Anthony Geary, Maurice Benard and Nancy Lee Grahn speak onstage at the ‘General Hospital’ panel during day 6 of the Disney ABCTelevision Group portion of the 2012 Summer TCA Tour at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on July 26, 2012 in Beverly Hills, California.
(Source: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images North America)

General Hospital is such an iconic brand, and they are not ready to let it go

By Valerie Milano

Beverly Hills, CA (Hollywood Today) 9/7/12 – Soap Operas have been around for my lifetime “for 50 years, we have been telling stories five days a week, 52 weeks a year, and we are in people’s homes during the day, and we are part of people’s milestones, when they are in a hospital with a sick parent, when the women are pregnant and they have their new babies and they come home. It’s not just people ironing,” explained Jane Elliot, Tracy Quartermaine from long running daytime series, “General Hospital”.

In its 49^th year, “GH” has survived and beginning Monday, it changes time slots from 2pm to 1:00 on ABC and will make it to celebrate their 50 year anniversary.  A feat in itself as most daytime soaps have been cancelled including long running “All My Children” and “One Life to Live”.

Executive Producer Frank Valenti explained to Hollywood Today, “It’s also an original American art form, and with pioneers like Agnes Nixon and Bill Bell and Frank and Doris Hursley, I think that it’s not only about tradition, I think it’s about storytelling.” And there have been some crazy stories over the years.

The series follows the characters of Port Charles, New York who live around and work at General Hospital. Valenti has brought characters from the “OLTL” series over to Port Charles, ‘I thought there were some key characters missing, not in terms of who they were, but certain archetypes that were really important to bring on the show. And bringing on some of the people from “One Life to Live” was a little bit of a way to honor the “One Life to Live” audience and also to create a story that was good for the current cast, and people who would interact with the current cast.”

Recent Emmy winner Tony Geary, the infamous and beloved Luke of Luke and Laura, has made many come backs to PC, “when you play a character for a long time, that character has like a second life you’re living you’re truly living day to day that character’s as well as your own.”  And I must admit Tony and pal Jane looked great at the evening event, being together as long time friends enjoying the cocktails and food at the Beverly Hilton hotel during the ABC/Disney portion of the summer press tour.

“It is very rare for an actor to even have the ability to have a job. I’ve been on the show almost 22 years. To have a job that long as an actor, it’s a miracle,” said Steven Burton, probably better known as Jason Morgan, resident and recently soft-hearted thug.

Valenti isn’t too worried about the near future of GH at this point, he explained, “They’re [ABC] very excited about the 50th anniversary, and we’ll be laying and rolling out lots of different things between now and April and past then. So I’m pretty confident. I feel like it’s very exciting. You just need to watch the show to sort of catch the energy and the momentum that we have, and the network’s a big part of that.”

So yes, the time slot change is inevitable but has no effect on the residents of Port Chuck, “I think that the network is doing a big push to inform the audience about the time change, and, yes, we are doing a big umbrella story and have a lot of really fun surprises, a lot of terrific stuff coming on (this month) in September,” said Valenti.

Stay tuned. We may never have enough stories about Port Charles including the Ice Princess, HIV, homicide, world wide travel adventures, mobsters, evil siblings, drugging, kidnapping, electro-shock therapy, surgery a-plenty, returning from the “dead”, drug abuse, family struggles, gala events, car accidents, thefts, arson, prison,  the mental institution Fern Cliff, sibling rivalry, affairs, poisoning, Pentonville Prison, The Metro Court hostage situation, Jason’s brain injury, Michael’s brain injury, secret baby switching, Spoon Island, the Cassadines, the Spencers, the Webbers, where can we stop?

Steven Burton summed it up nicely: ““General Hospital” is such an iconic brand, and we’re not ready to let it go.”