General Hospital Moves to 2PM

Well, after decades airing at 3:00PM eastern time on ABC,

the daytime drama General Hospital is moving

to 2:00PM eastern/1:00PM pacific time today.

The show has been on fire lately, back to being a soap fans can really enjoy.

Check out the latest promo below!

Tune in to get in on the action!

A Last Life to Live

After over 43 years of daily shows, it all comes down to one hour.

Today marks the final episode of ABC's "One Life to Live".

This show was always the "back up" show, when I was growing up. "General Hospital" was the big deal at my house, between my sister, my younger brother (for awhile, anyway) and myself. "One Life to Live" was the one we caught if we had time. Usually, it had started before we got home, so it was just a half hour, at most. But I still watched and got hooked, for a good number of years.

I stopped watching years ago and only last summer did I start up again, watching with my family. We are all kinda hooked on it, and if the show had been as good (and as cheezy-fun) as it has been lately, I bet it wouldn't be facing its demise today.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Viki Lord Buchanan, played by actress Erica Slezak  for 40 years,
had a speech on the show yesterday:

“The fans are so loyal, so passionate, so invested in their stories. I always ask how they started watching Fraternity Row. Some of them were stay at home mothers, taking a break before their children came home from school. Others were college students, with free time between classes. Many of them inherited a love of the show from their parents or their grandparents, who were long time fans themselves.

I remember the first time I tuned into Fraternity Row. I was hooked instantly. I needed to know what would happen next to these fascinating people. Would the hero and the heroine find their way back to true love? Would the villains get their comeuppance? Or would their crimes go unpunished? Would loving families overcome their obstacles? Or would their troubles prove too difficult to surmount?

Ultimately, that’s what soap opera is about: families. Close families, rival families. Even families that are unexpected, or the ones we choose for ourselves. And when a show is lucky enough to be on the air as long as Fraternity Row has been on, these families become extensions of our own. The audience might be upset when a favorite actor leaves, but they’re always willing to welcome a new one. Even when that new cast member is quite different from the one being replaced.

After all, this is a place where people come back from the dead, go off to grade school in the morning and come home from high school in the afternoon. Because for every new face, every new couple, every new family, there are long familiar faces. Some who have grown up before our very eyes. And a few more we hope to watch grow up. We know them so well. They’ve become our friends. We yearn for their happiness, especially when it’s hard won. We laugh as they laugh, cry as they cry and we can’t imagine doing without them. And when things are at their very worst on the show, that’s when we seem to enjoy them the most.

There’s just one thing we have to do to keep them in our lives: tune in tomorrow.”

Victoria Lord, on the ending of One Life To Live’s fictional soap opera Fraternity Row.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So, thanks for all the hours of entertainment.

You will be missed, no matter what ABC-TV thinks.

Here is the "One Life to Live" song, as sung by Kristen Alderson,

who played Starr on the show.

Dark Mansions

Yesterday, in my post of Halloween-themed pics, I posted a few "haunted houses". They got me thinking about an old TV movie.

Greystone Mansion, used as the estate in the film

Dark Mansions was a pilot for a proposed TV series, however it was never picked up and instead aired as a one-time ABC TV movie on August 23, 1986.

The show was an Aaron Spelling-Douglas S. Cramer production and was written by Anthony Lawrence, Nancy Lawrence and Robert McCullough, produced by McCullough and Jerry London and directed by London.

The telefilm starred veteran actress Joan Fontaine, Linda Purl, Michael York, Melissa Sue Anderson, Nicollette Sheridan, Grant Aleksander and Lois Chiles.

The plot: Shellane Victor (Purl) is hired to write a book about a wealthy ship-building family, the Drakes. At the family's estate in Oregon she finds that she is a dead ringer for a long-deceased member of the family. Soon, strange things begin to happen that mirror the events that lead to the previous woman's death. Will Shellane fall victim as well?

