General Hospital

General Hospital

General Hospital Intertitle
Alternate titles GH
Genre Soap opera
Creator(s) Frank and Doris Hursley
Senior cast member(s) Leslie Charleson
Country of origin Flag of the United States.svg United States
No. of episodes 11,686(as of November 7, 2008)
Production
Executive producer(s) Jill Farren Phelps
Head writer(s) Robert Guza, Jr.
Distributor ABC
Running time 60 minutes
(45 minutes from July 26, 1976 – December 30, 1977)
(30 minutes from April 1, 1963 – July 23, 1976)
Broadcast
Original channel ABC
Original run April 1, 1963 – present
Links
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

General Hospital (commonly abbreviated GH) is an American soap opera broadcast on the ABC television network during the day and on SOAPnet each weeknight. It is the longest-running serial produced in Hollywood, having been taped at The Prospect Studios (formerly ABC Television Center West) and the Sunset-Gower Studios, as well as the longest-running entertainment program in ABC television history. General Hospital also holds the record for most Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Drama Series, with 10 wins.

Set in the fictional city of Port Charles, New York, General Hospital debuted on April 1, 1963, the same day that rival network NBC launched its own medical daytime drama, The Doctors. General Hospital originally aired for a half-hour, until the network expanded it to 45 minutes in 1976, and then to a full hour in 1978. The serial was created by soap writers Frank and Doris Hursley, a husband-and-wife team.

Contents

Show history

Main article: History of General Hospital

Launched in 1963, the show initially focused on the lives of the staff at Port Charles General Hospital. Storylines ultimately branched out to cover the relationships of various Port Charles families. The 1981 wedding of Luke and Laura, played by Anthony Geary and Genie Francis, was the most watched event in daytime serial history.[1]

Cast

See also: List of General Hospital cast members
See also: List of General Hospital characters

Title sequence

Since the series' debut in 1963, General Hospital has had five opening title sequence packages and six theme songs.

During 1963-1967, the ABC announcer says "GENERAL HOSPITAL...brought to you by [product name]"; when the show moved to color on October 30, 1967, until circa early 1970s, announcer Ed Chandler would say, "GENERAL HOSPITAL in color". During the end of each scene just seconds before commercial break, Chandler would say "We'll return to GENERAL HOSPITAL in just a moment"; that announcement was phased out in the early 1970s. During 1973 to 1976, Chandler would simply say "General Hospital".

For the closing sequence, Chandler's original line from late 1963-circa 1970s was, "This is Ed Chandler inviting you to tune in tomorrow (Monday) and every weekday for GENERAL HOSPITAL". It was changed during circa 1973, to "This is Ed Chandler inviting you to tune in every day, Monday through Friday for GENERAL HOSPITAL." This spiel was used until July 1976. Since 1976, the only show announcements are the daily sponsor tags by ABC staff announcers ("General Hospital, brought to you by..."), that until the late 1990s immediately preceded the title at the end of the opening sequence. Currently, these announcements are done on network bumpers after the first scene. Beginning in July 1976, the rotating staff of ABC announcers took over the first mid-program bumper ("General Hospital will continue in a moment"), but the second would have no announcement. This mid-bumper format would remain unchanged for 20 years. Then, from 1996 until 1999, various GH cast members would voice the first mid-bumper ("General Hospital will continue in just a moment"). Also, from late 1996 to September 1999, various cast members (but most often Ingo Rademacher) would introduce next-episode previews off camera. Since the fall of 1999, mid-bumpers and previews have been done on network graphics. In mid 2008, due to tight budgets, ABC cut the next episode promos.


April 1, 1963 - November 22, 1963		 Original Black and White

[1] In the early episodes of 1963, General Hospital used a scene of doctors and nurses going about their business in the hospital, which then freezes and turns into a negative image, with the title appearing in the Craw Clarendon Condensed font (which remained the same until 1993). Accompanying this was a delightful, rather expansive piano piece by Kip Walton.

Mid-bumpers and closing sequences from day one featured the show's title, in the same font and size, centered on the screen against a black background. In the closings, a second sponsor plug would be included after the title, which would then return to the black screen where the credits would start running. In the first several years, credits would be carded one at a time for the most part on Monday-Thursday episodes; after production principals, the top billing stars would be credited (during this era, they were mainly John Beradino, Emily McLaughlin, Rachel Ames, Peter Hansen and Patricia Breslin).

