It has been less than a year since I quite aggressively tore into General Hospital for how they treat Elizabeth Webber and her portrayer Rebecca Herbst. Now it is Rebecca’s 25th anniversary and the show continues to disappoint in this regard. Every point in my original column remains true, but they’ve somehow given fans new things to be furious over. Thus, it made a sequel to my original column necessary.
Rebecca Herbst Does Not Have Cramps
On June 17, Rebecca tweeted that she hasn’t been fired, her kids don’t keep her from working and she doesn’t have cramps. This wasn’t a bizarre overshare. It was in response to people wildly inventing reasons why we weren’t seeing much of her on GH. People would rather believe that she had cramps or that she told Frank that she just wanted to stay home and watch Reba than confront the truth: They don’t want to use Elizabeth that much for whatever reason.
In June, that rich horse who has a living room was in more episodes than Becky. Horses aren’t cheap. You have to pay the trainer in addition to whatever costs of care needed. The rich horse for sure costs more than Becky. Yet they can find the money to use the rich horse and Becky has to get on Twitter to tell people that she doesn’t have cramps. This speaks a lot to the priorities of the show.
The next time someone wants to speculate about why Becky isn’t being used, just use logic. Don’t invoke her kids. GH has multiple mothers in front burner stories. Don’t invent “female trouble” reasons. It is embarrassing for all of us that she had to address this. Put the blame where it belongs. Not on cramp less Becky.
Happy Anniversary! We Got You Nothing!
When a star has a big anniversary, it is very common for them to get a special episode to pay tribute to them. Nancy Lee Grahn got one last year. Days did a terrific job honoring James Reynolds’s 40th anniversary last year. Y&R gave Beth Maitland and Eileen Davidson a joint anniversary episode this year. What did GH give Becky? Zilch. She wouldn’t have even aired on her anniversary if the episode order wasn’t out of whack from interruptions by the January 6 hearings.
The sad thing is no one was surprised by this snub. We’ve been so beaten down by the shoddy treatment of Elizabeth and her portrayer that we expected this. Why give one of your most popular vets an anniversary episode? That would make sense and delight fans so we can’t have that. Soap fans in general have had to train ourselves to lower expectations with these shows over the last decade, but this is ridiculous.
It is possible they thought the current story was enough of a celebration of Becky’s time on the show and that is bullshit. The meandering and half-assed story of Liz haunting herself was just a poor man’s version of Nighttime Hope on Days and that’s saying something considering that story had Hope running around robbing people after taking NyQuil. It hasn’t been a story worthy of a 25th anniversary celebration.
All Talk, No Action
Do head writers Chris Van Etten and Dan O’Connor think merely mentioning the name of Jeff Webber and his wife Carolyn is sufficient for this story? Like acknowledging that Liz has shitty parents who haven’t been to Port Charles in 25 years is a magic incantation that will calm fans down from wanting to see them. Talking about them isn’t enough. You actually have to follow through and bring them on the canvas. I’m sure there are actors over the age of 60 who have Frank Valentini’s number and can text him to get a job because that’s the casting process at GH now.
It is even more necessary to cast Jeff and Carolyn because of this mysterious trauma involving her teen years and stairs. She didn’t show any stair induced trauma in 2003 when Faith pushed her down a comically large staircase or in 2006 when she ran up 15 flights of stairs to hop on Jason and make Jake happen. Yet Peter’s goofy ass falling down the stairs last year unlocked this repressed trauma.
On a normal soap it would be a given that Jeff and Carolyn would show up to play this story out, but it is entirely possible the show will tell this story without them. It would be an insult to soap writing and the writers like Irna Phillips and Agnes Nixon who made this genre what it is. Yet I expect it because this show would rather write a story about a rodeo clown negging a doctor than deal with real family drama.
Is This Supposed To Be Romantic?
It is the GH way to make a story that should be about a woman into a story about a man, but did they need to write Finn like a Lifetime movie villain? He’s crashed through every boundary she’s put up. She tells him to not visit while she’s at Shady Brook, he storms in like it is the end of mediocre 2000’s romcom. He also spends time with her kids when he’s been dating her for two minutes, harasses her at work, he’s controlling, uses his daughter Violet to manipulate her and calls her family who he knows is a trigger for her to talk about her. Why would we want this asshole near our Elizabeth?
If Finn thinks Liz is so unstable that he’d call her sister Sarah, who hasn’t been in town in 20 damn years, why would he then try to fuck Liz in the rich horse’s stable/living room? Was he consumed with lust from the fumes of rich horse poop? Did he think the power of his dong would heal Liz’s trauma and then they’d embrace as the camera spun around them Baz Luhrmann style? Or is he just a creep who gets off on his hero complex? I’m inclined to say it is the last one.
I really wanted to give this pairing a chance, but Elizabeth needs to be alone right now. She doesn’t need a man and certainly not one who wants to act like an abusive father figure. And the audience certainly doesn’t want to hear characters fretting over poor Finn’s feelings when Liz is the one being put through the ringer. Since characters are being attacked with hooks, let him be next. He can act like some angel’s daddy in Soap Heaven.
