I received a lot of messages today from fans of ABC’s soap, “General Hospital.” They were all: “General Hospital” killed off Luke Spencer.

No, they didn’t.

Anthony Geary, who played Luke Spencer for eons, retired and moved to Holland a few years ago. Then his long time scene partner, Jane Elliot, who plays Tracy Quartermaine, also “retired,” and they shipped her off to Holland, too.

But Elliot returns once a year, probably to keep her income up enough to get SAG AFTRA health benefits. They have to write her a story, and one that involves all the older cast members. So this time it was the “death” of absent Luke.

However: I looked at the tape. At the end of today’s show, the local villain, Victor Cassadine, indicated that he’d “neutralized” Luke, whatever that means. So Luke is alive. No one dies on soaps unless a body is produced, the death happens on screen, and even then resuscitation is always possible.

I go by the great movie parody, “Soapdish.” Whoopi Goldberg is the writer of the soap. She’s informed that Kevin Kline’s character is returning to the show after 20 years– even though he was decapitated when he left. Whoopi exclaims, “How am I supposed to write for a guy without a head!”

Easier than you think. (See the clip below.)

Good PR move by ABC Daytime. They got everyone talking about their show. And Anthony Geary, he’s at home in Holland, I suppose, arranging tulips, drinking beer, wearing wooden shoes, smoking pot, and laughing at everyone.

The sixth episode of “Sex and the City…And Just Like That” arrives on HBO Max Thursday after 12 am. It’s kind of slow and a little depressing, although I did laugh a couple of times, albeit ruefully.

The main story concerns Carrie, now widowed, buying what looks like a $10 million apartment in the West Village. They never say the price, but from the size, the views, the windows and height of the ceilings, she didn’t buy this place with the money earned from writing sex columns. She buys it with Mr Big’s money. What isn’t addressed is that Carrie is very rich now, financially independent after earning about 8 bucks a year.

Weird error: Carrie tells her pals she bought a new bed from 1-800-Mattress. It’s not possible. 1-800 Mattress– leave off the last s for savings — was sold to KKR Investments, which turned it into MattressFirm about five years ago. This is a dated reference, like a lot of others in this series.

Meantime, Miranda’s lesbian sex scene from last week is recalled graphically, this time to Charlotte, who is appropriately horrified. But Carrie gets off a good line sitting at a picnic table, so the whole thing was worth it.

Carrie also attends some kind of celebration with her Indian realtor, played by Sarita Choudhury, who really needs her own show. She is a superstar in her own right. Sarita’s mother is played by a real superstar, Madhur Jaffrey, who should have had a special credit. (Oh well. Carrie’s dress at the Diwali celebration may not go down well, especially her hair style, but I’ll leave that to others.)

“And Just like That” has ground to something of a halt since there’s no Samantha, meaning no sense of humor, and no fun. Last week, Carrie had hip surgery. This week, she investigates a face lift. Next week it will be liver pills. She’s 55 and acts like she’s 75.

There are many weird things about this series. Among them: Carrie has no interest whatsoever in her friends’ kids. The kids have no interest in her or the respective other women. Miranda’s son is supposed to be 17, looks 25 (is 27 in real life) and talks so disrespectfully to her someone needs to slap him fast. He also bears zero resemblance to his father, who has disappeared (but I’m sure will get an earful soon). Also, I’ve never understood how none of these people have any family whatsoever. Are they all orphans?

“And Just Like That” is a Grimm fairy tale. PS They mention Samantha again, I don’t know to what purpose.

Maybe this just isn’t a series for me. I’d really like Carrie and co. to run into Siobhan Roy at some fundraiser, and let the latter make mincemeat of all of them. Now THAT’s a crossover!

PS The big winner this season is Todd Rundgren. HBO used “Hello It’s Me” in the first two episodes, and this week they scored it in the background when Carrie was thinking about Big. I hope Todd got a nice piece of change from this clearance!

Sex and the City: And Just Like That the Theme Music from the TV Series is Gone, Did Anyone Notice?

It’s a new year but not a good one for aging procedural soap “NCIS.”

The 10th episode of Season 19 dropped a stunning 31% in the key age demo, and 7.4% in total viewers.

The other part of the bad news is that “NCIS” fell to its lowest ratings ever with just 6.7 million total fans. The drama has fallen every week since it premiered last September without star Mark Harmon.

The good news is that CBS still won the night and crushed “The Bachelor” on ABC. So there’s a silver lining to this dark cloud. But it’s a sketchy victory if “NCIS” just keeps collapsing. A planned “NCIS” cross over is coming with its sister show “NCIS Hawai’i.” Maybe that will lift the whole enterprise. But I think season 20 may be the end.

NBC gave the returning Kenan Thompson sitcom a double shot hour at 8pm and scored just 2.29 million viewers. It was demolished by the CBS sitcoms. I love Kenan but he needs a different platform. (I love Chris Redd, too. But the rest of those people can all go somewhere else.)