This piece appeared in Afternoon TV in 1981, I believe.

Scenes From a Romance: Remembering the Legend of Luke and Laura
by Marilyn Henry

Laura's gone--disappeared into a mysterious fog. Yet viewers can't help but cherish the memories of the television romance of the decade. Relive their most glorious scenes as recreated by ATV's own Marilyn Henry.....

For those of us who watched General Hospital's Luke and Laura romance from the beginning (and we are legion!), there will always be those scenes and those lines which we will remember and cherish forever. Just for fun, we thought loyal L&L fans might enjoy a trip back in time, into those scenes that made Luke and Laura's love story among the most romantic, amusing and believable in soap history. Of course, memorable as some of these scenes were, if they had not been played by two of the most gifted and charismatic performers in TV today, much of the magic might not have happened. It was a combination of strong, surprising storylines, well-defined characters and the pairing of two actors, Tony Geary and Genie Francis, who were born to play together, that caused General Hospital to become the soap phenomenon of the decade.

The Rape (or The Seduction)

Let's start with the fall of 1979. The three month old marriage of seventeen year old Laura Webber and young law student Scotty Baldwin was already in trouble, mostly because the principals were too young to easily handle responsibility. We, the audience, knew there was an additional problem: Luke Spencer, a shady character with underworld connections who managed the mob-owned Campus Disco, was in love with Laura. She worked for him at the disco and we had seen him suffering all the pain of unrequited love. Then came that fateful night when mob boss Mr. Smith (George Gaynes) decided to test Luke's loyalty to the Organization by assigning him a "hit". Luke was devastated, not at all sure he could kill anyone and knowing he was dead either way.

Luke slumped into the dimly lit disco, already feeling the drinks he'd had earlier, and sat at the bar, his hands covering his face. He thought the place was empty; he was not aware of Laura watching him with curiosity from one of the tables. As sobs shook his thin body, Laura rose and came up to him.

"Luke?"

He turned, startled to see her. Quickly he wiped his eyes and sniffed back his tears. "What are you doing here?"

"What's wrong, Luke?"

He looked away from her. "Go home, Laura. Your husband will be waiting for you."

When she explained that Scotty was to have picked her up after work at one, Luke checked his watch and saw that it was two-thirty.

"I think my marriage is over, Luke," she said with a tremor.

Luke knew better than to hope. "He's not that much of a fool. He'll never let you go."

"You don't know what a terrible quarrel we had."

"Why? Over those law books? Because you gave him something few men ever have: love? Because you used that damned credit card?"

"I lied to him! I lied--and now he feels betrayed." She paused, remembering herself. "I can't believe how selfish I am. Look at you--and here I am, just rattling off all my problems."

"It's alright. I understand." He moved off the stool and crossed the dance floor, the colored lights making subdued patterns on his pale shirt. Laura followed.

"Luke, why were you crying?"

"I wasn't." He kept his back to her.

"Yes, you were. Whatever it is, I'm sure it can be worked out in time...."

"Time? Time is what I don't have." His eyes lifted to the bank of lights overhead. "I found out something tonight. Within the month, I'll be dead."

Laura's breath caught. She put out a hand to touch his arm. "No, Luke--surely it can't be that bad--"

"Didn't you hear me!?" he shouted, swinging around to face her. "I'm going to be killed, little lady--and there is nothing I can do about it!" He stared down into her lovely, wide blue eyes and his hand made a gesture of denial. "You can't help. You shouldn't be here...."

"No. You've always been there for me, Luke. Why can't you treat me like that kind of a friend?"

"I don't want you involved, Laura." He went to the bar and poured himself a stiff drink. "You really should go home now."

"I can't leave you like this--"

He took a long swallow of whiskey before turning to her. "You never could--that's always been your problem. And you never knew where I was coming from." A look of hopeless longing crossed his face. "Laura, I'm in love with you."

Dazed, she started stammering. "No...I don't think it--it's really love...."

"Yes, it is! I love you and it's like a sickness inside me! I can't think of anything else, I can't concentrate, and in my business, that can be dangerous, Baby! You've got me between two worlds that don't mix."

She backed away, but he followed. "I don't know what you mean--" she said, trying to evade his intensity.

"Of course you can't understand--you have Scotty! Do you know what that does to me, to know you're in his bed every night?! All I do is dream about you, of holding you, making love to you. Laura, I need you! You are my life!"

