soap opera couples that failed

Images: Howard Wise/JPI, NBC, CBS, ABC

If ever we had any doubt that all good things must come to an end…!

On July 10, 1979, General Hospital married off Kin Shriner’s Scotty Baldwin and Genie Francis’ Laura Webber, the supercouple that, before Anthony Geary’s Luke Spencer ever set foot in Port Charles, helped stave off cancellation and turn the struggling ABC soap into a hit. Not that the actors realized what they had helped accomplish at the time.

“Genie and I were down in Fort Lauderdale somewhere in the late ’70s, [and] we went to dinner and people came up to the table and said, ‘Can we get an autograph?’ Shriner recalled to Soap Opera Digest in 2019. “And we said, ‘Sure.’ And then we looked, and there was a line of people all the way out the restaurant, down the block, and it was like, ’Whoa, we must be doing something right!’”

That they were — extremely right, as a matter of fact! But once Luke and Laura caught fire, Scotty and Laura flamed out — in a big way. And they aren’t the only dynamic duo who went over time from hot to…well, not. Soap history is stuffed to overflowing with twosomes who burned brightly, only to ultimately burn out and move on to new flames.

More: Soaps’ all-time greatest supercouples, ranked [PHOTOS]

Doubt it? You won’t for long. Soaps.com has compiled a list of 10 supremely successful pairings that…eh, didn’t stand the test of time. To flash back through their highs — and ultimately their downfalls — just click on the photo gallery below.