General Hospital has truly sunk to the bottom of the barrel.It's disgusting and vile.

I can't believe someone could come up with something so morally reprehensible.

Also, I find more disgusting some people seem ok with it, just because it's something crazy Lisa with do.

I seriously thought Garin would be different, love in the afternoon and all that. I certainly don't find injecting someone with HIV infected blood loving in the afternoon.

ABC is a murderer. So cancel it already and let Prospect Park take over. There is no need to destroy it first and insult the fans further. Karma is a bitch and ABC will do down in flames. I feel so sorry for all the talent that works for this despicable network. Walt Disney must be turning in his grave!

"So cancel it already and let Prospect Park take over"

This. I am no longer a viewer of GH but I do still follow the general story remotely. At this point, I can't bother to tune in. My only hope is that PP is successful with OLTL and will get the same opportunity with GH. This show needs to get away from ABC before no one cares about any of the remaining characters. There is not one character that they have not ruined with the poor storytelling on this once great show. The best thing that could happen to GH at this point is for ABC to cancel it, and give the show a fighting chance to reclaim it's dignity.

Great post!!

Well said.

I hate sounding like an old person.... but here goes. In the 70s soaps were so very different than they are now. Yes they went at a much slower pace. Every show plotted along in real time. The pacing we used to get on Y&R before the last couple of writing regimes were par for the course on every show. So there was room for improvement even then. The thing that got lost was in the 70s, show were socially resposible. They were dealing with empowered women. We were seeing women as doctors and lawyers. Women were starting to understand that they didn't NEED a man to survive. They could run a business just fine. Good guys were interesting. They could be romantic. They could serenade you, they could be a good role model for your kids. They could have personalities. The vixens on the show were just as admired because they went after what they wanted. The shows also were socially responsible raising issues of sex, race, sexuality, women in the workforce vs women who stay home, social class, etc. In the 80s with the Luke and Laura craze, women went backwards a little on soaps. Suddenly they were helpless again and needed a man to take care of them from the evil supervillan. However some of the 70s ideals was still around.
Fast forward to now, soaps have gone off the deep end. The stories are tatters of stories run at lightning speed and completely unfinished because writers can't be bothered with details. They write with utter disreguard to how their material will be recieved. Noone has time to think about that because noone is ananlyzing the stories and saying what is this about? They just keep plodding along because well in a day or two the story will be something else anyway. So who cares if a little boy is killed off or a someone is chased around with hiv or someone shoots up an entire building of gangters. There are no consequenses. These scenes just flood over us like a cheaply made video game. And who's fault is it? The shows?
Right now Days is trying to reboot and give us a more quality well thought out show. The pacing is returning to the more traditional route but there are human conflicts with consequences for peoples actions. Is the show absolutely perfect? no. Is it trying to become something better? something someone should watch? yes. But then noone wants to watch it because they would rather watch gun play and story turn over quickly and people injecting eachother with contaminated blood and two people who think they are the same person. We just don't want to have to look for depth of story any more. We only want the least amount of detail and the most shock value. This isn't just on soaps it is in movies, it is on the internet, it is the nightly news. And move on because we are gonna forget about it when the next thing comes along..... So blame the production staff all ya want but the buck stops with us.

Well rumors of it's demise is end of this Dec. or April of next yr. Originally it was June 2012. So I think it warrents huge changes in people running GH not allowing the people and s/l's that are ruining this show. One kill Sam let Franco wrap next wk this wk wrap Lisa off, focus on the Q's, Webber's, Cassidine's, a modified Corinthos. We also don't need, Lucky, Abby, Aiden(be part of a dream) all the newbies, Anthony, Luke. Bring back Monica, Jake, Helena, Lexi. Let this show go out with some ratings and class please.

