Paula's Soapbox

I think I speak for most people when I say that GH revisiting the Franco storyline is beyond terrible. It appears that they are trying to redeem this character, not a foreign concept in soaps. Villains turn heroes all the time in this genre; but Franco is not redeemable.  Even if we were to take his DVDs at face value and assume he didn't want Michael hurt, he wasn't beyond exploiting the rape to torture Jason --- remember Francophenia? The writers don't seem to, or they just don't care, which is worse. They would also have us believe that Franco only did the things he did because Jason somehow rejected him.    How could that be? Franco was torturing Jason before Jason ever knew he existed! And don't get me started on how every character thinks Franco looks exactly the same as he did a few years ago. Franco doesn't look like Todd and Kiki doesn't look like Starr, just add some hair dye and the audience will be none the wiser...right!  On top of the Franco...

The legal mess between Prospect Park and ABC continues and it's creating a lot of drama. According to  TV Guide.com   Michael Easton, Roger Howarth, and Kristen Alderson will be returning to General Hospital as planned, however they will most likely be playing entirely different characters. While I have been hoping these three actors would return to GH, I can't say I'm happy about the prospect of them playing new characters. In my opinion this is worse than if the actors had simply left the show. I really can't foresee any creative solution to this problem, especially in the case of Michael Easton, who has already played dual roles on GH, one of which was a vampire. Yes, soap viewers routinely suspend the reality of disbelief, but since Starr, Todd, and John have become such significant characters on GH I don't see how they can possibly come back as different characters anytime soon. I might be able to get on board with one actor returning in this capacity, but thre...

Eariler today General Hospital's Laura Wright (Carly) tweeted that we will indeed be seeing more of Michael Easton, Roger Howarth, and Kristen Alderson on the show. Of course it remains to be seen if we will be seeing them in the same roles. As I posted  last week there has been speculation that these three actors would return to GH as different characters. This would mean that the roles of Todd, Starr, and John would be recast on the OLTL reboot. Obviously Michael Easton is playing dual roles on GH right now, so could we be saying goodbye to John at some point, and hello to Caleb? I guess we'll have to stay tuned to find out.

For a while now we have all been expecting that Roger Howarth (Todd, GH), Michael Easton (John, GH), and Kristen Alderson (Starr, GH) would soon be exiting GH due to legal entanglements between ABC and Prospect Park. That has now been confirmed. While disappointing for some, including myself, who thought their characters integrated into GH quite nicely, the news gets worse. According to  Soap Opera Digest , Prospect Park will most likely recast the roles of Todd, Star, and John, allowing Howarth, Easton, and Alderson to come back to GH at some point, but as different characters.  Personally, I don't foresee any situation where this could work out to anyone's advantage, least of all the viewers. Let's just hope the writers of both shows can come up with a creative and engaging solution to this casting mess, no matter how it works out.  Michael Easton and Kristen Alderson have released statements to their fans via facebook and twitter:  -continu...

Caption this photo from yesterday's General Hospital and post it in the comment section below. Remember to keep it clean! :)