General Hospital's Luke and Laura and the Power of Daytime Drama

When Luke and Laura married, the arrivals of satellite television, the Internet, cell phones and DVR technologies as we know them were still decades away.

For millions of television watchers, the biggest news of the fall broadcast season isn't the success of NBC's Heroes, the vigorous Thursday night competition between CBS' CSI and ABC's Grey's Anatomy or the collapse of NBC's new Aaron Sorkin drama Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. It's the return of Genie Francis as Laura Vining Webber Baldwin Spencer to ABC Daytime's General Hospital.

Francis' return as one of the most popular characters to ever emerge in daytime drama is worth noting because it calls attention (at a time when much attention is needed) to the enduring power not simply of daytime soap operas but to that of serialized programming overall and to broadcast television itself. Consider the enduring popularity of her character, Laura. This month marks the 25th anniversary of Laura's now-legendary wedding to Luke in a two-part 1981 episode that drew 30 million-plus viewers, still the record-holder for a daytime drama audience. (It's not a true wedding anniversary, though, because the characters were divorced in 2001.) Next year marks the 30th anniversary of another groundbreaking event: Laura's arrival as a troubled teen on General Hospital. As conceived by the late Gloria Monty, who was the executive producer of GH at the time, the powerful stories about Laura that brought many young characters to the foreground redefined what a soap opera could be and attracted millions of teenagers to the show.

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Luke and Laura's Wedding on General Hospital

Interestingly, Francis has since 1977 only been a cast member of GH for approximately 14 years, spanning 1977-1981 (she left the show almost immediately after the legendary wedding) and 1993-2002. She returned to the show for two weeks in 1983 and for a few days in 1984.

And yet, when a miracle drug brought Laura out of her four-year-long mental shutdown last week, and Francis began once again playing dramatic scenes opposite Anthony Geary, the actor who has portrayed Luke (and, briefly, his look-a-like cousin Bill) from 1979-1984 and 1991 to the present, it was as if no time had passed. This is certainly a tribute to the talents of and chemistry between these two fine performers. But it also speaks to the ability of daytime dramas and the actors on them to become profoundly bonded to viewers and to remain that way even during prolonged absences, regardless of increased competition for those same viewers by a universe of ever-expanding media options.

Consider: There was no cable television to speak of when Laura first arrived on GH back in 1977. There were no VCRs, either, which only added to the urgency and excitement surrounding the experience of viewing GH at its peak. The arrivals of satellite television, video on demand, the Internet, cell phones and DVR technologies as we know them were still decades away. And yet, the pop-culture phenomenon that was the relationship of Laura and Luke back at the end of the Seventies and at the dawn of the Reagan era today remains unduplicated in its ability to engage, enchant and entertain.

That is what a well-written, well-acted soap opera can do, a point well worth making at a time when most soap operas are fighting for their lives, the victims of repetitive writing, industry indifference, escalating competition from other media and, I am convinced, flawed audience measurement.

Remarkably, the foundation of the popularity of these characters was built and reinforced to the point that it would endure for three decades (and counting) at a time before VCRs first appeared in homes. One had to be parked in front of a television when GH was telecast or miss each crucial episode. At that time, once an episode aired it was presumed to be gone forever. Students cut classes and employees called in sick for significant episodes (such as the wedding of Laura and Luke or, before that, the wedding of Laura to her first husband, nice-guy Scotty Baldwin, or the freezing of Port Charles by a madman with a weather machine).

One can only wonder how many more millions of young people would have been watching at the time if they had VCRs, or DVRs or iPods. Of course, one might also wonder if so many young people would have been watching had they been tantalized with the multitude of competing options available today. That's a question media experts can endlessly debate without ever forming a definitive conclusion.

The television fan in me says that the irresistible story of the young Luke and Laura would have become a phenomenon regardless of other entertainment options available. If a similarly compelling couple came along on a soap opera today, played by actors who (like Anthony Geary and Genie Francis) did not look like mannequins and could consistently deliver riveting performances, and if their story was as well written and directed as was the story of Laura and Luke, then lightning could indeed strike once again. It would certainly be easier to follow (especially if GH were made available as a daily download).

Still, contrary to industry perception, soap operas at present are not without power similar to that enjoyed by serials in the Eighties. A recent edition of the new syndicated talk series The Greg Behrendt Show featured couples whose marriages were in peril because the wives were addicted to watching soaps, especially those repeated on SOAPnet during primetime. One poor man shared the story of how he had come home early on his wedding anniversary to cook his wife a gourmet meal, only to be told that she couldn't come to the table because General Hospital was on.

"Leave me alone!" the transfixed wife cried. "Alexis has lung cancer!" Alexis, one of the most popular characters on General Hospital today, is a problem-plagued attorney who recently learned that she has advanced lung cancer and walked in on her husband having sex with her daughter -- all during the same terrible week. She's played by Nancy Lee Grahn, a hugely talented actress who has much the same following today with GH viewers as did Francis 25 years ago. Significantly, Alexis is not an ingénue. She's a middle-aged woman. And yet, young viewers remain heavily invested in her storylines. There's another industry perception smashed to bits. But that's a column for another day.