Grab your tissues and brace yourselves because General Hospital is set to say goodbye to beloved Jacklyn Zeman and her alter ego Nurse Bobbie Spencer in what promises to be a poignant two-part tribute episode that will be sure to pull at the heartstrings. Sadly, Jacklyn Zeman passed away on May 9, 2023, after a battle with cancer.
As reported in People, the good people of Port Charles will get the heartbreaking news about Bobbie's passing the first week in January, and their farewell to her will play out the following week on January 10 and 11. The episodes will take place around Bobbie's memorial service, and viewers can expect most of the current cast to be in attendance. Of course, it wouldn't be a proper soap opera farewell without a few surprises.
People teases that a "stranger's surprise arrival unearths a shocking secret -- and kicks off a mini adventure." That adventure will bring Bobbie's daughter, Carly Spencer (Laura Wright), and Bobbie's best friend, Felicia Scorpio (Kristina Wagner), together as they head to Amsterdam to settle Bobbie's unfinished business. Bobbie had been in the Netherlands, settling her brother Luke Spencer's (Anthony Geary) affairs because Luke had been killed two years earlier in a hit arranged by Victor Cassadine (Charles Shaughnessy). Bobbie had never fully accepted that her brother was dead.
Unfortunately, the tribute episodes were delayed by the WGA strike over the summer, which forced the show to push things back until everyone was back to work. According to Wright, the entire cast was at the memorial service because they wanted to honor both Zeman and her character, which Zeman began playing in December 1977. Her last appearance was on April 27, 2023, during Bobbie's grandson Michael Corinthos (Chad Duell) and Willow Tate's (Katelyn MacMullin) wedding.
In an interview with TVLine in May, Geary remembered his late TV sister with warm affection. "I never heard her utter one disparaging word about any actor, crew member, or co-worker. In fact, I never heard Jackie express an unkind word about anyone, ever. In a highly competitive profession where ego, feelings, and emotions are bread and butter, I've found this quality to be extremely rare. I expect it will be even more rare now that dear Jackie is gone," the actor said.
In addition to the current cast, viewers can expect to see fan-favorite Ryan Carnes, who played Bobbie's son Lucas Jones on and off from 2004 to 2014.
They say that a rainbow is a sign that someone you love made it to heaven. If so, at the end of the second day of shooting, the cast and crew stepped outside and were amazed to see a rainbow over the studio. A photograph was shared on Instagram with the caption, "🌈 ... and then a rainbow appeared over Prospect Studios. 📸 Photo credit: Billy Hoffman #GH #GeneralHospital"
"It was incredible," Wright said. "Everyone leaving the studio wasn't surprised. They were like, 'Oh, my gosh.'" All agreed that it felt like a gift from Zeman.
There has been a lot of criticism on social media that General Hospital has waited "too long" to address Zeman's passing. At this year's Daytime Emmys, several General Hospital sources told Soap Central that the show did not want to tackle the story during the writers' strike.
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