Sixty years is a milestone worth marking, especially for the longest-running daytime drama still in production. When General Hospital premiered on April 1, 1963, nearly a dozen soap operas — Love of Life, Search for Tomorrow, The Edge of Night, The Secret Storm, As the World Turns and The Guiding Light among them — were vying for daytime viewers. Now ABC’s sole surviving soap, General Hospital surpassed the 15,000-episode milestone last May.
Created by married writer-producers Frank and Doris Hursley and set in the fictional Upstate New York town of Port Charles, the series has been lauded as Outstanding Drama Series at the Daytime Emmys 15 times, most recently in 2021 and 2022. It spun off another soap, Port Charles (1997–2003), and a primetime series, General Hospital: Night Shift(2007–08). And in 2018 Terry Randolph (Cassandra James) became daytime’s first trans woman character to be authentically played by a trans actress.
The serial’s longevity stems from a delicate balance of continuity, risk, reinvention and a deep appreciation for its legacy and its fans.
The Early Years (1963–72)
“My understanding of why the show initially garnered some notice and success was because it had some very charismatic people in the roles of doctors and nurses,” says Frank Valentini, General Hospital’s executive producer since 2012.
The original cast, headed by professional baseball player-turned-actor John Beradino as Dr. Steve Hardy and Emily McLaughlin as nurse Jessie Brewer, soon expanded to include Rachel Ames as Hardy’s future bride, nurse Audrey March.
“In the early days the show was in black and white and was taped the way you saw it on TV, with the commercials in place,” says Ames, who joined the cast in 1964 and most recently appeared in 2015. “When preparing for the taping we did our own hair and makeup and when we weren’t in the hospital scenes [wearing supplied uniforms] we wore our own clothes. We also wore mics, being careful not to tap on them so you couldn’t hear shuffling or heartbeats.”
While Ames knew the series had a strong cast and a good premise, she admits, “I did not expect 60 years of the show. However, I’m extremely happy that it has been successful this long and hope it continues to be successful.”
When Anthony Geary, who played Luke Spencer for 37 years, decided to leave the show in 2015, General Hospital’s first-ever episode was recreated and reframed as Luke’s origin story.
“We thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if we recreated a portion of that first episode, playing with the idea that things happening off camera in the first episode are tied into the current storyline?’ It was a way to look back and look forward at the same time,” Valentini says. “It really honored the show. The audience could see the first episode again, through the lens of the current storyline.”
Monty to the Rescue (1973–82)
The 1970s saw General Hospital grow from a half-hour serial into an hour-long drama. By the mid-’70s, ratings had begun to sag, so new cast members were brought aboard, including Denise Alexander as Lesley Webber. Yet the show still teetered on the brink of cancellation. Fred Silverman — then ABC’s program chief — put Gloria Monty in charge as executive producer.
“Gloria, I guess, had an edict to turn the show around,” Kin Shriner says. A four-time Daytime Emmy nominee, Shriner was cast in 1977 as Scotty Baldwin, mere months after Genie Francis had debuted as Lesley’s daughter, Laura. “The next thing I know, Laura and Scotty end up in a storage shed as a hurricane sweeps through Port Charles and wipes out half the cast. We came out of the storm and there were all these new actors Gloria brought on.”
Some of those actors — including Shriner and Francis, Jacklyn Zeman (as Bobbie Spencer) and Leslie Charleson (as Monica Quartermaine) — continue to be part of the show. Jane Elliot, who joined the cast in 1978 as Tracy Quartermaine, returns this April.
Monty famously united one of daytime’s first supercouples, Luke and Laura, whose 1981 TV wedding drew 30 million viewers and prompted a cameo by Elizabeth Taylor as the notorious Helena Cassadine. Shriner, who’d left the show for a primetime series, made a surprise return when Scotty showed up in time to catch Laura’s bouquet.
“Gloria revolutionized the medium. She changed it all,” Shriner says. “It went from an old-fashioned soap opera with organ music to a hip, happening show everybody wanted to be a part of.”
Spycraft and Shoulder Pads (1983–92)
Adventure was the theme of the ’80s, as Luke and Laura, the Quartermaines, the Cassadines and the WSB (a global spy agency) searched for “the Ice Princess,” a massive uncut diamond with destructive propertiesr
“Gloria wanted a badass woman who could stand up to the guys, and she created a character for me,” says Finola Hughes, who was cast as British WSB agent Anna Devane. “We moved into an era of espionage and intrigue and gave the show an adventurous feel, which was different for daytime.”
Anna arrived with a backstory involving Australian spy Robert Scorpio (Tristan Rogers). Hughes, Rogers and several popular actors from this era, including John J. York (Mac Scorpio), Kristina Wagner (Felicia Jones) and Lynn Herring (Lucy Coe) are still involved with the show. Last year Anna and Felicia teamed up to take down second-generation criminal mastermind Peter August (Wes Ramsey), and Emma Samms recently reprised her role as superspy Holly Sutton, who was chasing remnants of the Ice Princess.
