast Mickey coming on board in the form of Knots Landing vet Kevin Dobson, whom I love, but from the spoilers I've been reading this is all to give EJ the Rapist a storyline where he goes to work for Mickey as a lawyer. If it's one thing I hate more than a vet being put out to pasture, it's one being used to pimp a newbie character that's being forced down fans' throats. Note to writers: When you have a legacy role that has been vacant for years and you are looking to kill off a character for dramatic emphasis, go with the ones who have already left the building!

Fifteen years ago this month daytime lost a treasure in Douglas Marland. Marland is regarded among the absolute best of the genre's writer-if not the best. 

In the 1970's Marland began penning scripts under the legendary Another World scribe Harding "Pete" Lemay, whose brazen stories kept AW at Number One in Nielsen households for most of the 70's. 

Then in 1977 ABC made the decision to pair Marland in the role of headwriter with one Gloria Monty serving as executive producer. The pair had the Herculean task of resurrecting ABC's ratings stagnant General Hospital in six months, or the show would be cancelled. 

As Monty got busy changing the look and feel of GH (and basically all of daytime as her work would be copied by just about all the other soaps on air at the time), Marland began electrifying the scripts. He zeroed in on fresh-faced young marrieds Laura and Scotty Baldwin (Genie Francis and Kin Shriner) and created Jackie Zeman's signature role, scheming nurse Bobbie Spencer, to come between the couple. Bobbie planned to use her bad boy brother Luke Spencer (Tony Geary) to drive a wedge between Scotty and Laura and the rest we al know ended in soap opera history, no, make that pop culture history.

And while being instrumental in the early success of Luke and Laura's romance definitely was one of Marland's claims to fame, it wasn't by far his only success at GH. The storytelling genius also gave us the wealthy, cantankerous Quartermaine clan. 

Dashing Dr. Alan Quartermaine (Stuart Damon) was introduced to woo and/or tame Dr. Gail Baldwin's adopted daughter Dr. Monica Bard Webber (Leslie Charleson). Since the character's introduction, Monica had been caught in a tempestuous love triangle between brothers Rick and Jeff Webber and at the time of Alan's introduction she still carried a torch for Rick, but the Quartermaine billions proved enticing enough to Monica. Other early Q's introduced during Marland's regime were Alan's parents-billionaire Edward (David Lewis) , socialite Lila (Anna Lee) and his scheming sister Tracy (Jane Elliot).

Not wanting to relocate from New York to LA where GH was filmed, Marland opted to take the headwriter's job at Guiding Light in 1979. There he created what would become one of the show's most wildly popular heroines, Nola Reardon (Lisa Brown). In 1982 Marland created a groundbreaking, but short-lived soap for cable TV station Showtime called A New Day In Eden . Touted the first "nude soap". A New Day in Eden starred Dark Shadows actress Lara Parker and GH's Jane Elliot and boasted Susan Flannery (Bold and Beautiful's Stephanie) as a director. After the show was cancelled, Marland teamed up with fellow soap legend Agnes Nixon to co-create Loving for ABC.

1985 saw Marland return to As the World Turns, the same show he had acted on briefly at the beginning of his career. This time it was as the show's headwriter where he remained until his death in 1993. During Marland's successful stint at ATWT he created the Snyder family, re-established the Hughes as the show's core family and created Holden and Lily's love story.  Douglas Marland died on March 6, 1993. Click here to read Marland's classic essay  on soap opera writing, entitled "How Not To Wreck A Soap".

 

Here we go with the daily You Tube clip! I couldn't help myself. Ever since I was asked to do this daily posting, I have been thinking about when I was going to use this clip. I decided Valentine's Day would be appropriate cosidering the bright red dress. So here is Alan and Lucy's wedding day in the infamous red dress. Thanks to AdelaideCate007 for the clip!

Have you sent in your postcards today?? If not get out and do it!!!! The address is :

 

 

{Quatermaine Actor Here}
General Hospital
c/o ABC-TV
4151 Prospect Avenue
Hollywood, CA 90027

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