Well, we were darned pleased just to have gotten into the Luncheon. So it
didn't much matter to us that we were at table #45, too far to see anything
like the stage. First the Luncheon was served, and the less said about that
meal, the better. When the stars were escorted in it was through a
different entrance than the previous two years, and we were unable to
even get a glimpse of them from where we were. As they had last
year they brought John Ingle (Edward Quartermaine) in first and
had him do the introductions. They came down, General Hospital
and then Port Charles people, both in alphabetical order. Keep in
mind, we could see none of these people, so a fashion report is
out of the question. Each name is followed by applause, which varies
according to the popularity meter. (1 none, 10 tons)
John Ingle began the introductions, "May I introduce first, as Detective
Garcia, George Alvarez." (3)
"As Keesha, Senait Ashenafi." (4)
"As nearly everybody's heartthrob, Maurice Benard." (10)
"And as the rather unhappy Carly, Sarah Brown." (7)
"As the Tinman, John Carlos." (2)
"As Jax' friend Ardanowski, Lisa Seroble." (4)
"And as my favorite daughter-in-law, Leslie Charleson." (7)
"As one of the troubled Cassadine family, Tyler Christopher." (9)
"And certainly one of the busiest young men in all of movies,
television and commercials, as Lucas, Justin Cooper." (5)
"And as my favorite son, Alan, Stuart Damon." (8)
"And as the now walking Katherine Bell, Mary Beth Evans." (7)
"And as the mysterious Alexis Cassadine, Nancy Lee Grahn." (8)
"And as Mike, Ron Hale."(6)
"And perhaps our newest cast member, as Elizabeth Webber,
Becky Hertz."(3)
"And as the grown up young man, Lucky, Jonathan Jackson."(8)
"And certainly one of our favorites, one of the best grandsons,
Ned Ashton is Wally Kurth." (8)
"And now one of the most important stars of the show, as
Lila, Anna Lee."(9)
"And now may we introduce to you as Brenda Barrett Jacks,
Vanessa Marcil."(10)
"And as Dr. Tony Jones, Brad Maule."(7)
"And here is another Cassadine, Stefan, Stephen Nichols." (9)
"And certainly one of your favorites, as Jasper Jacks, Ingo
Rademacher." (9)
"And as the no-nonsense Detective Taggert, Matthew St.
Patrick." (4)
"And as Sarah Webber, Jennifer Sky. Jennifer." (4)
"And may we also introduce to you as one of the favorite nurses at
the hospital Miss Shell Kepler, Amy." (5)
"And please welcome as Emily, Amber Tamblyn." {6}
"And one of the newest members of the Quartermaine family, A.J.,
Billy Warlock, welcome Billy." (6)
"And another of your favorites, tending bar sometimes at the
outpost, or investigating Mac Scorpio, John J. York." (8)
"And as Nurse Bobbie, Jackie Zeman," (7)
"And basically you have met those of us who work on General
Hospital, but we would like to have you meet, perhaps for the
first time in public, in person, some of the new members of the
community of Port Charles. And we would like to have you
meet our wonderful new young cast of the Port Charles show.
So please welcome as Danielle Ashley, Renee Allman." (4)
"Also this next person has been on our show for a long time.
She's very important on Port Charles, may we introduce as
Gail Baldwin, Ms. Susan Brown." (5)
"As Mary Scanlon, please welcome, Ms. Pat Crowley." (5)
"As her son Joe, Michael Dietz." (7)
"A couple of years ago this person left Port Charles for awhile and
came back now, and is in Port Charles as a new resident, Denise
Galik-Fury, Rhonda Wexler, Karen's mother." (5)
"And as her daughter, Dr. Karen Wexler Cates, Ms. Jennifer Hammond."
