Volume I, Issue v

January 1999

From the Editor by Amy McWilliams

Greetings! We took a little break from the General Hospital Review over the holiday season, but now we're back with the January issue! We hope that whatever holiday you chose to celebrate, you had a nice, fun, and restful one.

We're very excited to include two special features in this issue. Our first exclusive interview is with Pam Griffith, whose twin girls, Alisyn and Kelli, play Lesley Lu Spencer. The interview is delightful, and we hope you enjoy her answers as much as we did. In addition, we have a year-end review of "Good Stuff," the name of Julia Hayden's column that once appeared weekly on the newsgroup rec.arts.tv.soaps.abc. Many thanks to Pam and Julia!

Also in this issue, Arda Clark presents our first book review, Judy Ellison gives us the next exciting chapter of her fictional look at backburner characters, and I start a new column on the families of Port Charles. As always, I've reviewed some of the current episodes. Finally, we've got some results to our first poll question, and you can submit a response to it or to our new question with the feedback form. Or, if you'd like, send us your opinion of one of the current stories in a letter to the editor, and we might publish you in a future issue.

Though we're a little late this month because of the holiday season, look for February's issue between the 15th and the 20th. As the year goes on, we hope to bring you more installments of each of our columns, as well as new voices to add to ours. Enjoy!

GH and PC in Review by Amy McWilliams

This review covers the first four weeks of December on GH. In the next issue, I intend to cover PC for December and January and complete December and January on GH.

As always, thanks go to Allyn Wilkinson for her GH Transcripts Page. I depend on her as well as the daily updates from the official ABC website and r.a.t.s.a. Thanks also to everybody on the GH side of the Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.tv.soaps.abc for their discussion of the show.

In the Family Way: The Spencers by Amy McWilliams

Families are at the core of the daytime soap opera genre, and so we've developed this new column to look at the families, both major and minor, of Port Charles. This month, I look at the sequence of scenes we've had dealing with Laura's rape by Luke in 1979--the retellings and revisions, as well as the original scene. Those scenes provide a springboard to talk about the choices Luke, Laura, and Lucky are making now and to explain the state of their family.

Featured Web Page: The Maurice Benard Homepage

Each month the General Hospital Review features one of the outstanding GH or PC web pages on the net. We alternate between general sites dedicated to the entire show and smaller, more focused sites--usually character-centered pages.

This month, to honor his character's return to the show, we're featuring a Maurice Benard site--The Maurice Benard Homepage. This page has a clean design and nice graphics. While I'd like to see more interviews, the page has a good selection of information, including some up-to-date material on Maurice's latest return to GH. It also includes a photo gallery, a great selection of links to other GH pages, and more. From it, you can also get to its companion Sonny & Brenda page.

If you'd like to nominate a page (even your page) for recognition here, send us the request at the feedback form.

Feedback

• Comments?
• Suggestions?
• Questions?
• Complaints?
• Recommendations for featured web sites?
• Topics you'd like to read about?
• Letters to the Editor?
• Poll Responses?

Fill out the feedback form.

Exclusive Interview: Pam Griffith

Pam Griffith is the mother of Kelli and Alisyn, who play Lulu Spencer. We submitted twenty questions for her to answer, and she very graciously completed them all. Here are her responses, which provide a backstage look at GH and what it's like to be a kid working on a soap opera.

We want to send a special thank-you to Pam for doing this interview, and I'd also like to think Teresa Leslie for coordinating so much of it for us.

Books in Review by Arda Clark

In our first book review, Arda Clark discusses Martha Nochimson's No End to Her, focusing especially on her reading of Laura Spencer and Luke's rape of her in the disco.

The Good Stuff: 1998 in Review by Julia Hayden

Julia Hayden used to do a weekly review of GH on the newsgroup rec.arts.tv.soaps.abc. Hers was the inspiration to my own, and thus was, in turn, the catalyst for the GHR itself. Julia has always been noted for her great taste, insightful analysis, and attention to the technical details that sometimes slip through our notice. We thank her very much for sharing her look at 1998 with us.

What's Cookin' on the Backburner: Episode 4 by Judy Ellison

Judy Ellison's concoction is a fictional look at the characters who are, shall we say, not so busy right now. This month, she serves up The Backburner's very first "big moment." Will anyone survive? Will Garcia catch the culprit in time? Will Lila and Reginald manage to bag the perpetrator in the alley? Or will the criminal strike again? Tune in now, as we hear Alan say, "Will somebody please pass the Chex Mix?!" Or something like that...

Letters to the Editor

In our letters this month, one reader sounds off on the lack of character development for Laura and Justus while another gives ideas for future storylines.

Send your letters to the editor using the feedback form.

Readers' Poll

We've received a few responses to our first poll, which ran in conjunction with our "How We Watch column. Read how other people watch, then tell us how you watch.

For our next poll, we want to follow up on a column we did in December, as well as the review of 1998 above. Instead of telling us what was bad and/or good about last year, though, we want you to answer the following question:

No answer is too out of this world, and we look forward to hearing all of your responses. Send responses to either poll question at the feedback form. Include your name, and remember to double-check your email address in case we need to get back to you.