‘General Hospital’: Curtis and Portia’s Undeniable Chemistry Has Fans Rooting For Them
General Hospital is the oldest soap opera on television, and still has fans to this day. As it’s currently in its 57th season, the show has changed a lot since it first aired in 1963.
However, General Hospital has maintained a sense of continuity with its ensemble cast spanning generations, sustained setting, and traditions such as the controversial Nurse’s Ball.
Some of the big draws of the show include the complicated web of personal and romantic relationships, the high levels of melodrama, and even interest in the lives of the actors.
And while the cast has changed since 1963, fans care just as much about these new romantic couplings as they did about the classic pairings on the show.
What is ‘General Hospital’ about?
General Hospital is a classic daytime soap opera. The initial concept, conceived by husband and wife writing team Frank and Doris Hursley, was a drama that would follow the medical staff of the eponymous General Hospital.
The show quickly became a hit, and many of the initial actors who started on the show in the 1960s stayed on for decades until their deaths. While the show was successful, it took about a decade to snatch the number one spot among daytime soaps, lingering behind As the World Turns throughout the 1960s.
In the 1970s, the show shifted gears. While the hospital was still the center of the show, the next pair of showrunners, Bridget and Jerome Dobson, expanded the universe out from the hospital and finally named the town where the hospital was located: Port Charles.
A murder plot pushed General Hospital to the top ratings position, though critics and fans began to sour on the show shortly after. For a while, it was at risk of cancellation, until the producers introduced new concepts that would shoot General Hospital back to success.
One aspect that helped the show become more popular was an increased focus on action and thriller plotlines, including the mafia and intelligence agents. Another important aspect? Supercouple pairings.
‘General Hospital’ supercouples
The phenomenon of “supercouples” created even more interest and investment in General Hospital. A supercouple is a romantic couple in media, analogous to a celebrity power couple, that fans care deeply about and follow closely.
The details of the relationship and dramas that surrounds the pairing create intense engagement among fans and audiences. General Hospital wasn’t the first example of this, but it was where the term was coined in the 1980s to describe Luke Spencer and Laura Webber.
The 1981 episode where the couple finally married set TV ratings records.
‘General Hospital’: Curtis and Portia
A more recent supercouple that fans are obsessed with is that of Curtis Ashford and Dr. Portia Robinson. Donnell Turner joined General Hospital in 2015 as the private investigator Curtis Ashford. On the show, Curtis started a relationship with his ex-sister in law, Jordan Ashford, and eventually married her.
Dr. Portia Robinson, played by Brook Kerr, is a much newer addition to the show, who joined in 2020. She is the mother of Trina Robinson, who shows up after Trina’s father, Marcus Taggert, is killed.
Despite Portia being a new character on the show, however, her and Curtis have history. It was revealed that Curtis and Portia had an affair years earlier, and this timeline matches up with when Trina would have been born.
Trina’s plotline also includes a lot of tension with Curtis, and fans are theorizing that Curtis may be Trina’s biological father.
If this is true, it could have big implications for Curtis and Portia. They have history together, so it’s clear that there’s already attraction and chemistry. Fans already ship the two characters, and plots involving affairs and secret children are always popular on soap operas.
Maybe the show will follow this direction and show us what Portia and Curtis’ relationship looked like, and introduce a new romantic line.
