So Long, Farewell, Auf Weidersehen, Good-bye

With the end of Guza’s reign on General Hospital, and the raging blizzard in hell that must have preceded it to finally give that snow ball its chance, I have become hopeful about the state of GH for the first time in a long time. Not because I believe this is Disney’s way of giving the show a reprieve as they replaced the head writers for AMC right before announcing its cancellation, but because if the show is still coming to an end now, it won’t be at the hands of Guza. Garin Wolf, who was named as successor, has worked on the show since 1997 and took over the duties of head writer during the writer’s strike.

Some wonderful stories, couples, and characters were penned and created during Guza’s era with the show, and as head scribe he deserves credit and acknowledgement for his part in that:
- Couples like: Jason and Robin, Georgie and Dillon, Liz and Lucky the first time around, Emily and Zander, Nikolas and Emily, Dante and Lulu, Max and Diane, Ric and Alexis, Ned and Alexis, Sonny and Kate, Robin and Patrick, Jason and Elizabeth (in part), Jason and Sam, Sonny and Carly, etc.
- Characters including: Alexis, Carly, Diane, Olivia, Kate, Zander, Coleman, Dante, Ric, Sam, Jesse, Coop, Faith, Ethan (though he never should have been made a Spencer), etc.
- Stories such as: Carly/Tony/Bobbie and the reveal of Carly as Bobbie’s daughter, Dante’s undercover story up until he covered for Sonny shooting him, Lily’s death and Sonny’s first descent into darkness, Jason’s car accident and the fallout, Nikolas getting shot outside Luke’s Club and Jason saving his life, the mixed marrieds of Ned/Alexis/Jax/Chloe, The Carnival of 2009, the train wreck after Liz and Lucky’s wedding that also reintroduced Robin to PC, the Jax/Brenda/Sonny triangle, etc.

But for the past several years the show has not been nearly as good as it could be given the talent of its cast, script writers, and producers. Stories have become repetitive, plots ill conceived or not well planned out, character and show history ignored or changed constantly from story to story, balance has been non-existent in tone, story type, and character air time for years, story arcs have either been too long or way too short, and the few social issues tackled have completely missed the boat in ways. Guza doesn’t deserve all the blame for the current state of GH, but as head writer he is in charge of most, if not all, of the aspects of story. He may not write all the break downs and dialogue, pitch every single idea that gets a green light, or able to ignore notes from higher-ups and the network, but it is his job to make it all work as a writer.

Wolf is not going to be able to wave a magic wand and turn things around overnight for many reasons. Not only does GH usually tape 3 – 4 weeks ahead, but outlines and scripts are written in advance of that, and stories must be brought to a close before new ones can begin for most of the characters involved in them. However, that doesn’t mean that Wolf’s influence won’t begin to show up sooner. Either way, by fall GH should be largely, if not completely, Guza-free, and based on the past few years it can’t be soon enough for me. Again, that’s not to suggest that everything under Guza was bad because it wasn’t, nor that everything Wolf writes will automatically be fantastic, but really and in all seriousness how much worse can the show get after:

