Why GENERAL HOSPITAL Is Showing So Many Flashbacks

Some viewers are wondering what’s with all the flashbacks on GENERAL HOSPITAL lately, and it’s just one of the ways that the soap is keeping fans entertained during the current COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic. As Tristan Rogers (Robert) reminded fans on Twitter, “We’re going through difficult times. The show is going to weave and bob, not to your liking. The important thing is we keep it going. The alternative is most unpleasant.”

With all four daytime dramas having suspended production due to the pandemic, they each can only air whatever they’d already taped before they run out. And with a return to work seemingly farther into the future than originally thought, the soaps have gotten creative. Aside from DAYS OF OUR LIVES, which currently has somewhere around five to six months of episodes in the can, the other three soaps have begun airing “Flashback Fridays” so fans will get four all-new episodes a week with an encore airing of a classic show on Friday.

But GH has gone a little further by including extra flashbacks into its existing episodes, beginning with the one that aired on April 8. Among the newly-filmed flashback scenes where Eden McCoy (Josslyn) portrayed a young Carly and James Patrick Stuart (Valentin) and Cynthia Watros (Nina) played Frank and Virginia Benson, the soap edited in actual flashbacks to previous episodes to help flesh out the storylines and pad the episode out more, stretching what would have been one show into two.

The flashbacks not only help extend the number of episodes that GH has left to air, it also has the added benefit of bringing newer viewers up to date on past storyline twists and turns. Instead of a character simply mentioning what happened, viewers are able to actually see it again in full detail. So while loyal fans might find the flashbacks repetitive, there are potentially new GH viewers who are checking out the soap for the first time while staying home for their own safety who would definitely appreciate the extra backstory!

Stay tuned for more updates on how daytime is adjusting to the current pandemic situation, and for more GH news, keep reading the ABC edition of Soaps In Depth magazine.