Five Things That Happened On March 21 In Soap History

In 2005, Amelia Heinle debuted on Young and Restless as Victoria Newman. The actress had previously appeared on Loving and The City as Steffi Brewster and on All My Children as Mia Saunders. She recalled to Soap Opera Digest in 2023 of landing the role, "When I heard about the job, I thought, ‘I can’t do that, because Heather [Tom, ex-Victoria] is really good, and she is completely opposite from me.’ It was a long process of getting the role. I remember there were eight or nine actresses that day when we finally made it to the screen test. The first day that I walked in to read was in [then-Casting Director] Marnie Saitta’s office, and believe it or not, the first person I met was Thad [Luckinbill, ex-J.T., who is now her husband]. He walked into the office when I was there, and my son [August] was with me because I didn’t have a babysitter. I figured he was one of the people I was going to read with, and I thought, ‘That guy is too young, I can’t play opposite him. That’s ridiculous.’ I was 29 or 30, and he wasn’t too much younger, maybe two years, but he looks younger."

In 2011, General Hospital's Elizabeth Webber (Rebecca Herbst), Lucky Spencer (Jonathan Jackson) and Jason Morgan were devastated when young Jake Webber seemingly died, the victim of a hit-and-run caused by a drunk-driving Luke Spencer. (Jake, the biological son of Liz and Jason, was being raised as Lucky's son.) It was not until 2015 that Liz would find out that her middle child was, miraculously, alive — his death had been faked by devious Helena Cassadine, who held him captive on Cassadine Island.

In 2014, General Hospital's Liz (Rebecca Herbst, r.) got proof that Britt Westbourne (Kelly Thiebaud) was not actually “Ben’s” (later renamed Rocco) biological mother when she stumbled upon a confessional letter Britt had written to Lulu (Rocco's actual bio mom), which Britt never intended to deliver to Lulu, but had scripted to try to clear her guilty conscience. Liz, who didn't trust Britt and was eager for Nikolas to see Britt's true colors before he married her, was gobsmacked to realize she now had the goods to bust Britt for stealing Lulu's frozen embryos.

In 2016, Michael Easton (pictured with Laura Wright as Carly Corinthos) debuted as General Hospital's Dr. Hamilton Finn. The actor had left the show the previous summer as Silas Clay, who was killed off after a two-year run. The actor recalled to Soap Opera Digest in 2023, "When I met with the writers at the time, they had such a thought-out character, one I hadn’t seen before in daytime. They really kind of hit me with, ‘It’s going to be like a David E. Kelley character.’ And when I heard that, it just opened windows for me. Playing quirky, playing somebody that has social anxiety, somebody that gets embarrassed and embarrasses himself, really took me out of my comfort zone, but it was a really fun challenge and it’s kind of what I needed at the time. I certainly had fun those first few episodes, doing a lot of monologues with a bearded dragon [Finn’s support animal, Roxy]. Hadn’t done that before!”

In 2017, Bold and Beautiful's Steffy Forrester (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood) made one of the more dramatic bridal entrances in soap history when it was time for her to walk down the aisle to Liam Spencer in Sydney, Australia. The glamorous and adventurous character zip-lined to the altar, gliding past the opera house in her lace pantsuit with attached train! She landed at the beginning of the makeshift aisle, where she was met by her proud pop, Ridge. Wood enthused to Soap Opera Digest in 2020, "It was amazing to do it in front of the Sydney Opera House. I mean, seriously, who gets to do that? It was just so cool.”