The two best soaps of 2006 stood out from the rest specifically because they embraced their pasts while continuing to move forward.
CBS' As the World Turns, which marked its 50th anniversary in April, did so with a special episode featuring the seven oldest actresses on the show's expansive canvas, including Helen Wagner, who has played Oakdale matriarch Nancy Hughes since the series' very first episode (on April 2, 1956) and actually spoke the first line of dialogue during that now-historic half hour. On the anniversary episode the women weren't shown simply sitting around a table having tea or fretting about the lives of their children and grandchildren. Rather, they were all caught up in a comic adventure that came about when a bus they were traveling on crashed in a remote wooded area. This episode wasn't a dramatic or comedic highpoint in the history of ATWT, but it was remarkable nevertheless simply because it dared devote a full hour to beloved women of a "certain age." Given the youth madness that has permeated television it is remarkable that a leading broadcast network would even allow a full hour of its schedule to make it to air without a person under 50 in sight!
Of course, on most days there is no shortage of young people on ATWT. In fact, as noted in my March 8, 2006 column, ATWT this year offered some of the best drama about young people on all of television. Amid the usual stories of teen romance and twenty-something turmoil, the show's writers delivered one of the best stories of the year: The coming out of young Luke Snyder, son of longtime super-couple Lily and Holden Snyder. Unlike a similar story this year on General Hospital, in which Lucas Jones revealed to his family and friends that he is gay, experienced their differing reactions and disappeared from the show's canvas shortly thereafter, Luke's story was told over several months and impacted many major characters in realistic fashion. Luke has since remained involved in a number of other stories, including a Friday the 13th-inspired teens-imperiled-by-a-psycho-killer-in-the-woods arc at the end of the summer. In fact, it was during that enjoyable craziness that Luke came out to his friend Kevin, only to be harshly rejected.
And by the way, the psycho-killer arc, shot at a lakefront location in Staten Island, New York, wasn't just a big fun change of pace. It utilized actors from InTurn, a reality series on the CBS broadband channel innertube. (One of them later joined ATWT on a recurring basis.) You may think of ATWT as your mother's or your grandmother's soap, but at 50 it managed to associate itself with the burgeoning arena of Internet programming to a greater extent than any other drama in daytime.
ABC's General Hospital also deserves special recognition for its achievements in 2006.
GH has been criticized since the start of this millennium by longtime fans (including myself) for placing entirely too much emphasis on a circle of characters comprised of violent mobsters and the hapless women who simply cannot resist their charms. These characters still dominate the show, and their storylines remain repetitive, but something wonderful began to happen in 2006 that made the mob influence somewhat more tolerable. No doubt in response to mounting outrage from fans who wanted their show back, the producers and writers of GH returned some of its focus to the hospital of the title and the doctors and nurses therein. They also brought back a number of beloved veteran characters throughout the year, including Rick Springfield as Dr. Noah Drake (who actually turned up in December '05), Kimberly McCullough as Dr. Robin Scorpio, Tristan Rogers as super spy Robert Scorpio, Emma Samms as con artist Holly Sutton Scorpio and Finola Hughes as secret agent Anna Devane. The writers screwed up Holly a bit, having her inexplicably contribute to the imperilment and deaths of several people, including many that she was once quite close to, but overall the returns of these old favorites added new excitement and a renewed sense of fun to the show.
But GH saved the best for last: The return in November of Genie Francis as Laura Webber. Laura came out of a four-year coma, reconnected with her children and remarried her beloved Luke Spencer in what can only be described as the soap opera event of the year. Indeed, Luke and Laura were remarried on November 16, 25 years to the day of their legendary first wedding, which commanded the largest audience for a single episode of a soap opera in television history. Incredibly, Ms. Francis and Anthony Geary, the actor who portrays Luke, still have the same uniquely powerful chemistry they shared way back in the late Seventies and early Eighties, when GH was the hottest show on television.
Alas, Laura slipped back into her coma, and Luke (who is married to another character on the show) revealed that the wedding wasn't legit, but the response from fans and the press alike indicated that there is still an enormous level of interest in these two characters. I feel confident predicting that Laura will return.
GH also tipped its hat to the past with two almost-over-the-top stories that recalled its glory days of sweeping adventures and colorful melodrama. In February, a man-made virus tore through Port Charles, sending the hospital into crisis mode and giving many veteran characters a chance to shine. The one who shone the brightest was Brad Maule as Dr. Tony Jones, who succumbed to the virus in what turned out to be the best soap opera death scene of the year. And, in May, Luke, Robert, Anna, Robin and Holly were caught up in a silly jungle adventure that recalled the sheer simple fun of this show in decades past.
GH also added three of the best new characters on any soap opera this year to its already impressive canvas: Dr. Patrick Drake, the sexy son of Noah and a fine romantic partner for Robin; Epiphany, a no-nonsense nurse, and Spinelli, a hyper computer geek. I sometimes wonder if Sonya Eddy and Bradford Anderson, the talented actors who portray Epiphany and Spinelli, improvise their dialogue, because their delivery is so natural and their manner of speaking so realistic that they seem not to be creations of daytime writers. They're simply terrific.
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