Port Charles

When this GENERAL HOSPITAL spin off first hit the airwaves in the summer 1997, it had originally centered around a new group of young interns living, loving, and working at General Hospital. To inspire GH viewers to watch this show, longtime GH characters Scotty Baldwin, Lucy Coe and Kevin Collins crossed over to PC. About four years later, the format switched to story arcs, and vampires, angels, demons, and werewolves abounded. Lucy Coe, one of the long-running characters on GH became a vampire slayer on this show. One of the characters on this show was Livvie Locke, who was the long-lost daughter of Kevin Collins. Alison Barrington, granddaughter of Port Charles' society maven Amanda Barrington was also a presence here. Unfortunately, this show was cancelled way before its time.

I have watched Port Charles from Day One and I have been consistently amazed by the highly credible performances of the energetic and charismatic cast of young performers, such as the consistently credible Nolan North as Dr. Chris Ramsey, Sarah Aldrich as Courtney Kanelos, Colton James as Neil Kanelos, Lisa Ann Hadley as Julie Devlin-Ramsey and Brian Gaskill as Rafe Kovich Sadly, I have also watched Port Charles fall from a high rating of 2.7 to the bottom of the barrel at 1.5. The fault lies NOT with the performers but with the story direction - the storylines are often murky at best and and just plain dumb at worst! My Direct TV Guide STILL claims that Port Charles is a show about 'young doctors and nurses as they pursue their careers.' But, at some point, this idealistic beginning (which garnered a 2.7 rating) got lost in the shuffle, as Port Charles sank deeper and deeper into a morbid fixation on 'pure evil' and journeyed off into an attempt to see how many bad horror movie rip-offs they could get away with foisting off on the public! In those instances when Port Charles threw away the fixation on evil and let a little happiness creep in - the ratings rose accordingly - 'Miracles Happen,' which showed Julie returning to bid an emotional farewell to her true love, Chris - received a 2.0 rating - the highest that Port Charles had received since veering off into the strange territory of 'Nothing But the Supernatural!'- in storylines suddenly called 'arcs.' With their talented cast of young performers, Port Charles COULD have been great. While the TV Guide promised a show about doctors, nurses and their careers; and ABC promised that ALL ABC shows would be 'returning to their core and delivering more romance; and Soap Net promised to be the channel that delivered 'Love, love, love' - Port Charles ran aground on the dangerous reefs of 'Too Many Broken Promises.' If only ONE of those promises HAD been kept, Port Charles would not only STILL have a 2.7 rating, they would be an hour show by now and be named FREQUENTLY when Emmys are being handed out. If only the stories being told by Port Charles had ever lived up to the brilliant cast, Port Charles would have had it made! Sincerely, Heather, Sangre de Cristo, Colorado, USA

I have watched PORT CHARLES since it debuted on June 1st, 1997. I taped the first episode and watch it periodically. Anyway, I really enjoy the new format in which PORT CHARLES is produced. The new 12-week storylines are great. Hopefully Eve and Kevin will stay together, and Scott and Lucy find romance again. If you like GENERAL HOSPITAL, then you have to watch PORT CHARLES.

It doesn't surprise me that Port Charles has been cancelled. I was never a big watcher of it but I started heavily watching it during the last arc, which I believe was well I don't remember the name of the arc but it was on between about April and June of 2003. Then I started watching the next arc and then I just stopped watching because I couldn't keep up with all the tapes I had stacking up. I don't know really what to say about the cancellation. I feel that some of the actors on this particular soap can't really act. One of them is Erin Hershey-Presley. I really don't feel like her acting is superb and Lynn Herring, who's been a veteran soap star for years is lacking in substance too. Maybe the writing for them is too teeniebobpish. I guess they need to shoot some pilots and show them to test audiences. I feel like bad acting and indecent writing is the reason why Port Charles is being cancelled. What's next, General Hospital? This is another soap that is just reaking havoc on plots and characters to keep audiences interested and by telling viewers they can catch the entire episode on SOAPNET tonight is no good if 1) they don't have soapnet and 2) their cable/satellite provider does not carry it.

When Port Charles debuted in the summer of 1997, the show had potential and hope. Put seven interns in a hospital and Lucy Coe in her own element and you have the perfect material for a half-hour show. After The Cullingtons left the series, I really felt like the show lost it's identity: doctors in a hospital. Their workplace, what they do, how they function, what are their emotions if they lose a patient, what are their consequences if they act out of poor judgement.

Then, came Courtney Kanelos, Rachel Locke, General Homicide and DV(four things I cringe at when I think about the show) and you have a big trainwreck. Storylines that once focused on the characters, now centered on the plot.

I didn't really care if DV was Scott's dad or that Rachel came to town with a chip on shoulder. That is, until after Executive Producer Wendy Riche left PC, some bright genius decided to replace Riche with Julie Carruthers. Upon her arrival, Ms. Carruthers let the weak link Scott Hamner go and replaced him with Karen Harris. She put the hospital and the drama BACK into PC, where it belonged. And thank goodness, someone had the sense to turn Rachel into the town pariah rather than a Sheila-copycat!

PC became a community under this format, storyline developed, moved at a fast pace and ended, but there was always a new chapter for the character.

I liked the storylines under Carruthers/Harris: All American Guy who could contract HIV? Pill Popping Doctor revisiting her sleazy past? Rich bubbleheaded hospital voluneer seeks gangster with a heart of gold? Down-to-earth careerwoman competing for a board seat against a slimy therapist?

It was good TV folks. If you hadn't seen PC during the past three years it was on the air, then was the time to tune in.

But, some nutcase at ABC decided that Guiding Light's resident hacks, Jim Brown and Barbara Esenten, could perform emergency surgery on PC, a show that didn't need saving. Now, everything is plot, plot plot. "Screw character development. The audience is too stupid for that." I suppose they concluded.

The book format is so dumb, words can't describe it. Isn't the purpose of watching a soap to see DIFFERENT characters? Ian, Kevin, Eve and Lucy are front burner constantly while leaving talented actors who deserve a shot at a good storyline(Nolan North, Marie Wilson, etc.) out in Storyline Siberia.

For all this was worth, ABC should have kept The City. The plots seemed interesting on that show and they were actually beginning to gel until ABC decided to cancel it for this drivel.

Once can only hope when someone at ABC will decide to pull the plug.