Congrats on the 48th year GH!! Tomorrow, April 1st marks the big day!! First airing 1963, the soap was 30 minutes long. Some facts and fun stuff you might not know about your soap:
1. In 1976, General Hospital went from airing 30 minutes to 45. I remember being able to catch the last 15 minutes after school, that's how I got hooked. It went to an hour in 1978.
2. In 1964, a spin-off was created called "
The Young Marrieds"-- It was canceled after 2 years.
3. At first, the soap opera was set in a "General Hospital," there was no name for the city. Finally, in the '70's they christened the town "Port Charles"
4. In 1963, a young Leonard Nimoy played "Bernie" on the soap
5. The USC Medical Center's front gates was used for years in the opening sequence of GH
6. The Haunted Star was a wedding present to Luke and Laura
7. Scrubs and Liz Webber live in a suburb of Port Charles called "Queen's Point"
8. The Q's, Kate Howard and Sonny all live on Harbor View Road.
9. Luke was only mayor of PC for 2 short months
20. A kangaroo with an Aussie flag sat on Robert Scorpio's desk when he was police commissioner of PCPD.
21. Luke arrived to his wedding to Laura in a red 1909 Studebaker.
22. Jason took his last name from his Grandmother Lila Morgan.
23. Carly once owned "The Cellar" a restaurant located below Kelly's
24. When Lucy Coe was first introduced, she was a librarian
25. Because she went joy riding with Stone, Robin was given the punishment of not getting her driver's license until the age of 18.
26. Lila Quartermaine was actually a bigamist, having married Edward without first divorcing her husband Crane Tolliver.
27. "General Hospital" was going to be called "Emergency Hospital"
28. Elizabeth Taylor made $2000 during her stint on GH--she donated it all to charity
29. Michael had an imaginary friend named Jodie, he created after AJ Quartermaine died
30. Lucky and Sly started a worm farm to make money in the '90's
31. Meg Bennett, soap writer and Mrs. Bob Guza played Allegra, the woman who forced Sam to learn how to dance.
32. Luke was originally set to die in Laura's arms when he exited the show after 13 weeks.
33. Ami Dolenz joined the cast of GH in 1987, she is the daughter of Mickey Dolenz, of the Monkees
34. Jackie Zeman, who plays Bobbie Spencer, was a Playboy bunny at the NY Playboy Club in 1972
35. Stuart Damon was born in...Brooklyn NY
36. Rick Webber was killed by Scott Baldwin with a candlestick.
37. Prospect Studios, where GH is filmed was built as Vitagraph Studios in 1915
38. Laura killed she and her mother's lover, David Hamilton when she pushed him down the stairs. Laura was 16 years old when this happened.
39. Monica's maiden name is Bard.
40. Emily's mother Paige died of breast cancer, then the Quartermaine's adopted her
41. Shawn Cassidy played Dusty Walker, a singer at The Outback.
42. Genie Francis owns a home decor store in Belfast Maine called "The Cherished Home"
43. 2001 was the last year of the Nurses' Ball
44.When Anna Devane first appeared on GH, she had a long scar going down her face. This eventually disappeared, much like Mac's Aussie accent did.
45. The budget was in such trouble during the early years, John Beridino (Steve Hardy) was asked to take a pay cut on his $1,500 weekly salary in order to build sets.
46. Denise Alexander (Leslie) was on Days of Our Lives before joining GH
47. Tony Geary grew up in a town of less than 300 people (Coaltown Utah)
48. The soap "The Doctors" (NBC) premiered the same day (April1, 1063) as General Hospital (ABC)
7th FLOOR Nurses' Station!!