GENERAL HOSPITAL

Six-time Daytime Emmy winner Erika Slezak wasn't exactly planning a soap comeback, but when General Hospital's executive producer Frank Valentini called, the daytime legend couldn't resist hearing him out.

- BY STEPHANIE SLOANE

"He filled me in on what he wanted for the story arc, and I said, 'That's very interesting, because it's completely different from what I played on One Life to Live," Slezak recalls. "I was always Viki [Lord Buchanan], confident and strong. This is a totally different character. It's an exciting, wonderful change." (Producers are keeping the name of the character she's playing under wraps until her September 26 debut on the ABC soap.)

Once Slezak arrived at the studio, it didn't take long for her to feel at home. "I came in, and Jane Elliot [Tracy Quartermaine] was in my dressing room, making sure everything was nice and neat and clean and turning all the lights on," she reports. "It was so lovely."