Jason Thompson was cast as legendary 1980s character Dr. Noah Drake's (Rick Springfield) son Patrick in December 2005.

[2] Canadian actor Jason Thompson was cast as "dreamy yet arrogant" Dr. Patrick Drake on General Hospital in December 2005.

"[4] With General Hospital:Night Shift, the writers anchored the show around Patrick and Robin and felt that this gave them an advantage on other couples within the series.

Executives did not want Night Shift to be "your mother's General Hospital" and outlined Patrick and Robin's love story to involve the various ills and plagues of their patients, portrayed by a variety of guest stars.

[4] Robin was presented as an accomplished medical professional who has been living with and successfully managing HIV for almost 15 years when she meets Patrick.

With Patrick and Robin as the show's main romance, the series was designed to tackle "grittier" and more "controversial" subject matter, partly due to daytime standards being different than what writers can do in prime time.

Jason is near death, suffering from brain damage as a result of taking an unknown drug to further his investigation of psychotic psychiatrist, Dr. Thomas.

Though her father left shortly after he returned and never fully healed their broken relationship, Robin tried to mend the fence between Patrick and Noah and in a way acted as mediator.

Soon after, tragedy strikes - Patrick, while performing brain surgery on a patient with end stage AIDS, is stuck with an infected needle and might have contracted HIV.

It wasn't until Noah came by offering his congratulations that Patrick felt backed into a corner and left with Pete for Las Vegas.

Emily Quartermaine (Natalia Livingston), with the assistance of Carly Corinthos (Laura Wright) and Patrick (via telephone), saves Robin's life.

But she is told to leave by Dr. Russell Ford, despite Patrick's and Monica's (Leslie Charleson) words of assurance that she will be able to handle being back at work so soon after her surgery.

At the end of the day, Alexis (Nancy Lee Grahn) walks into Wyndemere, stopping dead in her tracks when she sees Robin and Nikolas in a very delicate position on the couch.

After Georgie's funeral and Maxie's (Kirsten Storms) horrible outburst at Felicia (Kristina Wagner), she seeks comfort in Patrick's arms, because he truly knows her and sees her as she truly is, and tells him that it is not about getting back together, or a baby or even sex, but that she just wants him to hold her.

Although Robin states that Patrick could see his child as much as he wants, she does not believe he is fully committed or prepared to give up his bachelorhood for a family.

Meanwhile, back at the church, everyone waits for Patrick's arrival impatiently and believing that he has a case of cold feet and has left his fiancée at the altar.

Robin regains consciousness a couple of days later to see Patrick holding Emma on the foot of the hospital bed.

[6] But Robin's hard-earned happiness is interrupted when Patrick and his brother face a malpractice suit in the death of the mayor's mistress, Brianna Hughes, after an emergency surgery.

Robin tells a skeptical Sam that the two guests of honor had very obvious chemistry at Maxie's "nonwedding" to Damian Spinelli (Bradford Anderson).

Robin counsels Elizabeth Webber (Rebecca Herbst), who is having a secret affair with Nikolas Cassadine, but is engaged to Lucky Spencer (Jonathan Jackson), to be truthful about how she feels.

Matters go from bad to worse when Lisa begins exhibiting strange behavior and even breaks into Patrick and Robin's house and cuts her face out of their wedding picture.

After the death of Jake Spencer, Robin apologizes for holding his betrayal against him for so long and asks him to come home so they can be a family again.

Patrick was having a hard time saying goodbye, and the next scene showed Robin alive and unconscious in a hospital bed in an undisclosed location.

He tells Robin he wants her to revive his sister-in-law and nephew, Helena (Constance Towers) and Stavros Cassadine (Robert Kelker-Kelly).

Victor threatened Robin into keeping quiet by having Rafe Kovich, Jr. (Jimmy Deshler) run Patrick's car off the road while he, Emma, and Sabrina were inside.

The two come back to Port Charles with Emma, and start to heal their relationship after Patrick finds out just how far Robin went to keep her family safe.

[4] In early 2007, with daytime soap operas "in peril" and "in need" of rescuing, SOAPnet, a Disney-owned cable channel, embarked on "a mission to revive the genre in the evening hours".

"[4] "The show is being described as an episodic medical-mystery drama – think equal parts General Hospital and House," relayed Los Angeles Times.

[4] Of the decision to have the series focus on Patrick and Robin's romance, Ed Martin of the Jack Myers Report stated, "...it's a real treat to see two characters of such historical importance to General Hospital be allowed to grow.

On Tuesday October 12, 2010, David Letterman named Patrick as #9 on President Barack Obama's Top Ten Enemies List for his affair with Lisa Niles.