Greg Nelson and Jenny Gardner

Greg Nelson and Jenny Gardner are fictional characters and a supercouple from the American soap opera "All My Children".cite web | title=Laurence Lau | publisher=About.com | url=http://onelifetolive.about.com/library/bios/bllaubio.htm
accessdate=2007-07-06] Greg was portrayed by Laurence Lau, and Jenny was portrayed by actress Kim Delaney.

They were best friends to fellow supercouple Jesse Hubbard and Angie Baxter.

Background

Writing

When the writers of "All My Children" had characters Greg and Jenny meet in 1981, after Jenny moved to the fictional town of Pine Valley with her mother, Opal Gardner (then portrayed by Dorothy Lyman), they applied four obstacles to the couple's love story:

#Age (Jenny is younger than Greg. In 1981, Greg is a senior in high school while Jenny is only fifteen)
#Economic backgrounds (they come from different economic backgrounds; Jenny is working-class while Greg comes from a rich family in Pine Valley)cite web | author= | title=NIXON, AGNES. U.S. Writer-Producer
work=museum.tv | url=http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/N/htmlN/nixonagnes/nixonagnes.htm
accessdate=2007-07-06]
#Ex-girlfriend (Greg's ex-girlfriend, Liza Colby, refuses to allow Greg and Jenny to be happy together and schemes to displace Jenny at all costs)
#Parents (Greg's mother, Enid Nelson, is a snob who thinks that Jenny is not good enough for her son)

toryline

Greg and Jenny build slowly on their romance due to the four obstacles. In 1982, Liza almost succeeds in winning Greg back, but Jenny returns from vacation and his infatuation with Jenny grows even stronger. Liza rigs the "Miss Junior Pine Valley contest" so that she will win instead of Jenny; this does not deter Greg, who eventually tells Jenny that he loves her and wants to marry her.

Jenny eventually finds out that her father, Ray Gardner (Gil Rodgers), who she thought was dead, is in fact in prison for rape. Liza finds out about this, and threatens to tell Greg unless Jenny withdraws herself from his life. Jenny runs away to New York City, followed by her friend Jesse Hubbard (Darnell Williams), who has been falsely accused of attempted rape by Liza, who hates him for his friendship with Jenny. Jesse saves Jenny from being forced into making a pornographic movie, and the two stand up for each other against the odds in the big city. ).

Greg suffers a fall in 1983 and is paralyzed from the waist down. He wants the best for Jenny, so he breaks up with her romantically and encourages her to go to New York and pursue modeling. Jenny goes to the big city and eventually is engaged to another model, Tony Barclay (Brent Barrett), even though she still loves Greg.

When Greg regains the use of his legs in 1984, he goes to see Jenny so that he can salvage what they had together. They reconcile and Jenny breaks her engagement to Tony. Shortly thereafter, Greg and Jenny are married. Tony is angry that Greg has come back into Jenny's life, so he plots to kill him.

Tad Martin (Michael E. Knight), Jenny's biological brother, schedules a day of fun for Greg and Jenny at Willow Lake, just outside of town. Tony wires Greg's jet ski to explode, but at the last minute, Jenny switches machines with Greg and she ends up being the victim. She dies at Pine Valley Hospital, with Greg at her side.

A few weeks later, Greg thinks that he saw Jenny again, but it turns out to be a girl named Sheila (played by Cynthia Sullivan) who was hired by Jenny's former modeling agent Olga Svenson as a publicity stunt. Greg became involved with Sheila, but the audience balked at their quick and contrived romance in the wake of Jenny's untimely death. In a late December 1984 scene (the last appearance of Sheila), Greg and Sheila were shown having sex beneath a thermal blanket on the floor of Sheila's apartment. In a rather graphic scene for daytime, Greg was shown thrusting back and forth on top of Sheila, and then began moaning, "Jenny, Jenny," while the camera panned to Sheila's shocked face. Sheila's landlord Myrtle Fargate later told Greg that Sheila had left town because she realized he never loved her; he was only trying to use her to repress his grief over losing Jenny.

Two years later in 1986, Greg leaves Pine Valley for Washington, and in 1994, Jenny returns as a ghost (seemingly accompanied by the ghost of a deceased Jesse), to help Tad escape the twister, in which the Martin house is destroyed. Tad does indeed escape. The ghosts subsequently return to Heaven.

