GH: Classic Thread

[Contessa Donatella]

https://archive.org/details/soapworld00lagu

SOAP WORLD by Robert LaGuardia has some very early story descriptions. This is a copy in the Internet Archive that is borrowable, like a library book, for free. If you don't have an acct there, you'll need to register for a free one. Then just log in, click BORROW & begin to read.

One caveat: It's been years since I looked at any of LaGuardia's books. No idea if they contain errors. 

There's also quite a lot about Gloria Monty "saving the show". That, of course, is later, 1978 & following, but I mention it in case you're interested. 

Hope this helps! 

[janea4old]

May 2025: Stephanie Sloane interviews Kirsten Storms about all of Maxie's romances in the past 20 years:
https://www.swooon.com/gallery/general-hospital-maxie-romances-spinelli-johnny-nathan-kirsten-storms/

[MissPalmer]

Thank you very much!!!! I really appreciate it!!! I also have read the GH coffee table book from the 90s!!!

[janea4old]

CurlyQGrl has DVDs of some episodes, that they can sell, but that doesn't matter.
What is helpful: they describe the scenes on the tapes, so you can read that as recaps without ordering anything.
Doesn't really give storylines, though, which is what you asked for.  Here's the links anyhow.

full menu
https://www.angelfire.com/tv/curlyqgrl/menu.html

GH page
https://www.angelfire.com/tv/curlyqgrl/gh/menu.html

GH 1960s
https://www.angelfire.com/tv/curlyqgrl/gh/eps/gheps1960s.htm

Edited Monday at 03:21 PM by janea4old

[Contessa Donatella]

Yes, Stacy does this both for early DAYS & early GH. I have written some for her, for DAYS. But just one tiny point & that is that she only deals with DVDs. I realize that is not the point of your posting but it seemed the right thing to clarify. I know that you know that video tapes is past, not present.

Edited Monday at 03:25 PM by Contessa Donatella

[MissPalmer]

Thank you very much for the information!!! All the episodes that person sells are the ones which appear or have appeared in youtube, and some have wrong dates. 

Due to that, I guess some people, who have rare and inedite episodes, refuse to upload them in internet, because then, others make money.

I hope ABC create a place in the net where we can see all the available episodes they must have, as Retro tv did with the Doctors!!!!

Retro tv did an awesome job!!!! Have a look :

 

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Edited Monday at 03:55 PM by MissPalmer

[Contessa Donatella]

Well Disney owns the archive of all ABC soaps plus Santa Barbara. There are no known plans for Disney to do anything at all with the archive. Some of us are very excited because GH has done modern digitizing of original scenes of young Lucky & young Liz to use as flashbacks now & the past few months.

Jerome Dobson last year teased that Santa Barbara might be streamed sometime. It had been tied up in some litigation & that is over now. The reason Disney owns it: it was owned by New World. FOX bought them. Disney bought all of FOX.

The people I know who have episodes that they do not upload do it because they themselves sell not as you are suggesting that others might sell. They have a cottage industry that they are protecting. Now I am not speaking of Stacy. All she charges is to cover costs. And she doesn't in any way try to restrict episodes from being widely shared with fans.

Edited Tuesday at 02:18 PM by Contessa Donatella

[Hunnibunni4447]

Why do I feel like (or remember possible

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) Mark Dante operated on Jeff? Also, I was under the impression that Jeff shot himself accidentally. In his drunken stupor he saw Rick and Monica together and he thought hevwas shooting at them.

[Paul Raven]

GH 1976 . A transition as the show went to 45 mins and the revamp continued.

From the Daytime serial Newletter 

PT 1

Since 1963 General Hospital, the story of the staff of the seventh floor at General Hospital in the town of Port Charles, has endeavored to show the personal problems and emotional conflicts faced by the members of a medical team, who must at all times be ready to save lives.

