GH: The Cassidines...?!
Question: So my Mom use to watch General Hospital when she was in collage and I asked her if the mob was in the show alot back then, and she couldn't remember. She said she rememberd the Cassidines being evil but couldn't remember if they where in the mob, where they?
Answers: So my Mom use to watch General Hospital when she was in collage and I asked her if the mob was in the show alot back then, and she couldn't remember. She said she rememberd the Cassidines being evil but couldn't remember if they where in the mob, where they?
The Cassadines were above the mob. The mob is lower than the dirt under the Cassadines' shoes. During her sister's funeral, Alexis had a great line to Sonny about how her ancestors were carrying out vendetta's while his ancestors were plowing the fields for family's far lower than hers; she wasn't exaggerating. They were a royal family from Russia -- to understand them, you have to understand Russia's aristocracy, which was different from that of western Europe. The ultimate ruler, what we know as a king, was called the Tsar. His children were not princes and princesses, but Grand Dukes and Grand Duchesses, and the firstborn son was the Tsarevich. So the princes and princesses were not actually royals, but nobles (what we usually know as Counts and Countesses, or Dukes and Duchesses). Most of those titles belonged to families that had held power in Russia before it was united under the Tsars. The Cassadines were supposed to be one of those families.
They fled Russia during the revolution in the early twentieth century and settled in Greece. In the 1970's, Mikkos Cassadine tried to take over the world by building a machine that would control the weather. He wasn't completely a bad guy, in that like many despots he genuinely believed that the world would be better off under his control, but in order to achieve world domination he tried to freeze Port Charles in order to demonstrate his power. Luke and Laura stopped him, and Luke accidentally trapped Mikkos in a block of ice. His brother, Tony Cassadine, ran off with Alexandra Quartermaine; his other brother, Victor Cassadine, went to prison; his widow, Helena Cassadine, showed up to Luke and Laura's wedding to place a curse on them as revenge.
A few years later, Helena kidnapped Laura as a bride for her oldest son, Stavros. She made Luke and Laura each believe the other was dead, so Laura married Stavros and had a son, Nikolas, although she wasn't clear on whether Nik's father was the abusive Stavros or his brother, Stefan, who loved her. She told everyone it was Stavros because Helena would have killed Stefan's child -- she thought her younger son was a weakling. When Laura found out Luke was alive, she went back to Port Charles and left Nikolas with the Cassadines. Luke killed Stavros, who was trying to rape Laura, and Nikolas was raised in Greece by his uncle Stefan.
In the 1990s, Luke and Laura's baby daughter Lesley Lu fell ill, and they couldn't find a bone marrow match to save her life. Laura contacted Stefan, and Nikolas agreed to come to Port Charles for the transplant. He saved his baby sister's life, but Luke was extremely displeased (to say the least) to learn that Laura had had another son, and there was a lot of friction between Lucky and Nikolas. Laura ran hot and cold on Nikolas, one minute embracing him as her son and the next minute pushing her away. Meanwhile, Stefan bought General Hospital, which was having financial problems of some sort.
After Stefan and Nikolas had been in Port Charles a while, their cousin, Alexis, came to help Stefan with a project known as Timoria that he was undertaking to exact revenge on Luke and Laura for killing his brother, Stavros. Timoria was a computer virus that he let loose in the GH computers. To further his revenge plan, Stefan married Luke's estranged sister Bobbie, but divorced her when Alexis discovered she was actually still working with Luke.
During his marriage, Stefan had fallen in love with Katherine Bell, of whom Alexis was suspicious. To keep Stefan focused on Timoria, Alexis started gaslighting him into believing that Katherine was really his long-lost sister Natasha, the product of his father Mikkos' affair with the governess Kristin Nilsson, who with Mikkos' help became the opera singer Kristin Bergman. Alexis convinced Stefan that Katherine was Natasha, and that if Helena ever found out, she'd kill her. Stefan eventually found papers that Alexis had forged, and banished her from the family (in some of my favorite GH scenes ever).
