Photo: ABC
Still…Shining Bright Like A “Diamond” Sixty Years Later!
We are
celebrating the longest-running American soap opera in production, General
Hospital! On April 1, 1963, the ABC television network aired the premiere
episode of the sudser. What an incredible milestone for television and for the
soap opera community to see one of its own, reach the “diamond” anniversary,
and still sparkle!
The Beginning
General Hospital was created by the powerhouse husband and
wife writing duo, Frank and Doris Hursley. America’s historic fictional
healthcare facility was initially set in an unnamed fictional city. In the
1970s, the unnamed location received the now household name, Port Charles. At
its inception, the serial daytime drama was 30 minutes long until mid-1976, when
it expanded to 45 minutes, and in January 1978 it went to a full hour.
The show’s earliest storylines were primarily centered on the hospital
and the characters, Dr. Steve Hardy (John Beradino), Nurse Jessie Brewer (Emily
McLaughlin), Dr. Phil Brewer (Roy Thinnes, Rick Falk, Robert Hogan, Ron Hayes,
Craig Huebing, Martin West), Lucille March (Lucille Wall), and Audrey March
(Rachel Ames).
Storylines
Not surprising, given the obvious, the word “hospital” is literally in
its name, GH has been hailed for some of the best and most relevant
medical-related storylines in daytime. A few of the most popular include Monica
Quartermaine’s (Leslie Charleson) battle with breast cancer, the death of
eight-year-old B.J. Jones (Brighton Hertford) and the subsequent heart
transplantation to his dying cousin Maxie Jones (Robyn Richards, Jen Lilley,
Molly Burnett, Kirsten Storms) and of course the critically acclaimed AIDS
storyline in the 1990s involving Stone Cates (Michael Sutton) and Robin Scorpio (Kimberly McCullough).
In addition to GH’s
knack for its gut wrenching (in the best way), tug at your heart strings, get
the tissues out, medical-related storylines, the show has also entertained
millions of fans with all sorts of soapy drama-filled storylines: family drama, action, adventure,
science fiction, murder mysteries, serial killers, organized crime capers, stories
centering on social issues etc., and of course love stories and triangles!
Fans have been
glued to their screens following Aztec treasures, weather-freezing machines, Ice Princesses,
musical chairs of masks, unforgettable annual nurse’s balls, aliens, crystals,
hostage crises, adventures in Puerto Rico, frozen embryos, frozen people, and
anything and everything in between that a great soap provides.
Love
Triangles
Nothing, absolutely nothing, hits in soap land like a flaming hot triangle with equally beloved characters, individually and paired up. Port Charles has had these in spades over the last several decades. We have highlighted some fan favorites below.
Rick/Monica/Alan, Scott/Laura/Luke, Robert/Anna/Holly, Jax/Brenda/Sonny, Lucky/Elizabeth/Nikolas/, Frisco/Felicia/Mac, and Sam/Jason/Elizabeth just to name a few. We know, we know, there are so many more! Please list some of your favorites that we didn’t mention in the comment section!
Families
With the staying power of soap operas, this genre is now reaping the benefits of multi-generations of families that fans live for, love, and have grown up with. Several of GH’s core past and present families include:
·
Hardy
·
Webber
·
Scorpio
·
Jones
family.
·
Spencer
·
Quartermaine
·
Cassadine
·
Jerome
·
Corinthos
·
Davis
·
Baldwin
Characters
This is the part where we take a deep breath as we enter into these tricky no way to please everyone waters. GH has been on the air for sixty years. It is impossible to list “the best”, and everyone’s favorite characters…our fingers will start cramping, which we think is an awesome problem because that means so many wonderful characters portrayed by wonderful actors and actresses have graced our screens on GH.
But we are still taking the plunge and listing 20 characters (not including the characters that we mentioned in “The Beginning” section that’s 20 over sixty years, yeah it will be far from inclusive but we gonna do it any how. We aimed for a mix of heroes, heroines, villains, villainesses throughout the different eras. We also tried not to mention too many characters from one family and still hit on all the hot spots. Also, for those characters with multiple actors/actresses we listed the most known and/or recent actors/actresses.
♦
Scott Baldwin ~~
Kim Shriner
♦
Brenda Barrett ~~
Vanessa Marcil
♦
Helena Cassadine
~~ Elizabeth Taylor, Constance Towers
♦
Nikolas Cassadine
~~ Tyler Christopher. Marcus Coloma, Adam Hus
♦
Lucy Coe ~~ Lynn
Herring
♦
Carly Corinthos
~~ Sarah Joy Brown, Tamara Braun, Laura Wright
♦
Sonny Corinthos
~~ Maurice Benard
♦
Alexis Davis ~~
Nancy Lee Grahn
♦
Anna Devane ~~
Finola Hughes
♦
Ava Jerome ~~
Maura West
♦
Felicia Jones ~~
Kristina Wagner
♦
Frisco Jones ~~
Jack Wagner
♦
Sam McCall ~~
Kelly Monaco
♦
Jason Morgan ~~
Steve Burton, Billy Miller
♦
Edward
Quartermaine ~~ David Lewis
♦
Lila Quartermaine
~~ Anna Lee
♦
Robert Scorpio ~~
Tristan Rogers
♦
Bobbie Spencer ~~
Jacklyn Zeman
♦
Elizabeth Webber
~~ Rebecca Herbst
♦
Heather Webber ~~
Robin Mattson, Alley Mills
**Also shoutouts to a few Next
Gen Stars!
♦
Spencer Cassadine
(Nicholas Chavez)
♦
Josslyn Jacks
(Eden McCoy)
♦
Trina Robinson (Sydney
Mikayla, Tabyana Ali)
♦
Cameron Webber
(William Lipton)
And in conclusion and no we didn’t forget. We thought it best to give the “four” people who invented the term “supercouple” and who made General Hospital a household name a “super”, “super”, shoutout! Shouting out to:
Luke Spencer (Anthony Geary) and Laura Spencer Collins (Genie Francis)! Genie, Anthony, Luke & Laura…The Smithsonian(s)…in soap land!
Congratulations to General Hospital and the biggest thank you to all who have had a hand in making this soap opera the iconic show that it is!
Long Live General Hospital & Long Live the Soap Opera!
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