(6)
"And may I introduce as Dr. Julie Morris-Devlin, Lisa Ann Hadley." (5)
"And another new Doctor, Dr. Jake Marshak, played by Rib Hillis." (4)
"And although we are sorry that he left General Hospital to go over
and be very important in Port Charles, one of ours and your favorites,
Jon Lindstrom." (9)
"And as Grace Sullivan please welcome Ms. Lisa Lord." (4)
"And may we introduce as Dr. Ellen Burgess, Ms. Debbi Morgan." (5)
"And as Dr. Chris Ramsey, would you welcome Nolan North." (3)
"And please welcome another one of the Scanlon family, as
Frank, Jay Pickett."(6)
"And as Dr. Eve Lambert welcome Julie Pinson." (5)
"And as Serena Baldwin, please welcome Carly Schroeder." (6)
"And with her as Scotty Baldwin, welcome back Kin Shriner." (8)
"If you'll take your seats now, we have one more introduction.
All the lucky actors are in, so... Please take your seats. Thank you.
In Television and especially Daytime television producers find it
very difficult to keep one show going or make one show successful.
If you ask someone how in the world is it possible for someone
to keep one prize winning show going at full blast and create another
one and have it going at full blast and still stay sane, and courteous
to everyone, they'd say well it's a herculean task. But we have one
person to whom we are all indebted, and will you please welcome
the Executive Producer of both Port Charles and General Hospital,
Ms. Wendy Riche. Bravo." (7)
Next they handed out the awards voted on by the GH Fan Club,
which they cautioned us were for last year, not for right now.
Billy Warlock was the host. They seem to make a habit of
choosing a character/actor, whom they could wish to be more
popular, as they did with Sarah Brown last year, and Senait
Ashenafi and Sean Kanan the year before.
The Awards were:
Favorite Youth: Tyler Christopher
Tyler mad his acceptance speech. "Thank you. Billy. Wow, favorite
youth. It's probably not a good time to tell you how old I really am.
It's really great, thanks. It seems like just yesterday I was here and I
couldn't even get in because the lady up front said it was sold out.
But this is great. Thanks a lot. I have you people to thank. Thanks
a lot."
Billy presented the next award with a bit of byplay with Maurice.
"Yo, hi, Maurice, how are you buddy? Good to see you. Is he the
greatest or what?" The girls scream. "Hottest female, Maurice
Benard," he teased "I'm sorry," he apologized mischievously.
Okay we got Senait, (Sen-ate) my love, Keesha, I'm sorry okay
Senait. (Sen-ite) I'm not gonna go for that last name, Ashenafi?"
He got it right. "Hey! All right." He read the rest of the nominees.
Hottest Female: Vanessa Marcil
"I'm so happy. I finally got to hug FLIP!" Vanessa enthused after
hugging Billy. "You guys know that Billy Warlock was Flip on
Happy Days? Did you know that? I was in love with him. Thank you.
Hottest is always a very interesting award to win. Thank you very
much. Gahh, I haven't been here in four years. I haven't been here
since my first year on the show. And I couldn't imagine being
anywhere else, but on General Hospital. It's the best."
"Okay," said Billy, "hottest male is the next category."
Hottest Male: Ingo Rademacher
Ingo gave Billy a big hug, "I'm so happy I met Flip, too. Thank you
very much. I guess if there's a hottest couple Vannesser and I win
that, eh? Wow there s so many of you this year. Thank you all
for coming. And I'll say hello to you individually later."
Most Humorous: Lynn Herring
Lynn was not present. Billy said, "Unfortunately she could not be
here so maybe Wendy could come up and accept it for Lynn Herring."
Wendy got up but was indicating Jon Lindstrom should accept the
award on Lynn's behalf. "Jon, all right," Billy agreed. Wendy
beckoned Jon to join her on stage.
Wendy spoke. "First of all I'm sure that Lynn would thank you from
the bottom of her heart for this because, she knows how appreciated
she is for being not only the most humorous but such a fine actress
and it's not easy to combine both. But she wouldn't be half as good
if it weren't for her partner, Jon."
Jon took the podium. "I know Lynn really would be appreciative of
this. She is all the time. She's appreciative of everything that the fans
say to her and whatnot. I was holding back because I thought Kin
Shriner would jump up and do this for me. Where is he? I don't see
him. Anyway Lynn just couldn't be here today, and she wanted to...
You were right next stage, you coulda..." he addressed that last
to Kin Shriner. "Kin Shriner, ladies and gentleman."
Kin Shriner refused. "She's your mess now."
