General Hospital: Proposing a Sulotion

This was and Essay I did for my English Class. I got a B+ on it. But very proud of it.

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Find Our Way Back

For forty five years General Hospital has captured the hearts of millions of viewers, pulling them in with intense nonstop action and cliffhangers, romances and break ups, friendships and rivalries. Each brings something more to the stories being told. And what started as a half hour black and white program turned into an hour color program that defined a generation. To this day General Hospital is still capturing the hearts of millions, but in a new way not a half hour program of a hospital and emotions, but an hour of violence, deaths and unnecessary harm to children. General Hospital isn’t known for its untimely deaths, but instead for its romance, adventure, mystery and the families. Something General Hospital should work its way back to.

General Hospital was created by Frank and Doris Hursly and it premiered on April 1st, 1963 (ABC) as a black and white half hour show. The show was centered around a hospital with nurses and doctors and gave a love story that could never happen, but the fans always wanted to see happen. It grew into so much more, giving viewers romance and more than just a hospital, bringing in new families and faces and much more drama from affairs of the heart to marriage, back stabbing and cheating, from stealing and lying to a couldn’t miss hour on TV. With each new day a new problem is raised and a new story to unfold, bringing in new things, first times and controversial issues and bringing awareness to viewers and a voice of reaching out, as well as a show that could entertain.

Every weekday at 3pm eastern fans tune in to watch General Hospital. Some have been watching it for years and some just starting to watch it, but however long they still tune for the same reasons; the love storylines between two people who could never be together, the families that just can’t stop fighting, or the happy moments of a couple finally getting their wish to be parents. Now instead of those moments the viewers get the moments of fire ripping through building after building, beating and attacking of innocent fathers and children all because they have a connections to the mob. General Hospital is based in a New York town called Port Charles. It wasn’t always a peaceful town, but now it’s a town, full of violence where the characters have to pick a side and have to be careful with whom they are seen because they never know when that person could be the reason they’re hurt or killed.

Somewhere in the last fifteen years the show became more focused on the next mob war than on the next family Christmas, turning storyline after storyline into a mob war or something related to the mob. Since 2003 there have been more violence, deaths and mob related deaths in the past three years than weddings. Four of the victims weren’t even out of high school and one wasn’t even in high school yet. Two other victims were General Hospital soap vets that had been on the show since the 70’s. A few others were part of the big family the Quartermaines, the family that has been around for the last 30 years, which makes them part of history. Only now more have been killed off that it’s come to the point where the fans will start betting which Quartermaine will be next to be killed off. And that shouldn’t be something the fans should be watching every day. The more deaths shown on General Hospital the more they’ll start to remember the deaths rather than the moments that made daytime history.

One proposal is to bring back the old General Hospital to replace the present day General Hospital. This would not completely remove the mob from the show, but to reintroduce some of what made General Hospital such a hit for 45 years. In 1981, 30 million viewers tuned in to see Luke and Laura get married (Special). Those were some of the highest ratings they had and the producers even got Liz Taylor to guest star as the evil character Helena Cassadine who didn’t want Luke and Laura, fan favorites, together. The ratings had nothing to do with mob wars or mob deaths. The ratings were high because of the wedding. In 2006 the show honored the wedding by having Luke and Laura get remarried and giving the fans the happy ending they always wanted to see. And once again making it the must see wedding of the year. Historical moments like Luke and Laura’s wedding made General Hospital the show it was. In 1998 General hospital celebrated its 35th Anniversary and made a prime time special to showcase 35 years of the show, going through all the weddings, families, the deaths, and how it all began. The special told everything, the core, of what General Hospital really was about. At the end of the special “Luke” Tony Geary, said “As we move to General Hospital 2000 and perhaps the next 35 years, the show remains vital, and true to its core. It’s Characters.”

Another suggestion is to bring more of the romance, family and hospital back into play and tune the mob really down so the mob is only the main storyline once every year or two. For years the show survived on adventure stories and spies catching the bad guys. The mob doesn’t need to be such a big part of General Hospital. It can stay with the show, but fans don’t want to see their favorites killed off every other week. The viewers want to see the couples and families they love end up on top in the end, see the well loved characters get the girl or get the guy and watch the characters overcome big obstacles in their life and end up stronger together then a part. But the violence has replaced all the wonderful heartwarming storylines. Now there are the three major crime families, Corinthos, Alcazar and Zacchara, on everyday instead of the well loved families and the ones part of history, the Quartermaines, the Spencers, the Scorpios, and the Webbers.

In 2004, the story of a romance began. It had been a long year, but somewhere along the way the characters Jason Morgan and Samantha McCall fell for each other. It started out as a lie to protect a family and turned into something more. Along the way they were caught in mob violence and the ex that just wouldn’t go away, but they overcame it all only to lose it all in 2006, when Sam was shot in the back. It ended up costing Sam and Jason more than just losing a happy ending, but ruining a marriage and an engagement. Sam had been shot because she was engaged to Jason and Jason had taken over the Corinthos business.

