When I was a little girl, my mom watched the ABC soaps--Ryan's Hope, All My Children, One Life to Live and General Hospital. I was usually playing but I remember bits and pieces. I can clearly remember lying in bed listening for the GH theme song to play in the closing credits because when it was over, I could get up from my nap and watch Sesame Street. Yet, I must have watched it with her some because I wanted to name my baby sister, Heather after a particularly crazy character on General Hospital. My parents vetoed that idea.
Once I started school, I lost track of my soaps since I only saw them on snow days and sick days. College, however, changed that. One of my roommates loved GH as much as I did and we would tape it on days that we had class at 2 p.m. CST. We would even talk about characters as though they were real people that we knew.
I know the plots are predictable and far-fetched but sometimes they do examine real issues. Back in the early 90's, they tackled the topic HIV and AIDS with the Robin and Stone storyline. Currently they're highlighting the problem of domestic violence in teenage relationships--granted I do a lot of yelling at the screen with this one because I think they could have done a better job of if they had been a bit more realistic. However, it is a soap and suspension of belief is needed.
After all in a soap, no one is ever dead for keeps...even if you see them die on screen--they can still come back. Paternity tests are rigged willy-nilly and DNA results are returned instantly. Helena kept her son frozen in a sub-basement under a hospital. Children are shot and comatose at age 12 and wake up a year later six years older. The voice of wisdom and honesty is the resident hit man. Such is the wonderful world of soaps.
Nowadays, I watch General Hospital online; it pops up in my Hulu queue every evening allowing me to get my soapy fix of Jason, Sam, Carly, Sonny and Luke. And maybe they'll get crazy Heather back on there again--you just never know what will happen on a soap. Anything can happen and I'll be there to see it.
http://abc.go.com/shows/general-hospital
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