Todd was initially a short-term villain, but his popularity with the audience and critics inspired the writers to forgo killing him or permanently sending him to prison, like most soap operas had done with rapists in the past.

In 1993, Todd, a defensive back for Llanview, Pennsylvania University's football team, has a one-night stand with Marty Saybrooke (Susan Haskell), a wild child.

He purchases The National Intruder, a tabloid paper from Dorian Lord (Robin Strasser) and relaunches it as The Sun, a direct rival to his new-found family's newspaper The Banner.

When Blair falls into a coma, Todd pays lawyer Téa Delgado (Florencia Lozano) five million dollars to marry him so he can keep custody of Starr.

When Todd is about to be arrested for the murder of a woman named Georgie Phillips, he takes the other fourteen suspects hostage at the Buchanan family cabin with fake dynamite strapped to his chest.

Todd forms a close relationship with Carly Corinthos (Laura Wright), Sonny's former wife, in the wake of yet another rejection from Blair, who is set to marry Tomás.

[4][5][6] Michael Malone, Todd's creator, said fleshing out the character reminded him of what he loved about soap operas, adding, "The story-telling is a genuine collaboration, not just among writers but by the actors.

Heard at a low volume in the background, hard rock songs assist moments building up to the rape; they intensify the otherwise implicitly tense, aggressive atmosphere, and set a chilling tone for viewers.

[18] When Todd is certain that he will rape Marty, right before going upstairs to Kevin's room where she rests, the volume of a song in the background ("Head Like a Hole") is increased, which emphasizes the lyrics: "I'd rather die/Than give you control."

[23][24] Soap opera columnist Jenn Bishop stated that Todd's personality is "violent, gentle, caring, apathetic, smart, obsessive, crazy, irrational, devilish, heroic, angst-filled, comical, etc."

[22] For several years on the series, a defining characteristic of Todd's personality was his resistance to close relationships and sexual intimacy, which were due to his mistreatment by others, especially his adoptive father, who may have raped him when he was fourteen.

[2][13] The writers also made it so that his difficulties are manifested in his nightmares, which give him insomnia and are designed as a look into his psyche; at multiple points within the series, Téa attempts to help Todd by encouraging him to open up to her about them, which he eventually does.

[36][39][40] OLTL was cancelled in early 2012; Howarth brought Todd to General Hospital (GH), along with his co-stars Kristen Alderson as Starr and Michael Easton as John McBain.

"[9] He clarified his previous statement, saying that although he seemed to be consistently cast as a "bad guy"[46] and as a "Greek frat brother-type",[9] both his upbringing and experiences in college were different than those of Todd and his other roles.

"[49] The bird was portrayed by two South American blue and gold macaws named Flash and Lucky, and an Animal Planet documentary stated that they had developed an "impressive résumé" by the time they appeared on OLTL.

[53] TV Guide confirmed the speculation and reported that St. John, when asked about it, stated, "That would be fascinating, though I don't see how it would work," and added, "Todd [had] a different voice and height, but this is a soap world and anything can happen.

[5] Author Gerry Waggett said, "The close-ups of the rapists' faces during the assault, distorted to capture Marty's scared and drunken perspective, rank among the show's most graphic images.

[5] Hayward believes that the storyline was initially flawed because two of the rapists, Todd and Zach, were demonized, which oversimplified rape and "failed to capture the complex power relations underlying ... violence towards women".

[69] Laurie Stone of the Village Voice commented that Howarth's performance steered Todd away from cartoon villainy, "heightening the character's wildness as a dodge from sentimentality and high-mindedness".

Rampaging through fictional Llanview, he injected ambiguity into the bluntest dialogue, his sneers averting cynicism to reveal depression and humor" and "transformed Todd into a soul-wrenched Lucifer, his rage ripped from abuse and bathed in vengeful glee, his sexiness rising off his instinct for survival and his outlaw impulse to disrupt."

[75] Dutta states, "Todd's redemption begins with his rescue of Marty and two children from a car wreck and ends with the discovery that he is the rightful heir to a huge fortune.

"[78] He gave credit to the show's writers for Todd's popularity, saying that the rapists' trial was well constructed and added, "I think, right now, we're just riding the wave of something that started last summer.

In February 1998, the magazine stated, "Although the scar that traverses his face while he plays Llanview's dark prince isn't real, the menacing intensity Roger Howarth can so effortlessly convey with his eyes and furrowed brow are frighteningly authentic.

Many viewers thought that Todd's death was permanent; Soap Opera Digest speculated that this was due to limited Internet access or to a lack of interest in spoilers.

Soap opera journalist Marlena De Lacroix, who acknowledged that she neither liked nor understood Todd, expressed her inability to understand his popularity among so many fans, even during his several hiatuses from the show.

[70] In a June 1994 interview with TV Guide, in an article about the trend during the early 1990s of redeemed rapists on soap operas, head writer Malone commented that "[t]he bond between the woman and the violator is a great historical tradition in fiction and films," and said that Rudolph Valentino, Humphrey Bogart, Kirk Douglas, and Clark Gable "all began as totally irredeemable villains.

[102] Indy Week said, "Todd was partially redeemed into a self-destructive antihero who remained popular until the show's end, but his portrayer and many critics were wary of having him becoming a romantic lead.

[103][105] Bob Tedeschi of The New York Times stated, "In the charge toward e-commerce revenues, ABC learned a useful lesson last week: Don't try to sell cuddly rag dolls depicting homicidal rapists".

Carlivati's addition to the characters' histories left him feeling betrayed, hurt, depressed, angry, insulted, and disgusted, and he said that he had wasted almost 20 years investing in and believing in the original rape storyline.

"However obscene or depraved the riskiest storyline in recent memory was," he said, "the fallout has been shockingly riveting—thanks to the fact that head writer Ron Carlivati is playing all the psychological beats of Todd's self-serving and criminal actions."