Frons is also the genius who brought us the aborted fetus transplant that destroyed another ground breaking first .. Erica's legal abortion turned out to be not so aborted as transplanted from Erica to her insane doctor's wife .. since we all know fetuses can be transplanted and that procedure was perfected back in the 70s .. personally I think Frons' brain was a transplant from an orangatan

Oh GH how far you have fallen, just like Y&R.... Honestly I am not surprised this happened. It's just a symptom of the show being "ill" as a whole, just like Y&R. I keep mentioning Y&R cause it's true. Both of these shows used to be the best, game changing, compelling, gripping, well written shows on daytime. Now they are both just ridiculous, & terrible. The stories these 2 soaps are telling are stupid, boring, & not well thought out. They've both lost their way, & don't have a clue who they are anymore. There are characters coming & going faster than the subway makes it rounds in the city. I mean who are these characters & why should I care about them? And do I even want to care? No not so much. Even the characters I do know, aren't being written true to theirselves so I don't know them either anymore. The show's history, character history, & family history isn't respected or even thought of. And once things like this start to happen, it's just a matter of time before we get distasteful stories like Sharon being tried for out of state volcano pushing, & Lisa taking Robin's blood as a plot point. Just dumb! Way to ruin & poo on a beautiful character legacy & story, but like I said I'm not surprised this happened. And nothing will change until we get showrunners who know & care about legacy & history & the show as a whole.

@marknsprmo

I am a huge Days fan and I agree with you but Days achilles heel has always been not being able to move on. I know its popular on message boards to trash Higley and Tomlin but Tomlin's Days IMO was the best the show had been in years. Spring 2010 is when the show veered off course and all the climaxes in fall of 2010 were just bandaids to get a renewal. But from 2008 to 2010 Days was great. The baby switch, the quad of NAthan/Melanie/Stephanie/Phillip were all good and well paced. It was when this show went back AGAIN to Sami/Rafe/EJ/Nicole and had them take over the show that it fell.

But times move on. THere is a lot of good on Days now but also a lot of eh. The one thing a procedural/serial show like The Good Wife does which this show appears to try to be mimicing is stories that end and wrap up in one episode. Sure the triangle and there are other elements and themes that carry forward, but they give viewers a reason to watch every week. If they were only playing out the triangle I doubt watching characters sitting around talking all day about their feelings would be considered must see TV.

When i heard the writers at Days talk about unsoaping the soap it made me skeptical. Its a soap opera you need drama and intrigue and backstabbing and scheming. Frankly this EJ bores me to tears. Watching he and Lexie talk about kids for an episode while nice scenes were not exactly must see TV. He's running for mayor, he's an antagonist on this show, I want to see him scheming and doing underhanded things. Not all characters need to be lily white. It doesn't mean I want him raping women. and Lexie, how about some of her Dimera side come out.

As for the ridiculousness of Jack.Jennifer.Daniel and the stupidity of Sami.Rafe. Austin. Carrie, well hopefully both will be wrapped up quickly so they can all move on to real dramatic stories.

Two words Nurse's Ball!

I'm with the, "Cancel it now," brigade. Given who they have left on canvas, and the number of pissed off (and soon to be pissed off) vets they have, I highly doubt that GH could pull a OLTL and give us wonderful story with great vet returns during it's last six months. I say stop production right now.

I haven't watched this yet......and have no desire to watch it. I am already disgusted. This is just wrong in EVERY way imaginable. You all have already spoken so eloquently on this topic, so I really can't echo your thoughts any better. I will say, be careful what you wish for. We were all clamoring to get rid of Bob Guza, but it seems to me that the show has almost FLATLINED in terms of watchability since Garin took over. Yes, there's a little bit more romance and more focus on characters who were previously ignored, but the show is just boring as all hell. An hour-long cure for insomnia.

There's just too much talk.........and talk.........and more talk. And not enough gripping action and suspense. Characters just DRONE on ad nauseum, not really saying anything, yet repeating themselves a thousand times.