Alarmed now, she reached for her sweater off one of the chairs. "I--I think I should go--I didn't know. Maybe I should quit my job--"

He caught her arm, thrust the sweater away. "No!"

"My--my life with Scotty is all that I want right now, Luke, but we can help you. We're your friends--"

"Don't say that! I don't want you for a friend." He moved to push the button on the disco stereo and the throbbing beat of Alpert's "Rise" filled the room. "And I refuse to die before I've held you in my arms just once." He swayed toward her, holding out his hands. "Dance with me, Laura. Please..."

Numbly she shook her head, watching him, but made no protest as he took her hands and drew her along into the circle of his arms. She seemed mesmerized at first, caught up in the slow, sensuous rhythm and the equally sensuous movements of his body. When he leaned to her, kissing her hair, her throat, she stiffened in apprehension and made a small gesture of refusal, but he held fast. Then he kissed her mouth and she pulled back. "No, Luke! No...no!"

She twisted violently and screamed as they sank to the floor, but Luke was no longer listening.

Was it rape? Laura called it that, but she did not behave like a victim and Luke did not behave like a rapist. When he brought her flowers in the hospital, she showed no physical fear of him and, instead, insisted on going back to work for him at the disco to allay suspicion. In private she shamed him again and again, but her husband's loving concern and curiosity over what had really happened that night grated on her nerves, so that she was drawn more and more to Luke's company. Together they worked through the trauma each was experiencing, unknowingly helping each other while building a guarded but deeply personal relationship. Watching that relationship grow was enough to keep a viewer breathless.

Luke Crumbles When Laura Isn't Pregnant

There was this scene about a month and a half after the rape. Laura had received a call from her doctor informing her she was not pregnant from the rape. Instead of calling Scotty, she chose to share this news first with the rapist, Luke. He, in turn, had not had a great evening and had overindulged in drink, thus having to be delivered to his disco in a state of Shakespeare-spouting inebriation, a state that wore off as he sat alone in his office, brooding. Laura came in, full of news, but concerned first with discovering what had happened to him. He explained he had gone out on the town, had a few drinks to try and erase faces from his mind--Roy's face, and hers. She saw he was getting emotional and she drew in at once, covering her own feelings.

"You may be on a guilt trip about Roy, but you don't need to worry about me anymore because I just had a call from my doctor and she said I'm not--"

"Don't! Don't say it!" he interrupted, startling her. He looked so sorrowful, she tried again to impart her news.

"Luke, the news is good--"

"No! Your news is death." He closed his eyes and sighed, trying to get hold of himself. Then he raised his head and their eyes met. "Ever since I heard you might be pregnant from the rape, I've been waiting. And now I know you're not and I don't feel--anything. It might be good news to you and to Scott, but it is not good news to me. It's death--the death of what could have been you and me in one body."

Laura's need to stay true to Scott and never allow Luke an inch of encouragement led to a great deal of sexual tension between them. Yet we saw that each had developed a sense of ownership about the other. Luke told Laura he was jealous of Scott and blurted that it was as if another man had his woman. She put him in his place on this, but her own moment of truth came the night of the Peter Taylor Memorial Fund Ball. The evening began with cocktails at the Quartermaine mansion and introduced into Pt. Charles society Mobster Frank Smith's dark-eyed daughter, Jennifer, who was immediately taken with Luke and who occupied much of his time at the party. Laura's eyes followed their every move.

"Well, it would seem Miss Jennifer Smith is quite impressed with Luke Spencer," she remarked cattily to a companion as she observed them across the room.

Laura Envies Jennifer

"And I'd say Luke Spencer was quite impressed with Miss Smith," the companion replied, unaware that Laura was giving her a look that could freeze a hot tomale [sic] at forty paces.

Jennifer continued to be a thorn in Laura's side as Luke began dating the enamoured Miss Smith. Luke was constantly alert to any sign Laura might relent and reveal she cared for him. Laura was equally alert to any overtures he might make. This led to some oft times titillating dialogue between them, with much being read between the lines. There was the night Scott and Laura were joined by Luke and Jen as they were keeping a vigil at the hospital while the Quartermaine baby was undergoing critical surgery. The talk turned to noble professions and Scott stated that he felt the practice of law could not compare to the practice of medicine in being a worthwhile pursuit. Luke, uncomfortably aware of his Elm street slum background and limited education, was flippant.

"None of 'em compare to that noblest of professions, running a string of boogie parlors."

Jennifer was not put off. "I bet you could do about anything if you set your mind to it. I think you'd make a wonderful doctor."

