Where the Hell is GH's HW Daniel O'Connor?
I'll just cut to the chase.
Where the hell is former General Hospital Headwriter Daniel O'Connor who was fired from the show along with Chris Van Ettan near the finale of the heavily contentious year, 2023? It's kind of funny that he's no where to be found since GH fans were greeted by the shocking news that both he and his co-HW Chris Van Ettan were suddenly OUT of GH. While viewers were still hyperventilating from that revelation, news then broke that they or the twins as some call them would be replaced by longtime also ran Elizabeth ((Benson) Korte and hold onto your britches, Patrick Mulcahey!! Okay the latter was a bit of a shock since he had been retired (for the second time) from soaps since 2019 and longtime viewers of General Hospital as well as other soaps from Santa Barbara to Guiding Light to Bold & the Beautfiul were like what the fuck is this?!!! How the Hell did this happen??? Yeah GH went dark for the holidays and it's the dark periods when you have to know that TPTB are gathering and a lot of the serious rewriting of stories happens during times when the show is taking these cost cutting measures.
Okay New Year, new writing team as new as can be given that both writers had ties to GH, but viewers had settled into what they thought would be the new norm for their favorite soap until...
The next shocking twist was okay not too much of a shock but started as something alluded to by actress Alley Mills in a joyful moment in the green room after scoring her Emmy for best guest star performance as the latest Heather recast but people were okay...maybe Van Ettan never left but surely....he was fired right?!
Well okay, maybe he was really fired originally or was he? Surely he must have been right??
That question was answered in shocking fashion just like Jason Morgan arose (again) from the dead a couple months ago to the tune of over 100,000 "lapsed" viewers (Thanks Nathan!) returning to the flock of GH just to witness Jason's latest resurrection. As it turned so returned CVE from the exile from being fired along with the aforementioned DOC according to media outlets. Only wait a minute here, was that really his name in the opening credits as the show's BD writer? Apologies to the script writer he was paired with b/c I can't recall that person's name because like other viewers I was in a state of surprise. The kind where you know something MIGHT happen but you hope you're wrong. WTF! No, WT fuckity, fuck fuck?!
Yeah fuck. Nothing personal against CVE but this was one of those moments when you know a clusterfuck is in front of you caught by a screen shot by an alert viewer in high definition. And as sometimes is the case with GH the reveal lived up to the promo.
Jason's return long anticipated and promoted through a promo that was a Jarly fanfest (WTF was that?!) with a side of JaSam tease was anticlimactic compared to the resurrection of fired HW Van Ettan's dramatic return to the (WGA mandated) credits. Heads rolled. Bloggers recoiled. Can't blame them though there were hints of this not just from AM's comments though that was a start. Remember this was during the time period after the credits of CVE and DOC's successors had hit the screen.
Mulcahey lasted a mere four months with two months appearing onscreen before he either got the axe, or quit or agreed to quit or fired himself instead of being fired depending on all the rumors flying around out there. I have my own theories on that. But Mulcahey as talented as he is, has a plethora of receipts out there in interviews he gave both in print and to YT podcasts including The Locher Room and all I can say is that at this point he was a KNOWN ENTITY. And all I can say knowing what I do about TPTB at General Hospital and the network as there was NO FUCKING WAY this marriage between Mulcahey & Korte was ever going to work out. How the fuck did this hiring of Mulcahey happen in the first place and this is no disrespect to him but how is a man who took on network executives with or with out the EP's blessing going including on how Black characters were written EVER going to mesh with the milquetoast personalities at GH and ABC?
It was inevitable that Mulcahey and EP Frank Valentini would likely clash as it would be that Secretariat would win the Triple Crown. Hell, just read the quote that Mulcahey helpfully provided when he praised GP EP Wendy Riche by saying not so much what she was as an EP but what she was not. And read the "what she was not" part where he describes the EP from hell and ask yourself who that sounds like.
At any rate, I have a lot of theories right now and am trying to suss them out.
Inquring minds want to know the answer. GH writer Shannon Peace, who was also fired along with other breakdown writers from the show alerted the show's viewers via her IG page to buckle up for the upcoming week ahead. Which leads to one of my main questions, why did GH fire all or most of its BD writers within a month or so after the WGA strike and then amplify that by firing two...okay one HW.
I look forward to it! Bring it on!! I have so many questions about the ongoing series of events that have befallen ABC's remaining soap, General Hospital during the past several weeks. And one of them was what happened to O'Connor. Is he still fired, will he like CVE start popping up on breakdowns or do I need to use my Visa gift card to purchase query searches at the Los Angeles County Superior Court? Just thought I'd ask. Or maybe I'll launch a kickstart campaign to raise the funds for that.
Apologies for any format irregularities with this posting. I literally took this blog out of mothballs and have no idea how to update the formatting. My writing's a mess too but I'm out of practice there too.