Rebecca Herbst Made Her General Hospital Debut As Liz And Other Big Soap Moments From August 1

In 1985, winners at the 12^th Annual Daytime Emmys included Darnell Williams (ex-Jesse Hubbard, All My Children) as Outstanding Lead Actor, Kim Zimmer (ex-Reva Shayne, Guiding Light) as Outstanding Lead Actress, Larry Gates (ex-HB Lewis, GL) as Outstanding Supporting Actor, Beth Maitland (Traci Abbott, Y&R) as Outstanding Supporting Actress, Tracey E. Bregman (Lauren, Y&R) as Outstanding Ingenue and Brian Bloom (ex-Dusty Donovan, As the World Turns) as Outstanding Younger Leading Man. It was also a big night for Y&R insofar as it won the award for Outstanding Daytime Drama, and for AMC, which took home the prizes for Outstanding Writing and Outstanding Directing. In 2020, Maitland recalled to Soap Opera Digest of her victory, "“It was a tremendous shock and honor to win in that category. I didn’t want to fudge on the age restriction in the Ingenue category, which was what it was called in those days, and felt I was not a younger actress. Every other woman in my category that year was older than 40. I had no clue and was bowled over that I won.”

In 1997, fan fave Rebecca Herbst debuted on General Hospital as Elizabeth Webber, Audrey Hardy's (Rachel Ames) granddaughter. The actress recalled to Soap Opera Digest in 2017, "I had gone in only once before, to play a friend of Robin’s. Then [Casting Director Mark Teschner] brought me back a couple of years later for the role of Sarah and I ended up screen-testing with, like, five blonde girls. I remember thinking, “'What am I doing here? This is so weird!' They called and said, 'You didn’t get the role,' and then about a month later they called back and said, 'We would like to write you a part to play, Sarah’s sister.' And that’s how I ended up being Elizabeth."

In 1997, Laura Wright (now Carly, General Hospital, r., pictured with Cynthia Watros, GH's Nina, as Annie Dutton and Ron Raines as Alan Spaulding) debuted on Guiding Light as Cassie Layne, Reva's half sister. Even prior to joining the Springfield ranks, Wright was well-known to daytime fans for her 1991-97 run on Loving and The City as Ally Rescott. Wright recalled to Soap Opera Digest in 2023 of her entrance to the show, "On my first day, I had to strip down, because Cassie had to do a striptease in a strip bar. The first time you see her, she’s stripping and I had to do a dance number and strip all the way down to a pair of tiny little bathing suit bottoms with just a cowboy hat covering my top. So, that was probably the most interesting first day of work I’ve ever had!”

In 2008, Emily Stewart (Kelley Menighan) wed Casey Hughes (Billy Magnussen) on As The World Turns. The union was short-lived even by soap standards — it was annulled later in the month.

In 2024, General Hospital's Kristina (Kate Mansi, l.), who at the time was pregnant with the child she was carrying for TJ and Molly, stormed into Ava's (Maura West) room at the Metro Court to confront her about issuing a subpoena to force Kristina to testify at the upcoming court proceeding between Ava and Sonny over custody of Avery. Things got heated, and in a shocking Friday cliffhanger, Kristina ended up plunging out of the hotel room window into the pool several stories below! Of the terrified scream Kristina let out as she fell, Kate Mansi told Soap Opera Digest, “Rob [Markham, the director] was like, ‘Okay, we have to get audio of you falling.’ Everyone was still on set and looking at me and I had to do this big scream, so I let out this big scream that I thought was really good. And then Rob was like, ‘We need it longer.’ And I was like, ‘Longer?!’ And they were like, ‘Yeah, it’s five floors!’ So we did it again until we got the scream just right.”