Major Changes Coming!!

By Kalen Dar

Last October, Port Charles' (then known as General Hospital) Head Writer/Executive Producer Ryan Chandler promised viewers that the corporate feel would be coming to the show. Over that time, the writing team began creating the foundations for that to happen. Carly became the new owner of Deception Cosmetics and formed her own head corporation called "Deception Inc.". Tracy, with some help from Luke & Carly became the CEO of ELQ and promptly ousted Skye from the company. Even earlier in the year (pre-arcs), Nikolas assumed the reigns of Cassadine Industries and began slow takeovers of other companies. Sonny & Jason began another shift toward legitimate business practices having Corinthos-Morgan Enterprises acquire various exporting companies and construction businesses. What was the reasoning behind these moves?

"Well, I am a huge fan of The Young & the Restless and their boardroom drama had me hooked from day one. When I got the chance to intern at the show, I learned the ins and outs of what makes good corporate drama. By doing this on Port Charles, we can expand storyline opportunities beyond the hospital. This has been in the works since last year, and is a big reason why we received permission to rename "General Hospital" to "Port Charles". This was also done to have more characters that don't usually interact with one another, interact and to bring out umbrella storyline opportunities that don't focus on the mob."

Since the new writing team took over in January 2006, the mob has had little to no impact on storylines. "General Hospital has had mob influences since the 70's, but there is no need to constantly bombard the audience with mob violence." Sonny Corinthos spent the majority of 2006 backburnered with no story whatsoever; it is only recently that a mob story has begun to take place on the show. We asked why we have seen a resurgence of mob activity on the show as of late.

"The reason why you have seen the set up to a big mob storyline is because we felt now was the time. We have a great balance," the HW/EP says, "we feel that we can tell this story without having it dominate airtime and focus on just those within the mob environment. However, this is a separate issue." So when can viewers expect to see the shift to the corporations?

"There will be some scenes next week at ELQ and Deception, and there will be an announcement regarding a partnership between Deception & Titan (Jax's company). Our crew has constructed brand new sets and the actors are ready for this change. Now we are in a writing transition and will be bringing on new writers to help with the show. We look forward to everyone continuing to bear with us as we make this transition. Get ready for sex in the boardrooms, blackmail, corporate takeovers and more!"