General Hospital
Bradford Anderson Addresses GH Fans On Last Minute Spinelli Switch: "My Plea To You Is To Be Compassionate, Understanding & Appreciative Of Whatever Decisions They Made."
Photo Credit: HutchinsPhoto.com
GH fan favorite, Bradford Anderson took to his facebook page in the last 24 hours to address some of the outcry and negativity from fans of the ABC soap opeea who were disheartened to learn that Anderson could not play upcoming episodes as the beloved character of Spinelli, and thus was replaced by another talented actor, former DAYS star, Blake Berris.
Anderson clearly relates in his post that an opportunity arose for him to appear on one of his all time favorite dramas Homeland, and it was his decision to back out of taping GH at the last minute due to a scheduling conflict that quickly arouse. He askes GH fans to support General Hospital’s casting decision and get behind Berris.
Here is what Bradford shared: “Hey all! So I’m appearing in a couple episodes of the upcoming season of Homeland on Showtime! It’s a show that I’ve watched and loved since it began, so to be working on it is pretty exciting. The unfortunate part is that it conflicted with some episodes of GH that I was supposed to do, and I had to back out of those episodes. To make it even worse, it all happened last minute. I put GH in a very difficult position and for that I am incredibly sorry.
GH took whatever steps they needed to proceed without me. My plea to you is to be compassionate, understanding, and appreciative of whatever decisions they made. If anything looks or sounds different than you’re used to, understand that it’s because of a decision that I made. The situation was created by ME.
I know some might rush to negativity, but I’d like to urge everyone to think about how unique our genre is, and how soaps truly embody the spirit of ‘the show must go on’. To give you an idea of hard GH had to work, they learned on a Friday that I wouldn’t be there to film on Monday. Imagine having to find an actor to play Spin in an important storyline, OVER A WEEKEND. And just wait til you see who they found… The perfect choice. I for one can’t wait to watch. I’d like to apologize to everyone at GH and thank them for being understanding of my predicament. SO thank you all for your continued support of me, for sending as much positivity to GH and it’s actors…and for WATCHING!! Love and thanks, Bradford.”
So, what did you think of Anderson’s hearfelt post? Can you now support GH’s decision on casting Berris, who deserves a shot at filling in for Anderson? Comment below.
General Hospital
GENERAL HOSPITAL Preview: Carly and Lulu Make Plans to Rescue Their Children; Anna Looks Determined to Secure Her Freedom
This week on all-new episodes of General Hospital, the race is on! Can Lulu (Alexa Havins) and Dante (Dominic Zamprogna) get to Rocco (Finn Carr) and Britt (Kelly Thiebaud) in time to ensure their safety from Cullum (Andrew Hawkes)? Can Carly (Laura Wright) with the help of her brother, Lucas (Van Hansis) rescue Josslyn (Eden McCoy) from captivity at Wyndemere? These questions may be answered, plus the return of the one and only Anna Devane (Finola Hughes) are on tap!
In the just released General Hospital spoilers video for the week of June 22-26, Lulu tells her mother, Laura (Genie Francis), “Dante and I have to get to Rocco before Cullum!” Meanwhile, Rocco (Finn Carr) looks angered and emotional as Britt walks through their cabin hideout. Does Rocco know his parents are on the way to find them, or has Cullum already tracked them down to the British Virgin Islands?
Back in Port Charles, Carly is informing Lucas that his niece, “is a WSB agent.” She knows Josslyn (Eden McCoy) is being held against her will at Wyndemere, and she has to find a way to get her out. Lucas agrees with Carly’s plan of, “We go in and we don’t leave without Josslyn!” Elsewhere, Josslyn is looking worried for her future as she is stuck in captivity thanks to Cassius, Cullum and Sidwell!
Courtesy/ABC
FINOLA HUGHES RETURNS
The final moments of the teaser promo reveal Anna in a psychiatric clinic in France. We have not seen her for months after Cullum, Sidwell and Pascal fed her hallucinogenics to make her believe her arch nemesis, Cesar Faison was alive!
