On February 19, veteran actors Tristan Rogers and John J. York of “General Hospital” appeared at Governor’s Comedy Club in Levittown on Long Island, where they performed for an intimate group of fans.
This in-person fan event was in celebration of the hit ABC daytime drama’s forthcoming 60th anniversary on air, which is quite an impressive milestone. “General Hospital” was created by legendary screenwriters Frank and Doris Hursley and it first aired on April 1, 1963.
Rogers and York basically gave the New York audience a history lesson and a crash course on the never-ending soap opera “General Hospital.” They spoke about the evolution of the show, and its format.
They shared that it started as a half-hour show, and then it subsequently expanded to 45 minutes, and then to a full hour, which still stands today.
Rogers noted that he has played the iconic role of Robert Scorpio, on and off for the last 42 years, while York has portrayed Mac Scorpio since 1991.
For Rogers, he revealed that his character was going to be a two-day role but he made an impression with then-executive producer Gloria Monty and the audience, that she asked him to stay longer and he agreed.
York acknowledged that there have been many “magic moments” that have happened “on the fly” on the show, and they both discussed some of their most memorable storylines over the decades. “Daytime is a unique animal in terms of dialogue and how you prepare things,” York said.
Rogers credits the late Gloria Monty and her vision for being the reason why the show didn’t get cancelled in the early ’80s, and the reason why it is still on air today.
York noted that every special guest actor that has ever appeared on the show “has gained a profound respect for what we do in daytime” due to the fast pace that they film, and the amount of dialogue that they have to churn out on a regular basis.
Speaking of special guest stars, they went on to namedrop some of the famous A-listers that have appeared on that show, which include Demi Moore, Rick Springfield, Sammy Davis Jr., B.B. King, Ricky Martin, and entertainment icon Elizabeth Taylor.
Speaking of Elizabeth Taylor, she is known for originating the role of villainess Helena Cassadine on “General Hospital,” and she agreed to appear at the popular Luke and Laura (Anthony Geary and Genie Francis) wedding, which was watched by over 30 million people back in November of 1981. “When Elizabeth Taylor was on the show, she legitimized daytime,” Rogers emphasized.
Both actors appeared in Maurice Benard’s MB “State of Mind” podcast on mental health. “Maurice is a very interesting person and he does make you think. Maurice gave me a very thought-provoking interview, where I had a lot of material to draw on,” Rogers said, and noted that Benard made him realize that he had done over 80,000 pages of dialogue over the years.
“If you balance it out to 35 pages a day, it’s a rough idea of how much work you can do,” Rogers admitted. “I can sit back and relate to a certain scene if you jog my memory and then it falls into place.”
“After a while, everything becomes a blur in daytime, and if you have to re-do a scene in its entirety, you have to get back into the script because you forget scenes as quickly as you do them,” Rogers acknowledged.
“There is always another scene to do after the one you’ve just done, so don’t sit back and get frustrated that you can’t remember a scene that you did three weeks ago. You weren’t meant to, you were meant to move on and keep your brain fresh,” Rogers added.
“We have a lot of fun and we keep plugging away at it,” York concluded about “General Hospital.”
They both expressed their appreciation for the loyal fans of the show, which are responsible for keeping it on the air for the past six decades. It is all about putting engaging stories that people can relate to.
For his acting work in “General Hospital,” York was nominated for the Soap Opera Digest Award for “Outstanding Male Newcomer: Daytime” in 1992.
Tristan Rogers has earned two Daytime Emmy nominations in his respected career (and one win for “Outstanding Performance by a Supporting Actor in a Digital Drama Series”) for playing “Doc” in the limited drama series “Studio City,” which streams on Amazon Prime Video.
