The General Hospital fandom was shocked when Steve Burton (Jason) announced back in February that he’d be taking a hiatus from the soap.
That highly anticipated exit came in late March, when Jason was arrested for shooting a WSB agent and shipped off to an undisclosed prison — the aftermath of which is continuing to ripple through Port Charles.
On the latest episode of the podcast he co-hosts with castmate Bradford Anderson (Spinelli), That’s Awesome, Burton opened up about his exit storyline, the idea that Jason’s son, Danny (Asher Antonyzyn), is on track to follow in his father’s footsteps, and his character’s replacement as Sonny’s (Maurice Benard) right-hand man.
Exit Strategy
Burton explained that how he would exit the soap had been a hot topic of conversation during his and Anderson’s road shows over the past several months. During Q&A sessions, many fans wondered why Jason didn’t travel to France to help Anna (Finola Hughes), instead choosing to leave town to hide out with Britt (Kelly Thiebaud). He shared, “Some fans brought it up, and we talked a little bit about it — ‘Why didn’t you go? Anna needed you. Britt could have been okay by herself, or you could have had someone [else] maybe help.’” But, the actor continued with a shrug, “I’m leaving, so they had to write something. Is it ideal? Eh… You’re leaving your kid. [But] I wasn’t leaving forever.”
The actor, who began playing Jason on GH in 1991, added that his character’s plan to leave town with Britt was meant to be temporary — but the way he was written off ended up having a more permanent tone. “We had to just disappear for a little while. We don’t know how long,” he stated. “We don’t know what’s going to happen, and then we’ll be back.” In the end, of course, “It didn’t work out that way,” said Burton, referring to the last-minute plot twist where Jason was arrested by the WSB for shooting Director Ross Cullum (Andrew Hawkes) and carted off by the bureau to an unknown black site.
Like Father, Like Son?
For Jason’s son, Danny, the shocking way that his father left town has left the teen desperate to get answers and hold someone (namely, Carlo Rota‘s Jenz Sidwell) responsible for his father’s arrest. While Burton sees the potential storytelling opportunities for his TV son in Danny joining the Corinthos crime organization, he’s not sure that becoming “Jason 2.0” is the right move for the young man. “It would be an interesting story to tell, because Jason wouldn’t want him to,” Burton enthused.
Back in 2024, Danny’s mom, Sam (Kelly Monaco), grew concerned when their son was acting out, worrying that he was following in Jason’s risk-taking footsteps. Burton saw echoes of that beat with the iconic 1995 storyline in which Jason lost his memory after getting into a car accident. “[Jason] understood the risks that Danny had to take to feel alive because that’s what I went through when I changed characters,” he noted. “But go ahead and skydive. You don’t need to go tracking people down, trying to shoot people. You don’t need to get into the business. I’ve already done it. My kid doesn’t have to do it.”
As Burton sees it, the life that the art of daytime imitates has changed since his alter ego joined the mob back in the mid-’90s. “The mafia today, the real mafia, is different than the mafia in the ’70s and ’80s. It’s a whole different ballgame now,” Burton opined. “I just don’t think there’s as much, ‘Hey, go take care of this guy’ as it used to be. But if there was a next generation of that, I think it’d be good for storytelling. But I think it would just have to be told differently. It has to be different players, different motives.”
The Replacements
Another storyline goldmine Burton sees coming out of his hiatus will be his character discovering that Sonny had turned to Ric (Rick Hearst) for help in bringing Jason home. After all, the two men have openly despised one another for years. Mused Burton, “I don’t know the [current] dynamic. I don’t know anything about Ric. I don’t know anything about their relationship, if Sonny and Ric [are] damaged.
I’m not sure if Ric has reformed at all. [But] I like the idea, as Steve. I like it, because I like Rick [Hearst]. And especially when I come back, it’s going to be a problem like it used to be in the old days. So, I think that’s pretty cool.”
Ric is in the early stages of a renewed romance with ex-wife Elizabeth (Rebecca Herbst), with whom Jason shares deep history and a son, Jake — and Burton raised an eyebrow when Anderson revealed that Liz had recently been chemistry-tested with another guy on the canvas, Dante (Dominic Zamprogna).
Burton noted that seeing how two actors play together on camera is a worthwhile exercise in looking for possibly pairings, reminding that arguably his own most memorable on-screen romance . “With Kelly Monaco, it wasn’t even supposed to be a couple, you know? So you just never know when it happens.”
If the writers do pursue the sparks between Dante and Liz, Burton is prepared to join their fan club. “I like Dante and Elizabeth,” he pronounced. “Sounds good!”
Jason will be back in action this summer when Burton’s hiatus comes to an end.
