American Cinematographer - April 2018 - 69

Behind-the-scenes photography by XJ Johnson and Howard Wise, courtesy of jpistudios.com. Additional photography by Erik Hein, Matt Petit and Todd Wawrychuk,
courtesy of American Broadcasting Companies Inc. and ABC Photo Archives.

McCullough) calls out. Cut to Robin
entering the room.
"Oh, my God - Robin!" Anna
exclaims. Cut back to Anna as she sets
down her glass of wine and her laptop.
The camera tracks her rising from the
couch to embrace her daughter.
"What are you doing sitting all
alone in the dark?" Robin asks. Cut to
Robin's expression as she embraces her
mother. Cut to Anna's expression during
the embrace.
"Cut!" It is the voice of director
William Ludel, speaking over the P.A.
system from the control booth on the
set of the longest-running American
daytime drama currently on television,
General Hospital - the set of which AC
has been invited to visit. We watch as
stage managers rush to give the actors
direction imparted to them by Ludel
through their headsets. The crew
quickly resets all equipment to the top
marks. Like a well-choreographed
dance, all players return to their starting
positions to record the scene's second
and final take.
There is a two-monitor display to
the left of the set. The top monitor
shows the "director's cut," which displays
the scene as it would appear to an audience, while the bottom monitor is a
split-screen showing the feed from all
four cameras. This is where we meet
producer Mercer Barrows, who serves as
our behind-the-scenes tour guide for the
episodic production shot at the Prospect
Studios in Los Angeles.
The previous incarnation of this
particular stage once housed such classic
shows as American Bandstand, The
Lawrence Welk Show, Let's Make a Deal
and Family Feud, and served as home
base for the 1984 Summer Olympics in
Los Angeles. It was torn down and
replaced in 1989 with a structure
designed specifically for General
Hospital. Prospect Studios is the original
home of the production, though
through the years it cycled to Desilu
Studios (now Red Studios Hollywood),
followed by Sunset Gower Studios,
before returning.
General Hospital first aired on

Opposite: On April 1, 1963, the world was introduced to Dr. Steve Hardy (John Beradino) and fiancée
Peggy Mercer (K.T. Stevens) when the daytime drama General Hospital premiered on ABC. This page,
top: In February 2018, cast and crew celebrated the shooting of the 14,000th episode of the longestrunning American soap opera currently on television. Above, from left: James Patrick Stuart (who plays
Valentin Cassadine), Chloe Lanier (Nelle Benson), executive producer Frank Valentini, and Finola Hughes
(Anna Devane) pose on stage during the celebration.

ABC on April 1, 1963. The story
focused on Dr. Steve Hardy ( John
Beradino), chief of internal medicine,
and Nurse Jessie Brewer (Emily
McLaughlin) as their daily lives played
out on the seventh floor of the hospital.
Created by Frank and Doris
Hursley, General Hospital was the first
daytime medical drama shot on the
West Coast, with an original half-hour
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runtime that expanded to 45 minutes in
1976 and eventually to 60 minutes by
1978. The show airs five episodes a
week, 52 weeks a year, and they recorded
their 14,000th episode this past
February.
"When I started on the show in
1979, I worked in the art department,"
Barrows says. "We would shoot one
episode a day. Each night, we would
April 2018

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - April 2018