Star Jones, Eat Your Heart Out!

The first photos from Jesse and Angie Hubbard's upcoming third wedding are beginning to trickle in. ABC is going all out for the event including special guest stars, flashbacks, and a CGI enhanced dramatic conclusion to the Robert Gardner saga.

More photos will be posted here as soon as they become available.

The AMCHistory Top 5 April 2008

This new feature will spotlight the five Quick Guide Biographies that received the most hits in the last month.

1) Tad Gardner Martin (42)
2) Erica Kane (41)
3) Kendall Hart Slater (36)
4) Greeenlee duPres (35)
5) Dr. Angie Baxter Hubbard (33)
Jesse Hubbard (33)

Talk about the major players! All of these characters had major screentime this month. It is surpring to see that despite the general complaints of the FUSION dominance of airtime, Kendall and Greenlee seem to be of high interest on the web.

No surprise that Tad, Angie and Jesse are on the list. Ironic that Jesse and Angie tied for the number of hits this month.

Probably the most comprehensive biography, Erica's, also saw its share of hits. I think it is probably the best of the Quick Guide Biographies on the site.

Welcome Home Jesse

Looks like ABC is confirming that Darnell Williams back as the late Jesse Hubbard and NOT Loving/The City's Jacob Foster.

Lucy! You have some 'splanin to do.

The Problem with Jesse
With news of Darnall Williams return to All My Children, the inevitable question is whether he will be playing Jesse Hubbard (1981-88, 94, 2001-02) or Jacob Foster (1995, Loving; 1995-97, The City).

I lean towards the idea of Jacob's return. There are too many questions that would need to be answered for Jesse's return to be believable. Where was Jesse for the last twenty years? Since it wasn't Jesse' spirit who visited Tad in 1994 and helped Gillian in 2001, who was it? If it was him, were all those spirits (Jenny, Ray, Natalie, Cindy, Travis, Jeremy, et al) not really dead?

Let's not pull a Michael McBain here. We all saw how that went.

Another question that would need to be addressed is what happened with Angie and Jacob after The City. If they broke up, what happened to their daughter, Cassandra? How will Angie explain to Jesse why she fell in love with his doppleganger?

Jesse's return would be outlandish, even for soap standards. The complexity of the situation is further compromised by the fact that Jacob exists. Any viewer of Loving can tell you that his introduction was a lot to swallow. Why revisit that open wound when we can all just move on?

Angie has a lot more to do in her life now than worry about her long thought dead husband. Maybe Frank finally told her about his son with Mia Saunders, William. We don't know much about Dre... maybe he is William. The search for her grandson can lead Angie back to Pine Valley, the place she said she could never call home again after Jesse's death.

Welcome Home Debbi & Darnell
SON is reporting that Debbi Morgan and Darnell Williams are slated to return to All My Children in early 2008, in spite of the writers strike that still looms over the television industry.

Morgan will reprise her role of Dr. Angie Hubbard-Foster, last scene on defunct ABC soap opera The City in 1997. It is still unclear if Williams will reprise his signature role of bad-boy turned cop Jesse Hubbard, or look-a-like Jacob Foster (the role he played opposite Morgan in the City from 1995-97).

Morgan and Williams are cited as soap opera's first African American super couple. Their storyline in the mid-eighties coincided with the phenomena that was Jenny & Greg Nelson (Kim Delaney and Laurence Lau respectively).

Williams left All My Children during the 1988 writer's strike, with Jesse being killed in the line of duty. Williams has made on and off again appearances as a ghostly apparition throughout the late nineties and early 2000's. It would be hard to explain a sudden revival of Jesse in light of these developments. Williams has also been an off screen presence, taking on the role of acting coach at All My Children.

Morgan left All My Children in 1990, and was recast with Saundra Quarterman. She later moved Angie to Corinth in Loving (1993-95), and later its spin-off The City.

My View: It's great that Debbi and Darnell are coming back to All My Children, but I have to wonder what storyline the writers have in store. For the most part, they do not have much connection left to the current canvas.

It will also be hard to reintroduce both actors because of their stints on Loving and The City. A lot went on when Angie and Jacob were around in Corinth and New York City. For one, Angie got married two more times, once to Jacob and another time to a man named Charles Harrison. Jacob and Angie even adopted a child together, Cassandra Foster.

Writers will also have to account for Angie and Jesse's son, Dr. Frank Hubbard (seen in the photo portrayed by Z Wright in 1988), last seen in Pine Valley in 2002 played by Jason Olive. Olive's departure was the result of the transition between head writers Richard Culliton and Gordon Raysfield's. His departure was never explained on camera.

It is great to see some veterans back. Let' s hope the current writers don't sink another super couple.

Catch up on your history by reading biographies for Dr. Angie Hubbard-Foster and Jesse Hubbard .