Now, the doctors walk towards her hospital bed, where we see the super spy calmly knitting. Is Anna back to normal and playing everyone to get out of her predicament, or does she still remain deeply traumatized … or both?
Take a look at the rest of the official GH spoilers for the week below.
MONDAY, JUNE 22
Willow gets an unwelcome surprise. Trina sticks to her guns. “Nathan” wants reassurance. Ethan advises Ava. Brook Lynn receives an update.
TUESDAY, JUNE 23
Dante cautions Liz. Laura learns a secret. Brook Lynn confides in Michael. Sonny challenges Ava. Chase makes a decision.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24
Anna meets with her doctor. Carly makes a stunning confession. Britt extracts a promise. Cullum pulls a fast one. Gio and Emma hit the pool.
THURSDAY, JUNE 25
Josslyn clashes with Cassius. Lulu and Dante make a discovery. Chase receives a warning. Jordan seeks help. Alexis is summoned to the PCPD.
FRIDAY, JUNE 26
Anna takes a huge risk. Britt is in grave danger. Willow is in disbelief. Danny must act fast. Curtis jumps to the wrong conclusion.
Check out the latest General Hospital promo entitled, “Rescue Mission” below.
Now weigh-in: Do you think Anna is still mentally off-balance, or OK, and just pretending to be troubled to get out of France and get back to Port Charles? Will Josslyn finally be rescued, or will Carly and Lucas find themselves locked up with her? And, who will get to Britt and Rocco first? Cullum, or Dante and Lulu? Share your thoughts and theories via the comment section below.
General Hospital
Maurice Benard Gives High Praise to ‘General Hospital’ Writers; Teases Upcoming Sonny Scenes with Anna, Jason, Justine and Ric
With the highly-anticipated returns of Finola Hughes (Anna Devane) on this week’s June 24 episode of General Hospital, Steve Burton’s (Jason Morgan) upcoming return on July 13, which also serves as the ABC daytime drama’s 16,000 episode, things are about to fire on all cylinders in the story, as noted today by series star, Maurice Benard (Sonny Corinthos).
On Father’s Day, the three-time Daytime Emmy-winning actor and mental health activist took to his Instagram and expressed in a video that he has some unbelievable upcoming senes with the aforementioned Burton and Hughes. Add to that Nazneen Contractor (Justine Turner) and Rick Hearst (Ric Lansing), where Benard gave credit where credit is due to the GH writing team, which is led by co-head writers, Elizabeth Korte and Chris Van Etten..
In this video, Benard said, “I just want to get on here and say that I did some work with Steve Burton, Finola Hughes, Rick Hearst, Nazneen Contractor, and they’re all just fantastic. Truly fantastic. But, I want to say the writing was just exceptional. It truly was. It was exceptional. So, thankful for that kind of writing. I know writers don’t get the credit a lot, but I just want to say to the General Hospital writing team, keep rolling!”
GENERAL HOSPITAL PREVIEW
So now the question becomes, with a major tease like that, what is about to go down between Sonny, Anna, Jason, Justine and Ric? Will we finally get to the end of the line for Sidwell (Carlo Rota), as previously teased by the GH co-head writers? Will we learn what happened to Jason and Anna, fully? Will Justine and Sonny becomes closer or stop their liaisons? And what of Ric? Will he be true blue to his brother or double-cross him? There is a lot at stake as we move further into the summer and one that looks like it could be one of the more exciting ones in years!
FINOLA HUGHES CONFIRMED AMAZING SCENES WITH MAURICE BENARD
As a punctuation point to his video, Benard also shared this written message in the post: “I just did some wonderful scenes with Steve Burton, Rick Hearst, Finola Hughes and Nazneen Contractor and and unbelievable writing, freaking amazing scenes that you will see in the near future on General Hospital.” In fact, Finola Hughes jumped in the post comment thread and responded, “I loved our scenes so much xxx”
Fans will most likely see all the scenes Benard referred to later in July, since GH tapes approximately six weeks ahead of air.
