Five Things That Happened On December 18 In Soap History

In 1989,  Ellen Dolan debuted as As The World Turns as Margo Hughes. She was the third actress to portray the role, succeeding Margaret Colin and Hillary B. Smith, and was with ATWT until its cancellation in 2010. Dolan had previous appeared on Texas as Jeannie and on Guiding Light as Maureen Reardon Bauer. Dolan noted to Soap Opera Digest in 2014 that when ATWT went off the air, "The fans lost a little bit of family. I used to watch soap operas and I lived out in the middle of the country in Iowa; there was not a lot to do. It was this sound that was in your house, at least for me, that was comforting. The sound of it was just home."

In 1998, Maurice Benard (l.) returned full-time to the role of Sonny Corinthos on General Hospital, which he had exited the previous September after a five-year run. In the storyline, Jason Morgan (Steve Burton) traveled to Puerto Rico to check in on Sonny and learned that his friend and mentor had fallen into a deep depression following the presumed death of his great love Brenda Barrett. Jason approached Sonny gingerly, taking note of the empty liquor bottle next to him. Sonny continued to drink and lashed out at Jason, demanding to know what he was doing there. He reacted negatively to Jason's suggestion that he return to Port Charles (which, eventually, he did).

In 2002, Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos (r., pictured with David Canary as Hayley's father, Adam Chandler) exited All My Children as Hayley and Mateo, who moved away with son Enzo. Ripa had been a fixture on the show since her debut in 1990, and Consuelos had begun his own Pine Valley run in 1995. In real life, of course, Ripa and Consuelos fell in love, married, and became parents to three kids: Michael, Lola and Joaquin. Their AMC characters had been married since 2000.

In 2008, Myrtle Fargate passed away in her sleep on All My Children following the real-life passing of her portrayer, Eileen Herlie. She had played Myrtle since 1976. In 2011, her former co-star Francesca James, who had played the dual roles of Kitty and Kelly, shared with Soap Opera Digest, "Eileen and I were 'family.' Working with her was an honor. When we were acting together, it was heaven. She was my teacher.... She was an elegant, brave, brilliant woman and I will miss her every day of my life."

In 2012, Liesl Obrecht (Kathleen Gati) rendered Robert Scorpio (Tristan Rogers) comatose on General Hospital. It would be nearly a year before Robert regained consciousness. In 2019, Gati admitted to Soap Opera Digest that after such a heinous act, the writers kept Obrecht around, even using her for comic relief, saying, "Initially, she was this very dour, tough, cold, heartless woman as the head of this clinic in Switzerland and kidnapping this woman for a couple of years and then putting Robert Scorpio in a coma. I mean, just terribly dark, cold, austere things that I had to do. Honestly, I don’t remember when I got to first do something comedic, but it was such a relief because there’s only so many times — as a villain, I think you don’t last on these shows; you go down, down, down, and then you’re killed off."