Dr. Steve Hardy, his staff’s source of emotional support and advice as well as their professional chief,
is increasingly upset by the marital problems of Dr. Jim Hobart and his wife, Audrey, Steve was once married to Audrey and still has strong although concealed feelings for her, and he resents Hobart’s futile efforts to stop drinking and straighten out his life, as his failures are dragging Audrey down with him.
Dr. Leslie Faulkner is married to business tycoon Cameron Faulkner, who recently financed a free clinic for her at General Hospital. But Leslie’s professional life has been overshadowed by the shocking discovery that her illegitimate child, born when Leslie was a college student, didn’t die at birth, as she had been told, but rather, on her domineering father’s instructions,
was substituted for the stillborn child of a Mrs. Barbara Vining. Cam has helped Leslie locate the child but is definitely resentful of the intrusion of another focus for Leslie’s love into their lives. 
Young med student Bobby Chandler has just married nurse Samantha Livingstone but is concealing his recent discovery that his life-insurance application was rejected because of a suspicious blood-test result.
Psychiatrist Peter Taylor has reconciled his emotional upheaval at the discovery that Martha, the child of his wife, Diana, was fathered by the late Dr. Phil Brewer (by rape) and that Diana will not be able to  have another child, as a hysterectomy was necessary after Martha’s birth. Diana suffers feelings of inadequacy, believing she is beneath Peter socially, as she was a waitress before successfully completing nurses’training.

Nurse Jessie Brewer, who was married to Phil years ago, has tried to show Diana that her present accomplishments have overcome her disadvantaged origins.

 

Dr. Leslie Faulkner, driven by the recent knowledge that her baby daughter was taken from her at birth, has learned that thirteen-year-old Laura Vining is that child. When Laura’s mother expresses concern at the attention and gifts that a total stranger is showering upon her daughter, Laura points out that Leslie is not really a stranger—the news magazines are always carrying articles about international business magnate Cameron Faulkner and his doctor wife. Barbara is even more upset when she realizes that Cameron Faulkner is having his employees check on them.
Cam himself is upset by Leslie’s preoccupation with the girl, and warns Leslie that many lives could be irreparably harmed if Laura finds out she’s illegitimate. Leslie retains an attorney, Curtis Baxter, whose reputation doesn’t stress ethics. He advises her to sue for custody if a personal appeal to the Vinings to relinquish the child doesn’t produce results.
Barbara’s fears are more than realized when she returns Leslie’s extravagant Christmas gift to Laura—an electric typewriter—and Leslie, pressed by Barbara to explain her interest in Laura, reveals that she just recently learned that her own father bribed her nurse to switch her newborn daughter for Barbara’s stillborn child, to “protect” his unwed daughter.
At home, Barbara tells her husband, Jason, that she didn’t see their baby until the day after she was born, as the delivery was long and difficult, and she now remembers that Nurse Roach was somewhat reluctant to hand her the child.

But the biggest fear they  face is that Laura might somehow learn that her parents weren’t married when she was born, as Jason was on military service in the Pacific. Baxter serves the Vinings with a writ of habeas corpus, requiring them to have Laura in court on the specified day. Cam assures them he will make sure there is no painful press coverage and that all efforts are taken to prevent Laura from being emotionally upset. The Vinings then find that they must submit to blood tests to determine whose blood groupings match Laura’s.
In court, Leslie again painfully explains the circumstances of her birth and the recent revelations by a dying Nurse Roach which led to her search for Laura. The Vinings are horrified to learn that the blood tests have revealed that neither of their blood types matches Laura’s. Medically this means that Jason can’t be Laura’s father—but Barbara could still be
her mother. But Barbara has assured Jason that he is the only man she has ever been intimate with.

