Maurice Benard Debuted on General Hospital as Sonny and Other Big Soap Moments from August 13

In 1984, A Martinez made his Santa Barbara debut as Cruz Castillo, a role that would earn him a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in 1990 and make him a daytime superstar (not to mention, alongside Marcy Walker's Eden Capwell, one of the most beloved supercouples in soap history). In 2024, Martinez mused to Soap Opera Digest, "The way they wrote for Cruz, he was a dream [to play]." Martinez went on to play Roy DiLucca on General Hospital, Ray Montez on One Life To Live and Eduardo Hernandez on Days of Our Lives.

In 1990, Days of Our Lives's Steve Johnson (Stephen Nichols) and Kayla (Mary Beth Evans) finally married legally. After a symbolic exchange of vows, they had seemingly tied the knot in 1988 in a splashy ceremony aboard a yacht. However, in 1989, Steve's first wife, Marina Toscano, resurfaced from the land of the presumed dead, nullifying the Steve/Kayla union. After the Steve/Marina marriage was officially over, the pair tried once again to pledge their troth, while Kayla was pregnant with Stephanie. Alas, the ceremony was interrupted by Kayla's arrest for Marina's murder. She was later exonerated, and she and Steve said, "I do."

In 1993, Maurice Benard debuted on General Hospital as Michael "Sonny" Corinthos. Prior to arriving in Port Charles, Benard had played Nico Kelly on All My Children from 1987-90. When GH courted him to join the cast, he was offered two roles: Sonny or Damian Smith. Because Sonny was originally slated to be short-term, Benard accepted that gig. Of course, he ended up inking a long-term deal, becoming one of the show's most popular players and earning three Daytime Emmys for Outstanding Lead Actor. In 2023, he discussed his origins with GH with Soap Opera Digest, noting that when the show first reached out to him, "I was broke! I didn’t want to do a soap because I felt like that would be going backward and failing, and then my wife reminded me that we’re broke [laughs]. So, I took the meeting with Wendy [Riche, then-executive producer] and Shelley [Curtis, then-producer/director]." He did not get off to an auspicious start, recalling, "Then three weeks into the gig, I had my third nervous breakdown, manic episode, whatever you want to call it, and I quit the show. People understand mental illness better now. At that time, they didn’t. So, they could have fired me. They probably should have fired me, because who starts a job and then quits? But when I came back, they held my hand. Shelley was in the room with me, and I was crying like a baby, and I couldn’t remember a fricking line. I had no confidence. I said, ‘I can’t do it.’ And she said, ‘We’ll go page by page, word by word, if we have to.' "

In 2015, Bold and Beautiful's Ivy Forrester (Ashleigh Brewer), who was convinced that Steffy had deliberately caused the death of Aly Forrester and had footage that seemed to support her claim, made an offer to Steffy's brother, Thomas Forrester (Pierson Fode): she would erase the potentially incriminating video in exchange for Thomas making her the Face of Forrester.

In 2024 on General Hospital, Kristina Corinthos-Davis (Kate Mansi, r.) broke up with her girlfriend, Alison "Blaze" Rogers (Jacqueline Grace Lopez), encouraging her to leave Port Charles to go on tour with Miguel Morez (the rock star once played by Ricky Martin). Blaze intended to pass on the opportunity in order to be there for Kristina, who had just lost the baby she was carrying as a surrogate for her sister, Molly, and Molly's domestic partner, TJ. The pair shared a bittersweet good-bye, and in the same episode, Blaze fired her mother, Natalia, who had served as her manager, knowing that Natalia had played a role in Kristina's decision to end their relationship. This marked the final GH appearance by Blaze's portrayer, Jacqueline Grace Lopez, who admitted in an Instagram post confirming her exit, “Not gonna lie, this goodbye hurts. I think because I didn’t see it coming. That and when you spend almost two years with this group, you start to feel like part of the fabric.” She received a Daytime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Performance for her work as Blaze.