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158-555: General Hospital (often abbreviated as GH ) is an American daytime television soap opera . It is listed in Guinness World Records as the longest-running American soap opera in production , and the second in American history after Guiding Light . Concurrently, it is the world's third longest-running scripted drama series in production after British serials The Archers and Coronation Street , as well as

316-525: A heart transplantation storyline involves the death of eight-year-old B. J. Jones (daughter of Dr. Tony Jones and Bobbie Spencer ) in a bus crash and the subsequent donation of her heart to her dying cousin Maxie Jones . Shortly afterwards, Monica Quartermaine ( Leslie Charleson ) begins a long battle with breast cancer, which leads to her adopting Emily Quartermaine , the orphaned young daughter of Monica's friend from treatment. General Hospital

474-443: A "soap opera", it doesn't need to be long-running. , but some authors define the word in a way that excludes short-running serial dramas from their definition of "soap opera". BBC Radio 's The Archers , first broadcast in 1950, is the world's longest-running radio soap opera. The longest-running existing television soap is Coronation Street , which was first broadcast on ITV in 1960. According to Albert Moran, one of

632-611: A 40-year-plus run, were cancelled in 2011. All My Children aired its network finale in September 2011, with One Life to Live following suit in January 2012. Both All My Children and One Life to Live were briefly revived online in 2013, before being cancelled again that same year. In 2019, production of Days of Our Lives was put on "indefinite hiatus" and all of the cast's contracts were terminated, raising concerns within soap publications that cancellation would ensue, though

790-652: A 72-year run (including radio). As the World Turns aired its final episode on September 17, 2010, after a 54-year run. As the World Turns was the last of 20 soap operas produced by Procter & Gamble, the soap and consumer goods company from which the genre got its name. As the World Turns and Guiding Light were also among the last of the soaps that originated from New York City. All My Children , another New York–based soap, moved its production out to Los Angeles in an effort to reduce costs and raise sagging ratings; however, both it and One Life to Live , each with

948-577: A Drama Series and McCullough won an Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Younger Actress in a Drama Series award. ABC featured an Afterschool Special "Positive: A Journey Into AIDS" revolving around the AIDS story as well as The New York Times best selling novel Robin's Diary . On Saturday, December 14, 1996, General Hospital aired its one of three primetime episodes, General Hospital: Twist of Fate , which picked up where that Friday's episode had left off. The special centered on Laura's supposed death at

1106-538: A bonus round usually varies from the standard game play of the front game, and there are often borrowed or related elements of the main game in the bonus round to ensure the entire show has a unified premise. Though some end games are referred to as "bonus rounds", many are not specifically referred to as such in games but fit the same general role. There is no one formula for the format of a bonus round. There are differences in almost every bonus round, though there are many recurring elements from show to show. The bonus round

1264-465: A certain amount of money or a limit on how many episodes, usually five, on which a player could appear on a show. The introduction of syndicated games, particularly in the 1980s, eventually allowed for more valuable prizes and extended runs on a particular show. British television was under even stricter regulations on prizes until the 1990s, seriously restricting the value of prizes that could be given and disallowing games of chance to have an influence on

1422-400: A dead body, but hey, even if you do, he or she can always come back to play the evil identical twin. Marlena Laird in 1992, during her time as a line producer and director for General Hospital . Romance , secret relationships, extramarital affairs, and genuine hate have been the basis for many soap opera storylines. In US daytime serials, the most popular soap opera characters, and

1580-463: A fixture of American daytime television in the early 1950s, joined by game shows , sitcom reruns and talk shows. In 1988, H. Wesley Kenney , who at the time served as the executive producer of General Hospital , said to The New York Times : I think people like stories that continue so they can relate to these people. They become like a family, and the viewer becomes emotionally involved. There seem to be two attitudes by viewers. One, that

1738-511: A funeral. Once Tylo reprised her character in 2005, a retcon explained that Taylor had actually gone into a coma. Stunts and complex physical action are largely absent, especially from daytime serials. Such story events often take place off-screen and are referred to in dialogue instead of being shown. This is because stunts or action scenes are difficult to adequately depict without complex movements, multiple takes, and post-production editing. When episodes were broadcast live, post-production work

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1896-636: A game for rewards. The shows are typically directed by a host , who explains the rules of the program as well as commentating and narrating where necessary. The history of the game shows dates back to the late 1930s when both radio and television game shows were broadcast. The genre became popular in the United States in the 1950s, becoming a regular feature of daytime television. On most game shows, contestants answer questions or solve puzzles, and win prizes such as cash, trips and goods and services . Game shows began to appear on radio and television in

2054-401: A game show receives a subsidy from an advertiser in return for awarding that manufacturer's product as a prize or consolation prize . Some products supplied by manufacturers may not be intended to be awarded and are instead just used as part of the gameplay such as the low-priced items used in several The Price is Right pricing games . Although in this show the smaller items (sometimes even in

2212-432: A given environment. Several game shows returned to daytime in syndication during this time as well, such as Family Feud , Hollywood Squares , and Millionaire . Wheel of Fortune , Jeopardy! and Family Feud have continued in syndication. To keep pace with the prime-time quiz shows, Jeopardy! doubled its question values in 2001 and lifted its winnings limit in 2003, which one year later allowed Ken Jennings to become

2370-448: A heavy emphasis on comedy, leaving the points as mere formalities. The focus on quick-witted comedians has resulted in strong ratings, which, combined with low costs of production, have only spurred growth in the UK panel show phenomenon. Game shows remained a fixture of US daytime television through the 1960s after the quiz show scandals. Lower-stakes games made a slight comeback in daytime in

2528-609: 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 from an experimental 45 minutes to a full hour. 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 the new executive producer, and on her first day, she spent an extra $ 100,000 re-taping four episodes. A miracle occurred thanks to Monty and head writer Douglas Marland ;

2686-432: A married couple whose onscreen and real-life romance was widely covered by both the soap opera magazines and the mainstream press at large. The first program generally considered to be a "soap opera" or daytime serial by scholars of the genre is Painted Dreams , which premiered on WGN radio Chicago, on October 20, 1930. It was regularly broadcast in a daytime time slot, where most listeners would be housewives; thus,

2844-403: A modernized revival of Jeopardy! to syndication in 1983 and 1984, respectively, was and remains highly successful; the two are, to this day, fixtures in the prime time "access period". During this "access" period, a contestant named Mark Anthony DiBello became and is still known to be the only person to win automobiles on two of the most popular game shows The Wheel of Fortune and The Price

3002-408: A number of different distributors throughout the show's history. From its beginning until 1968, it was a co-production of Plitt Theatres and Selmur Productions. ABC bought the series outright in 1968 and its ownership passed from Selmur to American Broadcasting Companies, Inc., ABC's old separate conglomerate. Ownership of the soap was then passed in 1986 to Capital Cities/ABC , which was formed after

3160-522: A number of original game concepts that appeared near the same time, including Awake , Deal or No Deal (which originally aired in 2005), Child Support , Hollywood Game Night , 1 vs. 100 , Minute to Win It (which originally aired in 2010), The Wall , and a string of music-themed games such as Don't Forget the Lyrics! , The Singing Bee , and Beat Shazam . The popularity of game shows in