Luke rolled his eyes in embarrassed amusement, but Laura, who hadn't taken her eyes off him since he and Jen sat down, spoke up quietly with a challenge. "There are still two openings for the Peter Taylor scholarships. Why don't you apply?"

Again Luke tried to shrug it off and laugh, but then his eyes met Laura's and he sobered. "Are you serious? Come on. Me?"

"You never know what you can do until you try," she said, and somehow each word seemed loaded and Luke, still looking at her, began to smile ever so slightly. From then on he dropped the humble manner with her and began to try.

Laura had to stand by helplessly as Mr. Smith, wanting to keep his darling daughter happy, coerced Luke into becoming engaged to Jennifer. Smith inferred that the Organization would leave Laura alone only as long as Luke played ball and Luke, desperately in love with Laura and already worried sick because she knew too much about Smith's business, had no choice. Laura, unable to bear the sight of Luke and Jennifer together, started threatening to tell Scotty everything about the rape and Mr. Smith.

Laura's Unheard Confession

There was that amusingly sly episode where Laura, after having declared she would tell Scott, had to explain to Luke why she had been unable to do so the night before.

"I started to tell him the whole thing--but he'd had a real long day, he was exhausted, and he just--fell asleep."

"He fell asleep?" Luke's intense expression changed to barely contained amusement. "You were talking about being raped and he dozed off?" The laugh he tried to stifle got him a very dark look.

"If you can put a lid on your amusement," Laura said peevishly, "I'll try to finish my story."

"It's too perfect now--no, I'm sorry, Laura. That was rude of me. Please, tell me what happened."

Soberly she continued, taking no notice of Luke's rubbery expression as he held himself in check. "I went to stand by the window because it was easier, not facing him, and I was telling him, getting it all out--and then I noticed how quiet he was and saw he had fallen asleep."

"How much did he hear before the sand man got him?" Luke inquired, still masking his grin.

"I asked him this morning and he said he didn't hear a thing."

"Too bad. I'm sorry. What a shame."

Laura Admits her Love

Laura's need to break up Luke's engagement grew to an almost hysterical pitch and she continued to insist that she was going to spill all she knew. Luke knew Smith would kill them all if she talked, and he had to find a way to stop her. He had few scruples about it; he would get Laura alone, seduce her, get her to admit she was in love with him, thus making it impossible for her to confess anything without wrecking her marriage. Bobbi [sic] suspected he was hoping Laura would choose him over Scott--and she didn't like his plan at all. She told Ruby about it and Ruby invited Luke over to her place for one of their cozy family chats. All sympathy, Ruby felt he should forget about Laura and try to make the best of what he had. After all, Jennifer was rich and beautiful.

"But she's not Laura Baldwin!" Luke raved, blind to reason. "Ruby, it's just the end, the absolute end. If I marry Jennifer, there is no hope I can ever have a life with Laura. No hope."

Luke's plan was to get Laura alone on Jennifer's sailboat on a day when Laura and Scott have been invited to make a foursome for sailing. He enlisted Bobbi's aid in delaying Jennifer and he had plans to delay Scott himself. Sneaking onto the parking lot where Scott had left his car, Luke leaned down, unscrewed the valve and calmly let the air out of Scott's tire while singing, "Red sails in the sunset, way out on the sea, oh carry my loved one, home safely to me..."

Once he had her alone on the boat, Luke closed in, using a mixture of menace and vulnerability. He locked the cabin door and pretended it was jammed, warned her against blowing the whistle on the Organization, eyed her fanny every time she turned away from him, gave her direct looks that had her blushing, and suggested to her that she had nights when she lay in bed with her husband and wished it was himself beside her, making love to her.

"And what about this bond you say is between us'?" he prodded. "It's there because you want it as much as I do!"

"No, that isn't true!" Face hot, Laura denied it all.

"Then what is true, Laura? Isn't it true that when you see Jennifer and me together, you want to scream? That when you think of me marrying her, making love to her--that makes you sick!"

"No! I don't want to see you marry another girl just to protect me!"

"You don't want to see me marry another woman because you don't want another woman to have me!" He had her eye to eye and he pressed harder. "Laura, doesn't that precious truth you say you want--doesn't it tell you anything? Doesn't it tell you you're in love with me?"

Subdued, quivering, Laura could only murmur, "Please, Luke..."

"I won't touch you--unless you want me to. But you have to say the words, Laura I love you. I love you. I want to hold you in my arms. Please."

