General Hospital: Night Shift

Oscar winner Ellen Burstyn was on The Doctors under the name Ellen McCrae. Other actresses that took on a married name were of course Susan Seaforth Hayes, Nancy Pinkerton was later Nancy Pinkerton Peabody. Melissa Brennan became Melissa Reeves. In researching Soap Hoppers we found radio and tv actor Jimsey Somers become Jocelyn Somers and appeared on Days under that name. Michael Dwight Smith (Danny Grant Days) changed his name to something like Hassan Rasheed for a time. I can't find the correct spelling atm - Jason47? can u help? Renee Props (Ellie ATWT) also acted under the name Babette Props

The New York Times had published an artcle about lighter-skinned African American performers. Ellen Holly responded with a letter to the editor about the scarcity of roles. Agnes Nixon read it and asked to meet Ms. Holly. Ms Nixon also had a servant named Sadie, and she named Lillian Hayman's character after her servant

That was an old soap stand by. Someone was trying to deliver devastating news but rather than just saying it, they were dumbstruck or kept hesitating. Meanwhile, said recipient of the news that was going to destroy them, kept butting in with various scenarios.

I notice that several people mentioned wishing they had seen the storyline that led to Kit Vested (Nanci Addison) killing her "friend" Charlotte Bauer (Melinda Fee). The first half of this story is one of my favorites, something which was so true psychologically but never, as far as I can recall, imitated. Charlotte had become a pariah in Springfield. When Mike Bauer sued her for divorce, she suddenly blurted out in court that she was pregnant, although she wasn't, so Mike eventually got his divorce. Charlotte began volunteering at Cedars Hospital to try to build back some cred with the community, where she became the confidante of shy, socially awkward Kit Vested. Kit had a huge crush on the very married Dr. Joe Werner (Anthony Call). Charlotte encouraged Kit to tell her what appealed to her about Joe and how he made her feel. Although Charlotte had never had any interest in Joe, seeing him through Kit's eyes suddenly made him attractive to her. Because Charlotte knew how to manipulate a man, she seduced him, mainly because she could. Joe felt terribly guilty about this affair, but that was nothing compared to the cold fury Kit felt when she found out about it. When Charlotte went into the hospital for some routine surgery, Kit saw to it that Charlotte didn't come out alive. Everyone else thought Joe had made a mistake during surgery, and Joe felt so guilty that he began drinking. From here the story went downhill, or rather on and on, as stories tended to do in those days. Joe left the hospital and his wife, the warm and understanding Dr. Sara McIntyre (Millette Alexander). Kit took him to a remote cabin and looked after him. I don't believe it was clear if Joe ever slept with Kit. I thought not, but one magazine had an article which suggested that Joe would have to be killed off because he was "living in sin with a murderess." The eventual resolution was rather predictable: Sara eventually finds out where Joe is; Kit tries to shoot Sara; and Joe steps in front, taking the bullet. He did survive, but (I believe) suffered a fatal heart attack not long after his recovery from the shooting. This led to the introduction of Dr. Justin Marler (Thomas O'Rourke) as a new love interest for Sara. I was not a huge fan of O'Rourke, especially in comparison with Anthony Call, but two resulting stories were terrific: 1) Sara goes off on a cruise, falls for, and marries Dean Blackford (Gordon Rigsby), a lawyer who is far from the sterling character Sara imagines. It was a treat to see Gordon Rigsby, who had played the wise and kindly psychiatrist Dr. Ian Northcote on TSS, as a villain. 2) O'Rourke worked much better as part of the Marler/Spaulding/Mike Bauer interlocking story that would unfold, an all-time favorite. GL was great in those days. A side note: If you've always wondered why Nancy Addison was auditioning for the shy, socially awkward Faith Coleridge on RH, it's undoubtedly because she had played the shy, socially awkward Kit Vested on GL. Fortunately, someone realized she should read for Jillian, and that worked out brilliantly.

After luring William Espy from Y&R to AW, Paul Rauch also hired Janice Lynde to play Tracy Dewitt. Rauch must have liked her performance as a former mob boss girlfriend who found romance with the most boring doctor in town, because he later hired her to do the same story at OLTL as Laurel Chapin. Both Tracy and Laurel were able to escape harm while involved with their mafia boyfriends, but as soon as they dated Russ and/or Larry they found a fiery death in a car.