General Hospital Faces Backlash For Hiding Those Who Crossed The Picket Lines
The riskier the decision, the harder it is to face.
As soon as the news about General Hospital hiring temporary writers for the series broke out on the Internet, pretty much everyone turned their backs on the show. Not only did this mean a possible drop in writing quality, which didn't scare longtime viewers as much, but the fact that General Hospital will end up crossing picket lines by working around the strike.
While the majority of regular scripted TV series ended up postponing their productions, the soap genre cannot afford such a luxury.
With episodes airing daily on ABC, the pause in production would mean that General Hospital would run out of pre-produced episodes so quickly that it would be on the verge of being canceled by the network altogether.
As difficult as the situation is for the production team, they could have handled it with much more grace, viewers say. Not only have the episodes written by the "Scab" writers been airing since Tuesday, July 25th, but it turns out that General Hospital hides the writers' names from the credits, making it impossible to find them.
On the one hand, the decision probably has to do with the writers' safety, as many people are ready to jump on anyone who stands in the way of justice for industry professionals. On the other hand, it makes the situation even less fair for those who made the uncomfortable decision to sacrifice their paychecks to go on strike.
Both viewers and other industry professionals are divided into two opposing camps on this issue. While some believe that General Hospital needs to show a little more solidarity, others are trying to explain how the strike could be the end of the soap genre if they handle the situation any other way.
Besides, General Hospital is not the only daytime drama that uses fi-core writers: pretty much all soaps currently in production have had to switch to the same scheme. Just like they did in 2007/2008 when another writers' strike took place. The only difference now is that news like this sparks a lot more conversation.
If you want to compare the quality of the episodes before and after the changes in the writers' room, you can tune in to ABC Monday through Friday for new episodes of General Hospital.