Brenda @ soapcentral.com

My biggest issue with this "Brenda Madness" is that Vanessa Marcil has gotten so full of herself that she's completely forgotten who put her on top.  The fans.  Vanessa Marcil has stated quite clearly that, if ABC were to recast her, she would never appear on the show again.   Uh....WHAT???  Talk about egos!  Big news for Vanessa.  The fans miss Brenda like they miss Robert and Anna, Shawn and Tiffany, Luke and Laura, Robin and Stone.  It was a nice ride and they have a lot of memories and a deeper commitment to the show that will bring in the younger generation and so on, but it's over.  Move on.  What arrogance for her to make that statement!  And now that Las Vegas has dumped her, will she be willing to settle for less money?  How ever will she save face.  Sorry, but I love the show because I feel like I know these characters.  It's no different with Brenda.  I hate the Brenda type.  However, I can disseminate between the character and the actor.  Unfortunately, it seems the actor is as self-centered and selfish as her character. 

 

I am not happy with the rumor that Michael will be SORAS from a coma.  Dylan Cash has started to grow on me.  And, now that his voice is changing, he's even more impressive.  Why replace him?  Jonathan Jackson grew up on the show.  Seems to me there are enough characters to work with, without killing yet another core member of the cast?  Truth be told, I had heard a rumor that Morgan was supposed to find the gun and shoot himself.  I was highly in favor of that storyline.  Morgan doesn't have a "personality" yet.  And the actor wouldn't have had to go through it, so no trauma.  However, the lesson on irresponsibility with guns and children would have been really driven home to teens and adults who watch the show.  It would have been a very realistic outcome without the overdrama that Michael being shot has caused.  (And as a side note for those who were so concerned about how children were portrayed, you watch the show for the drama.  You can't provide a list of exceptions.  You get what you get.  And Michael having killed AJ without the bloody details is tame compared to the the stuff on SVU so, c'mon!  Really, people!)  I don't know about other viewers but I'm not a fan of the Sonny/Jason family being so torn apart emotionally.  Wasn't it enough when they thought Michael was dead after being kidnapped?  How many times can you pull out the same concept, using the same actors!  It's old.  We all cried the first time.  This time around, from what I've been reading, the fans have been more angry and frustrated.  So many of the GH "family" of veterans have been taken away.  Isn't there anything we can hold onto and trust will stay?  Felicia was recast and then chased off.  Tony was killed, after his son was recast like 5 times!  Lucky was recast twice and, no offense to Greg Vaughn but, he's Lucky in name only.  This Lucky could NEVER have been Luke's son.  Carly was recast 3 times and I think Laura Wright nails it.  To be honest, Sarah Brown brought nothing to the role and was useless as Michael's mother.   Tamara Braun was fab and Jennifer Bransford, a disaster.  But Laura IS Carly.  Emotional, impulsive, and self-destructive, but strong and solid when it matters.  Sara Brown was too insecure.  Even as Claudia, she can't pull off tough.  She can do slut though.  She did that as Carly AND as Claudia.  But she's better as Claudia.  You would accept that more from a bimbo from the underworld.   And they've almost completely decimated the Quartermaines. 

 

It's still a good show.  But what put it above the rest was the feeling of "family."  I was in high school when Luke and Laura were big.  I, literally grew up with them.  Kimberly McCullough, is great but any connection between her, now, and that cute little girl with the bow in her hair is purely coincidental.  Anna pops in from time to time.  And we only hear about her right before she arrives.  Robert....well that was just a waste.  His banter with Luke was truly classic comic relief and brought back some of that line back to the past.  I'm not sorry that Natalia Livingston was killed off (though she is dying an excruciatingly slow death!).  Granted, she fit better with the upper eschelon of the Quartermaines, but I hated her whine and she was such a goody-two-shoes.  No to mention the constant changes in storyline based on whether or not she was sleeping with Tyler Christopher.  Amber Tamblyn was Emily.  Period.

