Port Charles (show)

PC redirects here. For the fictional city, see Port Charles (city)

Port Charles
The original opening
Nicknames	PC
Created by	Carolyn and Richard Culliton Wendy Riche
Written by	Carolyn and Richard Culliton (1997) Lynn Marie Latham (1998-99) Scott Hamner (1999) Karen Harris/Jonathan Estrin (2000) Karen Harris (2000) Karen Harris/Barbara Bloom (2000) James Harmon Brown/Barbara Esensten (2000-03)
Produced by	Wendy Riche (1997-99) Julie Hanan Carruthers (1999-03)
Broadcast
Starring	(list of cast members)
Original channel	ABC
Also on	SOAPnet (2000-2003)
Running time	30 minutes
Original run	June 1, 1997–October 3, 2003
Chronology
Related shows	All My Children General Hospital General Hospital: Night Shift One Life to Live

Port Charles (commonly abbreviated as PC) is an American television soap opera that aired on ABC from June 1, 1997, to October 3, 2003. It was a spin-off of the series General Hospital, which has been running since 1963 and takes place in the fictional city of Port Charles, New York. The show features 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 its later years, the program shifted more towards supernatural themes and stories, with a reduced emphasis on the original hospital setting.

History

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 Culliton 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". It was later announced that the series would be titled Port Charles, after the fictional city the series are set, and would star Jon Lindstrom and Lynn Herring, playing their roles from 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 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 intern Joe Scanlon 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 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.

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). Once Port Charles moved to telling stories about vampires and werewolves, very little of the action on Port Charles impacted General Hospital and vice versa.

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 Morley told Livvie Locke that Alison Barrington was pregnant with his baby because of the wish that she (Livvie) 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

In 2013, Ron Carlivati and the General Hospital writing team revisited the concluding narrative of Port Charles when actors Michael Easton and Lynn Herring joined the cast, putting their own spin on the PC storyline. Easton assumed the role of John McBain, which he had originated on the defunct One Life to Live, while Herring reprised her role as Lucy Coe. Erin Hershey Presley briefly returned as Alison Barrington to introduce her son, Rafe Kovich, Jr., whom she was expecting at the conclusion of Port Charles. Consistent with the original PC plot, Easton also played Caleb Morley, the vampire antagonist, in a dual role. The storyline revealed that only Caleb, Lucy, and Alison recalled the supernatural events from Port Charles. Kevin Collins did not remember any vampires in town or his daughter Livvie Locke. The explanation for why only a few remembered these events was never provided, though Kevin hypothesized a "shared delusion", leading him to leave Lucy for their children's well-being. Caleb was later depicted as Stephen Clay, an escaped mental patient and former musician with a vampire act, who, mourning his wife Livvie's death, started to believe he was a vampire, using scissors and prosthetic teeth to mimic bites. He was eventually institutionalized after being convicted of seven murders and became obsessed with reuniting with Livvie, who bore a resemblance to Sam Morgan. The story concluded with Caleb's apparent death; however, following his stabbing, the immortality ring he wore emitted a glow. His body was taken to the morgue, where Lucy discovered the ring missing, and the medical examiner denied knowing about it. The examiner was later seen retrieving the ring from his pocket, and upon wearing it, it was disclosed that the corpse was his, while Caleb, very much alive and only viewed from the back, exited the room, leaving his true nature as a vampire ambiguous.

Additionally, the character Christina Baldwin from Port Charles appears to have been retconned out of existence on General Hospital. On March 1, 2024, amid widespread speculation regarding Christina's fate, Kin Shriner, who portrays her adoptive father Scott Baldwin onscreen, clarified her absence on "X". He stated, "The baby Christina was a brief moment on the @GeneralHospital spin off Port Charles which I left to go back to gh and she was never played there ! Case closed." However, a user clarified that Christina did appear on GH during the 1999 Christmas show.

Story arcs

Each 13-week arc of the story was referred to as a "book". There were a total of twelve books after the series switched to that format.

Book	Dates
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