General Hospital: Complete First Season?? (1 Viewer)

Any chance?

Any chance of what...you using question marks in your thread titles?

Any chance of it coming out. What did you think?

I think the chances of a first season release coming out are somewhere between slim and none. I think best ofs are more likely for series such as this which have been on for so long.

Oh, and I've got to agree with Kyle, the thread should've had a question mark in the title, so as to not confuse it with actual news about a release.

okay, I'm sorry.

Since new episodes air over the summer (plus five days a week), even if you could figure out what makes a season (Sept.-Aug.? Jan-Dec.?), it would be extremely expensive. Three weeks (15 episodes) would make for about five discs. With 52 weeks in the year, that'd be more than 60 discs.

Season overviews are more likely...and if they ever DID release a full season, it'd probably be the Luke Spencer era.

So daytime soaps are longer than prime time soaps? That's what I gather... they're talking about releasing the first complete season of Dallas... how many episodes is that (including the miniseries)?

And why would it make a difference releasing Dallas and Dynasty compared to releasing General Hospital (or even Days of Our Lives; Young and the Restless; As the World Turns; Ryan's Hope; Knott's Landing; the list never ends)

Interesting you asked, since DVDFile had this as their April Fools joke for this year:



Soap Opera Digest Video has announced a June 22 release date for General Hospital 38: The Complete Season. This 55-disc set will include all 252 episodes from the 38th season, presented in anamorphic widescreen and Dolby 2.0. The extensive supplements include audio commentaries with actors Val Barri ("Trixie"), Rachel Ames ("Audrey March Brewer Hardy"), Chad Brannon ("Zander Smith"), Stephanie Allen (the fourth - and definitely the best - "Leslie Lu 'Lulu' Spencer"), directors Grant Johnson and Owen Renfroe, and GH "historian" Peter Sumptner. (Renfroe will be heard on episodes 4, 17, 30, 54, 81, 92, 109, 134, 160, 199, and 227, Johnson on episodes 11, 76, 144, 188, and 212.) The studio will also release a collector's edition that will feature an all-new documentary, "Intensive Care: The World of Joseph Behar," a profile of the director who shot the soap's pilot in 1963 and continues to pilot the series. Other features will include the two discs of text-based cast and crew bios for all 40 seasons that have appeared on the other GH season box sets. Retail will set you back $779.95, or $789.95 for the special edition, which also comes with a collectible bedpan.

Chris, primetime soaps like Dallas and Dynasty aired weekly and took a break during the summer, daytime soaps air daily and NEVER take a break. I can imagine a "best of" set, but who would have the time and money to watch 250 or so episodes? I can't imagine ABC or whoever has the rights to the video distribution willing to go through the effort of releasing an entire season. Most primetime shows don't last 250 episodes in their lifetime.

34 years x 160 or so episodes a year = a lot of episodes. The only episodes worth owning would be the week that Luke and Laura got married.

wasn't that bizarre... she gets raped by Luke and then they turn around and get married... she must've enjoyed it!

I once figured out what a complete General Hospital set would run, and it was something like 1024 discs - enough to build your own General Hospital from.

I wouldn't be surprised if they released the week of Luke and Laura...that would only be two discs really. Disc one would have the first three episodes, disc two the other two and a clip show.

Not funny.

There was a DVD that came out recently (possibly last fall) called "Soaps Greatest Weddings" (not sure of the exact title) that featured clips from ABC soaps, icluding Luke and Laura's wedding. I will try to get more info on it an post it.

I meant it to be somewhat demented humor.

Especially considering the show debuted in an era where the first season would no longer exist!

What makes you say this?

There are kinescopes of The Honeymooners from the fifties, which is before GH started if I am correct. There's no reason to believe that the first season of this show is not available.

The DVD I saw is called "Daytime's Greatest Weddings" and is available from Buena Vista Home Video.



GH debuted on April 1, 1963, so videotapes possibly exist.

Daytime television was not preserved on a regular basis during that era. Almost all of the game shows, soap operas and talk shows that were a staple of morning and afternoon television from the 50s to the mid-70s were wiped out of existence because the networks saw no rerun value in them. It was a lot easier to just recycle expensive video tapes for use elsewhere then store them.

If anything does exist from that era it would only be a few random episodes and certainly nothing of a complete format.