Fan Favorites from the ’80s Bring Renewed Life to ABC’s General Hospital
February may very well prove to be the most interesting sweeps period for ABC’s General Hospital since November 1981, which included the preparations for and execution of the fabled wedding of Luke and Laura.
The storylines that are currently being set in motion represent some of the most ambitious and challenging to be seen on GH in years. A mutant strain of encephalitis is going to tear through Port Charles, the city’s worst disease outbreak since that of the dreaded Lassa Fever way back in 1979. It could be the series’ most gripping full canvas story since the unforgettably cheesy Ice Princess saga of 1981, when a madman on a tropical island utilized a weather machine to slam Port Charles with a blizzard in August of that year.
What really makes this story stand out, however, is the return of at least two major characters from the ’80s: Former World Security Bureau agent and Port Charles police commissioner Robert Scorpio, played by Tristan Rogers, and his wife, former con-artist Holly Sutton Scorpio, portrayed by Emma Samms. Rogers appeared on the show from 1981-92, Samms from 1982-85 and 1992-93. Rogers has already been seen in brief appearances but has yet to interact with major characters on the show. Samms will appear later this month.
The exciting news about Rogers and Samms follows the recent returns of Kimberly McCullough and Rick Springfield as Robert’s daughter Robin Scorpio and Dr. Noah Drake, respectively. McCullough had been off the show since 1999, Springfield since way back in 1983. With Robin, now a highly respected doctor, and Robert, presumed dead when the ship he was on exploded in 1992, both back in town, there are strong rumors suggesting that Anna Devane will also return. (Anna, the former wife of Robert and mother of Robin, was also presumed dead in the same 1992 ship explosion, but turned up many years later in an amnesiac state on ABC’s All My Children and eventually regained her memory. The character is now living in Paris.)
When asked by MediaVillage if her return to GH was likely in the weeks to come, Finola Hughes, the actress who portrayed Anna on both GH and AMC, simply said, “I can’t comment on that.” In Hollywood that usually means, “yes,” because if the answer were “no,” why shouldn’t a person simply say so? For what it’s worth, Hughes smiled about as big and bright a smile as is humanly possible when we asked.
Anthony Geary–who as Luke Spencer was the undisputed star of this show during its most successful period and is still a part of the GH cast–plays a key role in the sweeps disease story. (On Tuesday’s show he was the first character to become feverish and collapse.) That means four primary characters from the ’80s–Luke, Robert, Robin and Holly–will be front and center in a story that apparently does not revolve around any of the mobsters who have bizarrely dominated this series for most of the last decade. This will represent a huge challenge for the writers of the show, and it will be interesting to see how the younger viewers craved by ABC (and CBS and NBC) respond to a major storyline involving “old” people. (On a positive note, younger viewers apparently reacted very favorably to the return of Dr. Noah Drake, even though many of them hadn’t been born when he was on the series from 1981-83.)
In keeping with the renewed emphasis on characters from that period, it has been reported that Dr. Tony Jones (Brad Maule), a character who has been on the show since 1984 (though marginal in recent years), will be one of several Port Charles residents who die during the encephalitis outbreak. It has been rumored that another character who started on the show in the early ’80s, evil Helena Cassadine (played at the very beginning by Elizabeth Taylor and now by Constance Towers), will also be connected to this story.
Interestingly, a story in which Helena planned to terrorize all of Port Charles with a lethal virus was well underway in 2001 at the time of the terrorist attacks of September 11 and the anthrax deaths that followed. ABC ordered the storyline scrapped out of respect to public sensitivities.
In addition to the disease saga, GH is also currently playing another significant story that does not involve the show’s criminal element. It is that of Lucas Jones (Ben Hogestyn), the teenage son of the soon-to-pass Tony Jones and his ex-wife, Nurse Bobbie Spencer (Jacklyn Zeman), coming to terms with his homosexuality and coming out to his family and friends. GH hasn’t presented a storyline of such social relevance since the mid-’90s, when one primary character died of AIDS and young Robin Scorpio contracted HIV.
Apparently ABC Daytime has finally acted on the continuously expressed outrage of so many longtime fans of General Hospital who have had their fill of repetitive, violent stories about mobster Sonny Corinthos, gunman Jason Morgan and other criminals. Hence the return of popular old favorites and stories about other characters involved in other matters. This column has been very vocal in expressing similar distaste for the show’s long-running obsession with gangsters and the emotionally unbalanced women who love them. Certainly there is no need to remove them altogether. What has been missing is a narrative balance between these characters and others on the show. The returns of Noah, Robert and Holly are good first steps toward correcting this problem.
And now some ideas on how to build on the show’s recent improvements: Write a love story for Bobbie and Noah, who shared a mutual attraction in their youth. Further develop the character of Lesley Lu Spencer, now a teen as prone to problems as her mother, Laura. Let widow Audrey Hardy and widower Edward Quartermaine begin a tentative romance, tying together two of the veteran families on the show. And get Felicia involved with her daughters Maxie and Georgie, now two primary teenage characters on the show.
Contents Copyright 2005 by MediaVillage LLC.
