Lucy Coe, Robert Scorpio, Anna Devane, Robin Scorpio, the Cassadine family, and many other popular characters who would dominate the show in the 1980s and early 1990s. General Hospital received cover stories in both People, Soap Opera Weekly, and Newsweek, which referred to Luke and Laura as the “Rhett Butler and Scarlett O'Hara of Soapland”. Included in the show's fan base were celebrities Elizabeth Taylor and Sammy Davis Jr., both of whom guest starred on the series. She was also the executive producer of the primetime serial The Hamptons. She employed many former daytime performers for this show. The serial was unusual because it was videotaped rather than being filmed. Monty announced her departure from General Hospital in 1986, working on her final episode as executive producer in January 1987. Her next two successors, H. Wesley Kenney (1987–1989) and Joseph Hardy (1989–1991), were both lauded by viewers, but GH fell out of first place in 1988 (with the ratings top spot being taken over by The Young and the Restless, the show that Kenney was hired from). By 1990, the show's ratings were starting to sag significantly. That December, ABC's daytime programming head Jackie Smith successfully hired Monty back as GH executive producer, and Monty resumed her role on February 13, 1991. In early 1991, Monty lured Anthony Geary back to daytime, but not as the popular Luke Spencer. Instead, Monty went along with Geary's demand to play a brand new character, Bill Eckert, Luke's lookalike cousin. An entire new family, the blue-collar Eckerts, was ushered in, and quickly dominated storyline, while the longrunning Quartermaine family was phased out. Monty also fired a dozen actors, in what the press described as a "bloodbath", including actress Jennifer Guthrie, who played heroine Dawn Winthrop. After Monty appointed her sister, Norma Monty, as head writer, the ratings eroded further. Monty's dismissal became inevitable between the declining ratings and the departure of popular cast members such as Tristan Rogers (Robert Scorpio) and Finola Hughes (Anna Devane, who Monty fired among much criticism). In early 1992, after only a year, Monty was replaced with Wendy Riche. She produced several made-for-television movies based on her friend Mary Higgins Clark's novels. She also chaired the New Jersey Motion Picture & Television Commission. Honors In 1997, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs, California, Walk of Stars was dedicated to Monty. Death She and her sister moved