"General Hospital": Hey, There, Georgie! Girl, You're Dead! (And That's Not Good)

We mourn because we've lost a delightful actress in Lindze Letherman. We mourn because with this third murder in a row of a woman in Port Charles (Leticia, Emily, Georgie), GH's headwriter Robert Guza Jr., has sailed up the river toward the insane world of Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now.

 

Although some men watch soaps, American soap opera always has been a women's medium. Since the time of soap writer Irna Phillips, who pioneered serial drama on radio and TV, women have been the overwhelming majority of listener/viewers. Women want to see romance and family and emotional situations. Women don't like to see other women killed.

 

The killing of Geogie, female victim number three, signals that GH writer Guza has officially turned the genre inside out. Insanity! For his entire tenure at GH, Guza has tinkered with remaking the America daytime drama into an imitation of other movie and entertainment genres. ABC Daytime and current executive producer Jill Phelps have the moxie and the budget to experiment radically on an ongoing basis. The continuing mob story influence (Jason and Sonny, a character originally created by former head writer Claire Labine) remains the centerpiece of the show now. Guza's Metro Court disaster imitated a big crime/hostage thriller like Die Hard. Last month, his Black and White Ball clumsily combined the haunted house movie and a teen/slasher film.

 

But by killing beautiful young girls such as Emily and Georgie (and Leticia, too), GH is edging closer and closer to snuff films. This is not soap opera, it's the calculated subversion of an American dramatic art form.