Where Is Hayden?
It is bizarre from a writing standpoint to put a character with her sister’s baby daddy and then not have her show up. It just seems like the most logical story to come from a Finn and Liz pairing. Yet Hayden’s whereabouts remain unknown. I don’t even like Hayden, but even I know that would be good soap. Rebecca Budig said she’s willing to return when we interviewed her on The Chat last year. Let’s resolve this dangling thread.
Becky, Do You Like The Janitor? Is Carol In HR Nice?
Soap Opera Digest celebrated Becky’s 25 years on GH with an interview focused on her co-stars. Not her. I’ve interviewed soap stars. It is completely normal to have a question or two about a co-star. Making an entire interview be about other people is insulting. It is like it is your birthday, but your husband asks for a blowjob and breakfast in bed on your special day.
I just don’t get the thought process behind it. Who thought this was a good idea? It would have felt like a tribute if it were her past and present co-stars talking about her, but asking her about all these people feels like an effort to take the focus off of her. In fairness, the interview they did on the podcast was good, but it still rankles to have an interview that is about other people.
What are they going to ask Becky for her 30th anniversary? “Becky, does Finola Hughes like taffy? What is Maurice Benard’s favorite Nicholas Sparks novel? Is Nancy Lee Grahn in a fight club? Can Roger Howarth twerk?”
Cheers To Becky
Congratulations to Becky on 25 years of General Hospital. You never phone it in even when given subpar material. You love the show even when they treat you terribly and fire you and then ask you to calm down the angry mob. Your co-stars love you. The fans love you. I love you. You have added so much value to the show. You deserve better and I’m never going to stop demanding better for you.
Dispatches From Soap Land
*I have mixed feelings about Days moving to Peacock. Do I think a five day a week soap is sustainable on a streaming service? Nope. Yet I do have hope the show can adapt. They can’t change the episode count yet because of contracts, but if it survives past September 2023, I’d expect that to change.
*If Y&R is going to put Nick with Sally, they have to have someone remark that she’s in his daughter’s age group. If you tell a Hop on Pop story, you have remember the Pop part. Just because Soap Twitter would still dive face first into his crotch doesn’t erase the age aspect.
*If B&B really does have Hope and Thomas go to court over Douglas, I hope they remember Thomas killed Emma. Biology is important to family court, but murder is frowned upon.
Finn has screwed up in a million ways, but his intentions were noble. In his defense, he & Liz have had this friendship growing and getting deeper for over a year. She trusted him enough to show him the cut up dress and moved wedding band. They were becoming romantically involved until she was triggered by Jake’s comunicating with his grandparents. Finn was curious why Liz had such a visceral reaction to mention of her father’s name, she wouldn’t tell him. It was natural for him to be curious. Up until that point, she trusted & confided in Finn, then she did a 180. He wanted to know why. She stopped being honest with him. Then he is the only one to see her in her altered state. I was glad that Nik finally was another to witness it at the Q party. They need to get Kevin involved. She needs therapy. I hope she undergoes hypnosis and we finally see what happened to her in that flashback memory.
News flash: Not everyone who watches GH cares for Elizabeth’s character. So please stop speaking for all fans.
What a shocking news flash, in all sarcasm. That is not news to anyone.
I 100% applaud Alan for writing about Elizabeth because she is the reason I ever became interested in GH and for sure after 25 years, her character deserves recognition.
Yeah I haven’t been a fan for a few years myself too wishy washy and bland
This is the best article! I laughed out loud a few times because of the satirical way you wrote it but it is dead on with how true it is! Becky and the character of Elizabeth deserve so much better. Honestly so does Michael Easton and the character of Finn. When Becky was fired the fans got together and spoke out and the show listened and responded. At this point, I think that is the only thing that will get them to actually write the story in a meaningful way instead of making it about everyone except her and barely giving it any airtime. Like you said, the horse gets more airtime. So maybe the solution is for the fans to get together and speak up and stop waiting for GH to actually give her the storyline she deserves because they never will. They just pretend to do so.
AMEN!!
Elizabeth Webber have be my favorite character on General Hospital. Rebecca is reason I turned in to watching show again. After 25 years with GH I shocked they have flashback of her character on show. Becky character deserve so much better storyline to me. Where is Elizabeth Parents after 25 years on showing why not bring father really. Finn was curious about Elizabeth memory can’t remember where she was. She tell finn what be happy with her memory she talk person on top stair.
Alan, please please please speak CLEARLY this season on The Chat. No mumbo jumbo. We can’t understand what you are saying most of the time. And tell Casey that he is an embarrassment with those stupid parodies. He is being raked over the coals on several message boards. Casey is unpopular with his stupid videos. They need to stop.
Sorry Alan. Not a fan. Don’t like you.
Perhaps Casey should focus on losing weight. The boards say he weighs 300. No wonder he’s having spasms. Casey should focus on losing weight and not the stupid parodies.