Is General Hospital the best soap???

Answer: O_O Is this a joke??

For ME, I have watched mostly all the soaps at some point in time....so here's my list.

5. One Life To Live

4. The Bold and the Beautiful (debut-2005)

3. Guiding Light

2. Another World

1. The Young and the Restless

for ME, Y&R was the most consistent as far as storytelling up until recent years. It never resorted to outlandish plots, such as aliens, devils, witches and warlocks....Y&R has always been business and family-centered. Even TODAY, though I completely despise what MAB has done with the show, there's still an element of business and family (mixed heavy handedly with crime/drama bs) But in my opinion, Y&R has been the smartest, classiest soap opera on the air. And next to the whole Luke/Laura phenomena, Y&R to me, has the most prestige for non-soap watchers. Y&R never really insulted your intelligence. And it didn't look like the other soaps. The production on Y&R was far superior to any other soap on the air for most of its run (until Paul Rauch).

No but GH is the most overhyped soap of all time!

If we were talking about what is currently the best soap, GH would win hands down. Of all time I'd vote for B&B, though it's currently the worst!

Frankly though, if this is a stunt from ABC to promote GH I'm all for it and delighted that they can be bothered to do so!

For me it is:

1) Guiding Light
2) Another World
3) One Life To Live
4) Young and the Restless
5) All My children
6) Days of Our Lives
7) As The world turns
8 ) Bold and the beautiful
9) General hospital

If we are looking at the entire run of the shows, then no, GH is not the best soap of all time. It had a brief "golden period" in the late 70's early 80's, but that was pretty much it in my opinion.

I think As The World Turns, would be my number two pic both due to its consistency and longevity.

By far, (with the exception of a few years), I think the Young and the Restless is the best soap opera of all time.

Also, I think the ratings do indicate the "general" consensus of where these should fall.

Dark Shadows should not even be on the list, sorry. Another World, Search For Tomorrow, The Edge of Night and even Guiding Light would be ranked much higher. I do agree that Days should be on the list as well.

@harlee490: Right, 6 degrees! That is how I was looking at it from a technical standpoint.

This was an online poll conducted this summer by ABC News and People Magazine, and it relied on people volunteering to go to the website and vote. It's hardly scientific.

Anyway, there is no such thing as the best anything. It's all down to personal preference. I voted in the poll this summer and my choice was OLTL, but only because none of my other choices were in the multiple choice list (no Santa Barbara, no Edge of Night).

I think the results were summed up best by one of the commentators in last night's special who said GH was chosen because Luke and Laura became such a sensation. Well, considering the entire history of GH, Luke and Laura are one of many snapshots. So, taking all of this into consideration, there are too many variables to consider this anything more than a snapshot of a small number of people's tastes this summer.

There's only one correct answer:

The Guiding Light.

Every single show that came after it just copied the original. So, NO. GH is a far cry from being the best soap that ever was; and even now the only reason it can be considered a good soap is because the others are so bad.

Every Soap has its moments. I think it should be based on Ratings, Soap Years, and Awards.

1. The Young and the Restless
2. As The World Turns
3. General Hospital
4. Guiding Light
5. All My Children
6. The Bold and the Beautiful- *worldwide ratings*
7. Another World
8. Edge of Night
9. One Life to Live
10. Search For Tomorrow

I think Luke and Laura alone qualifies GH as the best soap. It created a couple which is arguably the definition of a supercouple. Even if you have never watched a soap opera before, you knew who Luke and Laura was. For a God sakes, a rapper even refers to them in one of thier lyrics. I think if you judge best by the impact it has had on pop culture, you would have to then go with GH as the best.

General Hospital is the best one on the air currently. But over the years, not so much. One life to live was awesome the last 5 years. Days of our lives was great at times over the years. Dark Shadows, which I still watch was my first soap. Another World had a great run. The Doctors, As the World Turns, Search for tommorow and Guiding Light were great at times. I enjoyed Port Charles and loved Passions(a very unpopular opinion), but Passions had great soapy moments. Never understood the popularity of Bold and the beautiful but people seem to like it. I've tried to get into Young and the restless but it overall bores me, but hey it's been number one forever. So everyone has their opinion. For me it's that tune into tommorow element that makes me love the soaps. Hey if this poll gets people to tune back into General Hospital or any/all of the soaps we all win.

I would have to vote All My Children because at it's best, which for me was the 80s, it was GREAT.

My soap life began at the end of the 70s with Ryan's Hope, AMC, and One Life so those 3 would make up my top 3 and my list would end there. I wouldnt include GH, Y&R or GL because I feel like their lows were too low.

I have always had a hard time with Luke and Laura because of the rape. And I don't think one couple would qualify any soap as best in any event. GH is probably ABC's best soap because it's their only soap left, but what about Ryan's Hope? Anyone?

CBS by far has had the most memorable soap opera history and their lineup from the 50's thru today really does outshine the other networks. Okay now let the hating begin.

