“It’s interesting to be able to say you’ve done anything for 40 years as a grownup,” muses Jacklyn Zeman, who made her GH debut as Bobbie 40 years ago this month. “Mostly, it makes me feel grateful.”
Getting cast on the show was a life-changing whirlwind for the actress, who at the time was based in New York, wrapping up on ONE LIFE TO LIVE as doomed Lana McClain. After a chance meeting with ABC exec Fred Silverman (they were seated next to each other at a performance of Beatlemania and got to chatting during intermission), she was asked to meet with GH’s then-head writer, Douglas Marland. Recalls Zeman, “Douglas came to my apartment and we talked and got to know each other and I guess he gave me the seal of approval, because the next day, I was offered the part on GENERAL HOSPITAL. Kin Shriner [Scott] told me later that he had auditioned with a bunch of [potential] Bobbies, maybe 10 of them, and they couldn’t find the one they wanted — and they offered me the role without even auditioning with Kin. What is the luck of that?”
Armed with a three-year contract, Zeman relocated to Los Angeles. “As I was dying on ONE LIFE, getting killed off as Lana, my first GH scenes were airing, popping off the elevator as Bobbie Spencer, student nurse,” she beams. “I was on both shows for about a week and they were horrified at the network. Now, it would be fun; they’d say, ‘Oh, cross-promotion, what a great idea, the audience will love it!’ But in those days, they didn’t want anybody playing different roles on two shows. They didn’t even really want the audience to know your real name!”
Speaking of names: Coming up with Bobbie’s was a group effort. “She was supposed to be Barbara, but I told [then-GH Executive Producer] Gloria Monty, ‘Barbara sounds so sophisticated. I’d like her to be a little perkier.’ Lana was deep and heavy and had a quiet, introverted vibe. I wanted [this character] to be completely different, which is why I dyed my hair red. I thought I’d be doing the show for three years. Little did I know that for the rest of my life, 40 years, I’d have to have red hair [laughs]! But anyway, Gloria said, ‘Could she be Barbie?’ I said, ‘Oh, God, no! I don’t want to compete with the blonde, blue-eyed Barbie girls!’ She said, ‘Bobbie?’ I said, ‘It’s perfect!’ And it got changed in all the scripts: ‘Bobbie Spencer.’ ” The other name by which Zeman’s alter is known was the brainchild of her on-screen brother, Anthony Geary (ex-Luke). “Tony just started calling me Barbara Jean on air. He liked the idea that Luke would call me something different from everybody else.”
Under the stewardship of Marland and Monty, who came aboard as EP within weeks of Zeman’s hiring, Bobbie’s first storyline — scheming to keep Scotty away from Genie Francis’s Laura — helped catapult the then-struggling GH into the heyday of its popularity. “I had no clue at the time, but [ABC] said to Gloria, ‘The show is probably going to go off the air,’ and they pretty much gave her carte blanche to do whatever she wanted to do. ‘It’s a sinking ship, so if you can fix it, more power to you.’ And she did! It’s really amazing and we were so excited to be a part of it. We were on every day, working all the time, and we loved it. The show suddenly became a big deal, the audience was huge, the fan mail was crazy, the personal appearances, the endorsements, the requests by other networks offering contracts to come over there instead of staying on GENERAL HOSPITAL, offers to do prime-time shows — it was incredible! But we loved our show; that’s why we stuck around.”
Behind the scenes, Zeman’s GH castmates became like family. “Kin is one of my best friends in the whole world, and 40 years, that’s a long time to be best friends with someone. Genie, same thing, Lynn Herring [Lucy] later, Kristina Wagner [Felicia], our whole group of people. We really grew up together. We had our kids together. There has been so much crossover from our lives on camera to our lives off camera, you can’t separate the two anymore. It’s at the point where it’s all just one big great life, and it’s really amazing when you stop to think about it.”
She thanks the viewers for welcoming her into their homes for four decades. “To have survived all these years, that means the audience is still bonded to us,” she notes. “There’s an allegiance to the characters because to the audience, they truly are family. We have such a strong connection to our fans, and that really makes my heart feel happy.”
“Nero” Gravity
Zeman is downright giddy over the recent GH return of Tamara Braun, who from 2001-05 played her daughter, Carly, and is now playing Kim Nero. “I want scenes with her so bad!” she chuckles. “I just think that would be really fun for the fans, for our viewers and the GH family, to see us two in scenes together, so I do hope that they will give us something to do. I just love her. She is such a talented actress and a really, really special person. I just love her heart, her soul and her spirit.” The pair has kept in touch over the years. “We both love theater, so we’re together a lot, because we go and see pretty much everything that comes to L.A., and we’d get together for lunch every once in a while. It’s just great to have her back.”