On Fridays, the entire credit setup would scroll, with full cast and crew. The top-billing stars would still appear in their stacked format during the scroll, as they did on carded days (with actors' name, "as" and their characters' name all on separate lines) while supporting players would appear with their characters' name positioned to the left followed by periods, with the actors' names listed below in capitals over on the right. All crew credits would be centered. The final display of the General Hospital title in all broadcasts would scroll up itself to include the Selmur Productions ident at the end of the sequence.

November 25, 1963 - April 11, 1975

[2]

 The Definitive First Decade & Transition to Color

Nearly eight months into General Hospital's run, the nurses' station opening sequence was changed in favor of a more simple display. At the end of the prologue, the first few notes of the opening theme began playing as the scene dissolved into a black screen, with the show's title appearing on it, centered. The same visual would remain on the screen for the length of the brief opening theme tune, save for a cut-in to a sponsor plug, and virtually only as long as the network announcer's (later Ed Chandler's) spiel. This second theme package was basically an expansion of the visual format used in the mid-bumpers and closing since the show's premiere. When the program moved to color in late October 1967, the black background used for all the visuals changed to blue, but otherwise the package would go unchanged for its entire run. The arrival of this first long-running setup for GH brought a revised version of the April-November 1963 theme, in a higher pitch and faster melody, which was also composed by Kip Walton.

The same mid-bumpers and closing credits format from the first package remained in place. The Selmur Productions ident continued to appear at the conclusion of the credits every episode until 1968, when ABC bought complete ownership of General Hospital.

April 14, 1975 - March 31, 1993[3]		 The Speeding Ambulance

The exterior shot of the hospital in the opening and ending credits is the General Hospital of the Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, located just east of Downtown Los Angeles. This shot was used from 1975 to 1993, and remained relatively unchanged between those years. It consisted of an ambulance rushing through the gates of the medical center, followed by the show's title zooming outward from the view of the hospital. The sequence's theme song was led prominently by George Wright's piano theme from no later than Monday, April 14, 1975 until Friday, July 23, 1976. Then on Monday, July 26, 1976, the theme music was changed to "Autumn Breeze" by Jack Urbont, with the horns throughout the opening sequence (the 1975 opening sequence would remain the same). The graphic details of the opening would see only one alteration, in 1978, when the lettering of the show's zooming title became smaller. It is one of the longest running soap opera theme/visuals in history, with only the 1970-1989 theme/visuals of All My Children and Days of our Lives' 1972-93 package ahead of it. The sequence was used until the last episode of General Hospital with the Autumn Breeze theme aired on March 31, 1993.

The closing credits during this long era were done over nearly the same exterior of the LA County-USC Medical Center, with the main difference here being a blue-sky/cloud visual, as opposed to the opening having a clear, sunny sky. Occasionally a closer pan of the hospital was used, but it became more common in the early 1980s and was used almost exclusively from 1983 until 1993. The Craw Clarendon Condensed credits continued the tradition of carding dayplayers one at a time on most days, with the actors' name on top, the "as" on the middle line and character name below. On Fridays or during special storylines, a long crawl credits format also remained. No earlier than the start of the LA-USC Medical Center visuals era, scrolling cast credits became reformatted where the actors name appeared first in capitals, positioned to the left and followed by periods, with their character's name seen below in mostly lowercase, set on the right. Copyright notice first appeared at the end of all episodes in 1980, in a small capitalized font. By late 1981, the notice began appearing in Arial font, and would remain this way through early 1983.

During the 1982-83 TV season, but no later than February 9, 1983, the closing format was updated so that now the credits were electronically generated. The end credits became smaller, and the carded dayplayer setup now used the long-crawl formatting with the actors' name followed by periods, with character name below. From this point on, the more inward shot of the hospital was used full time. The copyright notice, which currently consisted of "(c) (year) American Broadcasting Companies, Inc.", was changed to small, capitalized Craw Clarendon Condensed, on two lines. Around the episode marking GH's 20th anniversary that April, the closing displays of the General Hospital title went from being spaced to placed together; and, "All Rights Reserved" was added below the copyright notice, in small, capitalized Arial.

