Jesse Hubbard and Angie Baxter


Jesse and Angela "Angie" Hubbard are fictional characters and a supercouple from the ABC and The Online Network daytime drama All My Children. Jesse is portrayed by Darnell Williams and Angie is portrayed by Debbi Morgan. Jesse first appeared in Pine Valley in 1981 as the nephew of Dr. Frank Grant, who assumed custody after the death of his sister. Angie first appeared in 1982, as the daughter of a well-to-do Pine Valley couple. Shortly after Angie's first appearance on the show, they were paired with one another, becoming the first African American supercouple in Daytime history. Jesse and Angie were best friends to fellow supercouple Greg Nelson and Jenny Gardner. They are arguably the two most popular African American characters in soap opera history and have been credited for improving African American representation in the genre.
Angie also appeared on Loving and The City. Along with her son Frankie Hubbard and former heiress Skye Chandler, she is one of only three individuals who have been regular characters on three ABC soap operas.

Background

Casting

Actress Debbi Morgan was working in Los Angeles, California, on an episode of Trapper John, M.D. when she saw that a new storyline was being introduced on All My Children, which involved actor Darnell Williams in the role of Jesse Hubbard. Morgan's feeling that Jesse might need a love interest, as she expressed as much to her agent in New York, matched that of the show's producers, who were searching for a young woman to fill the role of Angie Baxter. When Morgan read for the part, she acquired the role within the same day.
Williams was a regular dancer on Soul Train in the mid-1970s. Later that decade, he was a cast member of the Broadway musical Your Arms Too Short to Box with God. This, before acquiring the role of Jesse.

Writing

All My Children creator Agnes Nixon was able to intrigue male and female audiences of all ages by focusing on young adult romances that included not only romance and sex but their issues in growing and learning as individuals. Social issues were also applied. This specific formula caused All My Children's popularity to rise in the 1980s. The Jesse and Angie pairing, as well as fellow supercouple Greg Nelson and Jenny Gardner, were one notable aspect of Nixon's writing that prompted young high school and college students to race home just to view the soap opera.
When characters Jenny and Jesse were killed off instead of being recast by new actors once the actors decided to leave their roles, it was so that no other actors could portray them. To Nixon, these actors were the characters. Morgan saw Jesse's death as bittersweet. She pointed to Williams leaving the series as one of her toughest moments as part of the cast, but how it also provided interesting story. "It really affected me more from a personal standpoint than from an actor's standpoint," she said. "From a personal standpoint, Darnell and I were like hooked at the neck or the back or something; we'd gotten to be such good friends. But from an actor's point of view, it didn't really bother me as much because I knew that it would just open up so many more avenues for Angie to take."

Jacob and Angie

For years, All My Children fans clamored for the reunion of Jesse and Angie. However, the nature of Jesse's death made this all but impossible, even by soap opera standards. Eventually, fans got the next best thing.
In 1993, Morgan joined the cast of the soap opera Loving, reprising her role as Angie. In 1995, Williams joined the cast as a mysterious stranger named Jacob Johnson. Jacob, whose actual surname was Foster, bore an uncanny resemblance to Angie's late husband Jesse and was revealed to be a relative of Jesse. Originally, Angie resisted any type of relationship with Jacob, despite her attraction to him. In 1995, Jesse's spirit visited Jacob just prior to Angie's marriage to Charles Harrison and convinced him to pursue a relationship with Angie. Angie and Jacob ultimately fell in love and emerged as the core couple when Loving was relaunched as The City, eventually moving to New York City's SoHo district, marrying, and adopting a daughter.
After The City was canceled, Williams returned to All My Children four years later as "Jesse", but as an angel.

