Anyone who knows me knows this simple fact. I love General Hospital. I have loved this show for a long time. My mother watched it in the 70's and I have watched it ever since. Admittedly, I have broken up with General Hospital (GH) many many times but I always come back. My first memory of GH was Heather Webber giving birth to Steven Lars. Just that scene. Whenever I tell someone how long I've watched GH, I reference that scene.
I watched GH during the Luke and Laura years and then during the years following their departure from the show. Mostly because of Robert Scorpio and Tristan Rogers. I adore Robert Scorpio. He is the ultimate spy. More than that, you knew that when Robert was on the case, he would solve whatever mystery thrown at him. I came home after school everyday in the 80's and watched GH. Sometime after I graduated from high school, I lost interest. Fortunately for me, I missed some of the bad years. Casey the Alien? Missed it completely thank God. That was my first break up with GH but it wasn't on purpose. It was simply because there were other things going on in my life at the time.
I came back sometime in the early 90's. Probably because Robert Scorpio was back in town. And I would follow him anywhere. I definitely got sucked back into it and watched it through most of the 90's. There was much to love in that decade. My personal favorites included the Sonny/Brenda/Jax triangle, Lucky and Elizabeth, Robin and Stone, Robin and Jason, Sonny and original recipe Carly, Nikolas Cassidine, Ned and Lois... I could go on but I won't. Just know that I loved the 90's.
The 2000's were rough for me. I loved Jason so much that when he left, I left. I couldn't even tell you what happened during that time. But when Steve Burton came back to GH, I came back. And from the moment he came back and laid eyes on Elizabeth, I was hooked again. In retrospect, I was more excited about the Jason and Elizabeth pairing than I was about Jason. And that, my friends, is no way to watch a soap. I spent those years alternating between love and hate for GH. Sadly, it was mostly hate because my couple wasn't together. That was a tough lesson to learn. I couldn't enjoy the show because I wanted these two characters together and that was it. Then when they were together, I couldn't enjoy it because I was constantly worried they would be torn apart.
There was another reason I hated GH. Suddenly, it became about three characters. Sonny, Carly, and Jason. It didn't matter who else was on the show, if you weren't peripherally involved with one of those three, you had ZERO story. And that sucked. There was no balance; it was all Sonny/Carly/Jason all the time. Not all of it was bad, I was just tired of everything revolving around them. The last straw for me was a story line about a kid being kidnapped. I could see it all playing out the minute that kid was kidnapped and I wasn't waiting for it to play out. I stopped watching cold turkey. Took it off my DVR and deleted my bookmarks to a couple of GH forums. I wasn't going to watch another woman be told she was a whore or a child being hurt for no good reason. That head writer during those years, drove me away. I'd had enough of his stories and his misogyny to last a lifetime.
But as I have always done, I came back. Why did I come back? Because they were killing off Robin Scorpio, a character I have known for most of my life. I had to come back. (It helps that Hated Head Writer had been fired the previous year.) I came back in February 2012 and have watched every episode since. I love my show again. Thanks to the current writing staff, it looks like the GH I loved is back. Sadly, Steve Burton and Jason Morgan are gone but it turns out that I don't miss him as much as I thought I would.
All the old faces and some of the new ones have hooked me. My favorite character of the last fifteen years or so is Elizabeth and she's in the middle of a triangle with Nikolas and AJ, two of my favorite characters from the 90's. Anna Devane is back and so is her love Duke Lavery. Felicia finally chose Mac. Lucy and Kevin are back and still sweet and funny. Felix is hilarious. Britt is evil. Michael is honorable. Carly is still a fun train wreck and Sonny is still losing at love. It feels good to be back.
*I don't think I'm done with General Hospital. Next time, I post I plan on talking about specific story lines and characters. I can't stop thinking about it.
