Modern American soap operas tend to fall into a cycle of introducing new characters and writing them off after just a few years. Producers often discard a new character with potential for longevity after a year or two when they no longer know what to do with them, and they typically replace them with another short-lived character. Wash, rinse, repeat.
ABC’s General Hospital (1963-), in particular, features several long-running contract and recurring cast members who receive little to no screen time. Instead, new characters are introduced and are, initially, given substantial screen time before fading to the background. Meanwhile, CBS’ Beyond the Gates (2025-) struggles to balance its existing players while expanding its universe with new characters. This recycling of new characters can be frustrating for viewers. Soaps must invest time developing their existing characters instead of throwing newbies on the canvas and seeing what sticks.
General Hospital: As the longest-running American daytime drama currently in production, General Hospital has seen its fair share of characters come and go over the past 63 years. The soap has struggled to place and, more importantly, keep characters of color at the forefront of storylines until recent years. In 2018, General Hospital made history when it debuted its first transgender character, Dr. Terry Randolph (Cassandra James). Terry is the first transgender character on an American daytime drama to be portrayed by a transgender actress. Unfortunately, Terry hasn’t seen much screen time or character development since her debut.
Prior to her first appearance, the character was referenced by nurse Elizabeth Webber (Rebecca Herbst) as a childhood friend. Unaware of her gender reassignment surgery, Elizabeth referred to Terri as the first boy she kissed. It wasn’t until the character’s debut that the audience and characters knew she was a trans woman, and she was welcomed with open arms in Port Charles. In the more than eight years since her debut, her role has been reduced to a background character, with her only significant storyline being the short-lived romance with army veteran Chet Driscoll (Christopher Van Etten).
Terri’s stagnant character development is a problem because it leaves multiple underrepresented groups excluded from General Hospital’s canvas. Terri is the first transgender character on General Hospital specifically, and soaps in general lack representation for the trans community. Simultaneously, the soap is lacking in representation for the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community on a larger scale.
The character of Brad Cooper (Parry Shen) was introduced in the early 2010’s, at a time when General Hospital was increasing its representation for the LGBTQIA+ community. Brad’s main storyline for much of his tenure on the soap has been his on-again, off-again romance with Lucas Jones (Van Hansis), which was plagued by his scheming ways. Despite insisting to Lucas that he's changed, something always comes up, and Brad ends up disappointing him again. After more than a decade, characters recurrently repeating the same mistakes can become boring for audiences. For the sake of recycled drama and writers sticking to what they know, Brad never learns from his mistakes, and Lucas continues to trust him despite all the red flags.
Instead, General Hospital continues to invest time in new characters. Mobster Jenz Sidwell (Carlo Rota) was brought on as a rival to Sonny. Hudson Parker (Trey Lennon Appel) was introduced as Vice President of Jasper Jax Enterprises and a foil to Josslyn Jacks (Eden McCoy), while secretly being the biological father of Phoebe Chase (Lucia & Luna Creighton), the adopted daughter of Harrison Chase (Josh Swickard) and Brooklyn Quartermaine (Amanda Setton). Lastly, businesswoman Serena Baldwin (Kelly Kruger) returned to Port Charles at the end of the summer after being off-screen for several years. It’s not clear what the long-term plan is for these characters, or if the writers have one at all.
Beyond the Gates: While it’s only been on the air for less than two years, Beyond the Gates has fallen into the pattern of forgetting about characters when they no longer serve a purpose. Lab tech Grayson Perez (Jordi Vilasuso) was initially introduced in January as a love interest for Ashley Morgan (Jen Jacob). It was revealed that Grayson was stealing blood plasma from Garland Memorial Hospital for former chief of staff Lia Whitmore (Cecelia Specht), who was running a black-market plasma ring, to afford his sick mother’s medical care. In the months since the reveal, Grayson has faded to the background. Consequently, so has original character Ashley, and their relationship is given very limited screen time.
Even original characters and members of the soap’s founding family lack screen time and development. The most obvious example of this is Chelsea Hamilton (RhonniRose Mantilla) and her girlfriend, Madison Montgomery (Kenjah). Chelsea mostly serves as a sounding board for her cousin and business partner, Katherine “Kat” Richardson (Colby Muhammad), and most of her storylines have revolved around their business.
Chelsea’s most significant storyline was her kidnapping by her stalker and “fan”, Allison Bailey (Brianna Roberts), at the end of summer 2025, which was one of her few plots to position her front and center. Chelsea and Madison have been engaged since February, but fans are lucky if they get more than one episode a week that features their relationship. Madison is now involved in a legal battle, and her medical license is at stake, which has complicated her and Chelsea’s engagement.
Meanwhile, Hayley Lawson (Marquita Goings), who has been wreaking havoc in Fairmont Crest since the soap’s February 2025 debut, has only just been exposed as a con artist. Danielle "Dani" Dupree Richardson (Karla Mosley) is still struggling with her feelings for ex-husband William “Bill” Hamilton (Timon Kyle Durrett), who cheated on her with Hayley. At the same time, Dani and her husband, Andre Richardson (Sean Freeman), just celebrated their first anniversary. Despite these characters appearing in roughly half the week’s episodes, Andre has yet to learn that Dani cheated on him with Bill, and Dani still doesn’t know about Andre’s mysterious romantic past with Heather Armstrong (Ashley Jones). All things considered, the writers of Beyond the Gates must focus on moving storylines forward and developing their characters, rather than dragging out plotlines.
Conclusion: Both General Hospital and Beyond the Gates have their respective struggles with story progression and character development on a large canvas. For General Hospital, the problem is shelving existing characters with story potential to the background in favor of new characters, most of whom aren’t written off after a few months or years. There’s no long-term plan, just throwing things at the wall to see what sticks. Character development and representation suffer because of it.
In the case of Beyond the Gates, the writers struggle to move story arcs forward in a timely fashion, and instead, many plotlines are dragged out, leaving characters underdeveloped and forgotten about.
The writers of both soaps must shift their focus, move story arcs forward, and make room for new characters.
