GH: Classic Thread

[titan1978]

I kind of consider the Robert Scorpio era of the show to have less hospital focus.

The late 1970’s through 1981 you still had characters like Jeff, Anne, Diana, Peter, Alan, Monica, Lesley, Bobbie, Rick, even Amy and the original vets like Steve, Audrey, and Jessie weaving in and out of story as leads and supporting.  Noah Drake was brought on as a doctor too.

By the time Luke left the show, and Robert was the central male lead, the show really moved away from the hospital.  I think Lesley’s death was the beginning.  I read somewhere that Rachel Ames went recurring during this time too due to lack of story.

Wes Kinney made the hospital more of a fixture again when he was EP.  We got the first adult Tom Hardy, Simone, and saw the Hardy’s at the hospital more.  Not until Claire Labine was it as central as it was in the 70’s again though.  I will give JFP credit for having a stable of important hospital characters during her run, but part of that was due to the popularity of Grey’s Anatomy.

 

[Planet Soap]

Patrick and Robin gave the hospital some good focus, and they seem to try to bring the hospital back into focus in 2012-13 with Sabrina, Britt, and the nurses ball.

[Khan]

I'd say it was during the early '80's, when all the action/adventure stuff began taking off.

[titan1978]

Liz becoming a nurse, Robin and Patrick, Noah’s returns, and the other hospital characters really did breathe new life into that part of the show.  I know people were upset they were not using vets and they stupidly killed Alan.  But the hospital was a major part of the show again.  And you are right, RC tried to keep it going.

[BigMAnOnDeck]

Ditto

[Vee]

Like titan and lion said above, the hospital focus started coming back in the mid-2000s. They had one of their worst years ever in 2005 creatively and I suspect BTS (not just with the failed Carly #3 recast) and it led to a major reset. They rehired Kimberly McCullough, showcased her with a handpicked leading man for her (though I always felt that was somewhat grudging for both Guza and JFP and it came out in the writing too often) and it just happened to coincide with the rise of Grey's Anatomy. Suddenly hospitals, young doctors, etc. were hot and it became and remained a major part of the show until 2012, and Frank and Ron have brought it back more since as well. The quality of some of those stories and characters, of course, are another story.

[Paul Raven]

If you look at GH in the early 80's you had characters like Jeff,Anne, Peter, Diana etc who were all medical professionals written off.

Very few of the major new characters introduced in that time were doctors or nurses.

There was Dr Tony Jones and a return of Dr Mark Dante

Meanwhile we had Holly, Felicia, Frisco, Jimmy Lee, Celia, Derek, Ginny, DL and Terry Brock etc

Audrey and Jessie were reduced to guest appearances.

 

[j swift]

I disagree that GH ever stopped using the hospital as the focus of the show.

It seems to me that every five years or so a headwriter is inspired by the idea that General Hospital hosts an annual class of medical and nursing interns which is a great excuse to introduce new characters.  In the mid-1980s we got the O'Connor brothers, Patrick and Kevin.  Then in the early 90s we got Monica's daughter Dawn added to the nursing staff, along with some "b" characters who lived in an apartment with tainted water.  Then, Carly and her class of nurses.  Then, Karen and her class of residents who crossed over to Port Charles.  And finally Patrick, his brother, and his class of interns.

One could argue that GH, which has been established as a private-for-profit hospital, continuing to maintain a university affiliation to train doctors and nurses at the internship level could be seen as a bit farfetched.   Just as the medical laboratory that conveniently is able concoct antidotes for every major virus in Port Charles seems unlikely to exist in a small town hospital.  But those plot points are obviously written by people who know as much about hospital management as they know about the chances of earthquakes in an eastern seaboard shipping town, inherited wealth by illegitimate heirs, or the ways in which organized crime works.

Edited January 27, 2022 by j swift

[Dion]

One interesting thing to note about the Ice Princess storyline was that while Luke and Laura, Robert and Tiffany etc were on that Island during the blizzard, pretty much the rest of the show was dedicated to the emergency response centered on the hospital, which I don't know was repeated to such an extent in later years.

[OzFrog]

As much as people hate what Sonny and Carly have become nowadays, there’s no denying that back then, they were sizzling hot and the chemistry was through the charts…

 

[Vee]

Oh, I'll never forget their best scenes. Including the actual scene where they first fücked, which has so many layers they'd built up over time, many of them ugly and uncomfortable. I remember it repulsing a lot of people at the time, but I was fascinated. None of that work goes into things today and from a dialogue and performance standpoint it was primetime ready.

Please register in order to view this content

 

[carolineg]

I would say Sonny's reasoning for sleeping with Carly to prove what a slut she is to Jason is problematic to say the least, but early Carson is so good.  It's disappointing they've lost those layers they had as a couple.  We've had this conversation so I won't go too far in to it, but this scene literally proves why they should not be the shows leading romantic love story.

[Vee]

I think they brought them well past that over the ensuing year-plus and made them very rootable, but I also think that supercouple time for them is long, long past. They've been a dead cell for me since 2003.

[carolineg]

See I think the show did build them up, but I don't know how you can really ever move past that.  I will never not think Sonny would have just forgot about her if she didn't get pregnant-but the show told me otherwise so I briefly got on that train. Sonny/Carly were a great idea at the time, but if I had known I'd be watching the Sonny/Carly/Jason show for the next 20 years I probably wouldn't have been as enthusiastic. 

The moment Sonny shot her in the head is when I was done lol.  I think they were still rootable even throughout Brenda's return.  I could see why they were popular and they had chemistry.  I think the Alcazar and Sam stuff and the way that was played out on top of Carson having some very nutty fans online just turned me off.  And I thought Carly/Jax were just so much better together once LW took over.  I have never hated Sonny/Carly really but I haven't been a fan since then.

[titan1978]

As a viewer I had already started to see Sonny as insufferable before this happened.  I also wanted Jason/Carly (even if Steve fought it the whole time) even if just for a little bit for them to realize it would not work.  Brenda and Luke are why I liked Sonny back then, and pairing him with Carly seemed like more of a reaction to needing a strong actor opposite him after failures than two characters that should end up together.  It was also clear at the time that they were going to eat the show up.

There was just so much I did not enjoy about the show at that time, even if it was way better than what we got later on, especially with these characters.  The highs of Labine/Guza’s first run, mixed with the beginning of his second tenure kind of fell apart after Lucky died.  There was only darkness and breaking everything apart, mixed with terrible casting decisions.

Edited January 30, 2022 by titan1978