3318-583: A number of soap actors were also accomplished stage actors who performed live theater during breaks from their soap roles. In the 1960s and 1970s, new serials such as General Hospital , Days of our Lives , and The Young and the Restless were produced in Los Angeles . Their success made the West Coast a viable alternative to New York-produced soap operas, which were becoming more costly to perform. By

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3476-425: A particular place, or focus on a large extended family. The storylines follow the day-to-day activities and personal relationships of these characters. "Soap narratives, like those of film melodramas, are marked by what Steve Neale has described as 'chance happenings, coincidences, missed meetings, sudden conversions, last-minute rescues and revelations, deus ex machina endings.'" These elements may be found across

3634-525: A radio drama in January 1937 and subsequently transferred to television in June 1952. With the exception of several years in the late 1940s, during which creator Irna Phillips was involved in a dispute with Procter & Gamble , Guiding Light was heard or seen nearly every weekday from 1937 to 2009, making it the longest story ever told in a broadcast medium. Originally serials were broadcast as 15-minute installments each weekday in daytime slots. In 1956, As

3792-563: A regular writer. The change took effect on January 9, 2012. The first episode under the direction of Valentini aired on February 1, 2012, with Carlivati's material beginning on February 21. Several storylines reminiscent of iconic story arcs of the past were created and popular characters returned to the show in order to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the series in 2013. The serial celebrated 13,000 episodes on February 24, 2014, and marked its 51st anniversary several weeks later on April 1. Also in January 2014, ABC renewed Carlivati's contract with

3950-508: A renaissance for a brief period in the middle of 1984, and became the #1-rated soap, briefly dethroning General Hospital from the top ratings spot). 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. Even at its peak in

4108-510: A series of daily prime time soaps from 2006 to 2007, which aired on newly created sister network MyNetworkTV , but the experiment was largely a failure after disappointing ratings). Due to the masses of episodes produced for a series, release of soap operas to DVD (a popular venue for distribution of current and vintage television series) is considered impractical. With the exception of occasional specials, daytime soap operas are notable by their absence from DVD release schedules (an exception being

4266-525: A short time from 1979 to 1980). More than half of the serials had expanded to one-hour episodes by 1980. As of 2012, three of the four U.S. serials air one-hour episodes each weekday; only The Bold and the Beautiful airs 30-minute episodes. Soap operas were originally broadcast live from the studio, creating what many at the time regarded as a feeling similar to that of a stage play. As nearly all soap operas were originated at that time from New York City ,

4424-484: A single missing episode) was rerun on the Sci-Fi Channel in the 1990s. After The Edge of Night 's 1984 cancellation, reruns of the show's final five years were shown late nights on USA Network from 1985 to 1989. On January 20, 2000, a digital cable and satellite network dedicated to the genre, Soapnet , began re-airing soaps that originally aired on ABC, NBC and CBS. Newer broadcast networks since

4582-462: A soap opera will generally switch between several concurrent narrative threads that may at times interconnect and affect one another or may run entirely independent to each other. Episodes may feature some of the show's storylines, but not always all of them. Especially in daytime serials and those that are broadcast each weekday, there is some rotation of both storyline and actors so any given storyline or actor will appear in some but usually not all of

4740-484: A spin-off, Family Feud , on ABC in 1976. The $ 10,000 Pyramid and its numerous higher-stakes derivatives also debuted in 1973, while the 1970s also saw the return of formerly disgraced producer and game show host Jack Barry , who debuted The Joker's Wild and a clean version of the previously rigged Tic-Tac-Dough in the 1970s. Wheel of Fortune debuted on NBC in 1975. The Prime Time Access Rule , which took effect in 1971, barred networks from broadcasting in

4898-413: A traditional solo bonus round in 1978, but this version was not a success and the round was replaced by the original Final Jeopardy! when the show returned in 1984. The Price Is Right uses a knockout tournament format, in which the six contestants to make it onstage are narrowed to two in a "Showcase Showdown;" these two winners then move on to the final Showcase round to determine the day's winner. Until

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5056-401: A week's worth of episodes. Soap operas rarely conclude all their storylines at the same time. When one storyline ends, there are several other story threads at differing stages of development . Soap opera episodes typically end on some sort of cliffhanger , and the season finale (if a soap incorporates a break between seasons) ends in the same way, only to be resolved when the show returns for

5214-479: A week, twice a day. Game shows were the lowest priority of television networks and were rotated out every thirteen weeks if unsuccessful. Most tapes were wiped until the early 1980s. Over the course of the 1980s and early 1990s, as fewer new hits (e.g. Press Your Luck , Sale of the Century , and Card Sharks ) were produced, game shows lost their permanent place in the daytime lineup. ABC transitioned out of

5372-543: Is Right , hosted by the longest-tenured American game show hosts, Pat Sajak and Bob Barker , respectively. Cable television also allowed for the debut of game shows such as Supermarket Sweep and Debt (Lifetime), Trivial Pursuit and Family Challenge (Family Channel), and Double Dare (Nickelodeon). It also opened up a previously underdeveloped market for game show reruns. General interest networks such as CBN Cable Network (forerunner to Freeform ) and USA Network had popular blocks for game show reruns from

5530-420: Is also known for its high-profile celebrity guest stars who have included, among others, Roseanne Barr , James Franco and Elizabeth Taylor . In 2007, the program was listed as one of Time magazine's "100 Best TV Shows of All-Time". On April 23, 2009, General Hospital began broadcasting in high-definition television , making it the first ABC soap opera to make such a transition. General Hospital became

5688-533: Is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the actor with the longest uninterrupted performance in a single role. A number of performers played roles for 20 years or longer, occasionally on more than one show. Rachel Ames played Audrey Hardy on both General Hospital and Port Charles from 1964 until 2007, and returned in 2009. Susan Lucci played Erica Kane in All My Children from

5846-610: Is not scheduled or because of last-minute deferrals of scheduled episodes to the following day because of breaking news coverage. ( Temporary production stoppages caused by the COVID-19 pandemic similarly resulted in CBS and ABC airing older reruns of The Young and the Restless , The Bold and the Beautiful and General Hospital during the Spring and Summer of 2020 in order to ration first-run episodes and, eventually, to fill airtime after

6004-473: Is not uncommon for a single character to be played by multiple actors. The key character of Mike Karr on The Edge of Night was played by three actors. Conversely, several actors have remained playing the same character for many years, or decades even. Helen Wagner played Hughes family matriarch Nancy Hughes on American soap As the World Turns from its April 2, 1956, debut through her death in May 2010. She

6162-400: Is often played for the show's top prize. It is almost always played without an opponent; two notable exceptions to this are Jeopardy! and the current version of The Price Is Right . On Jeopardy! , the final round involves all remaining contestants with a positive score wagering strategically to win the game and be invited back the next day; Jeopardy! attempted to replace this round with

6320-549: Is the second American prime time spinoff of a daytime drama (the first being Our Private World , a spinoff 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. 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

6478-511: The 1950s quiz show scandals and ratings declines led to most of the primetime games being canceled. An early variant of the game show, the panel show , survived the quiz show scandals. On shows like What's My Line? , I've Got a Secret , and To Tell the Truth , panels of celebrities would interview a guest in an effort to determine some fact about them; in others, celebrities would answer questions. Panel games had success in primetime until

