Angie!!! Debbi was AMAZING. I loved her scenes with Tad in the car, and when she saw it was Frankie in the hospital beds. I think AMC is already turning around and I enjoyed this episode. Zach/Greenlee, Dre/Colby, Ryan calling Annie Kendall! Wow, this is exactly what AMC needs and I can't wait for Jessie.

Wasn't the role briefly recast when Debbi first left [...]?

Yes, it was, with Saundra "Hangin' with Mr. Cooper" Quarterman. If I'm not mistaken, her Angie was involved w/ William Christian's Derek Frye; Count Stovall's character, Cal Cummings; and Sharla Valentine, played by Tichina Arnold.

I know Debbi was mad that her intteracial romance with that Doctor (nina's on and off again husband) was cut short due to fan reaction disliking it.

Really? I've always assumed Cliff and Angie's romance was cut short, because the network got proverbial cold feet.

I've read in a few places that it was fan reaction that gave ABC Daytime the cold feet, really upsetting Debbi (I believe ABC Daytime was ok with going with it until fan reaction--which to be fair probably had something to do, as well as the race thing, with arguably AMC's two biggest super couples of the 80s being mixed--even if Nina and Jesse were off the canvas). Still of course ABC coulda just used that as an excuse and I'm sure in a way it was...

Wow, I wasn't aware that the Debbi recast lasted long enough to be tried out with so many other characters--they were smart to already have a new black family in place (the Fryes) by then

Both Peter Bergman and Debbi Morgan have publically expressed disappointment in the dropped Cliff/Angie romance.... wasn't Peter fired shortly after it ended?

Was je I always thougth he quit... Though I can see why they felt they had done all they could with him if audiences didn't like him in a new relationship