I love the 24 ripoff storyline for GH.How it fits into a fast-paced show like GH i'm suspending logic on that one.This would be the slowest I've seen GH since I've been on and off watching show.

http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2007/01/daytime_tv_gets.html

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,1195676,00.html

General Hospital x 24 = ?

Jan 25, 2007, 11:19 AM | by Abby West

Categories: Television

Hmmmm. Last year EW asked General Hospital's head writer Bob Guza Jr. to tell us how he would write the hit show 24, and we had 24's producer give us his version of GH. Now, tomorrow's GH marks the first of 16 real-time episodes, just in time for February sweeps, and Jack Bauer is dealing with some serious family issues (maybe even a little baby mama drama?). Coincidence? Not over at GH.

"I blame Entertainment Weekly for this whole nightmare we're in now," jokes Guza. Our little exercise got him thinking about a new way to build audience suspense on the soap opera well versed in high adventure but corralling the show's disparate storylines within real-time constraints just wasn't daunting enough for him. "It's that format but with a whole other wrinkle on top of it because we are, in fact, telling part of it backwards. We're going to start a day absolutely cold. The audience won't have a clue what they're looking at."

The GH event will start with an out-of-the-blue explosion at the Metro Court Hotel in the Mob-riddled, fictional city of Port Charles, N.Y. (Some of you might remember that just a few years ago a fire burned down the hotel that stood there before, also during sweeps. Hotels and hospitals are great for endangering lives of prominent cast members, says Guza.)

The show then resets to 16 hours before the explosion, and each one-hour episode will explain the events that led up to it, including a hostage crisis. And since this is sweeps period (and explosions and hostage-takings aren't enough) there's also the Jan. 30 return of GH veteran Kin Shriner (pictured) as the ex-husband of Laura Spencer, of the fabled Luke and Laura. Shriner will tie into an existing storyline related to Laura.

Guza's betting that, rather than confusing and frustrating fans, the disconcerting switcheroo will intrigue them and make them invest in getting to the bottom of the mystery. I'm betting that, at the very least, I'll be less confused about how you can get from one side of Port Charles to the other in 20 minutes than I am about the 24 logistics.

And for all of you out there looking down on us soap heads, take a cue from ESPN's Stephen A. Smith, who will be on the Feb. 2 episode of GH as a reporter covering the hostage situation. He's been a fan since he was five years old. "Let this be a lesson to all the ladies out there," he said. "There are men who love the soaps."

Smith and my husband are man enough to admit their serial love. How about you guys? Who'll admit they're stoked to see if GH can pull this off and keep the proper pacing?

Television Commentary

If I ran...

A ''24'' writer and a ''General Hospital'' producer switch places on paper -- Two men tell what would happened if they were in charge of the other?s show

By Lynette Rice

What would some of your favorite TV programs look like if they were run by people from decidedly different shows? We asked two of the creative forces behind 24 and General Hospital to switch places (as well as genres) and say how they would do things.

24

BY 'GENERAL HOSPITAL' HEAD WRITER

ROBERT GUZA JR.

Act 1

Jack's doppelgänger would be a seductress named Jill Beauchamp, who is going to kill his family and every woman he's ever been with. Jill's signature crime is tattooing a heart with her name and Jack's on her victims with poisonous ink — meaning they are branded...forever.

Act 2

The two would first fall in love while trying to kill each other. Jack would be in bed with her and you'd see the knife under her pillow and the gun on his side. He'll go back to his partner and say, ''This woman is driving me crazy, and yet I'm attracted to her, which I know is bad.''

Act 3

Meanwhile, the real love interest is this mousy clerk back at CTU named Elizabeth Small. Elizabeth gets some valuable piece of information to save Jack from Jill, but then Elizabeth gets in trouble herself so Jack has to save her?which jeopardizes his mission. I'd get to a showdown where you really don't know who to root for. Jack sees himself in Jill, and starts to realize he'd be killing himself if he killed her. I have the luxury of time in daytime — I could go on forever with this — but ultimately I'd have to get rid of Jill. If I did 15 years of 24, then maybe I'd resort to giving Jack an evil identical twin.