I remember the very day I watched this, way back in 1986. I had been looking forward to it, as it had sounded to me like a supernatural spin on Dynasty or Dallas, which were very big at the time. The day it was to air, I had gone to my grandmother's house with my mom. As the afternoon wore on, all the adults were making plans to go to Jai Alai or the dog track, something like that. I stayed behind at my grandmother's very rural home. It was no "dark mansion", but it was a bit creepy being there alone.

Watching the movie on her small, portable television set wasn't the best, picture-wise, but the whole experience added a level of eeriness to the show that it might otherwise have lacked. I remember liking it, but it only ever aired this one time and was gone, a footnote in television history.

I have found at least one not-very-positive review for the movie online, but there is virtually nothing else available for it. No pics, no videos, just a short clip of Anderson and Aleksander from the film. It truly is one of those forgotten, brief moments in TV land.

Anyone else remember Dark Mansions?

Reason #2 Why I Love TV

For my second post in this not-so-regular feature here, I am going back in time.




Reason #2 Why I Love TV: General Hospital.

This is better categorized as a "Why I USED to Love TV".


See, I was a GH fan for decades, from the mid/late 70s up until the early 2000's. I watched through a lot of ups and downs. But in the early part of the previous decade, the show lost its focus.


No longer did history, long-term characters and family matter. Instead, it was all about the mob. Granted, this was interesting. At first. But the show became all-mob, all-the-time. And to make matters worse, death became a quick-hit story plot device instead of something that mattered.


Long-term, important characters were killed off, either for monetary reasons or for supposed story advancement. But all that ended up happening (besides saving money in the budget, I suppose) was a bitter distancing of long-time fans.


After too much bloodshed and character assassination, I gave up. The show - whether it was the writers, producers, whomever - no longer cared about the fans who had been around so long. Budget took priority. The "hot" mob took center stage,  apparently permanently. And I, sadly, said adios.


But now I have read that the long-time head writer of the show was dumped and replaced with someone else. For the first time in a very long time, there is new blood in the writing room. I gave thought to revisiting the show I had watched so long. But, still I hesitated.


Then I started to read a few fan reviews. They seemed positive. Also, a long-time character (Dr. Monica Quartermaine) was being brought back. Things seem to be looking positive.


Of course, this comes at a time when it may just be too little, too late for the show. Daytime soaps are falling left and right, including the other two ABC shows, All My Children (off the air in September) and One Life to Live (off the air in January 2012.) There has been news that those shows will be moving online, in some format. And there are also rumblings that GH is poised for a similar fate, if and when it leaves the broadcast airwaves. Seems like a last-ditch way to try and hold on to the shows. But for some fans, better that than nothing at all.


All of that doom-and-gloom aside, we have DVR'd the last two episodes of GH. Will it be the show I remember? Probably not. But I am willing to give it a try, at least for old time's sake.


Maybe it will be like catching up with an old friend.  Hopefully it won't just be to say one final good-bye.

LOST - finale, my thoughts

Okay, so Megan was curious as to my thoughts on the LOST Finale, so here goes:

I liked it, a lot. To begin, I am not a believer in an afterlife, whether that's a purgatory or heaven or hell - just not what I believe.

But, I was a viewer here, not a writer, so I am okay with it all. And the fact that the Sideways world was a sort of purgatory or holding world for these people to gather together in, well, that was great, I thought.

As Jack's father said, they were all special to each other during the most important time of their lives. It echoed something Jacob said. When Sawyer denied all of the survivors being "alone" in the world, and therefore good candidates, Jacob corrected Sawyer. And he was right. Sawyer, Kate, Jack, Hurley - all of the Oceanic survivors were chosen because they had gotten lost in the world. And together, they found meaning and purpose - helping and loving one another. Like Jack said way back in the beginning: "If we can't learn to live together, we are going to die alone." They learned, and they died together.

