Sometimes work is work. A paycheck, ya know. If you’re lucky, a chance to get better at what you do. And if you’re really lucky, work feels like a present that you get to open day after day. That’s what it sounds like Andy Richter Controls the Universe was for James Patrick Stuart. In a recent Facebook post, the General Hospital leading man marveled at what a good time he’d had playing the best friend of the Late Night and The Tonight Show comedian.

“If you never saw Andy Richter Controls the Universe, you ain’t alone,” Stuart began. The comedy,  from Santa Clarita Diet creator Victor Fresco, “was universally critically acclaimed and nominated for multiple Emmy awards during its short run” in the early 2000s, Stuart recalled. “Few more than a dozen episodes were ever aired before it disappeared.

“It remains to this day the most fun I have ever had,” he added. “I flat out loved every minute of working for Victor Fresco and Andy Ackerman. Andy Richter is easily the funniest man I have ever known. Lightning in a bottle.”

Richter’s character, who shared his name, was an aspiring short-story writer who instead of making his dream come true, is stuck toiling away on technical manuals. As his BFF Keith, Stuart was the office hottie. You know the type: All they have to do is smile, and the best clients, best assignments, best everythings fall at their feet. (See the tag team in action below.)

Andy Richter was but one of many primetime roles for Stuart, who got his soap start playing the villainous Will Cortlandt on All My Children in the late 1980s. He’s gone on to appear on everything from Seinfeld and Frasier to CSI and Ghost Whisperer. He’s also lent his voice to such series as Be Cool, Scooby Doo, American Dad! and Lego Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures. Since 2022, he’s starred as mad scientist Kraniac on Disney Channel’s The Villains of Valley View, too. (The look might have given away that he was a mad scientist, eh?)

Of course, since 2016, Stuart has also called General Hospital home. But as the walls close in on Valentin, who’s up to his eyeballs in Pikeman business, he might want to fall back on some of the tricks up Kraniac’s lab-coat sleeve. Valentin is a slippery one for sure, but even he may wind up facing charges that stick for a change! (Maybe he could shake the branches of the Cassadine family tree to bring in reinforcements? Remind yourself of Who’s Who here.)