I don’t think so either. I think there was some stuff left unsaid between them and his general attitude towards doing the couple again caused some tension that really wasn’t about them as people, just his desire to move on. But they both have said many times around the 50th and when he retired that there was a lot of respect between them as actors and people, and even Geary has reverence towards the original run vs what he disliked from 1993-on.
They burned so brightly and that wedding was so indelible that it did stifle their characters. Especially as the legacy characters really became nostalgia fodder for the audience in the last decades. Imagine Erica Kane forever tied to Tom Cudahey? Erika Slezak faced a similar problem because after the 80’s revival of Nikki Smith, they just couldn’t stop themselves from doing DID stories on OLTL. Those three performers might as well be the logo for ABC daytime. Lucci gave a lovely statement about Tony as well.
As far as the public attention to Geary’s death, I am not really surprised. The one that surprised me was Jackie Zeman. It was sustained and had major media coverage. I loved Bobbie too, but to me at the time that spoke to the pop culture importance of the show during the Luke and Laura fever time period that was still more relevant than I thought. Tristan Rogers got that attention too. Geary is of course more sustained because he was Luke.
By
titan1978 ·
