Or in this case, maybe not so funny
December 28, 2002
You know, it might not mean as much to people who just started watching GH in the past few years. For you, GH might always have been a show that was centered around only 4-5 people, has nothing to do with a hospital and is primarily Mob TV. For those of us who are long term vets with the show (me since that first run in 1963), it's like watching your child who has taken its first steps, started to run, graduated Valedictorian, caught a degree in On Location Shots in the 80's, had a child (Port Charles) and then sank headlong into a depression from which it may never emerge, to the point that it is now middle-aged, drinking heavily, dressing like Roxy from OLTL, showing its tits at traffic lights and passing out in gutters all around town. You cry for it. You rant about it. You pray for it, but mostly, it's a situation that is just so, so sad that you can do little but watch it self-destruct. As I've said in my column, were it not for this website, GH would have been off my list months ago, probably about the time that I saw where the return of Rick Webber was going. My memories have all been raped and tortured. My dear, beloved show is little more than a showcase for a few prize poodles that get to prance around with the same moves, the same dialogue, hell, even the same old warmed up, leftover stories. The viewers are being insulted on a daily basis, as are the brilliant actors who are being constantly pushed to side in favor of the precious, sacred few who made it onto the A list. I am a really, really pissed off viewer right now and my countless letters to the powers that be probably mean about as much as the political campaign propagandas that pollutes my mailbox every 2-4 years. It's probably filed in the same circular file as well.
Now we hear that the last sacred cow, Rachel Ames, who holds the distinction of being the longest running actor/actress to ever appear in ABC Daytime TV, has been quietly shitcanned, her body unceremoniously dumped onto the ever-growing, bloodied heap with no goodbye, no fanfare, not even a last scene. This is simply deplorable and for me, is the last nail in the coffin of GH. I will watch this bastardization of my beloved show for two reasons and two reasons alone: 1) Because of you guys. I want to still be able to write intelligently about the show you are wanting to read about and 2) I very much need to see all of Blake Gibbons I can possibly see in my lifetime.
This latest edition of Sage's Funny Pages is intended to make you smile, but also to feel the haunting message around you of what has happened to a show that was once a COMPOSITE PIECE that drew you into the SEVERAL different dramas that were simultaneously playing out in a little coastal town called "Port Charles."
Thanks to the following sites for the use of their screen captures:
The Official Brad Maule Website
I also used snappies from a huge folder a wonderful fan sent to me, so if your capture is here uncredited, let me know so I can give you credit, but PLEASE don't be a grump and ruin the fun by asking me to take it down!
