Port Charles

Port Charles Information

Port Charles (abbreviated as PC) is an American television soap opera which aired on ABC from June 2, 1997 to October 3, 2003. It is a spin-off of the serial General Hospital, which has been running since 1963 and takes place in the fictional city of Port Charles, New York. The new show featured longtime General Hospital characters Lucy Coe, Kevin Collins, Scott Baldwin, and Karen Wexler, along with several new characters, most of whom were interns in a competitive medical school program. In the first episode, tenured nurse Audrey Hardy (General Hospital's longest-running character, portrayed by Rachel Ames) was injured and an intern had to operate on her with a power drill to save her life.

In the first few years, Port Charles got a reputation for focusing most of its energies on the medical school program, setting more of its main action at Port Charles' General Hospital than was seen on the parent show, General Hospital. As it evolved, it turned its focus to stories with gothic intrigue that included themes such as forbidden love, vampires, and life after death (somewhat similar to the earlier series Dark Shadows, which also aired on ABC). It also abandoned the basic open-ended writing style used on all other daytime dramas in December 2000, instead creating thirteen-week story arcs (which were also referred to as "books"). This type of storytelling is a staple of Latin telenovelas. It also allowed the cast, crew, and writing staff to only work six months out of the year.

Port Charles never attracted strong ratings. Since it taped for only six months out of the year, the remaining episodes were aired with the cast not allowed to return to tape resolutions to storylines. This left the final episode as a cliffhanger; Caleb told Olivia that Alison (Erin Hershey Presley) was pregnant with his baby because of the wish that she (Olivia) made on his ring and it was revealed that Imani was a werewolf.

After Port Charles, the characters of Scott Baldwin and Audrey Hardy returned to General Hospital, and many of the other actors from Port Charles moved on to play roles on other dramas, including a few who took on new roles on General Hospital, such as actors Kelly Monaco, Kiko Ellsworth, Eddie Matos, Kent King, and Jay Pickett.

ABC returned the 12:30 PM timeslot to its affiliates after Port Charles finished its run.

In December 1999, Julie Hanan Carruthers was promoted to executive producer after Wendy Riche wanted step down to focus on General Hospital. Carruthers has been the senior supervising producer of Port Charles, while servicing the same role on General Hospital since the inception of Port Charles.

In 2013, the writers of General Hospital revisited the final storyline of Port Charles after actors Michael Easton and Lynn Herring joined the show, putting their own spin on the PC storyline. Easton was now playing John McBain, a role he originated on the cancelled One Life to Live, while Herring would reprise her role as Lucy Coe. To work with the previous PC storyline, Easton started a dual role, playing both John and Caleb onscreen. At the conclusion of the story arc, it appeared the Caleb character had died; however, in the morgue after Lucy Coe left convinced he was dead, the true Caleb switched bodies with the Medical Examiner and walked out of the morgue.

Story arcs

Each 13-week arc of the story was referred to as a "book". There were a total of thirteen books after the series switched to that format. In order, they were:

Arc ("Books")	Duration
Port Charles: Fate	December 4, 2000 - March 2, 2001
Port Charles: Time in a Bottle	March 5, 2001 - June 1, 2001
Port Charles: Tainted Love	June 4, 2001 - August 31, 2001
Port Charles: Tempted	September 3, 2001 - November 30, 2001
Port Charles: Miracles Happen	December 3, 2001 - December 31, 2001
Port Charles: Secrets	January 2, 2002 - March 29, 2002
Port Charles: Superstition	April 1, 2002 - June 28, 2002
Port Charles: Torn	July 1, 2002 - September 27, 2002
Port Charles: Naked Eyes	September 30, 2002 - December 27, 2002
Port Charles: Surrender	December 30, 2002 - April 1, 2003
Port Charles: Desire	April 2, 2003 - July 4, 2003
Port Charles: The Gift	July 7, 2003 - October 3, 2003

