Port Charles

When Port Charles debuted in the summer of 1997, the show had potential and hope. Put seven interns in a hospital and Lucy Coe in her own element and you have the perfect material for a half-hour show. After The Cullingtons left the series, I really felt like the show lost it's identity: doctors in a hospital. Their workplace, what they do, how they function, what are their emotions if they lose a patient, what are their consequences if they act out of poor judgement.

Then, came Courtney Kanelos, Rachel Locke, General Homicide and DV(four things I cringe at when I think about the show) and you have a big trainwreck. Storylines that once focused on the characters, now centered on the plot.

I didn't really care if DV was Scott's dad or that Rachel came to town with a chip on shoulder. That is, until after Executive Producer Wendy Riche left PC, some bright genius decided to replace Riche with Julie Carruthers. Upon her arrival, Ms. Carruthers let the weak link Scott Hamner go and replaced him with Karen Harris. She put the hospital and the drama BACK into PC, where it belonged. And thank goodness, someone had the sense to turn Rachel into the town pariah rather than a Sheila-copycat!

PC became a community under this format, storyline developed, moved at a fast pace and ended, but there was always a new chapter for the character.

I liked the storylines under Carruthers/Harris: All American Guy who could contract HIV? Pill Popping Doctor revisiting her sleazy past? Rich bubbleheaded hospital voluneer seeks gangster with a heart of gold? Down-to-earth careerwoman competing for a board seat against a slimy therapist?

It was good TV folks. If you hadn't seen PC during the past three years it was on the air, then was the time to tune in.

But, some nutcase at ABC decided that Guiding Light's resident hacks, Jim Brown and Barbara Esenten, could perform emergency surgery on PC, a show that didn't need saving. Now, everything is plot, plot plot. "Screw character development. The audience is too stupid for that." I suppose they concluded.

The book format is so dumb, words can't describe it. Isn't the purpose of watching a soap to see DIFFERENT characters? Ian, Kevin, Eve and Lucy are front burner constantly while leaving talented actors who deserve a shot at a good storyline(Nolan North, Marie Wilson, etc.) out in Storyline Siberia.

For all this was worth, ABC should have kept The City. The plots seemed interesting on that show and they were actually beginning to gel until ABC decided to cancel it for this drivel.

Once can only hope when someone at ABC will decide to pull the plug.

Okay, it began as a simple spin-off of General Hospital, a very famous and very good ABC Daytime Soap Opera. It began with only a few main characters, including General Hospital's Lucy Coe, Kevin Collins, and the old character Karen Wexler. The show started off VERY slowly, with storylines progressing even slower. Character developement was OKAY, but Port Charles was missing something... exciting storylines.

About a year into the series, the writers decided to spice things up a bit with a truckload of new storylines, such as Courtney Kanelos making her way to Port Charles, and the most irritating storyline of daytime television: "General Homicide." This was, in my opinion, the writer's way of getting half the cast off the show. This was definately the worst plot I've ever seen.

When things looked bad, new writers came to the show and saved it. They came up with GREAT storylines, such as Joe's battle with possible HIV, and Karen's addiction to pain killers. Character development was at its peak.

Mid-2000. Enter "Port Charles Fate." NEVER IN MY LIFE have I seen such a dumb thing. Port Charles has a new format. Every twelve weeks there is a new storyline that involves new characters, while the other characters are left out completely. Can you say "no?" Some of the storylines are like science fiction novels! Will Port Charles ever change back to the decent show it used to be? Time will tell.

This show rules! I know that it's a soap opera and most people probably think that all soap operas are dumb, and I wouldn't know because this is the only soap opera I watch! My sister got me hooked on it a couple of years ago, and I've watched it as much as possible ever since. It seems like most soap operas are always just talking about stuff like their long lost twins, or who's the father and such, but this show is more exciting than that. They've had kidnaps, going back in time, vampires, angels, magic candles, a cute angel who found his way back to his true love and a evil spirit called the Avatar! The story themes change every 13 weeks. This Friday just ended a book entitled Torn. And Monday it's going to start the next book called Naked Eyes. Before that they've been called Fate, Time in a bottle, Tainted Love, Tempted, Miracles Happen, Secrets, Superstition, Torn, and now Naked Eyes! This show is seriously under rated and you should really check it out! It's on at 12:30 pm eastern time on ABC. Once you start and understand who everyone is, you won't be able to stop! Check it out, it's really great! ~~**Amanda**~~

It took only moments for me to formulate an opinion of this show. Once again, the brilliance of acting must suffer to mind dead scripts geared toward the key demographic that is, painfully, thirty and under.

Soap opera actors are a breed apart. They are called upon to learn pages of dialogue, just for a single show, CONSTANTLY. The actors here are no different. I can see that if they were given a REAL script to work with they could be extremely dynamic. Unfortunately, the need to work or contractual agreements kept them chained to this rehashed GARBAGE. This re-treaded idea that was sorry when it was "Xena", which was borrowed from the Hercules sagas [The Legendary Journeys] [[garbage], which borrowed from old Sinbad story lines that was campy GARBAGE back in the sixties and seventies. The actors must be positively relieved to not have to be chained to this foolishness any longer.

You see we are in a midst of a full blown ANTI RENAISSANCE of creativity. To actually NOT blatantly "borrow" from someone ELSES ideas that worked in the past is unheard of. This generation believes that since there's about one hundred years of recorded media to "borrow" from that they don't have to "waste time" by thinking up something NEW. Young people don't see the need to ABSORB knowledge when you can look up anything you need to find on the internet. This rubbish hit me in the gut as hard as when I heard the singer Little Romeo, "borrow" from Biz Markie's song "Just a Friend" a few years ago. That "artist" had borrowed from a song barely a decade old. I'd already been forced to live through the seventies AGAIN. How soon will I find myself looking @ kids with tall, box cut haircuts and "Cross Colors" yet again?

I've said it to friends and I'll say it to those who read this: I STILL remain optimistic that ONE DAY I will turn on a radio and NOT here music from MY past rehashed and desecrated by some blithering X or Y generation buffoon. ONE DAY, I'll turn on the television and NOT see herds of people contriving "reality" for some moronic coward living for free in his parent's basement to WATCH because he's too scared to go outside and experience it HIMSELF.

Now.I await rebuttals against what I've written here, no doubt presented in ALL CAPS, run together sentences, ridiculous grammar and lots of sentences using lowercase " i " to refer to themselves with. You'd think a generation raised on computers would know how the spell check function works on their word suites but then again, who do you copy THAT from?

I have watched PORT CHARLES since it debuted on June 1st, 1997. I taped the first episode and watch it periodically. Anyway, I really enjoy the new format in which PORT CHARLES is produced. The new 12-week storylines are great. Hopefully Eve and Kevin will stay together, and Scott and Lucy find romance again. If you like GENERAL HOSPITAL, then you have to watch PORT CHARLES.