General Hospital intertitle (February 23, 2010 � present)
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| Show Name | General Hospital |
| Caption | General Hospital intertitle (February 23, 2010 � present) |
| Genre | Soap opera |
| Alternate Titles | GH |
| Creator | Frank and Doris Hursley |
| Executive Producer | Selig J. Seligman (1963)
James Young (1963-1975)
Tom Donovan (1975-1977)
Gloria Monty (1978 � 1987, 1990 � 1992)
H. Wesley Kenney (1987-1989)
Joseph Hardy (1989-1990)
Wendy Riche (1992 � 2001)
Jill Farren Phelps (2001 � present) |
| Head Writer | Robert Guza, Jr. |
| Location | Prospect Studios |
| Starring | List of General Hospital cast members |
| Senior Cast Members |
Leslie Charleson
Anthony Geary
Jane Elliot
Kimberly McCullough
John J. York
John Ingle
Jacklyn Zeman
Rachel Ames
Denise Alexander
Steve Burton
Vanessa Marcil
Maurice Benard|theme_music_composer=Dave Koz |
| Opentheme | Faces of the Heart |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| First Aired | April 1, 1963 |
| Last Aired | present |
| Num Episodes | 12,270 (as of March 21, 2011) |
| Camera | Multiple-camera setup |
| Run Time | 30 minutes (1963 � 1976)
45 minutes (1976 � 1978)
60 minutes (1978 � present) |
| Network | ABC |
| Related Shows | Port Charles
General Hospital: Night Shift
The Young Marrieds
General Hospital: Twist of Fate |
| Picture Format | 16x9 |
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'General Hospital' (commonly abbreviated 'GH') is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest-running American soap opera currently in production and the third longest running drama in television in American history after Guiding Light and As the World Turns. It premiered on the ABC television network on April 1, 1963. Broadcast weekdays and currently repeated nightly on SOAPnet, it is the longest-running serial produced in Hollywood, and the longest-running entertainment program in ABC television history. General Hospital rose to the top of the ratings in the early 1980s in part thanks to the monumentally popular "supercouple" Luke and Laura, whose 1981 wedding brought in 30 million viewers and remains the highest-rated hour in American soap opera history. In 2003, TV Guide named General Hospital the 'Great Soap Opera of All Time.' In 2007, General Hospital was listed as one of Time magazine's "100 Best TV Shows of All-TIME." General Hospital became the longest running American soap opera in production when As the World Turns ended its run on September 17, 2010.
The show was created by husband-and-wife soap writers Frank and Doris Hursley, who originally set it in a general hospital (hence the title) in an the unnamed fictional city; this city was later named Port Charles, New York in the 1970s. General Hospital was only the second soap to air on ABC (after the short-lived Road to Reality, which aired for several months during the 1960-61 season). Currently taped at The Prospect Studios, General Hospital originally aired for a half-hour. The series was expanded from 30 minutes to 45 minutes on July 23, 1976, and then to a full hour on January 16, 1978. It holds the record for most Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Drama Series, with 10 wins. In 1964, a sister soap was created for General Hospital, The Young Marrieds. It ran for only two years, and was cancelled due to low ratings in 1966. General Hospital also spawned a prime time spin-off with the same name in the United Kingdom from 1972 to 1979, as well as the daytime series Port Charles (1997 � 2003) and the prime time spin-off General Hospital: Night Shift (2007 � 2008) in the United States.
In April 2009, CBS announced that it did not renew Guiding Light, which was canceled and aired its final episode on September 18, 2009. This left General Hospital as the second longest running American soap opera currently on air, after As the World Turns. On December 8, 2009, CBS announced that they were cancelling As the World Turns and its final episode aired on September 17, 2010. General Hospital then became the longest-running daytime soap opera still featured on American television, having aired continuously since April 1, 1963. Concurrently, the British soap opera Coronation Street became the world's longest-running soap opera currently airing on television, having been on air since December 9, 1960.
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| Production summary : |
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| April 1, 1963 - November 21, 1963 |
[http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/WolfFiles/story?id=236498 |
| November 26, 1963 - April 11, 1975 |
Nearly eight months into General Hospitals 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. |
| April 14, 1975 - March 31, 1993 |
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 (Google Street View image from outside the gate:). 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. |
| April 1, 1993 - August 27, 2004 |
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 action scenes were added. On April 1, 2003, the show's 40th anniversary, the characters’ first names were added to the opening. |
| August 30, 2004 - February 22, 2010 |
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 portion featuring the male cast members remained the same throughout this version's use, in spite of the fact that most of the cast members featured there such as Ted King, M'fundo Morrison, and Scott Clifton had left the show by the time it was retired. Though departing actors continued to be removed from the main part of the sequence as needed, no new actors were added from July 2007 until the version's retirement in February 2010. Contract actors such as Claire Coffee, Sarah Brown, Natalia Livingston (who was previously featured in the opening as Emily and later returned as Rebecca) and Nazanin Boniadi came and went without ever appearing in this opening. |
| February 23, 2010 � present |
On February 23, 2010, General Hospital debuted its revamped, HD opening credits in honor of the series' 12,000th episode. It features brand new shots of the cast members (shot in September 2009) and features debut opening sequence shots for cast members that have joined since fall 2007 (the last time the "Sirens" opening added characters), including (in order of initiation to contract cast) Sonya Eddy, Brandon Barash, Jason Cook, Nathan Parsons, Drew Garrett, Dominic Zamprogna, Lexi Ainsworth, and Lisa LoCicero, as well as the re-introduction of Jonathan Jackson. The opening was updated in April 2010 with the recasting of Michael Corinthos III, now played by Chad Duell, proving the new opening will be prompt with updates. The opening starts out with the word "General" going left, then giving a shot of virtual Port Charles. Next there is a picture of a siren and then the cast are shown as in its former style. With each character, the actor and character names are displayed, with character-themed background footage (such as Spoon Island behind Nikolas and the Haunted Star casino behind Luke). Following the character shots, Anthony Geary is seen turning away from the camera, as in the previous opening package. The credits end with the show logo, now in Goudy Old Style font, backgrounded by another skyline shot. The theme music from the previous sequence was carried over into this sequence. |
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