Credit: Chris D/JPI
We’re not sure whether we’re relieved that the news leaked that General Hospital was killing off Sam — so we could brace ourselves — or sorry that it did — because now we’re watching Kelly Monaco’s last episodes with a sense of dread. Even today, on the fan favorite’s 21st anniversary in the role, we’re of mixed feelings.
Complicating matters is the fact that the show has foreshadowed the way that Sam will meet her maker. An experienced diver, she is determined to make a splash to retrieve the gun that Alexis was spotted tossing off a bridge (in order to keep daughter Kristina from being accused of Cates’ murder, one of the many crimes the young woman’s dad Sonny committed). Odds are, Sam will never bubble up to the surface after that fateful dive.
Awful for fans, true, but amazing drama: Could Sam’s ending be any more tragic than one that could have altogether been avoided if only Port Charles’ “good” mobster had come clean about what he’d done to the erstwhile Jagger?
Ironically, Monaco, who has already taped Sam’s swan song, will be exiting the daytime drama that she chose over all of the others when Port Charles was cancelled in 2003. She’d made such an impression as vampire bride Livvie that “probably within 30 minutes of finding out [the show was axed], I basically got an offer from every one of the networks,” she told Soap Opera Digest in ’23. “I had the pick of the litter.”
More: Kelly Monaco’s rise to fame [PHOTOS]
Frank Valentini, who is the executive producer of General Hospital now, did his damnedest to recruit Monaco for One Life to Live, which at the time he was running. He “was probably the most aggressive one that was seeking me out,” she recalled, “and called me personally.”
In the end, though, “diehard” fan Monaco chose to sign with General Hospital. “That was my dream,” she said. “I was like, ‘General Hospital all the way!’”
