General Hospital/Trivia

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Actor Allusion: In a dream episode during Thanksgiving 2008, Maxie meets Matt and asks him if she's sure they hadn't met before, even asking, "did we go to high school together?" Their portrayors Kirsten Storms and Jason Cook had previously played High School Sweethearts, Shawn and Belle, on Days of Our Lives. Additionally, Matt and Maxie met by bumping into each other which is how Shawn and Belle first met.
    • Similarly when Sam McCall and John McBain meet. Both actors played vampire lovers on the short-lived supernatural spin-off of General Hospital, Port Charles.
      • A recent storyline took it a step further, having the man playing McBain reprise the role he portrayed on Port Charles.
  • The Character Died with Him: Dr. Steve Hardy, when actor John Beradino passed away from pancreatic cancer in 1996, was written out as having suffered a fatal heart attack. Hardy, whom Beradino had portrayed since the show's beginning in 1963, remained in the opening montage as late as 2004.
    • Anna Lee's Lila Quartermaine and John Ingle's Edward Quartermaine.
  • Fake Irish: Oregonian Erin Chambers plays Siobhan with an extremely thick accent that sounds as fake as it is.
  • Fan Nickname: "Scrubs" for Patrick and Robin, currently the only couple where both actually work at the hospital.
    • Most GH couples have a nickname of this sort. It's usually some form of smushing the character's names together or else calling the couple by their initials. Examples include "Liason", and "Spixie".
  • Hey, It's That Guy!: Rick Springfield as Dr. Eli Love; Vinny "Big Pussy" Pastore as Maximus Giambetti, Delia Fisher as Winnifred, James Franco as Franco, etc.
    • ...and you can tell what metal the balloons that were made to celebrate these big guest roles were composed of...
    • Roseanne Barr played Jennifer Smith #2 in 1994. Jennifer was married to Billy Boggs, played by Roseanne's then husband Tom Arnold.
    • Baltar tried to freeze Port Charles and take over the world. Why am I not surprised?
  • Hey, It's That Voice!: Maxie is Bonnie Rockwaller, Jason is Freakin' CLOUD STRIFE!!!
  • Keep Circulating the Tapes: Most episodes of General Hospital from 1963-1978 are extremely rare (especially the early color episodes from 1967-1975 which some are extinct) and exist only in B&W Kinescopes.
  • Milestone Celebration: Being a long runner, GH's had it's share.
    • 30th: A revisiting of the events of the first episode, also debuting a new opening sequence and theme song, replace the ones used since 1975/1978, which would be used until 2004.
    • 35th: A prime-time special, chronicling the evolution of the show.
    • 50th: The return of the Nurses' Ball after a 12 year absence, the reason was due to budget cuts in 2001.
    • 51st: "Carlypalooza", past Carly's Sarah Brown and Tamara Braun returned; all three (including current Carly Laura Wright) alternated in scenes with Maurice Bernard.
  • The Other Darrin: Lucky Spencer has had three different actors, and Carly has had four, with Carly #1 coming back as a different character with Carly #4 still around...
    • Michael's getting there: He's already had three actors play him, and he's not out of his teens yet.
    • Lucas Jones had 10 actors play him in total.
  • Too Soon: Luis Alcazar fell out of the window at least 10 stories high and the fall was shown from the outside. This scene took place a year after the 9/11 attacks. Admittedly, they did learn their lesson; Trevor Lansing's death by fall from a similar height in 2009 was not shown.
  • What Could Have Been: Too bad Taggert and Gia being Sonny's siblings was only for Fan February.
    • Winnifred's similarity to Spinelli was originally supposed to be a full-on act. That got derailed when the producers liked her similarity to Spinelli.