April 1, 1993 - August 27, 2004		 Faces of the Heart

Wendy Riche made her most visible change as she decided to retire the long-running 1976 opening in favor of something new. The new opening, Faces Of The Heart by Dave Koz, debuted at the beginning of the first episode on April 1, 1993 that marked General Hospital's thirtieth anniversary. The theme begins with a heartbeat rhythm played on a bass guitar as we dissolve to a shot of an ambulance. That, in turn, dissolves into a tinted, letterboxed view of the exterior of the LA County-USC Medical Center in Los Angeles, California. This is followed by a series of video headshots of all the contract cast members, either solo or in pairs, against a red background. After every few clips, there is an action clip from the show. At the end of the sequence, we go back to the letterboxed, tinted hospital exterior and the title of the show in Goudy Bold type. For the 32nd Anniversary week in April 1995, the theme was remixed with a longer version with a reprise at the end, also the cast montage had a major update, which several cast members received new footage and new Puerto Rico actions scenes were added. On April 1, 2003, the show's 40th anniversary, the characters’ first names were added to the opening.

For a few weeks into the new "Faces of the Heart" package, the end credits remained in the same Craw Clarendon Condensed type used in past years. Now, however, the long crawl was done over stills from that day's episode. The "beauty shot" stills would continue when the end credit font was changed to match the typeface of the new General Hospital logo, by no later than Monday, April 19, 1993. From March 1996 to September 1999, each end credit segment was done in smaller lettering on a separate card for each still. The separate card setup is still used in the end titles shown on SoapNet rebroadcasts, but the credits are done over a shot of the hospital.

August 30, 2004 - Present		 Sirens

During the May 2004 sweeps, ABC Daytime began a significant re-branding process. New graphics and new promotional bumpers were created, and the visuals in the new promos were incorporated into new openings that were unveiled on all three ABC soaps in subsequent weeks. On August 30, 2004, GH unveiled a new opening that incorporated many of the character visuals used in a new set of ABC Daytime promos and bumpers that debuted in May 2004. The nods to the show’s past seem quite minimal in this new opening as we get only an extremely brief glimpse of an ambulance and an almost equally brief upward pan of the hospital exterior. This new opening sequence ends with a shot of the male cast members clad in tuxedos and posing against a white background, with Anthony Geary walking out of the shot, followed by the title of the show. The title appears in white letters in a single line across the screen against a black background, which is framed by letterboxing.

Main crew members

Main article: List of General Hospital crew

Setting

Main article: Port Charles, New York (Fictional City)

The series is set in the fictional city of Port Charles, New York. Port Charles is a small to midsized city located in Upstate New York. Contained within the setting are locations such as the General Hospital which gives its name to the series, Jake's - a bar run by the character Coleman, and the Metro Court Hotel. The fictional world of Port Charles contains its own police department, the Port Charles Police Department, and a CIA-type intelligence agency, the World Security Bureau.[2]

Awards

Daytime Emmy Award wins

Drama series and performer categories

Other categories

Directors Guild of America

Writers Guild of America

Ratings/scheduling history

When ABC premiered General Hospital on April 1, 1963, the network placed it in the 1 p.m./12 Noon Central timeslot against local newscasts on NBC and CBS affiliates. But on the day before New Year's Eve that year, General Hospital assumed a place on the daytime schedule that, except for eighteen months between July 1976 and January 1978 when it ran as one half of a 90-minute bloc with One Life to Live between 2:30/1:30 and 4/3, it has maintained to this day, 3/2 Central.

During the 1960s, General Hospital earned decent ratings against the likes of To Tell the Truth and The Secret Storm on CBS, but there was a decline as the 1970s came, especially when NBC's Another World became highly popular; for two years, it also faced CBS' The Price is Right, already a major hit. After continued mediocrity in the Nielsen ratings, ABC was prepared to cancel General Hospital, but decided to give it a second chance in 1978 when it expanded the show to a full hour, from an experimental 45 minutes. However, the expansion came with an ultimatum to the producers that they had six months to improve the show's ratings. Gloria Monty was hired as executive producer, and on her first day, she spent an extra $100,000 re-taping four episodes. A miracle occurred and thanks to Monty, the show became the most watched daytime drama by 1979, marking a rare instance of a daytime serial's comeback from near-extinction. During the wedding of Luke and Laura Spencer on November 16, 1981, about 30 million people tuned in to watch them exchange vows and be cursed by Elizabeth Taylor's Helena Cassadine (later played by Constance Towers).

