General Hospital writers reveal whether Michael Knight will resurrect Tad Martin
General Hospital will celebrate a real blast from the past on Sept. 30 when Michael Knight, the legacy soap actor who is best known for playing Tad Martin on All My Children, comes to Port Charles as a character who’s “capable of all manner of shenanigans.”
Sadly, head writers Chris Van Etten and Dan O’Connor are revealing to EW that Knight won’t be resurrecting Tad the way Hilary B. Smith brought back her One Life to Live character Nora Buchanan on GH. Instead, he’ll create a new character for the ABC sudser. “There are a number of people in Port Charles who are in trouble and his character will have an impact on how their stories are solved or further complicated,” teases Van Etten.
EW has obtained a first look of Knight from the set. Is he an attorney? A mob boss? The CEO of Tinder?
Even though he isn’t bringing back his beloved AMC role, it wasn’t far back in the mind of Van Etten and O’Connor. “We have conversations when we have these actors come back about whether it’s more useful or not to resurrect their characters,” admits Van Etten. “We’ll continue to have these as the opportunity arises.”
Regardless of the mystery surrounding Knight’s role, the writers are thrilled about what he will bring to GH. He started filming on Sept. 10 on the show’s Los Angeles set.
“I knew he could bring a little zest to the General Hospital canvas. He’s his own special brand of zest!” says Van Etten. “I think the devotees of soap operas love seeing this callback to the rich history of ABC daytime shows.”
While the writers can’t say how long Knight’s character will stick around Port Charles, he is expected to cross paths with James Patrick Stuart, who played Will Cortlandt alongside Knight in the early ’90s on AMC. Stuart now plays Valentin Cassadine on GH.
“It’s a treat for the audience to see performers who have worked together in the past mix it up,” adds O’Connor.
Both writers said they zeroed in on Knight after knowing they had a particular role to fill on the daytime sudser. “As we were writing his character, we found out that oh, we have even more use for him!” says Van Etten. “It’s helpful to know who the actors are in this situation. We have lots of ideas on how we can expand his character and cross-pollinate his character.”
Lest you’ve been living in exile, Knight is best known for playing Tad Martin on AMC from 1982–1986, 1988–1990, and then from 1992 until the finale on ABC in 2011. He also popped up in the online version in 2013.
General Hospital airs weekdays on ABC.
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