However, it is revealed in early 2008 that Jesse did not die, but rather that he was kidnapped and that his abductors faked his death. After Jesse returns to Pine Valley and is revealed to be alive, he and his former wife Angie plan an extravagant wedding (since their marriage was dissolved when Jesse was declared dead). One of the invited wedding guests is Greg. Before the wedding (on May 20 2008), they visit Jenny's grave and remember the good times spent with her. While alone, and with tears in his eyes, Greg says that he never stopped loving her. He places a single red rose at her tombstone and walks away with his friends.

Cultural impact

Young people at lunch time

Perfectly summarizing the impact that Agnes Nixon's Greg and Jenny love story had on society, is The Museum of Broadcast Communications, when citing Nixon as "queen" of contemporary soap opera, noting that she is best known, and most honored for introducing social issues into soap operas: cquote|In the early 1980s, "AMC's" popularity soared as young people raced home (or to their dormitory lounges) at lunch time to watch the classic star-crossed romance of Jenny Gardner (Kim Delaney) and Greg Nelson (Laurence Lau). The issue was class: Jenny was from a troubled, lower-class family; Greg's mother, Enid Nelson, was Pine Valley's stereotypical snob.

Further popularity

The romantic pairing of Greg and Jenny is, notably, as pointed out by memorabletv.com, considered to be one of the couple's that made up the core stories of the show "All My Children" for a few years. [cite web | author= | title=ALL MY CHILDREN
work=memorabletv.com | url=http://www.memorabletv.com/soapworld/a/allmychildren.htm
accessdate=2007-07-06]

Columnist Lisa L. from TV Fan Online, when pondering the topic of one of today's most popular soap opera couple's, Zach Slater and Kendall Hart, published an entire article on what she feels it takes to be a soap opera supercouple, ultimately including Greg and Jenny as one of the prime examples. [cite web | author= | title=All My Children: Supercouple?
work=tvfanonline.com, Publisher Lisa L., 2007-05-23 | url=http://www.tvfanonline.com/index.php?module=Pagesetter&func=viewpub&tid=2&pid=291
accessdate=2007-07-06]

As is the case with all soap opera supercouples, soap opera magazine "Soap Opera Digest" also took notice to the pairing. [cite web | title=Laurence Lau (ex-Sam, OLTL, 2001-03; ex-Jamie, AW, 1986-90; ex-Greg, AMC, 1981-86) | publisher="Soap Opera Digest" | accessdate=2007-07-06| url=http://www.soapoperadigest.com/features/oltl/interviews/laurencelau/]

Actress Kim Delaney's decision to exit the show "All My Children" at the height of her popularity within the Greg and Jenny mania naturally, as Hollywood.com reports, affected fans. [cite web | author= | title=Kim Delaney
work=hollywood.com | url=http://www.hollywood.com/celebrity/Kim_Delaney/1117318#fullBio
accessdate=2007-07-06] As a testement to Jenny and Greg's enduring popularity, and their importance to soap opera culture, Delaney's character was given daytime drama's highest honor: she was killed off so that no other actor could be recast in the role.

Penn State School of Theatre commented on the Greg and Jenny pairing as well, when mentioning actor Laurence Lau, stating, "Over the years Lau has appeared in guest starring roles in prime time television series, including "Law & Order", "Frasier", "Diagnosis Murder, Brimstone", "Martial Law", and a "recurring role" on the hit series "JAG". Lau has also had long-term contract roles on the daytime series "One Life to Live", "Another World", and "All My Children", where he will always be remembered as one half of "All My Children's" most beloved high school super couple Greg and Jenny." [cite news | author= | title=Whose Life Is It Anyway? to Star Prime-time Television Regular Laurence Lau
work=theatre.psu.edu/, 2006-05-15 | accessdate=2007-07-06]

Also mentioning Lau is About.com, an online source for original consumer information and advice owned by "The New York Times", noting the lasting-memory of the couple:cquote|For many soap fans, Laurence Lau will always be remembered as one half of "All My" Children's most beloved high school supercouple - Greg and Jenny. Although it's been 20 years since Lau first played the role of heartthrob Greg Nelson, it was the dramatic fiery ending to his character's beloved wife which will forever remain a part of daytime history.

ee also

*List of fictional supercouples

References

Further reading

*cite book | author = David Mansour | title = From Abba to Zoom: A Pop Culture Encyclopedia of the Late 20th Century | id = ISBN 0740751182 | publisher = Andrews McMeel Publishing | year = 2005 |pages =560

*cite book | author = Robert Clyde Allen | title = To be Continued--: Soap Operas Around the World | id = ISBN 0415110068 | publisher = Routledge | year = 1995