And then they bring back a character who I despise more than ANY other character on ABC Daytime, Lisa, who is both boring and ridiculous, and they pull this garbage. I recommend that we all let our voices be heard...send letters, call the network and let them know how utterly despicable this story is. It needs to be nipped in the bud ASAP.

I'd almost rather see them bring back someone like Megan McTavish than keep Garin Wolf on the payroll if this is the best that he can pull out of his bag of tricks........

A Toronto gay website is asking it's readers what they think of the use of HIV as a weapon: http://gayguidetoronto.com/featured/interaction-the-general-hospital-hiv...

I don't even watch GH (never have liked the show), but it's clear to me that directives from higher-ups are telling the writers to write disgusting stories that are designed to drive viewers away, all the better to justify GH's cancellation next year. It wouldn't surprise me at all if the other networks are making similar decisions to justify canceling Y&R, B&B, and DOOL in the next few years as well. (Even though Sony has improved DOOL recently, the ratings haven't yet reflected that fact, and they're apparently not waiting for ratings to improve.)

I wrote a blog post about this a couple of weeks ago (Scoop It!'s soap blog posted a link to it):

http://rojosasworld.blogspot.com/2011/10/ive-been-soap-fan-since-i-was-k...

@ DarlyE: Hahahahaha, that was amazing!

I agree with you all! Terrible storyline on a terrible show!

@ marknsprmo

Well, make room because I'm in the same club. That was very eloquent post, I enjoyed the read. You make so many good points about soaps losing their thoughtfulness and being socially responsible. Soaps are not today. The '80s ushered in a new element to soaps based on high action because of GH and Luke & Laura. Then we have Paul R.'s period at OLTL, all soaps had big production flow and we fans saw remote after remote and it was grand. Most fans that grew up in '80s saw story-lines that were dopplegangers, back from the dead, high romance in a grand style (Quiant & Nola's hot-air balloon) emergence of dark characters and more violence. We enjoyed those stories as much as the traditional stories which was still very present on the soaps in the '80s. But the difference then it was fresh and new to soaps and great writers of the era created awesome stories because it was fresh for them to write. Now, it's so tired and been to that well way to many times and this new generation of writers from the mid-nineties can't write traditional soap with some heart and soul. That went on well into the early nineties and very good time for soaps but then arrival of shock and aw story telling. It's always on the next shock and next shock, it's out of control. For Days, jphelps had a good point about some of the pacing but I can overlook right now the reboot to complete with stories moving full force. I honestly think Lisa is good choice and add more of element of mystery with the new writers. Noel I'm praying every night is coming home to Y&R to clean up the mess.

I agree with the article, great post, Jillian! I didn't even watch GH today, didn't even care. It's just off my radar at this point. No need in watching a show I can no longer stomach. My faves are being ruined day after day, and it's just painful to watch, so, I don't.

Thank you Harlee! Don't get me wrong, I was there in the 80s and LOVED the outrageous bftd evil twin supervillian love on the run stories too! They were grand and sweeping, taking us out of the studio and offering us romantic exciting escapism. The problem was that it chewed up characters fast and by the end of the decade, soaps were losing money and the actors had moved on. The 90s brought a darker more subversive version of this by adding mobsters as the hero and sci fi elements to the shows. Everything was morbose and gothic. I was not as much of a fan but still hung in there. Y&R was really good in the 90s because it stuck to traditional soaps. Another World had some good years as did Guiding Light (both of those shows had terrible years in the 90s when they tried their hands at the gothic scifi stuff as well. It did not suit them at all). I stopped watching Days after Jack and Jen were recast terribly and Marlena became a cat with green eyes and John became a priest who prayed like a protestant(atleast get the religious stuff correct when doing it). I never could get into ABC soaps. I think most of the 2000s soaps have totally lost their identity and can't decide what the audience wants. Heck I am not even sure WE have that answer. But we know it when we see it. We hate dopplegangers and back from the dead but we love the tale of two todds! We want more traditional less mob related stories but we don't like the new Days reboot and GH only improves in ratings when someone is getting shot! My guess is that someone is gonna come up with something utterly unique and new and that will revive the medium. I could make a list of things that I think would work but I highly doubt that anyone will make use of them.
Jphelps I agree with your statement that Days has trouble moving on. I am not sure I agree with your statement that the Daniel/Melanie/Phillip/ etc thing was good. In fact I hated every minute of it. I much prefered the EJ/Sami/Lucas/Nicole story about who is the mama. I thought that was fresh and exciting and totally a departure from the normal who's your daddy tale.
More later! The X Factor is on!

