The problem with updating that intro for today is the hospital staff is not front and center, with a vet actively part of those stories. You also have so many recurring players driving the stories that it would seem odd to not include them.

I would film a modern speeding ambulance once again by the real GH location hospital, and do a quick updated version of the classic era theme from the 70’s-80’s. But even the original negative image title card from the 60’s would be superior to today’s opening!

8 minutes ago, titan1978 said:

The problem with updating that intro for today is the hospital staff is not front and center, with a vet actively part of those stories. You also have so many recurring players driving the stories that it would seem odd to not include them.

I would film a modern speeding ambulance once again by the real GH location hospital, and do a quick updated version of the classic era theme from the 70’s-80’s. But even the original negative image title card from the 60’s would be superior to today’s opening!

I would do that too. (and to be honest I prefer the ambulance opening to FotH, although I do understand how much care was put into that opening).

Sometimes I forget about just how wretched everything about the mid/late '00s opening was - it is so damn cheap looking, and has the blaring horn music, the seizure-inducing strobe lighting, the shots of Geary trying to look badass (oh he's walking away while all the men [no girls allowed!] stay seated).

The early '10s visuals are better, but it looks like a failed European soap. The late '10 visuals and song seem like something from a CW show.

The current opening reminds me of an opening ATWT might have done in its last years, only worse.

I personally was always perplexed with Mac ending the opening. The beginning seemed more intentional character wise. I did notice that even if the shots changed the characters maintained similar spots. Brenda, Sonny, Jax, Robin were all carrying major story and were always in the middle and never really moved from there-the show just added or deleted characters. I thought they maintained the right groupings for the most part though.

5 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

Sometimes I forget about just how wretched everything about the mid/late '00s opening was - it is so damn cheap looking, and has the blaring horn music, the seizure-inducing strobe lighting, the shots of Geary trying to look badass (oh he's walking away while all the men [no girls allowed!] stay seated).

I didn't love those ABC openings during that time either, where they tried to make the three soaps seem similar vs. having their own identities. I did think AMC's was the best because they were able to maintain the flying pictures somewhere in there.

But NOTHING was worse than having only the men be highlighted like that on GH. I thought it was so disrespectful to the women.

19 minutes ago, alwaysAMC said:

I didn't love those ABC openings during that time either, where they tried to make the three soaps seem similar vs. having their own identities. I did think AMC's was the best because they were able to maintain the flying pictures somewhere in there.

But NOTHING was worse than having only the men be highlighted like that on GH. I thought it was so disrespectful to the women.

I would agree there. AMC's isn't that bad. OLTL is just generic, and GH could inspire a serial killer. (maybe that's how we got Franco)

The AMC one used the format the best. But the GH one was an outlier even back then. It was kind of the theme but you could tell they wanted it to stand out. Stuff like the final cast shot with all the men, many of them long gone by the time that opening stopped being used. And the way the characters were photoshopped in, the Lucky/Emily/Nikolas fades a story that never took off. I do remember that it premiered way later than it was supposed to.

I swear 50% of the male characters were dead by the time GH changed that odd opening. Even if they flip flopped the men and women everyday it would have been better. I just only remember Luke getting up from the chair like is this shoot over yet? Lol.

1 hour ago, titan1978 said:

I would film a modern speeding ambulance once again by the real GH location hospital, and do a quick updated version of the classic era theme from the 70’s-80’s.

That's what I would do as well. It's fast, it doesn't play off any current trends (that will make the piece look dated once those trends pass) and it requires little to no updating.

Edited December 29, 2025Dec 29 by Khan

How General Hospital has been around so long with all those nurses, doctors, and cops yet no firefighters is so strange to me. The PC Fire Department is one of the biggest missed opportunities for that entire soap opera I swear. Especially back when they were doing those large scale disaster storylines in the 2000s, at least 3 separate firefighter characters could've been a part of the show. And if they needed an already established character to be one Mac or Lucky could've been. Also the EMT aspect could work if they had one of the doctors decide to do it to switch their routine and take that position at the firehouse. I could see Emily pulling that mess and Nikolas stressing over precious Quartermaine princess being "out in the field".