- Brenda’s Return: There were so many ways in which to make this story awesome and magical, but alas what we really got was an over abundance of screen time for a really bad story and by November the ratings reflected it.
- Jake’s Death: The fact that Jake was killed in a hit and run accident is one thing even ignoring the fact that Elizabeth used to live on a cul-de-sac, so unless her entire house moved… But to revisit the BJ/Maxie story in this manner and do so without so much as a mention of Monica, Bobbie, Laura, Lesley, or Audrey much less bringing them into the story was just.plain.wrong. And why wasn’t Maxie more involved in this story? She’s Lulu’s best friend and has a history with Lucky, plus she’s been there and would totally understand what all were going through. Where was the build up to Jocelyn’s illness considering that she had Stage 5 kidney disease? It’s arguable that Luke has had a drinking problem for awhile, but there was no set up for this part of the story either. His drinking hadn’t escalated nor did he appear to be drunk at all the night of the accident. Instead of wasting valuable show time that could have gone to Liz, Jason, and Lucky, or Carly and Jax on a lame whodunit, why not have just made Luke drunk from the outset when he hit Jake? Wouldn’t there have been enough drama to wring out of a grandfather driving drunk and killing his grandson without the mystery surrounding who hit Jake?
- Toxic Balls.
- Franco.
- Lisa v. Scrubs: First Lisa hung out on the canvas for the better part of a year basically doing nothing but trying to make Robin jealous and cause some angst for Scrubs. Then surprisingly the story starts to get interesting as Lisa goes crazy when Patrick picks Robin and Emma over Lisa after a one night stand with her. Robin goes down the well, Lisa goes off to Shadybrook only to be released a few days later and the story quickly goes downhill again from there. It’s now 7 months later and Robin and Patrick are just now starting to get the upper hand without the PCPD. Face palm to the right as the left reaches for a shot glass and the trusty bottle of tequila as this story has about 2 months of goodness and 18 months of crap.
- The Balkin.
- 6-episode long shoot outs wherein no one gets hurt or dies. But we get to hear all about how Lucky and Siobhan escaped the Balkin’s men in Ireland, when Siobhan and LuSh were likeable, instead of seeing it???
- The bus crash and Molly thinking she was bi-polar even if the latter was short-lived. There were so many other ways in which this could have been better done. A) Molly isn’t dumb enough to actually think she’s bi-polar upon reading about the symptoms. B) The report for school part actually worked and could have stood alone. C) Molly could have just stumbled across information about bi-polar disorder in figuring out she had PTSD and wanted to talk to Sonny to get more information about it as she’s a curious young girl.
- Kristina’s abuse story becoming all about Sonny. Predictable, yes, lame, absolutely, necessary, no. Speaking of this story, the show missed a wonderful opportunity to contrast the abusive and unhealthy relationship of Kristina and Kiefer with a healthy one via Kristina and Taylor by actually showing them together and writing that story. Thus also further driving home the point of love being about mutual respect, trust, honesty, etc.
- Jax and Carly splitting up 3 times in 3 years. Couples could actually try working through problems and staying together instead of always breaking up when the going gets tough, just sayin.
- The pairings of: Sonny and Claudia, Johnny and Lisa, Nik and Brook, and the contrived and lame back story pairing, of sorts, of Brenda and Dante.
- Brenda and Sonny’s overnight reunion.
- Michael being turned into a killer and sent off to prison where he was raped (really show, really, did you have to go there? We viewers know it happens, but still). And now, despite the fact that Michael seemed to actually grow and grow up in the past year and become a rootable character, he’s now back to being the wannabe junior mobskateer? Back slide much?
- The constant portrayal of Sonny and Jason as the good mobsters.
- The constant use in 2009/2010 of Stone’s memory to needlessly create angst around Robin with a dose of revisionist history to boot.
- Robin’s pregnancy and the fact that her HIV status was an afterthought until she went into labor and delivery, and her subsequent post partum depression story.
- Brook Lynn drugging Dante for sex and getting away with it without any consequences? Can you imagine the media and fan back lash if the shoe had been on the other foot? And then Nik dates her knowing what she did to his little sister’s boyfriend, because that’s not out of character for Nik at all. Face palm.

Hopefully Wolf will bring love, romance, adventure, passion, comedy, family, friendships beyond Jason, Carly, and Sonny, hospital stories, and references to the show’s history back to GH. Stories used to blend, characters would interact with many different characters, and drama was often balanced with comedy, just as darkness and violence were balanced out with moments of cuteness and light.

Instead of Kristina getting hooked on drugs by Lisa, which has yet to make any sense whatsoever, why couldn’t she be out shopping for prom dresses at Wyndhams and hanging out with her friends at Kelly’s like so many of the PC teens did before her? The box car was a home to both Lucky and Jason when each was in need of it – a time when their lives were troubled, but simpler, and yet neither returned there after Jake died to grieve or search for comfort from a connection to their pasts and a reminder that life not only moves on, but that it also can get better in time. Lucky and Liz painted the walls of the car to look like an apartment with furniture and all the trimmings at a point when despite her rape and his estrangement from his parents, their lives were full of the hope and the promise of tomorrow. If this set cannot be used in a manner like that, why not allow Molly to rediscover it and use it as a summer hide-out, and allow her insatiable curiosity to lead her into finding out who used it in the past, sort of like a kid version of the mystery of the Ward family and Laura’s house. Perhaps there’s more history to the box car than just an old haunt for Jason and Lucky, like how did it get there in the first place? It’s not that the show can’t be complete or entertaining without these types of scenes or elements, but one of the aspects that makes soaps unique for television is their long history and the richness that can add to current stories and characters. The history can present challenges to be sure, but it can also provide opportunity for story when used well.

For me, GH was at its best when it was a show about people and their relationships with the soapy plot points and events thrown in to shake things up, keep stories moving forward, and keep the show interesting. GH also used to include whole town events like: the 4th of July picnic in the park, the Nurses’ Balls, which are expensive to produce but so much fun to watch, the Christmas parade at the hospital with Steve Hardy reading the Christmas story to all the sick children, and holiday episodes full of: traditions, family, drama, and comedy like the Q’s and their annual Thanksgiving pizza, the introduction of Sigmund the Duck for Lucy Coe, New Year’s Eve parties, etc. Soaps, like all things, must change with the times to remain relevant and diversity and modern social issues are the more obvious areas wherein they, as a genre, need to improve, but other elements from the past worked and for good reason. Hopefully, Wolf will be able to change what needs to be changed so that Disney will allow GH to turn 50 in 2013.

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