Your story ideas for GH

[soapfave06]

Tracy has Lesley move into the Q mansion to care for Edward after his heart attack, building stories off their pasts. Alan and AJ return alive and well.

Lainey and Kelly return and help balance out the cast, both in terms of diversity and actually featuring the hospital. They also play an important role in Patrick's search for Robin, whom he believes is alive.

Anna moves out of Luke's and in with Patrick to help care for Emma. Anna focuses on Emma and reconnects with Mac as she gets a job at the PCPD and gets them back on track. Robert and Holly return and a love triangle ensues.

Sonny is killed and a huge murder mystery follows that helps end the era of the mob in Port Charles.

[Khan]

I love many ideas that have been suggested thus far in this thread. Fantastic job, guys.

[DRW50]

Do you have any ideas?

[Skin]

This thread is already a thousand times more interesting then the show. I think the main problem I have with GH is that I feel the cast is so gutted that it feels like everything is just so useless a lot of the time.

Here is my mini bible so to speak about how to fix it with the current cast:

I would give Johnny and Lulu another try. Have them comfort each other after Sonny, Dante and Anthony all die in a mob blow out. Julu were the only couple I could stand and I need the mob to be contained. It's destroying the show. Have Johnny hang up his life of crime and work as either a cop or a detective agency with Spinelli or something. Spinelli needs something to do. Actually go threw with Lulu's alcoholism, maybe have her become so desperate over the loss of Dante that she starts seeing him and breaks with reality. Johnny knowing what happened with Lulu before is there for her and they slowly fall in love again. Lulu still wrestles with her drinking, but makes her way threw.

I think Sonny needs to die. Something drastic needs to happen to catapult this show forward and it can't happen with Sonny alive, he holds too many cards and is in a lot of ways the anchor of the mob storylines. He needs to be killed off then things can start moving. I would have Jason become the new mob king pin and Sam become the mob princess. Have Carly become unsupportive as she says the mob killed Sonny but Jason has to take control or the town will be a wasteland of crime. I would like them to actually validate Jason's position as the "good mob king pin" rather then just say he kills people because Sonny says so, when Sonny himself is a bipolar idiot who likes to smash things. Show the darker side of the mob and show Jason as someone who suffers doing what he does and knows he is bad for it but still does it for the necessary evil. Kind of like a Batman thing. Have Sam realize that Jason is in too deep and leave him, go to the Police department and become a cop vowing that she will put all the crime lords behind bars so Jason can finally get out and come home to their family. I think this would actually give the characters some purpose and drive Sam and Jason and make them likable. You could throw in a triangle with McBain if you wish. I guess since they will both work at the police department. I would slowly have Jason ease out of the mob slowly as Sam, McBain, the police squad starts putting everyone behind bars who is apart of the "five families" or whoever and then Jason starts believing he can get out of this life. Then there is a final mob blow out and Jason gets hit in the head (laughs) and then he comes back as Jason Quartermain who has no memory of his last 10+ years as Jason Morgan. He doesn't know who Sam is or that they have a child together. He has a completely different life then what he thought/planned. The mob stuff is over. Jason Morgan is dead and Jason Quartermain lives. I would have Sam have conflicted feelings about this because Jason is now safe, but he doesn't love her or their child anymore and doesn't know who she is. He doesn't even like her.

I would have Skye back at ELQ with Tracey and have them take over Kate's magazine for a business story. Have Maxie and Kate team up together under Kate's breakdown and have them fight it out over the company. Maybe Skye and Kate/Connie could team up for some kind of double cross and pull one over on Tracey and then Tracey finds out they did something illegal and Connie frames Skye for it so she takes the fall instead of Connie. This sets up a rivalry between Kate and Skye because she doesn't know she has DID. Maybe Maxie becomes close to Tracey and Tracey involves herself in Lulu's alcoholism and gets Maxie to support her and be there for her former friend. I would also have Maxie and Lulu become frenimies again as that was more entertaining. Maybe Maxie wants Johnny and she is the bad girl/vixen again and she dabbles with Johnny, Ewen and Matt. Also I would have Maxie goading Liz all the time. I think Maxie should be a catalyst character in multiple stories.

