I grew up with ABC soap operas. My mother and my sister were addicted to All My Children, One Life To Live and General Hospital. Personally, I'm partial to General Hospital. However, I do know enough about the key families and characters from the other shows.
For the past couple of weeks, I keep seeing promo's for All My Children. The show is promoting the fact that Jesse and Angie are back together again. BACK? WTF: Say what? I remember one day many a years ago (80's) when Angie Baxter played by Debbie Morgan, Tad played by Michael E. Knight and Jenny Gardner played by Kim Delaney were standing over the grave of Jesse Hubbard played by Darnell Williams.
I no longer watch All My Children so I'm not sure how they spinned this. So I went over to Abc.com to see what they had to say. ABC had awesome photos of the first black supercouple and incredible background from 80's through 2007. For 2008, they just say "Angie and Jesse return to Pine Valley--and viewers get a reunion twenty years in the making." While it sounds interesting it still doesn't explain how they spinned this story.
My search for answers continued. I wound up at About.com and found this interesting information:
So Jesse was a spirit in 1994 and 2001, but he's really alive. I'm sure they had to work that in to the story line somehow. Tad probably just had a hallucination, and since the other character is also dead, I'm sure they didn't adress that at all."Tad Martin was injured during a tornado and Jesse became visible to him from the great beyond. (1994) Jesse, once again, revealed his spirit, but this time it was to Gillian in an effort to assist her in the acceptance her own death. (2001)"
My search for how they brought him back continued. I found my answers over at Wikipedia (the one stop source for everything). Here is what they reported on this reunion:
"In late 2007, the producers of All My Children announced Darnell Williams and Debbi Morgan's return to the series, with long-term contracts.[7]It was on December 14, 2007 that the official All My Children website posted an article with the headline Angie and Jesse return to All My Children! The article suggested that Angie's return would start with being called back to Pine Valley Hospital to assist on a case, where she would be reunited with a living Jesse Hubbard.[8] Viewers were skeptical of Jesse's return, since he had an onscreen death and appeared in ghost form several times afterwards on the series. There was sentiment that if Williams was returning as anyone, it had to be as Jacob Foster. Viewers wondered for weeks if Williams would truly return as Jesse or Jesse's look-alike Jacob. It was later confirmed, however, that Jesse did not die in 1988 after all and that Williams would be resuming the role."
It turns out that Debbie and Darnell were reunited earlier during the show Loving, as Angie and Jacob, a look alike of Jesse's, who turned out to be a relative of his. UH HUH.
Ok so I see it now. It's really been Jesse all these years? He never really died. Yes, Wikipedia goes on to explain that Jesse had to fake his death to protect his family.
So mystery solved. The conclusion: It's a freakin Soap Opera, they can do whatever they want without any sense, logic or reality.
I'm a big fan of Debbie Morgan who I remember fondly as the Seer on Charmed. I loved her as Angie, than as the Seer. I'm glad she is back. I wish a long successful career. Ok, I'm glad Darnell is back as Jesse too. I have to say that was one touching scene at his grave. Maybe now Kim Delaney can come back. Oh wait she has a hit TV show running over there at Lifetime, maybe, you heard of it, Army Wives?
