Dynamic Sustainability of "General Hospital"

          

        Popular culture is constantly evolving based on the neoliberalism structure of political, socioeconomic, and cultural changes within society.  David Harvey suggests in A Brief History of Neoliberalism that there implies a direct connection between postmodernism and the socioeconomic changes occurring in society on a political and economic level (42).  Within this discourse, it is rare for a popular television program to maintain its cultural staying power beyond a shelf life of a few decades.  This rarity, however, has been realized by the soap opera genre within daytime television.  A prime example of a postmodern text that has shown the sustainability to evolve with the changing times is General Hospital, which debuted in 1963.  Once rated the “greatest soap opera of all time”, General Hospital has sustained itself despite an influx of reality television emerging on the daytime screen (Maria Ciaccia).  As television evolved over the years to more talk or variety shows as well as reality television, many experts predicted the inevitable death of the traditional soap opera.  Much to the surprise of many, the last remaining soap operas, General Hospital included, remain a dominant force in the ever changing socioeconomic dynamics of the culture of television. 

            In the beginning of the genre, capitalist's motives created the idea of selling daytime television with commercial advertisements aimed at women who did not work outside the home.  When soap operas first were broadcast, plots involved lust, romance, unrequited love, desire and jealousy (Ciaccia).  These feminine characteristics, coupled with the fact that women’s societal roles were primarily domestic homemakers or caregivers, a gender specific target audience emerged.  According to Chris Barker, the soap opera is a space in which women’s concerns and points of view are validated and from which women take pleasure” (Cultural Studies 338), which was in direct contrast to rise in postmodern feminism.     

Structured modernism gave way to the fragmented, deconstructed postmodernism in the world of popular culture.  Coined by French philosopher Jacques Derrida, postmodernism is a philosophical movement which rejects grand narratives or universal explanations in favor of irony.  (Barker 508).  Derrida’s ideology challenged the construction of the Western hegemony world and replaced it with discursive association of culture.  Soap operas became a genre of television programing that fell within the political and ideological interest of the post-modernized public. They are characterized by having open-ended narrative forms, core locations, tension between conventions of realism and melodrama, and pivotal themes of interpersonal relationships (Barker 335-6).  Additionally, the characters in soap operas possess characteristics that viewers can relate.  They are ambiguous and can take a likeable shape then, at the drop of a hat, find themselves remolded in the image of evil; yet they are hopeful reflections of the audience members who view them.  The character’s morals are virtuous and strong at times while weak and feeble in others, and morally questionable at other times.  This contrast of personalities allows the average viewer to either wholeheartedly relate to the characters plight or join them in a life-long, fictional, and sometimes, absurd adventure.

            Character and storyline development is one of the main reasons why General Hospital has been able to maintain the loyal viewers and sustain its’ position as a leader in this genre for over five decades.  General Hospital is set in the fictional town of Port Charles, New York.  In its early stages, a hospital was at the core of the show, and the scandalous activities of the doctors, nurses, and patients were the driving force behind the storylines.  Running out of plot material and being threatened with cancellation by the ABC television network, the producers introduced pivotal characters Luke and Laura in the late 1970’s as the dynamic couple that would forever change the face of soap operas (Ciaccia).  

           Caught in numerous adventures of intrigue and romance, Luke and Laura developed a storyline that lead to their wedding in 1981 while enjoying a fan base of 30 million viewers.  The wedding of Luke and Laura is one of the biggest moments on General Hospital, and in all of soap opera history (Ciacca).  In fact, following their nuptials, the fictional characters made the cover of People and Newsweek magazines, something that up until that time had never been done by any other soap opera actor or fictional character.  Socioeconomic changes within society have changed and the storylines of General Hospital has changed with those variances.  Today, General Hospital’s narratives include social issues such as AIDS, breast cancer, poverty, and single mothers. 

