General Hospital
Luke rapes Laura

Everyone knows that Luke and Laura’s wedding was the biggest ratings event ever on daytime television, but this soap supercouple had a kiiiind of rough start when he, you know, raped her. (He also forced her to disco dance with him just before, adding insult to injury.) Still, audiences seemed so invested in the potential pairing that the two romantically reunited only months after the October 1979 rape. They married in 1981.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TntHtWvBqKc&feature=player_embedded

I've seen the rape episode before, as well as the episodes directly following (thanks to the good folks at YouTube). We saw Laura constantly flashing back to the incident, unable to have relations with her then-hubby Scotty Baldwin, and even going to rape counseling. Pretty riveting stuff, until the writers changed it into a "seduction". If not for the chemistry between Genie Francis and Tony Geary, the whole thing would never have worked.

NO WAY could you do a story like that now, either on daytime or primetime. I'm surprised it didn't make more waves in 1979-80. But back in 1998, the storyline was revisited, and Laura acknowledged that Luke DID rape her.