I would actually love for the show to build up the Corinthois family. Molly, Kristina, Morgan and Micheal to me are the future of the show and are the last chance to have a family that PC can grow from. I would have them becoming corner stone characters and make them all very tight. I would have them completely separated from the mob actually. Morgan being gay/bi or even pansexual would be incredibly interesting story that could drive outward. It's a shame that they already butchered Kristina's first domestic abuse story because I think that could have been told a lot better and played out a lot longer. Have her brothers come to her aid and help her try to get her to leave but she stays, even knowing it's wrong. Molly could become a super achiever and wind up hooked on pills/medication and end up in an accident for another character. I would also have her go threw an addiction. I would have Micheal given a mental disorder of some sort schizophrenia, have him go to college do something productive, get out of the mob, etc. I would also have the parents involved in their lives heavily outside of Sonny who is dead. Alexis, Carly, Jax all should be there for their kids.

I would also reestablish the role of the hospital. Have the Dr's boys club established a bit more with Ewan, Steve, Matt, Patrick established a bit more. Make it more of a rivalry maybe a race for chief or something. They need to do something and have them interact in some way. Throw Tracey and Monica in there and have them fuss and find roles on the board to do things. They can be supporting players at the hospital and establish meaning outside of ELQ and the Quatermain house which is just a museum anyway at this point. I would actually have Liz and Maggie engage in some kind of rivalry maybe they both like Ewan or something, maybe they fall in love with the same men, etc. I would also aim to have them work with patients (we never see that anymore) and actually have some kind of medical drama arc going on there. It's been so long since the hospital had any merit to it outside of mob shoot outs and hostage situations.

Returns: I would bring back Rebecca (who is really just a brainwashed Emily thanks to Helena), Nikolas, Chad Brannon's Aaron, AJ Quartermain, Skye, Alcazar, Dillon Quartermain, Lucas and Georgie as well to bring back a sense of life and movement to stories too. GH killed off entirely too many people during Guza's run.

Let Go: Starr, Shawn, Luke, Todd, Anna, Olivia - they aren't bringing in any story.

[Khan]

Not really. Sorry.

[AMCHistory]

One thing I have to say is that the best HWs transition onto a show with minimal cast cuts. Those who are able to work effectively with the current canvas, are a sign of a true talent. It is easy to wipe a tainted slate clean. It is much harder to take that same slate, and take the viewers on a journey to see the same characters, the same families, and the same town in a different light.

That is not to say that cast changes can not happen, but it is just too easy to "wipe your hands." Gradual transitions, figuring out what truly works and what does not is the most effective. Better writers can see a story, no matter the circumstance.

In fact, I have often experiences, that I love new writers until the point they cut the cast and introduce and monopolize the screen time with their "favourites."

[Mr. Vixen]

I'm loving these ideas. I'm working on a "Bible" of my own. I'll post it tomorrow!

[Susan Hunter]

I've been watching old clips on Youtube of early, early GH. The one thing that really stands out to me is that GH was really about co-workers who were excellent caregivers to strangers, but would leave the hospital and have these really messed up dysfunctional lives. They could heal everyone else, except themselves. From what I could tell, there wasn't really a core family, the doctors and nurses at GH were sort of the family with Steve and Jesse as the patriarch and matriarch.

I think you start there. Let GH be home and the 7th Floor or 10th Floor Nurses Station be the living room. I think you have a Jesse in Liz, now find a Steve to lead the show. The dysfunction that happens when they leave the hospital would inform the characters and create drama. You could still have quirky characters like Luke and Tracey and the Quartermaines. You could even have a mob element or a fashion design element, but it would never overpower what happens at GH. You could even have a disease of the week or the month with special guest stars to keep the action moving.

That's my idea. GH is the only soap left on air that tells you what it's about in the title. Go back to the roots.