March 31 - April 4, 2008

[emilyq]

Ok thanks for explaining. Sometimes my head is a tough one to crack. So in reality from a financial standpoint, ABC is probably in better shape than the others(profitwise) although their revenues are down I am sure, they have no one they need to split profits with. Perhaps this is why we have seen very little if any changes at ABC, although I would hate to see the bottom completely drop out before they initiated anything.

So what advatage does CBS have over ABC or do they in terms of the soaps. Yes their soaps are better quality but why are the soaps on CBS not owned by CBS and those on ABC are owned by ABC?

[shawn Perez]

i think that was his/her point. the person you quoted..like some may look at GH as a soap based on hospital drama. b/c many fans out their that watch soaps like DOOL/ATWT/GL.."etc". look at the GH name and think? hey that's a hospital soap. and not be interested in watching. but since most of us that watched GH from the beginning. we know what it really focuses on..ie"Mob S/L's"..which might interest allot of people that like that sorta stuff...because lets be honest here. GH mob S/L's have evolved and stepped far far away from the soap gene along time ago. dating back to the Luke/Laura days when they were on the run..nowadays people come to expect romance on their fav soap. but on GH. like you said. theirs no balance. i can Agree with that. everyone on the show is either friends with the mob. related to the mob. or somehow connected to the mob..and it does have the violence to back it up...which is one of the reasons i will always love one of the two ABC soaps. AMC/OLTL i could pretty much see drowning in a pool of blood..and not care. but GH i will definitely be shedding a tear if anything were to happen. call me bias or whatever. i like the Action GH brings to the table..name one soap that has a bunch of mobsters running in a building blasting AK47's/shotguns/machine guns? i rest my case. also..what that poster was saying is. if GH was named something else. other then General Hospital...perhaps.."Port Charles mobsters"...do you think it would be a success? i mean the majority that watch other soaps. see the GH name and figure it's a hospital base soap..IMO we know it's anything but. yes. the characters. and S/l's in some form or another focus on the mob. yes the hospital is their. but even i have to admit. the hospital is their just to heal the wounded mobsters who got shot in a shootout..not to mention. if i had a dollar for everytime someone said they quit GH b/c the mob violence got too overwhelming.. i would be a pretty rich guy. i think that's where GH went wrong. yeah GH has the mob. and yeah it wasn't always the center of every S/L. much less the mob had balance back then. it was until the 90's. the mob violence went full force. which of course the ratings started to decrease. I'm just saying maybe people need to stop with the blame game. and start noticing that maybe the ABC ratings are low due to the fact the people tuned out for biased reasons. the majority that watch soaps. is for romance. that's the core audience. when you alienate your fanbase. you lose viewers. and that's what ABC has done. they alienated long time viewers that watched GH for the romance aspect. and they turned the show into something completely different from the intended soap gene.

[Roman]

Ok. I have to say something.

You are more than entittled to your opinion........but have you ever given any thought to the fact that maybe people have turned off GH is because......

THAT SHOW SUCKS?!?!

You keep blaming the viewers for the reason why GH is sinking, andit seems to me that you still have not heard one GH fan when they say that featuring The Mob all the time really turns them off. How is it the GH fans fault for tuning out of a bad show that features one type of storytellig over everything else?

And, question. Do you honestly mean to tell me that GH has stayed on network television all these years by focusing on one type of story?

Maybe it's you that are biased........biased towards any GH fan who tells you that they are sick of all the violence, stunts and Sweeps stories and the fact that trhey REFUSE to hear what the fans are saying.

But.......since GH is basically The Godfather of daytime television, doesn't matter what other fans think.

And if GH is doing so well.......why was it 4th from the bottom last week? Yeah, that Mob crap really is working, isn't it?

