|
1992
 Sneakiest Character- Ryan
"Felicia
Jones came back this year, clutching baby Max and mumbling, "At least now
we'll be safe." Fat chance. Hot on her heels was Ryan, who thrust a
drug-soaked rag in her face and kicked off a second bout with amnesia.
Gold ring, warm heart? Hardly. Although Felicia's best pals are the police
commissioner (Sean) and a P.I. (Mac), no one connected the ring in her
nightmares to that gold band Ryan wore. Worse, Mac shrugged off Ryan's refusal
to help Felicia regain her memory as an irrational fear of hypnosis. Ryan moved
in to the brownstone, sucked up to Max and got a job (as a doctor!) quicker than
you could say, "Where's Frisco?" Finally, Mac confessed to a bad
feeling about Ryan just as Felicia's memory came flooding back, and she plunged
a knife into the murderous Ryan's chest. She never really did like that guy.
(SOD 12/22/92)
The Return of Emma Samms "Emma
Samms certainly didn't select the easiest time to return to GH as Holly Scorpio.
The soap has been kept in a dizzying state of flux because of changes in
producers and writers, not to mention the loss of major characters such as
Robert, Anna and Lucy. Despite the turmoil, Samms is turning in stellar
performances. The years have been kind to her in more ways than one: Besides
being more beautiful than ever, Samms has grown as an actress. Holly's
bittersweet reunion with Robert was touching, as was her realization that,
though she still loved him, his heart was with Anna. Having Robert ask Holly to
care for Robin in his absence laid the groundwork for an interesting
relationship that now provides the newly returned Holly with a base. Last, but
not least, Holly's presence on the Port Charles scene gives GH a sorely needed
romantic heroine who possesses intelligence and spirt. (SOD 4/28/92)
1993
 Best
Behaved Orphan- Robin "Here's a girl who grew up frequently
being the victim of her parents' spy activities. I was Robin who was
kidnapped when everyone was looking for those black pearls in the
Asian Quarter. It was Robin who was traumatized in the hospital and in
a catatonic state when Grant Putnam kidnapped her mother and murdered
Grandma Soltini. She knew what was expected of her as a soap child.
She saw her mother's second husband, Duke, get murdered. Then her
parents died. She would have a right to be neurotic, but she's as nice
as Angela Lansbury. And I call that maturity." (Diva, SOD
5/11/93)
1994
 Most
Long-Awaited Love Scene: Felicia and Mac "They bantered, they teased, they argued, they punched, they
escaped, they ploted, they lied, they tricked and they bantered again. They've
discussed marriage before they said, 'I love you' to each other. Felicia and Mac did
everything but make love for over a year. So when the duo finally did it in
November, you could hear a collective sigh of relief from GH fans all over the
country.
Here's how it happened: Mac proposed to
Felicia. Felicia turned him down. Tiffany, Bobbie and Robin yelled at Felicia
for saying 'no'. Felicia reconsidered, but Mac was hurt and he pulled back. Felicia
flirted and cajoled, but Mac wanted no part of her or the third finger on her left
hand. He'd been burned, and he wasn't about to let it happen again. He spurned
her at The Outback, and even went so far as to trout out a beautiful tennis partner to
make Felicia jealous. (We could hear it. Felicia: 'Love? Did you say love?' Mac
[sighing]: 'It's tennis, Felicia....')
Finally, Felicia dropped the act and stated her
case very simply in the Scorpio living room. 'I don't know what I'll do if you turn
me down again,' she implored, eyes wide, lips trembling. After everything else they had
been through, the direct approach finally worked. Mac took Felicia in his arms and
they headed upstairs.
To the gentle strains of 'I can't help falling
in love with you,' actors John J. York and Kristina Malandro conducted one of the sweetest
love scenes on record. No roaring fire, no candles, no bubble bath, no
negligee. Just two people who ached for each other in a bed. Felicia and Mac
consummated this romance the old-fashioned way- they earned
it." (SOD 1/4/94)
Tiff Didn't Throw a Fit on GH "GH's
Sharon Wyatt has not had much to do- OK, she's had nothing to do- since her
character, Tiffany, suffered a miscarriage and battled an addiction to pills and
booze (that was early 1993, folks). We didn't realize how much we missed her
until the July 20 episode. Tiffany got caught in the crossfire of Tony and
Bobbie's (the consistently superb Brad Maule and Jackie Zeman) marital battle,
and it wasn't pretty.