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6636-602: The Daytime Emmy Awards were created. In 2012, the Creative Arts Emmy Awards were created. General Hospital has won 16 Daytime Emmys for Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series . In June 2009, TV Guide ranked "Luke and Laura's Wedding" at number forty-five on its list of the 100 Greatest Episodes. In December 2023, Variety ranked General Hospital number eighty-eight on its list of "100 Greatest TV Shows of All Time". Citing

6794-516: The Quartermaine family and the Spencer family . From 1979 to 1988, General Hospital had more viewers than any other daytime soap opera. It 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. The soap opera

6952-527: The hashtag #GHLive to promote the broadcast on social media. On December 15, 2023, it was announced ABC would air a primetime special General Hospital: 60 Years of Stars and Storytelling , in celebration of the soap's sixtieth anniversary. The special featured interviews with present and former cast members, behind-the-scenes footage, blooper reels and a "special fan tribute". The special aired on January 4, 2024. Soap opera According to some dictionaries, for something to be adequately described as

7110-520: The 1960s, most game shows did not offer a bonus round. In traditional two-player formats, the winner – if a game show's rules provided for this – became the champion and simply played a new challenger either on the next show or after the commercial break. One of the earliest forms of bonus rounds was the Jackpot Round of the original series Beat the Clock . After two rounds of performing stunts,

7268-491: The 1970s, became one of the first older women on the American serials to enter the workforce. Guiding Light dealt with Bert Bauer ( Charita Bauer ) and her alcoholic husband Bill, and their endless marital troubles. When Bert's status shifted to caring mother and town matriarch, her children's marital troubles were showcased. Search for Tomorrow mostly told its story through the eyes of Joanne Gardner ( Mary Stuart ). Even when stories revolved around other characters, Joanne

7426-531: The 1980s, General Hospital had been pre-empted in at least two markets in the United States. With the show still number one in the Nielsens, WDTN in Dayton, Ohio preempted the series upon joining ABC in January 1980 in favor of Woody Woodpecker and Super Friends cartoons. Later, the station would air such shows as Hour Magazine , Geraldo and Maury in the show's timeslot until September 2000, when

7584-455: The 1990s and 2000s incorporated supernatural and science fiction elements into their storylines in an attempt to boost their ratings. One of the main characters on the earlier soap opera Dark Shadows was Barnabas Collins , a vampire, and One Life to Live featured an angel named Virgil. Both shows featured characters who traveled to and from the past. In 1995, Days of our Lives featured a storyline in which fan favorite character Marlena Evans

7742-401: The 1990s was a major factor in the explosion of high-stakes game shows in the later part of that decade in both the U.S. and Britain and, subsequently, around the world. A bonus round (also known as a bonus game or an end game) usually follows a main game as a bonus to the winner of that game. In the bonus round, the stakes are higher and the game is considered to be tougher. The game play of

7900-457: The 1990s, allowing for higher-stakes games to be played. After the popularity of game shows hit a nadir in the mid-1990s United States (at which point The Price Is Right was the only game show still on daytime network television and numerous game shows designed for cable television were canceled), the British game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? began distribution around the globe. Upon

8058-455: The 2 p.m. ET/PT timeslot starting on September 10, 2012, and that the network would give the 3:00 p.m. hour back to its affiliates, as it was the recommended time slot for Katie Couric 's new, ABC- syndicated talk show, Katie . Encore episodes were shown every weeknight on the former cable channel Soapnet , with a marathon on Saturday and classic episodes at 4 a.m. EST and 5 a.m. (3 a.m. and 4 a.m. CST). Production of General Hospital

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8216-427: The 7–8 p.m. time slot immediately preceding prime time , opening up time slots for syndicated programming. Most of the syndicated programs were "nighttime" adaptations of network daytime game shows. These game shows originally aired once a week, but by the late 1970s and early 1980s most of the games had transitioned to five days a week. Many people were amazed at this and in the late 2000s, gameshows were aired 7 times

8374-526: The Luke and Laura pairing as reason for the soap's "stratospheric heights", the magazine also called the soap's celebration of it sixtieth anniversary a "feat". 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's The Price Is Right , already

8532-399: The U.S. since the 2000s. As of September 2022, only four daytime soap operas – General Hospital , Days of Our Lives , The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful – are still in production with three airing on two broadcast networks and one on streaming, down from a total of 12 soaps broadcast during the 1990–91 season and a high of 19 in the 1969–70 season. This marks

8690-532: The United States was closely paralleled around the world. Reg Grundy Organisation , for instance, would buy the international rights for American game shows and reproduce them in other countries, especially in Grundy's native Australia . Dutch producer Endemol ( later purchased by American companies Disney and Apollo Global Management , then resold to French company Banijay ) has created and released numerous game shows and reality television formats popular around

8848-455: The World Turns and The Edge of Night , both produced by Procter & Gamble Productions , debuted as the first half-hour soap operas on the CBS television network. All soap operas broadcast half-hour episodes by the end of the 1960s. With increased popularity in the 1970s, most soap operas had expanded to an hour in length by the end of the decade ( Another World even expanded to 90 minutes for

9006-491: The acquisition of ABC by a smaller media concern, Capital Cities Communications. The Walt Disney Company bought Capital Cities/ABC in 1996, and Disney has held ownership of the soap since then. Production of General Hospital was suspended in March 2020, as a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States . Production resumed on July 22 of the same year; new episodes began airing on August 3, 2020. General Hospital

9164-401: The cast and crew ventured to Jamaica to tape a love consummation storyline between the characters of Garth and Kathy. During the 1980s, perhaps as a reaction to the evening drama series that were gaining high ratings, daytime serials began to incorporate action and adventure storylines, more big-business intrigue, and an increased emphasis on youthful romance. One of the most popular couples

9322-433: The cast and storylines are rotated across the week's episodes so that each cast member will appear in some but not all episodes. UK and Australian soap operas move through storylines at a faster rate than daytime serials, making them closer to U.S. evening soap operas in this regard. American daytime soap operas feature stylistic elements that set them apart from other shows: Soap opera ratings have significantly fallen in

9480-427: The channel during its first season. General Hospital: Twist of Fate was a primetime special that aired on Saturday, December 14, 1996. The episode picked up where that Friday's show had left off. The special centered on Laura's supposed death at the hands of Stefan Cassadine . On April 2, 1998, General Hospital aired a primetime special in celebration of the program's 35th anniversary. Hosted by Anthony Geary ,

9638-454: The daily episode format of its daytime counterparts) and Another Life (a soap that combined standard serial drama with religious overtones), during the 1980s. Fox, the fourth "major network" , carried a short-lived daytime soap Tribes in 1990. Yet, other than this and a couple of pilot attempts, Fox mainly stayed away from daytime soaps, and has not attempted them since their ascension to major-network status in 1994 (it did later attempt

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9796-424: The daytime game show format in the mid-1980s (briefly returning to the format for one season in 1990 with a Match Game revival). NBC's game block also lasted until 1991, but the network attempted to bring them back in 1993 before cancelling its game show block again in 1994. CBS phased out most of its game shows, except for The Price Is Right , by 1993. To the benefit of the genre, the moves of Wheel of Fortune and

9954-406: The daytime series Port Charles (1997–2003) and the primetime spin-off General Hospital: Night Shift (2007–2008). Taped at The Prospect Studios , General Hospital aired for a half-hour until July 23, 1976. The series was expanded from 30 minutes to 45 minutes on July 26, 1976, and then to a full hour on January 16, 1978. Ever since the late 1970s, most of the storylines have revolved around

