Saturday, 14 February, 2009 3:18 PM

ABC's General Hospital needs More Romance to Bring the Show Back to Life

Photo credit: cache.daylife.com

The cast of ABC's General Hospital

The weed of crime has bear bitten fruit in Port Charles on ABC's General Hospital. During the 1980s, Luke & Laura Spencer (Anthony Geary and Genie Francis), police commissoner Robert Scorpio (Tristan Rogers), superspy Anna Devane (Finola Hughes), and Frisco & Felicia Jones (Jack Wagner and Kristina Wagner) were among the main heroes protecting the town and keeping the world safe. Even Duke Lavery (Ian Buchanan) joined the good fight when he decided to turn against his mob superiors for his true love Anna.

Now, there's a flip side to this coin, as Port Charles has now become Mob Central, as GH has taken page out of The Sopranos, where mobsters are the "good guys" and the police are the "bad guys". There's no longer love in the afternoon; there's only death, murder, and violence, as lives aren't probably being saved anymore. "GH needs to have more family orientated story lines where the couples are happy for longer than a few episodes and where not everything is about the mob" said 23-year-old Christy Killelea of Wilmington, NC. "They need to get back to basics like the hospital drama stuff."

General Hospital definitely needs some heavy dose of medicine, and here are the antidotes that must be use to bring the show back to life:

If the writers and producers really want to make Jason Morgan (Steve Burton) into a white-black knight, then they need to take a page from Duke Lavery by getting Jason helping the authorities bring down the mob. He then teams with cyber-genius Damian Spinelli (Bradford Anderson), who propose a detective agency with Maxie (Kirsten Storms) as their spunky and sassy Girl Friday. Most of all, he comes to his senses and decides to start over with Elizabeth Webber (Rebecca Herbst), as they decided to tell everyone -- including the Quartermaines -- that Jake is his son. "I want Liason married and being a family for more than 30 seconds" said Sharon, 46 (Visalia, CA). "Jason should be with his son and Liz. The writers should give them 2 months of happiness and do whatever they need to do to keep them together. No more danger excuses and compromise instead." Or, better yet, they should give Jason his own series on SOAPnet as a modern-day Equalizer who decides to leave the mob, where he atones for his sins by helping those in need. He then tries to reconnect with the Quartermaines, the family he has been estranged with for years, rekindle his romance with Elizabeth while trying to be a good father to their young son Jake.

And speaking of the Quartermaines, give them more screentime with Jake's paternity being outed and reconnecting with Jason as part of their storyline.

Focus on current and socially-relevant issues such as the declining economy, and bring the Hospital back into General Hospital like Night Shift by centering on the characters and the relationships between them as well as dealing with medical issues.

Let Police Commissioner Mac Scorpio (John J. York), Detective Lucky Spencer (Greg Vaughn), and the entire Port Charles Police Department uphold the law, fight crime, and be the true ones in the white hat. Give them their own series on SOAPnet as an elite crime-fighting unit keeping the streets of Port Charles safe while balancing out their personal lives. Have Robert, Anna, and Jagger Cates (Antonio Sabato, Jr.) as part of the team or back on GH to assist in this rising tide of organized crime in Port Charles.

ABC must start operating on General Hospital, for it is dying and is desperate need of more romance, more police, and less mob.