From 1979 to 1988, General Hospital remained number one in the ratings, competing against two low-rated soaps on NBC -- Texas and Santa Barbara -- and the long-running Guiding Light (GL) over on CBS (although, it should be noted, that for a brief period in the middle of 1984, Guiding Light experienced a renaissance and became the #1 soap, dethroning General Hospital from the top ratings spot, thanks to well-regarded storylines written by then-GL head writer Pam Long). For the most part, however, General Hospital continued to triumph, even after the departure of popular actors Anthony Geary and Genie Francis in the mid-1980s. Although The Young and the Restless took General Hospital's place as the highest-rated serial in 1989, General Hospital continued to maintain excellent ratings.

Ever since the 1991-1992 season of General Hospital, the show has had a steady decline in ratings. On and off they would be in between third and fifth place in the Nielsen Ratings, placing CBS's The Young And The Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful in first and second place, respectively. General Hospital still remains in between third and fifth place in the ratings to this day. During the 1990s General Hospital was put up against fellow soap opera, All My Children, CBS's As The World Turns and NBC's Days of our Lives.

Highest-rated week in daytime history (November 16 - November 20, 1981)
(Household ratings, Nielsen Media Research)
Serial Household rating (Time slot) Network Millions of households
1. General Hospital 16.0 (3-4pm) ABC 17.5
2. All My Children 10.2 (1-2pm) ABC 11.7
3. One Life To Live 10.2 (2-3pm) ABC 11.6
4. Guiding Light 7.9 (3-4pm) CBS 8.2
Years as #1 series
Year(s) Household Rating
Sept. 1979-Sept. 1980 9.9
1980-1981 11.4
1981-1982 11.2
1982-1983 9.8
1983-1984 10.0
1984-1985 9.1
1985-1986 9.2
1986-1987 8.3
1987-1988 8.1

1988-1989 season

1989-1990 season

  • 1. The Young and the Restless 8.0
  • 2. General Hospital 7.4

1989-1990 season

  • 1. The Young and the Restless 8.0
  • 2. General Hospital 7.4

1990-1991 season

  • 1. The Young and the Restless 8.1
  • 2. General Hospital 6.7

1995 ratings

  • 1. The Young and the Restless 7.155
  • 3. General Hospital 5.343

1996-1997 season

  • 1. The Young and the Restless 7.1
  • 4. General Hospital 4.8

1997-1998 season

  • 1. The Young and the Restless 7.0
  • 4. General Hospital 4.6

1998-1999 season

  • 1. The Young and the Restless 6.9
  • 4. General Hospital 4.3

1999-2000 season

  • 1. The Young and the Restless 6.8
  • 4. General Hospital 4.0

2000-2001 season

  • 1. The Young and the Restless 6.7
  • 3. General Hospital

2001-2002 season

  • 1. The Young and the Restless 6.3
  • 4. General Hospital 3.7

2002-2003 season

  • 1. The Young and the Restless
  • 3. General Hospital 3.5

2003-2004 season

  • 1. The Young and the Restless
  • 3. General Hospital 3.3

2004-2005 season

  • 1. The Young and the Restless
  • 4. General Hospital 3.2

2005-2006 season

  • 1. The Young and the Restless
  • 3. General Hospital

2006-2007 season

  • 1. The Young and the Restless 4.1
  • 3. General Hospital 2.6

Cultural influence

The popularity of General Hospital has caused it be parodied or referred to in other mainstream programs. For example, in the early 1990s, some episodes of GH were featured as "shorts" during the fourth season of the parody show Mystery Science Theater 3000. GH was also parodied/homaged in the song General Hospi-Tale by The Afternoon Delights, and in the film Tootsie, which took place among the cast and crew of a fictional soap opera program. In the FOX medical drama House, Dr. House enjoys General Hospital and watches it constantly. In the season three episode, "Half-Wit," House hides his blood test results under the name, "Luke N. Laura", referring to GH's legendary supercouple.

Spin-offs

The success of the long-running soap opera has spawned one daytime spin-off in the United States and primetime spin-offs in the U.S. and the United Kingdom..

