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The world of daytime dramas is a showbusiness subculture unto itself, with its own bizarre set of rules and customs. For example: once you are cast, you stay in that part pretty much until your dying breath, and even then creative ways are often employed to get a few more shooting days out of your corpse. So when it was recently announced that exception-to-the-rule Rick Springfield would be returning to the General Hospital role that made him a star 22 years earlier, very little shuffling had to be done to pick up where Dr. Noah Drake had left off:

He began shooting his episodes at the beginning of November. The plot: Dr. Drake, who left Port Charles to become a neurosurgeon in Atlanta, is urgently needed at General Hospital to operate on a patient with severe brain damage. Unfortunately, Dr. Drake is less sober than he once was. "Things haven't gone well for Noah," Mr. Springfield said with a laugh.

The four days have turned into a longer storyline. "I think we all need to see how it pans out," Mr. Springfield said. "No one's going, 'Where do I sign?' or 'We're done.' " [...]

Because actors on soap operas often have long careers there, many of Mr. Springfield's 1980's colleagues are still on the show. Most relevant to Dr. Drake, Bobbie Spencer, the love of his life, is still in Port Charles - Jacklyn Zeman has played Bobbie since 1977. "There will be a connection between them," Ms. Phelps said. "Yes, you will see Bobbie and Noah together. We're not going to play out a full-on - well, I'm not going to tell you what we're going to do."

We congratulate Springfield on his triumphant return to the showcase that brought his rugged good looks and Jesse-coveting songwriting prowess to the world stage. With the SAG-rate paychecks steadily coming in, we imagine there will be no more Craigslist furniture liquidations come rent time.