Faced with this incontrovertible evidence, the Vinings realize that Leslie’s claim has basis; and since Barbara is too emotional to tell Laura what they have learned, Jason tells her. Laura is told she will have to decide whether she wants to make her home with the Vinings or with
the woman she has just been told is her real mother. When Laura level headedly replies that she doesn’t know Leslie well enough to make this decision, the judge rules favorably on a one-month temporary custody order for the Faulkners and explains that Laura may decide then.
Cam is upset at the way Leslie uses this month to give Laura a whirlwind introduction to the jet-set life, managing to quickly arrange a round-the-country tour with parties and social events including movie stars and other celebrities. He warns that Leslie is trying to win
Laura by the material things she can give her and that she is obviously counting on Laura’s deciding to live with them. 
At the end of the month Laura is still unable to come to a decision, so the temporary custody is extended for another month. But Laura is now torn between the glamor of the Faulkners’ life and her love for the Vinings, who are forbidden by the court order to contact her during the decision period. Leslie is spending so much time with Laura that her medical career is suffering, but she tells Cam it doesn’t matter, as she is planning to leave medicine to devote her full attention to her daughter. Cam warns her that she’s risking heartbreak by assuming she will get permanent custody of Laura, and again suggests she is trying to buy the girl’s love with possessions. Leslie retorts that Cam’s objections seem to stem from the selfish
desire to have their life return to the glittering comfort they had when there were just the two of them to consider. 
But when Laura falls ill with influenza meningitis she deliriously calls for her “real mother,” rejecting Leslie’s presence. Leslie is horrified when Barbara shows up, summoned by Cam, and demands to see her daughter. Leslie tells Dr. Steve Hardy she’s going to lose Laura and it’s Cam who is taking her away.
In Laura’s best interest, Barbara and Leslie join forces to help the child’s recovery. But her doctors are puzzled when her symptomatic fever and convulsions continue after the meningitis is overcome. Leslie’s emotional condition isn’t helped when Cam insists ‘that her constant vigil over Laura is obsessive and she’s neglecting him. He makes it clear that she
is going to have to choose. Needing help with these pressures, she consults psychiatrist Peter Taylor, who helps her see Cam’s side, and they make up. But Peter’s probing has made Leslie face another truth that Laura’s illness may be psychosomatic, due to the
choice she must make.

As Leslie faces the growing realization that she is the cause of her daughter’s illness and she may have to give her up to make her well, Cam secretly visits the judge and asks that he decide to return Laura to the Vinings in order to save Leslie from the guilt of giving up her daughter herself.
:

[Paul Raven]

GH 1976 Pt 2

Medical student Bobby Chandler’s bone-marrow test results are in, and Steve Hardy has the difficult task of telling him he has Malenkov’s Disease, a rare and fatal blood disease. Bobby, newly married Samantha, hears his one-year-maximum prognosis and insists that Steve not tell anyone, as he has to have time to work out his own feelings. To cover up the treatments he’ll be starting immediately, Bobby, with Steve, decides to tell his family he has mononucleosis. His wife and his mother, Caroline, accept this story, but attorney Lee Baldwin senses it’s much more and presses Bobby for the truth, then promising to keep Bobby’s secret.

Even though Bobby moves into a state of remission, Lee realizes the gravity of the problem and moves his wedding to Caroline forward, assuring Bobby that he will always be there for both Caroline and Sammi. But Bobby’s remission is short-lived, and his symptoms are now more severe, requiring frequent whole-blood transfusions. And a new experimental drug he is taking holds the threat of serious side effects. Sammi learns that Bobby’s attempt to buy life insurance was turned down and, herself a nurse, realizes that his symptoms are more severe than mono. She tries to press Leslie for the truth, but Leslie can’t violate a patient’s confidence. She does, however, pressure Bobby to let Sammi share is with him. Bobby insists that he can’t; he won’t send her into mourning while he’s still there to watch. But Sammi, angry at being treated like a child, presses the issue and manages to find out the truth. She then asks Lee to convince Bobby that his mother must be told so they can all show him the love they have for him before it’s too late and they have only  regrets for what went unsaid. Lee agrees, and after the wedding he protectively tells Caroline the truth.