My personal favorite of all time is Santa Barbara, it had everything a soap should have. I have also enjoyed periods of Days Of Our Lives, One Life To Live, and briefly Young & The Restless.

Hilarious bullshit from ABC. They tried to bury General Hospital and now it's the greatest soap of all time? How stupid do they think we are? Oh, don't answer that! LOL.

Unbelievable crap and hard to believe this site is promoting such non-sense. Someone running this web site must get kick backs from ABC's marketing department.

I like GH, but NO! Most popular soap to non-soap viewers, maybe(thanks to Luke and Laura). Best of All Time? Hell to the naw!!!

I say Y&R. It has the strongest record overall. This was the best-written show, the classiest, the most diverse, complex characters, family centered, the most realistic (until MAB), the one you could see rivaling a primetime show and the strongest in the ratings. People like to say the ratings don't matter, oh yes they do... and today they matter more. While all soaps are down, Y&R must be commended for staying on top for the last 23 years. It has been consistent year in and year out... again until MAB too over.

My list:

1. Y&R (See above)
2. GH - Luke and Laura, realistic dialogue, not afraid to take risks, i.e. mob-focused
3. AMC - Susan Lucci. Erica Kane. Nuff said.
4. GL - Will likely remain the longest soap to have aired. 72 years. Family-centered decade after decade; Roger Thorpe, best villian
5. DAYS - Soapy. Fantasy. Unafraid to take risks, i.e. devil possession

If it were the early to mid '90s, I would agree with this list. That's when I gave up on GH. I would move GH to number 5 now, and move the rest up. I still miss AMC terribly, but I've adopted Y&R and DOL as my new soaps. Still hoping that one of these retro channels (MeTV, RTV, AntennaTV) will pick up reruns of the cancelled soaps for their afternoon lineup. Especially those episodes from the '60s and '70s before there were VCRs and DVRs!

For me the most consistantly good soap is Y&R. So I would give them the number one spot. It had way more on years than off. During Bill Bell's tenure, he remade the show when the show got off track and made an even better show. The show has been number one for almost 25 years now. That has to say something.

Second spot goes to Santa Barbara. They had a rough but promising start then about 7 years of some of the best soap on tv. then a really bad ending. But those years it was good, I taped every day incase I couldn't watch it because of the hours I worked. I would tape it instead of whatever night time tv was on because it was better.

Third I would take to ATWT. It was number one almost from its beginning and maintained its quality all those years it was on top. It more than any soap influenced what a soap was. Its structure was the most emulated. It's characters where as if they were members of our own families.

Days of our Lives has had a huge following for most of its time on tv. It has shifted focus many times and has modernized itself to keep up with the times. From the begining, it was to be a controversial version of ATWT. Bill Bell pushed the envelope on the stories polarizing and creating buzz throughout his tenure. Hell the show made the cover of Time Magazine before Luke and Laura were around. The Salem strangler story in the 80s pushed Days in a new direction of adventure and great love stories. The 90s saw a new Days with outrageous stories that made people sit up and watch. It for me is number 4.

GH would be number 5 mearly for the Luke and Laura story and for being a strong influence on oher soaps to modernize their sets and scenes (although it did not really have that much influence on the flagship Y&E that maintained its great sets and slow pace the whole time and came out on top in the ratins). Yes GH had great ratings for a while. But not nearly the duration of Y&R or of ATWT.

Honorable mentions to AW and Ryan's Hope. AW nearly knocked ATWT off the number one position in its hey day. The show was so good that it was like watching theater on tv. The quality of acting has not been surpassed. RH was known for its realism and story telling. The Ryans were a real family with real problems set in a real local. Until the network tried to mess with it, RH was pumping out something special.

I am not sure about this Dark Shadows thing. It was a clunkily presented badly acted uneven storytelling program. It just so happened to be startlingly different than any other soap because of its supernatural element. Although points must be given for the gothic elements and nonlinear stories. It also had a strong but not huge following. But I wouldn't put it at number 4!

Guiding Light had some great years especially in the 80s and early 90s but it gets alot of points also for being on our screen and really being the first (more or less) soap on radio and tv.

At some point or another, I've probably watched every soap out there at least once. Still, my strongest ties are probably to Y&R--despite the last three or four years of uninspired, lazy and downright bad storytelling--because I've been with it on and off since 1980 when I was 8 years old (aka the first sign that my parents should've known I'd be gay). And everything since then I've loved at some point, though I'd say Santa Barbara, ATWT, GL and OLTL would probably round out my personal top 5 with honorable mention going to AW and AMC. As for GH, it's one of the very few soaps that I've never been able to get into for whatever reason; it, Sunset Beach and Passions are prob the three shows I've never followed at all on a regular basis beyond tuning in once or twice a year when nothing else was on.

I strongly disagree! Guiding Light will always be head and shoulders above the rest in my book. Another World is the only other soap that even comes close. I still miss both terribly. That's not to say I didn't love AMC. I'd miss AMC alot more if it weren't for SN rerunning eps from '07.

No. Y&R, B&B and GLin that order.