Oh this TVGUIDE interview is AWESOME!! read it all..here's a sample:
TV Guide Magazine: It's such a joy to have the old guard back together on GH these days. Jane, I saw you on Access Hollywood asking a great question: "Why did these people ever go away?"
Elliot:
I'll tell you why! It's a writing issue. Writers dry up. They can't
think of a place to go with the older characters. It's easier for them
to do an old story with a new character than do a new story with an old
character.
Geary: And let us not forget that writers get residuals for every new character they create as long as that character is on the air.
Elliot: It's my belief that
The Young and the Restless and
The Bold and the Beautiful are
the highest-rated shows because they use the same people decade after
decade. That's what this audience wants to see — their old characters in
new situations. And that's what our current executive producer and head
writer,
Frank Valentini and Ron Carlivati, are delivering.
Geary:
Usually, new producers and writers want to put their stamp on a show.
They don't want to continue what's working. They want to reinvent the
wheel. It's an ego thing. And once they've gotten rid of characters that
were well known and deeply loved, they think they can create that same
magic with new characters. Frank and Ron did the exact opposite and it
saved our ass. Things were pretty rough there for a while, but they got
better as soon as [ABC Daytime chief] Brian Frons left. He hated the
soap medium. He hated it from the beginning. He wanted reality TV.
Shriner:
It's weird how it all changed overnight. Everybody was firing
everybody. Brian fired [head writer] Bob Guza. Then [exec producer] Jill
Phelps got fired. Then ABC fired Brian. "You're fired!" "No, you're
fired!" It was crazy. But, then, out of the ashes came Frank and Ron.
Geary: The timing was so right