So, are you excited to see what Maurice is talking about? Are you hyped for what’s to come on GH? Any clue on what you think will go down between the main characters on the soap with the returns of Anna Devane and Jason Morgan to the mix? Weigh-in via the comment section below.
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General Hospital
‘General Hospital’ Alum Chad Duell Announces Upcoming Release of His First Single, ‘If You Need Me’
In a surprise move, Daytime Emmy winner, Chad Duell (ex-Michael Corinthos, GH) is getting ready to unveil a new chapter of his career in music.
The former GH star, where he played the son of Sonny Corinthos (Maurice Benard) and Carly Spencer (Laura Wright) for 15 years, has announced his new single, “If You Need Me” will drop on Friday, June 26. The single is now available for pre-order on Spotify and major music streaming platforms and is distributed by DistroKid.
Taking to his Instagram story over the weekend, to announce the pre-save of his new single, Chad expressed, “I’ll make a full post about what I’ve been up to and my music once it goes live next week, but you can pre-save my first single so it goes straight to your Spotify once it drops next week.”
Photo: CDuellIG
SINCE LEAVING GENERAL HOSPITAL
Previously, since his departure from the ABC soap opera. Chad starred alongside Zach Mendez in the world premiere of of Yum Yum at Annapolis, a new play written by Bruce Reisman. Duell last appeared on General Hospital on the January 21, 2025 episode.
The part was recast with Rory Gibson who debuted as the new Michael in May of 2025 during the Nurses’ Ball episodes and who has remained in the role since that time.
In an interview earlier this year on The Able Show, Duell said on his decision to exit the soap opera, “I was blessed to be part of that (show) for as long as I have, but what happens sometimes is if you’re doing the same thing, especially in a creative field for such a long time, you can get a little burnt out in a way. It can make you a little depressed, so that’s kind of what happened. On top of that, I had other things going on in my life at the time. My father passed away recently and I just needed a reset. So, I stepped away. A lot of times you have to go through some stuff to really step into that next level. I needed to kind of feel uncomfortable.”
So, what type of musical genre will Chad’s new song be? Country? Pop? Rock? Dance/Club? Something else? Let us know your thoughts via the comment section below, and if you are eager to hear the new single next week via the comment section below.
Christel Khalil Reveals She Almost Quit Acting After ‘That’s So Raven’ Audition, But Then Came ‘The Young and the Restless’
DAYS OF OUR LIVES: Marlena Looks Back at 50 Years in Salem
‘WWE: Unreal’ Season 3 Premiere Date, Cast of Superstars, Announced by Netflix
GENERAL HOSPITAL Preview: Carly and Lulu Make Plans to Rescue Their Children; Anna Looks Determined to Secure Her Freedom
Deidre Hall Marks 50 Years as ‘Days of Our Lives’ Dr. Marlena Evans
Maurice Benard Gives High Praise to ‘General Hospital’ Writers; Teases Upcoming Sonny Scenes with Anna, Jason, Justine and Ric
‘General Hospital’s’ Controversial Luke and Laura Rape Episode: Writer Sheri Anderson Reveals Behind the Scenes Decisions and Admits ‘I Was Wrong’ to Defend It (Exclusive)
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‘General Hospital’s’ Dominic Zamprogna Weighs-In on Dante and Elizabeth Pairing and Sharing Scenes with Rebecca Herbst (Exclusive)
GENERAL HOSPITAL Promo: Rocco’s in a Panic as Britt’s Health Takes a Turn, Chase is Called to the Carpet
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What an awesome guy. I appreciate him stepping up like that. I’ve watched GH for 39 years. Recasting Spinelli will not changed that. Good luck on Homeland!
What a classy response – it just makes me love and appreciate Bradford more.
I hope he enjoys his stint on Homeland and will be back at GH in the future.
Blake is only filling in for Bradford so that’s not to say Bradford won’t be playing Spinelli the next time they want to bring the character back for a short stint. It really isn’t a big deal anyway since Bradford wasn’t under contract to the show.
Best of luck to Bradford on the new part. You will be missed, but no one should take issue with you pursuing new roles. I just hope you are available to return for the next round!