10112-450: The defining features that make a television program a soap opera is "that form of television that works with a continuous open narrative. Each episode ends with a promise that the storyline is to be continued in another episode". In 2012, Los Angeles Times columnist Robert Lloyd wrote of daily dramas: Although melodramatically eventful, soap operas such as this also have a luxury of space that makes them seem more naturalistic; indeed,

10270-508: The demographic group for which soap opera advertisers pay the most. Those who might watch in workplace breakrooms are not counted, as Nielsen does not track television viewing outside the home. The rise of cable and the Internet has also provided new sources of entertainment during the day. The genre's decline has additionally been attributed to reality television displacing soap operas as TV's dominant form of melodrama. An early term for

10428-493: The discontinuation of The Price Is Right $ 1,000,000 Spectacular series of prime-time specials. In April 2008, three of the contestants on The Price Is Right $ 1,000,000 Spectacular won the top prize in a five-episode span after fifteen episodes without a winner, due in large part to a change in the rules. The insurance companies had made it extremely difficult to get further insurance for the remaining episodes. A network or syndicator may also opt to distribute large cash prizes in

10586-403: The early 1960s; examples include Jeopardy! which began in 1964 and the original version of The Match Game first aired in 1962. Let's Make a Deal began in 1963 and the 1960s also marked the debut of Hollywood Squares , Password , The Dating Game , and The Newlywed Game . Though CBS gave up on daytime game shows in 1968, the other networks did not follow suit. Color television

10744-442: The early 1970s, nearly all soap operas had transitioned to being taped. As the World Turns and The Edge of Night were the last to make the switch, in 1975. Port Charles used the practice of running 13-week " story arcs ," in which the main events of the arc are played out and wrapped up over the 13 weeks, although some storylines did continue over more than one arc. According to the 2006 Preview issue of Soap Opera Digest , it

10902-419: The economics of the form demand long scenes, and conversations that a 22-episodes-per-season weekly series might dispense with in half a dozen lines of dialogue may be drawn out, as here, for pages. You spend more time even with the minor characters; the apparent villains grow less apparently villainous. Soap opera storylines run concurrently, intersect and lead into further developments. An individual episode of

11060-514: The episode focused on Francis' Laura Spencer . On January 22, 2024, it was announced Van Etten and O'Connor had been dismissed from their positions as co-head writers; former associate head writer Patrick Mulcahey and present script editor Elizabeth Korte were named as their replacements. Per reports, material from the former regime aired into March 2024. Five months later, it was announced Mulcahey had been dismissed from his position as head writer. Mulcahey's final credited episode aired on August 6;

11218-470: The exotic appeal of the stereotypes connected to the location. As examples, EastEnders focuses on the tough and grim life in the East End of London; Coronation Street and its characters exhibit the stereotypical characteristic of "northern straight talking". If we want to blend an actor back into a show, there's always a way. You can generally find a way to twist and manipulate something. You rarely see

11376-433: The first black woman to host a prime time game show, Pay It Off . The rise of digital television in the United States opened up a large market for rerun programs. Buzzr was established by Fremantle , owners of numerous classic U.S. game shows, as a broadcast outlet for its archived holdings in June 2015. There was also a rise of live game shows at festivals and public venues, where the general audience could participate in

11534-428: The first network daytime serial. The main characteristics that define soap operas are "an emphasis on family life, personal relationships, sexual dramas, emotional and moral conflicts; some coverage of topical issues; set in familiar domestic interiors with only occasional excursions into new locations". Fitting in with these characteristics, most soap operas follow the lives of a group of characters who live or work in

11692-429: The first new daytime soap opera to premiere on a major broadcast network since Passions in 1999. As women increasingly worked outside of the home, daytime television viewing declined. New generations of potential viewers were not raised watching soap operas with their mothers, leaving the shows' long and complex storylines foreign to younger audiences. As viewers age, ratings continue to drop among young adult women,

11850-520: The first soap opera since Generations to feature an African American cast. On April 12, 2024, CBS renewed The Talk for a 15th and final season, with the show concluding in December 2024. Three days later, on April 15, The Gates (now titled " Beyond the Gates ") was greenlit by CBS and is slated to premiere on February 24, 2025, likely to take the time slot of The Talk , meaning it will be

12008-530: The first time since 1953 that there have been only four soap operas airing on broadcast television . The Young and the Restless , the highest-rated soap opera from 1988 to the present, had fewer than 5 million daily viewers as of February 2012, a number exceeded by several non-scripted programs such as Judge Judy . Circulations of soap opera magazines have decreased and some have even ceased publication. Soapnet, which largely aired soap opera reruns, began to be phased out in 2012 and fully ceased operations

12166-400: The first to be regularly scheduled. The first episode of each aired in 1941 as an experimental broadcast. Over the course of the 1950s, as television began to pervade the popular culture, game shows quickly became a fixture. Daytime game shows would be played for lower stakes to target stay-at-home housewives. Higher-stakes programs would air in prime time . (One particular exception in this era

12324-596: The following day, it was announced Van Etten would resume the role of co-head writer credit, with Cathy LePard named as associate head writer. General Hospital has aired on the ABC television network and has been filmed in Hollywood since its inception. The show was filmed in the Sunset Gower Studios from 1963 to the mid-1980s. It relocated in the 1980s to The Prospect Studios . General Hospital has had

12482-495: The following year. The Daytime Emmy Awards , which honor soap operas and other daytime shows, moved from prime time network television to smaller cable channels in 2012, then failed to get any TV broadcast at all in 2014, 2016, and 2017. Several of the U.S.'s most established soaps ended between 2009 and 2012. The longest-running drama in television and radio history, Guiding Light , barely reached 2.1 million daily viewers in 2009 and ended on September 18 of that year, after

12640-406: The form of an annuity , spreading the cost of the prize out over several years or decades. From about 1960 through the rest of the 20th century, American networks placed restrictions on the amount of money that could be given away on a game show, in an effort to avoid a repeat of the scandals of the 1950s. This usually took the form of an earnings cap that forced a player to retire once they had won

12798-734: The gamut of soap operas, from EastEnders to Dallas . In many soap operas, in particular daytime serials in the US, the characters are frequently attractive, seductive, glamorous and wealthy. Soap operas from the United Kingdom and Australia tend to focus on more everyday characters and situations, and are frequently set in working-class environments. Many of the soaps produced in those two countries explore social realist storylines such as family discord, marriage breakdown or financial problems. Both UK and Australian soap operas feature comedic elements, often affectionate comic stereotypes such as

12956-413: The gossip or the grumpy old man, presented as a comic foil to the emotional turmoil that surrounds them. This diverges from US soap operas where such comedy is rare. UK soap operas frequently make a claim to presenting "reality" or purport to have a "realistic" style. UK soap operas also frequently foreground their geographic location as a key defining feature of the show while depicting and capitalising on

13114-471: The hands of Stefan Cassadine . In 1997, the show's long-rumored spin-off materialized into the half-hour serial, Port Charles . The series' 11,000th episode aired on February 20, 2006. On April 23, 2009, General Hospital became ABC's first regular daytime drama to be taped and broadcast in High-definition television , though the 2008 season of its primetime spinoff General Hospital: Night Shift