"She's my mess. Thank you very much," said Jon. "Anyway
on behalf of Lynn Herring, certainly one of the most gifted
actresses I've ever known, thank you."
Favorite Couple: Sonny and Brenda
Vanessa started her speech with a little trouble-making sentence.
"Maurice will be giving the speech for the both of us, since
he's the man in the relationship." The crowd grew restless.
"Actually, I want to thank Maurice," she said. "Because I
don't believe I was a true actress until I got to start working
with him and he taught me a lot. I'll miss working with him
very much. I owe him a lot. He's very giving as an actor.
I wanna apologize to you guys because Tyler and I are going
to have to leave after this. My best friend is getting married
and I'm the maid of honor. We're getting married December
14th and you're all not invited."
Maurice made his speech next. "I guess this is a good opportunity
for me to thank everybody who I was going to thank at the
Emmys. And that would have to be from Wendy Riche to all the
producers, the writers who I love dearly, the crew, the fans. You
guys have been the best. I never imagined in four years this would
happen, to be honest with you, but it's been the greatest. And the
actors, of course, Vanessa. She says I taught her, you know,
but you need two people to do a great scene. You can't do it
by yourself. I just want to say I love everybody and thank you,
that's all. Thanks."
Best Newcomer: Nancy Lee Grahn
"I was so lonely for the past five years without everybody.
I'm just so happy to be doing daytime again. When Santa
Barbara ended I did some night time and some other things
and there's nothing that I love more than doing this. I know
so many people here. I have so many friends. And I love
Ms. Wendy Riche, and everybody else. And I just really
want to tell you that I'm very very pleased to be here. Thanks.
And I really love the writers," she added quickly before
leaving the podium.
Pillar Of Strength: Anna Lee
They took the microphone down to Anna Lee, so she could
make her speech. "Oh, how lovely," she said. "Thank you.
Fifty years in show business and nineteen years on General
Hospital with my darling Quartermaine family, what more
can I want. Anyway I hope I will go on for another twenty
years. I'm going to die with my Lila Quartermaine boots
on." The crowd gave her a standing ovation. (10)
Supporting Actor: Steve Burton
He was unable to attend. Neither Jon nor Kin would accept
the award for him.
Billy announced the supporting actress nominees, of which Senait
Ashenafi was one. "Senait..." Billy hesitated. And someone
tried to supply him with the rest of the name. "I know, just relax,"
said Billy. "I got it right the first time. I blew the first name."
He didn't say the last name, but went on to announce the winner.
Supporting Actress: Sarah Brown
"Thank you so much, I'm totally shocked once again. I just
want to say this has been the most incredible experience of my
life. I absolutely love daytime and I love working with all of
you. Meeting my fans; it's the best experience of my life. To
be able to get the feedback from people who watch us and
hear what they have to say. And my cast at General Hospital,
Wendy Riche and all the producers and writers who I didn't
thank at the Emmys. Thank you because you changed my life
and without you I wouldn't have been standing on that stage
or on this one, so thank you."
Lead Actress: Lynn Herring
This time Kin Shriner accepted the award for Lynn Herring.
"Billy one word to you, Jokes and patter, that's what you
do when you're a host. Lynn, I know, Lynn would be so
happy. I'm gonna give this to her tomorrow with the other
one she's got over there now. They're just piling up for
her. I know she'll just be so happy tomorrow, I can't
wait to get there and give it to her. She thanks you all."
Billy said to Kin as he was going off stage, "If you were
doing this it would have gone on forever. We'd still be
on the first category, if you were doing this."
Lead Actor: Maurice Benard
Maurice accepted his award. "Hey, hey," he said. "Boy I don't
know, I guess I said last time what I had to say. I don't know. Can
I say it again? It truly has been the best four years of my life. A lot
has happened these past four years. I got a baby, I got a house, and
a bank account, yeah. As an actor what I strive for is to always get
the support, and just to have people say you're good at what you
do, means a lot. And on General Hospital I was able to get that. It's
a beautiful thing. I just want to thank everybody again. And I love
you. I get all screwed up up here, but I love you. Bye."