Now it could be said that the violence and action is entertaining and it brings in more viewers, that it gives the show an edge or make the show different from the other daytime shows, but how entertaining is it to watching a 10 year old getting shot in the head? Or a 10 year old shooting someone or owning a gun? A baby getting kidnapped over and over again? Or watching people die every other week? Those may be good for a block buster movie, but General hospital is viewed by mostly women, that have families of their own or that want to have children or the women, who are teenagers, what kind of message does that send to them?

For years many other daytime dramas have survived with nothing but family related drama and romance. No matter how many ways it could be said that General Hospital is different from the rest and is more entertaining with all the mob violence, the ratings aren’t showing that it’s more entertaining. The ratings are dropping because of the mob storylines has caused more and more viewers to stop watching the show. And the shows that are more based about the dysfunctional lives of families, friends and loved one get the higher rating and more viewers.

Over time the more deaths that are shown the less that people will remember the happy parts of the show. Two deaths that are very easy to remember because they are unforgettable. The first one was the death of Georgie Jones. She was the youngest daughter to the legendary Felicia and Frisco Jones and was loved by everyone. Her death came a week before Christmas and she was killed because she could identify the Text Message Killer, a man who killed and hurt everyone that had hurt him or his family. In 2008 it was later found out her sister Maxie Jones was the one that was supposed to die that night, but Georgie went to protect her sister. It was uncalled for and a stupid mistake on the writers call, because Georgie could have been written out and said to be going away to school or reconnecting with her parents, just anything but death. The other death isn’t really a death, but it is a child in a permanent coma. Michael Corinthos the third son of Carly Corinthos and A.J. Quartermaine, and his adopted father was Sonny Corinthos. Michael was with his father Sonny at the Corinthos warehouse watching a shipment of coffee beans coming in, when a hit man tried to take out Sonny. Sonny dove out of the way, but the bullet bounced off something and hit Michael, leaving him in a permanent coma. He was only 10 years old.

General Hospital has been known for many different things over the years, from giving HIV to a character or a character dying of AIDs to the first daytime soap to hire a Middle Eastern actress for a contract role and doing an HIV pregnancy storyline. But two things that the show is best known from are the Nurses Ball and B.J’s heart storyline. For a while they put on this show called the Nurses Ball. It was to raise money for AID’s awareness. It was always this big show that had the entire cast involved. They’d gather together and many would put on different acts from singing and dancing to acting or acting like a fool, all to raise money for research and raise awareness of AIDs.

One of their biggest storylines was a sad and heart wrenching storyline. It was about two families and their losses and that had nothing to do with the mob at all. Maxie Jones was sick in the hospital and the only way to save her was a heart transplant, but there was no luck in finding a donor. But that all changed when Maxie’s Cousin BJ Jones was hurt in an accident. On her was to school the van that takes her was hit by a drunk driver and it left BJ brain dead. B.J’s parents Bobbie Spencer and Tony Jones decided to give to Maxie BJ’s heart because they were a match. It was such a powerful storyline that people will always remember it, because it was a historic death.

Now today the show is all about the next big mob war, or the next big mob hit, focusing on what Jason Morgan, Sonny Corinthos and the Zaccharas will do next. In late September of 2008 Sonny Corinthos was set to marry his high school sweetheart, but before they could even get to start the wedding she was shot, something you would expect to happen is an ex boyfriend or girlfriend or even an ex-wife crashing the wedding and saying stop the wedding or just the bride getting cold feet, not a bride getting shot before she could even marry her groom.

Along with the wedding shooting, this year General Hospital did a holiday special for Thanksgiving, or rather the day before and it wasn’t the traditional Quartermaine Thanksgiving where they bicker with each other and their cook ends up giving their dinner away so they end up with a Thanksgiving Pizza. It was an episode that said what would have happened if two characters didn’t meet when they did, where they would be? The episode just was very uplifting and had nothing to do with the mob, just a simple love story here and there. Where in the end they two people it was really about end up together anyways. A type of storyline like that is what draws viewer’s in. Grabs their attention and tells him there is something worth watching.

For forty five years General Hospital has stayed strong with millions of viewers tuning in everyday, multiple Emmy’s and Emmy award winning actors and actresses in the cast. Along with guest stars and the first to do something other daytime shows wouldn’t think of. Somewhere along the way the show has gone from a daytime drama with romance and adventure to a daytime mob drama with violence and death. The show has been on for so long that just to change it into this mob enhanced program just to be different from the rest isn’t needed. With just the right mix of everything from storylines and characters the show can once again get back to its roots and still remain on top.