While a lot of ABC soap fans are flipping out about Thorsten Kaye's exit from All My Children, and others are giddy about James Franco bringing his movie star luster to General Hospital, there's more big news coming about those soaps. First, the original Lucky, Jonathan Jackson, is returning to General Hospital after 10 years off the show. And the original Greenlee, Rebecca Budig, is coming back to All My Children after leaving the show in March 2009.

Both these returns are exciting... and fraught with drama. While Jonathan is a three-time Emmy-winner and a superb Lucky -- he originated the role -- his choosing to resume the part means that Greg Vaughan has been dumped.

To be really, really honest, Greg was a great looking Lucky, but he never had a good grasp on the character of Lucky.

Soap operas thrive on drama and they're not above borrowing from other sources. You could say it happens all the time, because it does. Of course, you can also go by that old Hollywood axiom that there are really only seven stories and they're told over and over again in a variety of new and different ways. Be that as it may, a look at some soap stories going on now will remind you of some other media.

For instance, on All My Children, you might look at Erica Kane's incarceration for insider trading (or whatever she was supposed to have done that was criminal) and think it's reminiscent of the Martha Stewart case. After all, like Martha, Erica is host of a TV show and an entrepreneur of the highest order. But the part of Erica's story that made me giggle was when she was on the run from prison with fellow con Carmen. Being handcuffed together was right out of The 39 Steps (the Hitchcock movie and now on Broadway) and The Defiant Ones, but the two women from different worlds clicking was more like Ugly Betty. Remember, last season when Claire Meade escaped from prison chained to a tough girl named Yoga? Think the AMC writers were taking notes?
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