After she'd been kicked out, Luke revealed to Alexis that she was in fact the real Natasha Cassadine. He told her that her father had an affair with her mother, and when she was four years old Helena found out and murdered her mother in front of her. Little Natasha was so traumatized that she blocked out the memory completely, and to keep her safe Mikkos brought her to Greece but told everyone that she was just his orphaned niece, Alexis Davidovich. She had a horrible childhood during which Helena and Stavros abused her constantly (there's speculation that Stavros is Sam's father by rape), but Stefan was always kind to her and protected her as best he could.
After Alexis found out her true identity she went back to Stefan, who didn't believe her at first and then rejected her anyway, saying that when he thought she was his cousin he'd loved her as a sister, but since she'd betrayed him she was nothing. Alexis knew that if Helena found out the truth, she'd slit her throat just like her mother, so she went to Luke and they conspired to kill Helena. Katherine accidentally died instead, and Stefan was framed for her murder, although during the trial she was revealed to be alive and more or less well. During the trial Stefan and Alexis made up, and she took her rightful place as Mikkos' daughter.
Heh, I could go on but I think you get the gist of it. Sorry for the length, I didn't plan to be so long-winded but once I got going I just kept thinking of more things to add. As far as your question about whether they're bad, I like to think of them more as misunderstood (except Helena and Stavros, who are pure evil in a really fascinating sort of way). But this diatribe includes at least one major transgression from each member of the family, so there you go.
No ... they are Russian/Greek Royalty Insane & Vicious Criminal yes but Mob life no
Alex
Sam
Kristina
Molly
Nickolas
Spencer
Are the only ones left as far as we know ...
No not mob just evil... haha Helena plays roles occassionally still I think. (Nicholas's grandma)
i think luke stayed into it with the casidines, lura was taken thats how she is nickolas mother, elizabeth taylor played helena cassidine at luke and laura wedding
no
i heart GH
The only mob that was on before was Frank Smith and it was the reason that Luke and Laura were on the run all those years!
There was a little. When Luke Spencer first came to town he was working for the local mobster, Frank Smith, and, in fact, Luke and Laura went on the run together b/c of him. Frank Smith was thrown over when Sonny came to town (I forget who killed him...I think Sonny and Luke teamed up for Frank's downfall). But, the mob def wasn't as prevelant to the stories as it is today. There was still a lot of adventures, and the good guys fighting the bad guys kind of stuff. But, not necessarily as much mob-related stuff. More like international espionage and world domination and stuff like that. (Gosh, when I actually write it down, it all sounds so...soapy. LOL.)
well as far I know the mob has been a big part of gh from the get go, but no the Cassadines haven't been in the mob. Their just a bunch of crazy people.
there was NO mobs on GH till the late 70's- GH started april 1st of 1963 so there were at least 15yrs of NO mobs on GH
even when a mob did have a sl they were the Bad guys and the police were the Good guys
- sonny didn't come on the show till the early 90's so don't believe it when TPTB or other fans try to say the Mob has always been on GH- the FACTS prove otherwise--
GH was on the air 30 yrs BEFORE sonny
source- my 37 yrs of watching GH ( since 1971)- also the GH scapbook coffee table book 1995 and just check any soap history site like soap operacentral.com
Now to answer your question- the Cassidines first appeared during the Ice Princess sl- the father wanted to "take over the world"- he had 2 brothers that were with him- the father was accidently killed by luke, one brother was arrested and the other died. the wife of the father- wanted revenage on luke and laura for the death of her husband--- she had laura kidnapped and made it look like she had died--FF 3 yrs- laura get away and comes back to luke but while she was held captive she married one of helena's sons ( they told her luke was dead)- he came after her- after a struggle he fell down some stairs and died---yrs later two cassidines appear again when luke & laura return to PC- and it went on---
The cassidines were rich and often evil but they were not in the Mob
Nah not the mob like Sonny is. Just Crazy people with Royal Bloodlines.
No, the Cassidines have nothing to do with the mob.