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General Hospital’s Maurice Benard Asks What More Fans Wanted Sonny to Do to Repay Nina’s Treachery: ‘I Don’t Know’
Wednesday, May 18th, 2022
The actor thought that he had already played his character’s reaction to his lover’s misdeeds.
You know the way it goes. You think something is over and done with, only to find out that well, someone is still holding onto it like it was unfinished business. So it went for Maurice Benard during a recent live State of Mind Q&A.
In the General Hospital star’s mind, Sonny’s fury with Nina had already been dealt with back in September 2021. The don had lashed out at her at the cemetery for, in essence, hijacking his life and keeping him away from wife Carly and their family even as she herself began a relationship with “Mike.” (Read the recap here.) “I remember specifically [thinking], ‘I gotta go off on this woman,’” the Emmy winner said, “and I did.”
To the nth degree, as a matter of fact. What more viewers, even Sonny/Carly fans, could have wanted… that remained a question mark. “I don’t know what they want me to do,” Benard said, “like what, hit her, grab her and throw her down? I don’t know.”
In the end, Benard posited that it wasn’t about whether Sonny/Carly or Sonny/Nina were a better couple, exactly. “There’s a different vibe [with Nina], that’s all.” So it had less to do with what she did to the Corinthoses than where the story goes next. “Sometimes we have to move forward and just take it at face value.”
Review some couples that daytime insisted were super even though “eh” in the below photo gallery. You might be surprised by which duo isn’t on the list.
Video: YouTube/State of Mind
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Image: John Paschal/JPI
1/37
<p>Truth be told, poor Nathan could be on this list just as easily with Melanie, because the way his tepid affections flip-flopped between her and Stephanie (then Shelley Hennig), we didn’t care about either pairing any more than he seemed to about either woman! </p>
Image: Aaron Montgomery/JPI
2/37
<p>This twosome was doomed from the start. She was a re-recast (Emily Harrison), and he was a Marone-come-lately. As a result, viewer interest hovered somewhere between “none” and “none at all.”</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
3/37
<p>Even if the show hadn’t been trying to phase out Liz at the time — a definite no-no! — no one wanted to see her true love with the chick that he picked up while working undercover in Ireland.</p>
Image: Aaron Montgomery/JPI
4/37
<p>With both characters being recast and then <em>re</em>-recast in the late 2000s, it felt less like we were watching a complicated relationship than a game of musical actors. (BTW, that’s Chris Engen and Vail Bloom here.)</p>
Image: Disney General Entertainment Content/Getty Images
5/37
<p>You know when Coke changed its recipe many moons ago, everybody freaked out? Pretty much the same thing happened when the show tried to sell fans on the idea of future <em>Law & Order: SVU</em> star Kelli Giddish as the new Dixie. (Eventually, the show revealed that she was actually her half sister, Di).</p>
Image: NBC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
6/37
<p>Ugh. Even looking at this photo pains us. What possessed the soap to try to pair Kimberly’s true love with Steve’s true love is… ugh. Ugh all over again. Seriously, whatever possessed the powers that be was more heinous than the demon that took over Marlena’s heavenly body not once but twice.</p>
Image: Aaron Montgomery/JPI
7/37
<p>Since there are (cough) only 12 people in Los Angeles, we understood why the designer (then Ronn Moss) might contemplate forging a relationship with the young woman that he once thought was his daughter (then Jennifer Finnigan). But then we realized… ew! Ew all over again! And finally, we said, “What the [bleep] is wrong with you, <em>Bold & Beautiful</em>? Get some new characters already!” Ew!</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
8/37
<p>We get it. We get it. The soap was only using the endlessly annoying bad guy as a delaying tactic before it paired Kirsten Storms’ enduring heroine with true love Nathan. But that didn’t make the couple’s relationship and engagement any less odious or frustrating. Heck, we still wake up in the night screaming, “No, Maxie! Step away from the shaggy man! <em>Away</em>!”</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
9/37
<p>Were we supposed to invest in the coupling of Phyllis’ lover and daughter? If so, man, we got it all wrong. ’Cause mainly, we were grossed out by the notion of the two of them getting to know one another in a biblical sense, no matter the trumped-up reasons that they thought it was a great idea for them to do so.</p>
