General Hospital Spinoff’s Resurrection Would Set Pulses Racing: It ‘Never Got Its Full Due’ — But Still May
It’s time. Past time, even, for ABC to put Port Charles back on the map.
The General Hospital spinoff, which ended its six-season run on October 3, 2003, began as a run-of-the-mill daytime drama focused on the love triangle of Kevin Collins, Lucy Coe and Scotty Baldwin, as well as the hospital’s medical residents. But halfway through its run, to get the struggling soap off life support, the powers that be gave it a shot of adrenaline, switching to a 13-week telenovela format and introducing a supernatural element.
The Gamble Paid Off… Just Not Well Enough
In short, it was genius — and gave afternoon television the kind of thrills and chills that it hadn’t had since Dark Shadows went off the air in 1971. All of sudden, instead of doctors and lawyers, viewers were following the exploits of vampires and angels.
In particular, Port Charles struck supercouple gold with the pairing of blood-sucker Caleb Morley (Michael Easton, later General Hospital doc Finn) and Livvie Locke (Kelly Monaco, Sam on the other side of town). But even they couldn’t bring the ratings up high enough to keep the axe from being swung by ABC boss Brian Frons (who infamously decimated the network’s once-great daytime lineup by also cancelling All My Children and One Life to Live).
That is, they couldn’t bring the ratings up high enough then. What about now?
Ahead of Its Time
Perhaps the audience wasn’t quite ready for Port Charles when it hit its stride. Perhaps it would have been the monster smash that it should’ve been later, after audiences had sunk their teeth into True Blood (2008-14), The Vampire Diaries (2009-17) and Twilight (the movie franchise that started attracting “fangs” in 2008). Perhaps the time for it is… actually… today.
“It was a cult hit which never got it’s full due… and sadly ended with no ending… just a cliffhanger,” Instagrammed Brian Gaskill, who played angel Rafe Kovich from 2001 until the show was sent prematurely to soap heaven. “I really, truly hoped we were going to get one more year to send it off right.”
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Unfinished Business
Instead, we were left to wonder what was to become of Caleb and Livvie, whose wish had left pal Alison Barrington pregnant with his baby. And there was the little matter of newcomer Imani being revealed as a werewolf that was never addressed…
Gaskill “was really looking forward to… whatever else was up the writers’ sleeves,” he said. Us, too. And we could still find out. Simply pull the stake out of Port Charles’ heart and follow the trail of blood back to where it left off. Easton is free, Monaco soon will be, and Jon Lindstrom, Lynn Herring and Kin Shriner are still very much a part of the General Hospital family.
Heck, Herring’s last leading man, Michael E. Knight (Martin), already has experience with angels. (More on that here.)
What do you think? Would you like to revisit Port Charles? On your way to the comments, check out the below photo gallery that revisits highlights of the show’s too-short run.