General Hospital Discussion Group -- Are TPTB truly trying to kill GH?

General Hospital Discussion Group

Topic: Are TPTB truly trying to kill GH?

Topic Posted by: LuvJerry
Date Posted: Sun Sep 28 13:12:41 2008
Additional Comments:

Are TPTB truly trying to kill GH?

After reading posts about Kate and Sonny's wedding (which is beyond ridiculous), I personally have decided that TPTB are. Then they can throw all their energy into some Disney thing or NS.

Having the mob appear on GH is not going to work. Audience members have expressed displeasure with the mob time and time again, but the writers won't listen. TPTB bring Genie Francis (GF) back once for a short time quiet people down, and when the ratings drop, TPTB bring GF back again. TPTB also have SL centering around the Quartermaines when the going gets tough and to keep viewers who still hold out hope...I just feel like TPTB throw me a few crumbs like a lab rat so I'll react the way they want me to.

This is just the way I see it and it's all my opinion. Why keep doing something if the results are nil?

Maybe TPTB are just using GH for advertisement money, such as a large magazine full of nothing but ads. An infomercial.

What do you think?

Posted by: Rosebud1
Date posted: Sun Sep 28 18:08:10 2008
Message:
There is nothing new about this! It has been going on for over 20 yrs. ABC/Disney is taking their lead from P&G--their biggest advertiser. Smaller advertisers are also following the P&G lead in the marketplace, seeing soaps as being a losing proposition. It isn't about personal dislike, but a Corp. mindset that isn't about to change. That Corp. mindset sees no future in soaps & today's decision makers see any show lasting over 5 yrs (the primetime model) as having no life left & no more story to tell. Nothing could be further from the truth w/daytime!

Corp. decisionmakers have, numerous times, said that soaps are 'dying a natural death', when there is nothing natural about it! Good storytellers have been pushed out & those that have remained have had to compromise a great deal to keep their jobs. The days of an EP or HW having a creative say is also long gone--according to those who have been HWs & some who have come back to it. It also doesn't matter anymore WHO is HW or EP, since they aren't making the real decisions. Passion about the genre & knowing the audience have been tossed aside. Both elements are critical to ANY good storytelling.

Be it daytime or primetime, the focus has always been that the stories are filler between commercials. That is nothing new either. What has changed is the use of product placement within soaps, w/advertisers paying for it & incorporating the visual aspect of the ads within the show--to avoid losing the opportunity to imprint their image(s) on the audience, since so many of us ffwd through commercials. Films have used product placement for decades!