General Hospital: Encyclopedia II - General Hospital - History

General Hospital - History

General Hospital - 1963-1989

The first stories were mainly set at a general hospital in Port Charles, a fictional New York town, and revolved around manly doctor Steve Hardy (John Beradino) and his nurse Jessie Brewer (Emily McLaughlin). Steve was chief of Internal Medicine on the hospital's seventh floor and dedicated his life to healing and caring for the sick, ably assisted by Nurse Jessie. Jessie's turbulent marriage to the much younger Dr. Phil Brewer (most notably played by Roy Thinnes) was the center of many early storylines. Over the years, Phil became renowned for his philandering, with Jessie constantly forgiving her errant husband for his affairs. The seemingly neverending cycle of separation and reconciliation between the two finally ended in 1974, when Dr. Phil Brewer was murdered.

Another nurse, Lucille March (Lucille Wall), brought her sister, flight attendant Audrey March (Rachel Ames) to town; slowly but surely, she romanced Dr. Hardy, eventually marrying him three times. While there was no overt tension, Jessie was disappointed as there had always been an air of sexual tension between her and Steve. It was never acted upon, as they remained close friends until Jessie (and actress Emily McLaughlin) died in 1991. Steve Hardy himself died five years later when his portrayer, John Beradino passed away in 1996.

The show was glacially paced and low-rated in the earlier years, save for one relatively high-rated and fast-paced plot in 1971. In this storyline Audrey was accused of murdering her son's babysitter and General Hospital was briefly elevated to the number one position, beating long time ratings giant As the World Turns. However, the success was shortlived. Due to relatively easygoing choices in storyline, the show almost always lost out to rival medical soap The Doctors, which was considered by many to be more daring. Although TIME noted that the acting performances were decent, an article on the soap genre, in 1976, panned General Hospital's minimal budget for settings and props, calling it not unlike a high school production.

Faced with cancellation threats in 1978, ABC brass brought on Gloria Monty as Executive Producer. Monty had much experience in the genre from directing The Secret Storm for years. Under her tutelage, and the headwriting stints of Douglas Marland (who created longtime staples the Quartermaine family and Bobbie and Luke Spencer) and Pat Falken Smith, General Hospital bounced back from the brink and subsequently became the highest-rated American soap opera, from 1979 to 1988. Monty stayed as Executive Producer until 1987, only to return briefly from 1991 to 1992, in a widely panned tenure during which she was accused of no longer being in touch with the daytime audience. Monty was replaced with the equally controversial Wendy Riche.

Thanks to Monty, the show is perhaps most famous for the supercouple pairing of Luke Spencer and Laura Webber (Anthony Geary and Genie Francis). While the show had managed to be saved from cancellation thanks in part to a plot where Laura accidentally killed her much older lover, David Hamilton, it wasn't until Laura was paired with Luke that General Hospital became the phenomenon that it was for most of the 1980s. Their wedding in November 1981 was the highest rated episode of any Daytime Soap Opera in the United States, with more than 30-million viewers. They were so popular even movie star Elizabeth Taylor wanted in on the action (she guest-starred as Helena Cassadine, and adorned People magazine with Geary). Their relationship was not without some controversy, as Luke raped Laura in 1979. Laura was traumatized and went to counseling, but after her popularity with Luke flourished she claimed the rape was a "seduction" (in 1998 the issue was revisited and Laura finally admitted to herself that Luke raped her). The show has also created other popular pairings in Holly Sutton and Robert Scorpio (Emma Samms and Tristan Rogers) as well as Duke Lavery and Anna Devane (Ian Buchanan and Finola Hughes), and the show's focus began to drift away from the original hospital setting onto a series of action-adventure plots, most of which were highly successful with the show's audience.

General Hospital - 1990-Present

In the 1990s, the show entered a transitional phase as the action adventure storylines of the 1980s became less popular. During this period, the show lost major stars such as Finola Hughes (Anna Devane Scorpio) and Tristian Rodgers (Robert Scorpio) and the much heralded return of Anthony Geary as Luke's identical cousin Bill Eckert in 1991 was seen as a failure.

Eventually in 1993, Anthony Geary would reprise his most famous role of Luke Spencer, along with Genie Francis who reprised her role as Luke's wife Laura. This marked the beginning of a creative renaissance for the show. Through the efforts of Riche and headwriter Claire Labine, the show gained critical acclaim for its sensitive handling of social issues, most notable of which were the heart transplant storyline which involved the death of eight year old BJ Jones (in a bus crash and the subsequent donation of her heart to her dying cousin Maxie), Monica Quartermaine (Leslie Charleson)'s bout with breast cancer and the love story of Stone Cates (Michael Sutton) and Robin Scorpio (Kimberly McCullough), which was shortened by Stone's death from AIDS, and followed by storylines in which Robin had to deal with being HIV positive as a result of her and Stone's relationship. The show kept most of the popularity it held for most of the 1980s, and a long-rumored spin-off (which was tentatively titled GH2) materialized in 1997 in the half-hour soap Port Charles.

Problems began to arise again around 1994-1995 when the show lost more than a million viewers. All the soaps lost ground at this time, but particular scrutiny was placed upon GH for the succession of grim stories involving BJ, Monica, and Stone (as a result, they dropped plans to give Audrey Alzheimer's Disease).

