Daytime TV's Hottest African-American Baby Boomer Couple

Thank You All My Children for giving me a reason to come back and get my fix. I was a soap opera junkie for many years. My mother turned me on to the ABC line-up when I was a child so I grew up with Erica, Tad and Dr. Martin. I stayed hooked through high school and college.

I became obsessed when the ABC soap brought in a young actress who looked like me. Her name was Debbi Morgan and she played the daughter of a well-to-do couple in Pine Valley. This was the first time I could recall seeing a black woman who wasn’t playing a prostitute or “mammy.” I could so relate. And then the Soap decided to shake up the pot by bringing in actor Darnell Williams, who played “bad boy” Jesse Hubbard. Despite all the drama between the two of them and their families, they eventually became America’s African-American Super Couple. But then, Jesse died and Angie (who went on to become a doctor) left Pine Valley.

But some genius in that All My Children Writer’s Group had the brilliant idea to bring the couple back to the show. They're now Baby Boomers, just like me. I, for one, am so glad they decided to bring them back because I had stopped watching the Soap because I couldn’t identify with anything that was going on. Yes, Erica may still look as good as she did 40 years ago but she just wasn’t enough to hold my interest.

Now, once again, I am glued to my TV watching for every scene that depicts Angie and Jesse. But Jesse’s supposed to be dead. I watched the episode where he died in Angie’s arms. How they’ll explain this one is beyond me but I don't care.

In a recent interview with Essence Magazine, Debbi said she thought the whole story line was going to be exciting as it unfolds:

D.M.: “He is supposed to be dead and when that turns out to be something else, there is so much drama. I don’t know exactly what has happened in Jesse’s past but whatever it is, I don’t think it’s gonna sit well with her.

Essence.com: You really don’t know the details, Debbi?

D.M.: “I swear to you, I really don’t know. I do know that he’s not dead. He’s not a ghost. I have not been told why his death was faked. There’s a part of me that doesn’t want to know so when we play the scene, it will be spontaneous.”

OK so instead of wasting my life away at the computer as I have been for the past couple of years, I can now sit in front of my TV with some bon-bons and butter pecan ice cream and enjoy watching the drama between America’s favorite African-American Baby Boomer Couple unfold.