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James Franco joins General Hospital -- a soap opera. Huh?!?!?

Aragorn

Aragorn

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Zap2It.com article

The article says he will be making an extended guest run starting on Nov. 20. It also says he approached them to appear on the show.

Now film actors doing primetime TV because their offers have been drying up is common (Jeff Goldblum, Kiefer Sutherland, Charlie Sheen, Geena Davis, etc.), but daytime TV? That usually only happens when TV offers dry up (Corbin Bernsen).

Maybe Franco will never become the leading man people predicted of him because all the movies where he's the lead suck, but he still gets plenty of film work and supporting roles in a lot of good movies. So what's his motivation?
 
Maybe he just thinks it would be an interesting change of pace? It's not like his film career has floundered or anything.
 
Perhaps he's just a fan of the show and thought it would be fun to appear on it. I really don't think he's sensing his film career drying up anytime soon -- I'm certainly not. He had a significant role in the Spider-Man movies, and they've been huge; Pineapple Express did solid business, and Milk, while not a box office blockbuster, received a lot of acclaim (mostly for Sean Penn and the story, I'll grant you, but I don't think Franco was singled out as a weak link or anything).

So, yeah, I'm inclined to think he's a fan of GH, or perhaps a close family member is, and he's fulfilling their wish by appearing on the show.
 
The chance to see James Franco five times a week? Yeah, I'll definitely be watching.
 
Nathan Fillion has reprised his role of "Joey" on the soap One Life To Live a few times because he likes the people there.
 
Well, maybe he wanted to see what it would be like to work on a soap opera? He'd better do it now while he still can. The genre is a dying breed that likely will vanish within the next few years.
 
Warp Coil said:
Well, maybe he wanted to see what it would be like to work on a soap opera? He'd better do it now while he still can. The genre is a dying breed that likely will vanish within the next few years.
Click to expand...

And it's dying because the scripts & characters are unrealistic, unlike British soaps (Coronation Street, Emmerdale & East Enders), which all have high ratings and are in no danger of going off of the air. Maybe someone should do an adaptation of Emmerdale for American TV.
 
Dusty Ayres said:
Warp Coil said:
Well, maybe he wanted to see what it would be like to work on a soap opera? He'd better do it now while he still can. The genre is a dying breed that likely will vanish within the next few years.
Click to expand...

And it's dying because the scripts & characters are unrealistic, unlike British soaps (Coronation Street, Emmerdale & East Enders), which all have high ratings and are in no danger of going off of the air. Maybe someone should do an adaptation of Emmerdale for American TV.
Click to expand...
What you mean you don't have alien abduction plots, people being possessed by their dead family members, or the long lost identical twin sister of a dead character comes to town stories?
 
Don't forget kids who age 15 years overnight. Or villains who fake their death 10 times and everyone believes it each time.
 
Maybe he thinks it'll be like doing theater, only with a different story every day. I may tune in just to see what he'll be like. Will his movie caliber acting overshadow daytime regulars or will it fit seamlessly? I thought he was pretty bad hosting SNL.
 
Having a movie career doesn't mean you're a better actor (i.e. Channing Tatum, Josh Hartnett). One thing to take into account with soaps is that you film an entire episode in one day, meaning little time to rehearse a lot of dialog in a lot of scenes, and you can't do take after take after take. Couple that with the crappy writing, and even good actors will come across as less than stellar. On the other hand, soaps are the No. 1 offender when it comes to casting pretty people who can't act and have no talent to even develop.
 
nx1701g said:
What you mean you don't have alien abduction plots, people being possessed by their dead family members, or the long lost identical twin sister of a dead character comes to town stories?
Click to expand...

Well, I'm not a Brit, but a Canadian who has seen both soaps.

And yes, British soaps don't have those stupid plots in them at all-at least not Coronation Street, Emmerdale & East Enders.

Aragorn said:
Don't forget kids who age 15 years overnight. Or villains who fake their death 10 times and everyone believes it each time.
Click to expand...

Those ones especially.

See, I think that if the American soaps reflected real life, they'd get, or keep viewers. But as the stunt casting of Franco shows, they haven't learned their lesson.

Case in point:

Aragorn said:
Having a movie career doesn't mean you're a better actor (i.e. Channing Tatum, Josh Hartnett). One thing to take into account with soaps is that you film an entire episode in one day, meaning little time to rehearse a lot of dialog in a lot of scenes, and you can't do take after take after take. Couple that with the crappy writing, and even good actors will come across as less than stellar. On the other hand, soaps are the No. 1 offender when it comes to casting pretty people who can't act and have no talent to even develop.
Click to expand...
 
Dusty Ayres said:
Warp Coil said:
Well, maybe he wanted to see what it would be like to work on a soap opera? He'd better do it now while he still can. The genre is a dying breed that likely will vanish within the next few years.
Click to expand...

And it's dying because the scripts & characters are unrealistic, unlike British soaps (Coronation Street, Emmerdale & East Enders), which all have high ratings and are in no danger of going off of the air. Maybe someone should do an adaptation of Emmerdale for American TV.
Click to expand...

Indeed, soap operas have some of the worst writing imaginable. Contrived storylines are created and then drawn out for six months at a time, and instead of moving forward and reaching a climax, they just stay in neutral and then peeter out as if no one cared. Character motivations change at every scene, logic is completely thrown out the window, and ultimately the characters become irrational and irritating.

It amazes me that soap writers and producers still have jobs. The soap opera is a dying breed. Ratings keep plummeting. Soaps are being picked off and cancelled one by one. Did it ever occur to any of these network execs that perhaps the only way to save daytime soaps is to fire the idiots who are running the genre into the ground, and seek talent from outside to re-invent the daytime drama? Smaller casts, focused and interesting stories, quicker pacing and more intelligent writing could actually hold viewers' interests.
 
Brandon Routh came from a Soap(I wanna Say All my or One Life...who knows?) Justin Hartly was on Passions and now on Smallville...well that really isn't saying much. I do think Kirsten Storms from GH is hot though.


S.
 
Robot Devil said:
Perhaps he's just a fan of the show and thought it would be fun to appear on it. I really don't think he's sensing his film career drying up anytime soon -- I'm certainly not. He had a significant role in the Spider-Man movies, and they've been huge; Pineapple Express did solid business, and Milk, while not a box office blockbuster, received a lot of acclaim (mostly for Sean Penn and the story, I'll grant you, but I don't think Franco was singled out as a weak link or anything).

So, yeah, I'm inclined to think he's a fan of GH, or perhaps a close family member is, and he's fulfilling their wish by appearing on the show.
Click to expand...

If they bring him on to KILL jason and Sonny..im all for it!!!

Rob
 
Franco is supposedly playing a nemesis of Jason's, which probably means he'll be a decent, honorable, law-abiding citizen... and therefore must be killed because he could ruin Sonny and Jason's lives.
 
Dusty Ayres said:
And it's dying because the scripts & characters are unrealistic,
Click to expand...

Wrong.

The scripts have always been unrealistic; people don't care. What's killing soaps in America is a combination of changing demographics and economics.

unlike British soaps (Coronation Street, Emmerdale & East Enders),
Click to expand...

How many times a week do those air new episodes?

Elizabeth Taylor did "General Hospital" back in the "Luke and Laura" days, BTW. She was a huge star, of course - she just liked the show.
 
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