13272-592: The hospital than General Hospital itself. It also included the characters of Scott Baldwin , Serena Baldwin , Lucy Coe , Kevin Collins , and Karen Wexler , all of whom originally appeared as characters on General Hospital . As the show evolved, it tended more towards gothic intrigue, including supernatural elements such as vampires and afterlife . 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

13430-439: The hospital. Port Charles is full of "dysfunctional family dynamics ... and family drama remains the focal point of this town." The current families on the show include the quarreling and wealthy Quartermaine family, the mobster crime Corinthos family, the middle class Scorpio/Jones family, the aristocratic Cassadine family, and the adventurous Spencer family. Since the series began in 1963, Port Charles, New York , has been

13588-422: The imitator million-dollar shows were canceled (one of those exceptions was Winning Lines , which continued to air in the United Kingdom until 2004 even though it was canceled in the United States in early 2000); these higher stakes contests nevertheless opened the door to reality television contests such as Survivor and Big Brother , in which contestants win large sums of money for outlasting their peers in

13746-409: The impetus for a completely new game show. The first part of Match Game ' s "Super-Match" bonus round, called the "Audience Match", asked contestants to guess how a studio audience responded to a question. In 1975, with then regular panelist Richard Dawson becoming restless and progressively less cooperative, Goodson decided that this line of questioning would make a good game show of its own, and

13904-410: The late 1930s. The first television game show, Spelling Bee , as well as the first radio game show, Information Please , were both broadcast in 1938; the first major success in the game show genre was Dr. I.Q. , a radio quiz show that began in 1939. Truth or Consequences was the first game show to air on commercially licensed television; CBS Television Quiz followed shortly thereafter as

14062-435: The late 1960s and into the 1970s. Exterior shots were slowly incorporated into the series The Edge of Night and Dark Shadows . Unlike many earlier serials that were set in fictional towns, The Best of Everything and Ryan's Hope were set in a real-world location, New York City. The first exotic location shoot was made by All My Children , to St. Croix in 1978. Many other soap operas planned lavish storylines after

14220-410: The late 1960s, when they were collectively dropped from television because of their perceived low budget nature. Panel games made a comeback in American daytime television (where the lower budgets were tolerated) in the 1970s through comedy-driven shows such as Match Game and Hollywood Squares . In the UK, commercial demographic pressures were not as prominent, and restrictions on game shows made in

14378-484: The late 1980s, such as Fox and cable television networks, have largely eschewed soap operas in their daytime schedules, instead running syndicated programming and reruns. No cable television outlet has produced its own daytime serial, although DirecTV 's The 101 Network took over existing serial Passions , continuing production for one season; while TBS and CBN Cable Network respectively aired their own soap operas, The Catlins (a primetime soap that utilized

14536-633: The long-running Definition ). Unlike reality television franchises, international game show franchises generally only see Canadian adaptations in a series of specials, based heavily on the American versions but usually with a Canadian host to allow for Canadian content credits (one of those exceptions was Le Banquier , a Quebec French-language version of Deal or No Deal which aired on TVA from 2008 to 2015). The smaller markets and lower revenue opportunities for Canadian shows in general also affect game shows there, with Canadian games (especially Quebecois ones) often having very low budgets for prizes, unless

14694-494: The long-running soap opera has had one sister serial, one spinoff in the United States, and two primetime spinoffs in the United States and the United Kingdom. The Young Marrieds was ABC's first attempt at a sister serial for General Hospital . It ran for only two years, racking up a total of 380 episodes. Despite its moderate popularity, it was aired against CBS 's top-rated The Edge of Night , which it could not compete against. The series finale aired on March 25, 1966, with

14852-438: The longest serving actress on an ABC soap opera, having been continuously on the show from 1964 to 2007. General Hospital was the second soap to air on ABC (after the short-lived Road to Reality , which aired for several months during the 1960–61 season). In 1964, a sister soap was created for General Hospital , The Young Marrieds ; it ran for two years and was canceled because of low ratings. General Hospital also spawned

15010-449: The loyalty of the soap opera fan base and the expansion of several half-hour series into hour-long broadcasts in order to maximise advertising revenues. The article explained that at that time, many prime time series lost money, while daytime serials earned profits several times more than their production costs. The issue's cover notably featured its first daytime soap stars, Bill Hayes and Susan Seaforth Hayes of Days of Our Lives ,

15168-532: The matriarch of The Guiding Light , Bert Bauer, developed uterine cancer (as the actress, Charita Bauer , had been diagnosed with the same illness in real life). The storyline encouraged many women to get pap smears and the CBS mailroom in New York City received a then-record amount of fan mail wishing Bauer (both Bert and Charita) well. Nixon would go on to tell many socially relevant storylines on her soaps One Life to Live and All My Children in

15326-596: The mid-1980s to the mid-'90s before that niche market was overtaken by Game Show Network in 1994. In the United Kingdom , game shows have had a more steady and permanent place in the television lineup and never lost popularity in the 1990s as they did in the United States, due in part to the fact that game shows were highly regulated by the Independent Broadcasting Authority in the 1980s and that those restrictions were lifted in

15484-463: The mid-2010s. In 2016, ABC packaged the existing Celebrity Family Feud , which had returned in 2015, with new versions of To Tell the Truth , The $ 100,000 Pyramid , and Match Game in 2016; new versions of Press Your Luck and Card Sharks would follow in 2019. TBS launched a cannabis -themed revival of The Joker's Wild , hosted by Snoop Dogg , in October 2017. This is in addition to

15642-439: The most popular storylines, often involved a romance of the sort presented in paperback romance novels . Soap opera storylines weave intricate, convoluted and sometimes confusing tales of characters who have affairs, meet mysterious strangers and fall in love, and who commit adultery, all of which keeps audiences hooked on the unfolding story. Crimes such as kidnapping, assault (sometimes sexual), and even murder may go unpunished if

15800-507: The most successful game show contestants in America would likely never be cast in a British or Australian game show for fear of having them dominate the game, according to Mark Labbett , who appeared in all three countries on the game show The Chase . The Japanese game show is a distinct format, borrowing heavily from variety formats, physical stunts and athletic competitions. The Japanese style has been adapted overseas (and at one point

15958-459: The much-younger Phil Brewer (originally portrayed by Roy Thinnes ; lastly by Martin West ) was the center of many early storylines. In 1964 Audrey Hardy ( Rachel Ames ), a flight attendant and sister of Nurse Lucille ( Lucille Wall ), came to town, and was the woman who won Steve's heart. By the end of the 1970s, General Hospital was facing dire ratings when executive producer Gloria Monty

16116-452: The oldest American soap opera on September 17, 2010, following the final broadcast of CBS ' As the World Turns . On April 14, 2011, ABC announced the cancellation of both All My Children and One Life to Live , leaving General Hospital as the last remaining soap opera airing on the network after January 13, 2012. The show celebrated its 50th anniversary on April 1, 2013, and its 15,000th episode on June 22, 2022. General Hospital

16274-421: The perpetrator is to be retained in the ongoing story. Australian and UK soap operas also feature a significant proportion of romance storylines. In Russia, most popular serials explore the "romantic quality" of criminal and/or oligarch life. In soap opera storylines, previously unknown children, siblings and twins (including the evil variety ) of established characters often emerge to upset and reinvigorate