Image: Paul Skipper/JPI
10/37
<p>They were so pretty, just the prettiest pair you ever did see. They were so nice, just the nicest couple you ever did meet. They were so… Oh, what channel do we switch to in order to watch paint dry? Because let’s be real, we’d all have preferred to tune in to that station than continue to watch the bland leading the bland for a second longer.</p>
Image: Sean Smith/JPI
11/37
<p>Theoretically, the pairing of the underdogs made sense. Why wouldn’t they seek comfort in one another after being hurt so badly by Ridge and Brooke? The trouble was, the coupling only served to reinforce why Taylor (then Hunter Tylo) and Thorne had been so easily discarded by the objects of their desire.</p>
Image: ABC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
12/37
<p>Nope, some things even being attractive and blond can’t do, and one of them is generate chemistry where there is none. To this day, we’re sorry that the soap never pursued the sparks that flew between the radiant Tava Smiley and Wally Kurth, who back then was her character’s husband of convenience, Ned. (He’s still Ned, obviously, but… well, you get it.)</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
13/37
<p>Remember when you were 12 and wondering what it was like to make out, so you kinda got busy with your forearm? That was sorta what it was like watching these two pals pair up and try to sell us, blessedly briefly, on the idea that theirs was a grand love affair. It’s OK to just be friends, guys — and sometimes advisable.</p>
Image: Paul Skipper/JPI
14/37
<p>What the pairing of Nicole’s then-husband and sibling rival was supposed to accomplish, we’re at best unsure. However, we can say with great certainty that the coupling of the playboy (then James Scott) and his sister-in-law (Tamara Braun, now Ava) did not inspire fans to ’ship them. If anything, it landed the duo atop viewers’, erm, ship lists.</p>
Image: Aaron Montgomery/JPI
15/37
<p>What’s that, you say? You don’t even remember Sydney Penny and Lorenzo Lamas being on the show, much less being a frontburner couple in the early 2000s? Exactly. We rest our case.</p>
Image: ABC screenshot
16/37
<p>Maybe this pairing would have worked if we hadn’t already bought into Roger Howarth’s Franco with Liz. Or if we hadn’t gotten a chance to check out how well his Austin played opposite Britt. But as it was, the only people who were ’shipping this couple were the writers, who didn’t seem to see what we were: a whole lotta nothin’.</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
17/37
<p>Gorgeous? Check. Supercouple track record? Check. Hot together? Not so much. The pairing of Adam’s half brother and “widow” made total sense on paper. But on screen? Well, sure, it still made sense. But we’ve seen more passion during commercial breaks. For, like, pain relievers and diapers. Hard pass for the long haul.</p>
Image: NBC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection (2)
18/37
<p>“Sacrilege!” cried fans of the NBC soap when, after altogether selling us on the love story of Eden and Cruz, it tried to match up the “widower” with his sister-in-law. A Martinez (later Eduardo, <em>Days of Our Lives</em>) and Eileen Davidson (Ashley, <em>Young & Restless</em>) could sell a space heater to a snowman, but even they couldn’t get us to forget the magic that was Cruz and Eden.</p>
Image: Jill Johnson/JPI
19/37
<p>In theory, the bad girl-gone-good and good guy-gone-nowhere should’ve been soap-opera gold. She wanted to wear a halo, and he had a collection of them that was so big, you’d swear that he’d stocked up at Costco. But put them together, and it had the same effect as throwing a match in water. Pfft. Zip. Nada.</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
20/37
<p>Their portrayers had it going on, but their characters never managed to get fans going. Maybe that’s why, aside from the in-demand actors’ busy schedules, the couple was put so far on the backburner that they fell off the stove.</p>
Image: Charles Bush/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
21/37
<p>“Too soon!” hollered Laura fans when the soap tried to move his “widower” on with Port Charles’ new Lois Lane. Eventually, he was shuttled into a more successful romance with Holly, and she, into a well-received love affair with Robert. And, of course, Demi Moore wound up doing OK for herself in Hollywood, now didn’t she?</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
22/37
<p>For the sake of good, soapy drama, we’ll let a lot slide — but the Newman family’s omnipotent patriarch hooking up with his frequent daughter-in-law? Mm, no, that was a big step too far. And, it goes without saying, a big step in the wrong direction — for both of them!</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
