Hospital General

After Santa Barbara, Guiding Light, Another World, and One Life to Live, the Soap Butcher Jill Farren Phelps has placed her friends in high position often ruining such high quality shows. When I was watching Guiding Light, it was at its peak in 1991. They fired the producer and replaced them with Butcher Phelps. She drove Beverlee McKinsey away by overworking her to death. She killed off beloved Ellen Parker's character Maureen. So Parker won an Emmy but the loss was much worse for the audience. On Another World, she killed off Alice Barrett Mitchell's beloved Mary Frances Frame Winthrop in a ridiculous storyline. On One Life to Live, I could only imagine what she did to that show which took years recover. Now she is ruining General Hospital by driving the great John Ingle away to Days Of Our Lives where he received a contract role. I feel sorry and sympathy for Jed Allan because he has a tough act to follow. The Quartermaines used to be the funnest family on television completely. She drove the great Dame Anna Lee away right before her death. Now Kristina Malandro Wagner refuses to return unless she gets a contract for playing Felicia Jones. Why aren't the veterans of this getting the short end of the stick? I bet Gloria Monty is livid over the show getting Best Drama Emmy under Phelps. I know Monty's heart was always in the right place with this show and her last time around wasn't successful as the Luke & Laura days but still, I know Butcher Phelps track record with soaps. Nobody in the real workplace would allow somebody whose cost so much damage to so many people. I am glad that Robin Strasser is speaking against Phelps' known favoritism for certain actors. I am going to single them out now on General Hospital because it would be unfair. But I know after 25 years of watching soaps, I could do a better job to satisfy both fans and the cast and crew. I am sorry but Phelps is just a Soap Opera Butcher to me. I know Guiding Light was great at the time but she made terrible decisions which cost fans. Now Guiding Light might be up for cancellation! the cast and crew took a pay cut to keep the show afloat. Remember Another World! Phelps was there before she jumped ship to One Life To Live. What goes on behind the scenes must be more fascinating than on screen. Guiding Light and Another World were creations of another daytime diva or queen Irna Phillips who would be turning over in her grave if she knew what this woman has done to her children.

Now Phelps is killing off Alan Quartermaine who has been played faithfully by Stuart Damon for 30 years. I'm concerned that she is going to lose one of the show's best attributes, the Quartermaine Family. She and the network practically drove Anna Lee out over a contract dispute. Even with John Ingle's welcome return, the shadow over the show is still different. I don't blame cast members like Leslie Charleson and others for being so vocal about Damon's departure. It's as shocking as it comes. This is what you get when you have somebody like Phelps at the helm.

I have watched this show for as long as I can remember. I was born in 77 and watched as a little kid. My parents were fans and I got into it (they both watched all ABC soaps). I was also a fan of AMC/OLTL/Loving/Port Charles. I knew people felt it was weird for a guy to like soaps but I didn't care... I was hooked. I remember VCR days and taping every show so I could watch after school and rushing home to catch GH in time LOL! I have fond memories of characters staring out on the show that are still on today. Luke and Laura, Frisco and Felicia, Robert and Anna, The Q's and all the bickering and backstabbing, Robin being there since she was a kid... etc. The show has changed a lot over the years but I would like to think I am as much a an today as I was back in the day.

I'm so tired of people saying that General Hospital is just a stale old soap opera. GH has been a staple of ABC's daytime lineup for 39 years. It's 3rd in the ratings and I think that ain't half bad considering it's age. The Alexis, Sonny, Carly triangle is a masterpiece destined to go down in GH's extremly long history. The actors and actresses who portray the characters on the show are fantastic and so are the writers. I get very upset when people say that it's a stale soap. So when GH tries to do something exciting and fun people say that it is not true soap storytelling. Just like the revival of the Cassidines (Helena, Stavros). I thought that that was a great storyline. In closing I would just like to say that General Hospital is on the track to taking back the ratings crown from The Young and the Restless. Your the greatest GH!!!!