Wonder if he’ll return as Spinelli in the future.
i supported gh’s decision from the beginning because blake berris is a phenomenal actor – since bradford was not available i believe that gh did what they had to do to keep the show moving…………………..jmo
Well said Bradford! However the actor selected is taller and very handsome missing your perfectly timed quirks! No disrespect intended to you or Blake!
Classy!
I know fans can often be mean about recasts, even temporary ones. But I think what Bradford needs to understand is that many fans are frustrated by GH’s poor plotting and writing and are also still upset by the recent recast of Nickolas. It’s not that the actor who replaced Tyler wasn’t good, it’s that they chose to kill off a legacy character with a recast. And then Nickolas didn’t get so much as a funeral or a flashback sequence while we’ve been mourning Morgan for three months now. Spinelli appears only sporadically on GH. It’s silly to recast him. If Spinelli is being brought on for his computer wiz skills, then Blake could have been introduced as a friend and colleague of Spinelli’s who is helping out while Spinelli is on holiday with Ellie and Georgie. Seems to me it would not require a major rewrite to do that. If Spinellinis being brought back as moral support for one of his friends then, let’s face it, having Blake play out those emotional scenes – no matter how good an actor he is – won’t have nearly the same impact.
To be fair here’s a recast that did work for me: Molly as Maxie. But that’s a permanent character whose portrayer went out unexpectedly and I could see where major rewrites would have been near impossible. Plus Molly dis a really, really good job with the character.
Remember it is more than a rewrite here– if he told them Friday, when filming was to start Monday– that is all the behind the scenes blocking, the staging , the camera shots, the lighting design– the shooting schedule– all of it either had to be tossed or redone– which would be A MAJOR expense–those types of things cannot be changed so easily, and overtime it might of cost while they did, boy oh boy– it was simply cheaper to hire someone to come in and do the scenes rather than scrap everything. People think it is just about changing some words in the script, but there so much more to production than that. If they had a month notice perhaps they would have time to change stuff around, but honestly, a weekend notice– what choice did he give them. Fans sometimes forget it is called show business– because it is a business– this isn’t about him, this is about costs and what was the cheapest solution to his sudden conflict– which was cause by him ditching his GH gig for a better gig–
Well said Mary SF!!! Kudos to Blake to be able to memorize his lines in extreme short notice!
So the fact that GH had a weekend to deal with this means nothing? Re-writing IS a big deal.
Class act.
It’s sad how some ‘fans’ behaved but oh well. I think the actor stepping in is all kinds of awesome and I will enjoy his interpretation of the role.
I don’t understand not giving someone a chance. Steve Burton isn’t coming back to GH and Michelle Stafford isn’t going back to Y&R. They’ve moved on and if you love those shows then you need to support them
Very well said Tomas and I agree with you 100%…THANK YOU to GH, Bradford and Blake. I want to support ALL our actors, actress, executive producers, writers along with ALL behind the scenes employees of ALL our soaps, I APPRECIATE ALL that you do.
Funny you should bring up Michelle Stafford. She’s the reason I came t came to GH and I’m happy I did. I watched Y&R for 40 years and stopped after what I felt was poor treatment of my favs.. Love GH and Michelle, Billy, Maura, Roger and I finally got to see what Maurice was all about
Recasts are part of the game on daytime dramas, be they short term or permanent. To see any upset or disappointment is disappointing to me. We would not have continuing drama day to day on television without recasts. And sometimes even characters associated with particular actors need to be recast so our stories can continue. I would rather have a recast than to have something not proceed correctly. I cite a lack of a Ridge Forrester recast when Stephanie Forrester died as it never rang true that he would not be home. On GH, Spinelli is a recurring character. Love Mr. Anderson but we can move forward without him for his latest story arc.
It’s great that Bradford came out to explain what happened,and I love him for that,and what he said about the actor temporarily taking on his character..Very classy.I will look forward to Bradfords return to TH ,and hope he enjoys his time also on Homeland..Maybe I will try to catch him there also.He is an amazing actor,and I know he will be great ..
