General Nerdom

50 Years and Still Kicking It

So "General Hospital" just celebrated 50 years on the air--50 years is a long time and one they filled with some of my favorite moments ever... Television moments like Dawn and Decker solving the carousel murder mystery and falling in love,  Sonny/Brenda/Jax triangle which was all about passion versus love/security versus danger, Dominique's brave battle with cancer while Lucy carried her baby as a friend, Gia the black supermodel and face of Deception, Jason and Robin in love and fighting the mob and AIDS, and sweet poor murdered Georgie Jones...

Some great stuff there--but this doesn't include my favorite moment in the show's history... BJ's death and Maxie gets her heart.... I cannot begin to explain how much the story of one child's death and the gift of organ donation effected me as a child. I swear that is how I became a donor card member myself. And watching the fallout from the story--from Tony and Bobbie losing BJ, to Felicia's breakdown at her niece's death which would allow her daughter to live, from Mac bravely tracking down Frisco and even sweet Lucas sending balloons up to heaven...

It still makes me teary

Obviously I love this show. So I was beyond excited when Joy told me the cast would be doing a panel at the Paley Center of Television... We quickly rounded up Valeska and decided we would all make a day of it--and it was amazing. we were able to be in a room with various cast members from Luke & Laura, Anna, Maxie, Carly, Sonny and others--totally worth the adventure and with plenty of pictures.

Here was the panel--it really doesn't capture how close we were to the stage but we able to see the scary plastic surgery of some of the cast--which wasn't as much as you would think. They were very fun and gracious with all the crazy fans even during the weird Q&A. And no--we did not ask any questions simply because I think we were more amused by how they were handling the crazies themselves

Afterwards the cast took pictures with the audience

which was really cool but rather odd... But the best was that we were able to get a super nerdier moment with Laura (AKA Genie Francis) real life husband. You might say this was the Number 1 part

Yes--the one and only Riker from Star Trek: Next Generation was there to support his wife. I think we surprised him by recognizing him but he was quite sweet and allow a picture or two to happen during the end of the Q&A. Of course the phrase Number One would continue to come into effect

I really had to pee during the Q&A and hustled down to the mens bathroom after we finished with the panel... Turns out this is the best place to go for this type of thing. I was using the urinal when I suddenly realized I was not alone--and I knew this person.

 

That's right... I peed next to Luke Spencer--the biggest name in male soap characters of all time. And no I did not look or even say much more than hello... I figured that would be pushing it--but I was in shock the whole time.

It was an amazing evening and I owe the whole thing (and these pictures) to my friends Joy and Valeska... What a great evening...

(What made it better though was when we came back past the theater a few hours later, saw the actress who played Carly still stuck outside of the Paley Center which was long closed... I think we might have freaked her out by saying hello...and then we were able to meet the head writer of the show and his assistant..... They even honked and waved to us as they left which made it more surreal)

Amazing