Worst recast in daytime TV history?

All the Nina's on All My Children. I don't think there's even a close second.

Ann Hamilton as Mindy Lewis. Jennifer Bransford as Carly Corinthos. Thorsten Kaye as Ridge Forrester.

Susan Batten as Conner Walsh

Heather Rattray as Lily Wash on ATWT - Last three years, and her contract expired. TPTB didn't even bother to re-negotiate to resign her. At that point Douglas Marland was already in talks with Martha Byrne to return, before he passed away. While under Rattray tenure they made Lily into a corporate executive. Martha Byrne made it conditional that Lily would NOT be involved in any business-type storyline.

You had to put daytime. If you had included nighttime everyone would have said Emma Samms as Fallon. She was the worst recast in all of television history.

I don't know about worst, but when OLTL brought back Marty with a new actress, (who's name I can't remember), the character was so different it was completely pointless.

Roger Howarth as Franco. Is this case I really like the actor, but they should have made him a long lost Q.

RH had horrendous luck with recasts. All the Kate Mulgrew replacements. They couldn't replace Sarah Felder as Siobhan until they essentially created another character and cast Marg Helgenberger. In the same vein, Randall Edwards was good as a Dee replacement because they really reworked the character.

OP - I'm afraid you're gonna awaken the Kathy Glass Troll.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Bee... (NO!!!!)

It was pretty horrible when they had Robin Matteson play Dee on Ryan's Hope.

None of the Tina recasts on OLTL were as good as Andrea Evans. Krista Tesreau was OK, but the show didn't really write for her like they did for Andrea. I also liked the Asian woman that played Blair for a couple years. Much darker vibe from her.

Marie Wilson as Meg Snyder on ATWT. Kelly Menighan as Emily on the same show.

All the Nina recasts were bad. But to be fair, when Taylor Miller went to AW as a recast, she went promptly into the Worst Recasts list.

I loved Randall Edwards as Dee. I mean the actress made a King Kong story work for god's sake. She was also much prettier.

🙈 Guy "Strudel" Wilson as Will Horton.

Whoever replaced Sarah Michelle Geller as Silver Kane on AMC. That was a thankless gig.

Hunt Block as Craig Montgomery on ATWT. Craig was probably the most vulnerable male character ever on Daytime, and Block just can't do vulnerable. At all.

R14, Randall was great because that whole Crystal Palace storyline was perfect for her. Ilene Kristen's Dee would have been totally unbelievable as the owner of this hot spot. Also, you could absolutely see the sexual attraction between her and Roscoe Born, who was saddled with fake Siobhan at that point. Edwards was even really good paired with queeny Richard Backus.

I consider Grant Aleksander and Scott Bryce to be the best two actors ever on daytime, so anytime they were recast I couldn't help but think of the originals.

I also like A Martinez, Larry Bryggman, Jerry verDorn, Chris Bernau and Peter Simon.

F19 = F. Murray Abraham.

No one cares what you think, R19. Stay on topic, for christ sake.

They should have just killed Fallon off, that recast was so bad.

And I felt really bad for the original Tina on OLTL. I believe the actress had to leave the show and abandon her career to go into hiding because some dangerous stalker was after her.

And to be contrary - I really liked Shelly Hack replacing Kate Jackson on Charlie's Angels.

Thought the 2nd Darren was meaner/grumpier than the first one on Bewitched. Same with the 2nd Dumbledore.

R16, Gellar was the first Kendall Hart on AMC, easily replaced years later by Alicia Minshew. She never played any version of Silver.

My vote goes to frousy, frizzy Melody Anderson replacing the divine Kate Collins as AMC’s Natalie after Collins left to move to Chicago and marry Charles Newell.

R1 dropped the mic and closed the thread.

r21, Um, can't you infer that I think that John Bolger as Phillip and Hunt Block and Lindstrom as Craig were the worst recasts in soap history?

Glynnis O’Connor as Margo “Smargo” Hughes in ATWT. She couldn’t even pronounce her character’s name correctly.

Betsy Durkin as Victoria Winters on Dark Shadows after Alexandra Moltke left.

Veleka Gray as Laura Elliott on Love Is A Many Splendor ed Thing after Donna Mills.

R23 I think I'd have to pick Anderson as the worst recast as Natalie also. She was really wrong for the role didn't get Natalie at all and came across as a bit arrogant in this interview. She was off the show a few months later.