He looked so like a lost child and at the same time, like a man aroused, that Laura could no longer resist. Almost automatically, she glided into his arms and their lips met.

Neither gave a thought to Scotty struggling to change tires in that sun-baked parking lot, or to Jennifer pacing up and down, worrying about the two of them being alone together. The kisses went on until their mutual urgency caused them to sink to the bunk. Luke was aflame, whispering, "Tell me you want me...tell me, tell me, tell me..." and covering her face with kisses. When she finally murmured, "Yes, I want you..." he lowered her across the bunk, moaning, "Oh, Baby..."and kissing her thoroughly. Then, abruptly, he pulled back and dug the cabin key from his pocket. Laura, still flushed with passion, stared in shock.

"Now," he said, trying to get in control and make his intended pronouncement. "Go tell Scott that night in the disco was rape!"

That pronouncement cost him a great deal, but it did buy her silence. However, Laura continued to stay with Scott, despite a conversation with Luke in the park in which she admitted her feelings for him. "But we don't belong together, Luke," she told him tearfully, "Your world is so foreign to me. Please, I'll stay away from you and you stay away from me." They gave it a good try, but as Luke had once said, and as every viewer knew, they were "in each other's blood and we'll never be free of each other. Never."

The Aborted Wedding

In early July came two of the better episodes: Luke's aborted wedding to Jennifer. Scheduled to take place on her father's yacht, the wedding was an elaborate one. Luke and Laura each woke that morning from moony dreams about the other. Dressed in his white wedding suit, Luke went to his Aunt Ruby's for some coffee--"put a little shot of something in it to make everything stand up"--and some reassurance from Bobbi and Ruby, which he needed badly.

Meanwhile Laura had written a letter to Luke, carefully worded, but nevertheless incriminating. When Scott found it, he read the word rape and assumed she and Luke had had an affair. Scott and Laura's awful confrontation was juxtaposed with scenes of happy wedding guests arriving on that sunlit yacht and the contrast was riveting.

Laura whimpering out her pitiful excuses--"It was a terrible night for Luke, too...all he wanted was to dance with me, that's all he wanted, just to dance with me, and it got out of control--" was enough to send Scotty out, in search of Luke with the intent to kill. He arrived at the boat just after Luke had failed to blackmail Mr. Smith into letting him out of mob business. Scott smashed into Luke, there was a short but furious fight, and Luke went overboard.

Some time later, Laura arrived, overheard police talking about the tragedy and stunned, wandered down onto the dock. Suddenly a hand came out of the water and grabbed her ankle and a bruised and battered Luke was there, begging for help. He had heard Smith tell a henchman to make sure Luke did not come up alive. Together Luke and Laura fled the Marina.

The First Night In The Sleazy Motel

[Ed. Note: Actually, I don't think this was the first sleezy motel; I think it was at least the second, because of the tub. The first was the one at which Hutch stalked them in the laundry room. Perhaps she's counting it as the first hotel after they retrieved the black book from Frank Smith's office; in that case I think she's right.]

In what most fans would agree was the best GH episode ever, an episode many of us refer to affectionately as "The First Night in the Sleazy Motel", Luke and Laura started their tentative and often amusing adjustment to each other. Here Luke's lecherous expectations are pitted against Laura's determination to honor her marriage vows.

"There's only one bed, Luke."

"How many do you want?"

She ignored that. "You shouldn't have wasted the money on this wine. I don't have that much."

"True. You'll never measure up to Jennifer. You have no money, no house, no sailboat. I gotta be out of my mind."

She glared at him over her paper cup of wine. "So, where are you going to sleep?"

"Will you please get your mind off sex?"

"Luke--"

"Look. I didn't ask for this honeymoon, I didn't plan this honeymoon--this is the way it turned out. So let's just make the best of it. Either that, or you go back to Prince Charming."

Laura was adamant. She proposed he sleep in the bath tub--she had seen a man do it in a movie once. Luke stared down at the tub.

"Laura, this tub is four feet long."

"It looks perfectly comfortable to me."

"Then you enjoy sleeping in it."

"No. My money paid for this room, that is my bed. I'll sleep in it."

"I don't believe this. Look, I'm going to take a long hot shower in this very short tub, and then we'll decide which side of the bed I sleep on!" And he turned on the taps.

When next we saw him, he was in the tub, trying to adjust the pillow and grimacing when his bare foot hit the faucet, turning on the shower. Instantly he was up, determined to try Laura again.

