General Hospital is an American soap opera that debuted in April of 1963. It is the second longest running soap opera in production and it is the longest running entertainment program in ABC television history. Furthermore, General Hospital holds the record for the highest-rated hour in soap opera history with the airing of the nuptials of "Super-Couple" Luke and Laura. And although all this sounds fantastic, these are not the reasons I watch General Hospital.

This is a soap opera I sit down to watch everyday for the simple reason of a connection. In the summers when I was younger, I would visit my grandmother and we would have fun and be silly but come 3pm, she would plop us down on the sofa and tune in to General Hospital. Despite my age, she would engage me in the show, by describing the history of some characters or which characters she thought had made mistakes or belonged together. It was as if these characters were truly a part of my grandmother's life, her friends.

My grandmother has since passed on but her deep appreciation and love for this show lives on in me. Jumping back to when the show was created, a setting was all that was needed for the characters to revolve around: the hospital. As the years went on a strong, wealthy family was introduced, The Quartermaines and this family seemed to be the tree at which the branches of storylines were developed.

Throughout the years, The writing has remained strong and innovative with the story ideas and creative uses for the characters. Starting in the late 1980's and through the 1990's, action stories were the focus with high drama, romance and the high stakes of losing some characters.

General Hospital began building on highly dramatic and epic love stories between couples, having the fans almost emotionally involved and pulling for the couples to be together. Luke and Laura were the most famous of these "Super-Couples", really carving the mold for other soap operas to take notice and formulate for their shows.

Other than the "Super-Couples", General Hospital began moving away from the action-oriented stories and more to deeper issues that soap operas weren't tackling at the time. In the mid-1990's a story developed between two teens involving HIV. The couple found love then found out that their love story was tragic when the male died of AIDS. After his death the storyline continued when the female found out she had too contracted the virus and had to deal with living a life where she would be HIV-positive. The storyline was extremely moving and heart-wrenching and earned a Daytime Emmy awards for acting.

General Hospital continues lead the pack in forward-looking stories and dynamic characters. The soap opera ceases to be mundane and there is a reason it is one of the longest-running soap operas on television.

Learn more about this author, Stacey A. Smith.
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