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* SID poll article.[http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d30/worly/SoapsInDepthTop10CouplesWinnersIssu.jpg Top 10 Couple Winners.]


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Revision as of 00:47, 24 May 2007

File:JR & Babe Cover Story Image 1.JPG
Babe and J.R.

J.R. Chandler and Babe Carey are the popular JR and Babe or Jabe couple from the American daytime drama All My Children.[1] J.R. Chandler is played by Jacob Young, and Babe Carey is played by Alexa Havins.

History

In 1992, after ABC executives decided that the show needed new blood, and promoted Agnes Nixon's protege Megan McTavish to the position of head writer, McTavish began adding new dimensions to the show.[1] Some time after her on again/off again status as head writer, she created the character of Babe Carey, who first appeared in the fictional town of Pine Valley in 2003. The character was introduced as a vixen latched onto the arm of the wealthy heir to the Chandler fortune, J.R. Chandler, having had a one-night stand with J.R.'s stepbrother Jamie her first night there.

When Megan McTavish and Brian Frons, president of ABC Daytime, collaborated on the storyline, their inspiration for the pairing was that of the story from two decades earlier, the Adam Chandler/Dixie Cooney/Tad Martin love triangle of the late 1980s, where Adam was set up as the roadblock antagonizing Tad and Dixie's union. McTavish and Frons originally saw Babe and Jamie as the true love couple with J.R. as the antagonist.[2]

Actor Jacob Young, portrayer of J.R., wanted to focus more on widening his acting range, just as they began turning J.R. in a different direction, deepening the story by having J.R. act more and more like his father, when originally he'd had many of the elements of his mother in him. [3]

Storyline

An unusual storyline was launched in 2004, which involved characters from two different shows, both All My Children and One Life to Live, in a "babyswitch" storyline. [4] [5] One of the babies involved was the son of J.R. and Babe, Adam Chandler III. Adam, usually referred to as "Little Adam" or "Little A," was confirmed as the biological son of J.R., [6] and the characters J.R. and Babe divorced as a result of Babe's betrayal. Babe then began scheming to steal their child away from J.R., but they grew close again when Babe took the blame for J.R.'s drunken hit-and-run of Amanda Dillon.

File:Jabe hot pic.jpg
J.R. and Babe in a shack making love during their back-together status.

Soon after the couple had reunited, both Babe and Little Adam were kidnapped by Janet Dillon, who made it appear as if Babe had run off with her son. J.R., betrayed again, began drinking and became violent, even resorting to holding Krystal, Babe's mother, at gunpoint in order to find Babe.

File:J.R. holds Krystal hostage, threatens her life.JPG
J.R holds Krystal hostage, gun in hand.

Babe was shown fantasizing that J.R. would rescue her. Her innocence was proven though when she was rescued from Janet. She then forgave J.R. for his doubts toward her.

The two remarried. They enjoyed a blissful getaway to the south of France for their honeymoon. J.R. wished upon a shooting star that their romantic love for each other would never die But their happiness after France was short-lived. When J.R. discovered his long estranged mother Dixie Cooney was still very much alive and had purposely stayed "dead"...J.R. shut himself off from everyone, and began drinking again. His suspicions of Babe led him to plot to kill her, in what he believed at the time was the only way to save his son from her influence. [7] He did not want Babe to do to Little Adam what was done to him by Dixie. However, longtime best friend Kendall Hart was caught in J.R.'s trap instead and fell into a coma while pregnant. Babe, while eavesdropping on a one-sided conversation J.R. was having with a coma-induced Kendall, soon discovered that J.R. had tried to murder her. She then confronted him about it.

J.R. was arrested and put in jail. However, his uncle Stuart Chandler helped them reconcile. [8] J.R. decided to take responsibility for his crime, but ultimately Babe's testimony set J.R. free. She lied in court to keep him from jail, and the two set out to start fresh.

File:J.R and Babe work on re-building their bond.JPG
J.R. and Babe work on re-building their bond.

The J.R., Babe, Josh love triangle

Babe had grown close to Josh Madden, Dr. Greg Madden's son. After she had sex with Josh, Josh told J.R., and when Babe admitted the truth, J.R. again went on a drunken rampage. He angrily went in search of Josh, but after being cornered by Bianca and Erica, he jumped through a window and slammed into the patio below, nearly killing himself.

File:J.R. on the brink of death after his jump out of the window..jpg
J.R. on the brink of death after his jump out of a window.

Josh found J.R. on the ground bleeding to death, and though initially torn about whether to save his enemy or having Babe to himself, he opted to save J.R.'s life. A recovering J.R. expressed that he hated Babe, but Tad's words helped him to again rekindle his love for Babe. Things between J.R. and Babe slowly improved, until Babe's bodyguard told J.R. that he spotted Babe and Josh kissing on New Year's Eve. J.R. then called his lawyer to find out how to get full custody of Little Adam.

