WHY SOAPS ARE THE GREATEST THING IN THE HISTORY OF EVER

Regardless of what you think about GH's recent... uh... homage organ transplant storyline (I guess I've sort of given away my feelings on the matter), the scene where, after being chewed out by Lucky, Luke tries to absorb what he's done in killing Jake, demonstrates one of the things that soaps can do like no other genre

Luke recalls a conversation he had with a pre-teen Lucky about fatherhood. And we are treated to a flashback scene of Luke (with a great deal more hair) and pre-teen Lucky (impossibly adorable with his own long 'do).

Not a recreated flashback where new actors are playing the characters, not a cheesy flashback with the same actors in bad young-people make-up, but a real clip in real time with Anthony Geary and Jonathan Jackson, Luke and Lucky Spenser the way we remember them in younger days.



Who else can do that? (Once upon a time, when primetime series like Gunsmoke or Little House on the Prairie ran for over two decades they came close, but that just doesn't happen anymore. The nearest we have is The Simpsons. But earlier, rougher animated Barts and Homers aren't quite the same thing.)

A similar moment from Days of Our Lives....



And All My Children...