Marlena delights in introducing a new contributor, Jeffrey S. Pearlstein. Jeff is a veteran soap journalist and long-time colleague of Marlena’s who has written for many soap magazines. He is an expert in soap history, a wonderful interviewer, and his great passion for soaps shines through in everything he does. He is also a wonderful friend. Marlena affectionately calls him “Jeffy” and he calls me his “soap guru.” Enjoy his recollections of one of soap opera’s greatest plots: the Ice Princess era on Gloria Monty’s “General Hospital.”
By Jeffrey S. Pearlstein
In 1981, under the auspices of then-producer Gloria Monty, the widely popular daytime drama General Hospital ventured into the world of science fiction, behind the back drop of the epic romance of daytime’s hottest super-couple Luke and Laura (Anthony Geary and Genie Francis)!
The ultra rich Quartermaine clan — headed by ELQ owner greedy Edward Q (the late David Lewis) and his shrewd, scheming niece, Alexandria (the lovely Renee Anderson) — was on a quest for the world’s largest uncut diamond, known as the Ice Princess. What wasn’t known at the time was that megalomaniac Mikkos Cassidine (the late John Colicos) also wanted the diamond, not for the jewel’s monetary value itself, but for the ugly base of the gem’s housing, which contained a secret formula, created by James Duvall, for a mysterious “healing agent” called Carbonic Snow.
While the original Ice Princess story line, in all its glorious campiness, captivated an overwhelmingly large viewing audience, the soap’s current attempt at a revisit after so many years truly fell flat and melted away. Not surprising, since Luke and Laura, the soap’s spectacularly popular lovers and the source of the much of the show’s success in the 80s, also are long gone.
It lacked the build-up of excitement — the nail-biting life and death circumstances and the continued love affair of soap opera’s most popular couple, Luke and Laura. Introduced in the original story line were two outstanding newcomers: Australian born Tristan Rogers (as WSB secret agent Robert Scorpio) and Sharon Wyatt (a talented firecracker in both comedy and drama) as former B-movie actress Tiffany Hill. They banded together with Luke and Laura to bring down the evil, insidious Cassidine Brothers; leader of the family and the eldest, Mikkos; passive, obedient Tony (Andre Lazzat) and naïve and idealistic Victor (then Thaoo Penghlis- now Tony DiMera on Days of Our Lives).
Of all the characters introduced specifically to that story line, only Rogers and Wyatt headed back to Port Charles and remained current characters in further on-going story lines. Poor Alexandria, introduced prior in Port Charles, met her demise when she was caught in Mikkos’ ice chamber, and froze to death along with her paramour Tony. And Renee Anderson was out of a job! Victor, the only Cassidine who survived, was sent to prison, awaiting trial before a Grecian court!
There was a high class ocean voyage, a picturesque tropical island, a luxurious underground compound with a fountain that spewed champagne lavish dinner parties enjoyed by well attired men in tuxes and women in chic gowns. Picture a beautifully dressed Laura Webber brandishing a machine gun. And oh, let’s not forget the control panel of a weather machine in a secret room that could make it snow in Port Charles in the middle of a blistering summer! When Luke Spencer entered the obvious code “ICE PRINCESS” to stop the weather machine, Port Charles was saved, and they were all hailed as heroes upon their return!
When revisiting a previous story line point, especially one forty years old that still stands out in longtime viewers’ minds, it’s important to maintain continuity. A majority of the main players need to return, seen today as well as in extended flashbacks from long ago episodes to retain and recapture the past to bring current viewers up to speed. Only three of the original characters were included in this updated story line — Scorpio, Laura, and Victor Cassidine, although Victor was now portrayed by another actor. BTW, when Charles Shaughnessy (new Victor) took baby Ace hostage with a few others, and needed to hire a nanny to tend to the infant, a cool inside joke would have been to have hired Fran Drescher in a cameo role to portray the Nanny, since Shaughnessy, while fondly remembered as Days’ Shane Donovan, hit primetime gold in the 90s sitcom The Nanny as Mr. Sheffield opposite Drescher!
While attempting to make an escape through a barrage of Victor’s mercenary body guards, Spencer (Nicholas Chavez, last year’s Emmy Winner for Outstanding Young Actor) clung tightly to his baby brother, while his gal-pal Trina Robinson (Tabyina Ali) led the way. Chavez is a solid 6-foot-tall well-built young man, while Ali is but a mere wisp of a short young girl. Thus, visually it would have made more sense for Spencer to lead the way, while Trina cradled the baby during their escape. At least Spencer would have had half a chance of blocking and/or fighting (or landing at least one good wallop against the henchman) than Trina would have. No Anna Devane is she! And their on-screen coupling did not have the breadth of love and devotion much less the chemistry as the original super-couple, Luke and Laura!
And speaking of fighting, one must hand it to super-spy Anna Devane, who truly kicked ass! For myself, and perhaps many others who were fans of Maggie Q’s Nikita and Jennifer Garner’s Alias TV heroines, it was truly a sight to behold seeing these independent strong women using their own physical skills and taking on their bigger male opponents. It’s no secret that actress Finola Hughes loves the action-oriented story lines. And while Anna did get a punch in the face (I am certainly not an advocate of female violence) she gave as good as she got, if not better, and that was truly amazing! Of course, Hughes also got to display the many emotional layers of her multi-faceted character in her scenes with Valentine Cassidine. While James Patrick Stuart is a capable actor, I felt they made the character just a bit too wishy-washy as he was sadistically being tortured by his erstwhile father, Victor. As a bonus, Constance Towers appeared in several scenes as a vision in Valentine’s deluded mind, as his cut-throat and vengeful mother, the now deceased Helena Cassidine (originated back in 1981 by the late Elizabeth Taylor).
