The TV Watercooler

First pics of James Franco on General Hospital — and other celebs on soaps

ABC’s General Hospital has released its first few pictures of James Franco‘s guest stint. They’re still keeping the details of his storyline under wraps…all you see is Franco standing in the door way…is it at the hospital? The Metrocourt hotel? All we still know is that his character is supposed to be Jason Morgan’s (Steve Burton) worst nightmare. Franco will also be making a stop over at 30 Rock later this season.

As you may have guessed, he’ll have something to do with this co77x graffiti mess.

Update: Nov. 5 – Here’s a shot of Franco with Kirsten Storms (Maxie):

In anticipation of Franco’s two-month soap visit which begins on November 20th, let’s look back at some other celebrities whose egos aren’t too big for daytime.

Probably the biggest cameo in soap history has to be Elizabeth Taylor‘s 1981 guest appearance on General Hospital. Taylor was a big fan of the Luke & Laura phenomenon and called up then-executive producer Gloria Monty for a role. Monty cast Taylor as Helena, the vengeful Cassadine matriarch (a role which is currently being portrayed by Constance Towers). Taylor’s Helena appeared at Luke and Laura’s (Anthony Geary and Genie Francis) wedding (which was watched by 30 million viewers) as she placed a curse on the supercouple.

In the fall of 2005, The Rolling Stones took over NBC’s Days of our Lives as their then-upcoming hit “Streets of Love” began appearing in multiple episodes. The band continued to promote their A Bigger Bang album by having the video for the aforementioned single premiere on the October 18th episode. The highlight of the Stones’ invasion occurred in December, when the show used actual concert footage from the band’s November 4th Anaheim concert on the show. They had Sami (Alison Sweeney), Austin (Austin Peck), Carrie (Christie Clarke) and Lucas (Bryan Dattilo) attend the concert, which aired over a period of three days. While One Life to Live has featured musical performances from the likes of Mary J. Blige, All American Rejects and Nelly Furtado, none of those acts can compare to the Rolling Stones 2005 performance on DAYS.

Scrubs star Robert Maschio (“The Todd”) guest starred on As the World Turns in a popular teen story arc in the summer of 2006 where his character Louis Browning was revealed to have sexually abused his sister-in-law, Maddie (Alexandra Chando). Louis was suspected to be the summer’s serial killer but it ended up being his crazy wife, Eve (Bonnie Root).

In December 2006, golden girl Betty White joined The Bold and the Beautiful as Ann Douglas – Stephanie Forrester’s (Susan Flannery) mother. White has continued guest starring in the role for the past few years and will return on November 18th as Stephanie recovers from a stroke. B&B hasn’t been White’s only soap stop, in 1988 she guest starred on both Santa Barbara and Another World.

Alberta native, Nathan Fillion was known to daytime fans long before he ever checked into the Whedonverse as he played Joey Buchanan on One Life to Live from 1994 until 1997. The actor agreed to return to the ABC soap to help celebrate its 10,000th episode in August 2007. While filming the two day stint, Fillion spoke to TV Guide‘s soap columnist Michael Logan and confessed: “I guess a lot of actors don’t like to admit they once did soaps, but it was important for me to go back to where I got my start.” He continued that “I will never forget what OLTL did for me personally and professionally.”

Remember little Ashley Banks from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air? Well, she’s all grown up now and has a recurring role on The Young and the Restless. Tatyana Ali joined the CBS soap in September 2007 as Roxanne, Devon’s (Bryton James – little Richie from Family Matters) girlfriend. Roxanne didn’t really have much to do on the show (besides Devon) until this summer when she caught her boyfriend having sex with his faux-aunt, Tyra (Eva Marcille). Ali’s performance in the short episodes where Roxanne confronted her cheating boyfriend has left Y&R fans wanting more. Hopefully the producers wise up and upgrade Ali and give Roxanne something more to do. Ali has been a refreshing presence of diversity on this show.

In January 2010, Kelly Ripa will return to All My Children as Hayley Vaughan – the role she played on the soap from 1990-2002. This marks Ripa’s first appearance on the soap since becoming a household name thanks to Live with Regis & Kelly and her sitcom Hope & Faith. Ripa’s two-episode return coincides with the show’s 40th anniversary and she’ll be joined by real life and TV husband Mark Consuelos (Mateo Santos).

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