Season 17

General Hospital, Season 17 — watch online on iFILM: thirty episodes from 1980, when the show was pulling in an audience it had never quite targeted before. Daytime television, suddenly, was interesting to younger viewers.

Luke Spencer and Laura Webber were the reason. Their relationship — complicated from the start — made General Hospital a cultural conversation that extended beyond the TV set. Robert Scorpio added a spy-serial thread that sat oddly well beside the hospital storylines. Thirty episodes, and rarely a quiet afternoon. Stream Season 17 on iFILM.