16432-411: The programs ran out of new episodes to broadcast; Days of Our Lives , which produces its episodes roughly eight months ahead of their initial broadcast, did not resort to airing older episodes during this time as it had a larger first-run episode backlog.) Early episodes of Dark Shadows were rerun on PBS member stations in the early 1970s after the show's cancellation, and the entire series (except for

16590-601: The prosperous Brooks family with four daughters, and the working-class Foster family of a single working mother with three children. Its storylines explored realistic problems including cancer, mental illness, poverty, and infidelity. In contrast, Dark Shadows (1966–1971), Port Charles (1997–2003) and Passions (1999–2008) featured supernatural characters and dealt with fantasy and horror storylines. Their characters included vampires, witches, ghosts, goblins, and angels. The American soap opera Guiding Light (originally titled The Guiding Light until 1975) started as

16748-446: The ratings during that time, and from late 1991 to 1996 All My Children held the title of ABC's highest-rated soap. After months of speculation and cancellation rumors, Deadline Hollywood reported on April 11, 2012, that ABC quietly made the decision to keep General Hospital on the air and to cancel instead the lower-rated talk show The Revolution . On June 26, 2012, ABC officially announced that General Hospital would move to

16906-411: The reality TV genre was docu-soap . A precursor to reality TV, the televised 1994–95 O. J. Simpson murder case , both preempted and competed with an entire season of soaps, transforming viewing habits and leaving soap operas with 10 percent fewer viewers after the trial ended. Game show A game show (or gameshow ) is a genre of broadcast viewing entertainment where contestants compete in

17064-496: The results of the game. (Thus, the British version of The Price Is Right at first did not include the American version's "Showcase Showdown", in which contestants spun a large wheel to determine who would advance to the Showcase bonus round.) In Canada, prizes were limited not by bureaucracy but necessity, as the much smaller population limited the audience of shows marketed toward that country. The lifting of these restrictions in

17222-434: The serial. On July 29, 2017, it was revealed through Passanante that breakdown writer Chris Van Etten would be promoted to co-head writer as her successor. On February 23, 2018, the serial aired its 14,000th episode. On July 30, 2019, Altman announced her retirement; breakdown writer Dan O'Connor was named as her successor, joining Van Etten as co-head writer. On June 22, 2022, the soap aired its 15,000 episode; in celebration,

17380-483: The series is made for export. Canadian contestants are generally allowed to participate on American game shows, and there have been at least three Canadian game show hosts – Howie Mandel , Monty Hall and Alex Trebek – who have gone on to long careers hosting American series, while Jim Perry , an American host, was prominent as a host of Canadian shows. American game shows have a tendency to hire stronger contestants than their British or Australian counterparts. Many of

17538-426: The set of relationships examined by the series. Unexpected calamities disrupt weddings, childbirths, and other major life events with unusual frequency. As in comic books – another popular form of linear storytelling pioneered in the US during the 20th century – a character's death is not guaranteed to be permanent . On The Bold and the Beautiful , Taylor Hayes ( Hunter Tylo ) was shown to flatline and have

17696-413: The setting for the show. The town exists in the same fictional universe as other soap opera settings such as Llanview ( One Life to Live ), Pine Valley ( All My Children ), New York City ( Ryan's Hope ), and Corinth ( Loving ). The same setting was also used for General Hospital 's spinoff, Port Charles . General Hospital 's cast and crew have won many awards since 1974 when

17854-556: 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 on November 17, 1981, about 30 million people tuned in to watch them exchange vows and be cursed by Elizabeth Taylor 's Helena Cassadine . From 1979 to 1988, General Hospital remained number one in the ratings, competing against two game shows and two low-rated soaps on NBC — Texas and Santa Barbara —and Guiding Light on CBS (although Guiding Light experienced

18012-528: The show focused and recapped on many popular storylines including Monica Quartermaine 's breast cancer, BJ 's death, and Stone Cates ' battle with HIV. This was the first anniversary special that was broadcast in primetime and that did not include any of the current storyline. On April 6, 2013, as part of the show's 50th anniversary commemoration, ABC's newsmagazine 20/20 aired General Hospital: The Real Soap Dish —a retrospective and behind-the-scenes special hosted by Katie Couric . On September 5, 2014, it

18170-462: The show that it was like a big wagon wheel – the spokes would be the characters and the hub would be the hospital", John Beradino ( Steve Hardy ) later reflected to Entertainment Weekly in 1994. Launched in 1963, the first stories were mainly set at General Hospital in an unnamed midsized Eastern city. Storylines revolved around Steve Hardy ( John Beradino ) and his friend, Nurse Jessie Brewer ( Emily McLaughlin ). Jessie's turbulent marriage to

18328-425: The show was later renewed through September 2021. In 2022, NBC announced that Days of Our Lives would be moved exclusively to its streaming service, Peacock , making NBC the first of the big three networks not to air any daytime soap operas. In March 2024, CBS Studios , NAACP Venture , in partnership with P&G Studios announced that a new soap opera for CBS titled The Gates is in development and will be

18486-550: The show's American debut in 1999, it was a hit and became a regular part of ABC's primetime lineup until 2002; that show would eventually air in syndication for seventeen years afterward. Several shorter-lived high-stakes games were attempted around the time of the millennium , both in the United States and the United Kingdom, such as Winning Lines , The Chair , Greed , Paranoia , and Shafted , leading to some dubbing this period as "The Million-Dollar Game Show Craze". The boom quickly went bust, as by July 2000, almost all of

18644-1535: The show's debut in January 1970 until it ended its network television run on ABC on September 23, 2011. Erika Slezak played Victoria Lord #3 on One Life to Live from 1971 until the show ended its network television run on ABC on January 13, 2012, and resumed the role in its short-lived online revival on April 29, 2013. Other actors have played several characters on different shows. Millette Alexander , Bernard Barrow , Doris Belack , David Canary , Judith Chapman , Keith Charles , Jordan Charney , Joan Copeland , Nicolas Coster , Jacqueline Courtney , Augusta Dabney , Louis Edmonds , Don Hastings , Larry Haines , Vincent Irizarry , Lenore Kasdorf , Teri Keane , Lois Kibbee , John Loprieno , Lori March , Maeve McGuire , Robert Mili , James Mitchell , Lee Patterson , Christopher Pennock , Antony Ponzini , William Prince , Rosemary Prinz , Louise Shaffer , Mary Stuart , Richard Thomas , Diana van der Vlis , Mary K. Wells , Lesley Woods and Michael Zaslow , among many others, have all played multiple soap roles. For several decades, most daytime soap operas concentrated on family and marital discord, legal drama and romance. The action rarely left interior settings, and many shows were set in fictional, medium-sized Midwestern towns. Social issue storylines were typically verboten when soaps were starting, due to heavy network-imposed censorship at that time, but writer and producer Agnes Nixon introduced these storylines slowly but surely, first in 1962 when

18802-487: The show's first multi-million dollar winner; it has also increased the stakes of its tournaments and put a larger focus on contestants with strong personalities. The show has since produced four more millionaires: tournament winner Brad Rutter and recent champions James Holzhauer , Matt Amodio , and Amy Schneider . Family Feud revived in popularity with a change in tone under host Steve Harvey to include more ribaldry . In 2009, actress and comedienne Kim Coles became

