General Hospital (1972 - Present): Review By Huntsman

Yes I watched and I am now review General Hospital the long running Soap Opera. People here may ask why I watch the show or how I could enjoy it. First off I haven't watched the since early 2008. I have caught a few episodes on and off again since then, but haven't like what I've seen and I'll get to that further along in my review here. First General Hospital brings back happy and sad memories for me. I started watching All My Children, One Life to Live and General Hospital in the very early 1990's. I believe it was in 1991. I would visit my great aunt and grandmother on my father's side each separately once a week. Some people might find it a chore to visit their grandmothers, but it helped keep me out of trouble since I did tend to get in trouble growing up with only my mother around to take care raise my brother and I while she worked 10 hours a day and was away from home 12 hours. Sure some days I'd rather be somewhere else, but generally I enjoyed my time with them. We'd talk about school, family and watch soaps. It was honestly a good time and that got me hooked on soaps, but in particular General Hospital which in all honesty had some good acting and great stories that would put many of the shows on primetime now a days to shame. I watched General Hospital with them until 1999 when I came out here to Portland, OR. I continued to watch the show, through my grandmother's and great aunts deaths in 2005 and 2006. After that I enjoyed watching the show even more plus the stories were getting better. Sadly in early 2008 the shows writing quickly took a turn for the worse, and I stopped watching the show all together. There now you know how I started watching the show and now to my review of General Hospital and Soaps in general.

I know people joke about how ridiculous soaps story lines can be and I have as well, but that stems from having the show run five days a week for just about every day of the year. Believe me prime time shows would do the same if they had the kind of work schedule that soaps do. General Hospital was really a trail blazer when it came to stories. The show I believe had was the first to have two regular characters with AID's in Robin Scorpio and Stone Cates back in 1994. They also really engaged in the topic of rape in 1995 with 1996 with the rape of Elizabeth Webber. The show's writers, producers and ABC really took chances with the large budget Soap. It was even allowed on prime time television for a few episodes and got pretty good ratings. The show also had engaging characters in Sonny Corinthos, Luke Spencer, Elizabeth Webber and Helena Cassadine to name just a few, but the one that really brought me into the show was Jason Morgan. He was formally a Jason Quartermaine of the wealthy family, but he was in a car accident with his alcoholic brother and lost his memories. Waking up not knowing who he was or who the family he was supposed to know he lashed out and ran away. Jason changed his name to Jason Morgan and went to work for local mob boss Sonny Corinthos. He was and is probably the most compelling character on the show. The problem with soaps isn't their outrageous story lines. It's just how the show and soaps in general are formatted. Their a daily show which means over the years writers will repeat some story lines over and over again, and keep bring back the same characters over and over again. Over time it takes away from the story and characters. It's the same thing that happens with long running prime time television shows like Law and Order, ER, CSI and others. There's only so far you can take the story of a character before you start repeating story lines. It's even more similar to comics. Just like Soaps they endlessly repeating storylines and bringing characters back from life, which is one of the reasons I stopped reading comics like Marvel and DC. Still recycled story lines and bring characters back from the dead is better than crappy talk shows and court room shows.

The acting on General Hospital soaps is good and I think many of you will be surprised how good the acting is. In fact man stars like Josh Duhamel, Meg Ryan, Julianne Moore, Ryan Phillippe and many more. On General Hospital Maurice Benard (Sonny Corinthos) does a good job as the abused child who grows up to be the big mob boss in Port Charles. The beautiful Rebecca Herbst does a wonderful job as the single mother and a nurse Elizabeth Webber. The former Playboy model and celebrity dancer from Dancing with the Stars Kelly Monaco does well as the former con artist turned P.I. Sam McCall. Steve Burton does the best job playing Jason Morgan. Now don't get me wrong there are some actresses and actors on General Hospital and soaps who are bad, but in general the acting is good.

The music was generally really good, with the show using many bands like Evanescence, Journey, Jewel and others that I can't remember at the moment. Ricky Martin even had a small supporting role in 1994 as a singer before he became a star in the US. The directing on the show is or make that was really good along with the cinematography. The filming of the show which takes place in the fictional city of Port Charles in New York State takes place in LA, but you wouldn't know that by watching the show.

I know I know I watched and enjoyed a soap opera, and I did. Overall General Hospital is and was one of the best Soaps ever, and to be honest the show was and is better than many of the scripted and unscripted shows you'll see on prime time TV with decent to good stories, really good acting, pretty good directing and music. It's sad to see soaps dying and not just from a sentimental part on my account. That's one of the reasons I decided to review General Hospital. I was thinking about the show I once watched on a regular basis after I heard that Steve Burton (Jason Morgan) was leaving the show after being on the show for more than twenty years. I know most of you who will read this haven't or don't plan on watching General Hospital and soaps in general, but I wanted to draw attention to the series kind of like nature lovers want to draw your attention to species of animals that are dying out, and that is what is happening with soaps. A decade ago there were I believe nine or ten soaps on the big three networks now there are I believe only three maybe four left. I don't think they'll more than another three years. There are combinations of reasons. One the ratings have dropped from a decade ago and a major drop from their hay days in the mid 1990's, but also from networks who just like they did with scripted prime time shows in that they replaced them with crap in reality shows that cost a lot less. The networks are doing the same thing with soaps, but with crappy talk shows that will get fewer ratings, but are much cheaper to produce. I just wanted to let you know they existed before everyone forgets that soaps were ever on and have been the longest running scripted shows in history before everyone forgets that they ever existed.