— Well, they finally did it! General Hospital’s new opening sequence debuted during yesterday’s 12,000th episode. I think they pretty much used leftover CGI work from General Hospital: Night Shift. I was surprised to see Epiphany and Matt. I think the whiteness and J.J. Abrams-esq lens flares will take some getting used to. Not a big surprise that the Sonny/Carly/Jason/Sam sequence lasts longer than anyone else’s. Luke still walks out of frame at the end as if Anthony Geary heading off to Amsterdam for one his bi-monthly vacations from the show.
— Great news, Robin Christopher is heading back to GH as Skye on March 31st. No official word yet on the length of her stay but she’ll be mixing things up with Luke and Tracy. Hopefully they’ll use daytime vet in other storylines like with her ex-husband Jax. Head writer Bob Guza told TV Guide Magazine that Skye is supposed to revitalize the Quartermaine family. Oh really Guza? Wasn’t Skye de-Quartermained years ago? He goes on to say that “It’s hard to write GH without the Qs?” Yeah, don’t you mean its hard to write for GH when you don’t have any extra Qs around to kill off? Anyway, let’s hope Skye is here to stay. Christopher has played this role on all three ABS soaps, AMC (1987-1991), OLTL (1999-2001) and GH (2001-2008) and is also well-known for 1994-97 stint on Another World as Lorna.
— Michael Learned (The Walton) is also headed to GH as a cancer patient who will interact with Patrick and Robin.
— Stuart Damon (ex-Alan, GH; ex-Ralph, ATWT) is heading over to Days of our Lives as Governor Jim Ford who grants Nicole a full pardon (for kidnapping Sydney) after Anna blackmails him.
— All My Children vet David Canary (Adam; ex-Stuart) announced that he’ll be retiring and will film through April. Check out SOAPnet for his statement. Canary has been with AMC since 1983, after leaving Another World where he played Steve Frame from 1981-83.
— Alicia Minshew and Thorsten Kaye return to AMC for a limited run this April. Kendall returns on April 9th while Zach pops up on April 13th.
— DaytimeConfidential.com was the first to report that Amanda Setton (Kim; ex-Penelope, Gossip Girl) has quit One Life to Live. It’s reported that she turned down a contract and pay increase in favor of heading to Los Angeles for pilot season.
— The American soaps should take note from BBC’s EastEnders which celebrated their 25th anniversary with a live episode last Friday. The soap revealed the identity of big bad Archie’s killer and killed off the ginger Bradley. According to Variety, the special attracted a record-breaking 15.6 million viewers. Check out the last few minutes of the episode:
— Here are some behind-the-scenes shots of AMC’s Susan Lucci, Rebecca Budig and Cameron Mathison’s spread from the March issue of L.A. Mag:
