Often Guiding Light would try out an actor in a small part and then bringing him or her back in a larger part some time later. I’m continuing an irregular series of posts showing clips of these actors before and after. My fifth entry is about Fiona Hutchinson better known to Guiding Light fans as Jenna Bradshaw who created magic in Jezz with Buzz Cooper and even after her character was stupidly killed off, she continued to drive story and appear as a ghost all the way through the end of the show.
Find out about Hutchinson‘s other roles here:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0404441
Hutchinson was originally cast as Nola’s nemesis in an Aerobics class, Shelia Newman. She never caught on with fans and there was plenty of rumbling in fandom that she was miscast in the part. She went on to success in non-CBS soaps before returning in the new role of conwoman/jewel thief Jenna Bradshaw. Thank you to Blosslover who found the before clip for me.
Jenna originally came on as an adversary for Harley and Mallet, but soon became much more. Her friendship with Michelle and the vulnerability she showed with Roger Thorpe (who saw her as a means to an end and romanced her) humanized her. While she still wasn’t against bending the rules, a lot, she eventually formed part of a supercouple with Buzz Cooper and her on screen death was loudly lamented by fans. (Rumor is because she protested TPTB’s unconscionable treatment of Michael Zaslow (Roger Thorpe) after he became sick too much and was written out because of it.) To some extent TPTB admitted their mistake and Jenna became one of Springfield’s most active ghosts, returning on a semi-regular basis through the end of the show.
Ironically during Lisa Brown‘s (Nola Reardon Chamberlain) abominably written return to the show in the mid-late-1990s she became obsessed with Jenna’s husband Buzz, renewing and reversing the rivalry Nola had with Hutchinson’s previous character.
Normally I select a single clip to add here with the more established character, but since I think the Michelle-Jenna sequence is so important and should be known by Manny fans, I’m including the whole thing.
1992 – Michelle is trapped with Jenna in elevator – After this they are friends
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmMM4W6DCL4&feature=related (Part 1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azhTxWSoM_Y&feature=related (Part 2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjcTd79JUwU&feature=related (Part 3)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qotVFVwYGmU&feature=related (Part 4)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2xGr5gceRk&feature=related (Part 5) – Lady Michelle of York
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGHHHYUI8N8&feature=related (Part 6)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0O8NRedbg78&feature=related (Part 7)
Learn more about Jenna:
http://www.soapcentral.com/gl/whoswho/jenna.php
See a character profile of Jenna:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEIG-rwzgzk
See the fallout from Jenna’s Death:
http://glmanny.wordpress.com/2010/04/23/jennas-death-youtube-links
Tags: Fiona Hutchinson, GL, Guiding Light, Jenna Bradshaw Cooper, Shelia Newman
