This morning started out like any other morning. I woke up, watched a little Angel (there's no better way to start off the morning than a vamped out David Boreanaz), had some Egg Nog coffee, showered, got ready for work, and set the TiVo for General Hospital.
Wait...WHAT?
It was circa 2000 in my apartment this morning, as I had the strangest feeling of deja vu. I haven't watched GH (its what the cool kids call it, keep up now) in years and while my mother is still a devout viewer and occasionally feels the need to call me at work and give me updates (not kidding, she called last week to tell me "Scott Reeves is on! He's so short!), I really haven't felt the need to watch GH at all. Why? This guy's no longer on it.
This guy, of course being Chad Brannon, aka Zander Smith. The one reason that I legitimately watched General Hospital in the first place. As a die hard Y&R viewer (that would be the Young and the Restless) I loathed any and everything ABC. Try going to the Daytime Emmys and outright admitting you hate General Hospital. I did that and my mother nearly backhanded me. "You don't do that here!" she hissed and I remember standing at Radio City, 13 years old in the gown that I wore for my 8th grade graduation (and would later where to my sweet 16) and being thoroughly confused. What was so great about General Hospital anyway? I decided at that moment that I would officially hate anything GH related for the rest of my days.
Until this guy. I could blame my friend Krysten, who was also the one who got me obsessed with WWE (another blog for another day) but it wasn't her fault. It was this guy. I remember Krysten calling me and saying "Oh my god, you HAVE to watch GH this week! Emily's getting kidnapped!" I remember my answer, "Krysten, I don't care." But alas, I rolled my eyes, gave in and turned on the TV. I didn't really care and I fully intended to watch just so I could tell her that it was stupid and that I hated it. But then I saw this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vacn36axxfQ
You see it doesn't take long to get sucked into GH and figure out what's going on and this scene specifically blew me away. You may recognize Emily, since she's played by Amber Tamblyn (Joan of Arcadia, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants) but at the time I hadn't heard of her and I certainly hadn't heard of Chad Brannon. But after that one scene, I called Krysten and just yelled at her. "As if WWF and the Backstreet Boys weren't enough! Now you've sucked me into this too!"
And sucked in I was. I set my VCR every day and followed what I would deem the best soap opera love story for my generation. To all the Luke and Laura fans out there, calm down I'm only 26. I'm not begruding the most classic love story alive, even though Laura's locked up in some institution (or was the last time I checked) But for me, I was a die hard Zander and Emily fan. And for just one day and one day only, Chad will be back on GH this afternoon. It's just a one time thing, he's not back from the dead.
So today will be a bittersweet day for GH fans, as most of them go "Wait, is that? Oh my God IT IS!" Yeah, it is. It's nice to see him again isn't it?
Over the past 9 (going on 10) years, I was fortunate to meet Chad Brannon and hang out with him on several occasions. I'm proud to say that I was even there when he won his Emmy award, and got a hug right before that. I even managed to be the keeper of his embroidered jacket from the 10,000th episode of GH. It's giant on me, but nonetheless, I wear it occasionally. As someone who's met her fair share of celebrities, I can honestly say that a truer, kinder, gentler man doesn't exist to my immediate knowledge. Chad was always there for his fans, whether it was responding on his message board or taking a bunch of us out after an event. Thanks to him, I've made lifelong friends and had some ridiculous memories most of which I would never share on this blog.
But I will share this one. I was 17 years old, and at a mall appearance that Chad was doing. It was my very first time meeting him, and I was 17 years old, of course I was ridiculously excited. I remember talking with the woman who organized the event, and basically drooling over her job. I couldn't believe someone would actually get paid to do that. Did a more brilliant job exist? I remember asking her, "So what is this and how do I do it?" The friendly red head just shrugged and responded, "It's just PR."
Yes Chad, I owe you some thanks.
~Sarah Shepherd
PR Coordinator, Motivators, Inc.
P.S.: I know it's not Arrested Development quote day, but I just watched that episode last night, the one where Maybe just says "Marry ME!" to get out of certain situations. God that's hilarious. Just yelling Marry me right out of the blue. Who would do such a thing?
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