Babe's fake death

A serial killer was on the loose in Pine Valley, killing the women of Fusion. [9] Once Babe passed on eating a stack of pancakes secretly meant for her by The Satin Slayer, and Dixie ate them instead, Tad and J.R. rushed to her bedside at P.V. hospital where she died. J.R. said an emotional goodbye to his mother, returned to her a necklace in which she adored, and cried in his wife's arms.

J.R. was beyond crushed, but rather than drinking his sorrows away, he talked about his feelings in great detail to Babe, something which Babe had always wanted from him. Babe blamed herself for Dixie's death. J.R. assured her that he'd never wish her dead in his mother's place, but when he caught Babe and Josh kissing in a shed, he forced her to choose between her mother's secret of being pregnant with Tad's baby or custody of Little Adam. Babe pleaded with J.R. that the kiss he witnessed was just a goodbye kiss, and that she was still very much in love with him, but J.R. didn't believe her. Babe was devastated when J.R. verbally lashed out that she should have died instead of Dixie. His words of --

My mother died in your place! She's dead because of you... All because you couldn't eat your favorite pancake breakfast. Your stupid favorite breakfast. No, 'ruin lives'? You should be in the ground, not her! And I wish to hell you were.

-- stuck painfully on Babe's mind. [10] In the parking garage of Chandler Enterprises, Babe's bodyguard was killed and Babe was attacked by The Satin Slayer. J.R. didn't believe that Babe had been attacked at first, thinking that it was just a ploy, but when Tad relayed it to him., J.R. quickly rushed to P.V. Hospital, just as Babe, at that very moment, flat-lined, experiencing her life flash before her eyes; the images were of her mother, her son, and J.R., noticeably ending on a final flash where Babe is in France with J.R. looking over the balcony in what she described as the happiest day of her life. J.R. made it to the hospital a little after Krystal and Adam did, but soon after that, Babe was declared dead in the operating room. She "died" loving J.R..

File:J.R. heartbroken that Babe is (supposedly) dead..jpg
J.R. heartbroken that Babe is (supposedly) dead.

It was later revealed that although Babe was attacked by The Satin Slayer, she didn't die. Josh had saved her, with the help of Zach, Kendall, Jackson Montgomery, his grandfather Joe Martin and his father Jeff Martin. It was said to have been Zach's idea to fake Babe's death. And Jeff and Joe who saved her life by implanting a pacemaker within her heart to regulate it, but Josh got most of the credit due to his constant vigil at her bedside. To fake Babe's death, the storyline said that they had slowed down her heart-rate, causing her to go into a coma and then they moved her to Zach's casino. Josh pretended to skip town out of his "heart-breaking loss" of Babe. J.R. mourned, and the serial killer was soon discovered to be Alexander Cambias, Sr., Zach's biological father. Babe stayed at Zach's casino where, through Josh's lies, she was led to believe that she was in a real hospital and that J.R. didn't care about her.

Current storyline

J.R. was eventually reunited with Babe and apologized to her for how he'd treated her before her "death"...but Babe expressed that although she will always be in love with J.R., being separated as lovers is the only way to ensure no more severe pain between them. She also reasoned that it would give their son a better shot at a stable life not brought up in a war-zone between two bickering parents. As of 2007, joint custody of Little Adam is what both aim for now.

Recurring themes

Four themes are included often within the J.R. and Babe romance: the pier in San Diego, the star-crossed lovers, the Tad and Dixie comparison, and the inner demons of J.R. Chandler. The pier in San Diego is mentioned more so than the others, but the emphasis on the star-crossed lovers, the Tad and Dixie comparison, and the inner demons of J.R. Chandler appear to be saved for more special occasions.

The pier in San Diego

The pier in San Diego became symbolic for J.R. and Babe's first meeting to demonstrate J.R. and Babe's love at first sight:

  • In 2003, December 23, Babe referred to meeting J.R. on a foggy doc as the answer to each other's prayers. [11]
  • In episode 3/16/06, J.R. and Babe described their pier-in-San-Diego meeting as being lost until they saw each other. [12]

The star-crossed lovers

The phrase star-crossed lovers having first been recorded by William Shakespeare in his play Romeo and Juliet, the J.R. and Babe romance has taken on certain facets of this, more notably the tragedy aspect:

  • During J.R. and Babe's time in France together, when J.R. sketches a picture of Babe, Babe states, "This is so Leo DiCaprio, but you are way hotter" [13]...referring to the 1997 James Cameron film Titanic. The two star-crossed lovers in that film, Jack and Rose, of course, were separated by tragedy, and tragedy is foreshadowed when J.R.'s sketch of Babe blows over in the wind, slow motion, after he's assured her that they have nothing to worry about. Trust is often a missing element in reassuring each other of security.
  • During this same episode, J.R.'s family predicts that J.R. will fall into a place so deep and dark after Dixie reveals herself to have purposely stayed dead, that even Babe won't be able to reach him.