Also, the components of the story line were not as cohesive and continuous as the original format of the daytime drama. It was mostly a bunch of isolated scenes strung together. For instance, when Holly (the recently returned Emma Samms) confronted Victor on his escape with Liesel (Kathleen Gati, who was truly hilarious) gleefully announcing it was she who delivered a rather potent cocktail to Victor that left him impotent, held him at gun-point, though Samms didn’t look too comfortable brandishing a gun! While Liesel was encouraging Holly to shoot Victor, even at her own expense, Gati’s wit and delivery was pure entertainment, as both women took a little glee in Victor’s, shall we say, short-comings. However, it might have been a little bit more welcome and with higher stakes had it been Anna who confronted the escaping duo, having yet to make a choice between either shooting a woman once her sworn enemy or the mad-man who recently shot her!
This time around, there were no well-groomed costumes worn by any of the cast. When Laura entered the compound in an over-sized olive drab outer jacket, which was not flattering to Genie Francis story point wise, Laura could have easily hidden a handgun inside to pull out at the right moment, capable of protecting herself, yet she was left to be guarded by gun toting Curtis (Donnell Turner) and Drew (Cameron Mathison) instead. Just a dab of chauvinism there. However, Laura later showed her true bravura when she swiped the deadly pathogen and threatened Victor to unleash it right there and then, sacrificing her own life and others in the room for the greater good!
It also would have been great to have seen all three of GH’s top leading ladies, each having handed the torch of succession to another, Genie Francis to Emma Samms to Finola Hughes, all in one scene together! After all, it has been rumored that Victor had the iconic Luke Spencer (off camera) killed, having been at different times the paramour of each of those lovely ladies! If this were the old days, semi-retired Anthony Geary, who has since left the show, could have popped out from a secret room on that hidden island, alive and thrown back into the thick of the action!
In the original story line, while Mikkos’ dastardly and deadly machine was the first step towards his world domination, all the characters were gathered in the life and death stakes. Yet here it seems everyone was left to their own devices. All characters did not interact with one another as a collective, each having their own agendas and their own lives to lose, to share final thoughts and memories together.
Both Scorpio ex-wives Anna and Holly left Port Charles together to rescue the hostages, and yet their journey together was not shared on screen either on the way to the rescue or in the subsequent aftermath. Writers did not take advantage of Samm’s short term appearance or the rich history of enmity between these two characters or fully utilize their combined on-screen talents. And when Holly ran into Laura in one of the hallways, another opportunity to revisit their rich history is not displayed, with barely a quick exchange of transitory dialogue to get from one scene to another!
Curtis was interested in saving his possible daughter, Trina, for her mother and his new wife, Portia. Drew was concerned with bringing back Liesel to donate her bone marrow to his gal-pal Carly’s dying daughter in law. And while Laura who, like her ex-husband Luke before her, stopped the dastardly weather machine in its tracks by remembering that long ago formula code, she also wanted to see her two grandsons, Spencer and baby Ace, safely returned home.
This time, however, Scorpio, former super secret agent now Port Charles’ D.A., was left on the sidelines back in Port Charles, aided by Felicia (Kristina Wagner), the ex-wife of another WSB Agent, only mentioned not seen, Frisco Jones, to remunerate the horrors of a power-mad Cassidine, and wonder what was truly going on on that isolated island located in Greenland. The drone strike to the island was staved off, with the new target became the Haunted Star, the ship that originally sailed from Port Charles to Mikkos’ secret island headquarters and later, given as a wedding gift to Luke and Laura from Helena. The only person feared to have perished in the bombing of the Haunted Star was Laura’s grandson and Trina’s infatuation, Spencer Cassidine. When a body did turn up after the explosion, Valentine identified the corpse as his erstwhile father, while Spencer remained missing before turning up alive at the episode’s end.
Since Victor’s arrival, just about every character he came across wanted to get back at him for one crime or another: Holly, for holding her hostage and targeting her son Ethan, and forcing her to work against her erstwhile compatriots; Valentine, for kidnapping his daughter Charlotte and forcing him to partner with him; Anna, for setting her up for murder and later shooting her; Liesal, for a long ago affair and turning against him; Drew, for brainwashing him and using him as an unwitting pawn; and Laura, for not only their long ago encounter, but for trying to influence her son and grandson to join his quest, and lastly, believing Victor was ultimately responsible for Luke Spencer’s death! A missed opportunity was having all of Victor’s victims having the pleasure of seeing him perish, or at least one or more being held responsible!
The island group of non-tourists, both captives and rescuers, never shared one big scene together, even to silently look around and see that all were safe and sound, something in the old days that might have bonded these semi-familiar characters in a deeper manner somewhere later down the road. After all, a soap opera’s mantra was always “Tune in tomorrow.”
The story line and how it played out for the most part, left me cold, and not nearly as invested in the predictable outcome, with no lasting repercussions whatsoever. Although there was a twinge of nostalgia for long time viewers, the story hit a massive “iceberg,” and like those little town blues of New York, New York, all hope just melted away!
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