Learning About Love in all the Wrong Places

In my formative years I had many many examples of couples that shaped my view of relationships.

Greg and Jenny, Cliff and Nina, Tad and Dixie Jack and Marlena, Bo and Hope, Josh and Reva, Blake and Krystal, Brenda and Dylan, Kelly and Dylan, Kelly and Brandon lastly the incomparable Luke and Laura.

The Soap Opera Super Couple.

The duo that can succeed over any adverse situation: infidelity, illegitimate children, other spouses, lost fortunes, general deceit, kidnapping, poisoning, parental objections, mafia involvement and even death cannot keep these pairs apart. What makes a super couple a super couple is that no matter what they, and the viewing public know they will end up together and that the should be together. Everyone is actually aware that in the long run they are required to take any means necessary to remarry for the 7th time.

Cliff cheated on an infertile Nina and fathered a child with his mistress then Nina decided to get back at him by sleeping with a mutual friend. Reva married Josh’s sworn enemy when she thought he was dead but that was nothing given she was also at one point in time been wed to his brother and his father. Luke raped Laura but that did not stop them from having the highest watched wedding in Soap history. Decades later, Luke brought Laura back from a coma and remarried her while he was married to another woman. Cliff and Nina are now a happily living together off screen. Reva and Josh ended the series ridding off into the sunset. And we know we have not seen the last of Laura and there will be a Tracy Quartermain and Laura Spencer smack down sometime in the future.

We, the watchers, not only accept but applaud such actions. Why? Everyone is going to root for the super couple. We get upset when the super couple does not end up together. I remember the water cooler conversation when Joey and Dawson did not end up together in the series finale of DAWSON’S CREEK. I did not even watch the show but I will forever know they did not end up together. People spent year invested in there on again off again relationship. We get upset when it looks like one part of the super couple might couple with someone else. How many of you were upset that in the end Kelly and Dylan ended up together? I think Brenda should be with Dylan and Kelly with Brandon. Nobody was happy when Laura was presumed dead but really married to the Cassadines and Luke was courting Holly. And we always hated when Scotty Baldwin arrived on the scene to rescue Laura from her beloved, drunken criminal, Luke.

Luke and Laura are the original super couple. Such duo’s were at their height of fame in the 1980’s with dwindling notoriety through the years. I watched Soaps in the pinnacle of the popularity of the pairs. I cannot help but wonder what inadvertent lessons I might have learned from them. Really, unless one of the partners was a homicidal maniac who ended up dead with a body in the morgue all bets were off. They offered excitement, danger, entertainment, and chemistry.

I wonder how that impacted my relationships and me? I have been know to form inappropriate attachments with the wrong person convinced, at the time, the drama was just part of a relationship and at the end of the day things would settle down and we would walk off into the sunset. I have covertly created crisis when things got calm. I have participated in affairs where I was positive we would prevail as a pairing. I cannot say Daytime TV made me do it, but I do wonder on some unconscious level I want someone to come to blows for and want me the way Josh battled for and desired Reba. To forgive me my wrongs the way Tad forgave Dixie. I do know that in the past few years my ideal about relationships has transformed and now instead of drama I want partnership. Instead of fights I want friendship.

What was the impact of soaps on you romantic ideals? Who were you favorite super couple? How did you feel when Joey and Dawson did not end up together?