Line #32 YMMV/GeneralHospital


1	* ActorShipping: It gets easier to ship real-life pairs when they oblige (like Jack Wagner and Kristina Crump, Frisco and Felicia, did when they got married seven years after their characters did).
2	* AssholeVictim: There have been a few. Joe Scully Jr, a mobster, a murder and a rapist who was shot by Ceasar Faison (disguised as Duke Lavery). Lisa Niles was murdered by Matt Hunter. Anthony Zacchara was murdered by his grandson, Johnny Zacchara. Claudia Zacchara is killed by Michael Corinthos III, whom she [[LaserGuidedKarma was responsible for putting in a coma when she ordered a hit meant for his father Sonny]].
3	** Arguably Carly when Tony Jones kidnapped Michael. Granted, Sarah Brown is an excellent enough actress that it was easy to feel sorry for Carly, but what led up to the kidnapping was all Carly's fault. She'd spent a great deal of time emotionally manipulating Tony, letting him believe she loved him, but she only went after him to ruin Bobbie's life. Then Carly got pregnant and told Tony he was the father. She allowed Tony to get an emotional attachment to Michael while he was still in the womb and Tony loved the baby. But the minute Carly thought Jason was Michael's father and not Tony, she ''dumped him'' and immediately moved on with Jason. And despite wrecking his marriage to Bobbie for Carly and genuinely loving the child she carried, Tony was told repeatedly by many people to just get over it and move on with his life. With that kind of emotional manipulation, a blowup was bound to happen.
4	** After ''years'' of manipulation and being considered a horrible person by almost every person in the cast, [[spoiler: [[EvilMatriarch Ava Jerome]]]] finally got their comeuppance when called out for their years of bullshit to their face, followed by being mortally wounded by severe burns ''they'' accidentally caused to themself. Despite the show's attempts to portray this as a TearJerker because of the severe pain and trauma they were in afterwards, only a minuscule portion of the cast and very few viewers found their downfall as anything more than a very, very long list of karma catching up to them and a missed opportunity to persecute them for their crimes.
5	* AudienceAlienatingEra: After guiding the show through its most popular era (1978-87), Gloria Monty returned as executive producer in 1991 and quickly eroded all of her accumulated good will with the fans. She'd talked Anthony Geary into coming back to the show, but he didn't want to play Luke again, so Monty created a new character for him: Luke's blue-collar [[UncannyFamilyResemblance lookalike cousin]] Bill Eckert. What irked the fans was Monty's decision to then bring in a whole Eckert family along with him and spend most of the episodes developing them, pushing the legacy characters to the sidelines, including several actors getting fired. Ratings quickly slid downhill (and to some extent have never completely recovered) and Monty was dismissed after just a year. The one lasting legacy of Monty's second tenure was introducing the enduringly popular Mac Scorpio to the ensemble.
6	* AwardSnub:
7	** Despite her long tenure as the iconic Laura, Genie Francis has only won one Daytime Emmy in the role, for Supporting Actress in 2007.
8	** While the show had already won numerous Daytime Emmys for Outstanding Drama Series, it didn't win the best writing award until its sixth nomination in 1995.
9	** Bradford Anderson (Spinelli), Dominic Zamprogna (Dante) and Creator/KinShriner (Scotty) are a combined 0 for 11 in the Daytime Emmy Supporting Actor category, with Zamprogna also losing one Lead Actor bid and Shriner losing once for Lead Actor as Scotty on ''Series/PortCharles''.
10	* BaseBreakingCharacter: Luke Spencer is one among the show's fans on online forums and social media, even though he hasn't been part of the regular cast since 2015. Either he was a compellingly complex character, with the struggle between his good and bad sides forming the nucleus for the entire show in its classic era, or he was a despicable scoundrel who the producers leaned on as a DesignatedHero way too much. Much of it seems to come down to what era you started watching the show in, with people who got into ''GH'' in the 2000s not caring as much for Luke, who was more of a sideline character by that point, especially after learning that the storyline that cemented his place on the show involved him raping the then-teenaged Laura, then becoming her lover and eventual husband. Anthony Geary mostly distancing himself from the show after his retirement also hasn't helped.
11	* BetterAsFriends - Spinelli and Maxie, Jason and Carly, though their respective pairings have their own fans. Spixie fans WILL go nuts if you bring this up. They will. Don't push it.
