GH: Classic Thread

[Vee]

I don't know about that. It was always there for people who remembered, and there was even a beautifully subtle and disturbing moment very early in Labine's run and their return to the show in late '93 amidst L&L and Lucky's domestic bliss where it's alluded to without any dialogue. They had a dark history, and acknowledging it IMO could only make the couple and both their dark and light parts stronger. Would any of what had happened been acceptable for a soap couple today, no, but it was a product of its eras.

[carolineg]

I tend to agree.  I always knew about the rape and when the show decided to re-explore it I thought Luke/Laura would work through it and end up together again.  I was pretty young, but most of the audience knew that part of their history and accepted it.   When the rape was revisited I thought it was a way to acknowledge it, own it, and move on with their lives and family without their 'secret' looming over them.  It obviously would never, ever work today and I still don't think that storyline irrevocably broke them.  Tony Geary did.

[titan1978]

I have mixed feelings about Luke & Laura after the rape revisit. I think they kept them apart too long, and JFP’s reunion felt forced based on what we had endured with them. Although some of that had to do with JJ leaving the show, and what Lucky’s death did to them. 

However, I totally bought the story and their connection when Laura woke up from her catatonic state for the wedding anniversary. Bittersweet, but a lovely story.

I get Tony’s issues a little. Since their return, every time Genie was gone, they kind of put Luke in a holding pattern. He was always in the mix, just not really in a story of any significance. Genie basically refused to return after her second child was born, in part due to her unhappiness with the writing on the show. Later she quit when JFP wouldn’t work with the schedule she wanted that summer, and Luke was stuck acting with a fake Laura and stories about her until they paired him with Jane.

What we missed out on was watching Laura deal with all her traumas, heal, and be there for her family while starting a new life. I think it was possible to have her there and still play Tracy/Luke. But ultimately, I think the endgame should be them together.

[carolineg]

I agree they were kept apart too long as well.  It's not only the amount of time, but the lack of any real hope or move towards reconciliation during that period.

But Genie/Laura would have ended up in the same holding pattern with Tony's vacations as well if they could have worked something out with her.  I honestly felt like Luke did have a lot to do during Genie's maternity leave tbh.  He did have a lot of story with Bobbie/Carly, whatever him and Sonny were doing, and the whole Katherine Bell shooting. 

After GF left "for good" I have no problem with the show pairing him with Jane.  Tracy/Luke were great until they weren't and fell into this weird toxic cycle.  I just felt TG starting playing against most Luke/Laura material (outside the wedding anniversary stuff) and it does not feel right to have Laura/Kevin and Luke dead right now.  I am not a huge shipper of L/L, but it only feels right for them to be endgame.  Tracy seems to be the only one mourning Luke while Laura just goes about her business.  

As of this moment the show treats Tracy/Luke as this great love and I am just not buying it.  I don't exactly have a solution, but this ending for Luke/Laura isn't it.

[Khan]

I agree, on both counts.

[Vee]

I thought Luke and Tracy were great and inspired at first. Then it became about him repeatedly scamming and humiliating her while also adding a lot of sudden new editorializing about how fake L&L were. Any time Tracy or Lulu or anyone else began bitching about Luke and Laura I lost more and more interest in Luke and Tracy instead.

I know what I'd do but I've talked about that many a time. All I'll say is that even with the 60th gone by, I'd try to hook TG to return for 6-12 months to close the characters out in a way that redeems Luke and L&L, gives Laura an exciting new pairing waiting in the wings after Luke, and then yes, kills Luke off onscreen. He might go for that, lol. You wouldn't see L&L properly back together again for any extended period, but the character elements of the story would be all about them returning to each other, him being jealous of her with first Kevin and then someone else, coming to terms with their past life, the old house and so on. It would be about Luke's slow rebuild back towards embracing them, their life as a family and their love again, show them working together one more time, and making sure everyone knows that love was real and the heart of the show and that Luke is willing to die for it. They would be back together in spirit even if they don't make it back to the altar, just in time for Luke to die. And Laura would be okay, because it would already be clear that as mayor and in other ways she has evolved past him, Luke or no Luke.

Edited December 21, 2023 by Vee

[carolineg]

Yes!  They were great until Luke became this scammer and cheater and just appeared to be using Tracy.  But Luke was treated almost like a loveable screw up and I hated it.

I also hated the L&L trash talking.  It was just so unnecessary.  Tracy/Luke could have stood on their own as a different type of romance, but the show or Geary needed to get jabs in about L&L.  There was no reason to negate one romance to make another work.

I would probably find someone new for Tracy, break up Kevin/Laura for some reason and move him back to Lucy and bring Luke on at the very end and just make L&L endgame.  

[Khan]

I'm sorry, @Vee, but we're just gonna have to agree to disagree on this issue.  I still believe that acknowledging the rape as a rape made it impossible for Luke and Laura ever to reunite.  Not just because of the terrible messages that it would have sent, but also because how, IMO, it tarnished memories many held of those two for over thirty years.

Americans might have been fools to fall in love with a love story between a rapist and his victim, but that's what they did, even if they knew how it all began and just never admitted it to themselves, or cared.  Either way, reminding them decades after the fact amounted to shaming in my book; and I'm just not the type to shame millions of people for liking what they liked (in entertainment, not in politics, lol).

 

Well, I know TG and JE enjoyed the heck out of Luke/Tracy, but I sure didn't, lol.  Not once did I ever find those two believable as a couple.  Close friends and confidantes?  Yes.  Lovers?  No.