The legacy of Jill Farren Phelps is one twisted, dark, plot point that ends in the death of the soap she is employed to guide.

Why is anyone shocked at the depths this woman will sink to? Frankie Frame anyone? ABC wants to tank GH and they have the perfect EP for the job.

OH for craps sake! Lighten up! Its only a soap! I don't tune in just for "love in the afternoon". This is fiction and anyone looking for role models should know better by now than to look to soaps for that. Although somewhat far-fetched, this IS something that could actually happen in real life. There are sick people out there and Lisa is one of them. Big freaking deal.

Ill take a halfway approach on this - my issue isnt with this story per se, but I fear it will turn out like jakes death, michaels rape, jaxs rape, lukes alcoholism etc. etc. they arent going to tell the aftermath with any sense of social relevancy, education, playing the emotional beats etc. etc. and its yet ANOTHER dark story. No, the show shouldnt ALWAYS be ONLY love in the afternoon, but there use to be some balance between the heart wrenching dark stories and the other on going stories.

This story makes the whole GL story of Marian Crane changing Lucy's HIV test results seem like kid's play. (Actually, I'm sure I am in the minority, but I thought that was a pretty great dramatic story. To play with someone's test results -- we have seen it in paternity test/DNA results a million times, but that was so much different). But the nice part of that story was that Lucy got to meet people through her support group, including the woman that eventually became Nick McHenry's fiance/wife. Looking back, that seems like a pretty good story compared to this Lisa fiasco.

I can't fully articulate how tacky and crude this GH story is, but as someone with several HIV+ friends I can't imagine they would find it entertaining to see the virus they have to deal with and manage used as a weapon in such a ludicrous situation.

There's a rumor going around that the GH writers actually wanted Robin to use the syringe on Lisa but KMc fought against it and won. This story is offensive enough as it is, but having Robin using her HIV as a weapon like that would have brought it to a whole other level.

I do treat GH and other soaps as entertainment and I don't really care if they address social issues but if they do choose to use a social issue in their storylines then I think they shouldn't treat them as ignorantly as this. If they can't then they just shouldn't use them at all.

And if KMc did fight the writers then I applaud her. After speaking up about Lexi Ainsworth's firing and now this (not to mention how she called out GH for firing Stuart Damon), I have a tremendous amount of respect for her.

The character is a villain and while you may not like premise, it is bold innovating writing and something that could happen in real life. There was also a movie similar to this and I don't remember the name of it--So, the writer could be ripping off others work for all we know. Whether it's flattery or copyright infringement..it's a gimmick and has been done to death on daytime. Heck, everyday we see and hear stranger things and think nobody can make that up, well a good writer does come up with great ideas.

Is it me or are people so quick to jump in, they succumb to the group mentality. Do you really feel that way or just want to be part of the mob? Isn't that with the rabid fan bases what got us here in the first place? Just seems like, as fans, we've done this to ourselves to some extent. I see people complaining with each other, voice their opinion on some message board but, probably never calls or writes to the people who can affect change.

^^ "bold", "innovative". Seriously? Nothing about this plot point or GH's current writing is bold or innovative.

How I wish this dead on article would be read and really understood by the powers that be at GH. Do they really get what they just did to this show's most daring and poignant story ever? I greatly appreciate this article although I wish it didn't have to be written. Thanks for writing an article for the thinking and feeling soap opera fan and giving voice to what so many of us must be feeling right now.