GH and Soap Opera

GH and Soap Opera Equals a Match Made

Romance is canon to soap opera success and the cover of September, 1981’s Newsweek summed it up: “TV’s Hottest Show – Luke and Laura of General Hospital.” The network couldn’t have imagined during the show’s initial gestation that it would become a phenomenon nor could they imagine that one day GH and soap opera could be used interchangeably in a sentence.

Initially, the show revolved around the hospital’s seventh floor. This floor, dedicated to internal medicine, featured Dr. Steve Hardy and Nurse Jessie Brewer. Their friendship offered a mainstay for fans to appreciate as both Steve and Jessie coped with their various romantic woes. The cast grew gradually, always radiating out from the seventh floor with doctors, nurses and their partners and children allowing viewers to invest in their lives.

Luke and Laura

The Luke and Laura phenomenon surprised more the writers and producers of GH almost as much as it did the fans. The relationship between Laura and Luke was not scripted. In fact, when Luke Spencer approached young Laura Baldwin that night in his disco, he was a bad boy with mob ties, a bad temper and a drinking problem. The rape, initially a spoil point for Laura’s near perfect romance with her teenage husband Scotty, was eventually swept under the rug as the unique chemistry between the actors and the characters came to the forefront.

Over the course of the next few years, they would lead GH away from the seventh floor of the hospital and begin one of Daytime’s most enduring romances. Their marriage in 1981 boasted the highest ratings ever of a daytime serial. It was not long before other shows such as Days of Our Lives began instituting similar bad boy/good girl storylines mixed with adventure and location shoots. In fact, these types of storylines became very prevalent throughout the 1980s as a direct result of Luke and Laura’s superstardom.

GH and Soap Opera Challenges

While other soap operas tried to copy GH’s success, GH continued to blaze its own trail by taking pages from popular culture. The world trotting super spy James Bond provided a definite influence on the creation of Robert Scorpio, his estranged ex-wife Anna Devane and later Sean Donely and young Frisco Jones. These globe-trotting super spies bore only loose ties to the hospital, the closest being between Frisco and his brother Dr. Tony Jones.

Saving the world, however, soon became passé and the age of the super spies passed quietly to the likes of the Godfather as medical mysteries were supplanted with murder mysteries, crime sprees and sudden, violent crimes and shootings. While romance remained integral to the show's storylines, whether it was Brenda being torn between her mobster lover Sonny Corinthos and her corporate raider Jasper Jax, the dark tones of the show continued.

The modern day GH is gradually returning to the hospital setting, with attention being focused on characters like Doctor Robin Scorpio, nurse Elizabeth Webber, Doctors Patrick and Noah Drake and Doctor Monica Quartermaine. Their lives, their loves and their turmoil, while not always the headline of the show, are making a quiet, yet firm return.

GH and Soap Opera Night Shift

The most recent GH spinoff Night Shift is a series filmed and shown exclusively on the SOAPnet cable channel. The first season, while featuring cast members from the daytime drama, tried to maintain a separate, yet equal atmosphere. The second season, due to premiere in the summer of 2008, plans to have closer ties to the daytime drama with storylines flowing back and forth between them.