Back in September, I thought GH was finally starting to improve but sadly that was a brief improvement and it is now downhill. Soap Operas have similar storylines sometimes but General Hospital only has the same recycled storylines. The show is predictable and boring. General Hospital has a large and wonderful cast including Robin Christopher, Nancy Lee Grahn, Tony Geary, Rebecca Herbst, Leslie Charleson, Billy Warlock, Stuart Damon, Chad Brannon and so many others. Yet General Hospital seems to waste this large ensemble cast and only use them to prop up four characters, known as the drab four (Sonny,Carly,Jason and Courtney) by some fans. General Hospital has turned into a wanna be Sopranos. They hardly ever showcase the hospital or the families. They have backburned older characters or gotten rid of them, like original cast member Rachel Ames (Audrey Hardy). The show now puts down the police and strong women like Alexis, Elizabeth, Monica and Carly. The writing is god awful and the pairings lack chemistry and are forced, especially the pairing of Jason and Courtney. Alicia Leigh Willis's Courtney showed promise in the beginning but without Billy Warlock's AJ the character and actress is a disaster. Nancy Lee Grahn's Alexis was once a strong independent lawyer who is now reduced to dressing like a man to see her daughter. General Hospital is now the worst show. It is appalling.

General Hospital needs to write better for it's women, for the police and for all it's characters. They need storylines about family, love, adventure and storylines that are not about the mob. They need couples with actual chemistry that sizzle like Steve Burton and Rebecca Herbst's Jason and Liz, Zander and Emily or Alexis with either Luke, Ned, or Cameron. Ted King's return as Lorenzo Alcazar is a great move but GH does not need more characters. It needs balance, and great writing.

General Hospital used to be a great show. Back in the late-70's and early 80's..it was THE SOAP to watch.

In the early 90's, when Claire and Matthew Labine took over head writing duties, General Hospital spotlighted so many fantastic, heartwrenching, and honest stories. I mean, what fan of this show will EVER forget Stone and Robin's love story. Stone, dying of AIDS-blind due to it...takes his last glimpse of his love, Robin by a window and hapilly says "I can see you"...then passes away. Or will the forget the Breast Cancer storyline, when Monica cuts her bandages off to see that she has no breast, and she just begins to cry uncontrollably. Or, the revolutionary and GUTSY storyline when young Maxie is dying from a heart condition, and is need of a transplant. At the same time...her cousin Barbara Jean (B.J.) is rendered brain dead in a school bus accident. Tony and Bobbie decide to donate her organs. Meanwhile Felicia (Maxie's mom), gets the news that a donor heart has been found. So she goes to Bobbie happy that they have found a heart for her daughter. Her happiness turns to horror when she finds Bobbie crying. Instantly, Felicia knows...

"Noooo. Not Barbara Jean. Not Barbara Jean's heart."

And she collapses to the floor, crying. I cry now as I think about it, and this was ten years ago. And then the scene where Tony hovers over Maxie, as she recovers from the transplant. And he leans down and places his ear over her chest to hear the beating heart that belonged to his deceased daughter. Oh man...

This was OUTSTANDING TELEVISION!

Sadly, GH has regressed so much under the watch of Bob Guza, Jr. I don't care what anyone says....it's BLASPHEMY to put a Spencer with a Cassadine!!! To me...this show is long gone. With the loss of some of my favorite actors (Johnathan Jackson, Amber Tamblyn, Kimberly McCullough, Sarah Brown), and some truly horiffic writing, storylines and pairings....I can never watch this show with the same enthusiasm as I did ten and twenty years ago. For me though...there are few saving graces for this show. The Quartermaines': John Ingle...whom not only has filled the shoes of David Lewis' "Edward Quartermaine" character...but has greatly improved on the original (and this is saying A LOT, as David Lewis was FANTASTIC as Edward), Leslie Charleson, Stuart Damon, Anna Lee, Jane Eliot (always a good watch when she returns from time to time), and Robin Christopher (GREAT). Maurice Benard as "Sonny" still delivers the goods. And of course, Tony Geary as "Luke Spenser". I just wish the material was better. Sadly, unless the Labines come back, or someone can be the second coming of Gloria Monty...I'll just be a viewer on occasion.