As for all the little island secrets and such, I am no big stickler for EVERYTHING being spoon-fed to me. Some questions were answered, the big ones I believe, and some other things were left for us to continue to speculate on. Such as Walt, and what made him "special".

Since we weren't given an answer, I think maybe Walt was a back-up to Desmond. Desmond was the one who sat for years, pushing the button to avert the electro-magnetic kablooie. He was also slowly building up a sort of immunity to the island's electromagnetic properties that came in handy when he was needed to uncork the light from the cavern. Had something happened to Desmond before he was able to do that, maybe Walt would have had to show up and step up to do it.

But, in reality, I think we have to remember this IS a show. The actor who played Walt grew a lot. It could have been explained, since the survivors did jump around through time, that Walt had grown up, but in the end it didn't matter. Desmond did what he needed to do. Walt wasn't really needed, whatever his purpose. Not a big deal. And Walt wasn't in the church, since his time on the island was short, in comparison to the others. Maybe he never found himself "alone", and his afterlife was with the family or friends he made in life.

As for the church, I was at first a bit taken aback by how blatantly Christian it all seemed. But, in retrospect, the church was multi-denominational, and it also was the church where Eloise had her lab underground, where she showed Jack and Ben how to get back to the island and what they needed to do to find it. So, I am better with it now than I was upon first viewing.

One of my favorite parts of the entire finale was the little memory flashback/reunions the characters had.

Sun and Jin being reminded of their true lives upon the viewing of their daughter on the sonogram was great. Loved when Sawyer came in to check on them, Jin's expression at Sawyer being a cop was priceless!


Sayid and Shannon remembering each other once Sayid came to her rescue, right after Hurley said this: "I think you're a good guy, Sayid. I know a lot of people have told you that you're not... Maybe you've heard it so many times that you started believing it. But you can't let other people tell you what you are, dude. You have to decide for yourself."


Kate, Claire and Charlie all snapping back to themselves upon Aaron's SECOND birth. I think it was good that Kate got to remember bringing a life into the world, instead of the killing of her stepfather. Whether that was really baby Aaron or not, it doesn't matter. Claire and Charlie got to be a small family once again.

They were all great, but Sawyer and Juliet coming together at the candy machine I think that was my favorite of them all. They seemed so mismatched and ended up so perfect for each other, I was glad to see them get a final reunion. And the mysterious "It worked." or something that was supposedly words from Juliet after the bomb went off weren't anything more than the words she said when Sawyer unplugged the candy machine and the bar fell. Nice.

Locke didn't wind up with Helen, but I think we are remembering more of the Helen that wasn't real in the Sideways world than the Helen who Locke left behind when he went on the flight. By then, they weren't together. It makes sense that she would have moved on with her life.

And Jack, who took the longest to remember, finally makes peace with everything. His son in the Sideways world was, as other viewers and bloggers have written, his way of making peace with all the unresolved issues he had with his own father. Jack was never able to see the parental view of the situation between him and his father in life, because he had no kids of his own. But here, he was able to do that for a bit and come to terms with it all. And when he finally was reunited with his dad at the end, it was all okay.

So, yeah - I liked the finale. I liked that Hurley became the island's protector, because in a way, he had been the protector of his friends before that. Jack was trying to save their lives, but Hurley was always trying to save their spirit, their joy for living. And that is kind of what the light of the island was all about.

Ben being his "Number Two" was great, as well. Keeps so true to that character and his road to redemption. And also leaves you wondering if maybe, just maybe, Ben has some ulterior motive. I think at the end we see that he didn't, that he was true to his word and was good at helping Hurley, but in the moment, I wondered if Ben was still scheming. I also like that he didn't go into the church, that he wasn't ready. Makes sense that maybe his group of important people involved others, like Rousseau and Alex, Whidmore and Eloise, Richard Alpert, maybe even Daniel and Charlotte and Ethan. And possibly even in the redemption of Michael, whose spirit we saw trapped on the island, due to his murder of Ana Lucia and Libby. Possibly they are all a future group waiting to go, and Ben will be the "Desmond" who helps them all remember and let go.