She was asleep. Ever so stealthily he crawled onto the bed beside her, positioning the pillow and settling in. Laura was in her slip, her shoulders bare, and she looked lovely lying there. He kissed the tips of her fingers, muttering, "You're an angel and I love you, but damn, I wish you had more money."

He slept briefly, woke to gaze at her again. She awoke with a start, seeing him beside her.

"Luke! What are you doing here? Why is your hair all wet?"

"I was sleeping in the tub, as per your request, my foot hit the shower, the water came down..."

Laura giggled. "I do feel a little mean about the bed. But, Luke, this isn't going to work."

"Do you have any idea how it feels to me to wake up beside you?"

"That's what I mean. We are running away together, we are going to decode the black book, trap Mr. Smith, but we can't sleep in the same bed at night," she said, as if explaining to a child.

"You know what woke me? Your perfume."

"I don't wear perfume."

"Then you sure have pretty smelling skin, lady."

"Don't--don't do this. Don't make love to me..."

"Oh, I want you so much I ache! We didn't choose this, Laura. Fate has put us together. You know, I've always dreamed of being with you like this--well, not just like this. I didn't expect to be on top of the covers while you were under the sheet, but--"

She gave him an indulgent look. "You're a terrible man." And she flounced off to try sleeping in the tub herself. Only later, when he was safely asleep, could she allow herself to sit on the bed beside him and smile fondly down at him.

The Department Store

When they were forced to hide out in a department store, they attempted to find a wig to disguise Laura and wound up in the store's beauty salon where Luke, in sudden inspiration, pretended to be Msr. Robert, a French hair stylist just arrived from Paris. Instructing Laura to say only "Oui" (a word he would like to make a permanent part of her vocabulary), Luke adapted a thick accent that was one part Charles Boyer, nine parts Pepe Le Pew, and was led to a private booth to await his first customer. Moments later a 300 pound woman came waltzing in announcing, "I'm all yours!" and asking for the latest Paris haircut. Never one to wilt in a crisis, Luke fluttered over her. "Close your eyes, Madame, for the very beaucoup surprise! You weel be tres elegant. Your 'usband weel not be able to keep 'is 'ands off you--you weel drive 'im wild wiz desire!"

The cut he gave her, which he called "La Dip", sent the woman screaming to the manager and caused Laura to warn him that the shop would be calling the police. Caught up in his role, Luke retorted, "Then I weel call the French Embassy!"

When it comes to romantic moments on GH, nothing can ever compare to the night Luke and Laura spent alone together locked in that department store. Here it was not the dialogue that was memorable; it was the visual effects, the sight of those two dressed in glamorous evening clothes, waltzing around the softly lit corridors of the opulant [sic] store, the lilting strains of "Fascination" following them as they twirled, entwined, kissed, glided. Also more telling than words were the meaningful looks exchanged, looks so warm they seemed to heat up the whole screen. As Luke carried Laura off to the bedding department, announcing joyously to the frozen-faced mannequins, "Ladies, I LOVE this woman!" it seemed certain that night was to be their "night of nights". Luke was sure of it. He stripped off his jacket, tossed his white tie aside with a flourish, moved to the bed with all the grace of a dancer--only to discover in the midst of a soulful kiss that his lady had over-indulged in champagne from the gourmet department. As the ghostly music from nowhere bore out "I'm in the mood for love," a very uncomfortable Luke had to untangle himself from an unconscious Laura who had wrapped herself around him, flopping one leg over his groin. The sight of that deflated, disappointed man edging his way off that bed and from under all the pink feathers of her dress was priceless.

Almost...Then Finally!!

By the time they managed to get out of town and into the small farm community of Beechers Corners where they intended to lay low until they could earn money to move on, Laura had had second thoughts about breaking her marriage vows and was back to putting him off. Though she did finally tell him she loved him--his response was to lay his head back and give a small, throaty cry of sheer joy,--she insisted they string a dividing blanket across the room they rented at the Whittaker's farm. Again, Laura had seen it in a movie--"it was Clark Gable and somebody, he was a reporter and she was a madcap heiress"--and Luke was not happy. "Girl, you've seen more movies than anyone I ever heard of! I wish you'd stop going to the movies," he complained as he hung their "wool wall". Not that he had given up. Observing there was now no blanket for him to sleep under in the chaise, he told Laura, "I am sleeping in the buff. If you have to get up in the middle of the night, go to the little girls' room, be sure and peek, Baby! I got nothin' to hide!" His provocations were wasted on this girl, however. Laura remained firm in her resolve not to become the "tramp" Scotty had called her.