The Tad and Dixie comparison

In line with J.R and Babe's love story is the notion that their love is undying, all furthered in the reference to supercouple Tad and Dixie's love:

  • At one of their reconciliation points, J.R. gives Babe Dixie's necklace. He tells her that Tad gave the necklace to his mother, and she gave it to him the last day that he saw her (her first death). J.R. says that she told him it was filled with more love than he could ever imagine. And that's what he wants for he and Babe, for their family -- more love than they can ever imagine. [14]
  • When J.R. is recovering from his jump out of a window, enraged at Babe for her one-night stand with Josh, Tad tells J.R. that J.R. loves Babe the same way that he himself loves Dixie. [15]

The inner demons of J.R. Chandler

J.R.'s inner demons have been alluded to in the fashion of either the combination of his troubled childhood and the tragedies he's had to live through, temporary insanity, or a dangerous alter ego in which he desperately strives to overcome:

  • When J.R. lost his daughter Bess due to the lies of the babyswitch, and finding out that Bess wasn't really his daughter, he felt that it was payback for all of his sins. He painfully whispered, "I'm evil." [16]
  • Author Carol P. from Total TV Online, when describing J.R. as one such tortured soul, commented, "In the annals of literary history, there are many examples of the tortured soul anti-hero; i.e. Prince Hamlet, Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice, Mr. Rochester from Jane Eyre, etc. We are drawn to them specifically because they are not your run-of–the mill male protagonists who win the day. Rather, they are flawed to such a degree that we, as the reader or the viewer are often afraid, that they may never find the peace and joy we desire for them." [17] Futher notes were taken of J.R.'s unstable childhood. [18]
  • On two separate occasions, J.R. expressed to Babe that he felt he was insane when he tried to kill her. [19] [20]
  • One of the most daunting conversations J.R. had with Babe about his mental turmoil suggests a deep-seeded inner battle that he has lost more than once.

The pain. I can't feel the pain, Babe. If I do, it'll kill me. I don't know how to explain it. It's this feeling that I've had inside me ever since I can remember. In here. The only way that I can describe it to you is -- it's as if something is living inside of me, waiting to choke me. Making me drown. Always there, ready to pull me under. And sometimes I'm able to get rid of it, numb it. Why do you think that I became an alcoholic? Why do you think I started using drugs, long before my voice ever changed? I would get high every minute of every day if I could, if I could stop from feeling it. And sometimes I feel like it's just going to take over. And a few times it has. When I feel it, I can't talk about it. I can't even acknowledge it. I'm afraid it's just too much. I'm -- I'm afraid that it's going to destroy everyone and everything that I care about. How many times have I almost lost you? But I'm going to fight it.

[21]

Cultural impact

File:J.R. and Babe's Celebrity Wedding Exclusive.JPG
A photo of J.R. and Babe's Celebrity Exclusive.
  • J.R. and Babe's second wedding (though literally their third) was so anticipated among viewers that the fictional couple was featured in the magazine Celebrity Living.[22] [23] [24] Bannered as exclusive coverage, even such detail as "Babe's Bridal Shower" was included. [25]
  • When J.R. tried to murder his "true love," Babe, it furthered an older debate about female characters remaining romantically linked to men who have tried to physically hurt them in the past. This wasn't the first time that a character in daytime drama had tried to murder the love of his life. General Hospital's Alan Quartermaine of the couple Alan and Monica had tried the same thing with his true love (several times). Blogger Ben Bryant noted, "ABC in particular, has seen the unpredictable rise of 'anti-leading' men, including two wildly popular characters with rapist pasts: Anthony Geary's 'Luke Spencer' on General Hospital, and Roger Howarth (later Trevor St. John)'s 'Todd Manning' on One Life to Live. Is it the appeal (or at least promise) of 'redemption via a good woman's love' or the age-old affinity for the 'bad boy,' that draws..." [26]
  • J.R. and Babe's tempestuous romance received notice by TV Guide's Daniel R. Coleridge, who published an exclusive interview with Alexa Havins and queried her about the matter.[27]

Popularity

  • Despite J.R.'s murder attempt on Babe and Babe's tough rode with fans, the J.R. and Babe romance still remains a popular pairing in polls such as the about.com polls. [30] [31] [32] or the Soap Opera Digest polls when being asked if Babe's destiny lies with J.R. or Josh.
  • The storyline of Babe's "death" at one of the most animosity-filled breakups between J.R. and Babe rocked AMC fans, and was one of the biggest upsets in daytime history, but not necessarily because Babe was killed off. Dixie Cooney Martin's death by The Satin Slayer serial killer is what had most viewers in a rage. The producers of "All My Children" decided to kill off the character of Dixie in place of Babe, then toyed with the audience in the notion that "ONE'S NOT DEAD" in their ABC promos after Babe died as well. Many fans clamored in trying to find a way to save Dixie [33], but it was too late, and the audience's rage toward Babe was magnified as witnessed in such articles as Creatvity anyone? Others simply said a peaceful goodbye to the character. [34]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ "Top 10 Couples list, showing Babe & JR at #7" (jpg). Soaps in Depth. May 22, 2007. Retrieved 2007-05-19.

References

  • Daily Recaps, All My Children, About.com (2005-2-18). "FRENCH CONNECTION". Karin Watkins. Retrieved 2007-05-11. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  • "applause applause". Soap Opera Weekly. Retrieved May 23. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
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