Colonel Harland David Sanders is, of course, the iconic founder and face of Kentucky Fried Chicken, now known as KFC. He sold the company long before he passed in 1980 (the exact time when Luke and Laura began the first of their many adventures, leading to the “weather machine” story and forever changing all of daytime drama), but his likeness has remained firmly in place since that time. The Colonel has been played by different actors in KFC commercials in recent years, including Darrell Hammond, Norm MacDonald, Rob Riggle and even Reba McEntire, and perhaps most famously by the famously tanned George Hamilton, who popped in the Colonel’s bright white suit.
Hamilton reprised the role last Friday on General Hospital, where viewers who have been watching even longer than I have learned that he is an old friend of Maxie Jones, the daughter of ‘80s supercouple Frisco and Felicia, born in 1990. Maxie’s long-absent father is now running the World Security Bureau, so I guess it made sense for the desperate Colonel to ask her to safeguard his billion-dollar formula. Maxie’s friend Lulu Spencer (daughter of Luke and Laura), a hard-working journalist, was also on hand to meet the Colonel. She wanted to tell his story but he insisted their meeting be off the record.
Apparently, Friday was National Fried Chicken Day, or so Twitter told me, so the KFC tie-in made sense. And as awkward as it was, I have to say that ABC and KFC did a bang-up job promoting this stunt. ABC ran a teaser video throughout the week with Kirsten Storms and Emme Rylan, the actresses who play Maxie and Lulu, respectively, excitedly calling attention to the big surprise coming on Friday’s show. The social team at GH followed up on Instagram with a video that included Hamilton holding the very familiar GH55 hashtag celebrating the show's 55th year (pictured at top) and with some terrific tweets:
And they have kept it going days after the fact:
GH cast members got in on the act:
KFC was on it, too:
