If you were to look in the lounge area of the Oakland Center during the day, you would probably find a number of OU students watching television — maybe to see their favorite show, or just to relax. At 3 pm, though, the television set belongs to a growing minority — the students with General Hospital fever.
True, not all the students are in the lounge to watch General Hospital because they’re hooked. Some viewers, like Susan Diefenbacher and Shebel Joseff, are in the lounge as a break from classes or homework. Others may not even watch the show. Pam Estep decided to take a nap.
But the channel is set for the soap opera General Hospital, and that means students like Erika Nemela, who terms herself a fanatic, don’t have to miss the show.
To make sure that she didn’t miss the daily episode, Cheryl Brown arranged her daily schedule around the program.
“My class is at one o’clock, so I just stay at school,” Brown said. “I didn’t want to drive home, because I’d miss it.”
Such dedicated students are only a small part of the national audience for the show. According to ABC, General Hospital is watched by more people than any other soap opera, and the ratings are high enough that the show could compete with prime time programs.
General Hospital’s now growing audience isn’t made up of just housewives anymore. A look in the OC lounge sometime around three in the afternoon would prove that. Like other soaps, General Hospital draws viewers of all ages, females—and males, though some of those males say they don’t feel right at home yet.
When two lounge viewers, Sean Gretkierewicz and Bill Suit, were asked about dabbling in what used to be an all female pastime, they were insulted.
Another longtime General Hospital fan, Jose Posada, hasn’t had it easy either.
“I’ve had a lot of women laugh at me,” Posada said. “I’d say I have to go watch General Hospital and it would freak them out.”
Other males seemed undaunted by the situation. Ken Smothers, who has been watching the show for about three years, was more than glad to talk soap.
During the time that he has watched the show, Smothers said he has found that the show draws and keeps an audience because the writers know when they’re onto something — like one of the current plots about a madman trying to take over the world with a weather machine.
“It’s getting а little wild,” Smothers said. “But, it’s interesting.”
Perhaps the unusual plots have helped to expand General Hospital’s number of viewers. Following a soap opera trend, General Hospital writers have managed to send some of their main characters to exotic locations to experience uncommon adventures.
For example, Luke and Laura, two of the show’s more popular characters, have been marooned on an uncharted tropical island just off the coast of Venezuela. That’s where they set up housekeeping, while helping an undercover agent save the world from the madman.
Sound ridiculous?
“It’s more comical than realistic,” said two-year General Hospital fan Sean Gretkierewicz. His soap co-watcher Bill Suit agreed.
“It’s more like a movie than a soap opera,” Suit said.
Watching General Hospital in the OC lounge is more like going to the movies, too, since one sits with an audience and shares the experience. At any rate, students say, it’s not like sitting in your living room and watching it.
In the lounge, there are exchanges of information during the commercials and an undercurrent of conversation during the show as well. In fact, some students in the lounge shout remarks to the shows’ characters, and most of them groan and cheer in response to the show.
Of course, not every episode is action-packed and worth shouting about. “It gets boring, but I still watch it,” said Sharon Staniszewski.
That’s from someone who knows. Staniszewski has been watching the show for about six years.