 

I just don't recognize GH anymore.  I think, at this point, they should dump it and start fresh.  New show, new name.  They're practically there already.  Scotty is annoying.  Edward barely gets any air time anymore.  Luke and Tracey have gotten boring.  Lulu's love life makes her appear too ditzy.  And, now, Sonny's clan has been blown apart in a way that will be pretty hard to forget and to move on.  Of course that destruction started with the breakup of Jason and Sam.  It's almost as if the powers that be WANT the show to tank.  And you can't blame all of this on the writer's strike.  This show started it's approach to the shark months ago.  Looks like it just might make it and join the other deceased soaps, like "The Doctors," "Ryan's Hope," "Loving," etc.  You KNOW I could go on.  I think we're all just in denial because, after all, it is GENERAL HOSPITAL!!!  As a stay-at-home mom, I watched AMC, OLTL, and GH religiously.  I guess times, they are a changin'.  Time to make room for the next shift, and it ain't "Night Shift."  And FYI, things crash when their creator's spread themselves too thin.  Daytime is daytime and it is a real skill to perform day after day, and stay on one show year after year.  Primetime is primetime.  Weekly and short-lived, usually.

 

Hey guys!  Stick with what ya know!!  Ya got your settlement, now let's get some magic back!! 

Yea. So... She'll be back... its inherently obvious... and theyre doing something with night shift that im currently unaware of since we switched to dish network VS my DirectTv OH how i miss you...

But whom?

I swear Alyssa Milano would have been awesome... So would Sarah Shai from the L Word... I was so hoping thats accurate... But alas i guess not... Im almost morbidly Curious to see Krista Allen take a stab at it.. But I could live without Budig being up for it.

Yesterday, between 3 and 4 pm, I came to a realization. It's over. It came to me, bit by bit over the hour, little fissures and cracks, which built up to the resounding conclusion that my "relationship" with General Hospital has ended. And it is a relationship in some respects. It lasted a heck of a lot longer than the majority of my friendships and relationships from high school and college. It was constant. We grew up together, GH and I. Robin and Brenda were my older sisters. Lucky and Liz and Emily went to high school with me. We raised children: the Maxies and Georgies and Lulus of the world. We celebrated Thanksgivings with pizza, and Fourths of July with picnics, and Christmases with parties at the hospital. We put on Nurses Balls. There were good times, and there were bad times, and there were ridiculous times, and then somewhere along the way there were only frustrating times.

Coming into Friday, I thought that I might take a break. I knew the Eli Love story was ending, and really, I wouldn't have anything to look forward to for a while. Until Alexis came back. Until Luke came back. Until they decided to show Tracy and Ghost!Alan again. Until Georgie finally got that storyline they have been teasing. Until maybe they hauled the Quartermaines back out, or Bobbie, or Ned came back to visit for a few days. Until Carly and Jax rid themselves of Jerry and that crazy Russian woman. Until Scrubs figured out some reasonable conclusion to their cold war. One day, things were bound to get better, right?

And so I watched Friday's show and I had a momentary high as Noah/Eli performed. It was just reminiscent of real 90's GH for me. The whole set up was reminiscent of the 90's GH that I loved. Anna had a touching speech about being so grateful for having a daughter living with HIV, and all of a sudden GH was about family again, and had heart, and real emotion, and was sweet and had social relevance again. And there was music, and happiness, and Robin and Anna were dancing in the background, and I could close my eyes and imagine for a second that it was Luke's club, and things were good.

...And then Anna left. And it felt permanent. Really permanent. Like...I don't know. Like a graduation maybe. There were tears and smiles, and just a sense that someone was moving on permanently, never to be seen again. And Noah had a wistful look about him as well...as if to say "Well, I don't know if I'll ever see you again, but it has been a blast." And in a mere second it felt like all the air had been sucked out of GH. They killed the last unicorn. Looking out over the canvas, there were no vets, no constants, no links to the former glory of the show.