Sammi then tells Bobby that she is pregnant, news that he receives with very mixed emotions. Steve hits an optimistic note when he tells Bobby that a new breakthrough in leukemia chemotherapy may help him in his fight for life. This new treatment calls for more extensive testing, and Steve is overjoyed to find that there has been a variation in Bobby’s condition which indicates that he -doesn’t have Malenkov’s Disease after all. His condition, while serious, can be successfully treated  extensive drug therapy in New York, and Lee quickly arranges for all of them to move there so they can support Bobby during the extensive treatment and long recovery. 

Dr. Jim Hobart and his wife, Audrey, are continuing their therapy sessions, trying to decide if they have a future together. Audrey admits she has stayed with Jim only because he needed her while he was drinking, and he in turn admits that he knows Audrey married him not out of love but out of gratitude for saving her son Tommy’s life in surgery. When Jim finally tells Audrey that he created his own alcoholic abyss and blamed her only because she was conveniently close, she wonders what will happen to: her when he recovers. If he doesn’t need her, can she go on? Does she need so much to be needed?

When Jim, improving, starts teaching at the local college, he finds his self-image improving. But Audrey, worn out from therapy, suggests that she take a short vacation alone. Jim sees this as a way of undermining his recent strides and is angry. He relates this situation to his recent impotence, caused by his emotional problems. Jim reacts to his own feelings of inadequacy by withdrawing from Audrey, treating her impersonally and coldly. She takes this as an indication of her own failure. But when Jim reacts enthusiastically to one of his students, lovely young Sally Grimes, Audrey questions her own responsibility for the situation and accepts a dinner invitation with Steve Hardy, her first husband. Steve’s reassurance that she’s been a paragon of tolerance is negated when Jim walks in late and showing signs of drinking. When she asks how he could do it, he bitterly replies, “It’s a way to help me escape from you,” and turns and leaves.

He goes to Sally’s, where they make love. When Sally later expresses regret at interfering in his marriage, Jim assures her there was nothing left to spoil—his wife is frigid but has blamed their sexual failure on him; thanks to Sally, he now knows he’s not inadequate. Since Sally won’t have an affair with a married man, Jim decides to make the break with Audrey. He bit- _ terly tells her Sally proved to him that he never had a problem—all he needed was a real woman, not one who was all burned out. He scathingly says that she takes men and castrates them; cases in point, her three husbands: Steve Hardy, Tom Baldwin, and himself. Shocked and horribly hurt by his accusations, Audrey swallows sleeping pills but immediately realizes the folly of her actions and tries to get help. Steve, meanwhile, senses something wrong and on a hunch goes to her apartment, where he finds her unconscious. He rushes her to the hospital for treatment, and after sixteen hours she begins to come around. She tearfully repeats Jim’s accusations while still groggy, and Steve reassures her that nothing Jim said was in any way true. As she dozes in the security of his presence, he whispers to her, “There’s a lot of woman in you, there was and there is, my sweet, lovely Audrey.”

 Nurse Beth Maynard, despite her frequent pronouncements that she’s immune to emotional involvement, has fallen in love with resident Kyle Bradley. Beth’s sister, Nurse Diana Taylor, feels that Kyle treats Beth as if she were a casual conquest, however, rather than a woman he loves. Kyle’s life is now complicated by the arrival of Nurse Kate Marshall in town. She is staying with her godmother, Jessie Brewer, R.N., while. she recovers from a painful divorce. She and Kyle had an affair a few years ago, and she knows he’s married but keeps his wife “under wraps.” Kyle, in turn, knows that the discovery of Kate’s affair with Dr. John McAllister drove his wife to suicide. Kyle and Kate resume their affair. Despite the fact that Kyle is now living with Beth, Diana has seen enough to convince her that Kyle is deceiving her sister. But Beth won’t believe this, until she sees them embracing herself. When she confronts Kate, Kate bitterly tells Beth everything past and present about herself and Kyle, including the interesting fact that he’s married. Beth, shocked and hurt, throws Kyle out, and Jessie, who overheard Kate’s vindictive diatribe to Beth, arranges her transfer to another hospital.