A first in the history of the series. Will Michael get custody of Wiley? Will Sasha's heartbreak lead to addiction? Will Sonny go after Julian? So many burning questions that will remain pending for several weeks, to the great despair of fans of the General Hospital series , dean of American television, who arrives this Thursday at the end of his new episodes.
Reruns on Friday, long flashbacks inserted in the new episodes, the production of the soap opera of the chain ABC has been able to play fireworks to delay the deadline, it arrives at the end of its reserves, for the first time since its debut, in 1963, after 14,588 episodes.
Virus trips up US soap opera 'General Hospital,' 57 years on https://t.co/gVYchN0gyx
- ABS-CBN News (@ABSCBNNews) May 21, 2020A "reassuring" program
The Bold and the Beautiful ( The Bold and the Beautiful ) and The Young and the Restless ( The Young and the Restless ) had surrendered on 23 April. Only Days of Our Lives ( Days of our Lives ) is still standing, with several months of episodes box, to keep until fall.
Asked by AFP, ABC gave no information on the possible date of resumption of filming of the series which saw Demi Moore or Ricky Martin pass. General Hospital , which is in its 58th season, still brings together just over two million viewers daily. The series has even performed well in recent weeks, approaching the head of the American opera soaps, occupied by The Lights of love for more than 30 years.
For Mary Sue Price, who was a screenwriter on the series from the late 1990s to 2011, her longevity is explained, in part, by "her long tradition of strong stories" and her ability to keep on screen characters for three or four decades. In the episodes broadcast this week, appeared Kin Shriner, who arrived in 1977 in Port Charles, an imaginary city in the state of New York where the story takes place, in the role of Scott Baldwin. "There's something reassuring about it," she says. The soaps opera "offer consistency in a world that does not always have it," said Michael Maloney, of the specialized site Soap Hub.
A likely drop in audience with reruns
Four of the eight major American opera soaps have disappeared since 2009, in an ultra-competitive landscape where traditional television is irresistibly losing ground. General Hospital has reduced costs by 30% in ten years, explained in 2018 Dominick Nuzzi, ABC vice-president, to Variety magazine , mainly by going from 50 to 35 weeks of shooting per year, for the same number of episodes . "Everyone did what they had to do to keep the series viable," says Michael Maloney.
"It's a totally underestimated genre," regrets Mary Sue Price, who recalls having regularly worked 50, even 60-hour weeks. "People don't realize how hard we work." Donna Walsh Costello fears a fall in audience with reruns. "They must film quickly when it resumes and spend at least one or two new episodes per week", to "maintain attention".
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- Coronavirus
- Confinement
- Series
- Filming
- United States