Others have pointed out lots of little details or question. Who made the statue? What about the hieroglyphics? Why was the light not stumbled upon before? The island, like the Earth itself and life itself, is not always going to give you all the answers. Some things happened before they landed on the island, and it is no one's responsibility to go around giving the new inhabitants all the answers to the past. People were there before the Oceanic crash, and people would be there after. Just life.

Like I said, some stuff not answered, but in a good way, because we get to speculate and talk about it, to think and let it work itself out in our own heads. The characters we cared about during the show got endings and resolutions and that is what should matter.

Good way to end a show like this, if you ask me.

LOST

Lost.

It all ends tonight. Not the debate or talk about the show, I think that will go on and on. But the show itself is all over tonight after a two-hour series retrospective/recap and a two-and-a-half hour finale. A lot of time for a show's finale, but this is no ordinary show.

I am looking forward to the finale, more so than some others I have seen as of late. Lost has always been so much bigger than just a show. It was a love it or hate show for most, and for some a love it-then hate it-then love it again show.

I loved it from the beginning, even if I kind of got lost in a sea of confusion somewhere in the middle. The announcement by the creators and ABC that the show had a definite end point was a great idea, and brought back some fans, I think, who were afraid it was going to devolve into a "how long can we stretch this" game. Knowing there was an end and, hopefully, a point to all this made it safe to step back in and finish up this wild ride.

And it paid off, for the show and for the viewers. I have been loving it again like I did back then. The episode a few weeks ago, that ended with Hurley, Kate, Sawyer and Jack stumbling to shore after the submarine sank, was pure Lost magic. It was sad, a major downer, but it also made you still feel like you were part of this little group of people just trying to, somehow, survive together. The faces and reactions of the characters as they realized all they had just lost was almost too much to take.

That has always been what has saved this show from becoming too over-the-top. These characters have been through so much, before and after their island crash, that we feel invested in them and care for what happens to them. We may not like them all, or agree with their decisions, but hey - that's life.

As I am sure every other fan has, I have my own theories on what is going on. But I am not worried that the creators are going to fail to explain every minute detail. I don't need them to. As long as we get some answer as to what is going on, with the island world and the sideways world, and what will become of these people once the final credits roll, I will be okay with it all.

The entire show is not made up of just the finale. Lost has to be viewed as whole, as a journey. Did the creators, writers, actors give us a show to watch and enjoy? Did we laugh, cry, shake our heads or gasp in shock? Hell yeah we did, many times. And that is all I can ask for in a television show. I don't need it to be perfect, and I don't think I would want it to be perfect. I want it to be enjoyable entertainment, and Lost has more than done that for me. Whatever the finale is or isn't, it is not the entire show.

The journey here has been made up of Jack. And Sawyer. And Kate, Hurley, Locke, Charlie, Claire, Aaron, Sayid, Sun, Jin, Michael, Walt, Rose, Bernard, Libby, Juliet, Ana Lucia, Mr. Eko, Shannon, Boone, Lapidus, Desmond, Penny, Daniel, Charlotte, Benjamin and the rest. Jacob and whatever his brother became may be the central good and evil of the show, but all these others we have met are the heart and soul. And while some will be missed more than others, they brought something to the magic that is this show. The polar bear in a tropical setting, the black smoke monster, the trippy trips through time - those are all great "what-the-hell" events. But the characters are what made it work.

While I don't think the creators, writers or actors will see this tiny post, I also want to say thank you, to all of them. It has been a roller-coaster of a ride for six years, and like any coaster, it has had its twists and turns, its ups and downs. It has been thrilling and scary, and I am glad I got on board.

So, I will watch it and enjoy it and probably scratch my head now and then. But I will be entertained and I expect nothing less, or more, from this show.

(The pic above is from National Post - view a clickable version with info on the characters!)