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Monday, February 21, 2011

Port Charles

Back in the early 2000's, there was a show called Port Charles. 



More specifically, it was a soap opera, a spin off of General Hospital, 30 minutes on ABC at 12:30pm.  It really was a ground breaking soap, severely underrated. It was modeled after the telenovellas, with 13-week story arcs that had a clear beginning, middle, and end (something that other soaps on TV these days would greatly benefit from). What made Port Charles so great, and what also led to its demise (on October 3, 2003), was its inclusion of the supernatural.  I'll give you three guesses, but you'll only need one to figure out what kind of supernatural I'm talking about. In the summer of 2001, Port Charles met it's first vampire.

Meet Caleb Morley...


My goodness, he still gives me chills. Yes, he looks a little weird, but this guy was and remains the sexiest vampire, bar none (that includes Eric Northman, although I can't believe I'm saying it.) Caleb came to town because he wanted to hook up with Livvie, who was a doppelganger for his long lost love Olivia, whom he accidentally killed because she wasn't too happy to learn he was a vampire. It happens. This is Livvie...


If she looks familiar, it's because she now plays Sam McCall on GH. Anyway, there was big drama because Livvie was in love with Jack at the time, and Caleb had to woo her away from him. Jack was a vampire too, btw, but he was a 'good' vampire, which means we never really liked him. He was in the lead for a while, but of course, the bad sexy vampire won out in the end. Here's Jack. A very gorgeous man...


Now, what good is a vampire without his ages-old nemesis, the vampire slayer? Forget Buffy, we've got Rafe!!! Rafe came to town to kill Caleb (which he never succeeded in doing), and in the meantime, he fell in love with Alison, who was Livvie's best friend until some really crazy stuff happened and they became mortal enemies. Rafe and Alison looked like angels...


Speaking of angels (haha) Rafe was an angel, as well as a vampire slayer. There were a few other angels in town too, but that was a real low point in the show's history and not worth telling you about. Essentially, Caleb shows up, tries to get Livvie, Livvie loves Jack, Caleb turns Jack, Rafe shows up, Caleb is killed, Caleb comes back to life, Livvie kills Caleb, Rafe falls in love with Alison, Rafe loses his memory (long story), Livvie marries Rafe (even longer story), Alison hates Livvie, Caleb comes back to life again (...this time as a rock star. Thank you Lestat), Caleb marries Alison's mother, Alison and Caleb become friends, Caleb gets back with Livvie, Caleb and Alison sleep together, Alison gets pregnant with Caleb's baby, Alison marries Rafe, Rafe doesn't know, Caleb almost marries Livvie, show ends.

Why am I telling you this, you ask? I'm telling you because Twilight was first published in 2005. Caleb showed up in 2001. This means that I was four years ahead of this whole vampire craze that has now become a terrible cliche. Not that I'm hating on today's vampires. I love it as much as the next person. But I was fascinated long before you were (unless you are a Rice or Stoker fan), and I just thought you should know. Also, I'm thinking of starting up a petition to get reruns back on Soapnet, and I'm going to need a lot of signatures =)

2 comments:

  1. Caleb and Alison would have been good parents because they already had this connection that started when he was human for a time. I would have loved to know what happen after both weddings I hate they lefted us hanging like that!

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  2. I loved vampires long before they were cool. With that said Caleb was the most multi-faceted vampire I'd never seen. He was evil, vengeful, gorgeous, but possessed an insurmountable vulnerability unforeseen to the genre. In my opinion no other vampire (past or present)has measured up to him. He and Olivia's love is timeless. I never liked the idea of Alison pregnant with Caleb's baby but I feel that had the show continued Livvie would have eventually been accepting of it because she still had Caleb who was hers for eternity. I felt cheated that we were left with so much hanging but would settle with seeing the old reruns on Soapnet once again...I really miss my daily dose of Caleb.

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