Writing and Music
Canadian actor Jason Thompson was cast as "dreamy yet arrogant" Dr. Patrick Drake on General Hospital in December 2005. Kimberly McCullough had already been part of the series since 1985 as character Robin Scorpio. The writers detailed Patrick as the brilliant neurosurgeon son of Dr. Noah Drake. By having Patrick fall in love with Robin, the show’s most popular heroine and also HIV positive, the series set out to create one of the genre's "most unique and touching love stories". "These are the kids of legacy characters Robert Scorpio and Noah Drake, giants of General Hospital history," said SOAPnet executive vice president and general manager Deborah Blackwell. "She’s HIV positive, he’s trying to change his ways, and they’re in love. It’s an incredibly compelling storyline."
With General Hospital:Night Shift, the writers anchored the show around Patrick and Robin and felt that this gave them an advantage on other couples within the series. "It’s nice to start with the premise of a love story. Viewers know Robin and Patrick, but haven’t seen a ton happen to them just yet. It gives us something to follow and root for right away," stated Jill Farren Phelps. In addition, the pairing would continue to appear on General Hospital.
Executives did not want Night Shift to be "your mother’s General Hospital" and outlined Patrick and Robin's love story to involve the various ills and plagues of their patients, portrayed by a variety of guest stars. They felt this would expand the focus from a soap opera's "trademark tangled web" of romance to include the patients and their illnesses. Robin was presented as an accomplished medical professional who has been living with and successfully managing HIV for almost 15 years when she meets Patrick.
"The heart of the show will be about the cases and how they impact our doctors,” said Brian Frons, president of Disney-ABC TV Group. With Patrick and Robin as the show's main romance, the series was designed to tackle "grittier" and more "controversial" subject matter, partly due to daytime standards being different than what writers can do in prime time.
On May 29, 2006, Memorial Day, the series had Patrick and Robin make love for the first time to "Collide" by Howie Day. When the couple exchanged "I love yous", their official song became "Cloud Nine" by JJ Farris.
Read more about this topic: Patrick Drake And Robin Scorpio
Famous quotes containing the words writing and/or music:
“In writing these Tales ... at long intervals, I have kept the book-unity always in mind ... with reference to its effect as part of a whole.”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)
“We often love to think now of the life of men on beaches,—at least in midsummer, when the weather is serene; their sunny lives on the sand, amid the beach-grass and bayberries, their companion a cow, their wealth a jag of driftwood or a few beach plums, and their music the surf and the peep of the beech-bird.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)