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    Nostalgia Central
    Home»Television»Drama
    Drama TV Shows - 1960s TV Shows - 1970s TV Shows - 1980s TV Shows - 1990s 3 Mins Read

    General Hospital

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    1 9 6 3 – Current (USA)
    13,800+ x 30/45/60 minute episodes

    A long-running popular US daytime soap detailing the professional and personal lives of the doctors and nurses working at Port Charles General Hospital in Upper New York.

    Created by Doris and Frank Hursley, the show was a 30-minute programme when it first aired in 1963 and was not particularly well-received by the public or critics at first.

    Under the supervision of Gloria Monty, who took over as the producer in the late 1970s, the show’s popularity steadily grew, until in 1980 it was the top-rated daytime drama.

    In 1976 the show was expanded to 45-minutes and was seen five days a week. It was then expanded to a full hour, five times a week, in 1978.

    In November 1981, an episode that featured the on-screen wedding of popular characters Luke Spencer (Anthony Geary) and Laura Vining (Genie Francis) – with the wicked Helena Cassadine (Elizabeth Taylor) in the background – attracted more viewers than any other single soap opera in television history.

    The show’s original cast included former major league baseball player John Bernadino (who died in 1996 and was the last original cast member still on the show) as Dr Steve Hardy; Emily McLaughlin (who died in 1991) as head nurse Jessie Brewer; Lucille Wall as head nurse Lucille March; Rachel Ames as Lucille’s sister, nurse Audrey March; and Ross Elliott (and then Peter Hansen) as lawyer Lee Baldwin.

    Later the show moved into stranger areas with plots involving spies and such, and then in the 1990s, it switched to be a show that dealt with serious issues, such as AIDS, Cancer etc, with much of the action centred away from the confines of the hospital.

    A spin-off from General Hospital launched in June 1997. The new series was called Port Charles and it focused on the lives of three characters from General Hospital – Scott Baldwin, Lucy Coe and Kevin Collins.

    Not to be confused with an English series of the same name, General Hospital is the longest-running daytime show on ABC and on 17 April 2002, the series reached 10,000 episodes.

    Dr Lesley Faulkner Webber
    Denise Alexander
    Dr Jeff Webber 

    Richard Dean Anderson
    Audrey Hobart Hardy 

    Rachel Ames
    Dr Steve Hardy 

    John Beradino
    Head Nurse Jessie Brewer 

    Emily McLaughlin
    David Hamilton 

    Jerry Ayres
    Dr Tony Perelli 

    Michael Baseleon
    P.J. Taylor 

    Robert Betzel
    Rose Kelly 

    Loanne Bishop
    Cal Jamison 

    Larry Block
    Dr Gail Adamson Baldwin 

    Susan Brown
    Susan Moore 

    Gail Rae Carlson
    Dr Gary Lansing 

    Steve Carlson
    Dorrie Fleming 

    Angela Cheyne
    Ruby Anderson 

    Norma Connelly
    Dr Alan Quartermaine 

    Stuart Damon
    Mrs Alice Grant 

    Lieux Dressler
    Tracy Quartermaine Williams 

    Jane Elliot
    Dr Mark Dante 

    Gerald Gordon
    Dr Adam Streeter 

    Brett Halsey
    Lisa/Lana Holbrook 

    Janice Heiden
    Lee Baldwin 

    Ross Elliott (1)
    Peter Hansen (2)
    Alan Quartermaine Jr. 

    Eric Kroh
    Edward Quartermaine 

    David Lewis
    Helena Cassadine
    Elizabeth Taylor
    Dr Noah Drake
    Rick Springfield
    Jackie Templeton
    Demi Moore
    Holly Sutton Scorpio
    Emma Samms
    Suzanne Stanwyck
    Adrienne Barbeau
    Blackie 
    John Stamos
    Janice Lomax
    Shari Belafonte
    Eddie Phillips
    Sammy Davis Jr
    Jennifer Smith
    Sally Struthers
    Jake
    Stella Stevens
    Helena Cassadine
    Elizabeth Taylor
    Reginald Durban
    George Lazenby
    Agent Brighton O’Reilly
    Billie Hayes
    Mariah Ramirez
    June Lockhart
    Richard Simmons
    Himself

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