Soaps
Why ‘General Hospital’s Dillon & Georgie Were the Best Teen Romance in Soaps
Watching General Hospital growing up built the foundation of my love for television. I realized the magnitude of plot twists when Elizabeth (Rebecca Herbst) discovered Ric’s (Rick Hearst) panic room and a pregnant Carly (Tamara Braun) inside. I looked forward to all the drama (and Lucy’s looks) at the Nurses’ Ball every year.
But one couple was the beginning of my romance-loving origin story: Dillon Quartermaine (Scott Clifton) and Georgie Jones (Lindze Letherman). When Clifton’s Dillon rolled into Port Charles in 2003, he was the quintessential cool guy for teen girls everywhere: sharp as a tack, a little quirky, and, of course, he had spiky hair.
The heyday of the ’80s and ’90s soap supercouples was a tough act to follow in the early 2000s. Most soaps introduced the younger generation to grab new viewers such as myself. It’s no surprise that GH decided to focus on the teen nepo babies of their favorite characters. Enter Dillon, the son of Tracy Quartermaine (Jane Elliot), and Georgie, the youngest daughter of GH supercouple Frisco (Jack Wagner) and Felicia Jones (Kristina Wagner).
Dillon and Georgie had the best meet-cute. In an effort to make her crush, Lucas (C. J. Thomason), jealous, Georgie grabbed Dillon and kissed him after he walked into Kelly’s. Talk about right place, right time. One decision from someone who never took a risk changed the course of their lives forever.
These two youngsters created something extraordinary out of ordinary life. We all love the Sonny (Maurice Benard) and Jason (Steve Burton) mob drama, but there’s an eternal relatability in the highs and lows of teenage love. Dillon and Georgie’s romance captured all the emotions of falling in love for the first time. They were innocent, awkward, messy, and played to perfection by Clifton and Letherman.
Adam Larkey / ABC / Everett Collection
Twenty years ago this week, Georgie and Dillon had sex for the first time. In soap world, everything is always moving at warp speed. Dillon and Georgie’s magic was always in how normal their relationship played out. Dillon and Georgie felt so real because we’ve been them. Dillon, an aspiring filmmaker in those days, always saw Georgie as the leading lady in his life’s movie. Georgie had spent most of her life in Maxie’s (Kirsten Storms) shadow, and Dillon was the first person to truly notice her. In Dillon’s eyes, the spotlight was always on Georgie.
Who could forget when Dillon compared their love to Jack and Rose in Titanic (ahem, foreshadowing) when Georgie was released from the hospital? He rambled on about how he would have had to eventually moved on if she had died, but his heart would always belong to her. “I’d have always been in love with you, and I would have spent my life waiting to go home to you,” he said. It was so cheesy but so pure.
They were the perfect balance for each other. Georgie was level-headed and bookish, while Dillon was impulsive and snarky. He was a guy made for bold gestures. He threw his wedding ring off the pier before proposing to Georgie again. He wanted to marry (and stay married) to her “someday” in the future. Georgie, so wise beyond her years, told Dillon she loved him, but declined his proposal because she didn’t want them to be bound by a promise before they figured out who they truly wanted to be.
There’s nothing quite like your first love. Every feeling is so heightened, and everything can feel like the beginning and end of the world. When I look back at the soap couples that had an impact on me, Dillon and Georgie are among the greats. The innocence and tangibility of Dillon and Georgie’s love story have cemented them as the ultimate teen soap couple.
When Georgie was murdered by the Text Message Killer, a part of Dillon’s heart died, too. Like he said all those years ago, Dillon probably learned to love someone else in the two decades since, but there’s still that part of him that’s waiting to reunite with Georgie, his first and truest love. Someday, he will.
Did you love Dillon and Georgie’s romance on General Hospital? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
General Hospital, Weekdays, ABC
