Love it or hate it, there’s no denying that the soap opera genre has made its mark on popular culture. What began as live, black and white productions has transformed into a big-budget industry that serves as the staple format of daytime television, with the three major networks airing a total of 10 serials each day of the week. And what was once stereotypically described as fodder for the homemaker has now become the preferred viewing for many — drawing from not only its traditional female-based market but also from the most unlikely of audiences, ranging from business professionals who live by the power of their VCR to ‘tough’ professional athletes — as was most recently displayed when pro-wrestler-turned-governor Jesse Ventura made an appearance on his favorite soap, "The Young and the Restless."

Recently, MODE Weekly took a few minutes to chat with "General Hospital" star Steve Burton. Burton, who is temporarily returning to the show on August 25 for the first time since his departure months ago, has spent his time away from the serial hard at work, filming "Semper Fi," a new television series headed by Steven Spielberg and his Dreamworks company. With his show now slated to be a mid-season replacement on NBC’s fall line-up, Burton had a break in his schedule and decided to return to the soap where he has spent most of the past decade playing the character of "Jason Quartermaine/Jason Morgan".

On August 26, one day after his long-anticipated return to the soap, Burton and co-star Billy Warlock ("A.J. Quartermaine") will be at the The Harrisburg Hilton for an evening of meet and greet, question and answer, and a sneak-peak into what life in and out of "General Hospital" is like.

Steve Burton: Well, it’s different from a normal appearance where you’re at a mall and you’re signing autographs for two hours and you’re not really able to interact with the fans. What this show enables us to do is just get out there — I have a poem or two that I’ve written about the show that are funny but they’re sort of old, so I don’t even know if do them. I have some stand-up material, sort of. We kind of just make fun of soap operas, make fun of the show and make fun of people on the show and make fun of ourselves and just have fun. Then we get to do a Q&A with the audience and they get to literally tell us what they think, which is always fun … It’s just a chance to really interact with the fans.

MODE: How long have you been doing performances like this? Have you always done them with Billy Warlock?

Burton: I’ve been doing them for probably two or three years … and no, I haven’t always done them with Billy. Maurice Benard who plays "Sonny" and I, we used to do them. I pretty much started them, I used to do them with Maurice and now I pair up with Billy a lot.

MODE: How does it feel to interact with the fans on a one-on-one basis like you do with this show? I would imagine that doesn’t happen very often.

MODE: Talk about the loyalty of the "General Hospital" fans. Do you think that, on a certain level, that type of loyalty is something unique to the soap opera genre?

Burton: Oh, absolutely. You’ll get it every now and then in primetime, but soap opera fans are pretty loyal, that’s for sure. They’ve been great, and hopefully they won’t mind me coming back.

MODE: You’re returning to "G.H." after some time off. What did you do during that time?

Burton: I did a pilot for a new series that will start filming in October, "Semper Fi". We filmed in South Carolina, at a place called Parris Island. It was very intense, a lot of physical work, a lot of long hours, it’s a whole different ball game when you’re doing film.

MODE: Describe your character.

Burton: I play a kid whose family — his dad, his uncle, and his brother — are in the Marines already, so the show is about five guys who go to boot camp and have to overcome their racial differences and their personality differences to work as a team because that’s what the Marines teach you. So my character, I go in thinking I know everything — I kind of don’t get along with anybody, I’m very selfish, want to do everything myself, try to take the lead in everything, and basically I am taught a few lessons and come out the better man.

MODE: That description sounds a lot different from the character of "Jason". Was that a great experience for you, playing such an obviously different role?

Burton: At first I was thinking ‘how am I going to do something different, I’ve been doing "Jason" for so long,’ but it kind of just fell into place when I got to South Carolina and it worked out really well.

MODE: And while you were off, did you miss the show? Did you watch?

Burton: No, I didn’t watch it, but I did miss it. I missed the people, really, the people I’d worked with for so long. And the opportunity came up and it was a mutual thing, they said, ‘well, we could use you,’ and I said, ‘well, I’d like to see everybody there and work a little bit’ and it worked out perfectly.

MODE: How long will your return stint last?

Burton: Six weeks, maybe a little longer, I don’t know.

MODE: Your return comes at a perfect time in the "Carly"/"Sonny" storyline [Note: before Burton left the show, his character caught his best friend, "Sonny" in bed with his significant other, "Carly"].

Burton: That’s what I’ve been hearing, I’m looking forward to working with Maurice and Sarah [Brown, "Carly"] again, and Billy Warlock, and to just get back and work.

MODE: Are you excited about the fact that when you return to the storyline the dynamic between you and Maurice’s characters is going to be drastically different than how you’ve played it before — when you left you didn’t really have the chance to delve into that…

Burton: Yeah, we kind of just cut our ties a little bit and went our separate ways. I think his character needs me or someone to talk to … and I think it’d be good for him and maybe it would give us, our characters, some kind of closure.

MODE: I know that fans don’t always agree with the writers, but were you personally happy with the way your character left the show?

Burton: I was very happy. I always wanted them to — and Angela Shapiro [recently-named president, ABC Daytime] said that she would — always leave the door open for me to come back. They were very supportive of me leaving and going out and trying other stuff, so me coming back will keep my character around for a while longer and if things don’t work out elsewhere I definitely wouldn’t be opposed to coming back for good.

MODE: So this isn’t going to be the last time we see "Jason"? There will be more of an open door…

Burton: Exactly. I know a lot of people do that and say that [that they would return], but I’m a big fan of daytime actors and daytime so, I’ll come back anytime I can.

MODE: You’ve won your fair share of awards, including a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor, for your portrayal of "Jason". Did that make it hard to leave?

Burton: No, not really. It was definitely a tough decision because it was never the fact that I needed to go out and prove something to myself or anybody else. It was the fact that I needed a break more than anything. The last two or three years were really emotional — the stories, I got married — everything was kind of coming to a peak, sort of. So I really needed to just take some time off and be with my wife and if nothing happened, if I auditioned and nothing happened, then I would’ve just gone back to "G.H." but I was fortunate enough to get something else.

MODE: So, now that the readers are caught up with the news of your life what should they know about the show at the Hilton?

Burton: It will be a great time. Come and have fun, laugh a lot, and ask all the questions you want.