22, 2020, and new episodes began airing on August 3, 2020. Schedule Notes ABC stations in the Mountain and Pacific Time Zones, and in Alaska and Hawaii follow a Central Time Zone schedule for daytime programming; thus, General Hospital is scheduled by the network to air at 1:00 p.m. in these areas. In September 2014, General Hospital reclaimed its former time slot of 3:00 p.m. Eastern/2:00 Central and Pacific on ABC owned-and-operated stations in New York City, Philadelphia, Raleigh–Durham, Chicago, Houston, San Francisco and Los Angeles; and affiliate KSAT-TV in San Antonio. Ratings history For historical ratings information, see List of U.S. daytime soap opera ratings Years as #1 series Highest-rated week in daytime history (November 16–20, 1981) (Household ratings, Nielsen Media Research) Parodies and references in other media The popularity of General Hospital has gained it many parodies and references in other mainstream programs. For example: In the early 1990s, some episodes of General Hospital were featured as "shorts" during the fourth season of the parody show Mystery Science Theater 3000. The series was also parodied/homaged in the song "General Hospi-Tale" by The Afternoon Delights, and in the film Tootsie, which took place among the cast and crew of a fictional soap opera program. In the Fox medical drama House, Gregory House enjoys Prescription Passion, which is an over-the-top parody of General Hospital that he watches constantly. In the season three episode, "Half-Wit", House hides his blood test results under the name, "Luke N. Laura", referring to General Hospitals popular couple. Mad TV did a sketch on the series with actors Jacklyn Zeman, Rebecca Herbst, and Jacob Young. The 1982 comedy film Young Doctors in Love featured a large part of General Hospital's cast from 1982. The February 23, 2000 episode of Late Show with David Letterman covers a faux segment of the program with regards to David Letterman's heart surgery. In a 2010 episode of The Colbert Report, comedian Stephen Colbert poked fun at the show, responding to a clip of Maurice Benard's Sonny Corinthos shooting Dominic Zamprogna's Dante Falconeri, satirically screaming, "Sonny shot Dante! No!" In the ABC comedy The Goldbergs, Erica and Adam frequently watch General Hospital together. In the book series Virgin River by Robyn Carr, Mel mentions watching General Hospital in nursing school. Spin-offs and specials The success of the long-running soap opera has had one sister serial, one spinoff in the United States,