Sunday, January 13, 2008

Darnell Williams and Debbi Morgan Returning To All My Children

Starting on Friday January 18th, the story of one of All My Children's most popular duos (as well as soap's first African American supercouple) continues. That's the day that Dr. Angie Hubbard (played by Debbi Morgan) returns to Pine Valley to assist on a case at the local hospital. Darnell Williams' return as Jesse Hubbard takes place on January 25th.

When I first started watching AMC back in the mid 80s, Jesse and Angie were two of my favorite characters on the show. Not only did Jesse's streetwise demeanor mesh well with Angie's sweet disposition, but it was refreshing to see a romantic relationship between two black characters portrayed in a positive manner.

Amazingly, an article on the official All My Children website suggests that Angie will be reunited with a living Jesse. What makes this potential reunion amazing is that in 1988, Jesse was shot and killed in the line of duty while serving on the Pine Valley police force. Not only did Jesse die, but the death took place onscreen. If his character is brought back from the dead, it will be very interesting to see how the scribes for AMC accomplish this task.

To get you primed for the return of Jesse and Angie, Soapnet has scheduled 3 classic All My Children episodes spotlighting the duo on Sunday January 13th starting at 2 pm EST. This mini-marathon is followed by the 30 minute special "Back In Pine Valley", which takes a look at their return. The special also features fan fave Rebecca Budig, who will be returning to "All My Children" in the role of Greenlee Smythe on January 16th.

For a timeline of Jesse and Angie's history, click here.

14 comments:

X. Dell said...

Sorry. Not much of a soap washer, I mean watcher.`

Bar L. said...

OMG! I was in love with Jesse Hubbard! I can't believe they are coming back. I haven't watched the show in about 15 years but I will have to somehow see a few episodes with these two. I liked her too.

pjazzypar said...

I was going to call you about this. It seems that Jesse never was dead. They showed some old episodes with Jesse and Angie today on the Soap channel. I haven't watched AMC in years, but I have tivoed it for next week.

Holly Smith said...

That's so cool! We used to watch All My Children (mid 80s)! I remember Angie, but not Jesse. Now I'm strictly a CBS soaps girl. Although, I try to avoid them, I find myself trapped in the midst of their scheming and far-fetched plots. Young and the Restless and As the World Turns are my favorites. (I traded in The Bold and the Beautiful for Ellen a few years ago :)

www.mamapj.com

BookMama said...

Malcolm, just out of curiosity, do you still watch AMC? How does it compare to the AMC of the 80s-early 90s? I haven't watched since about 1998 (9-5 job, etc) and just wondered. I basically watched the first 28 years of the show because my mom started watching it when it started running in 1970 - the summer I was born!

Malcolm said...

X. Dell: That was very punny.

Barbara: This will definitely get me watching again on a regular basis.

Pjazzy: I DVRd the mini-marathon and special that SoapNet aired. During commercials/timeouts of the football games, I watched some of the AMC episodes. The first two episodes were from a couple of years before I started watching AMC, so it was fun to see Amanda Bearse (Marcy from Married With Children) during her time on the show.

Holly: For people who laugh at those of us who watch soaps, they might be surprised at how easy it is to get caught up in the plots. Although I am mainly an ABC man, I have on occasion watched some of the soaps on the other networks.

BookMama: I catch it a few times every couple of weeks. Sometimes more or less depending on what I have going on at any given time. I think that AMC was better in the 80s and early 90s than it is today. Some of the reasons are:

Dumping veteran characters such as Brooke in favor of younger ones. I understand that new blood is needed, but don't alienate your longtime fans in an effort to entice new ones.

Bringing back old faves and then either placing them on the back burner (Livia Frye) or abruptly dumping them (Dixie Martin).

The Rock Chick said...

I used to watch them, too! I haven't seen ay of the soaps in quite a whle. We just got that soap channel, though, so that may change. I can catch up on the weekends or something. I was more of a GH fan, though.

Maybe it's really Jesse's evil twin? Nobody ever really dies on soaps--and they grow up rather quickly, too!

I think there's even a term for that... SORAS. Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome....LOL

Jessica

Malcolm said...

Jessica: I had quit watching soaps for several years until my cable company added SoapNet to the lineup. Being able to watch AMC and OLTL in the evenings and on the weekends does make it easier to keep up a little bit. Because it comes on after OLTL, I sometimes catch GH. Keep a look out for the GH character Spinelli. He is one of the most interesting characters to hit daytime in awhile.

You are right, SORAS is the term that they use. When checking Wikipedia, I just found that there is another term called de-SORAS (when writers make a character younger). Here is a link for examples if you're interested:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SORAS#.22de-SORAS.22

coloredgirlswhohaveconsidered said...

After a overdose of reality television a return of Jesse (my 1st love) sounds refreshing!

Malcolm said...

ColouredGirl: Thanks for stopping by and commenting. That reality TV will getcha every time.

I don't know if you saw the promos, but both Debbi Morgan and Darnell Williams have held up well. Not that I'm surprised. I just hope that AMC does right by them.

(M)ary said...

Jesse died in the era when soap characters could still be killed on screen. Now, hardly anyone dies completely and especially not half of a wildly popular couple no matter how much the actor wants to move on or the producers wants the actor to move on.

I don't care how they explain his return. No matter how outlandish, I'll totally buy it for the sake of a reunion.

Maybe it will all be a dream a la Bobby's death in the show Dallas.

Malcolm said...

M: It's nice to meet another AMC fan. When you consider some of the outlandish plotlines that soaps have used, I think that whatever AMC comes up with to explain the reappearance of Jesse will be fairly easy to swallow.

As silly as it was, "Dallas" pretty much had to do the "It was all a dream" storyline. The biggest mistake they made was killing off Bobby Ewing. Without him, there was no one to keep J.R. in line.

loving said...

I LOVE DARNELLE WILLIAMS WONDERFUL ACTOR SO IS DEBBIE MORGAN!! DARNELLE IS SOOOOO FINE!!!!

chesty morgan said...

Here is Rebecca Budig http://rebecca-budig.blogspot.com

 
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