Ingo Rademacher (David, Titans) wants to set the record straight about his decision to leave the wildly popular role of General Hospital's Jasper "Jax" Jacks. 'I didn't leave GH for Titans," the affable actor explains. "Everybody seems to think that because of how it was timingwise. I was leaving anyway."

That desire was something Rademacher had been contemplating for almost a year and a half. Originally slated to leave last January, he made a deal with GH brass that kept him on the show until August; the arrangement was beneficial to both parties. "I wasn't quite ready financially to leave because of the house I bought two years ago." He says. "If I would have left a year and a half ago, I would have been back on the show had I not gotten a pilot. I didn't want that to happen; that's why I stayed. I set it up so I could leave and not have to worry about anything."

Rademacher has mixed feelings about leaving GH, a place he called home for nearly four and a half years. He'll miss the people with whom he worked, a group he is hesitant to call "one big happy family" because he doesn't like making that comparison. "In a way it is a family but I'd prefer to compare it to being in high school," he says. He adds that his tenure there was happy, thanks particularly to the powers that be at ABC. "GH is the best show to work on because of that. It's also a great place to be if your character is doing well."

And Jax did pretty well, all right, remaining a front-burner character for Rademacher's entire run. Most of Jax's storylines revolved around his relationship with Brenda Barrett (played by Vanessa Marcil, who left the role in 1998), so it was only fitting that Jax and Brenda be reunited (well, sort of) as part of Rademacher's exit. Marcil's brief return was as much of a surprise to Rademacher as it was to GH's audience, thanks to the show's executive producer, Wendy Riche. Riche coaxed Marcil back to tape two days before Brenda's return was due to air. Her scenes were shot on a closed set, and then dropped in to connect with scenes that Rademacher had shot a month earlier.

Despite the fact that Jax and Brenda didn't have any airtime together (she hopped into a limo, he saw her and gave chase), Rademacher thinks the scenes worked well. "A lot of the Jax/Brenda fans were a bit upset that the couple didn't have a dramatic reunion," he says. "From a producer's point of view, however, I understand exactly what Wendy was trying to achieve; having the characters reunite would have closed the door on them. Now, the fans will wonder if Jax will find Brenda, or if it even was Brenda at all. Those things can be explored if the show ever brings back the characters."

However, if Jax does return to Port Charles, he probably won't be played by Rademacher, who, besides having a new job, thinks the character had more than run its course. "I think Jax was a great part of my life, and I really enjoyed playing him," he says. "But am I going to miss him? No, definitely not. It's time to move on and do other things."

Originally, "other things" meant taking some much-needed "Ingo time", Rademacher reveals with a laugh. "I knew my last GH airdate way in advance, so I was going to chill, take a couple of months off." His initial plan to do some surfing in Indonesia and some other traveling took a back seat when he landed the Titans gig.

"I never planned on jumping right back into another long-term role on a series," Rademacher says. "I really wanted to expand myself a little bit careerwise, experiment, and do a bunch of guest roles on shows like Felicity, Ally McBeal and The Practice."

It was the pursuit of these guest roles that inadvertently led him to Titans. While auditioning for some projects last spring, many of which were being cast by Spelling Enterprises, Rademacher crossed paths with Aaron Spelling himself. "They were casting All Souls, which is a Spelling show for UPN," he says. "I read for a few different characters, but ended up not fitting the mold of what they were looking for."

Later, Rademacher was approached about Titans, bringing up another misconception that he wants to clarify. "The press printed that I was seen testing for Titans," he recalls. "In actuality, I was there for All Souls, and never had to read for Titans." NBC was also keep on hiring Rademacher; he was a down-to-the-wire candidate for the role of Suddenly Susan's Oliver Browne (which went to Rob Estes, ex-Kyle McBride, Melrose Place), and had made an impressive guest appearance on Veronica's Closet. "Then a deal was made, and that was the first time I met with the Spelling people."

Landing a role on a Spelling show has been six years in the making for Rademacher. He tested for Models, Inc., the Melrose Place spin-off created by Chuck Pratt (also Titans creator) who recalls their first meeting fondly. "It's funny because it was his first audition in Hollywood," Pratt says. "He literally just got off the plane from Australia. We already had, like, five Australians on the show, though, and we didn't want to turn it into an Aussie show, so even though we liked him, we just couldn't take him. It's great to finally be working with Ingo. He brings a lot of charm, depth and humor to David, a role that could have just been beefcake and stupid."

Rademacher doesn't appear in the Titans, but looks poised to turn up the heat (like those steamy NBC "guilty pleasure" promos suggest) when he debuts in the show's second episode. He describes David as "laid-back, but with a funkiness about him. He's got a lot of different things going on; he dresses up, he dresses down, he dresses like a surfer, he's got messy hair. He will definitely stand out from the rest of the characters."

And turn a few heads. Upon his arrival from Europe, David will catch the eye of both Laurie and Jenny Williams, sisters who own the nightclub that David manages. "This explosive triangle will be one of Titans' main focuses," Pratt promises.

But will Titans catch on? Everyone involved with the show seems to think so, but Rademacher is a little more cautious. "NBC's spending a lot of money on the show, and I think they are predicting that the American audience really wants to see another nighttime soap. I guess we'll see what happens. If the show goes, it goes, and if it doesn't, it's no skin off my nose."