12	* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: The July 6, 2018 episode featured an appearance by ''Colonel Sanders'' - yes, Kentucky Fried Chicken's Colonel Sanders (as played by Creator/GeorgeHamilton, who was playing the role in KFC commercials at the time) - to celebrate "National Fried Chicken Day" with a storyline involving his "eleven herbs and spices".
13	* BizarroEpisode: The November 9-10, 2023 episodes, which had subplots featuring extensive shots of Ned and Olivia underwater in the lake outside the Quartermaine mansion, and a flamboyant Spanish-accented fashion photographer conducting a Deception Cosmetics advertising shoot centered on Sasha lovingly petting an alpaca named Ferdinand (!) alongside Cody led to lots of "what did I just watch?" reactions on social media.
14	* BrokenBase - Bob Guza's third and longest run as head writer from 2002 to 2011 (with at different points a couple of co-head writers), which is arguably the most controversial run by a head writer in American soap history besides James E. Reilly, the mastermind of the infamous ''Series/DaysOfOurLives'' "Melaswen" storyline. It has its vocal defenders, especially among fans of Jason, Sam, and Sonny, but others - mostly longtime fans who at least started watching the show in the '90s - criticized it for shifting the focus of the show toward the mob, killing off (and violently, at that) members of the longtime Quartermaine and Jones families while ignoring or writing out well-established characters, and for more than a few blatant cases of CreatorsPet. Whether or not you defend Guza, it's really telling that with the radical regime change in showrunners in 2012 and with the fear of cancellation overhead, all the mob-oriented characters except Sonny have been [[PutontheBus killed or sent to prison]] (although more mob characters have appeared or returned since), ''many'' established characters written off years ago have returned, and the Quartermaines have been made a strong center of the show again.
15	* CrackPairing: A canon example, when Luke and Felicia's one-night stand in 2000 left lots of heads shaking, with their decade-and-a-half age gap and many dissimilarities. Not helped by it being depicted as a long, steamy love scene.
16	* CreatorsPet - Several, but many fans agree they would like to forget Courtney ever existed.
17	** Others, however, have seen her be a ShipLauncher.
18	** Thanks to a BrokenBase, this is what half the fandom thinks is happening whenever Spinelli hits the screen. He even got a spinoff novel, ''The Secret Life of Damian Spinelli: As Told to Diane Miller'' (written by Diane's actress, Carolyn Hennesy).
19	** Brenda Barrett. Soulmated to two leading men? Check. Everyone falls at her feet whenever she returns to Port Charles? Check. Constantly compared to and held on an eternal high pedestal? Check. Always seen as a good guy and victimized? Check. Any character who doesn't like her is turned into an instant villain? Check.
20	* DesignatedVillain: Arguably Lucky and Sam were this when Elizabeth and Jason became a couple. It almost seemed like the show couldn't sell Jason and Elizabeth as a couple without wrecking these other two characters. Long story short--Elizabeth and Jason had a one-night stand which conceived Jake. Though both obviously still had feelings for each other, they decided to go back to Lucky and Sam respectively and Elizabeth decided to pass Jake off as Lucky's son. Eventually Sam found out the truth and got rightfully angry. But to make viewers feel zero sympathy for Sam, a whole ton of retconning was done. Her con-artist past was changed so that she became a total slut as opposed to trying to support her half-brother. And she was made ''primarily responsible'' for Jake's first kidnapping, though another woman did it!! Later on she hired armed thugs to harass Elizabeth and her children to "remind" Elizabeth how dangerous Jason really was, and when Jason found out he ''threatened to kill Sam''.
21	** Then there was Lucky, who arguably was the most victimized in this situation. But viewers weren't allowed to feel sympathy for him either. Despite being Luke Spencer's son and quite intelligent, he was dumbed down and made to look like a fool. Not to mention when Elizabeth and him finally divorced ''he'' was made the bad guy--by having an affair with Sam!! Never mind that Elizabeth was ''knowingly'' passing off another man's child as Lucky's and had been ''pining'' for this other man!! But Elizabeth was made to look like a victim by the writers and she turned her nose up at Lucky and Sam for all their misdeeds.
22	** As an interloper in the legendary Sonny/Brenda romance, Lily Rivera gets this out-universe, with numerous Sonny/Brenda fans blasting her as a conniving bitch and cheering on the scene where she's killed. However, if one watches her scenes objectively, one realizes that she never really says or does anything to deserve such vitriol.
