Marlena says: It's a special time at General Hospital. The 50th anniversary is coming up April 1 and it's been just about a year since headwriter Ron Carlivati and executive producer executive producer Frank Valentini took over a dying show and made it must-watch TV. Marlena's dear friend and veteran journalist Ed Martin, who first started … [Read more...]
This Week On General Hospital: Watching, Remembering and Perhaps Thinking Too Much … The Bold and the Beautiful’s Game-Changing Pregnancy
February 23, 2013 by 8 Comments
By Marlena De Lacroix a.k.a. Connie Passalacqua Hayman I certainly ran the full gamut of emotions while watching General Hospital this week. Tell me you didn’t also have tears in your eyes when Luke and Laura were reunited and Luke flashed back onto an earlier reunion when Laura came back from her Cassadine kidnapping in 1983. I was surprised … [Read more...]
General Hospital: When the Veterans Come Marching Home
February 16, 2013 by 11 Comments
By Marlena De Lacroix a.k.a. Connie Passalacqua Hayman The late Jim Reilly used to say that writing a soap was like baking a cake. You mix in various ingredients, maybe a little bit more or less of some, bake it, and then, voila, there’s the show, rich and delicious. The main ingredient mixed into GH this past year has been veterans. With the … [Read more...]
General Hospital, The Bold and the Beautiful, Days of Our Lives, The Young and the Restless: 15 Questions
February 9, 2013 by 12 Comments
By Marlena De Lacroix a.k.a. Connie Passalacqua Hayman 1. Wasn’t Caleb tasting the dead correction officer’s blood at the end of General Hospital’s Friday episode one of the grossest soap moments ever? So that's Caleb? What’s the big deal, anyway? 2. Am I the only one who thinks that Steve Burton has done fine so far on The Young … [Read more...]
Moose Says: General Hospital Can Snare … the Soon-to-be-Prized Old Guy Demographic?
January 26, 2013 by 6 Comments
Marlena says: Soap fans everywhere are cautiously optimistic that, against all odds, there’s been a hopeful turn in the heretofore bleak fortunes of soap opera. Ratings are strong and even improving for the four network soaps that survived the death watch of the past few years, and Prospect Park is said to be moving full steam ahead to bring two of … [Read more...]
Isn’t Downton Abbey Just Like Daytime Soaps? Consider the Similarities …
January 12, 2013 by 5 Comments
By Marlena De Lacroix a.k.a. Connie Passalacqua Hayman Name me a daytime soap fan who doesn’t watch and probably love Downton Abbey. Even though a lot happened this busy soap week (Genie’s coming back, Prospect Park made a deal with the Writers Guild) what everyone’s talking about is the megahit Masterpiece Theater miniseries. Downton’s third … [Read more...]
On Soaps, We Believe What We Choose to Believe
January 5, 2013 by 12 Comments
By Marlena De Lacroix a.k.a. Connie Passalacqua Hayman General Hospital: Soaps or biology -- which do you choose to believe? On General Hospital this week, surrogate mother Maxie had a miscarriage (of the week-old embryo that is Dante and Lulu’s child) and barely noticed it. The same evening, New Year’s Eve, a drunk and apparently rejected … [Read more...]
A “Bah Humbug” Christmas … Plus, The Borg is Back!
December 29, 2012 by 6 Comments
By Marlena De Lacroix a.k.a. Connie Passalacqua Hayman Oh how I miss soap Christmases the way they used to be. Today, all soaps have been scrubbed of religion. This year only two of the four soaps -- Days of Our Lives and The Bold and the Beautiful -- continued with at least some of the traditions that made the holiday a really special time to … [Read more...]
Merry Christmas, Baby, from Marlena!
December 22, 2012 by 3 Comments
By Marlena De Lacroix a.k.a. Connie Passalacqua Hayman The Young and the Restless: I’m always looking for improvements under the new regime at The Young and the Restless. One of the show’s former problems was loading heroines with too many problems, and I think the current writers have done a nice job these last few weeks in giving Phyllis … [Read more...]