What was
pretty was Wyatt's performance, as Tiffany tried to calm the waters between the
two lives engulfed by anger and grief. Wyatt was restrained, when she could have
been hysterical (wouldn't that have been typical Tiff, too?). Maule and Wyatt
both fought tears, which made the scene more wretching. Tiffany tried to explain
to Tony that he and Bobbie wouldn't be able to get past their intense grief
(over the death of their daughter, B.J.) until they got past the anger. The
scenes were beautifully written, as well. Now if the writers sould just give
Wyatt a storyline of her own. We won't rest until we hear that acceptance speech
from her at the Emmys." (SOD 8/16/94)
1995
 Blown
Away on GH "Although the writing team for GH-
which just won the Daytime Emmy- certainly knows how to tell a story, the
writers framed the chilling revenge of Scully's goodfellas with words written by
someone else. As the hit men simultaneously sprayed a barrage of bullets at the
Spenser home, Luke's Club and Sonny's apartment, the only sound that the
audience heard was Laura's signing 'lullaby' and 'good night' to Lesley Lu,
which she began doing when the grisly assault began. The haunting sound of the
song that has soothed generations of children to sleep was as gentle as the
shoot-out was savage, and therein lay a simple and poignant message.
A
huge denouement was necessary for the mob storyline, explains supervising
producer Francesca James, because anything less wouldn't have served the
ultimate goal: to separate Luke and Laura. 'In doing that and realizing it would
have to be something violent, we were all hypersensitive to how we would be able
to put that on-screen.'
'You don't have to do the violence to feel the violence,' adds executive
producer Wendy Riche, 'and I think that's what we all set out to do.'" (SOW 6/27/95)
1996
 GH's
Nurses' Ball "The first two Nurses' Balls were tough
acts to follow, but the show did itself equally proud with this year's version,
perhaps the most emotional of all.
The
episode, which aired on the Day of Compassion, June 21, was a seamless
compendium of ongoing storyline subtext (Katherine and Lucy's rivalry; Brenda
and Sonny longing for each other), thoroughly enjoyable entertainment (Ned's son
to Lois showed off, once again, Wally Kurth's splendid singing voice and
personality to match!), slapstick comedy (oh, that Lucy!), plain talk about AIDS
(Mac's presentation to Robin of Stone's NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt panel
was an especially significant moment) and an outpouring of emotion that without
apology obliterated the line between reality and fantasy.
I
hesitate to dole out well-earned plaudits for fear of inadvertently omitting
some members of the GH team whose contributions were not as tangible as those of
the brillant costume, set, makeup and hair designers who created a visual
spectacular; the writers, whose words consistently hit the mark; and the actors
who turned in uniformly excellent performances. However, I must single out
Kimberly McCullough and Steve Burton (Robin and Jason): she for bearing the
emotional brunt of the episode with exemplary grace in her delivery of the very
moving keynote speech, and he for speaking volumes without uttering a
word." (SOW 7/14/96)
2007
Stung
Over Next moth
will mark one year since GH's Tristan Rogers (Robert)
showed up in Port Charles after presumably being
killed in a 1992 bomb blast. Since then, the man
called Scoprio has done... not a whole heckuva lot.
Sure, his entrance was
grand. Arriving just in time to quarantine the
hospital from a killer virus and bond with his
daughter, Robin, Scorpio resurfaced for a frothy May
romp and came face-to-face with his beloved Anna in an
encounter that literally packed a punch. But since
then, Scorpio has languished on the back-burner. This
is the guy who helped save the world from a frozen
fate, took out bad guys on trains, planes and
automobiles, and has cheated death on numerous
occassions. Now, he's barely spoken with brother Mac
and was last seen turning the other cheek after a
beating from Alcazar's thugs. The Robert we know
wouldn't take that lying down.
In 2007, let's spy
more of the super spy. (SOD 1/16/07)
|
