Tristan Rogers Talks Bob Guza And General Hospital

Tristan Rogers, who played Robert Scorpio for more than a decade, took to his website to share his thoughts on Bob Guza’s reign as head writer on “General Hospital” and the state of the show overall.

Here are a few excerpts from his post:

“Many things have been said regarding Bob’s writing some of them fair and some of them less so. Let’s have a look at what will probably be regarded as his legacy. We have a ‘mob influenced storyline’ and the fact that he had little respect for women. And then there’s the systematic dismantling of most of “General Hospital’s” legacy, including that of Luke and Laura, to be replaced by the noble deeds and example set by a bunch of ‘bargain basement criminals’. I am sure I will get some flak for that statement but the fact remains that whatever thoughts, you the fan harbor in your mind and heart about this relationship the show itself has done everything possible to trash and disassemble it. I don’t think there’s any legacy or standard on “GH” that has been untouched, in some way, by this wholesale ‘story slaughter’.”

“The one thing that immediately hit me in 06’ was ‘the sudden about turns’ you found your character doing. I went from ‘zero to a dead beat dad’ in one page. No lead up, no justification and barely an explanation. Just ‘this is what you are now’ and maybe next week something else. I had to admit that I was shocked. My recollections of Guza’s writing was always a positive one. He had been part of some good storylines and had a good feel for comedy. Elements that made you standout as a writer. And yet here we were in a Port Charles that had very little in common with a history, that was rich with interesting and compelling stories and characters. But all storylines aside, the one fault that stood out, brightly, was the utter lack of balance that the show employed. This lack of balance weakened every other story on the show. The mobster storyline could have worked quite well if it included a strong police force. That way the winning side could have see-sawed back and forth. As it was the story and the show was in no way compelling and lacked credibility at most levels. No one was going to believe that a bunch of thugs like these was going to take over the town.”

“I have commented before that the demise of ABC Daytime has been on the table since the eighties. It was never a case of ‘if’ but always ‘when’. And now it’s happening. What will happen and can it be reversed? IMO not at a Network level. The shows could/might be picked up by someone else and re-engineered. Cost is a major factor to be addressed and so is the overall way the shows are structured and managed. Daytime has been stuck in a time warp since the early eighties and needs to be completely re-invented. It needs to look at how prime soaps have evolved and try to grasp why Reality shows are so strong and learn something from them.”

For the whole post go to The Going of Guza. Do you agree with Tristan? Vote and share your thoughts below.

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