was a
Soap Opera which aired on
ABC from
June 1 ,
1997 to
October 3 ,
2003 . The show aired 1633 episodes, which included a two-hour pilot which kicked off the series, aired in primetime.
The show was a spin-off of the popular ''
General Hospital ''. It first featured seven interns in a competitive medical school program. In the first episode, tenured nurse Audrey Hardy (played first on ''General Hospital'' by
Rachel Ames , who reprised the role on the new serial) was injured and an intern had to operate on her with a power drill to save her life. In the first few years, ''Port Charles'' got a reputation for focusing most of its energies on the medical school program, setting more of its main action in Port Charles General Hospital than was seen on the parent show, ''General Hospital''.
Over the years, ''Port Charles'' became a soap opera with complex younger characters and ended up focusing on stories about forbidden love, vampires, and resurrection to life after death. The soap opera switched from the regular writing format, instead creating thirteen-week story arcs which are more commonly used on Spanish ''
Telenovelas ''. This allowed the cast, crew, and writing staff to only work six months out of the year.
The show was canceled in the summer of
2003 ; some fans speculated that it was due to the fact that the show was nominated for ''Best Daytime Drama'' and lost at the
Daytime Emmy Award s to ''
As The World Turns ''. In reality, the show, which was owned by ABC, was losing money with each week and was not aired in many parts of the country as stations like
Pittsburgh's ABC affiliate
WTAE-TV didn't carry the show. This, in turn, brought down ratings and reduced revenue.
Since the show only taped for six months out of the year, the remaining episodes were aired with the cast not allowed to return to tape resolutions to storylines. In fact, the final episode was a cliffhanger; heroine Alison (
Erin Hershey Presley ) didn't know who the father of her baby was.
After the show was cancelled, many former cast members went on to star on another soaps. Currently on different soaps are
Julie Pinson (''
Days Of Our Lives '' as Billie Reed),
Kelly Monaco (''
General Hospital '' as Sam McCall),
Thorsten Kaye (''
All My Children '' as Zach Slater),
Michael Easton (''
One Life To Live '' as John McBain),
Ian Buchanan (''All My Children'' as Greg Madden) and
Marie Wilson (''
As The World Turns '' as Meg Snyder).
Port Charles, like ''Loving'' and ''The City'' before it, never attracted strong ratings. It generally remained a stable 10th and then 9th after the cancellation of ''Another World'' but plummeted to last place in the months prior to cancellation.
- Kelly Monaco currently plays Sam McCall since 2003.
- Jed Allan previously portrayed Edward Quartermaine from 2004-2006.
- Ian Buchanan previously played Duke Lavery from 1986-1989.