23/37
<p>We‘re all for fresh blood, new couples, hot ideas. But the storyline that was built around these two and a too-much-discussed elephant statue fell flatter than the proverbial pancake. Maybe if we’d actually seen them get involved and fall in love, we wouldn’t have wished that the Necktie Killer had put us out of our misery along with Serena.</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
24/37
<p>This pairing made about as much sense as a Mad Libs gone oh, so very wrong. He wasn’t all that into her, she wasn’t all that into him, and you don’t need us to tell you that there wasn’t a member of the audience that was all that into them. For a show that usually nails the big moments, this felt like a little… misfire.</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
25/37
<p>At a time when the audience was really all about “Spixie,” the show attempted to recreate the magic conjured up by Jason Cook and Kirsten Storms as <em>Days of Our Lives</em>’ Shawn and Belle by re-teaming them… to pleasant but ultimately less than enchanting results.</p>
Image: George De Sota/JPI
26/37
<p>After the searing, decades-long love story the show had given Robert Newman (now Ashland, <em>Young & Restless</em>) and Kim Zimmer as Josh and Reva, his romance with his sister-in-law seemed more lukewarm than hot. Yet by golly, <em>Guiding Light</em> stuck with it long past the point that viewers did.</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
27/37
<p>“What better way could there be to break up my daughter and her boyfriend,” thought the vixen, “than by stripping him down and loving him up?” Um, virtually every conceivable way, ma’am. Not only did viewers blanch, they never looked at Paige’s mother or beau the same way again.</p>
Image: ABC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
28/37
<p>OK, Kendall, that reaction might be a smidgen extreme. But it’s not too far off from the way that the audience responded to her true love breaking character by getting jiggy with the vixen that should only have ever been played by the incomparable Marcy Walker.</p>
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
29/37
<p>Let’s see. The young woman who was appalled by her sister’s boyfriend’s affair with married lady Quinn suddenly decides that she doesn’t want to settle down with boo Zende but hook up with the ab-fabulous CFO herself. Yeah, that makes sense. Wait, no, it doesn’t. Not at all. And the lack of heat between the twosome doesn’t help one damn bit!</p>
Image: Paul Skipper/JPI
30/37
<p>Thank heavens for Kay, Tabitha, Zombie Charity and every other interloper in the romance of these teenage sweethearts, a dishwater-dull pairing that often left viewers reacting to their scenes the same way that she is here: by getting sleepy… so <em>very</em> sleepy!</p>
Image: ABC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
31/37
<p>When the first Mrs. Jacks was raised from the tomb, she was intended to be a grave threat to the hubby’s relationship with Brenda. But despite a splashy introduction and glam promo shots, the pairing proved to be so DOA that it, if not Miranda, was soon sent to the morgue.</p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
32/37
<p>The storyline in which Sheila stole her rival’s man and their baby is a classic, for sure. But let’s be real here: Was anybody <em>really</em> all that invested in the Graingers’ marriage… or merely the havoc that the evil nurse prescribed the ho-hum couple?</p>
Image: Jill Johnson/JPI
33/37
<p>When the legacy characters returned to Salem, it was a big deal — or was <em>supposed</em> to be. Instead, fans responded with a shrug, and Linsey Godfrey’s character was soon moved on to one new love interest (Eric, another misfire), then another (Xander — jackpot!).</p>
Image: Aaron Montgomery/JPI
34/37
<p>In a way, we got the appeal: Brooke’s son was the one man who wouldn’t dump Taylor (Hunter Tylo back then) for her mama. But the ick factor was nosebleed-high on the fling that found Phoebe’s mom shagging her ex — <em>and</em> Steffy’s future beau!</p>
Image: ABC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
35/37
<p>Much like Anthony Geary’s stint as Luke-alike Bill paled in comparison to his original run, so did the character’s pairing with Brenda’s sister suffer from comparisons to you-know-who and Laura. Geary + any blonde actress does not necessary = success.</p>
Image: ABC/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
36/37
<p>The cad had already tempted one woman away from the nunhood, we really didn’t need a repeat — and certainly not one that was so silly that it involved his love interest opening a clown school. Yes, a clown school.</p>
Image: ABC
37/37
