The soap opera's original focus was on the men and women who worked in the Inernal Medicine department on the hosptal's 7th floor

In 1948, Bill Veeck, upon signing Beradino to play for the Cleveland Indians - and knowing the baseball player had ambitions of becoming a famous actor - insured his new players face for 1 million dollars.

Armand Grant, then the head of ABC Daytime, had wanted to create a daytime series that would be the equivalent of the popular nighttime procedural Ben Casey. However, when word got out that NBC would be launching a similar program, Grant shuttled the already filmed Emergency Hospital pilot and hired soap opera writers Frank and Doris Hursley to craft a soap opera set inside a hospital.

Although she is certainly well known for her role of Doctor Lesley Webber, Alexander also played the "spotlight patient" on the cancelled Emergency Hospital pilot and she also spent two days on General Hospital in the early 1960s as another character.

Geary joined the soap in 1971 playing David Lockheart a young man who had been unjustly confined to a sanitarium as child. He joined The Young and the Restless in 1973 for a six month stint as rapist George Curtis and then debut on General Hospital as Luke in 1978.