--- description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. title: General Hospital image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7cda9c7637c4bfb2/69869f19cd804d3623ccc4db/t100_tv_general-hospital1.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Aug 11, 2014 # _General Hospital_ by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close  Everett Considering that successful soaps tend to outlast stars, viewers, and nearly everything except giant tortoises and redwoods, it makes more sense to assess them by their individual eras rather than as overall series. In the Luke and Laura Era, during the late ’70s and early ’80s under producer Gloria Monty, _GH_ had the greatest cultural reach of any daytime soap ever. It dominated the ratings—nearly 30 million people watched the star-crossed couple wed—and paved the way for primetime soaps like _Dynasty_, with its over-the-top stories and characters like the Quartermaine Family. The glitzy, garish, ga-ga golden era of _GH_ defined a TV genre in which too much was barely enough. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3101667/general-hospital/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3101667/general-hospital/"},"headline":"General Hospital","datePublished":"2014-08-11T21:47:42.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T23:01:17.835Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3101667/general-hospital/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7cda9c7637c4bfb2/69869f19cd804d3623ccc4db/t100_tv_general-hospital1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7cda9c7637c4bfb2/69869f19cd804d3623ccc4db/t100_tv_general-hospital1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3101667/general-hospital/","name":"General Hospital"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"General Hospital","description":"The glitzy, garish, ga-ga golden era of GH defined a TV genre in which too much was barely enough.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/yiN3h49t/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2007-09-04T18:51:27.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/yiN3h49t.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3101667/general-hospital/","duration":"PT34S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3101667/general-hospital/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```