1997–2000 Plans to spin off
General Hospital were announced in December 1996. ABC had previously passed on the idea of a
GH spin-off proposed by former head writer,
Claire Labine. Tentatively titled
GH2, the series was set to revolve around interns at the medical school across from General Hospital.
General Hospital executive producer Wendy Riche was hired to fill the same role for the new series, and partnered with married soap opera writers
Carolyn and
Richard Culliton—the latter of whom Riche had hired as co-head writer of
General Hospital in September 1996—to co-develop the concept. (The Cullitons served as head writers of
Port Charles from its debut until November 1997; Richard would subsequently be appointed head writer of the NBC soap
Another World, where Carolyn had previously served and would rejoin as a staff writer.) Riche said of the new show, "This will be a multigenerational show, which is the kind of drama we've always done at
GH". The series premiered with a two-hour
prime time special, that aired on June 1, 1997. It started in its regular 12:30 p.m.
Eastern timeslot the following day, replacing
The City, a continuation of the previously cancelled
Loving (the latter, like
Port Charles, having also premiered as a feature-length nighttime special) that ended its 17-month run on March 28. (Edited 30-minute classic episodes of
All My Children,
One Life to Live, and
General Hospital had filled the timeslot in the interim from March 31 to May 29.) The series also featured the return of
General Hospital characters
Scott Baldwin (
Kin Shriner), and
Karen Wexler (
Jennifer Hammon). After the series premiered, it was unclear if Lindstrom, Herring, and Shriner would remain with the series. It was later confirmed the actors would stay on the show. Riche later recalled the creation process by saying, "We knew that
The City was probably not going to last. I was having lunch with Pat [Fili-Krushel] at some event. We were talking about
The City and what to do with that timeslot. I said, 'If I were a programmer, I would start the ABC lineup with a half hour of the west wing of General Hospital with the interns in a learning hospital, and cap the day off with
General Hospital. I would interface the characters in Port Charles with both wings of General Hospital.' Pat thought that was a great idea. She thought about it for a few hours, ran it by upper management, and told me to write it up. I sat down, wrote down some characters and storylines, sent her back some pages, and created the show. That was a natural bridge as a programmer. I had worked as a programmer at ABC and
FOX so my head also thinks in those terms. We wanted to bring continuity to the show, which was Lucy, Kevin, and Scotty." 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. Despite low ratings,
Port Charles celebrated its first anniversary on June 1, 1998, as the series slowly continued to establish its own audience and improve in its time slot. In its first few years,
Port Charles developed 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 in the late 1960s and early 1970s). In December 1999,
Julie Hanan Carruthers was promoted to executive producer after Wendy Riche decided to step down from day-to-day oversight of the show to focus on
General Hospital. Carruthers was the senior supervising producer of
Port Charles, while serving the same role on
General Hospital at the spin-off's inception.
2000–2003 In December 2000, it was announced that
Port Charles would abandon the traditional open-ended style of storytelling in favor of 13-week story arcs similar to Latin
telenovelas. Each arc is referred to as a "book", and has its own plot line. The approach was designed to attract more younger viewers, with shorter format being easier for many viewers to keep up with. ABC's head of daytime, Angela Shapiro said of format change, "It's not about the destination, it's about the journey, still, we need to come up with [quicker] stories that have a beginning, middle, and end." The new production model allowed the cast, crew, and writing staff to only work six months out of the year.
Cancellation On June 27, 2003,
Port Charles was cancelled by ABC after six years due to low ratings and financial concerns. The final episode aired on October 3, 2003.
Brian Frons said of the decision to cancel the relatively young series, "This was an extremely difficult decision, we were very pleased with the creative execution of the show, but the 30 minute format in this time period posed significant financial challenges, which ultimately led to this decision." Since the program 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. ABC returned the 12:30 p.m. time slot to its affiliates after
Port Charles ended its run. 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.
Post-cancellation aftermath The cancellation of
Port Charles, along with ABC's relinquishing of what was historically a
death slot at the time of the show's ending, resulted in a major impact on the
first-run syndication market as ABC affiliates sought new programming to fill the open timeslot in the midst of the 2003–04 television season. The most significant impact occurred in the New York television market, where the cancellation created an opening on network flagship station
WABC-TV. Taking advantage of this opening, syndication distributor
Buena Vista Television reached an agreement to move
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (which had been canceled by ABC one year earlier) over to WABC's open 12:30 p.m. slot from
WCBS-TV, which had been airing the program in the 4:00 p.m. timeslot since it premiered in first-run syndication in September 2002. This situation arose after WCBS picked up syndication rights to ''
The People's Court for the 2003–04 season when WNBC, which had aired the program since it was revived in 1997, dropped it from its lineup. Millionaire'' continued to air in that time slot until September 2014, when it was moved to 2:00 p.m. (where it would remain until its withdrawal from syndication in 2019, apart from the 2015–16 season) in order to accommodate an extension of the station's noon newscast as a result of the cancellation of
Katie. The second syndicated season of
Millionaire premiered before
Port Charles aired its last episode; as a result, some affiliates did not air the soap in its normal timeslot during its last few weeks. 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. ==Cast of characters==