General Hospital Happenings

Site Editor

Keeping track of General Hospital happenings is important to viewers, especially when they miss episodes. Prior to the advent of the VCR, soap fans needed to be planted in front of their screens during the episode's airing or they would miss it. Every day at 3 p.m. Eastern time, mothers would shuffle their kids in from school, turn on the television and sit down to find out what was happening with Luke, Laura, Anna, Duke and others.

Keeping up with General Hospital Happenings

General Hospital currently airs on the ABC network in its regular time slot of 3 p.m. ET. It also airs on the SOAPnet network in the evenings (showing the day's episodes). SOAPnet allows live viewers who cannot record the daily episodes an opportunity to keep up with what's happening on their favorite soap.

The VCR

By the mid-80s, the VCR was a permanent fixture in living rooms around the country. Soap operas were also becoming a heavily recorded genre. While many viewers still parked themselves in front of television screens every day, a growing number recorded the episode to watch when they returned home from work. The VCR allowed high school and college students to keep up with their favorite daytime dramas, including General Hospital, without missing school to do so.

The DVR

Beginning in the late 90s and growing in 21st century popularity, the DVR and TiVo services allow viewers to program their satellite or cable boxes to directly record the shows they want to see. The DVR is a huge step up from the VCR in quality (tapes that are constantly recorded over must be replaced eventually because video and sound quality degrades) and even if a house loses power and is restored, the DVR will record a program's timeslot whereas a VCR will not.

Viewers may purchase a season pass either for the ABC or SOAPnet showings and they never have to remember to 'program' the VCR again, the show will be recorded and kept for as long as the recorder is programmed to keep the episodes (at most, the highest end DVR records only 120 hours). As of May, 2008, 23.7% of homes boast a DVR and it's extremely popular with soap fans, particularly those that follow soaps that compete in the same time slot. One show or both shows can be recorded. Until recently, this was a problem for networks in terms of tracking viewership. There was no reasonable way to ratings or their advertising revenue. Networks can now charge for delayed viewing as long as it occurs within 3 days of the initial airing.

Episodes Online

Some episodes and episode clips can be found online at authorized sites like iTunes and ABC's official sites. Fans will also post episode clips and even whole episodes on YouTube. Pivotal episodes, particularly those focusing on beloved characters may show up on YouTube within hours of airing. During February 2007, General Hospital happenings were in high demand as the soap emulated a 24 style of storytelling involving hostages in the Metro Court hotel. Clips of pivotal scenes including Elizabeth revealing to Jason that he was the father of her baby were prominent searches on YouTube.

Episode Recaps

General Hospital fans may not be able to watch their episodes every day, even with the VCR, the DVR and episode clips that are featured on the Internet. The truth is many General Hospital fans wax and wane with their favorite storylines. They can keep their finger on the pulse of the show by reading episode recaps and visiting Internet message boards.

TV Guide posts daily recaps of episodes (typically the following morning) which allows General Hospital fans to keep up with their favorite characters. Recaps are not always specific and many nuances or subtle plotlines may be left out. Writers like Marlena De Lacroix offer critical reviews of General Hospital happenings and storylines as well as those occurring on other soap operas.

Fan sites like SoapZone feature live posts where fans can get on the spot recaps from other fans who are watching the show live. The message board live posts are a double-edged sword, however, because the fans offering the recaps may only focus on their favorite storylines or slant the actions of characters based on their own personal viewpoints.

Soap Opera Magazines

Magazines including Soap Opera Digest, ABC In Depth and Soap Opera Weekly as well as the TV Guide magazine give viewers another option for getting their dose of General Hospital. The recaps published in these magazines are usually weekly or bi-weekly. They offer summaries of what happened, highlighting key storyline points in overview.