Despite the evolving narratives and character popularity, the changes within the socioeconomic structure of society have had an adverse effect on the genre of soap operas and the dynamics of daytime television altogether.  Long running soap operas All My Children and One Life to Live, also airing on ABC, were cancelled after being on the air for 41 years and 45 years, respectively (imdb.com).  Much to the dismay of hardcore soap opera fans, networks changed daytime television programming from soap operas to reality television and variety/talk shows for purely economical and capitalist motives.  According to “The Week:  The Death of Soap Operas”, the profit margin on reality television shows and talk shows are much higher than the traditional scripted programs; and the soap opera genre had outgrown its advertising purpose (1).  The advertising companies who had originally been the driving force behind the creation of daytime television were now switching their efforts to digital and social media rather than television.  Another reason for the change is because of the structure of television and advent of the digital recorder through cable conglomerates and rise in digital media, such as Hulu, Netflix and Amazon. Stay-at-home parents were now catching up on reruns or recorded shows that were missed in prime time television rather than continuing their involvement with an ongoing melodramatic storyline that exists in soap operas.  The most relevant postmodern, socioeconomic change to daytime television comes with the economic changes in society.  Households are unable to meet the demands of the economy and rise in the higher cost of living, therefore, both parents must seek employment outside of the home.  This dual-income reality plays a significant role on the popularity of daytime programming.  Collectively, all of these factors together very nearly drove the nail in the soap operas coffin, save for the four surviving soap operas. 

   

As it turns out, however, the remaining four daytime soap operas have enjoyed an increased percentage of viewers over the last two years (Teeman 1).  One reason is that soap opera fans have proven to be the most loyal in all of television remaining captivated and involved with the soap operas characters over a span of fifty years.  Another reason, according to Teeman’s article, is lifelong soap fans who fell in love with the genre remain bereft after the cancellation of another soap and have migrated en masse to one of the remaining survivors (3).  General Hospital has brilliantly exported some of the core cast members from the other ABC cancelled shows and have incorporated their old storyline on the cancelled show into an existing relevant one on the remaining soap.  Also contributing to General Hospital’s staying power is the fact that producers and writers “continually focuses on targeting new audiences while remembering their viewers from the past by bringing back “legacy” characters…General Hospital continues to adjust to the times - but never forgets its roots” (Ciaccia).

In the past, soap operas have been seen as the “junk food” of television and the fans have been stereotyped as lazy housewives trying to escape from their problems by living vicariously through their television screen (Susan Alexander 302).  If this were true, which it is not, even the over-the-top antics of reality television and sensationalized talk shows would not be enough to satisfy the distraught soap opera fan.  On the contrary, daytime television fans are culturally advanced while soap operas themselves are a multifaceted source of television programming that gives viewers a path that is accepting to an ever changing socioeconomic structure.  The sustainability of General Hospital exists in the complexities of the characters, while the narratives and plots address issues affecting regular members of society on the most personal levels that are relevant in today’s world.  In a postmodern culture where everything is free from foundation and fragmented, the never ending saga of a soap opera where people have the ability to change while possessing both positive and negative characteristics is a genre of television programming that should be celebrated within popular culture.  

Luke and Laura Wedding Day
November 1981

Works Cited

Anger, Dorothy.  Reviewed by Susan Alexander “Other Worlds: Society Seen through Soap Opera”.  American Sociological Association.  1999: 302-303.  JSTOR.  Web.  18 August 2014. 

 Barker, Chris.  Cultural Studies.4^th edition.  Sage Publications. London. 2012.  Print

Ciaccia, Maria.  “General Hospital: A Rich History Part 1.  The Beginning Through the 1980’s”.  About.com. Web. 18 August 2014.

Harvey, David.  A Brief History of Neoliberalism.  Oxford University Press. New York. 2005. Print. 

 Internet Movie Database. Imdb.com. Web.  18 August 2014. 

Teeman, Tim.  “How the Daytime Soap Came Back From the Dead”.   Thedailybeast.com. 1-18. Web.  13 August 2014.

Staff Writer.  “The Week:  The death of soap operas:  What does it say about television?”.  Theweek.com. 1-4.  Web.  13 August 2014.