And then, the other big thing that happened yesterday, came for me, as a shock...something that I sort of knew was coming...but I figured that was sometime way off in the future, so I was shocked when it came out of nowhere and bit me. Things were going pretty darned well as a Liz and Lucky fan yesterday...well, as good as can be suspected considering the situation of late. They had an argument...but it was a good argument. There was some good reasoning, and some good confrontation, and far less lies than usual, and they both seemed to care about each other for the first time in a while. And Liz got to bring up some good points about Lucky. And Lucky got to bring up some good points about Liz...and for a while...I don't know why...but I had an inkling of hope. And then GH took that hope, put it on a nice bed of lettuce, and smashed it with an anvil big enough to take out Wisconsin. When Lucky kissed Sam, I literally felt something inside of me snap. Why? People can, and do, argue, that he cheated before, but Sarah wasn't really cheating...he moved on with her after he had been brainwashed not to love Liz, and tried to make it work for the longest time, despite that. And the second time, with Maxie, spoke more of a man in a desperate situation than one who loved and wanted anything but his wife. That's something I held onto with Lucky. He loved Elizabeth. He was devoted to her. He never wanted to intentionally hurt her. And then he goes, for no good reason, and kisses the woman who he knows has sworn vengeance on his wife. And a part of me that still held out hope for anything good and redeeming characterwise just burst into flames. It's like finding out that there is no Santa Claus.

So now, the last of the honorable men have left PC. Lucky is now a malicious, selfish cheater. Patrick is now an unsympathetic ass for witnessing Robin and Anna's conversation and not once maybe feeling a little empathy for her. Jax will be sacrificed for Jerry. Sason are evil but will never pay for it. Jerry and Ric are psycho. Nik was willing to cheat on his raped wife. Alan is dead. Luke is a deadbeat, gone for half the year. Spinelli worships an idiot. Mac has been reduced to a glorified role player. Ned is in California.

And there is nothing to look forward to, for me. I have no hope anymore. The Quartermaines will be killed off one by one, or move away. They will never be featured in a storyline again. The name will vanish from the canvas. Alexis will die alone in her cottage. No one will love her. Ric will raise Molly. The wolves that eat Alexis' cold corpse will raise Kristina. Skye will move to another town to find her real father. Emily will probably do that as well. Sason will get a new enemy with a delightfully ethnic sounding name every year. Jason will kill another 12, 000 people in the name of "saving his family". Georgie will fade into obscurity busing tables at Kelly's while Lulu is surrounded by young men of various acting capabilities, who all are in love with her and fighting over her. Maxie will continue to sleep with the PCPD. Felicia's grandmother will outlive us all, despite being very sick. Mac will drift away, as will Bobbie and Audrey. Hell, the whole hospital might drift away. Robin won't get her baby. Scrubs will break up and leave the show. And then it will just be Sonny and Jason and their womenfolk and a cast of newbies who are all in love with Lulu. And they will have won.

But, for me the battle is over. The outcome is now an inevitability. GH has jumped the shark for me. And surprisingly, it's as freeing as it is devastating.

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So I've been hearing a lot about the role of Brenda Barrett being recasted on GH: Night Shift.

This is the person supposedly playing Barrett, the burn victim on Night Shift.  People are saying she could be Brenda.  Guza said in an interview that we'll have to watch to find out.

I'm completely in disbelief, because if I weren't, I would be alot angrier.

So I figured that maybe if we are losing Brenda to a recast, some people would like to share their favorite Brenda memories.

Here are some of mine:

http://www.youtube.com/v/8IKbg-WfnPM

http://www.youtube.com/v/xpptAnTvc9Y

http://www.youtube.com/v/l35gIsD6dso

http://www.youtube.com/v/fFaifcHaXGA

http://www.youtube.com/v/7WeO2jzLMxM

http://www.youtube.com/v/MHub8igDO2Q

http://www.youtube.com/v/QjXQZuqyPqk