Shriner: OUT of the Ashes Came Frank and Ron!

Oh this TVGUIDE  interview is AWESOME!! read it all..here's a sample: 

TV Guide Magazine: It's such a joy to have the old guard back together on GH these days. Jane, I saw you on Access Hollywood asking a great question: "Why did these people ever go away?"
Elliot: I'll tell you why! It's a writing issue. Writers dry up. They can't think of a place to go with the older characters. It's easier for them to do an old story with a new character than do a new story with an old character.
Geary: And let us not forget that writers get residuals for every new character they create as long as that character is on the air.
Elliot: It's my belief that The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful are the highest-rated shows because they use the same people decade after decade. That's what this audience wants to see — their old characters in new situations. And that's what our current executive producer and head writer, Frank Valentini and Ron Carlivati, are delivering.
Geary: Usually, new producers and writers want to put their stamp on a show. They don't want to continue what's working. They want to reinvent the wheel. It's an ego thing. And once they've gotten rid of characters that were well known and deeply loved, they think they can create that same magic with new characters. Frank and Ron did the exact opposite and it saved our ass. Things were pretty rough there for a while, but they got better as soon as [ABC Daytime chief] Brian Frons left. He hated the soap medium. He hated it from the beginning. He wanted reality TV.
Shriner: It's weird how it all changed overnight. Everybody was firing everybody. Brian fired [head writer] Bob Guza. Then [exec producer] Jill Phelps got fired. Then ABC fired Brian. "You're fired!" "No, you're fired!" It was crazy. But, then, out of the ashes came Frank and Ron.
Geary: The timing was so right