#Soap opera network saved by the bell tv#

Dance with me, Laura.” She says no, but he insists.

Turning on the music, he says, “I’m not gonna die without holding you in my arms just one time. He tells Laura he’s been marked for execution because of a mob deal gone bad, and that he’s in love with her.

The scene begins when Laura finds a distraught Luke alone at the Campus Disco (he’s the manager she works there).

Given Luke and Laura’s subsequent designation as a soap-opera supercouple, I’d always imagined the assault to be at least slightly ambiguous. But I’d never seen the rape scene until I began writing this article.

#Soap opera network saved by the bell tv#

I grew up in the 1970s and ’80s in a household of women who gathered around the TV every weekday afternoon to watch their soaps, so I’ve known the Luke-and-Laura story for as long as I can remember. Read any feminist analysis of soap operas or of rape on the small screen-even now-and you will more than likely find a reference to it. Luke Spencer’s (Anthony Geary) rape of Laura Webber (Genie Francis) on General Hospital in 1979 is still the most infamous soap-opera sexual assault. And while many rapes on soaps are indeed shown to be acts of power rather than desire-most often an attempt to reclaim a threatened sense of masculinity-soap writers are far from blameless when it comes to perpetuating rape myths. Soap operas, in particular, are notorious for their use of rape as a plot or characterization device. In her 1975 book Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape, Brownmiller wrote that rape “is a crime not of lust but of violence and power.” Nevertheless, pop culture remains rife with depictions of men raping women because they just can’t contain their lust. In the 1970s, journalist and activist Susan Brownmiller and other feminists reframed our cultural conversations about sexual assault by laying to rest the then-common notion that the impetus for rape is uncontrolled sexual desire. What are the best '90s soap operas? Did the daytime soaps you think were the best make this list? Vote up the 1990s soap operas you think are the best of the decade and see where the soaps you loved to watch during the '90s rank.Genie Francis as Laura Webber and Anthony Geary as Luke Spencer on General Hospital (Photo credit: ABC) The City was a spin-off of Loving, but didn’t last long on the air, much like Passions, Port Charles, and Sunset Beach. These soaps all debuted during the '90s, although they didn’t gain high viewership or last long. Many old soap operas saw their last season in the '90s, including Another World, Generations, and Loving. Shows like Guiding Light had been on since the early '50s and still maintained great ratings. This l ist of the best daytime soap operas of the 1990s, has been voted on and ranked by your votes.įrom 1990-1999, sixteen different soap operas were on the air. During the '90s, The Young and the Restless, All My Children, and General Hospital reigned supreme as the highest-rated soap operas of the decade. The top '90s soap operas had some of their best seasons during that decade, with weddings, deaths, and shocking twists that topped themselves year after year. For many soap opera fans, the 1990s are considered the pinnacle of quality soaps.