R222 Right, and actually that's what Frank initially wanted, to turn GH into a super soap combined with characters from AMC/OLTL constantly popping in and out, or staying in town.
When I said that Frank has barely utilized the rights, besides the slight references to the other shows, or the appearance from Hilary B. Smith as Nora, in his defense, he wasn't able to turn it into the super soap that he wanted, and knowing how petty he is lol it makes sense that if he couldn't turn it into a super soap, then why have any "guest appearances" at all. Channing Dungey used to pushback alot of Frank's ideas when she was heading ABC, and her replacement Karey Burke toyed with the idea of either bringing back AMC and OLTL as two half hour soaps, or merging them together as a new joint show that fans affectionately nicknamed as "All My Life."
Although some believe that there was never any serious commitment to bring the shows back in either daytime or the primetime version that Kelly & Mark came up with, other factors that prevented the super soap idea besides a lack of interest from the network were certain AMC/OLTL actors who are New York based that didn't want to make the constant commute to the West Coast to film GH, the GH actors who would've felt that they were being replaced in favor of former AMC/OLTL actors, and an already bloated cast. Frank reached out to some of the former actors, like Susan Lucci, to either appear as Erica Kane or another character on GH, yet she has never seemed interested (Susan has also turned down offers to appear on other soaps).
The last straw might've been when ABC refused to allow Roger Howarth reappear as Todd Manning. The references to Llanview were there with the Sonny/Mike story and also to Llantano Mountain, however after some "careful review" ABC felt that it was "inappropriate" to bring a former rapist on canvas, resulting in the shoddy, flimsy, rushed, poorly executed, ill-conceived creation of Dr. Austin Gatlin-Holt who besides some interesting scenes with Britt and Ava wasted away in that pairing with Maxie for months on end.
ABC didn't want to "trade one rapist for another" from Franco to Todd, so if not for the network and certain actors, Frank would've had his way with a super soap. He's pitched three separate online spinoffs to ABC over the years, which were all denied, so he hasn't necessarily had the networks backing on all of his ideas. Kassie DePaiva stated that she was treated poorly by some cast members when OLTL actors first started appearing on GH, for they felt that the OLTL actors were "taking their place" so one can only imagine the shitshow that would ensue if legendary actors Susan Lucci or Erika Slezak, for example, were to come make Port Charles their stomping grounds, with all the media focus on them and not the "original" General Hospital characters. Then all the attention would go to them and even though it over ten years ago when Kassie was on GH, I doubt certain egos have changed that much where they feel that big name stars from other shows won't outshine them.
