Posted on 01/12/2023 2:14:00 PM PST by nickcarraway
General Hospital celebrates its 60th anniversary this year, and the show is pulling out all the stops (the Nurses Ball is back!)… But when a show lasts as long as General Hospital — the longest-running drama currently on television — the show is bound to have some storylines that don’t age well. During General Hospital’s presentation at the 2023 Television Critics Association winter tour, one of the most tenured actors on the series spoke about one of the most popular — and problematic — storylines, not only in General Hospital history, but television history.
That storyline is, of course, the Luke and Laura relationship, a plot that started with a rape and ended with 30 million viewers tuning in to a wedding. When asked about the various social issues that General Hospital has handled in its run, Genie Francis had a very definitive take on the pop culture moment that was Luke and Laura.
“As a young kid at 17, I was told to play rape and I played it and I didn’t know what it was,” said Francis, who currently plays Laura on General Hospital in her role as the mayor of Port Charles. “At 60, I don’t feel the need to defend that [storyline] anymore. The story was inappropriate, and I don’t condone it. It’s been a burden I’ve had to carry, to try to justify that story, so I’m not doing that anymore. When a woman says no, she should be listened to. If you play that scene, you don’t just have her saying no, you have her screaming no.”
(Excerpt) Read more at decider.com ...
Whew….I was afraid we were about to read about (yet) another cardiac event.
Glad it’s just wokism.
🙃
Made her a lot of money.
My mother used to listen to that show while she did housework. I recall an interview with the male actor about 5 years later, who played a rapist - he was appalled that their characters ‘fell in love’ after he raped her. Horrified.
Soap actors don’t get residuals so she didn’t make much at all for the episode.
I remember at the time it came out that the “rape then love then wedding” storyline was considered disgusting. Well, at least by normal people.
I was fairly young then - 12 - and had no clue what the NYC weirdos who ran and reported on daytime TV thought. But at school, if there was any talk about it, it was in disbelief.
How may times do they repeat them? Could you still watch 1979 episodes?
Oh she made a lot of money, as being an essential character on GH for the last 40 some years.
Too soon!
I don’t think it was in AFTRA’s conract. Of course, things could have changed since SAG/AFTRA teamed up. Years ago they had SoapNet that had old soaps (don’t remember GH except for current episodes) so I don’t think this counted.
Yes, that’s true. Contract players can make a lot of money.
Luke & Laura is still a thing?
So maybe it wasn’t vote fraud..
Why is this listed as an NY Post article when it’s not?
Retroactively becoming a victim is all the rage.
Still, it’s impressive to position yourself as a victim because of a role you once played on a soap opera.
Always enjoy your remarks about the soaps.
I’m going to retract my previous post. All Francis really did was say that she didn’t agree with the storyline. She didn’t claim to be traumatized or in need of compensation.
I recall back in about 1997 (springtime) when I was in between jobs, I did a little lunchtime channel surfing and came across an old episode of One Life to Live from about 1979. It initially struck me as odd to see that, with the 1970s three-piece suits worn by the men and the women were dressed that differently too, but as it turned out the ABC network was doing a retrospective back to the time of Judith Light’s famous scene tearfully admitting in court that she was an upper-class suburban housewife also working as a call girl (who here also remembers that?, lol).
I also recall reading somewhere that a lot of film cans and videotapes of soaps (along with other network programming) before about 1975 got chucked and that’s a shame as a lot of famous actors got their starts on GH and other soap operas of the time.
“Still, it’s impressive to position yourself as a victim because of a role you once played on a soap opera.”
LOL. Some people have to really dig deep to be a victim.
At least when she got fake raped in a movie scene, Herb Albert disco music was playing in the background. That should take the sting off that fake PTSD from a pretend crime. Also being mayor of that fake city too. She really has risen above it. LOL
I just remembered there was a Top 40 hot about General Hospital in 1981. They played it on SiriusXM on the Top 40 of a certain week.
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