'General Hospital' Replaces Head Writers After Recent Cast Shakeups

Port Charles is in for some other shakeup as General Hospital prepares to say good-bye to head writers Chris Van Etten and Dan O’Connor.

Van Etten and O’Connor have been replaced on the long-running cleaning soap opera via Patrick Mulcahey and present General Hospital script editor Elizabeth Korte, in line with TVLine. Episodes in the past written via Van Etten and O’Connor are expected to air until March sooner than Mulcahey and Korte officially take over.

General Hospital enthusiasts will have to be acquainted with Korte, who has been a member of the writing team since 1995. She additionally served as a head writer in 2001 ahead of transferring to the position of script editor. In total, Korte has labored on over 1,000 episodes of the soap opera thus far.

Mulcahey, meanwhile, started out as a script writer on General Hospital earlier than transitioning into the positions of associate head author and breakdown writer from 1998 to 1999. He later moved to The Bold and the Beautiful, penning more than 900 episodes between 2005 and 2019.

As for Van Etten, he was promoted to head writer in 2017 earlier than O’Connor joined him two years later. The writing duo were in price when General Hospital gained more than one Daytime Emmys, including its third consecutive trophy for Outstanding Daytime Drama Series in 2023.

Earlier this month, General Hospital celebrated 60 years on the air. Along with its primary business milestone, the series has additionally been making headlines for a handful of surprising cast shakeups in recent months.

Roger Howarth departed the series in November 2023 after his personality, Dr. Austin Gatlin-Holt, was once shot and killed. Howarth later recalled studying that his ABC contract was once not renewed a couple of weeks prior to his closing episodes were filmed.

“It took a 2nd for me to let that settle in. And then, immediately, I realized how lucky I used to be to have been in a position to do something I in point of fact love doing for greater than a decade with people who I truly enjoyed running with,” he instructed Soap Opera Digest on the time. “I’m a fortunate guy. I had a really perfect run and this used to be a decision made by way of people who make most of these decisions for a dwelling.”

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One month later, Eden McCoy was mysteriously replaced through Courtney Fulk as Josslyn Jacks. The function of Sam McCall used to be additionally recast, with Lindsay Hartley briefly filling in for Kelly Monaco previous this month. As for Maxie Jones, the character has looked a bit of different since actress Nicole Paggi took over the function in December 2023 whilst Kirsten Storms took a brief break from the sunlight hours soap.

The most surprising casting information, however, was Steve Burton‘s return as Jason Morgan 3 years after he used to be fired from the show because of disputes over COVID vaccine mandates. The expose got here in the future after Burton, 53, confirmed in a YouTube video that he filmed his “final scenes” for Days of Our Lives after signing a one-year deal in 2023 to reprise his role as Harris Michaels on the cleaning soap.

“Happy anniversary, General Hospital,” Burton said in a prerecorded clip that aired during ABC’s primetime special General Hospital: 60 Years of Stars & Storytelling earlier this month. “Stay tuned — giant things are coming to Port Charles.”

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