Luke and Laura
Luke and Laura Spencer are fictional characters, and the signature supercouple from the American daytime drama General Hospital. Luke is portrayed by Anthony Geary, and Laura is portrayed by Genie Francis. Though other supercouples came before them, Luke and Laura are the best known outside of the soap opera medium and are credited with defining the term supercouple and leading other soap operas to try to duplicate their success.
Despite having been raped by a drunken Luke, Laura falls in love with him. Originally, critics of the soap opera genre panned the choice of having a rape victim fall in love with her rapist, an example of forced seduction. The unlikely pairing became popular in spite of Luke's past misdeed when the story shifted to focus on love and redemption.
The couple wed at the end of the hour-long show which aired on November 16 and 17, 1981; the event was watched by 30 million viewers and remains the highest-rated hour in American soap opera history. Viewers watched as the show followed their marriage through two decades and gave them two children. Today, their union still has a presence in fictional town Port Charles. In 1996, TV Guide included the wedding of Luke and Laura as part of its "100 Most Memorable Moments in TV History", ranking it number 35. On Internet message boards, the couple is often referred to as "L&L" or "LnL".
Writing
General
In 1978, General Hospital was close to cancellation owing to low viewership. At that time, they were ranked lowest in the Nielsen ratings. To save the show, ABC executive Jackie Smith hired Gloria Monty as the show's executive producer and Douglas Marland as head writer. Monty wanted to attract a youth-based audience as a way of garnering higher ratings. To do this, she and Marland brought troubled teenager Laura Vining to the forefront of the series. The character went from appearing a couple of times a week to having fifty pages of script a day. "Gloria put sex and romance into Laura's life," Francis said, "and it bowled me over. Here I was doing things in front of 20 million people that I had never done in my life." Her early stories included killing her older lover, David Hamilton, for cheating on her with her mother and a popular romance with Scott "Scotty" Baldwin. In response, General Hospitals ratings rose as younger viewers began watching for Laura. Teenagers connected with her because she was their age and experienced some of the same problems they did, yet also lived "the life of a 28 year old".Anthony Geary joined the cast in 1978 in what was meant to be a 13-week stint as Luke Spencer. His sister, Bobbie Spencer, brought him to town to help her break up Laura's relationship with Scotty. By the end of Geary's contract, Luke was supposed to be killed off. Like Laura, Luke appealed to teenage viewers because of his "edgy volatility". Since viewers expressed interest in Luke and Laura, the writers decided to have Luke die in Laura's arms, after which she would reunite with Scotty. Owing to the positive viewer response, the story moved towards a romance between Luke and Laura.
Rape
replaced Marland as head writer of General Hospital in 1979 since he wanted to go slower with Luke and Laura's story than Monty had. Smith wrote a controversial rape storyline between Luke and Laura. To prepare for the story, Geary and Francis both met with a social worker before taping the rape scenes. Originally intended to be a brutal attack, Monty re-choreographed the scene's blocking in order for the encounter to come off as a seduction. She also took strong language and violence out of the scenes. General Hospital's music director at the time, Jill Farren Phelps, chose to use the song "Rise", written by Randy "Badazz" Alpert and Andy Armer, performed by trumpeter Herb Alpert during the rape scene and ensuing scenes that recalled the rape. "Every time Laura thought of the terrible rape by Luke, it was played to evoke that memory," Phelps said. "Consequently, we used it constantly for a while. Then we turned the story around so that he was no longer the rapist and that was no longer the appropriate piece of music." The song already ranked on the Billboard Hot 100, but the exposure "Rise" gained from appearing on General Hospital helped bring it to number one. After the story aired in October 1979, it was looked back on as a rape and Laura was shown getting rape counseling. However, the writers decided to have the characters look back on the incident as a seduction instead of a rape because the pairing resonated with the audience. "From that point on, we played regret and his total devastation," Geary said.The rape was revisited in 1998 when Luke and Laura's son, Lucky, finds out about the incident. This time, the writers scripted it as rape instead of a seduction. Lucky struggled to come to terms with the revelation while Luke and Laura dealt with the unresolved issues surrounding the rape. In a 2000 interview with Soap Opera Digest, Geary said, for the taping of the scenes, "Alan Pultz, who had directed the rape originally, used his original notes and directed me that day to recall all of that. I was able to finally put out what I think is Luke's definitive statement: that it was rape, it was ugly, he'd probably never recover." He added, "I was grateful that the directors and the writers were interested in what Luke's experience was and didn't try to spin it for audience control."
Adventure plots
After the rape storyline, the focus of General Hospital began to center on Luke and Laura's romance. Before, the show revolved around hospital stories, including alcoholism, obesity, mental disorders, and cancer. Luke and Laura's adventure based plots took the show away from the hospital. In 1980, the couple spent the summer on the run, an "unprecedented" type of storyline at the time. Monty imbued that plot with elements of Frank Capra's 1934 film It Happened One Night and the 1941 Humphrey Bogart film The Maltese Falcon. She later used Dr. No and Tarzan as the inspiration for their plot to stop Mikkos Cassadine from taking over the world. As the show became laden with "comic-book fantasies", ratings remained high, but the viewer demographics became younger.In a 2008 interview with Soap Opera Digest, Kin Shriner said Monty planned to continue the Scotty, Laura, and Luke triangle for a longer period, but his 1980 departure forced a story change. He returned to the show a year later. Former head writer Thom Racina intended to hold off the couple's marriage and allow them to be separated by Scotty for six more months. Elizabeth Taylor called General Hospital's studio after reading about the wedding's being postponed in a soap opera magazine. She made a deal to appear on the series if Luke and Laura married. Taylor appeared in five episodes as Helena Cassadine, the widow of Mikkos Cassadine, whom Luke and Laura killed. Luke and Laura's wedding, which aired on November 16 and 17, 1981, achieved the highest ratings in the history of daytime television. Shortly after the wedding aired, Francis left the show, taking a portion of the audience with her. To hold onto the younger viewers, the show began focusing more on "action-adventure" and less on "complex characterizations and psychological drama". Francis returned briefly in 1983 to facilitate Geary's exit. Both actors returned in 1984 to reprise their roles for six weeks. ABC brought them back hoping to raise General Hospital's ratings. Their return story involved a location shoot in Cuernavaca, Mexico and an adventure involving Holly Sutton and Robert Scorpio. The story aired from late October through early December 1984, after which the actors departed again and did not return until the 1990s.
