General Hospital

All Things About

Soap Opera Network has learned that during the week of March 18, ABC’s “General Hospital” will be departing the “One Life to Live” characters consisting of Starr Manning (Kristen Alderson), Todd Manning (Roger Howarth) and John McBain (Michael Easton). As previously reported, ABC Daytime and Prospect Park have been in a dispute over the characters and their appearance on “GH” vs “One Life to Live,” which Prospect Park is rebooting for the web along with “All My Children” later this spring. The actors are under contract to ABC, while Prospect Park holds the license rights to the characters.

Actor Jeffrey James Lippold will appear on the Monday, March 4 episode of ABC’s “General Hospital” as a police officer working at the Port Charles Police Department. The actor will share scenes with Finola Hughes (Anna Devane), who is expected to offer her resignation as Police Commissioner at the PCPD.

One Life to Live, OLTL, #OneLifeToLive, #OLTL

Despite an earlier report stating otherwise, based on information from Robin Strasser’s (Dorian Lord) telephone hotline, a senior level Prospect Park insider tells Soap Opera Network, “production has NOT been pushed back. This has been long planned to make way for a piece of the storyline that involves new sets and use of certain characters and not others.”

Michael Easton (John McBain) posted an update for fans wanting to know where he currently stands in the dispute between ABC’s “General Hospital” and TOLN’s “One Life to Live.” In a Facebook message, the actor said, “THANK YOU…your kind words of support mean the world to me. No word yet on when we might return to work but the fridge is stocked, the bills are paid, and I get to spend lots of precious time with my little girl.”

One Life to Live, OLTL, #OneLifeToLive, #OLTL

According to Robin Strasser (Dorian Lord) via her fan hotline (212-414-5300), “One Life to Live” will now begin filming new episodes for Hulu, Hulu Plus and iTunes on Monday, March 18. Previously, the series was scheduled to commence filming on Monday, March 11. The actress brought the news to light despite being unwell at the time. Early this morning Strasser tweeted, “What a difference a week makes when you’re feeling weak (lol) not sick of word play-just saying.”

As People Magazine gets ready to release its special collector’s edition honoring 50 years of “General Hospital” on Tuesday, March 12, the editors of Soap Opera Digest have collaborated on their own special tribute issue for the ABC Daytime drama series. Going on sale on Monday, March 25, the full sized Digest issue will include “revealing interviews, backstage gossip, photos, memories and more!”