GH Wishes You an Allegedly Happy New Year

This promo is actually pretty good.  (I mean, if you don't really watch the show and know what's actually going on with most of those couples.)  It also shows that someone, somewhere at ABC Daytime knows what soaps are all about, because notice there's not a mob plot or shooting montage to be found in the entire minute.

Now, about that last bit at the end.  This is the first chance we've had to discuss this development.  I...just...why?  Could someone please explain to Bob Guza -- remembering to speak slowly and use small words -- that there is a very simple way to continue writing for characters you like.  And that is, to sum up:  STOP BRUTALLY MURDERING THEM.  Emily could have gotten a kicky haircut and splurged on a truckload of eye makeup upon her return in the new year from some volunteer effort in Africa (with Georgie).  We would have been spared her strangling (or maybe the whole Black and White Ball disaster altogether) and those disturbing few Weekend at Bernie's-esque days with people hanging out with her corpse, not to mention her return as a really happy tumor.  But noooo.  Now we have Natalia back as some other character that, due to her possession of breasts and ovaries, this writing team will inevitably either ignore or subject to disturbing levels of mistreatment and violence.  Or can we just skip ahead to the part where NewNotEmily gets murdered?  Because that would save me a lot of time and stress.  And vodka.

Comments

[Beth R.]

I am with you on the NewNotEmily thing. just why.....was it really that hard to write a "Helena kidnaps Emily and fakes her death" storyline? Yeah it would be pretty typical but wouldn't it have been oh I don't know....in character and true to the history of the show?

And as I am a major fan of one of the "couples" showcased on that promo...I'm hoping that that really really old stuff they are showing is to remind us and a hint of what is coming up. But I admit my delusions.

Yeah someone at ABD Daytime does know soaps...sadly it's clearly not Frons, Guza or Phelps.....

[Sarah]

If this trend continues any further soon PC will be all ghosts and old characters come back to life in new character's bodies.

Guza must have taken that episode of FRIENDS really seriously where Joey's character on DOOL was brought back to life by a brain transplant via now dead Susan Sarandon's soap character's demise.

Guza is monster stupid and he sucks more than Chicago winter storms.... and Happy Holidays to everyone else but him!

[horselover]

Guza doesn't know how to write for nice, heroic characters. He only knows how to write for the dark, whorish heroines. Hence, characters like Georgie and Emily get killed off and characters like Robin get little airtime. On the other hand, characters like Carly get to be THE leading lady of the show. That's what's wrong with this show in a nutshell. There are no heros and heroines that we can root for anymore. :(

[Hillary]

While I am still hoping that Natalia Livingston's new character will eventually be revealed down the road as being a brainwashed Emily, I know better than to think Guza and Co. could actually write a story like that. At any rate, I am positively thrilled that Natalia has decided to return to General Hospital and cannot wait for her and Tyler Christoper to have scenes together again. They always have had an effortless, undeniable chemistry, and I have missed seeing them together on my television. Who knows - I may have to actually start watching General Hospital again just to see them together.

[txrus]

Any bets on how long it is before Claudia has a 'Sonny'-bun in the oven? Ugh. I wonder what the Soap record is for the most #of children w/different mothers for a single character?

[Izzi]

Agree with you ab the promo .. it's so pretty and loving and makes me feel all warm and fuzzy ... until I realize it's ab GH and that it will kill all that in a sec.

Glad Natalia's back ... new character ... hmmmm ... still think it has more potential than half the crap they're showing.

[Chad]

It really wouldn't be too hard to have someone "discover" that the Diego who carried out the killings was an impostor working for someone behind the scenes (Helena? Faison? Damian Smith? Whatever; it shouldn't be that hard to find a villain who'd have a grudge against the Joneses and the Quartermaines or Nickolas) and only faked the murders of Emily and Georgie as an elaborate revenge plot. Sure soaps have done that sort of thing before, but most soaps don't also kill off popular legacy characters willy-nilly.

So I wonder if Guza is just doing it as a half-assed compromise. He recognizes that killing Emily was a mistake and he's hoping that by just recasting Natalia fans will be "appeased."

[Jennyp]

Not only does that promo mislead you into thinking GH is still an actually soap (and not just a poor copy of "The Sopranos,") there's very little chance any of those couples will be happy for more than two minutes before someone's shot dead. UGH!!

[Anna Maria]

In response to Hillary and the record for most # of children w/ different mothers for a single character...I say Sonny is right up there with Stephano Demera from Days of Our Lives. That guy has sired about 20 different kids with just about every female on the show (Renee, Tony, the gemini twins, peter, Kristen, Benji, Lexi, Meghan, EJ, to name a few)

[Cate]

I hate this sucky sucky show!! I have nothing intelligent to say about it since it has officially killed all my brain cells with its suckiness. Seriously after two years of stupidity they're going to put Jason/Sam and Lucky/Liz back together, that's just so ridiculously dumb. And the NotEmily situation i knew it was going to happen but ugh there are just no words.

[Lauren]

Wait...what? Natalia Livingston is back? ...::sigh::. That's so Days of Our Lives.

[Stephanie]

Cate, I TOTALLY AGREE with you. I did not know that I could be this angry with a TV show, but GH has driven my wrath to new heights. I am utterly furious at the redemption on Sam and the promise of a 2009 full of Jason/Sam and LL2. LL2 hasn't worked since JJ left and GH is just wasting all the talent and loveliness that is Rebecca Herbst. I wouldn't blame her is she walked away from this atrocity ABC tries to pass off as a daytime drama.

This promo makes me see RED and makes me absolutely crazy. It is the nail in the GH coffin for me and I have removed GH from my Tivo. After being a patient GH fan for nearly 2 decades, I have had it with this crap...better yet...shitfest. Brian Frons can burn in hell!

[Keli]

2009 GH Preview:
“This is going to be very, very big” Guza says of a top-secret event set to rock the show.

The only big event that I want to see is pink slips issued to Jill Farren Phelps, Brian Frons, Robert Guza and most of the GH writing staff (awesome writer excluded.)

Sarah Brown hasn't saved GH -- what makes TIIC think that Natalia Livingston can save this crapfest? Hey folks, it's not the actors or the characters, the trouble is THE WRITING SUCKS!!!!

[cillann]

Natalia, at best, is a very limited actress. Why is she back?
This show has become Melrose Place meets the mob. Nothing
will improve until Frons, Guza and Phelps are gone. Until that
time it is hopeless. Frons is on record as saying that the "audience needs to be taught" what it wants. No Frons, we do not want
the dark, murderous, loveless crapfest this show has become under your guidance. Arrogant idiot.

[Rain StormRaider]

Is it just me or does it seem like this promo is three years too late?

Plus Claudia would've made more sense then rather than now...

On the plus side, since I no longer watch GH, I'm saving money on my grocery bill and my TV screen is strangely without any rotten egg residue on it....

[Carl]

Can GH use this as an opportunity to say that NL's breathy, dreary character was never actually Emily? I know we aren't going to get Amber Tamblyn back, but there are always other recasts.

[Mar]

On the bright side... NewNotEmily will whisk Nikolas away from Nadine!!!

[Cece]

Can Maxie eat a sandwich, please?