GH spinoff mashup, nikolas, ava, liz, elizabeth, epiphany, chase, jpi
Credit: Jill Johnson/JPI

 

We’ve got just the ideas to revitalize the soap lineup.

Back in January, when asked about a potential General Hospital spinoff, ABC bossman Craig Erwich teased that he’s “always open to additional iterations or explorations.” That idea alone was exciting enough, but it got us thinking. What if ABC used spinoffs as a way to revitalize it’s entire soap lineup? And what if they did it in a way to tie in and bring back some elements of their classic sudsers?

 

That idea’s been percolating in our heads for a bit until we got to today. So brace yourself and read on for three potential General Hospital spinoffs that could expand ABC daytime in every direction imaginable.

Five Families: The Novaks

Joey Novak out for revenge GH

Above: It’s time we learned how Joey Novak and Ryan’s Hope‘s Joe Novak are really related.

Credit: ABC screenshot

Our first idea could be both a spinoff and a reboot. A re-off? Spinboot? We all know Sonny isn’t the only mobster in Port Charles, and the Corinthos family is just one of many (five, to be exact). So why not have a spinoff following another of the Five Families: The Five Points Gang!

Now, we don’t know that General Hospital has ever explicitly tied the Five Points’ Novak family to the Ryan’s Hope Novaks. But when Port Charles has a mobster named “Joey Novak” and Manhattan had a mobster named “Joe Novak,” we think it’s a safe bet there’s a strong link there.

This spinoff, though, could be more like a Godfather epic than General Hospital and have a split storyline between the past and the present. It could explore how the Novaks came to spread out from New York to Port Charles and become one of the top families.

And the best part is that it could have loads of ties and characters from Ryan’s Hope, both in the past and present. Bring back old characters to clash with the Five Points family and establish new connections.

Delia Ryan, for instance, once lost her business to the original Joe Novak. Maybe she still holds a grudge that she wants to set straight now that she has her own mob ties in the family. It could be a way to draw her daughter, Ava, into the spinoff and pull Nikolas along for the ride. Novak/Ryan/Jerome/Cassadine war, anyone?

PCPD Blue

Tristan Rogers, Michael Easton, Finola Hughes, Josh Swickard, finn, anna, robert, chase, jpi, gh

Above: Break out those (police regulation) firearms, folks, because this spinoff’s gonna get real.

Credit: Jill Johnson/JPI

We’d ask if a place like Port Charles has enough crime to maintain an entire PCPD spinoff, but in an upstate New York town with an entire ecosystem of rival mobsters, we somehow feel like they’ll manage. Of course, the PCPD won’t really be able to get into the Mafia stuff. We all know they’re above the law… except for the occasional “bad” mobsters.

The point is, the characters of this show will need crimes to solve that are beyond the pale. They’ll have to be crimes committed by unrepentant bad guys. This is a show for the Cesar Faisons and Jerry Jacks of the world. Well, maybe they shouldn’t tackle supervillains of their caliber all the time, but those could be the types of Big Bads that the show could wrestle with for long-term arcs.

The crimes that the PCPD would have to go about solving on a regular basis would be more along the lines of murder, domestic abuse, corporate raiders operating ponzi schemes and the like. Why not mix up all the Law & Orders and NCISes into one Port Charles sized pot of crime and punishment?

It would be a darker show than General Hospital, and more along the lines of ABC’s classic sudser, The Edge of Night. (Maybe ABC could even sneak in some legacy characters from the defunct soap? Pretty please?)

As far as anchor characters, the spinoff could have its pick. Jordan, Robert, Anna, Chase, Dante — Port Charles has no shortage of cops. Any (or all!) of them could lead a whole new cadre of officers, from beat cops to detectives and forensics experts. And of course they’d all be sleeping with each other.

But here’s the real twist — they could even put away the bad guys for once! We know, it’s shocking.

General Hospital: Nurse Shift

Liz and Epiphany watch Drew exit hospital General Hospital

Above: This one is all yours, ladies.

Credit: Image: ABC

Okay, we’ll workshop the name some more, but it seems like a no-brainer for the last spinoff to resurrect General Hospital’s much-missed primetime drama, General Hospital: Night Shift. This could be an opportunity to get a hospital drama back into daytime, while letting General Hospital remain as a hybrid of all ABC’s daytime dramas.

Liz would be the natural anchor here, and naturally we’d need Epiphany as a main character too as we bring in new doctors and nurses for all kinds of gossipy drama and intrigue. We could even bring back Night Shift characters like Kyle and Leo Julian and Jagger’s now-grown son, Stone. Plus, there was a whole slew of interns on the original spinoff who could now be docs showing a new batch of wannabe physicians the ropes.

And, dare we hope, maybe Robin could even stop in for appearances from time to time?

And we’re pretty sure both the Novaks and the PCPD would need to make quite a few hospital trips, so this spinoff in particular seems rife for crossovers. The show wouldn’t all have to take place at the hospital, of course, but if there’s one thing we’ve learned from Grey’s Anatomy after 18 seasons, it’s that there’s always plenty of medical (and sexy) drama to go around!

What do you think about our spinoff ideas? ABC could revitalize their daytime lineup by giving it a slew of shared-universe shows that could build off their most popular sudser, while pulling in elements of other hit shows. Or maybe you’ve got your own ideas for General Hospital spinoffs!

Let us know below, then stop by the main show’s 2022 cast portrait gallery as you pick out the characters you want to see in their own spinoffs!