History of General Hospital - The Transition (1988–91)

The Transition (1988–91)

As Gloria Monty left in 1987, General Hospital entered a transitional phase as the action/adventure storylines of the 1980s became less popular. However when H. Wesley Kenney took over as executive producer in 1988, the show's 25th anniversary, the show was still capitalizing on the action success of the past few years. In an interview with the Associated Press, Kenney said:

The show took a different turn when Joseph Hardy took over in 1989. In one far-fetched storyline in 1990, Robin Scorpio (Robert Scorpio and Anna Devane's daughter) befriended Casey Rogers, an alien from the planet Lumina.

In 1991, Gloria Monty returned to the series. Not long after, the show lost major stars such as Finola Hughes (Anna Devane) and Tristan Rogers (Robert Scorpio). Anna and Robert had recently been reunited after having both been part of successful supercouples for the bulk of the 1980s. Although at the time some viewers felt the coupling odd, seeing as how they had spent the past decade as platonic friends, their brief reunion gave them a supercouple name for themselves. Hughes' departure was admist rumors of Monty firing her, angry she had exercised her option to pursue prime time opportunities. Others however, said Hughes herself opted out early from her contract entirely. Rogers reportedly left due to unmet salary negotiations.

The much-heralded return of Anthony Geary as Luke Spencer's lookalike cousin Bill Eckert in 1991 was also not well received. Monty was fired in late 1991. While ABC declined to comment, a representative from another ABC soap was quoted, "She was hired to take the show from No. 2 to No.1, and instead she made it No. 7." Some credited the decline in ratings to Monty's focus on male characters, leaving the mostly-female audience without characters to identify with.