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It's been 15 years since the much-heralded wedding of Luke and Laura. Now daytime's most super supercouple prepares to celebrate their anniversary (November 15).
When their characters exchanged their vows, did the actors have any idea that they would still be together all these years later? Since most marriages made in daytime don't survive, the answer is a resounding no.
"I sure didn't," chuckles Anthony Geary (Luke). "I had no concept. I don't really think 15 years in advance, but the marriage seemed like a good idea at the time. Luke had wanted Laura for a long time, so it was a great relief to him."
But these days, Luke may not have much to celebrate. Viewers just recently learned that early in the couple's marriage, during a time when Laura had been spirited away, she had a son, Nikolas, and developed romantic feelings for Stefan Cassadine. Now Stefan is back in the picture and poses a threat at every turn to the Spencer family.
"I think there are all kinds of underlying feelings there," explains Genie Francis (Laura) of her character's attraction to Stefan. "At one time, she genuinely loved him because she thought Luke was dead."
The audience has been able to relive Laura and Stefan's passion through flashbacks--which may be as close as this twosome comes to a re-pairing.
"I don't think anyone wants Luke and Laura broken up, so to go back in time when Laura wasn't with Luke is about the only possibility for now," says Francis, who adds that she's happy that Stefan has entered Laura's life. After all, just as in real life, passion can wane when characters have been married for a long time.
"You can lose your ability to play romantic scenes," she says. "At least in this case, with Stefan, I get to play them in flashback."
As the anniversary looms, Stefan is duped into believing that Luke and Laura are splitsville, and he hangs on to the possibility that something might change. "Stefan thinks there might be a chance with Laura," says Stephen Nichols (Stefan). "The thing that's been haunting him for all these years is: Does she still have feelings for him?"
But it's not like he's pining away, either. While Stefan plays cat-and-mouse with Laura, he still has time for a tryst with Bobbie in the Dominican Republic, where she's getting her divorce.
"Bobbie is a feminine influence that Stefan's been seeking for [Nikolas]. Now that Laura has sort of abandoned him again, in a way, Stefan likes the fact that Bobbie's around."
But Stefan isn't spending all his free time with Bobbie. He's also vowed to get back at Luke for planting drugs on Nikolas. And he drafts a begrudging Nikolas into his plot for revenge.
"Nikolas wants Luke to pay for what he's done, but because Lesley Lu is his sister, he really just wants the whole thing to go away," says Tyler Baker (Nikolas), "To hurt Luke would be to hurt *her*, so he holds back."
While Luke may be spared, Lucky isn't going to be, well, as lucky. Stefan draws the teen further into the Timoria game until Lucky finds himself in a life-or-death dilemma.
Francis says that Lucky's situation may shake her character into reality. "I think in Laura's fantasy world, she would stay married to Luke, he would accept her son, Nikolas would become friends with Lucky, and Stefan would drop by the house for dinner," jokes the actress. "But [that's] unlikely."
But Geary, for one, wouldn't mind seeing her try. "The conflict that the Cassadines brought up in the marriage is something that we need," the actor explains. "It's a soap opera. If you have two people without problems, you don't have a story anymore. Luke and Laura have been classically, romantically and eternally linked. It's difficult to find something that can shake them, and this is doing it."
It took three years--a brief blip in soap opera time--but Luke and Laura's magical, adventurous romance made us forget every soap couple that had come before them. Their story culminated on November 16, 1981 with their much-anticipated wedding, still the highest-rated daytime episode ever. Despite diabolical enemies and family strife, Luke and Laura have survived to become one of daytime's longest married couples. On their 15th anniversary, we salute them.
In the Beginning...
In 1979, the teenage Laura Webber thought she had found true happiness when she married Scotty Baldwin, but the couple's financial problems forced Laura to get a job at Luke Spencer's Campus disco. The sexual tension between employer and employee was unbearable. Then Luke forced himself on Laura on the dance floor.
Laura wouldn't let Luke take the fall for the rape, but she did try to make her marriage work. In 1980, Luke was forced to marry crime boss Frank Smith's daughter, Jennifer, to save Laura's life. At the wedding aboard the Smith yacht, Scotty attacked Luke for the rape, sending Luke overboard. Laura rescued Luke from the water, and the two set off on a three-month search for the "left-handed boy."
"To me, that was Luke and Laura at their finest," says Genie Francis (Laura). Adds Anthony Geary (Luke), "This was the first time a story like that (lovers on the run) had been told, which is now a staple for daytime. We were the first to do it, and for my money, it's never been equaled."
Wedding of the Century
After a romantic fantasy evening locked in Wyndham's department store, the couple settled in the farm community of Beecher's Corners. In their hotel room, Laura built the "walls of Jericho" between them with a blanket, so that Luke would keep his distance until the time was right.
They got closer to the left-handed boy in Fair Oaks and took jobs in a bar run by Sally Armitage, who was really employed by Smith as a hit *man*.
"Luke flirted with her, and she was Laura's shopping partner," remembers Geary. "For three months, the audience saw her as a woman. It was very dramatic and very risky at the time. The audience was just shocked and horrified and delighted and thrilled when she took the wig off."
Finally, Luke and Laura discovered the left-handed boy, really a statue that held Smith's gold. (In real life, remembers Francis, the statue had been accidentally constructed with its *right* hand extended. "It was a big panic," says the actress. The statue's left arm, which was flat against its body, was eventually removed and replaced in an upright, waving position.)
As the couple celebrated their triumph, the "walls of Jericho" came tumbling down. But when they returned home, Laura was reminded that she was still Mrs. Baldwin. But when Laura revealed that she had really loved Luke the night of the rape, their romance was born anew.
In 1981, Luke became involved in the search for the Ice Princess diamond. Laura accepted his marriage proposal and tried to locate Scotty in Mexico to get a divorce.
The Ice Princess fell into the hands of the evil Cassadine family, who wanted it for the secret it contained: a diamond-dust formula that could freeze the world. Luke, Laura and WSB agent Robert Scorpio followed the Cassadines to their compound in Greece and saved Port Charles from a deep freeze, killing two Cassadines in the process.
Finally, it was wedding time, but the lavish day was not without drama. Widow Helena Cassadine put a curse on the happy couple, and Scotty crashed the event.
Foiled Again!
The Cassadine curse came to pass in early 1982, when Laura was kidnapped by Stavros and held hostage on their island. Years later we learned that off-camera, Laura had been led to believe Luke died in an avalanche. She was forced to marry Stavros and have his child, Nikolas. Secretly, she held special feelings for his brother, Stefan.
Meanwhile, Luke was named mayor of Port Charles in 1983. He was stunned when Laura returned.
"[Genie] really came back as a favor to take me away," admits Geary. "I was chomping at the bit to get out." Before the couple could ride off into the sunset, they had to face Stavros, who tried to rape Laura. After a tumble down the stairs, Stavros died. Luke and a pregnant Laura left town, once again on the run from Frank Smith.
Life was peaceful for the Spencers and their son, Lucky, at the Triple L Diner in Canada, until Frank Smith caught up with them in 1993, sending them on the run--and back to Port Charles.