Cast of characters

Actor	Role	Status
Jean Bruce Scott	Colleen Russo	2000-2003 (recurring)
Susan Brown	Gail Baldwin	1997–1999, 2003 (recurring)
Tori Falcon	Alison Hebrart	2003 (recurring)
Lynn Herring	Lucy Coe	1997–2003 (entire run)
Jon Lindstrom	Kevin Collins	1997–2003 (entire run)
Kin Shriner	Scott Baldwin	1997–2000, 2001
Rachel Ames	Audrey Hardy	1997–2000
Jay Pickett	Frank Scanlon	1997–2003 (entire run)
Nolan North	Chris Ramsey	1997–2003 (entire run)
Nicholas Pryor	Victor Collins	1997–2003 (recurring)
Julie Pinson	Eve Lambert Collins Thornhart	1997–2002
Lisa Ann Hadley	Julie Devlin	1997–2000, 2001
Mitch Longley	Matt Harmon	1997–2000
Jennifer Hammon Marie Wilson	Karen Wexler (#2) Karen Wexler (#3)	1997–1999 1999–2003
Patricia Crowley	Mary Scanlon Collins	1997–2003 (recurring)
Anastasia Horne	Lark Madison-Scanlon	1997–1999 (recurring)
Michael Dietz David Gail Alex Mendoza	Joe Scanlon (#1) Joe Scanlon(#2) Joe Scanlon (#3)	1997–1999 1999–2000 2000–2001, 2002
Debbi Morgan Marie-Alise Recasner	Ellen Burgess (#1) Ellen Burgess (#2)	1997–1998 1998–1999
Renee Griffin	Danielle Ashley	1997–1998
Rib Hillis	Jake Marshak	1997–1998
Carly Schroeder	Serena Baldwin	1997–2003
Sarah Aldrich	Courtney Kanelos	1998–2000
Colton James	Neil Kanelos	1998–2000
Kent Masters King	Imani	2003
Kelly Monaco	Olivia "Livvie" Locke Morley Tess Ramsey	1999–2003 2002–2003
Kimberlin Brown	Rachel Locke	1999–2000, 2001
Kiko Ellsworth	Jamal Woods	2000–2003
Erin Hershey Presley	Alison Barrington	2000–2003
Thorsten Kaye	Ian Thornhart	2000–2003
Ion Overman	Gabriela Garza	2000–2002
Brian Presley	Jack Ramsey	2000–2003
Michael Easton	Caleb Morley Michael Morley Stephen Clay	2001, 2002–2003 2001 2002–2003
Brian Gaskill	Rafe Kovich	2001–2003
Jed Allan	Ed Grant	2001–2003 (recurring)
Eddie Matos	Ricky Garza	2001–2003
Joy Bisco	Casey Leong Marissa Leong	2002, 2003 2002–2003
Rebecca Staab	Elizabeth Barrington	2002–2003
Ian Buchanan	Joshua Temple	2002–2003
Shannon Sturges	Kate Reynolds	2002–2003 (recurring)
George Alvarez Eddie Velez	Alex Garcia (#1) Alex Garcia (#2)	1997–1999 1999–2001
Matt Amshey	Michael Pomerantz	1999–2000 (recurring)
Vanessa Branch	Paige Barrington Smith Rebecca Barrington	2002 1999–2001
Opal Anchel	Arianna Shapour	2001 (recurring)
Sally Spaide	Dr. Doreen Luccio	2002–2003 (recurring)
Laura Nevell	Brenda Madison	2002–2003 (recurring)

Head writers

Duration	Name
June 1997 to December 1997	Carolyn Culliton Richard Culliton
January 1998-early 1999	Lynn Marie Latham
early 1999-December 1999	Scott Hamner
January 2000-March 2000	Karen Harris Jonathon Estrin
March 2000-May 2000	Karen Harris
May 2000-November 2000	Karen Harris Barbara Bloom
November 2000-October 2003	James Harmon Brown Barbara Esensten

Executive producers

Duration	Name
June 1997-December 1999	Wendy Riche
December 1999-October 2003	Julie Hanan Carruthers