The next category was Favorite Story line and one of the nominees
was the break-up of Lois and Ned. The crowd groaned. "I guess
you have a really good shot at that one, Wally." Billy said to Wally
Kurth. It didn't win, of course.
Favorite Story Line: The Return of The Cassadines
The Cassadine family trooped on stage. "Wow, a Story line award.
This is pretty cool," said Michelle Val Jean. "On behalf of last
year's writers, which would be Bob Guza, Karen Harris, Meg
Bennett, and myself, Michelle Val Jean, and the cast, crew and
production team at General Hospital, thank you very much, and
especially to you Cassadine weirdos. You did a really good job."
"The Cassadines are very happy to be back," said Stephen Nichols,
"and we promise we won't try to freeze the world."
One of the fan club people presented a special award to Leslie
Charleson and Stuart Damon; a kind of lifetime achievement
award for Alan and Monica's longevity.
"Thank you," said Leslie. "Krista Evans and Kay Marrs who
have been responsible for my fan club for quite a few years,
and have put on the Quartermaine annual fan club luncheon, and
what a great job they do, I can't ask for better friends. I didn't
expect this. This is silly. Not it isn't silly, it's a surprise. Can
I have your help?" she asked Stuart. "Anyway thank you all.
Without you we all wouldn't be sitting here today and having
these wonderful tributes. You guys are the best. Thank you
very much. Oh, one more thing, well Stuart always talks about
his wardrobe with me. He has catalogs because there's really
only one place in the world that has his size, so they send him
his catalogs and we go through them in his dressing room and
he picks out his things, and they know him very well and he
showed me a picture of this white suit. I said, yeah that's okay,
but that's something you wear when you're going to get a prize.
Well... "
Stuart's turn. "I wish that I could remember one of the speeches
I had prepared for best supporting actor for an Emmy. I prepared
them and rehearsed them on the golf course and they never called.
I was so embarrassed. I'm catching up to Susan Lucci." The
crowd laughed. "But I'm telling you I wouldn't trade you fans or
this GH family for all the prizes in the world. Thank you."
Then Jackie Zeman and Kin Shriner were given a spontaneous
award of the same nature, for twenty years service. "But it hasn't
been a full twenty," Kin said. "I did some jail time, you know, those
years I was gone. But I am back now and you came on six weeks
after I did, right Jackie?"
"Right," she said.
"Did we have some fun over these years?" Kin said as Jackie
came on stage.
"My first boyfriend," she said of Kin's Scotty. "Well, actually
you weren't my boyfriend, I just wanted you to be."
"Desperately," said Kin. "Steal me away. Umm well I'm happy
to be back and Jackie's happy..."
"To have you back," Jackie put in.
"... never to have left, by the size of her wallet. Anyway, thank you."
Kin finished.
"Thanks to all of you," said Jackie. "You've been just great."
"Billy," said Kin, "Close the show, Billy."
But Billy wasn't given the opportunity as they went into thanking
the Fan Club people. (Who were all worthy, we're sure.)
Now we'll take a break here, before the big Wendy Speech, the
Q and A, and the autograph signing.
Top Ten Awards For The 1997 GH Fan Luncheon
10) The Gracious Hostess Award: Vanessa Marcil for un-inviting
us all to her wedding
9) Loudest Scream Recipient: Maurice Benard
8) Best Fashion Statement: Ingo Rademacher
7) The Johnny Carson Award For Best Host: John J. York (Q&A)
(Sorry Billy, better luck next year. More patter, more jokes.)
6) Best Speech: Anna Lee
5) Most Contrite Returning Celebrity: Kin Shriner
4) The GH Trooper Award: Nancy Lee Grahn (For staying
longer than any other GH Actor)
3) The PC Trooper Award: Jon Lindstrom (Last PC actor
to leave, and he kept the rest of em there.)
2) The Good Intentions Award: Wendy Riche for The Wendy
Plan (see Part V of The GH Weekend)
And the number one award for the 1997 GH Fan Luncheon:
1) The Nice Guy Award: Ron Hale (for giving us an exclusive
interview. See Part VI of The GH Weekend.)
Adventure Menu |
The Luncheon - Part II |
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