From 1993-1997 the show focused on popular couple in Sonny (Maurice Benard) and Brenda (Vanessa Marcil), and eventually Brenda's relationship with corporate raider Jasper Jacks (Ingo Rademacher). They were the one constant between the regimes of Labine (who left in early 1996) and Bob Guza, who became head writer in 1996. Guza zeroed in on the mob and the popularity of Maurice Benard. Guza came and went several times, returning for good in 2002. Riche left in late 2001 and was replaced by Jill Farren Phelps.

General Hospital has also been known to feature plots that have been widely considered preposterous (i.e. the town of Port Charles was going to be placed under a deep freeze by maniacal Mikkos Cassadine; luckily, Luke and Laura saved the town just in time).

In recent years the show has shied away from its veteran characters. After more than 35 years Rachel Ames was taken off-contract and removed from the opening credits, angering many longtime viewers. In 2004 Anna Lee was moved to recurring status after 25 years as Lila Quartermaine (Lee died soon after and some fans held the show responsible). Other characters, such as Bobbie Spencer (Jacklyn Zeman) and Felicia Scorpio (Kristina Wagner) became little more than extras, in spite of their years of popularity with fans. In May 2005 aside from being placed on a recurring role, though she was quite popular, Wagner was fired and replaced with former Another World star Sandra Ferguson. Maxie was also recast with former Days of our Lives star Kirsten Storms taking over for Robyn Richards. This raised conflict because of the revisit to a major storyline, "BJ's heart" with two new actresses trying to act like they were the old ones. The storyline ended in Maxie keeping BJ's heart and her sister Georgie (Lindze Letherman) recovering from her brain hemorrhage.

In the spring of 2005, Emmy nominated actress Tamara Braun left the role of Carly Corinthos, a role she had garnered amazing praise for when she took over the role from Emmy Winner Sarah Brown. After Braun's exit the show began a storyline in which Carly's son, Michael (Dylan Cash), supposedly killed his own father, AJ Quartermaine (Billy Warlock). The image of a nine year old murderer may have contributed to a decline in ratings as well as Braun's exit from the series the show fell behind CBS daytime's As the World Turns and tying or barely beating the other less-hyped ABC soaps. The storyline then quieted down and ended, with the eventual reveal that it was Michael's therapist, Dr Asher Thomas who was the real murderer. The show then ran on to show a comedic storyline involving Luke duping Tracy Quartermaine (Jane Elliot) into marriage.

After Braun left the series, the role of Carly was recast with former One Life to Live star Jennifer Bransford. Despite Series star Maurice Benard wanting Bransford to stick around, the fans spoke louder than ever before and Bransford was released from her contract. Soon after, Guiding Light star Laura Wright took over the popular role of Carly Benson. Long-time archrival of Carly, Robin Scorpio (Kimberly McCullough), returned to town to help long time best friend of Carly, Jason Morgan (Steve Burton), regain his memory.

Recent storylines have consisted of Carly's mental breakdown, a test of Sonny's love for Carly while she loses touch with reality and falls more and more into her dream world. Another storyline is the mystery of who is drugging college girls, such as Maxie and Brook Lynn Ashton (Adrianne Leon) and taking picutres of them. The stalker turned out to be Diego Alcazar (Ignacio Serricchio), Lorenzo Alcazar's (Ted King) long-lost son who was avenging the death of his cousin Sage (Katie Stuart) and was then carted off to prison. Lucas Jones (Ben Hogestyn) son of long time veterans Bobbie and Tony Jones has recently made a comeback with the surprising secret that he is gay. Also, Courtney Matthews (Alicia Leigh Willis) has recently discovered that she is pregnant with her estranged husband Jasper Jacks' (Ingo Rademacher) child, despite being in love with Nikolas Cassadine (Tyler Christopher).

Also recently, Lucky Spencer and Elizabeth Webber were married. The new "super couple" while just married, began their dating relationship almost ten years ago. Then, Jonathan Jackson played the role of Lucky Spencer.

November 2005 saw a major disaster storyline involving a train collision and major real life drama. This storyline involved much of the canvas and was GH's sole focus for several weeks during the important sweeps period. During this time, Actress Kari Wuhrer(Reese Marshall also known as the Real Carly Roberts), was let go due to lacking storyline between series stars Maurice Benard and Rick Hearst. Many longtime fans however will say her depature had to do with real life close friend Jennifer Bransford's quick departure from the show. Also during this storyline; Alexis Davis and father Ric Lansing gave birth to their baby in an antique train car via a c-section performed by Robin Scorpio and Emily Cassadine, Lucky Spencer survived a near fatal hit by a sharp metal impaling him, and the new Carly was introduced and then fought villain Manny Ruiz and escaped the crash.

GH aired its 10,000th episode on April 17, 2002.

Fan favorite Alicia Leigh Willis who announced on her official website on October 29 that she would be leaving the show and her character of Courtney Matthews at the end of 2005. Her final tapedate was supposed to be December 20 and her final airdate was suspected to be around January 20. Months went by, and many different actresses were suspected to have snagged the role. Then, something very surprising just recently happened, it was announced that Willis would be staying on GH after all.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "History", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki