For the last two years, General Hospital and ‘Vanna’ fans have had to get used to James Patrick Stuart and Valentin either being out of sight or on the run while the actor filmed the hit Disney comedy series, The Villains of Valley View. Will that happen again this year? The soap set the story up for that, but it could have been for nothing.

James Patrick Stuart Is Optimistic

When Stuart sat down with Steve Burton and Bradford Anderson for The Daily Drama Podcast in early December, he offered the latest update on his Disney series. This past summer, Executive Producer Frank Valentini asked him when he’d start shooting Valley View again. Stuart told him he assumed it would be November, but the date was “a wild card” due to the recent Hollywood strikes.

Currently, Stuart has not started filming a third season of Valley View, and Disney has not announced whether it’s picked up the series yet.

“Truth be told, the strike has pushed off Disney making the announcement of their pickups,” he said, adding that “the show’s been solid,” he said.

What About Vanna?

Stuart explained that Valentini promised to make juggling two series work for the actor when he first landed Valley View. However, it wasn’t always easy.

“The reality of making it work meant bringing in the crew an hour early sometimes,” Stuart said. “Sometimes I’d be doing so much work over at Villains that my love interest, Finola Hughes was sort of sitting on the sidelines twiddling her thumbs…and the practical application of that ended up being a bit of a pain in the neck.”

Believing that Stuart would be filming his sitcom again and not wanting to leave Hughes with little to do, the show recently broke up the very popular pairing of Anna and Valentin. Anna shot Valentin’s daughter, Charlotte, believing she was a dangerous stalker.

Valentin didn’t tell her his teenage daughter was the one tormenting her, which led her to make the mistake of firing her gun when she found an intruder in her new apartment. Now, the couple that took six years to get together are no more — for now.

“I think that was the reason why the Vanna experience…[that] Finola and I have taken a break is because [Valentini] didn’t want to put her through that again,” Stuart said, referring to Anna having little story while Valentin was scarce.

Still, Stuart remains hopeful that The Villains of Valley View will start production again soon. “Otherwise, he said, “Valentin is on the sidelines for no reason”

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