23	* DieForOurShip - The current most hot one is creating a fully BrokenBase: the Spixies will die for their ship, while the Free Maxies will die for anything ''but''. Except for two Spinellis.
24	* EnsembleDarkhorse: Luke Spencer and Sonny Corinthos were brought to the show in the late '70s and early '90s, respectively, intended to be short-term characters who would be interlopers in a popular love story (Scotty/Laura and Karen/Jagger, respectively), before being either killed off or sent to prison. Both actors and their respective characters became such a huge hit with fans that they ended up becoming legacy characters and part of the show's most popular [[SuperCouple super couples]] (Luke with Laura, Sonny with Brenda). Ironically, it was Sonny's friendship with Luke that facilitated Sonny's kinda sorta HeelFaceTurn.
25	** Rebecca Herbst auditioned for the role of Sarah Webber and did such a good job that even though TPTB didn't feel she was right for the part, they created the role of Elizabeth Webber for her. Within a year, Sarah was written off, and Elizabeth was well on her way to becoming one of the show's most popular heroines.
26	** Tracy Quartermaine has been such a longtime fan favorite that at one point Creator/{{ABC}} added her as a lead character on ''[[Series/TheCity1995 The City]]'' to try to shore up its lagging ratings.
27	* FanNickname:
28	** "Scrubs" for Patrick and Robin, the last couple where both actually worked at the hospital.
29	** "[[Creator/KeystoneStudios The Keystone Kops]]" for the Port Charles Police Department (for [[PoliceAreUseless obvious reasons]]).
30	** Fans had a lot of fun coming up with MaliciousMisnaming nicknames for the ultra-{{Heel}} Esme, like Escargot, Escalator and [[Series/SesameStreet Elmo]]. Esme's portrayer Avery Kristen Pohl cited Etch-a-Sketch as her favorite.
31	** "Mini", as in [[Film/AustinPowers Mini-Me]], for Josslyn, based on the perception that she's basically a younger version of her mother Carly, particularly in the self-centered and hypocrite categories.
32	** "''Mutter''", as in the German word for "mother", for Liesl Obrecht, from her daughter Britt's affectionate name for her (and how Liesl sometimes goes overboard with her MamaBear tendencies).
33	** Fans who aren't particularly enamored of DelicateAndSickly Willow Tait and her TearJerker storylines have taken to calling her Weepy Willow.
34	** "Granny Wars" for the ongoing struggle between Carly and Nina, in which two characters played by actresses in their 50s snipe at each other like catty high school girls.
35	** "Neddie" for Ned Quartermaine after he re-adopted his old Eddie Maine alter-ego after suffering EasyAmnesia in 2023.
36	** "[[PlaygroundSong John Jagger Jingleheimer Cates]]" for the 2024 iteration of Jagger Cates (who now [[OutgrowingTheChildishName insists on being called "John"]]).
37	* FriendlyFandoms: With ''Series/DaysOfOurLives'', as the two oldest current US soaps, which have influenced one another greatly over the decades. It helps that there has been lots of cast crossover between the shows, with ''GH'' mainstays occasionally taking recurring roles on ''Days'' (Genie Francis, Jane Elliot, Lynn Herring, Creator/JohnIngle), ''Days'' mainstays doing the same on ''GH'' (Mary Beth Evans, Matthew Ashford, Creator/CharlesShaughnessy, Kate Mansi), plus Wally Kurth as a longtime regular on both shows (Justin Kiriakis on ''Days'', Ned Ashton[=/=]Quartermaine on ''GH'').
38	* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: German Dr. Obrecht wants [[spoiler:Faison]] to dress as the Hoff for 2013 Halloween.
39	* HarsherInHindsight:
40	** An InUniverse case. Brenda spends most of 1993 taunting her rival Karen and SlutShaming her. Already cruel, she's horrified to learn that Karen was molested as a child and that her bullying undoubtedly made her feel worse.
41	** The 1979 Lassa fever and 2006 encephalitis outbreak stories, thanks to the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic.
42	* HilariousInHindsight
43	** Three days after Ryan Carnes left the show and the role of Lucas Jones was given to Ben Hogestyn, the character came out of the closet. If Ryan had stayed on the show for another three days, he would have played his third gay character ''in a row''. Ironically he left to play a character on ''Series/DesperateHousewives'' - who is also gay.