18960-402: The show's main protagonist contemplating suicide. It ended in a cliffhanger, leaving the audience wondering if the man had killed himself or not. The Young Marrieds was set in the fictional suburb of Queen's Point, which was considered by the writers to be a suburb of Port Charles . The British television series General Hospital did not feature any characters from the American show, but

19118-651: The show, such as the science-inspired Geek Out Game Show or the Yuck Show . Since the early 2000s, several game shows were conducted in a tournament format; examples included History IQ , Grand Slam , PokerFace (which never aired in North America), Duel , The Million Second Quiz , 500 Questions , The American Bible Challenge , and Mental Samurai . Most game shows conducted in this manner only lasted for one season. A boom in prime time revivals of classic daytime game shows began to emerge in

19276-501: The shows were aimed at – and consumed by – a predominantly female audience. Clara, Lu, 'n Em would become the first network radio serial of the type when it aired on the NBC Blue Network at 10:30 p.m. Eastern Time on January 27, 1931. Although it did not make the move until February 15, 1932, Clara, Lu 'n Em would become the first network serial of the type to move to a weekday daily timeslot, and so also became

19434-408: The single digits of dollars) are awarded as well when the price is correctly guessed, even when a contestant loses the major prize they were playing for. For high-stakes games, a network may purchase prize indemnity insurance to avoid paying the cost of a rare but expensive prize out of pocket. If the said prize is won too often, the insurance company may refuse to insure a show; this was a factor in

19592-448: The soap. The series marked its 52nd anniversary on April 1, 2015, with a special episode revolving around the Spencer family . In July 2015, it was revealed Carlivati was fired as head writer; Shelly Altman and Jean Passanante were hired as his successors. On September 16, 2016, Daytime Confidential reported that Valentini, Passanante and Altman re-signed with the show. On June 6, 2017, Passanante announced her decision to retire from

19750-429: The start of a new yearly broadcast. Evening soap operas and those that air at a rate of one episode per week are more likely to feature the entire cast in each episode and present all storylines. Evening soap operas and serials that run for only part of the year tend to bring things to a dramatic end-of-season cliffhanger. In 1976, Time magazine described American daytime television as "TV's richest market", noting

19908-490: The station's new owners, Sunrise Broadcasting (which purchased the station from Hearst Television two years prior), pulled Maury from the station's schedule, due to what it called "community standards", and brought General Hospital back to Dayton. In Vermont and Plattsburgh, New York , WVNY dropped General Hospital from the schedule in the 1980s and would only bring it back in 1995. During that hiatus, General Hospital still aired on Montreal 's CFCF-DT , whose signal

20066-471: The stories are similar to what happened to them in real life, or two, thank goodness that isn't me. Many long-running US soap operas established particular environments for their stories. The Doctors and General Hospital , in the beginning, told stories almost exclusively from inside the confines of a hospital. As the World Turns dealt heavily with Chris Hughes' law practice and the travails of his wife Nancy who, tired of being "the loyal housewife" in

20224-430: The story. After Gloria Monty first left the series in 1987, General Hospital entered into a transitional phase that lasted until Wendy Riche took the position of executive producer in 1992. Under Riche, the show gained critical acclaim for its sensitive handling of social issues . In 1994, Riche started an annual Nurses' Ball, a fundraiser and HIV/AIDS awareness event both on the show and in real life. Later that year,

20382-538: The success of the All My Children shoot. Soap operas Another World and Guiding Light both went to St. Croix in 1980, the former show culminating a long-running storyline between popular characters Mac, Rachel and Janice, and the latter to serve as an exotic setting for Alan Spaulding and Rita Bauer 's torrid affair. Search for Tomorrow taped for two weeks in Hong Kong in 1981. Later that year, some of

20540-622: The supernatural soap opera, Dark Shadows , which did receive an essentially complete release on both VHS and DVD; the single lost episode #1219 is reconstructed by means of an off-the-air audio recording, still images, and recap material from adjacent episodes). Soap opera performers in the United States are typically divided into two main groups: primary characters (sometimes referred to as "contract players" – as their portrayers signed contracts of employment – or leading characters) and secondary characters (sometimes referred to as recurring characters). These two groups of characters make up

20698-542: The team who won the most money answering one final question for a jackpot which started at $ 1,000 and increased $ 500 each week until won. Another early example was the Lightning Round on the word game Password , starting in 1961. The contestant who won the front game played a quick-fire series of passwords within 60 seconds, netting $ 50 per correctly guessed word, for a maximum bonus prize of $ 250. The bonus round came about after game show producer Mark Goodson

20856-584: The time. With the resultant budget cuts, soap operas were no longer able to go on expensive location shoots overseas as they were able to do in the 1980s. During that decade, soap operas increasingly focused on younger characters and social issues , such as Erica Kane 's drug addiction on All My Children , the re-emergence of Viki Lord 's dissociative identity disorder on One Life to Live , and Stuart Chandler dealing with his wife Cindy dying of AIDS on All My Children . Other social issues included cancer , rape , abortion and racism . Several shows during

21014-420: The vast majority of the people who appear on any given soap. There are also characters who appear only for a short time as dictated by a specific storyline, and even characters who may only get a first name and no fleshed-out character history with little dialogue (these are sometimes referred to as "under-5s" since they receive under five lines of dialogue in each episode). Due to the longevity of these shows, it

21172-459: The wake of the scandals limited the style of games that could be played and the amount of money that could be awarded. Panel shows there were kept in primetime and have continued to thrive; they have transformed into showcases for the nation's top stand-up comedians on shows such as Have I Got News for You , Would I Lie to You? , Mock the Week , QI , and 8 Out of 10 Cats , all of which put

21330-422: The wife of the contestant couple would perform at a jackpot board for a prize. The contestant was shown a famous quotation or common phrase, and the words were scrambled. To win the announced bonus, the contestant had to unscramble the words within 20 seconds. The contestant received a consolation gift worth over $ 200 if she was unsuccessful. Another early bonus round ended each episode of You Bet Your Life with

21488-502: The world from being frozen, brought a mobster down by finding his black book in a left-handed boy statue, and helped a princess find her Aztec treasure in Mexico . Other soap operas attempted similar adventure storylines, often featuring footage shot on location – frequently in exotic locales. During the 1990s, the mob, action and adventure stories fell out of favor with producers, due to generally declining ratings for daytime soap operas at

21646-481: The world's second-longest-running televised soap opera still in production. General Hospital premiered on the ABC television network on April 1, 1963. General Hospital is the longest-running serial produced in Hollywood, and the longest-running entertainment program in ABC television history. It holds the record for most Daytime Emmy Awards for Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series , with 14 wins. The show

21804-587: The world. Most game show formats that are popular in one country are franchised to others. Game shows have had an inconsistent place in television in Canada , with most homegrown game shows there being made for the French-speaking Quebec market and the majority of English-language game shows in the country being rebroadcast from, or made with the express intent of export to, the United States. There have been exceptions to this (see, for instance,

21962-449: Was You Bet Your Life , ostensibly a game show, but the game show concept was largely a framework for a talk show moderated by its host, Groucho Marx .) During the late 1950s, high-stakes games such as Twenty-One and The $ 64,000 Question began a rapid rise in popularity. However, the rise of quiz shows proved to be short-lived. In 1959, many of the higher stakes game shows were exposed as being either biased or outright scripted in

