GH Characters: What Are You Thankful For?

We gather together to ask the Lord's blessing sings Edward...what are these Port Charles' residents thankful for this year?? 

Carly: A voice that doesn't give out
Michael: Coffee bean bags
Abby: Ricola drops
Josslyn: Her pink elephant
Sonny: His magical dimples
Kate: Sonny's magical dimples
Coleman: Everyone in PC needing to drink his booze
Lucky: Oyrish stew
Liz: Sedatives 
Jason: The stars 
Sam: The shells
Sam and Jason (A special tribute) The color black
Maxie: A whole new look instead of being sent away
Matt: Being included in any story
Lisa: filled hypodermic needles
Alkazar: Time space continuum allowing him to be several places in a blink of an eye  
Molly: Romance, any romance
Mac: his 4 scenes

Luke: his vacations
Monica: being unburied
Cam: Matches

Aiden: A disease that is cured in 1 episode
Olivia: Guitar Sex
Steve : Olivia Sex
Dante: Good public health plan
Lulu: Garter belts for the HoHouse
Spinelli: Retro-amnesia and the magical powers of Rain Man
Diane: Hair dye 
Alexis: Her boots
Brenda: Sleeves, really LONG sleeves 
Johnny: his sister's memory
Franco: Acrylic paint and robotic cameras 
Tracy: Well, it's NOT Luke!
Jax: false police reports of missing people
Mulva: A name like Dolores
Nikolas: Wyndemere's couch
Ethan: Lasha's portrait
Shawn: Big glistening muscles
Siobhan: lipstick  that writes on pillowcases
Epiphany: The rules and  Dr. Steve's cute butt 
Bob the Badger: Front row seat to Sonny's angst/barware throwing
Edward: Nothing, Dang Nabbit.

Happy Thanksgiving Wubbers!!

I am so thankful for all of your support --especially during my "Crabby GH" times (which are quite a few!). General Hospital is our passion and our pain. Just like the soap itself. I hope you are with family and friends today eating your fave goodies. I found this old clip of a vintage Q Thanksgiving 1995. Ned, Lois-- little Amber Tamblyn as Emily. *sigh*

Soapy Turkey Trot!!

                                                     RISE YOUR GLASS TO THE FUN!

AMC...didn't watch it but I think it wasn't Thanksgiving at all..cause you know,  David was back and Zack is dead.

OLTL pulled out all the stops!! Echo, Vicky and Dorian were hysterical. I loved Dorian making fun of Echo.  Heh. SHANE was even on!
They had a turkey trot-- the Ford boys ran, Brody did too.
Clint had everyone over-- Nora, Bo..Matthew ...Inez, Nate-- Nigel playing the wii . I like how Clint is being Asa-fied. :) Love that Matt and Nate are all mean with each other.
Blair..Christian, Starr..Lang Ford boys, Charlie..
Nigel's British cousin, Kelly and Kevin and the new Joey!
Tea, Todd, Dani and then Destiny comes in. 

General Hospital gave us a traditional day too!! KUDOS and CHEERS! HIP HIP HOORAY!!


 Luke: "Tracy, you look like a millon bucks!" 
Tracy: "Actually that would be Maya; I look like a lot more!


I am so happy they are doing this today. I might even be in a good mood for Sunday Surgery. 

Maxie, Sam and Robin, all in the same room!! squeeeeeeeeeeeeee! I loves it. Too short of a scene though. Uncle Mac coming in with a basket Awww... he tells Patrick to stay out of Robin's room or he'll break his legs.  Matt later tells Patrick to man up and get in there with Emma. Patrick does go in and we get a cute Scrubbie Family scene.

The Q house: Edward looks so festive in his tie...awww  Maya looked stunning today. Ethan looked like his usual Hot Topic self. Edward loves Siobhan of course.Lulu wonders if Siobhan is with Lucky to get a greencard. 
Edward said Carly was in Manhattan and Monica was at a spa. LOVE the engagement ring Luke bought in Amsterdam! Tracy is all tearing up!! I did too a little. That was an AWESOME scene. Kudos to Jane and Tony for it. 
Those Pizzas were giant.  Edward makes them all sing the "Gathering" song.

"Buy her a ring, you Bafoon"!! Says Edward to Luke

DAVIS house: Too fun, I really liked the whole set up. Diane, Max...Spinelli, Maxi and Mac too! 

Sorry, but it was nice with no mob sheeze today. REALLY nice. *sigh*


Karen Harris wrote today's show-- and of course, she's LEAVING. @@ boo

My friends and family are thankful that I will NOT be cooking on Thanksgiving. says NLG (@nancyleegrahn)  on twitter!




 

Sunday Surgery: Soap Opera Genetics

With Thanksgiving around the corner, I thought I'd talk about the families on soaps and how important they are for the storytelling aspect of the show. Most soaps are built around a central family (or two) and then branch off from there. Even if newbies are introduced, they either are a long-lost something, a distant cousin or come in with their own brood pretty quickly. (ie: Ford Brothers, OLTL) Rarely do you get a character not related somehow to someone...either from the past or present. 
General Hospital are full of them right now. After wiping out the Quartermaines, Cassadines and most of the Scorpios on GH, we saw an influx of characters that just didn't have much to do but hook up with Sonny or chase Sonny or fill the world with toxic balls. Here's a list of characters that have no family in Port Chuck right now: 

Suzanne
Brenda
Claire
Diane
Spinelli
Lisa
Abby
Ronnie
Coleman
Epiphany
Siobhan


and, although Matt has a brother Pat, we all know how that's been going. While it's true that soaps do need a few floater characters, GH seems to just have a glut of them. Why they haven't written some of these people as being related is beyond me. Abby could be Coleman's sister. Claire and Diane could have been related. Jason who is actually a Q, hardly interacts with them, even after making some kind of peace with Monica. We were so happy when Luke finally shared a scene with Carly people were tweeting about it for the whole day!  Hell, that shouldn't be something that's unusual--that should be he norm!!! Of course, this all contributes to the disjointed feel of GH--- Brenda's back in town and doesn't mention Emily or Alan's death. Isn't she Brooke Lyn's godmother??  Steven moves back home but has little to do with his sister (maybe if Audrey were around still that would help?) Carly not only never sees her mother, she never mentions her anymore. Poor Cousin Lucas evaporated long ago. 

The Davis clan started to gel and then...disappeared. They'll be on again for Turkey Day, but it's been a noticeable absence for Kristina. I guess Michael has Abby to talk with now. Perhaps she'll turn out to be related to the patient Theo Hoffman coming in December? I'd love it. 

So, as we watch the Thanksgiving show this week and get all happy about the group scenes, remember this is how it always should be. Not once or twice a year. If they continue to break the family chains it's going to become even less of a shell than it already is.
I know you're waiting for me to talk about Sonny, who's now the head of the main "Familia" in town. Problem is? Rarely are their true family scenes. He has so many baby mamas, they can't all seem to get together at the same time. Sonny also lost his sister and brother..and hardly ever sees his father. Ergo, Sonny doesn't even have an orbit of his own.

I guess having a lot of unattached characters makes it easy to insert and not have to connect the scenes. You can write day after day of 1-3 characters just talking to each other. 

Have a turkey leg, eat some stuffing and if you are so inclined, watch the Oct 5th repeat that is on Thursday. No GH Friday due to football I believe... Tues/Wed should be the best days to catch some good old soapy stuff. At least we know our Q's will do the traditional pizza day.