Steve Burton Returned to General Hospital as Jason and Other Big Moments From September 19

In 2008, Lisa LoCicero (l., pictured with Laura Wright as Carly) made her General Hospital debut as Olivia Falconeri. The actress, who had previously played Jocelyn on Loving/The City and Sonia on One Life To Live, had originally auditioned for the role of Lois Cerullo back in 2004, when Lesli Kay was tapped to play the character made famous by Rena Sofer, and later was in contention for the role of Connie, which went to Megan Ward. LoCicero recalled to Soap Opera Digest in 2020, "I remember leaving [the audition] thinking, 'Well, something good happened in there....' They said to my agent, 'We’re going to go another way with this one but we swear we have something better for her coming up very shortly....' I believe what they had in mind was maybe bringing me back as Brenda, which as we all know would have been literally the biggest disaster. I think even as much as I wanted to be on the show I would have had to say, 'That’s a bad idea. I won’t do it.' [But then-Head Writer] Bob [Guza, Jr.] created Olivia for me and wanted to do this 'son of Sonny' [Dante] thing."

In 2011, One Life To Live's Todd Manning (Roger Howarth) was arrested for the murder of his twin, Victor Lord, Jr., after being falsely incriminated by his son, Jack Manning. (While Todd had actually shot his twin, but it was a false account from Jack that led the cops to handcuff him.) Todd was exonerated, but when new evidence came to light, he was ultimately arrested again on the show's series finale in January 2012 — just as the audience learned that Victor was not really dead, and was being held captive by Allison Perkins. It wasn't until 2013 that Victor was revealed to be alive to his loved ones, in scenes that took place on the show's short-lived Internet reboot.

In 2012, General Hospital introduced future Daytime Emmy winner Kelly Thiebaud as Dr. Britt Westbourne. Looking back on how she came to be cast in a 2023 interview with Soap Opera Digest, Thiebaud said, "I was auditioning for a lot of things at that time and getting really, really close on booking a prime-time show—like, it was between me and another girl for several different shows. GH came around, and I was like, 'Sure, I’ll audition for this. I don’t really want to do a soap, but I’ll do the audition.' I didn’t get the job that I initially auditioned for, but I got offered Britt. I know Mark Teschner [Casting Director]; we go back longer than just my time on GH. He’s close with me and knows my manager, and so he called us and said, 'Look, we have this role that we think Kelly would be really right for, the hot doctor who’s coming in to stir up some problems.' " Thiebaud clicked in the role and eventually inked a long-term contract with the show.

In 2016, Jack Abbott (Peter Bergman) asked Phyllis Summers Abbott (then-Gina Tognoni) for a divorce, wrecked over her affair with Billy Abbott, his younger half brother, on Young and Restless. Phyllis fought the divorce, but they ultimately did dissolve their marriage. As for Phyllis and Billy, they split, too.

In 2017, Steve Burton returned to General Hospital as Jason Morgan after a five-year absence. Burton, who had exited the show in 2012 and subsequently done a stint on Young and Restless as Dylan McAvoy, was reintroduced as "Patient 6," who was detained in a Russian clinic. The return of the "real" Jason upended several lives in Port Charles once he made his way back there, as Jason's heretofore unknown twin, Drew Cain, had been brainwashed into believing that he was Jason and had been living as Jason for a while, including remarrying Sam and having a daughter with her. Speaking about his comeback to Soap Opera Digest, Burton said, "[GH] was my home for years. I love the people and have always missed the people since I’ve been away ...  I just have a whole new perspective now. I was really able to work on myself and my personal growth during the five years [I was away]. My perception changed. The best thing, really, to happen to me, hard as it was, is that I left." The actor shared that while he was working out the details of his reintroduction to the show, "I honestly really didn’t ask about story. I was so happy to go back and see my friends and family there that I was like, 'Just do it! Whatever it is is going to be fun and cool.' I trust Frank [Valentini, executive producer] and I said, 'You don’t have to tell me everything.' He said, 'Well, we don’t know everything, but when we do, we can talk about it.' I was like, 'Just let me get my script and see what I’m doing.' "