Supercouple

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A supercouple, in soap opera terms, is a romantic pairing on a program that becomes extremely popular with fans, captivates the audience's attention, exceeds the network's expectations and transcends the normal pairings on the show. Often, the supercouple will become a de facto symbol for the show itself.

Usually, a supercouple storyline will involve the initial courtship of the couple, with the couple facing seemingly insurmountable challenges via plot devices such as differing socio-economic backgrounds, family opposition, simple misunderstandings, marriages to other people, children with other people, etc. In the end, though, the two characters that make up the supercouple will usually reunite and marry. However, since the soap opera genre is neverending, there can be no happy ending unless both characters leave the show together. As a result, after the usual fairytale wedding, if the supercouple remains on the show, they cannot live happily ever after as a couple in a fairytale would, but rather they are subjected to a continual cycle of being separated and reunited. This often leads to two characters of a supercouple divorcing and re-marrying each other several times.

While the term was not coined until the early 1980s, the first soap opera supercouple was Doug and Julie Williams on Days of our Lives. From 1970 until 1976, the two characters wavered between love and animosity. The chemistry that the two actors exhibited became evident off-screen: the portrayers, Bill Hayes and Susan Seaforth were married in 1974. Fans became emotionally invested in the possible couple, and thousands of people called NBC as well as their local affiliates to petition for the right for Doug and Julie to marry, since the actors were married already. NBC bowed to the popular pressure and the characters were married in October 1976.

Perhaps the most famous supercouple is that of Luke and Laura Spencer, played by Anthony Geary and Genie Francis on General Hospital. Their romance enthralled viewers, and, when they wed on November 16, 1981, daytime television recorded its highest-ever ratings, with 30 million people tuning in to watch them say "I do". The romance led other soap operas to try to copy the formula.

Shows such as Days of our Lives and Santa Barbara along with the aforementioned General Hospital were known for their supercouples in the 1980s. Days in particular had a particularly large amount of them, with their three biggest: Bo and Hope, Jack and Jennifer and John and Marlena, all going on at roughly the same time. The phenomenon even spread to foreign shores, with Scott Robinson, played by Jason Donovan and Charlene Ramsay played by Kylie Minogue on the Australian soap Neighbours generating an audience response similar to that of the supercouples on American soaps. While there are many popular couplings on soap operas today, very few earn the right to be called a supercouple by fans and the soap media alike. Usually, the term is reminiscient of the 1970s and 1980s (the so-called "golden age" of soap operas). As such, the few supercouples that are still on serials today were from the 1980s, or at the latest, the early 1990s. After that the supercouple phenomenon has slowly faded. Shows have attempted to revive the success of the supercouples through modern couples, such as Shawn and Belle who even copied parts of the Bo and Hope storyline to ensure success. However, they haven't received the phenomenal popularity or achievements that Bo and Hope have received over the years.

In today's medium there are some couples which come close to gaining supercouple status in terms of popularity. Although these pairings have explosive chemistry and immense potential, the couple's story is cut short often due to the actors leaving to pursue jobs outside of soaps. These wildly popular couples simply don't last long enough on-screen to garner the long history of a true supercouple. Such couples include Leo and Greenlee (All My Children), Dusty and Lucy (As the World Turns), Simon and Katie (As the World Turns), and Jonathan and Tammy (Guiding Light). These couples were extremely popular with critics and fans and with time they arguably would have become beloved supercouples.

With the advent of message boards, fans have used abbreviated portmanteux for their favorite couples, including supercouples from the past. For example, Bo and Hope becomes "Bope," Josh and Reva becomes "Jeva," and so on. This was parodied on The O.C., when Seth Cohen talked about real couples' overexposure to one another; he wondered whether or not his pairing with Summer Roberts would be called "Summereth" or "Sethummer".