<3 Bradford. I wish you every happiness and am glad you got to be on Homeland, though I'll miss you as Spinelli.
Classy and kind. Love him!
Homeland !? way to go !! I love that show too. As for the argument for temp replacement I get both sides but I’m more against them I always say if they have to scramble why not just fill the air time with extended scenes with other characters .
Wonderful of you to reach out to us….Good luck on your new character! You’ll hit it out of the ballpark as always!! And a sweet Congratulations to you! Happy new Year!!
Are GH fans going to be upset now that Bradford chose another show over GH???
Wasn’t Bradford dropped to recurring status before he made decision to leave the show? Isn’t this what happens when an actor is off contract??
I’m very excited about the recast myself!!! Things happen for a reason and I believe Blake will be a great Spinnelli!
What a class act! I too enjoy Homeland, and will enjoy seeing his performance
What a classy response and nice to see it cleared up.
Sadly somehow there are still many people being negative and blaming GH and ABC for this choice when it was clearly out of their control
Blake Berris is sooooo good,people will LOVE him and I hope he stays on the show in a different role.
Folks need to understand that ABC/GH didnt create this mess, BA did,even if unintentional, and if I had the opportunity to do something that I’ve always wanted to do, I would have done the same.So Good for BA but I will enjoy Blake too because I know what he brings to the table as an actor
I didn’t understand the spew over it to begin with..
It’s only for the month of Jan. so probably 6 episoides ..
It will be fun to see a different Spin …
Great response.
WHAT A STANDUP COOL GUY…WISH YOU LUCK AND HOPE YOU WILL RETURN THE NEXT TIME GH CALLS…..
Does not matter. GH has become so violent and so depressing that I , finally, had enough.
If I canceled on a work commitment on a Friday for a Monday gig, I would not expect to work there again. We all have to make tough decisions in life, but honoring your commitments is how you maintain a professional reputation. Hopefully this won’t ruin his career and we will see him on GH again. I like the actor and the role is quirky and fun.
At least he was honest and I would have done the same thing…Homeland is a huge deal and will give him exposure with a different type audience. KUDOS to him and best of luck. Blake will fill in and I’m sure Bradford will be back someday I hope
What a class act! I bet this happens more than we know. BA taking the time to address the fans in this way really stands heads and shoulders above. Kudos to him!
Im so excited over this recast. I hope we get to see Spinelly as a major role on GH, like Kevin from Y&R. Lets give the new guy a chance. We will be surprised im sure.
Blake Berris was progressive on DAYS as a psycho but this is definitely a change for him.
We have had to endure these types of changes on GH before, remember Maxie, Nicholas, etc? Congrats to him and hoping if GH decides to bring Spinelli back in the future he will be available. Also remember he has a dynamic singing voice and could be doing Broadway. 🙂
If BA doesn’t want a contract with GH (which I fully understand) I hope they offer a contract to Blake Berris. Maxie and Spinelli were magic. She’s been back burned of late
Nick Stabile and Molly Burnett were very good as temporary recasts, some rejected the idea at the start and didn’t want to accept the change, but it worked out well in their short runs on GH with fans.
I am looking forward to seeing Blake as Spin.
Well said. The best to you. What a wonderful experience. Blake Berris is a wonderful actor. I can’t wait to see him on his take of Spinnelli.
I would rather no Spinelli than a cheap imitation. Every actor can be replaced. This one is NOT the replacement for Spinelli. Spinelli is filled with excitement on every level, from appearance to intelligence to mannerism. This actor is as flat as a flat tire. Keep looking. Good luck, he’ll be difficult to replace.
Hey Brad, please please don’t quit playing the role of Spanish!!!! I have watched GH since 1984. Or longer….. I don’t know if you watch GH but I also watch Days and killing the character “”Nick” off was the best decision!!!! No one can play the part like you EVER!!!! And sorry but old Nick sucks at it… I cried when you first saw Jason and made the comment about his build and butt!! No one can be Smart, Funny, walking encyclopedia but you sir!!!! They need to kill the character off if YOU don’t do the part!!!