Where pop culture franchises typically rely on prequels, sequels and reboots to amp up the nostalgia factor, daytime soaps don’t need to do that. “It takes them right back to their college days,” he says, “when they were skipping classes and watching Laura and Luke and Scotty run around and get in trouble.” Nostalgia, Shriner says, is likely a key component to the soap opera’s success after nearly 60 years in existence. “They can still turn on the TV as they’ve done for over 40 years and say, there’s Laura, there’s Scotty.” That, he says, contributes to the soap opera’s longevity with fans. “A lot of us are still hanging around,” says Shriner on a recent phone call. In fact, whether you last regularly watched in the ‘80s, ‘90s or ‘00s, you could tune in on any random day and spot at least one familiar face. You’ll still see Genie Francis as Laura, Kin Shriner as Scott, Leslie Charleson as Monica Quartermaine and Zeman as Bobbie, all of whom are celebrating their 45th anniversaries with the show this year. With so much history inside “General Hospital,” even regular viewers might need to refer to the soap’s wiki just to keep up with the characters’ marriages and ever-expanding family trees, let alone the number of times they’ve been presumed dead and/or kidnapped by a member of the ruthless Cassadine family. “You turn on a soap, and it affects your heart. “Soaps are about relationships, as you know if you’ve watched over the years, and I think that people still relate,” says Jacklyn Zeman, who plays Bobbie Spencer, during a phone conversation. It’s incredibly fun to try and deduce who will return from the dead or which set of rivals will turn out to be long-lost siblings or parent-and-child, and extremely satisfying when you’re right.Īs wild as the storylines might be, though, watching characters evolve as they interact with each other every weekday, over the course of years, is what keeps me, and probably a lot of other viewers, tuning in. I love the outrageousness of the storylines. Today, it’s the only show that I regularly watch. I’ve spent my adult life dropping in and out of the “General Hospital” universe, catching up with characters on days off or when I could take a lunch break at 2 p.m. During my senior year of high school and freshman year of college, I was sucked into the tragic romance of Robin Scorpio and Stone Cates, a powerful storyline that’s still remembered for addressing HIV and AIDS transmission. In my vague, early childhood memories, I can see Luke and Laura on the TV set in our den as I play with my younger sister. Here’s my secret: I’ve been watching “General Hospital” since birth because it was one of the soaps my mom watched. Save for those few months in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down television and film shoots, leaving soap fans to rely on reruns, “General Hospital” still airs new episodes nearly every weekday. Now, in an era marked by streaming networks and instant access to virtually any TV show, “General Hospital” is the longest-running soap opera currently airing on network television and the only remaining daytime drama on ABC.
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