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On Monday, May 27, ABC aired a special repeat of the the April 2 General Hospital 56th anniversary episode. The hour itself featured the characters uniting at the hospital for a scavenger hunt orchestrated by the recently deceased Gail Baldwin.
At the time of the episode’s original airing, 21% of SoapHub voters declared themselves unhappy with the anniversary’s execution. Below we offer 6 possible reasons for viewer dissatisfaction.
The Age of the Hospital
One thing fans frequently complain about is new head writers not understanding or bothering to learn the history of the show that they are now controlling.
An uninitiated head writer seems to be at the heart of this goof when dialogue from Alexis (Nancy Lee Grahn) seemed to imply that the hospital is only 56 years old (the exact quote, “….when the hospital opened 56 years ago today”).
While General Hospital the soap opera is 56 years old the hospital in which the action takes place, was already decades old by the time viewers first saw Nurse Jessie Brewer tending to patient Angie Costello in the series first episode.
Geographical Displacement
From the very first episode until some time in the mid-2000s, General Hospital’s doctors and nurses administered health and hope to the patients on the 7th floor of the hospital.
Somewhere along the way, the main floor transformed into the 10th but it was still strange to have the characters gather on floor 10 when it would have no meaning to Gail or for that matter fans of the classic episodes.
The Lack of Classic Flashbacks
One thing Soap Hub readers were adamant about was their displeasure at the lack of classic clips shown during the very brief montage at the episodes close.
GH is a soap opera in a very enviable position amongst its brethren because almost every episode from 1963 into the mid-70s has been saved and archived. If the production team had been willing to put in the effort fans could have been treated to moments not seen if over five decades.
The Presence of Sonny Corinthos
Gail was a lady who practiced what she preached and she frequently preached forgiveness and seeing the good in every person but even she had her limits. No way would she have invited the mobster who got her beloved granddaughter Karen addicted to pills and then thrust her onto a stripper pole to pay for her habit.
NO Connection Between Bobbie and Maxie
This may be a personal bias but the lack of any screen time between Maxie (Kirsten Storms) and Bobbie (Jacklyn Zeman) has always seemed a bit off. Maxie carries inside her chest the heart of Bobbie’s beloved daughter, Barbara Jean, after all.
The Episodes Premise Itself
The entire point of the episode was revealed to be a hunt for envelopes filled with glitter. Not a revelation that Gail left the hospital an endowment for a scholarship for budding psychiatrists or money to be put into Drug and Rehabilitation Center (in honor of her beloved Lee) but envelopes filled with glitter.
General Hospital airs weekdays on ABC. Check your local listings for airtimes.
Video Credit: General Hospital
Video Credit: General Hospital
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