Volume I, Issue v

January 1999

Readers' Poll

Here are the responses to our first poll question. Thanks to all of you for sharing how you watch.

To: GHR
From: Sara Bibel
Date: November 23, 1998
Subject: How I Watch

I watch GH after a day at work with my two roommates. We sort of review the show as we watch it together, and will often discuss it after we're done watching it. We fast forward (though rarely of late--it's been good), we rewind (usually Cassadine scenes, and occasional pure lust moments involving various men in various states of dress or undress.) Sometimes I think I enjoy the show more when I watch it alone because I'm able to focus more intently, but this is our ritual. Since my dayjob is in the TV industry, I sometimes find myself looking at the show from a business perspective: did addressing the infamous Luke & Laura rape have a negative impact on the ratings? Was it worth it? etc.

To: GHR
From: Laura Wroten
Date: November 22, 1998
Subject: How I Watch

I am one of the many people who record GH all the time...even if I am home watching it. This is so if any great scenes come on, I can always watch it later again, and again and again!

To: GHR
From: Pat Milo
Date: November 22, 1998
Subject: How I Watch

I must be Joan's younger sibling for the way I watch is a perfect blend of both styles. I also listen daily to the live broadcast, unless kids have commandeered the set in the living room - however the VCR is always taping the show.

As I watch live I fold laundry, read the paper or mail, flip through a magazine, make snacks, etc. Later on while watching the tape I'm signed onto the net reading Scoops & Spoilers, checking out the GH news-letters I subscribe to, retrieving and answering the e-mail in two mailboxes from the GH lists I belong, to or simply holding the remote control in one hand and the latest issue of Soap Opera Digest in the other.

I missed five years of shows while out in the work force without sparing it a thought, but have spent much free time in the last two years searching for details about what I missed. I have collected my own small array of best moments, own "Luke & LLaura Lovers on the Run", and spend even more time trying to find Vol.II. If I forget to set the VCR, like when I went in for surgery (on a Friday of all days!), it can (and did) ruin an entire weekend while I wait for the recaps or transcripts to post.

I talk to the characters as if they can hear me, I yell at the screen when they tick me off and rewind if I miss even one word, but I never fast forward. I can not miss even the most boring stuff.

I am a devoted fan to this show, a show I'd rather watch than any other, yet I am almost unable to pay complete attention to it. On and off (mostly on) I've been watching this show for about twenty years. I can't think of a reason I would ever stop.

I started watching GH before I can even remember, with mom as she ironed or cooked while I was still an infant. Back in those days my mom was a "stay at home" mom, and nothing made me happier than spending time with her. As I got older and she realized that soaps (with their usual tales of adultery and murder) were not appropriate viewing material for a 5 year old, we started watching Sesame Street, but I still remember those early days -- Luke and Laura the first time around, the old Edward Quartermaine, John Stamos as Blackie.

After a few years off, I started going to my grandmother's house after school because my mom went back to school and was working full-time after my parents divorce. All of the sudden the storylines on GH seemed so much more realistic and pertinent to my life. Both my immigrant grandmothers, with their limited English, loved GH. It was those years that I became involved in the stories of Frisco and Felicia (boy did I love Jack Wagner -- I loved when he came back when Felicia and Colten got married), Holly, Sean and Tiffany. But the character that kept me watching was and continues to be Robin Scorpio. For all the recent fury of where the PTB have taken her character I remember her first days as the cute orphan unaware of her parentage, caught up in the middle of suspense and intrigue. I loved Anna Devane, and Robert Scorpio. Robin (and Kim) and I are now about the same age (22) and I truly feel I've grown up with her.

My mom banned me from GH for a few years and I would watch it in secret before she got home from work, listening for her car in the driveway. I eventually went to a prestigious college in New York City and nothing made me happier than a class schedule that allowed me to watch GH (no, I never scheduled classes around GH, but if there were two discussion sections, one at 3 and one at 5 I would go to the 5 o'clock one for sure. I was teased by my college classmates who saw themselves as above soaps. But for me it was an escape...I would get a cup of coffee and sit in a lounge in one of the dorms, and other GH-aholics would gather round and we'd share in the guilty pleasures of the S/B/J triangle before it got out of hand, in the beauty of Tyler Christopher and his portrayal of Nikolas, of Robin and Stone's beautiful romance. I cried watching Stone's memorial surface like an old friend had died.

I also discovered the Net community, and was able to keep up with GH even when my life dictated that I couldn't watch it everyday. Now I live in Japan, but while I was home over the holidays I watched it religiously. It was amazing to see how different Lucky looks...how things have changed between Stephan and Laura...what they have done to my beloved Robin. I love the intelligence of Alexis, Bobbie's love for Carly, Sonny's brooding, Luke's humor (favorite Luke line: he just finishes saying "I'm right" and Bobbie says to him "you're always saying that" and he says something like "She (maybe Alexis?) was asking why I can't dance and I said 'I'm white'."), Emily's awkwardness, Lucky's loyalty and Liz's spirit, I love Laura Spencer despite myself, I feel for Stephan. Sometimes I get so mad I could strangle the writers -- but then I remind myself, IOAS (it's only a soap) and even at its worse it keeps me coming back. I miss the old Justus, I miss Lois with Ned -- GH is not perfect!!

What's even more fun is things that make me happy can infuriate others and vice versa. GH can be deep (the rape storyline, Monica's breast cancer, the HIV/AIDS storyline), it can be silly (hello, Casey the Alien), it can be typical soap fare (exactly how many paternity/maternity storylines have we had recently). It can be funny (boy, I miss Lucy), sad, thought-provoking. But it's my soap, and I will always be a proud viewer. All my friends know 3-4 weekdays I'm busy if I'm not at work, and I miss it so much here in Japan. Luckily, I know it will be there when I get back. And I may even invest in a VCR to tape it.