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| (L-R): Laura Wright, Jason Thompson, Jane Elliot, Tony Geary, Frank Valentini, Maurice Bernard, Nancy Lee Grahn, Steve Burton, Kelly Monaco and Michael Easton (ABC) |
(Originally published at Examiner.com on August 7, 2012) — The cast of “General Hospital” met the press during ABC’s recent TCA Press Tour to discuss the upcoming 50th anniversary and the changes to ABC’s Daytime lineup.
After the panel, Daytime TV Examiner talked to the show’s Jason Thompson (Dr. Patrick Drake) and Steve Burton (Jason Morgan). The two shared their thoughts on everything from fan support to how the network plans to support the show.
I even got to see Steve Burton in hero mode, as he rescued another damsel in distress.(Me….Steve rescued me as I clumsily got my foot tangled up in microphone and cable wires. “I save the day, again,” he jokes, once I was free. “That and good hair gets you everywhere.”)
Check out the interiew below:
Phyllis: It must be great to have Kimberly (McCullough, Robin) back?
Jason Thompson: Kimberly coming back…it’s great for her to come back if only for a couple days. I don’t know how long.
Phyllis: You had a great response at the General Hospital Fan Club Weekend last week.
Jason Thompson: We did actually. I was talking to Bradford (Anderson, Spinelli) before I came here. I had a really good time. It was one of the better ones that I’ve been to. It was fun.
Steve Burton: The one thing that wasn’t really answered was virally and social media is great but the one thing our fans like is getting that to send time with us. I think that’s one of the biggest problems with daytime audiences is we don’t go out enough and build on the grass roots. It’s not like we did twenty years ago when I first got on the show. I was on the road every weekend at fan events, taking pictures…
Jason Thompson: Years ago we used to do a bunch of stuff.
Phyllis: It’s great you guys are trying to keep that going.
Steve Burton: Yeah but it’s hard. They got rid of Super Soap Weekend where we would go for the fans. We’d know half the people. We would have fun, we were kind of a part of their family, they were a part of ours. We had a good time. We appreciated them watching. But that’s the main thing that we’re missing.
Jason Thompson: I’ve heard from a lot of people in the past couple years that it was one of those meetings that was a reason people came back to “General Hospital” or why they started watching in the first place. It was because we were personable, we hung out. They could tell we were passionate about the show. Then once you get in there and start to get to know these people, they keep watching, so it’s tough. We’re just not there enough, as much as we used to be.
Phyllis: How do you feel the promotion department is helping to promote the show? Are they doing anything differently than they have in the past?
Jason Thompson: I think it’s budget, it comes down to money. I don’t if that’s going to change, if they’ll look at other ways…
Steve Burton: I think one thing is they are trying to promote us now. For a while I think they were just like oh we’ll get our national promotion with Soap Opera Digest and others.. Well that’s gone now and now you have to pay more attention, really think. How can I promote this and not lose an iconic brand. How can you let GH go? Even the other ones, it’s a shame that happened and that should never have happened. We’ve been very vocal about those two shows [“All My Children” and “One Life To Live,” which were canceled last year] should never have been canceled. For “General Hospital” to be on the cutting board is just absolutely ridiculous.
Jason Thompson: People watch in different ways though too. I don’t know if they’ve been able to factor in all of that. It’s not just people sitting in front of the TV live anymore. Even the way they count this kind of stuff. Half the time people are watching and it’s not being counted. There are people that sit down for three-four hours on a Sunday afternoon and watch the whole week .
Phyllis: How do you get feedback about your character and your storylines? Do you use Twitter?
Jason Thompson: I’m on Twitter. Personally this is just me, I try not to pay too much attention. I love the fact that our fans, they support us but when it comes down to making choices as my character, I try to leave that up to me, the people that are writing it and the other actor, actress in my story line. Everybody’s got a different point of view. The only way that I can be sure of this character is to play what I think he will do. When it comes to that, it’s a fine line between being too open with everybody else, It’s great to have feedback but the time between action and cut and those moments between, I’m building the character. It’s really up to me how I portray this guy. You have to kind of watch, they’re very involved in a great way, but I have to be true to how he would play these types of story lines and everything. It’s a little bit of a fine line.
Phyllis: Time flies. I can’t believe you’ve been on the show seven years already….
Jason Thompson: It’s a life that I look forward to. Interesting thing. I really want to see what happens with this guy, with his family, will he find Robin? Now he’s just raising his daughter in the meantime. You look at Kimberly, she was raised on the show. The Robin character is such an iconic character, let alone “General Hospital.” I feel a responsibility to try and build that up and continue it. It me that’s what it really comes down to. It’s a curious thing that we do . Television as a whole, ABC and GH’s 50th is a very serious thing. We take it seriously in a great way, we still have a good time. We show up to work, it’s important what we do. I think that’s been the energy behind the scenes. People love what they are doing. That’s the energy.
“General Hospital” airs weekdays on ABC.
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