Port Charles

Port Charles (commonly abbreviated as PC) is an American

History

1997–2000

Plans to spin off General Hospital were announced in December 1996.^[1] ABC had previously passed on the idea of a GH spin-off proposed by former head writer, Claire Labine.^[2] Tentatively titled GH2, the series was set to revolve around interns at the medical school across from General Hospital. General Hospital executive producer Wendy Riche was hired to fill the same role for the new series, and partnered with married soap opera writers Carolyn and Richard Culliton—the latter of whom Riche had hired as co-head writer of General Hospital in September 1996—to co-develop the concept. (The Cullitons served as head writers of Port Charles from its debut until November 1997; Richard would subsequently be appointed head writer of the NBC soap Another World, where Carolyn had previously served and would rejoin as a staff writer.)^[3] Riche said of the new show, "This will be a multigenerational show, which is the kind of drama we've always done at GH".^[2] It was later announced that the series would be titled Port Charles, after the fictional city the series are set, and would star Jon Lindstrom and Lynn Herring, playing their roles from GH.^[4]

The series premiered with a two-hour

Riche later recalled the creation process by saying, "We knew that The City was probably not going to last. I was having lunch with Pat [Fili-Krushel] at some event. We were talking about The City and what to do with that timeslot. I said, 'If I were a programmer, I would start the ABC lineup with a half hour of the west wing of General Hospital with the interns in a learning hospital, and cap the day off with General Hospital. I would interface the characters in Port Charles with both wings of General Hospital.' Pat thought that was a great idea. She thought about it for a few hours, ran it by upper management, and told me to write it up. I sat down, wrote down some characters and storylines, sent her back some pages, and created the show. That was a natural bridge as a programmer. I had worked as a programmer at ABC and FOX so my head also thinks in those terms. We wanted to bring continuity to the show, which was Lucy, Kevin, and Scotty."^[8]

In the first episode, tenured nurse Audrey Hardy (General Hospital's longest-running character, portrayed by Rachel Ames) was injured and an intern had to operate on her with a power drill to save her life. Despite low ratings, Port Charles celebrated its first anniversary on June 1, 1998, as the series slowly continued to establish its own audience and improve in its time slot.^[9]

In its first few years, Port Charles developed a reputation for focusing most of its energies on the medical school program, setting more of its main action at Port Charles' General Hospital than was seen on the parent show, General Hospital. As it evolved, it turned its focus to stories with gothic intrigue that included themes such as forbidden love, vampires, and life after death (somewhat similar to the earlier series Dark Shadows, which also aired on ABC in the late 1960s and early 1970s).

In December 1999, Julie Hanan Carruthers was promoted to executive producer after Wendy Riche decided to step down from day-to-day oversight of the show to focus on General Hospital. Carruthers was the senior supervising producer of Port Charles, while serving the same role on General Hospital at the spin-off's inception.

2000–2003

In December 2000, it was announced that Port Charles would abandon the traditional open-ended style of storytelling in favor of 13-week story arcs similar to Latin

On June 27, 2003, Port Charles was cancelled by ABC after six years due to low ratings and financial concerns.[14]^[15] The final episode aired on October 3, 2003.^[16] Brian Frons said of the decision to cancel the relatively young series, "This was an extremely difficult decision, we were very pleased with the creative execution of the show, but the 30 minute format in this time period posed significant financial challenges, which ultimately led to this decision."^[17] Since the program taped for only six months out of the year, the remaining episodes were aired with the cast not allowed to return to tape resolutions to storylines. This left the final episode as a cliffhanger; Caleb told Olivia that Alison (Erin Hershey Presley) was pregnant with his baby because of the wish that she (Olivia) made on his ring and it was revealed that Imani was a werewolf. ABC returned the 12:30 p.m. time slot to its affiliates after Port Charles ended its run.

After Port Charles, the characters of

Popular characters such as

Story arcs

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Each 13-week arc of the story was referred to as a "book". There were a total of twelve books after the series switched to that format. In order, they were:

Book	Duration
Fate	December 4, 2000 – March 2, 2001
Time in a Bottle	March 5 – June 1, 2001
Tainted Love	June 4 – August 31, 2001
Tempted	September 3 – November 30, 2001
Miracles Happen	December 3 – 31, 2001
Secrets	January 2 – March 29, 2002
Superstition	April 1 – June 28, 2002
Torn	July 1 – September 27, 2002
Naked Eyes	September 30 – December 30, 2002
Surrender	December 30, 2002 – April 1, 2003
Desire	April 2 – July 4, 2003
The Gift	July 7 – October 3, 2003

Crews

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Head writers

Duration	Name
June 1 – October 13, 1997	Carolyn Culliton Richard Culliton
October 14, 1997 – May 6, 1999	Lynn Marie Latham
May 7, 1999 – February 3, 2000	Scott Hamner
February 4 – March 1, 2000	No Head Writer Listed
March 2 – April 5, 2000	Karen Harris Jonathon Estrin
April 6 – May 19, 2000	Karen Harris
May 22 – November 9, 2000	Karen Harris Barbara Bloom
November 10, 2000 – October 3, 2003	Barbara Esensten

Executive producers

Duration	Name
June 1, 1997 – December 24, 1999	Wendy Riche
December 27, 1999 – October 3, 2003	Julie Hanan Carruthers

Reception

The series received mostly positive reviews from critics. In a review of the early months,

In 2003, the series was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series.^[31]Zap2it included the series on its list of The Best and Worst TV Spinoffs since 1990, noting, ""Port Charles" never got the traction that its venerable parent show did, despite attempts to introduce the supernatural and a change in production to tell more contained story arcs. It lasted six years, and after its cancellation a few characters eventually returned to General Hospital."^[32] Entertainment Weekly included the series on their list of "15 Soap Operas We've Loved, Lost", noting, "What started off as a simple spin-off of General Hospital ended up venturing way out there, with vampires and werewolves stalking around Port Charles. Having GH folks like Lucy Coe (Lynn Herring) and Scotty Baldwin (Kin Shriner) leading the show made for an instant audience base. Some viewers couldn't get behind all the supernatural happenings (a vampire/human baby conceived by a wish upon a ring?), but hey, we got Kelly Monaco out of the deal."^[33]

See also

• Vampire film
• List of vampire television series

References