General Hospital

BY '24' EXECUTIVE PRODUCER EVAN KATZ

Act 1

Luke, on the run in the Maarkam islands, stumbles upon a terrorist cell that's gotten its hands on a lethal, weaponized virus they are in the process of transporting to mainland America. The terrorists kidnap Luke's wife and children, and threaten their lives unless he turns himself in. But then he discovers one of his children is actually in league with the terrorists.

Act 2

Luke must now figure out which child is working with the terrorists. To do this, he fakes his own death by pretending to expose himself to the virus to see which child reveals himself once he's dead. Unfortunately, Luke actually does expose both himself and his family to the lethal biological agent, so now they're all infected and going to die within six hours. There is, of course, a mad race for the antidote.

Act 3

Fortunately, Dr. Noah Drake is on his way to the islands for some R&R. Even more fortunately, he was engaged to one of the terrorists and is able to coax the antidote out of her. In an ensuing gun battle, she is killed. Only then does he find out she was an undercover agent, and that her identity had been discovered by...one of Luke's children. The one who's secretly working for the terrorists.

Edited February 3, 200718 yr by Sylph

And Sam Ford’s post on Convergence Culture Consortium blog.

These stunts never do anything for them...I think the only time one of these 'stunts' actually helped GH win sweeps was the train wreck. The Hurricane didn't do it, I don't believe the virus story did it either, and GH couldn't even win sweeps for the gimmicky return of Laura (I respect Luke & Laura of course, but her return was not well-written and yet another gimmick). What makes it even worse is that GH swears up and down that the show is broke...probably wouldn't be broke if they spent less time on stupid gimmicks that don't translate into any actual revenue (last week GH couldn't even top the demos). And more often than not, a veteran actor ends up losing their job to help pay for this gimmicky crap. And really, what is it all for? If you can't maintain the ratings or demos for a consistent period of time, what are you really winning? Y&R does both without a gimmick every couple of months, GH should take a page from them. All of this money on promotions and press and then firing Stuart Damon...if GH doesn't win sweeps....well I wouldn't be surprised, it would just be another example of gimmicky stupidity on the part of TPTB at the show.

I'll give GH credit where credit is due. GH does great drama. It's just a shame that the show can't be this good all year round. Mr. Craig is quite possibly the greatest villain GH has seen in recent years.

I'll give GH credit where credit is due. GH does great drama. It's just a shame that the show can't be this good all year round. Mr. Craig is quite possibly the greatest villain GH has seen in recent years.

Now, having said all that I said before, I LOVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE CRAIG, love him! I want him to stick around (as long as he isn't mean to Alexis lol)!

I love how he is just so remorseless. He honestly doesn't give a flip.

Ohhh I love Mr. Craig too. That voice... swooon. He can hold me hostage any day

I did like Manny too, but that was mostly the actor. He gave me chills.

Am I the only one who doesn't understand the '24' comparison?

All soaps play out in a 'real time' format. The only difference now with GH is that they add '14 hours earlier' at the beginning, LoL

Yeah, but I think it's continous. Like it plays out every.single.beat of that day.

Monica needs to kick Skye's butt!! She is so ridiculous that it is not even funny.

Today is good! I'm loving this entire thing...

I'm eating it up - which is just what Frons and ABCD wanted me to do....haha - oh well.

The Alan stuff is too sad though

Skye is a [!@#$%^&*] idiot if she knows what's going on.

GH is 'must watch' TV these days. No other soap comes close to it right now.

I was literally on the edge of my seat today.

Edited February 5, 200718 yr by DruRocks

I really want to hate GH because of TIIC but I'm loving it...just like Y&R.