Still on the run, they had an idyllic day at a deserted cabin in the woods outside Beechers Corners while they were trying to get to town of Fair Oaks. The air had turned nippy and they were sleeping in sleeping bags on the floor of the very drafty cabin. Laura woke shivering and decided to join Luke in his bag. Ever so carefully she unzipped his bag and crawled in, trying not to wake him up as she settled in. His eyes came open. He looked--alert. Then he heard a peaceful sigh and an expression of dismay and chagrin came over his face.

"Laura, does this mean what I hope it means?"

"No."

"Then what are you doing in my bag?"

"I'm cold."

"I resent being used as a heat object!" he said with some disagreeableness.

"Well, I'm very, very comfortable. Go to sleep."

His eyes were wide open as she stretched and wrapped herself closer. "Laura, I can't sleep like this! What do you think? You think you can just come in and snuggle down in my bag and I won't get turned on? Out, out," he insisted, pushing her and dumping her unceremoniously from his bag. "When you're ready for the honeymoon bag, give me a call." And he turned over with his back to her, drawing his bag around him.

In that same episode, Luke set a snare trap for intruders because they were sure a hit man was on their trail. Laura was very impressed as he demonstrated how it worked, showing her the rope and the concealed loop.

"Step on this and the rope grabs the ankle and there you are, hanging up side down," he explained.

"Not my best angle."

"Oh, I don't know."

"How did you learn to do something like this? Very clever."

"I saw all those Tarzan movies. Tarzan used to do this all the time. That's how he and Cheeta caught Jane. Bomba used to do it, too, but Tarzan did it better."

She laughed as he beat his chest with a feeble cry. Then she turned more serious. "This is kind of like a Garden of Eden, isn't it? Just the two of us." And in another moment, they were embracing, blissfully in love and glad to be alive.

At the end of that episode, Luke and Laura were lying in front of the fire, holding hands, and she told him she had been wanting to remove her wedding rings, a gesture that would signal a break from Scott and the past and the acceptance of Luke as her lover. "Do it, do it," Luke urged, but she only took off the engagement ring, unable to make the total commitment.

The wedding ring came off when they returned to Beechers Corners after bringing down Mr. Smith and the mob. They were in the kitchen with Mrs. Whittaker (Beth Peters) when Luke saw her hand was bare. He let out a great whoop and swept Mrs. Whittaker into a little jig before swinging Laura up into his arms.

Later when he entered their bedroom, he was dismayed to see the blanket wall was hung across the room--until Laura explained she had put it up so he could take it down, which he did immediately. At last, after all the teasing, prodding, courting, Luke had his Laura exactly as he wanted her: all warm, willing and loving, and ready to be his forever. "I don't want you just for today, or tomorrow or next week," he had told her back in the first sleazy motel, "I want you for all the rest of my life." That was how it seemed as he lay beside her in that country bedroom, smiling as she snuggled close to tell him how good she felt. "I even feel good about myself," she said, declaring she had no regrets, "Not a one."

But Laura made a lie of that a short time later in an episode that was probably no one's favorite. Under too much pressure from family and an insinuating press, young Laura caved in and denied their love, nearly breaking Luke's heart. Thus we had another year of romance wherein Laura chased Luke--and he proved almost as elusive as she had been.

And On To The Wedding

There were simply too many wonderful moments. There was the day Laura, concerned for his safety in their new "Ice Princess" caper, went down to a flop house to see if he was okay and got hauled into his action--"When does the honeymoon start!"--as half of the "world's best known unmarried married couple." There was the evening Laura conspired to have dinner with a handsome Australian stranger at the same plush restaurant where she knew Luke was dining with the glamorous Alex Quartermaine--and practically set off a brush fire of outrageous jealousy. And the day Luke was passing her flat, heard the beat of Alpert's "Rotation", which he had used as backup to his seduction of her on the sailboat, assumed she might be similarly occupied arid burst into her room--only to find himself pulling her into his arms, unable to fight his need any longer. Probably the steamiest episode they ever put on tape was the night Luke asked Laura to marry him, a proposal that was preceded by a long night of such passionate affection and earthy sensuality that it had to be answered with a breathless "yes!".

There simply isn't enough space to cover all the memories; that would take a king-sized book. Still, we hope we have brought back a number of fond memories and that among these memories were at least one of your own favorite moments in the Luke and Laura romance. It was, indeed, the greatest television romance of our time!