R11 The only Tina recast I liked was Karen Witter. She was quite a bit different than Andrea Evans, but I like how the role evolved some during her stint to make Tina a somewhat more mature person. I couldn't stand Krista Tesreau at all.

R28, I’d never seen that article before and it makes me dislike Anderson even more. Kate made Natalie multidimensional—the bitch, the mother, the victim, the lover, the fighter and the defeated. Melody made Natalie a larger version of Tweety Bird—yellow with pop-eyes.

60 year old Joan Crawford replacing her 24 year old daughter Christina on The Secret Storm after Christina had an emergency operation. Joan didn't tell Christina she was going to do it; sources vary whether Christina found out from the press or watching the show to find her mother playing her. Joan appeared drunk playing the part but viewership went up 40 per cent.

The third Ashley Abbott on Y & R....Sherri whatever her name was....replacing the awesome Eileen Davidson and Davidson's lookalike Brenda Epperson....she made a poor man's Ashley. Limited acting range too. Good thing Eileen stepped back in the role, eventually.

r30 It's funny since Kate Collins made Natalie so memorable and multidimensional, yet Anderson was so one-note. I kept on thinking during Andersons thankfully short stint as Natalie, Kate could've played that much better. And she would have. I've seen Anderson in other things and she was ok, but never anything special at all as an actress.

R31 The worst or the Best, depending on how you look at it.

R32 That was Shari Shattuck, she was awful in the role. She was married to Ronn Moss at that time (who is infamous for horrible acting skills also) so some thought he might have lobbied for her to get the role since he was popular at B&B.

That awful Fake Jennifer Horton-Deveraux on DOOL, when Melissa Reeves left. She was fucking terrible.

I would name Charity Rahmer, who was so bad she only lasted for 3 weeks, but she was so inept in her "acting" attempts, it was actually funny to watch. Unfortually, I think they pulled off all her clips off of youtube.

R3 I couldn't stand her as Luna on OLTL either, but was popular there for some reason. She was so hated by ATWT fans, that some of them sent cans of dog food to her at the studio!

[quote]That awful Fake Jennifer Horton-Deveraux on DOOL, when Melissa Reeves left.

The second Jack Devereaux to replace Matthew Ashford was an abomination, too. The first one, Mark Valley, was totally miscast, but at least he was a decent actor (and hot).

Y&R:

Michael Learned as Katherine and she was only a temporary replacement Maura West as Diane Darius McCrary as Malcolm (total joke) Davetta Sherwood as Lily Clementine Ford as Mackenzie (she looked 40 and lacked chemistry with Billy Miller and Thad Luckinbill) Luke Kleintank as Noah Tammin Sursok as Colleen

OLTL:

Heather Tom as Kelly What's her face as Marty

B&B:

Dingo Redenbacher as Thorne

DoOL:

Macy Miller as Abby

Recasting Natalie was a huge mistake for AMC, but I think they were kind of not expecting Kare Collins to bail when her contract was up...she was marrying the guy from Chicgao and she hated James Kiberd, so she said fuck it and left. They had to finish the storyline, I guess, but they should have never killed Natalie, the character, off. Anderson might have been okay as another character, but Natalie had been too important for the show for 7 years to be played like a simp.

Alice Haining was an awful recast as Liza Colby on AMC.

Greg Beecroft as Duke on GH

Jamie Luner as Liza on AMC

Saundra Quartermain as Angie on AMC. The character was gone within 6 months.

So many bad Kevins on OLTL

Kimberly MacArthur as Kelly on SB. From The Princess Bride to a Playboy whore.

Some long term recasts that I felt were failures:

Scott Holmes as Tom on Y&R. Gregg Marx was sexy and had great chemistry with Hillary Bailey Smith; Scott's Tom was asexual.

Peter Bergman on Y&R . He turned Jack into a wimp.

Any Jill recast on Y&R except Jess Walton

Any Craig recast on ATWT except Hunt Block

Laurence Lau as Jamie Frame on Another World...to be fair most of the actors who replaced Richard Bekins were not very good

When that sober goody-two-shoes replaced ME as Jill!!!!!!

Jonna Lee as Julia Shearer on AW. I think she only lasted a few weeks. Faith Ford ended up replacing her.