Edited December 29, 2025Dec 29 by melanatedbtgfan

In the 1990’s, Jagger would have made a better firefighter than cop, that’s for sure. Complete with the shirtless charity calendar.

Port Charles had EMS characters. Wasn’t Frank an EMT?

4 hours ago, titan1978 said:

That shifted pretty quickly because Rena didn’t decide to leave until later on. That whole HW transition is very interesting, because MVJ and Guza both said Labine was very good to work with as far as letting them set stuff up so they hit the ground running. Carly being one thing we now know Labine didn't create. I would love for MVJ to speak about Jason’s accident and Jax, because I still have questions as to who set both in motion and when.

According to Labine, it was her. From WLS:

We Love Soaps: You also wrote the original story about Jason Quartermaine’s amnesia, when A.J. crashed the car and Jason became brain damaged. What was your intention, where did you want that to go?
Claire Labine: I don’t remember. We just needed to shake Jason up a little bit, and that seemed like a good way to do it.

We Love Soaps: Was the actor [Steve Burton] asking for that?
Claire Labine: No. That actor is lovely. He was very non-demanding, and played wonderfully everything he was given.

We Love Soaps: Carly Roberts came on right before you left the show. Was she your creation or a different writer’s?
Claire Labine: She was ours. We left them really well set up. We really tried to leave the show with takeoff points. The next writer could choose the direction, but they had good springboards. And Carly was part of that, and so was Jax. I thought he was going to be a lot of fun. We left after his first few episodes.

The Carly situation has always been more permeable - from what I think Patrick Mulcahey and others have said, Labine had the rough thumbnail sketch of Carly as a vengeful long-lost daughter. Everything beyond that was the Guza team. But Jason's accident was definitely Labine, as was setting Jax up initially for Lois.

Edited December 29, 2025Dec 29 by Vee

Because I'm quite bored this evening, I decided to reorder the current cast in a hypothetical FOTH style opening if one came up for January 2026.

Ambulance Sirens and General Hospital Title

Tracy; Ned & Olivia; Brook Lynn & Harrison; Gio; Emma; Anna;

Old shot of Steve, Amy & Bobbie attending to a patient

Jack; Jocelyn; Jordan, Curtis & Portia; Trina; Isiah; Willow; Drew; Nina

Shots of the Puerto Rico story from 1994

Ava, Britt, Elizabeth, Jason, Carly, Michael, Sonny, Alexis, Kristina, Molly, Dante, Lulu, Laura,

Romantic couples of the past (Monica & Alan, Patrick & Robin, Luke & Laura)

Nathan, Maxie & Spinelli, Felicia, Mac.

General Hospital logo to fade out.

Not sure if it would flow correctly or if the pairings work well but thought it would be fun to get people's thoughts.

42 minutes ago, Vee said:

According to Labine, it was her. From WLS:

The Carly situation has always been more permeable - from what I think Patrick Mulcahey and others have said, Labine had the rough thumbnail sketch of Carly as a vengeful long-lost daughter. Everything beyond that was the Guza team. But Jason's accident was definitely Labine, as was setting Jax up initially for Lois.

It's interesting to wonder what Labine would have done with all those characters/arcs. It seems like she just created the characters and/or the specific accident, but never elaborated on a clear plan for the future. Jax would have been "a lot of fun!" gives me no idea lol.

Just now, carolineg said:

It's interesting to wonder what Labine would have done with all those characters/arcs. It seems like she just created the characters and/or the specific accident, but never elaborated on a clear plan for the future.

I am not sure if Jason and Robin was already in motion by the time Labine's work was offscreen in March or April. I wouldn't be surprised.

2 minutes ago, Vee said:

I am not sure if Jason and Robin was already in motion by the time Labine's work was offscreen in March or April. I wouldn't be surprised.

I think so? Because Robin was one of the few people Jason had a positive response to after he woke up. He hated pretty much everyone else. I do remember he was very impressed by Lily (eyeroll) after he met Sonny though.