The success of last summer's General Hospital: Night Shift was the harbinger of things to come. And now they have. SoapNet announced a new 10-episode drama series called MVP: The Secret Lives of Hockey Wives.

It makes sense that SoapNet would take another stab at creating its own dramas. Last year's Night Shift, the channel's first attempt at that kind of original programming, proved more popular than the reruns of daytime soaps it had been running at 11 o'clock at night. But the difference between this new offering -- about the ladies in the lives of professional hockey players...hockey and soap? -- is that Night Shift was based on General Hospital and used popular stars from the daytime show for the spin-off. If Steve Burton (Jason), Kimberly McCullough (Robin) and Jason Thompson (Patrick) were not in Nightshift, would SoapNet viewers have tuned in?

That's right, ladies, Lando Calrissian, rogue smuggler and former administrator of Cloud City, will be appearing on General Hospital: Night Shift, a spin-off of General Hospital debuting tomorrow at 11:00 p.m. on SoapNet. The series will air for thirteen weeks.

I guess I should refer to him by his real name, Billy Dee Williams. Apparently the movie star decided, at the ripe old age of 70, to have some fun with his roles. In the past, he had been asked to join the cast of the original General Hospital, but always turned down the offer.