What I Learned From The Soaps: General Hospital (Soaps Blog Hop)

The first time I turned on General Hospital, Laura Webber Baldwin was being wheeled into General Hospital after a violent rape. Her husband Scott Baldwin was beside himself, and she was in shock. As viewers knew, the perpetrator was none other than Luke Spencer, the man Laura had a crush on. I was only six or seven when I saw this, but I'm not the only one who knew that this was a messed up situation presented in a messed up way.

Plenty of people were getting raped on television in the Seventies and Eighties. But General Hospital took a big risk by romanticizing the rape and making Luke, the rapist, a reluctant anti-hero. The emotional subtext of the situation was that Laura, who had always been somewhat fragile, couldn't commit to her feelings for Luke without being a "bad girl" and breaking her vows to her husband Scott.

Luke literally forced the situation- but even he was given an out because he committed the rape when he was very drunk and convinced that he was going to be killed. As Scott's frustration grew both with not finding the rapist and with his knowledge of Laura's feelings for Luke, he became corrupt and twisted, thereby validating Laura's "choice".

Luke and Laura in their swelling 1981 wedding. For years, they were the supercouple of daytime television

Just a few years later, Luke and Laura were married in a swelling, romantic ceremony that was watched by millions, and for about a decade it was the soap opera to beat, although other "super couples" soon took Luke and Laura's place. As bizarre as that might seem, there were plenty of romance novels in that period- and before- that included a rape, and many times the heroine married her rapist. The difference is that the novel ended, but the soap opera did not. Happily Ever After between a rapist and a victim may be possible to believe after 300 or so pages, but it's a much harder sell if you're watching year in and out. Indeed, Luke and Laura as the happy couple raising two children seemed to collapse under the history of what had happened between them. Thirty years later, for better or worse, Luke and Laura were unable to sustain their happy ending and have since divorced.

The lesson: if you're going to tell a controversial, long-term story, think all of the beats through.

I LOVE SOAPS- and I started a Blog Hop to prove it!

SOAPS! Ah, the (not so) humble Soap Opera aka Daytime Television.

If you're reading this, there's a good chance you're a romance and/or chick lit reader. That means you understand a little bit about being disrespected. So even if you aren't a fan of soap operas yourself, consider them your tv-viewing equivalents. Ask anyone who isn't a soap fan and they will tell you: the characters are two dimensional stereotypes, the writing is shallow and the shows themselves are repetitive and lack direction- that, or they're all "splash" that goes nowhere.

Bollocks.

It's true: the writing across the board (and across time) has been inconsistent, even within one show. And television, perhaps due to the nature of its revenue stream, can be really slow to adapt to changing social landscapes- unless they're really quick to. And some characters make you want to shout because of their outdated approaches to reality. But when a soap gets it right, trust me: there's a good reason millions of people want to tune in five days a week.

Ruth Warrick as All My Children matriarch Phoebe Tyler Wallingford. You might also know her as Emily Monroe Norton Kane from a little film called Citizen Kane.

After years of being condescended to because I really wanted to catch up on what Holden and Lily were up to or how Luke and Laura were going to stage their return to Port Charles, I consider it a gift that I was able to watch- and learn- from some pretty brilliant storytelling. Because if there is one thing a long-running soap has to get right, it's building a character. Coincidentally, that's a big deal for a novelist as well.

In the next few weeks, I'm going to be sharing my thoughts on what I learned from a number of soaps, but today, my friend Courtney Giardina starts us off with her reminiscences about Malibu Shores and Passions. Please give those a read and leave a comment. (I'll be updating this page as we continue on.)

5/6/2014- Courtney on Malibu Shores and Passions
5/7/2014- Deb on General Hospital 
5/8/2014- Deb on All My Children
5/9/2014- Isabella and the Three Reasons Why Writing Has Helped Her Writing
5/10/2014- Lydia's Tips and Reflections on a Family Heritage 
5/12/2014- What Doug Marland Taught Jami
5/13/2014- Courtney Gives a Chemistry Lesson
5/14/2014- Deb on One Life to Live
5/15/2014- Danielle on Great Murderers
5/17/2014- Monique on the reach of Australian soaps
5/19/2014- Deb on As The World Turns
5/20/2014- Karen hosts Meredith re: Soap Foibles
5/21/2014- Deb on Guiding Light
5/22/2014- Victoria on Soap Opera's Happily Ever Afters
5/24/2014- Caroline on Murders and Anguish
5/27/2014- Deb on The Bell Soaps
5/28/2014- Deb on Days of Our Lives and Santa Barbara
5/30/2014- Deb on Soap Opera Failures





Have your own thoughts on the soaps? If they go beyond a comment, feel free to post something, let me know, and I'll add you to the hop. Need someone to host you? Let me know and we'll see what we can do :-)