44	** During his run on ''Series/TheCosbyShow'' Joseph C. Phillips's character Martin (Denise's husband) was excited at the prospect of meeting BB King but did not get to[[note]]Within that episode at least. King later made an appearance as his InUniverse equivalent, Riley Jackson[[/note]]. His character Justus Ward got to meet King in an appearance in this series years later.
45	** It was pointed out in 2022 that Music/BritneySpears' ex Jason Alexander crashing her wedding to Sam Ashgari perfectly paralleled what Scotty had done at Luke and Laura's wedding (though Alexander got kicked out before he had a chance to catch the BouquetToss or get in a fistfight with the groom).
46	* HollywoodHomely: Sabrina Santiago is described as frumpy and undesirable by giving her huge red glasses and frizzy hair. Of course, she's following in the grand tradition of Lucy Coe, who was a mousy librarian type (despite being played by Miss USA finalist Lynn Herring) before she got her vamp makeover. Winifred Leeds would be another character in the same vein, since she was played by Creator/SentaMoses (though she never got a makeover like Lucy and Sabrina did).
47	* HoYay: A lot during the years but taken to new heights by Franco's obsession with Jason.
48	** Jason with guys in general, as expressed in [[http://youtu.be/MsbMyq-VWm8 this video]].
49	*** Particularly Sonny. When they had a friendship-ending argument, viewers were treated to a HappierTimesMontage as if they had been a couple.
50	* JerkassWoobie - Scotty, Bobbie, AJ, etc.
51	* LesYay:
52	** Carly/Courtney
53	** Lulu/Maxie
54	** Kristina and Blaze, who especially got chummy with each other at the Sonny-Nina wedding, then shared a kiss at Kristina's apartment, and are now an OfficialCouple, even getting a love scene during February Sweeps in 2024.
55	* MoralEventHorizon:
56	** Morgan knocking his brother Michael out, and leaving him to drown at Pier 52 while his ex-wife (Michael's current girlfriend) watches.
57	** Gladys Corbin, rather than taking the murder of her son Brando by the Port Charles Hook as a wakeup call to change her ways, gets TrappedByGamblingDebts to Selina Wu (to the tune of $175,000), starts embezzling money from her widowed daughter-in-law Sasha Gilmore, and lies to get Sasha committed to a mental hospital, where she pays a DeadlyDoctor she gambles with to drug Sasha into delirium. Sasha escapes, detoxes, and confronts Gladys to tell her she knows everything she's been up to, and Gladys tries a tearful ICanExplain gambit on her. Sasha promises to give her mercy if she'll call the police and confess to everything. Gladys calls the police...and snitches on hospital escapee Sasha, telling the cops her whereabouts, which gets Sasha hauled back to the hospital. At that point whatever short, slender thread of sympathy fans had for Gladys snapped permanently.
58	* {{Narm}}:
59	** Every year around New Year's, there's a credits roll listing the show's crew members. The placement of it at the end of the first episode of 2024 was very unfortunate: in an emotional scene, Carly reveals to Drew that her mother Bobbie is dead, then a FadeToBlack to the credits...[[SoundtrackDissonance which are set to a bouncy, festive rendition of "Deck the Halls"]]! The extreme SoundtrackDissonance was a FacePalm moment for many viewers.
60	* OlderThanTheyThink: It's been noted that ''Series/HannahMontana'' and before that ''WesternAnimation/JemAndTheHolograms'' had a premise that was almost identical to Ned's "Eddie Maine" story arc in TheNineties (character lives a hectic double life as a rock star).
61	* PeripheryDemographic: It's traditionally viewed as the most male-skewing of the soaps, with a number of strong male characters, a prominent CrimeDrama element, and lots of complex father-son dynamics peppering the storylines, plus a fair amount of comic relief. In fact, ''Series/TheYoungAndTheRestless'' currently dominates across the board in demographics, but ''GH'' tends to do best with young women (though among the tiny number of soap viewers in the male 12-17 range, ''GH'' nearly beats ''Y&R'').
62	* PortmanteauCoupleName: Most couples have been given a nickname of this sort. It's usually some form of smushing the character's names together or else calling the couple by their initials. Examples include "Liason" (Liz and Jason) and "Spixie" (Spinelli and Maxie). The revelation that villains Ryan Chamberlain and Heather Webber had a long-ago fling led to the amusing, and very fitting, "Heathan" for their pairing, while a September 2023 scene revealing that teens Charlotte Cassadine and Jake Spencer were interested in each other led to fans coining "Chake" (pronounced "shake") almost as soon as the episode ended.
