“Elizabeth’s first love is back,” touts an ABC/SOAPnet promo for Jonathan Jackson‘s Oct. 27 return. (Check it out here) Uh, guys…? Elizabeth’s first love NEVER LEFT. He’s right there. In Port Charles. Wearing Greg Vaughan‘s face.

I mean, I can only imagine how hamstrung the ABC/SOAPnet promotional department was, realizing that they couldn’t go “the real Lucky returns!” route — darn all those fans for finding that genius move for AMC’s Greenlee offensive! — but was it necessary to sit around and think of something just as bad?

Guess what, GH: Lucky and Liz have always been a permanent lock. It doesn’t matter if it was Jackson or Jacob Young or Greg Vaughan in the role. But way to confirm, yet again, for viewers that the Lucky character has had no value for the last decade…that all of that history and character work and the times Lucky and Elizabeth have been drawn together as lovers and as parents hasn’t rated because it wasn’t Jonathan Jackson. To outright say that is really, really bold.

I guess I imagined the 2005 wedding and all the adorable family scenes with Cameron and Jake, because Elizabeth’s only hookups were with Jason, Ric and Zander. And what about Jacob Young’s Daytime Emmy? I guess he won that for AMC’s JR…even before he got the role.

It’s really disrespectful. That’s what it boils down to. Greg Vaughan aired just yesterday, in beautiful scenes welcoming Elizabeth to the Spencer family once more…while the network he airs on has already written him out of the Spencer clan. I know it’s not Jonathan Jackson’s fault. He’s got a family to feed, too, and a right to be employed. But someone needs to be held accountable for the bad taste here. I honestly thought the network had learned something from their own “real Greenlee” debacle, but it’s clear they haven’t.

Page me when my first love, the real GENERAL HOSPITAL, is back.

originally posted on soapoperaweekly.com