General Hospital: U. K. series

The U.K. series General Hospital (1972-1979) did not feature any characters from the American show, but was modeled after its format. It started as a half-hour program broadcast in the afternoons, which was unusual for UK serials that normally aired in prime time. In 1975 it was expanded to an hour-long format and moved to Friday evenings.

Port Charles

Port Charles (1997-2003) was a daytime drama that initially featured interns in a competitive medical school program, and was known for having more action actually in the hospital than General Hospital itself. As the show evolved, it tended more towards gothic intrigue, including supernatural elements such as vampires and life after death. It also switched formats from an open-ended daytime serial to 13-week story arcs known as "books," similar to Spanish language telenovelas.

General Hospital: Night Shift

General Hospital: Night Shift (2007, 2008) is the second American prime time spin-off of a daytime drama (the first being Our Private World, a spin-off of As the World Turns). Its first season aired from July 12, 2007 to October 4, 2007 on SOAPnet, a cable channel owned by ABC.[3] The series follows the nighttime adventures of familiar and new characters around the hospital. As of March 2008, the first season of the series was "SOAPnet's most-watched series ever," with ABC Daytime and SOAPnet President Brian Frons noting that Night Shift drew more than 1 million new viewers to the channel during its first season. [4]

Fourteen new episodes of Night Shift began taping in high-definition in June 2008, with the series airing Tuesdays at 11 p.m. and premiering on July 22, 2008.[4][5][5] SOAPnet said the second season "will feature new and returning characters as well as the return of 'legacy' characters from GH. In addition, the continuity between story lines on Night Shift and GH will match." [4]

References

Notes

  1. ↑ West, Abby. "17 Great Soap Supercouples: Luke and Laura", Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved on 2008-01-29. 
  2. ↑ Google Books Carol T. Williams, It's Time for My Story: Soap Opera Sources, Structure, and Response, Praeger (1992), ISBN 027594297X
  3. ↑ "GH Spinoff Planned For SOAPnet." - SoapCentral.com February 12, 2007.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Nordyke, Kimberly. "SoapNet renews Night Shift." The Hollywood Reporter. May 27, 2008.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Reynolds, Mike. "SoapNet Swings Into Second Night Shift." MultiChannel.com May 25, 2008.

Bibliography

External links

General Hospital
General Hospital characters (Current contract cast only)
Nikolas Cassadine · Sonny Corinthos · Nadine Crowell · Alexis Davis · Patrick Drake · Kate Howard · Matt Hunter · Carly Corinthos · Jasper Jacks · Epiphany Johnson · Maxie Jones · Ric Lansing · Sam McCall · Leyla Mir · Jason Morgan · Edward Quartermaine · Monica Quartermaine · Tracy Quartermaine · Mac Scorpio · Robin Scorpio · Lucky Spencer · Luke Spencer · Lulu Spencer · Damian Spinelli · Elizabeth Webber · Claudia Zacchara  · Johnny Zacchara
General Hospital characters (Recurring)
Bernie Abrahms · Alfred ·  · Scott Baldwin · Spencer Cassadine · Mike Corbin · Morgan Corinthos  · Kristina Davis · Noah Drake  · Olivia Falconeri  · Max Giambetti · Milo Giambetti · Alice Gunderson · Jane Jacks · Molly Lansing · Trevor Lansing · Kelly Lee · Diane Miller · Alan Quartermaine  · Cruz Rodriguez  · Bobbie Spencer · Jake Spencer · Laura Spencer · Cameron Webber · Lesley Webber · Lainey Winters  · Anthony Zacchara
Important crew
Executive Producer: Jill Farren Phelps
Head Writer: Robert Guza, Jr.
Former Executive producers: Gloria Monty · H. Wesley Kenny · Wendy Riche
Former headwriters: Bridget and Jerome Dobson · Douglas Marland · Pat Falken Smith · Norma Monty · Gene Palumbo · Claire Labine · Richard Culliton · Megan McTavish · Charles Pratt, Jr. · Garin Wolf
Related topics
Port Charles (Spin off series) · Port Charles (City) · Luke and Laura · General Hospital: Night Shift
History of General Hospital
1960s · 1970s · 1980s · 1990s · 2000s
U.S. daytime soap operas currently on the air

All My Children
(ABC)

General Hospital
(ABC)

Guiding Light
(CBS)

One Life to Live
(ABC)