Scott Holmes was probably the worst recast based on the importance of the character and his longevity in the role. Not so much that he was a bad actor. But he was never sexy or dynamic in the pivotal role of Tom Hughes.

Barbara Kearns as Nina #3 on AMC-Nina was NOT a redhead. What was Jackie Babbin thinking?

Jess Walton on Y&R. They should have just killed Jill off. BD WAS Jill Foster Abbot. Jess Walton could have come aboard as her own character.

Any post-Andy Kavovit Paul Ryan. I understand it was necessary since Andy still looked 14 into his 20s but they never found the right actor to take over the role. Roger Howarth was a close as the got but he still wasn't optimal.

Fake Jenny. The one who replaced Kathy Glass.

Andy Kavovit was not attractive. It was hard to imagine Melanie Smith wanting to sleep with him or that he was the biological son of James and Barbara. Scott Holroyd was a good recast. Roger Howarth was awful.

Not that the Nina recasts were not bad, but the story line for one of them did not help. One of them had to play Nina having some sort of mental disorder where she thought she was 18 years old. There are some clips of the other one during the Zach Grayson murder, and sadly she seemed to have played a key role and played it badly.

Enough time had passed where the Kendall recast was not as jarring as it would have been otherwise.

While not necessarily the worst recasts, every adult Charlie Brent recasts was 180 degrees different than the previous actor. They had Tad the Cad Jr. (since the real Tad had just "died") follow goody-two shoes Charlie of Charlie and Julie and they had 80 year old Christopher Lawford follow the Tad the II.

They had a pretty bad Jeff Marin recast in the late 80s, and the Angie recast was a bit weak - although Debbie Morgan would be a hard act to follow and she had some weak writing and pairings.

Anthony George as Burke Devlin in Dark Shadows.

The first recast of Nina was hysterical. She looked so much like Taylor Miller but my god she was horrible. Every scene she did, no matter what it was, she acted it as though the character should be TERRIFIED. Even if she was just having coffee with Daisy.

Agnes was heartbroken and truly felt betrayed when Taylor left. Every hire up did anything they could to try to convince her to stay. Even Lucci got in on the act to keep her. I don't think Taylor was a great actress it's just that she was Nina. I remember at the time watching her and Cliff. I don't know anyone that didn't LOVE those two.

The third Nina. Jesus Christ.

I like Jess Walton as Jill. I don't think the way Brenda played Jill would have come off as legit after the "Dynasty" excess of the 80's, her performance towards the end of her time on Y & R was campy and flat. Keeping Jill on also let them extend the Katherine /Jill fued, which help put Y & R no. 1 in the ratings. The fued had some great moments continued under Jess. Does anyone remember the cake fight?

For the record Zack Grayson was some of the hottest sexy trash All My Children ever had.

Remember when third Nina had amnesia and fell in love with Benny the chauffeur? She regained her memory and still felt she was in love with Benny. Wow, the show was really lost when it came to that character after Miller left. With Miller, we saw her turning more and more into Palmer, which was interesting and quite logical. They had no idea where to turn after they lost the actress.

When Taylor first started she was like a doll.

I thought Taylor Miller would have been a huge Hollywood star. She did a soap episode on Merv Griffin and he called her a young Elizabeth Taylor.

Nina #2, near the end.

Oh Gilles in R61 s clip. Erica kept him trapped in her apartment in his underwear for months.

Some subtle acting here -- and cat fight with Melissa Leo.

R81, that IS bad! Remember Zack was played by Robert LuPone (brother of Patti) He also played Zach in ACL. The writers were desperate for names.

David Lewis was phenomenal as Edward Quartermaine. It's not that John Ingle was a bad recast, it's just that he had impossibly big shoes to fill. (See: Jill Larson replacing Dorothy Lyman). But Jed Allan replacing John Ingle, ugh. Terrible.

John ingle as the new Mickey Horton? I can't really comment, I never watched him, but I can't even imagine it.

Yeah.... speaking of Jill Larson. I loathed fake Opal until the very end.

R51, I remember on a cable show here in NYC Ming-Na Wen mentioned her love scenes with a “pasty white guy.” Heh heh. Andrew Kavovit, obviously.

Back to the topic: Daniel Pilon was a bad Alan Spaulding on GL. He was only cast because he was handsome. He had no noticeable acting skill at all. Even worse, he was bland as hell.