Later years
Monty, who left the series in 1986, returned in 1991 with the hope she would again raise the ratings of the show. She brought Geary back to General Hospital that same year as Luke's look-alike cousin, Bill Eckert. The actor had refused to return to the show as Luke without Laura. The unpopularity of the Bill Eckert character led to ABC's firing Monty, killing off Bill, and bringing Luke and Laura back, played by Geary and Francis. Upon their return, the actors took more control of the writing for their characters. Geary, along with a writer friend, Irene Suver, developed the story for Luke and Laura's return. Geary's contract allowed him to rewrite his dialogue at his discretion. Francis and Geary were also known for fighting over story direction with executive producer Wendy Riche and the show's writers. The departure of head writer Richard Culliton days after a tense meeting with Geary caused rumors to circulate that the actor threatened to quit if Culliton were not fired. "The meeting did not go well, but I made no ultimatums and there was certainly no violence," Geary said. "I really don't know if I had anything to do with his departure, but I wouldn't shed any tears if I did." Francis supported Geary in what they considered to be standing up for the "integrity" of their characters and protecting the "Spencer franchise". "Sometimes people think we're difficult because of that, but we're only difficult because we want to live up to the high standards we've set," Francis said. "I actually like it when Tony gets out of line... He can go to horrid places I can't."Storylines
Luke, Laura, and Scotty (1978–1980)
Teenaged Laura begins dating Scott Baldwin . Then Laura is seduced by the much older David Hamilton, in a plot to get revenge on her mother Lesley Webber. Scotty breaks up with Laura and begins an affair with former prostitute, now nurse, Bobbie Spencer. When Laura discovers the truth about David, she accidentally kills him. She is put on probation for David's death, eventually rekindles her relationship with Scotty, and they get engaged. Bobbie, in love with Scotty, gets her brother, Luke Spencer, to help her break up the couple. Bobbie makes it look like she and Scotty have slept together when Scotty gets drunk. Laura discovers this and ends up injured in a car accident. Luke, who has developed feelings for Laura, convinces Bobbie to drop her vendetta. Bobbie eventually moves on to a romance with Luke's best friend, Roy DiLucca.In July 1979, Scotty and Laura marry. He begins law school while she begins working at the Campus Disco, which is managed by Luke. She becomes attracted to Luke as he flirts with her, but shows no outward interest in him. Luke is involved with mobster Frank Smith, who orders him to kill anti-mafia senatorial candidate Mitch Williams on election night. Distraught over his unrequited love for Laura and the fact he could likely die during the assassination attempt, Luke vows to hold her in his arms before he dies. As the Herb Alpert song "Rise" plays, Luke rapes Laura on the floor of the disco. Conflicted, she admits to being raped, but does not name Luke as her attacker. On election night, she throws his car keys away to keep him from killing Mitch. Roy does the hit and apparently dies in Bobbie's arms after being shot by Mitch's security detail.
Frank, furious at Luke, demands he marry Frank's daughter, Jennifer. To get out of this marriage, Luke orders Laura to tell Scotty he raped her. She refuses and gets jealous when she observes Luke flirting with Jennifer. Scotty tells Laura she has to quit her job at the disco. On her last night, she shares a romantic kiss with Luke. Horrified, she slaps him. Later she accidentally gets locked in his office, overhearing Luke and Frank discussing mob business. When Frank discovers her, he forces her to continue to work at the disco. She tells Luke not to marry Jennifer. He traps Laura on a sailboat and forces her to admit she wants him just as much as he wants her. When she does so, he releases her from his arms and tells her to go tell the authorities how it was rape, as he believes it wasn't. She refuses. He realizes he is in too deep with the mob to ever be with Laura. She writes him a letter expressing her feelings, trying to break the bond between them, which Scotty finds on the day of Luke and Jennifer's wedding. Scotty interrupts the ceremony on Frank's yacht and knocks Luke overboard, leading everyone to believe he is dead.
Later, in the scuffle around the yacht, Laura is walking by and Luke grabs her ankle from the water. She helps him get away and they decide to be on the run. He stole Frank's encoded black book, which holds the details of his criminal dealings. They could be free of the mob and be together if they could decode the book, so they flee Port Charles as Frank's men pursue them. While on the run, Luke and Laura dance at Wyndham's Department Store before ending up in the rural town of Beecher's Corners. They pose as newlyweds Lloyd and Lucy Johnson and are able to evade Frank's men, Jefferson "Hutch" Smith Hutchinson, and Sally Armitage. Eventually, Luke and Laura find enough evidence to have Frank arrested. They celebrate by making love. On their return to Port Charles, the press bombards them. Still traumatized from the press attention she endured after David's death, Laura declares she still considers herself Scott's wife. A heartbroken Luke rejects her after hearing that.