'GENERAL HOSPITAL' THE PICTURE OF HEALTH
Most soap operas have flatlined, but not the ABC stalwart marking nearly 60 years and 15,000 episodes
Alot has changed on “General Hospital” in its 59 years on the air.
These days in Port Charles, New York, Laura Collins, once known as half of the legendary soap opera couple Luke and Laura, is juggling her duties as mayor with those of family matriarch. Meanwhile, Scott Baldwin, Laura's first husband, has found love with the delightfully devious Liesl Obrecht, and Bobbie Spencer, who once battled with Laura for Scott's affection, now has a sisterly bond with the town's mayor.
Yet, there is much that remains the same for the show, which is scheduled to celebrate its 15,000th episode Tuesday.
“General Hospital” made its 1963 debut as a medical drama, but in the decades that followed, it has morphed into a weekday chronicle of life in Port Charles, a town rife with mob drama, spy adventures and family feuds. The show served as a launchpad for many careers, its famous alumni including Demi Moore, John Stamos, Rick Springfield and Amber Tamblyn, and has attracted celebrity guest stars, most notably Elizabeth Taylor, who originated the character of villain Helena Cassadine to stir trouble at Luke and Laura's wedding.
Now, in an era marked by streaming networks and instant access to virtually any TV show, “General Hospital” is the longest-running soap opera currently airing on network television and the only remaining daytime drama on ABC. Save for those few months in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down television and film shoots, leaving soap fans to rely on reruns, “General Hospital” still airs new episodes nearly every weekday.
My soap opera confession
Here's my secret: I've been watching “General Hospital” since birth because it was one of the soaps my mom watched. In my vague, early childhood memories, I can see Luke and Laura on the TV set in our den as I play with my younger sister. During my senior year of high school and freshman year of college, I was sucked into the tragic romance of Robin Scorpio and Stone Cates, a powerful storyline that's still remembered for tackling HIV and AIDS transmission.
I've spent my adult life dropping in and out of the “General Hospital” universe, catching up with characters on days off or when I could take a lunch break at 2 p.m. Today, it's the only show I regularly watch. I love the outrageousness of the storylines. It's incredibly fun to try to deduce who will return from the dead or which set of rivals will turn out to be long-lost siblings or parent and child, and extremely satisfying when you're right.
As wild as the storylines might be, though, watching characters evolve as they interact with each other every weekday, over the course of years, is what keeps me, and probably a lot of other viewers, tuning in.
“Soaps are about relationships, as you know if you've watched over the years, and I think that people still relate,” says Jacklyn Zeman, who plays Bobbie Spencer, during a phone conversation. “You turn on a soap, and it affects your heart. It affects your feelings.”
General history
With so much history inside “General Hospital,” even regular viewers might need to refer to the soap's wiki just to keep up with the characters' marriages and ever-expanding family trees, let alone the number of times they've been presumed dead and/or kidnapped by a member of the ruthless Cassadine family.
You'll still see Genie Francis as Laura, Kin Shriner as Scott, Leslie Charleson as Monica Quartermaine and Zeman as Bobbie, all of whom are celebrating their 45th anniversaries with the show this year.
In fact, whether you last regularly watched in the '80s, '90s or '00s, you could tune in on any random day and spot at least one familiar face.
“A lot of us are still hanging around,” says Shriner on a recent phone call. That, he says, contributes to the soap opera's longevity with fans. “They can still turn on the TV as they've done for over 40 years and say, there's Laura, there's Scotty.”
Nostalgia, Shriner says, is likely a key component to the soap opera's success after nearly 60 years in existence. “It takes them right back to their college days,” he says, “when they were skipping classes and watching Laura and Luke and Scotty run around and get in trouble.”
Where pop culture franchises typically rely on prequels, sequels and reboots to amp up the nostalgia factor, daytime soaps don't need to do that. Longtime fans have watched stars like Francis, who joined the cast as a teenager, grow up on the show as numerous new characters plant their roots in Port Charles.
The next generation
A little over a year ago, Nicholas Alexander Chavez stepped into the role of Spencer Cassadine,
Laura's college-age grandson who returned to town from boarding school with a host of entitlement issues and a fraught relationship with his father, Nikolas. Spencer's relationship with his grandmother, though, has become a source of stability in the character's life.
“She's been nonjudgmental. I think she's been maternal and infinitely loving towards him and gives him the benefit of the doubt at every turn. There have been some tough love moments but they are few and far between,” says Chavez. “I would say that, for the most part, Laura approaches Spencer with empathy and understanding and a gentle caring that Spencer really, really values.”
Chavez says he didn't know anything about the show when he auditioned.
“I never watched soaps,” he admits. “My grandparents knew it. My parents knew it. They knew Luke and Laura.” But the actor caught on quickly. He was recently nominated for a Daytime Emmy and, now that he's been in the role for over a year, has reflected on his character's trajectory.
“I think that Spencer is maturing,” he says, adding with a chuckle, “as much as someone can on a soap opera, of course.”
The more things change
Through these intergenerational storylines, “General Hospital” has amassed its own multigenerational audience.
While nostalgia and family sagas have certainly kept “General Hospital” fans hooked since 1963, there are also the individual characters, ranging from the ones viewers love to the ones they love to hate.
“I've been fortunate, with Bobbie, to have her be both,” says Zeman, “to start off as the character that you love to hate and then all of a sudden turn into the character that you love to follow.”
Since 1977, Zeman has taken Bobbie from the young nurse who aimed to break up Scott and Laura to a trusted confidante for many of the show's characters. “I think a lot of people go through chapters of their life like that. Their behavior isn't what they would do now, but you fix it and you move on,” says Zeman. “You grow and you change.”
As much as you change, though, you can still flip your remote to ABC and settle in for an hour at “General Hospital”