The REAL problem with Jenna

[Pandora]

I thought that at first, but she did refuse any help from Bobby at all regarding Lucas. If she really wanted to keep him trapped wouldn't she have used the kid to stay close to him?

I believe Lucas was conceived when Jenna and Bobby were engaged. Kind of a if it happens great we're getting married anyways type thing. Of course that didn't happen and she didn't want to use the pregnancy as a weapon.

I think the issue with Jenna’s character was with the three different actresses we get three different Jenna’s

MF!Jenna of 1978 is completely different from FT!Jenna of 1980 who is completely removed from PP!Jenna of 1983-88.

At first viewing this is acceptable as the appearances of all the 3 Jenna’s were years apart from each other but on rewatches it becomes a problem

MF!Jenna was a bitchy mistress type, whom you could believe Bobby would have fallen for in his youth, but had they married their marriage would have collapsed, this Jenna was a con artist type, very much in the vein of Kristen Shepherd

FT!Jenna was too dowdy in my opinion, and not a believable threat to Pam and Bobby.

Ironically upon rewatches I think PP!Jenna is perhaps the best, she struck a balance between the rich girl who’d fallen on hard times very well, PP could be glamorous and mumsy, this Jenna was a threat to the Pam/Bobby love story, I could see this Jenna having an affair with a married man like MF!Jenna too.

While Priscilla Presley’s acting isn’t always good and she’s nowhere near VP or LG in the acting chops, she’s good at Jenna.

The main problem I find with Jenna also is that the writers struggle to find a way to keep her in the show when she had long passed her sell by date, then they stick her with Ray whom she had zero chemistry with

This was a problem with a number of characters in the show .... the writers didn't make much use of them. Jenna seemed to exist only as an impediment to Bobby and Pam re-uniting. Same for Mark Graison.

 

[Jock's Ghost]

Agreed. She like, Clayton and later Jamie were PLOT characters.
An alternative timeline would have seen Jenna gone after season 8, Bobby tries to save her, she dies- he does NOT. Bobby is in a coma...

 

[DallasFanForever]

Overall I didn’t really have a problem with Jenna, at least not for the first few seasons after she returned. For me the problem was after Bobby and Pam reunited. I think that was the time to write her off the show instead of pairing her with Ray. If she has to stick around then pair her back with Bobby after Pam’s exit. I could’ve bought that more than her ending up with Ray. At least Jenna and Bobby had a history.

 

[Taylor Bennett Jr.]

going back to answering the thread title:

..is that she didn’t take Katherine’s money in one of the first Priscilla episodes and move to Houston and away from our beloved show! For those who might have missed her presence on the small screen, she could have made guest appearances on the detective series MATT HOUSTON until the NAKED GUN role came up.

(ooh, now that I think of it, what if she somehow ended up with a returning Mark Graison? That might have been juicy in small doses, if only to semi-torture Bobby and Pam!)

 

[DallasFanForever]

(ooh, now that I think of it, what if she somehow ended up with a returning Mark Graison? That might have been juicy in small doses, if only to semi-torture Bobby and Pam!)

Always liked the idea of a Jenna and Mark pairing as the scorned couple trying to get back at Bobby and Pam. Their scenes together in the dream season, although rare and brief, showed they had an interesting dynamic. At least in my opinion.

 

[Pandora]

Always liked the idea of a Jenna and Mark pairing as the scorned couple trying to get back at Bobby and Pam. Their scenes together in the dream season, although rare and brief, showed they had an interesting dynamic. At least in my opinion.

I believe they should have wound up together.

 

[RachelBixby]

Yes. Pairing her with Ray was a disastrous decision - not only for the character of Jenna, but for Ray's character too.

Pairing her back with Bobby after Pam's disappearance would have made sense.

If Ray HAD to be paired with someone other than Donna, I would have put him with Sue Ellen. Ray/Sue Ellen/JR would have been a much better triangle.

OMG yes, I've been saying this in recent years. Bobby loved two women. He loved Pam more but that didn't take away from Jenna being his first love. It made far more sense for Bobby to be with Jenna than anyone else or be a playboy. Ray/Jenna were nonsense and had anti-chemistry.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Too many Jennas...

 

[Pandora]

Too many Jennas...

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I don't think Morgan Fairchild was available when they made Jenna a full time character. Her version of Jenna was great for an episode here and there, but not on a permanent basis. I wonder if she could have done the toned down version?