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There exists in Soap Opera Land, a town that lives in infamy. The good citizens are as eclectic as they are traditional, as beautiful as they are common, and they navigate catastrophes almost daily with barely a backward glance. Port Charles, NY - Home of ABC's longest running soap opera, General Hospital.

Although it debuted on April Fools day in 1963, GH has been anything but a joke. Over the years it has proven to be a serious leader in its' ability to impact social mores, influencing everything from prime-time television to pop music. Major movie stars clamored for guest appearances as industry giants like Elizabeth Taylor signed on for a role. The show was parodied in prime-time frontrunners such as Saturday Night Live, and late-night comedic TV hosts had a full cache of material based on the antics of Port Charles citizenry. General Hospital put the Soap Opera on the map of mainstream television and Americans were flocking in droves down the road to Port Charles.

GH's roots go back to the infancy era of television, the 60's, when medical shows were considered the definition of contemporary drama. The prime-time ratings grabbers were NBC's Dr. Kildare and CBS's Ben Casey, M.D., so it followed that the major networks would produce a daytime version of the hospital / doctor craze. NBC introduced The Doctors, a daytime version of the medical phenomena on the same day that ABC launched General Hospital. The Doctors scored high with viewers: GH didn't fare as well. Critics panned it as amateur and boring, with cheap sets and lackluster storylines. The 7th floor nurses station was the hub around which all drama occurred and very few storylines were ever expanded outside the hospital.

Part of it's early years problem was the target audience. Executive producers snagged film star John Beradino to head up the cast as Chief of Internal Medicine, Steve Hardy, a stalwart, above reproach stereotypical, on-a-pedestal type of doctor who was a single male, but more dedicated to saving lives than scoring a relationship. Dr. Hardy was a lion in the hospital, but a pussycat in his private life, and this contrast that didn't strike a positive chord with the viewers. He didn't have the young good looks that competitive actors on the other soaps had, and the female audience, to whom the soap was targeted, didn't develop a love affair with the character. The female lead, head nurse Jessie, played by actress, Emily McLaughlin, also presented a mature nature and attracted only a

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