I've already stated in the past how very much I would love to bring on Justin Deas as a new, mature love interest for Tracy, someone who clearly doesn't value herself enough if she keeps hooking up with losers (Larry, Mitch, Paul, Luke), and who would be beside herself to realize that, at this stage of life, she is finding herself falling for someone who appreciates her and isn't just in it for her money or whatever.

Edited December 21, 2023 by Khan

[carolineg]

I thought Tracy/Luke were at least unexpected and miles better than the attempted Felicia, Skye, and Anna pairings.  It was age appropriate and it broke Luke out of the 'romantic lead' pattern he had post-Laura.  Once the scamming and wacky hi-jinks kept going on and on I was completely over it.   I did think their 2010 wedding was quite lovely though. I am still not exactly sure why the show treats it as this great, once in a lifetime love even today.

I am all for Tracy finding someone new and I would be thrilled if it was someone without any agenda.  

[Khan]

I'll just come right out and say it: Luke with any woman who isn't Laura makes no sense to me for one reason and one reason only: GF is the only woman who can generate chemistry with TG.  The only woman.

I'm sure JE would balk at the notion of Tracy finding genuine love out of fear that Tracy would become boring to play, but I don't see it that way.  I think Tracy is much too complicated of a woman ever to be boring, lol. 

Besides, I'm just sick of watching my girl get beaten up by love all the time.  All Tracy ever wanted was for someone to love her for what she was and not for how much money she had in the bank.  Edward told her as a little girl that money was the only thing in the world she could count on - which, in my book, is a dreadful thing to tell your own daughter, lol.  I'd like to think there could be someone out there to prove that s.o.b. wrong.

[titan1978]

I am all for Tracy having an actual adult love story with someone else but Luke.

Tony constantly saying what Luke would and would not do annoys me because it’s clearly about what Tony wants, not the character. And his sabotaging made it so we never got to see Laura process the end of the relationship and kept GF off the show when there was a glaring hole on the canvas for her.

I think there was an organic story to be told of Luke and Laura falling out of sync permanently because she no longer needs him to save her, and he is no longer interested in being a better version of himself. It’s what they wanted, we just didn’t get to see her side play out over time like his did. So it came across like Laura was this albatross on the show.

Playing off @VeeI would love for Laura to find Luke alive, but in a catatonic state in some Cassadine stronghold while looking for Nikolas. Except she realizes immediately that he is faking it, and breaks him out. And he is angry she foils his plot by getting involved. They have some classic L&L sparks when arguing, have a small adventure, some passion, and then once back in PC they go about healing their broken family. Returns for Lucky and Lulu. But they also decide that as much as they loved each other, and still do, it’s just not right for them anymore for the people they are today. We then learn Luke isn’t well. All those years of smoking and drinking have done a number on him, and at the end of a 6-8 month return he dies. But instead of everyone being broken by it, it’s truly a celebration of their life, and it leads to renewal for Laura, Lucky, and Lulu.

I wouldn’t mind some of that improbable magic that used to happen with super couples either- Maybe the whole thing starts with Laura finding Luke’s wedding ring in an antique store. The one he threw off the docks, somehow returned to them. Some romance and magic is missing on these shows right now!

[Khan]

I agree.  TG could not stand playing Luke as a family man, with the wife, the two kids, the dog and the big, roomy house, but I thought it made perfect sense.  And I thought it also made sense for Luke to do everything he could to hold onto that, rather than piss it all away, so he can sit alone in his bar and drink himself to death, which is what he did, like someone in a [!@#$%^&*] Merle Haggard song.

I mean, it was not as if Luke was ever in danger of turning into Ward Cleaver.  But I think the problem was that TG never wanted Luke to move past being Bobbie Spencer's ne'er-do-well big brother.  I think at least part of him really dug all that Left Handed Boy/Ice Princess/Sword of Malkuth crap and wanted to keep doing it, even though he looked ridiculous doing it at that point in his life.  Well, Tony, I get the midlife crisis, but it ain't 1977 anymore.  Doing crazy [!@#$%^&*] like running a disco for "the organization" is okay when you are in your twenties, or even thirties.  But when you are in your fifties, and a grandfather, and you are spending your days drinking and mixing it up with glorified sociopaths like Sonny Corinthos* and Helena Cassadine, you are not even an anti-hero anymore.  You are a pathetic waste of minerals, who is not worthy of my time, or my interest.

 

(*Sorry, @carolineg, but I have to call them as I see them, lol.) 

Edited December 21, 2023 by Khan

[carolineg]

@Khan-you aren't wrong about Sonny lol, but I did enjoy their friendship.

For me it's not just Tony playing against being a family man.  It worked for me, but that might be his character take.  It's Tony also ignoring the writers entirely like with the alcoholism plot.  It's not my favorite by any means, but when you actively go against Luke having a problem with alcohol after that lengthy Emmy bait storyline its disrespectful to the show and the writers.  Tony is free to disagree with the story, but he was going out of his way to show Luke drinking when the scene didn't even call for it.  That sort of behavior has soured me entirely on Luke and Tony and I am fine with him coming back at the very end and finishing his plot off with Laura.

You are right.  It's not cute or funny.  It's pathetic.  Grow the eff up Luke.

Edited December 21, 2023 by carolineg

[Khan]

 

How GH went from being a soap that featured some of the most complex female characters in daytime history to one where a mobster could shoot his pregnant wife in the head (as she is giving birth!) with no consequences is a story for the ages.

[Contessa Donatella]

Personally I do not think Tony Geary will ever return.