[shawn Perez]

like i was saying before you proved my point..."READ VERY CAREFULLY"..don't criticize my post unless you acknowledge my comment..the reason GH is low on ratings is b/c the violence over shadows the romance. which is the main purpose why viewers bother to watch soaps in the first place...for the romance aspect. since GH is mostly about the mob..viewers tuned out..maybe that's not your cup of tea. but for me it is..i don't give a f*** if you disagree with me or not. you have your opinions i have mine..GH may be in 4th last week. but were in 3rd this week..atleast GH doesn't try to mimic all those horrible crappy ass soaps that do basically the same thing in terms of Story telling. and cheesy romances that make me turn the channel and laugh at how stupid the people on their are.. and when the ratings were high back then for GH. despite the constant violence. it had balance..so i can understand why viewers get pissed when GH main focus is the mob...but you know what. since were on the subject. i know what GH excuse is for having low ratings...let me ask you something. what's the excuse of those soaps that fellow the soap rules? the other lowest rated soaps have romance. they have family drama...could it be that people really don't give a s*** about the soap gene? has that EVER occurred to you? IMO nothing is wrong with the writing. the dialogue is grade A. it's people like you that give GH a bad name. with all this negativity. bashing on GH. a show that you don't even watch.

[shawn Perez]

...

[Roman]

Amazing.

This coming from the same person who has told viewers that they have a bias against crap.

And........if memory serves, you have came in these very same threads and bashed Days and other shows that you don't watch.

Oh, I forgot........you have that right, but no one else does.

Sorry bout that.

[Roman]

[emilyq]

As a former GH lover who LOVED the show the way it used to be with balance and good story telling, the viewers are not the problem. This is a soap opera not a primetime show and if it were a primetime show competing against the likes of shows like The Sopranos in it;s day or Wiseguy it would fail miserably. What I see on GH are good actors trying to make poor stories and material work. Board after board of viewers complaining about this show, ratings down the toilet don't lie. I loved Sonny as a character back years ago. He had depth and I will never forget the scene with Laura calling Jason and Sonny murderers when Lucky 'died'. You would never see that today but that was great writing and storytelling which no longer exists.

The show has turned into plots with no likable characters anymore. I no longer watch but tell me one root for couple or character on this show. They have turned Lulu into a Carly clone, Nikolas is a shadow of what the Cassadines were - nothing like this great evil family. They killed off the Q's, the most entertaining dysfunctional family on this show, marginalized the Spencers, the family and couple that MADE this show, decimated the Cassadines, the most kniving, vengeful, entertaining family on this show(weren't Stefan and Alexis the best siblings ever), and put the violence front and center.

If ABC wants this to be a primetime show, they should move it to the proper time and quit selling it as a soap. Problem is during primetime up against the likes of good TV like Law and Order and CSI and good cable shows like House it would fail miserably - they know better.

[usetobeasoapfan]

IA

On your second point I so agree

GH just out right sucks.

[tanyia2]

Since I watch one of the lowest rated soaps(GL) I can tell you that they do not follow the soap rules,have romance or family drama and that is why it is at the bottom. People care about the soaps but it is the executives that refuses to give the fans what we want and that is why you are seeing low ratings.

GH sucks because of the focus on the mob.

[RoseVioletDaisy]

Exactly. GL is dying because the writers seem to have no understanding of love, romance, friendship, loyalty, and/or family. At the end of the day, that's what soaps have always been about and now that most of them are either ignoring or bastardizing those concepts, they're dying. Coincidence? I don't think so.

[TC]

No. In the beginning it was a hospital soap. There is no rational debate about that. It just IS.

[emilyq]

Since when did GH start out as being about the Mob. It never did. I was about GENERAL HOSPITAL. The mob was brought in with Luke Spencer as a side story and stayed that way until Sonny Corinthos popped up. Even then it was never glorified. Sonny was a tier 2 character and very effective at that and the mob was a part of not the entire show until Guza took over and slowly got rid of everything else to where it is today. The audience eroding on all soaps is a nature of the times. On ABCD because Frons and his personal agenda takes precendence over producing good quality television. OLTL is the exception and they get marginalized by Frons for AMC and GH.

[Jess]

GH is a little too violent for me most of the time. At other times, however, it is really good. I really like the two women lawyers together and Max is a real hoot. I also think all of the actors on GH are really really good. Ric Hearst is so good. Anyway, I wish GH would tune down the violence and, you know, stop glamorizing murder. However, there are things about the show that are really good.

[SoapQueen89]

Thank you TC! If anyone was watching back in the 70s like I was, the hospital was shown 85% of the time. It revolved around doctors and nurses and not the mob. The mob was the backburner storyline while the hospital and other storylines were front and center. Rick, Monica, Alan triangle anyone? Probably the most popular storyline in GH history and is still talked about today by us 'old heads'.

But what do I know, I'm just a soap fan who STILL watches this stupid ass show!