22120-473: Was Luke Spencer and Laura Webber on General Hospital . Luke and Laura helped to attract both male and female fans. Even actress Elizabeth Taylor was a fan and at her own request was given a guest role in Luke and Laura's wedding episode. Luke and Laura's popularity led to other soap producers striving to reproduce this success by attempting to create supercouples of their own. With increasingly bizarre action storylines coming into vogue, Luke and Laura saved

22278-404: Was Disney's first series to go back into production during the pandemic. Though the series originally focused on solely the medical staff at Port Charles' General Hospital, and starred John Beradino as Dr. Steve Hardy and Emily McLaughlin as Nurse Jessie Brewer , the series branched out and began to focus more on the people and families of the town of Port Charles rather than those solely in

22436-555: Was also praised for the love story of teenagers Stone Cates ( Michael Sutton ) and Robin Scorpio ( Kimberly McCullough ). After a struggle that lasted throughout most of 1995, Stone dies from AIDS at the age of 19 and his death is followed by 17-year-old Robin having to deal with being HIV-positive as a result of their relationship. Sutton received a nomination for the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in

22594-841: Was announced 10Play , a free video on demand and catch-up TV service by Network 10 , would carry the soap in Australia beginning January 1, 2025. Foxtel 's W previously broadcast the soap in 2011. ABC stations in the Mountain and Pacific time zones, and in Alaska and Hawaii follow a Central Time Zone schedule for daytime programming; thus, General Hospital is scheduled by the network to air at 1:00 p.m. in these areas. For historical ratings information, see List of U.S. daytime soap opera ratings The popularity of General Hospital has gained it many parodies and references in other mainstream programs. For example: The success of

22752-410: Was announced that cast member Nancy Lee Grahn would begin to host a companion web series for ABC.com in January 2015, General Hospital Now! , which would feature behind-the-scenes interviews with fellow cast members, as well as panel discussions with comedians who are fans of the show. On May 15 and 18, 2015, General Hospital aired two live episodes as part of its 52nd anniversary celebration, using

22910-408: Was briefly discussed that all ABC shows might do telenovela arcs, but this was rejected. Though U.S. daytime soap operas are not generally rerun by their networks, occasionally they are rebroadcast elsewhere; CBS and ABC have made exceptions to this, airing older episodes (either those aired earlier in the current season or those aired years prior) on major holidays when special event programming

23068-772: Was brought in to turn the show around. Monty is credited with creation of the first supercouple , Luke and Laura , played by Anthony Geary and Genie Francis . The end of their hour wedding on November 17, 1981, was the most-watched event in daytime serial history. During the 1980s, the series featured several high-profile action, adventure, and some science fiction-based storylines. Location shooting at sites including Mount Rushmore in South Dakota ; Niagara Falls ; Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee ; Atlantic City, New Jersey ; Big Bear and Avalon ( Catalina Island ), California; and San Antonio, Texas are some that propelled

23226-401: Was created by Frank and Doris Hursley and premiered on April 1, 1963, replacing the canceled game show Yours for a Song . The first stories were mainly set on the seventh floor of General Hospital, in an unnamed midsize Eastern city (the name of the city, Port Charles , would not be mentioned until the late 1970s by headwriters Eileen and Robert Mason Pollock .). "They had this concept of

23384-439: Was created by husband-and-wife soap writers Frank and Doris Hursley , who originally set it in a hospital , in an unnamed fictional city. In the 1970s, the city was named Port Charles, New York. From its beginning, General Hospital starred John Beradino and Emily McLaughlin , and both actors stayed with the show until their deaths in 1996 and 1991, respectively. They were joined a year later by Rachel Ames who remains to date

23542-528: Was decently available in Vermont and Plattsburgh. Ever since the 1991–1992 season of General Hospital , the show has had a steady decline in ratings. On and off, it would rank between third and fifth place in the Nielsen ratings, with CBS's The Young And The Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful coming in first and second place, respectively. General Hospital remained in between third and fifth place in

23700-517: Was first presented Password , contending that it was not enough to merely guess passwords during the show. "We needed something more, and that's how the Lightning Round was invited," said Howard Felsher , who produced Password and Family Feud . "From that point on every game show had to have an end round. You'd bring a show to a network and they'd say, 'What's the endgame?' as if they had thought of it themselves." The end game of Match Game , hosted for most of its run by Gene Rayburn , served as

23858-411: Was frequently a key player in their storylines. Days of Our Lives initially focused on Dr. Tom Horton and his steadfast wife Alice. The show later branched out to focus more on their five children. The Edge of Night featured as its central character Mike Karr, a police detective (later an attorney), and largely dealt with organized crime. The Young and the Restless first focused on two families,

24016-468: Was impossible. Though all serials have long switched to being taped, extensive post-production work and multiple takes, while possible, are not feasible due to the tight taping schedules and low budgets. The first daytime TV soap opera in the United States was These Are My Children in 1949, though earlier melodramas had aired in the evenings as once-a-week programs. Soap operas quickly became

24174-503: Was in high definition. This is the second daytime drama to move to high definition after CBS 's The Young and the Restless . On February 23, 2010, the series aired its 12,000th episode. On December 1, 2011, ABC confirmed that former One Life to Live executive producer Frank Valentini and head writer Ron Carlivati would replace longtime executive producer Jill Farren Phelps and Garin Wolf respectively, though Wolf would remain on as

24332-478: Was introduced to the game show genre in the late 1960s on all three networks. The 1970s saw a renaissance of the game show as new games and massive upgrades to existing games made debuts on the major networks. The New Price Is Right , an update of the 1950s-era game show The Price Is Right , debuted in 1972 and marked CBS's return to the game show format in its rural purge . The Match Game became "Big Money" Match Game 73 , which proved popular enough to prompt

24490-404: Was modeled after its format. It started as a half-hour program broadcast in the afternoons, which was unusual for British serials that normally aired in prime time. In 1975, it was expanded to an hour-long format and moved to Friday evenings. Port Charles was a daytime drama that initially featured interns in a competitive medical school program, and was known for having more action actually in

24648-432: Was parodied with an American reality competition, I Survived a Japanese Game Show , which used a fake Japanese game show as its central conceit). Many of the prizes awarded on game shows are provided through product placement , but in some cases they are provided by private organizations or purchased at either the full price or at a discount by the show. There is the widespread use of "promotional consideration", in which

24806-645: Was possessed by the devil, and in 1998, Guiding Light featured a cloning storyline involving legacy character Reva Shayne . Modern U.S. daytime soap operas largely stay true to the original soap opera format. The duration and format of storylines and the visual grammar employed by U.S. daytime serials set them apart from soap operas in other countries and from evening soap operas. Stylistically, UK and Australian soap operas, which are usually produced for early evening timeslots, fall somewhere in between U.S. daytime and evening soap operas. Similar to U.S. daytime soap operas, UK and Australian serials are shot on videotape, and

24964-521: Was suspended in March 2020 as a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. The show had banked roughly two months' worth of episodes at that time. By airing repeats on "Flashback Fridays", General Hospital was able to air original episodes through the week ending of May 21. This was followed by several weeks of vintage episode repeats. Production resumed on July 22, 2020, and new episodes began airing on August 3. On October 22, 2024, it

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