“Gloria brought antiheroes to the forefront, whereas before on soaps, people didn’t get their hands dirty,” says Hughes. “She wanted us in the muck. Luke and Robert were definitely antiheroes, and Anna was brought forward as a woman who could stand with the guys — tough but also trying to raise a child, which gave her a vulnerable side.”
Medical Alerts (1993–2002)
In the early ’90s, with Wendy Riche as executive producer, medical stories returned to the forefront and the show generated awareness about serious issues. These included Monica’s breast cancer and the ripple effect an organ donation can have on a community — as seen when Bobbie Spencer and Tony Jones (Brad Maule) donate their brain-dead daughter’s heart to Tony’s niece.
“Soap operas, in general, do these kinds of stories well, because they can do them in real time. You can’t do that in any other medium,” says Maurice Benard, who’s played mob boss Sonny Corinthos for 30 years, during which time both Benard and his character have adapted to living with bipolar disorder.
In the mid-’90s, General Hospital introduced a revolutionary AIDS storyline: Sonny’s protégé and honorary brother, Stone Cates (Michael Sutton), thought he had the flu and unknowingly infected his girlfriend — Anna’s daughter, Robin Scorpio (Kimberly McCullough) — with HIV before learning he had the virus.
“The story was beautifully written, beautifully shot, beautifully acted and directed,” Benard says. “Not a lot was known about HIV and AIDS then, and a lot of people learned about it through General Hospital.”
Although her character was thought to be dead at the time, Hughes returned as a spectral figure to comfort her child. “This genre can push the boundaries of social awareness, as we did with Robin’s storyline where we dealt with HIV and living with AIDS,” Hughes says.
In 1995 the show introduced the Nurses Ball, a talent show-within-the-show for AIDS/HIV awareness. The Ball will help usher in the show’s 60th anniversary during the first week of April.
Mob Loyalty (2003–12)
Sonny wasn’t Port Charles’s first mobster, but he quickly found his place.
“They did it so well, especially in the second decade,” Benard says, meaning the years from 2003 to 2012. “It was written and shot like a gangster movie. I love playing it, and I think the audience loves the gangster part of Sonny. He’s like a vigilante, only going after bad people. A lot of people said it was too violent, too this, too that, but they kept watching.”
Sonny’s loyalty to his longtime number one, Jason Morgan (Steve Burton), inspired loyalty in return, making the mob “family” a chosen family.
In 2005, upon assuming the role of Carly Corinthos — Sonny’s on-again-off-again wife and Jason’s best friend — Laura Wright became part of the Sonny-Carly-Jason triangle.
“Their dynamic comes from loyalty,” Wright says. “Sonny, Jason and Carly are not blood related, but they would die for each other. They’re a family and no matter who they’re with or their personal relationships, they’ll drop anything for each other — and yet they fight and want to kill each other as well. But there’s loyalty there that’s so solid that fans wish they could be a part of it.”
The violent nature of Sonny’s lifestyle was — and remains — a source of tension for his family. “There was a storyline during that time when Carly’s son was shot in the head and in a coma,” Wright recalls. “That was really powerful to me. There was so much great material with Sonny and Jason.”
True-to-Life (2013–22)
Returning to work during the pandemic, Benard faced a storyline that hit a little too close to home: Sonny’s father, Mike Corbin — newly recast with Barney Miller veteran Max Gail — was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. “My father had Alzheimer’s at the time,” Benard says. “Not only is Max Gail a great actor, but he looked like my dad. They dressed him like my dad. He wore the same hat as my dad. I said to myself, ‘I’m not going to act — just say the lines.’”
“[Maurice] is not a fan of people whose acting is big. But all of a sudden, Mike [thinks he’s] nine years old, he’s gonna miss the bus, he’s thinking, ‘My parents are gonna kill me.’ It’s like, how do you bring that down?” Gail says.
Alzheimer’s affected Mike and Sonny’s entire family, while the crew, cast and fans were moved by their story. “Camera-people, people in the booth — you could feel it all the way around. There was such truthfulness and simplicity in the writing,” Gail recalls.
Wright says being part of that story was an honor. “At that very time, I watched both of my parents — within two months — take their last breaths. It’s not the same thing someone like Mike goes through, but it’s very powerful. It changes you forever,” she says, adding that the Alzheimer’s storyline is the main thing viewers mention at fan events.
“Fifty people stand up and say, ‘You’re telling my story.’ It touched and affected more people than anything I’ve been a part of.”
This article originally appeared in emmy magazine, issue #3, 2023, under the title "Zero to Sixty."