Rewrite and return

In late 2007, the producers of All My Children announced Williams and Morgan's return to the series, with long-term contracts. 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. 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.
Morgan returned as Angie on January 18, 2008, and Williams returned as Jesse on January 25. To start the storyline where Jesse is brought back, the writers thought up a plot where characters Greenlee Smythe and Quentin contract a weird woods-related disease that triggers asphyxiation. Angie, now an infectious-disease specialist, is paged to Pine Valley Hospital to consult on the case: "Quentin will turn out to be Angie and Jesse’s son, Frankie", said Julie Hanan Carruthers, and noted that Angie's adopted daughter, Cassandra, would also join the show. ABC consulted with Agnes Nixon on how to resurrect Jesse, since he was shot to death in 1988: "We saw Angie sobbing on his chest, but I think the audience is invested enough in them as a couple that they will embrace our solution," Carruthers stated.
Carruthers further relayed that Angie would not at first know that Jesse is alive. "We’re going to play that out for a couple of weeks. Rightfully, it’ll be Tad, to whom Jesse has appeared in spirit form, who reunites them," she stated. "Angie and Jesse made an eternal imprint on viewers, and many fans will not believe he's alive," stated Brian Frons, president of ABC Daytime.
When addressing his character's "return from the dead", Williams explained: "I’m the same character, but it’s a whole new experience. They had to figure out a way to bring him back to life. The word is that apparently he never died. He had to fake his death in order to secure the safety of his family."
In the 1980s, soap operas were not as short as they are today on the inclusion of African American characters. "I think it has moved a thousand steps backwards," said Morgan. "It just amazes me that here we are in 2008 and we have so little representation on daytime. I don’t understand it and I think it’s shameful."
Williams detailed that the lack of diversity is one of the reasons they were approached to return to the series: "I think All My Children kind of shot themselves in the foot by allowing the canvas to become so nondiversified. And they found themselves sort of chasing their tails trying to figure out how to fix it... They came up with the idea, 'Well, why not bring this core couple back that had such an appeal to such a broad audience?'"
Morgan stated that it took her only about 30 seconds to accept the offer to return to the role of Angie. She could not remember a time in her career where she felt so welcomed. "It was like a homecoming. There were members of the crew that were here 20 years ago. It was just so heartfelt, it made me cry. I couldn’t believe it. I’ve played the character for so long, it’s like stepping into a pair of old shoes, as they say."
The response from fans after the announcement of their return managed to astound both actors. "The amount of people that are interested still is kind of overwhelming," Williams stated. "The first thing they usually say, 'I'm going to call my mother and my sisters and my brother right away and tell them that All My Children is back on the block.'" Williams relayed his hope for the writers to progress slowly in reuniting Jesse and Angie: "I hope they take it at a decent pace to where the audience will believe it. If they go too quickly and make us a happily ever couple, that gets kind of boring. But I have faith that they are going to do the right thing."
Soap operas tend to have preposterous storylines at times, and Morgan stressed to the producers of the show that she wants none of that for Angie: "Soaps have changed a lot since I was on, and so many of the stories are so over the top and crazy to me. The kind of actress that I am, I couldn’t play all that hokey kind of stuff. So I would really like to see the shows return to more real-life drama that’s akin to what goes on with people in their everyday life."
In January 2008, the Alicia Keys song "Like You'll Never See Me Again" was used in advertisements for All My Children, to promote Jesse and Angie's return. The song was used again in the February 15 and 18, 2008 episodes of the series, when the couple was reunited after 20 years.

Storyline

1981–82

Jesse Hubbard—originally from Center City, Pennsylvania—first appears in the adjacent town of Pine Valley as the recently orphaned 17-year-old nephew of Dr. Frank Grant. After the death of Jesse's widowed mother Ellie, Jesse leaves Chicago and moves in with Ellie's brother Frank and his wife Nancy, who are next door neighbors and close friends of Dr. Joe Martin and his wife Ruth. Like his best friend Jenny Gardner, Jesse is from the "wrong side of the tracks".
Jesse soon falls in love with Angie Baxter, a well-to-do teenager from Pine Valley high society. However, Angie's father Les Baxter strongly disapproves, feeling that Jesse is not good enough for his daughter. After Jesse is falsely accused of attempting to rape Angie's former friend Liza Colby, he flees to the Hell's Kitchen section of New York City with Jenny. After finding jobs to make ends meet, Jesse and Jenny remain in Hell's Kitchen for most of the summer of 1982. Angie is heartbroken. When Liza finally confesses that she lied, Jesse returns to Pine Valley and resumes dating Angie, and Jenny returns to her boyfriend Greg Nelson.