Reliving The Drama Of ‘Young And Restless’ And ‘General Hospital’

What soap operas did you grow up watching? Come on. Admit it. We all had a favorite. I was reminded of one of mine over the weekend.

As I was getting ready to meet my mom for a Mother's Day breakfast, I was listening to this!

Yes. I own lots of random albums on compact disc and Michael Damian's Where Do We Go From Here is one of them. Michael, in addition to having some radio hits in the 80s, was also one of the stars of The Young and the Restless, a soap opera that my mom and stepdad loved. They recorded it every single day and watched it at night (on VHS, no less). I'll confess. They got me hooked on it and I watched that particular soap well into my college days. Shout out to my friend Tracey Love Jipson, who rowed that boat with me. She "used to plan college classes around Y&R."

Some memories still stand out after all these years. Look, Tracey and I were in college in the early 90s, so the show clearly made a lasting impression. We were fully invested.

First, my favorite character- hands down- was the delightfully wicked matriarch, Katherine Chancellor. Jeanne Cooper slayed it regularly.

I also had a big crush on Terry Lester, who played Jack Abbott. And, I also loved to watch (and hate) Victor Newman, played in the most sinister of ways by the brilliant Eric Braeden.

I'll be honest. I didn't realize The Young and the Restless was still on. However, when I made my Michael Damian CD Facebook post on Mother's Day, my friend Ginger replied, "I still watch Y&R. He's still on there!"

Wait. What? Really?? Of course, I still remember his character's name though- Danny Romalotti. I also randomly remember when Danny first started dating Cricket, whom he eventually married after she started going by her 'adult' name- Christine.

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Okay, I have to stop this. My mind is literally spiraling down The Young and the Restless rabbit hole. So, let's switch gears and spiral down another. Let's chat about the glorious General Hospital for a second. I was obsessed with that show for a while too.

Luke and Laura???!!  The wedding?? Come on. That was one of the biggest television events of the 1980s.

But, my favorite plot twist EVER involved Luke, Laura, Robert Scorpio and that whole Ice Princess story arc. Remember that? They eventually broke into the Mikkos Cassadine compound to stop him from taking over the world with the power of his uncut diamond, which was called the Ice Princess? I remember that like it was yesterday. It was just so over-the-top, but brilliant. For me, that was daytime television at its best.

Like Y&R, General Hospital, which debuted back on April 1st, 1963, is still on the air. It's officially the longest-running American serial drama. In fact, it has The Young and the Restless, which is still chugging along in its own right, beaten by a decade.

Being a child of the 70s and 80s, I, like many of you, grew up watching daytime game shows and daytime soap operas. It's funny. All these years later, those soaps- as laughably dramatized and as silly as I thought they were as I was watching them- still stick with me.

That's why I was more than happy to spend some of my Sunday morning jamming out to Danny Romalotti. Er, wait, I mean Michael Damian.