‘General Hospital’ News: Shelly Altman & Jean Passanante Dish About Changes Coming To GH

A few weeks ago, ABC announced that Shelly Altman and Jean Passanante would take over as head scribes of “General Hospital,” replacing Ron Carlivati. It has been over ten years since the writing team was headed by women. Over the past few years, the writing was headed by Chuck Pratt (who is the head writer at “Young and the Restless”) and Ron Carlivati. How will the writing change with women in command?

Altman and Passanante both agreed that the writing should not change much. They both are women and mothers. They do think that some of that will reflect in the writing, but overall believe the writing will be consistent with what the fans are used to. Altman noted, “I think each of us brings something unique to the table. We will write the women sensibly because we are women.”

The women duo noted that they planned on upping the romance in the 52-year-old daytime drama. They said that they felt that romance and passion are missing from the show. They noted the show had mystery and mob wars, but romance was not part from the script in recent months. Passanante said, “If you look at our track record, you will see that we are often emotional story tellers. We plan to incorporate that in “General Hospital” like we did “Y&R.” They plan on writing material that integrates new fan favorites, Nina (Michelle Stafford) and Franco (Roger Howarth) in Port Charles instead of keeping them isolated, with little interaction from the core characters.

The writing duo worked with each other previously when they were head scribes of “Young and the Restless” in 2013. They have proven they work well together and can write compelling material. They are excited to be on a new adventure and cannot wait until fans see what they have planned next for their beloved residents of Port Charles.

Altman and Pasanante brought up a very interesting point. Do women write differently than men? Will fans be able to tell a huge difference in the writing? Will the women’s team bring something more emotional and nurturing to the show?

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