63	* RetroactiveRecognition: As is par for the course with soaps, many of the show's actors have gone on to fame in primetime or film. Some have even reappeared on the show despite their newfound success.
64	** Of particular note are Creator/DemiMoore and Creator/JanineTurner as the Templeton sisters (Jackie and Laura) in TheEighties.
65	** Creator/MeghanMarkle had a bit part as a nurse in 2002.
66	** Creator/AmberTamblyn originated the role of Emily Quartermaine, playing her in her adolescent and teen years.
67	** Creator/RoyThinnes was an original cast member, playing Dr. Phil Brewer from the debut episode in 1963 until 1965.
68	** Creator/MarkHamill played Kent Murray (Nurse Jessie's nephew) in 1972 and 1973.
69	** Creator/GeorgeGaynes, prior to his later roles in ''Film/{{Tootsie}}'', ''Series/PunkyBrewster'' and the ''Film/PoliceAcademy'' movies, originated the role of ruthless mob boss Frank Smith in 1979 and 1980. Counts retroactively as PlayingAgainstType, since those later roles were comedic, while Smith was a chillingly nasty example of EvilOldFolks.
70	* ShipToShipCombat:
71	** Jax/Brenda vs. Sonny/Brenda was legendary in the mid-90's and as Website/YouTube comments indicate, continue to this day.
72	** Currently, Sprina (Spencer and Trina) vs. Jex (Josslyn and Dex) has become heated in some circles, with each camp accusing the show of showing favoritism toward the other couple.
73	* SignatureScene: Luke and Laura's Wedding, the most viewed hour in Daytime history, 30.0 Million people tuned in.
74	* SpecialEffectFailure: Look closely at a few of the gun play shootouts you will notice smoke rings coming off the guns as they are being fired and sometimes before.
75	* SuperCouple: Luke and Laura are the TropeMaker and the FollowTheLeader inspiration for practically every other soap of that era, including ''GH'' itself, where the Super Couple concept became such a trademark of the show that ''General Hospital: The Complete Scrapbook'' in 1995 had pics of ''five'' of them on the front dust jacket (Luke-Laura, Frisco-Felicia, Tony-Bobbie, Alan-Monica, Ned-Lois)
76	* TookTheBadFilmSeriously: The "Ice Princess" storyline from 1981 is extremely goofy and unrealistic, what with a megalomaniacal madman building a machine to control the world's weather and all, but Anthony Geary, Genie Francis and Tristan Rogers play it all admirably straight, while Creator/JohnColicos chews up every possible bit of scenery as supervillain Mikkos Cassadine.
77	* UnpopularPopularCharacter:
78	** Scotty Baldwin is widely regarded in Port Charles as a slimy, obnoxious, vindictive, underhanded AmoralAttorney, but with the likable Creator/KinShriner in the role, he's always been a fan favorite.
79	** Tracy Quartermaine is considered an insufferable RichBitch even in her own family, but fans are entertained by her DeadpanSnarker tendencies and her inexhaustible supply of personal vendettas.
80	* TheUntwist: Weeks were spent setting up the murder of AssholeVictim Damian Smith, with numerous people denouncing and threatening him--several of whom even physically assaulted him for his amoral conduct. When his head was finally bashed in, the killer was quickly revealed to be the person who had been the angriest at him and was the last person viewers saw arguing with him, Mary Mae's grandson and local attorney and civic leader Justus Ward. That said, he was still a SympatheticMurderer--he didn't even mean to kill the guy, just stop him from torching his house. It was still enough to permanently end his friendship with the Spencer family (as Laura was charged with the murder while Justus said nothing), and severely damage his previously impeccable reputation.
81	** When the then-infant Michael was kidnapped, Carly and Jason speculated that the responsible party could be Jason's [[ProdigalFamily estranged family]] the Quartermaines (who had already tried to take the baby, believing him to be unsafe with Jason), one of Jason's mobster rivals, or. . . Carly's eyes widen in horror as she shrieks, "It's Tony!", her ex-lover who had gone off the deep end after finding out that he wasn't Michael's father. She and Jason both separately interrogate Tony, who feigns innocence, but sure enough, he is eventually revealed as Michael's abductor.

Context YMMV / GeneralHospital