blog, takes a look at how General Hospital (ABC) turned it around. Caught in a death grip by network executives, producers and writers who seemed to care not one whit about the show's long-term viability, and who collectively chose to make murderous criminals and their supporters the "heroes" of its storylines, "General Hospital" had become a revolting mess. As sometimes happens when a program tanks, producers brought in a new creative team (executive producer/head writer) was brought in.  Rather than looking to cut costs, they refocused on bringing back the value of the program by returning to what had made it the premiere soap for much of its almost five decades on the air - strong characters, romances, strong story lines with great scenes and almost daily cliffhangers.  It helped that they were also able to incorporate some of the better characters and story lines from recently canceled One Life to Live - drawing in a large portion of that soaps fan base. But the turn-around isn't solely with General Hospital .  Martin notes that Days of Our Lives (NBC) has also refocused on its historic strengths in terms of characters and the drama surrounding romantic struggles.  The show's brought back many of the strong characters lost to budget cuts over the last decade, but also striking out in new directions to try to build up a new, younger audience with what Martin says is the most engaging romance in daytime drama. (While) other soaps had already broken boundaries with