GH: Carlivati Out

Today, General Hospital and ABC Daytime announced that head writer Ron Carlivati is out as head writer of the show. He started his gig at GH after the death of One Life to Live on ABC. To read the press release visit TVLine's coverage. Below I'm giving my thoughts on the change and the new head writing team.

Ron Carlivati is being replaced by Jean Passanante and Shelly Altman. They were most recently at "The Young and the Restless" sharing these same duties. They were in that role for about a year (August/September 2013- August/September 2014). As a viewer, my first thought was a change is coming. Anytime there is a swap in writing teams, we tend to have that. The new team is starting August 10, so we should see their material by October at the latest. (They probably will use some already written scripts and edited as they go especially since actors are already contracted to appear.)

I'm apprehensive, but was expecting a change due to the ratings reports. I haven't been as interested in much of GH as of late due to certain stories. I want to enjoy them, but some things need to just move more quickly. Also everything wasn't "tied together" as it should have been with stories being in a bubble or dropped for too long of a time. I do worry for the actors as this situation is probably going to be stressful as they don't know their status.

During Ron's time at GH, like all head writers had some "good" and "bad" stories. I do wish him well even if I was more of a fan of his writing at OLTL. I hope what is upcoming is more cohesive and we get closure for all the open stories. The GH cast is huge, so if some characters will no longer be continuing on air I hope we get to say goodbye. I'd rather not deal with non-exits.