General Hospital made its debut on ABC back in 1963. Now the show is celebrating an incredible milestone — they have shot their 15,000th episode! To mark the incredible occasion, the show will be focusing on a character who has been there for over four and half decades — Laura Collins — and her portrayer, Genie Francis, who led the recent celebration.
General Hospital Hits Episode 15,000
ABC Los Angeles was recently on set interviewing several of the actors as well as executive producer, Frank Valentini, about this incredible moment in the show’s long history and about the special episode. “It’ll be happy. It’ll be sad. It’ll be dark. It’ll be scary,” Valentini told the news station. “It’ll be fun. It’ll be thrilling. It’ll be exciting. But most importantly, it has almost every single cast member in it.”
It can’t be understated the importance of having Francis, who literally put Port Charles on the map as part of the complicated love story of Laura and Luke Spencer (Anthony Geary), on hand to play an important role in this episode. Longtime viewers watched both the character and the actress grow up in front of their eyes when the actress joined the show as a teen in 1977. Now, Laura is the mayor.
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“I’m very happy with how the character has grown and changed,” enthused Francis. “In the beginning, of course, she was very, very vulnerable. And now I focus much more on her strength.” Fans certainly appreciate that, as Laura has been the heart of the show for some time. Her friendship with Sonny Corinthos (Maurice Benard) may confuse her son, Nikolas Cassadine (Marcus Coloma), but fans certainly enjoy it.
Benard was on hand for the cake celebration on set. When asked about it, he told the news station with a laugh, “Well, you know, the truth of the matter is I don’t even touch the cake because I’m real disciplined.” Look for this special episode to air on June 17 and you can watch the interviews on set in the video below.
General Hospital (GH) airs weekdays on ABC. Check your local listings for airtimes. For more about what’s coming up in Port Charles, check out all the latest that’s been posted on GH spoilers, and for an in-depth look at the show’s history, click here.
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