Looking at some of those Zach Grayson clips, I saw another bad recast. The second Mike Roy. The first one is considered one of Erica's great loves, and the recast not only seems like a completely different person, he seems like he was from another country.

Gilles, in the flesh.

OH GOD that clip at R63 that's just it our Nina would have never been in that situation. The sad part is with Taylor still as Nina the writers were in no way keeping Cliff and Nina stagnant. Nina was progressing in a natural way. She wasn't a little girl anymore. As soon as she got a look outside of her father's mansion and Cliff's white picket fence she started fucking Steve Jacobi. She grew as an actress too. Her scenes with Cliff after he found out about Steve were Emmy worthy.

Judi Evans as Paulina on Another World. Judi is a fine actress and I loved/love her as Adrienne on Days but she ruined Paulina. Cali Timmons WAS the perfect Paulina, but she didn't have a name like Judi.

I remember lusting after him but what the fuck was the point of Gilles? Hot as hell but I remember nothing about him.

I followed Cali Timmons to Another World. It was a pretty good show. As soon as I started getting into they got rid of her. I left too.

Conversely, I loved Judi Evans as Paulina — she had smokin’ hot chemistry with Tom Eplin — and thought Timmons was a bit of a bore.

I agree Calli Timmins should never have been replaced...Judi Evans was more of a DAYS actress, than an AW actress

I know I'm in the minority, but I didn't HATE Nina #2. She was better than redhead #3!!

Here is what Heather Stanford is up to today.

A three-way tie, all on ATWT.

Susan Batten replacing Allyson Rice Taylor was ridiculous. One-note Hunt Block replacing multi-dimensional hero/villain Scott Bryce was a travesty. But the worst of all might be the awful, awful Roger Howarth trying to be Paul Ryan. Bad beyond belief.

The last Lily and Dusty replacements should not have happened, not because the replacements were bad actors, they were just not right for the parts/

Laurence Lau recast as Sam Rappaport on OLTL. Sam was old enough to be Todd's father and in fact was a surrogate father to Todd and suddenly here comes tiny, very young even for his age little Laurence Lau as Sam. I really stopped watching around then but I can't imagine how much further the ridiculousness got. It had to totally destroy the Sam/Todd relationship and if it was still going on the Sam Blair relationship too for Sam now looked young enough to be Todd and Blair's son.

As far as Tina on OLTL I couldn't stand EV or any of the Tina's or the character.

LOL on Crawford taking over for her daughter. I remember my dad was home during the day at that time because of a strike or shift change or something and my mom faithfully watched Secret Storm. My dad could not get over old Crawford playing the 24 year old character. He would laugh his way through the show every day she was on, especially when she was doing scenes with the young actor who played Christina's character's husband or boyfriend or whatever. I think that was one of Joan's biggest embarrassments. Just cringe worthy.

One of daytime's biggest clusterfucks was GH's attempt at re-casting Janine Turner as the iconic "Laura" after Genie Francis left to star in "Bare Essence". The Luke & Laura stans were not having it, so the writers made Turner's character a *different* Laura. They also abandoned the idea of pairing her with Luke, instead giving her a sister (played by Demi Moore) to pair off with Luke -- and she was rejected as well.

I remember Gilles St. Clair got involved with Brooke on AMC and would purr “Little Laura” in that thick French accent of his and would make me giggle.

Much as I love Mark Dusay I thought she was miscast as Alexandra. I would have loved her as a new character, an older version of Reva whose rough edges had been smoothed, or maybe not so smoothed

She could have been a fun retooled Sarah on GL.

James Acheson was the second actor to play Jack on Days and he was an abomination. I will never understand why they even hired him - the original Jack wasn’t bad.

Bolger as Phillip on GL was awful too.

Kirsten Storm and Jason Cook were the only decent Belle and Shawn Douglas on Days

they had a fake Greg on AMC that lasted for about a week.

Steve Wilder was the Jack who followed Mark Valley. He was very generic Ken Doll hunk and so not the character. I do think he might have filled out a pair of jeans well, but that was about it.

For completely shallow reasons I didn't like Ric Hearst as the recast Alan-Michael. I came to accept him as A-M, but Carl Tye Evans just seemed so perfect for that role.

The girl who currently plays Victoria on Y&R. It's like they didn't even understand who the character is. They should just get Heather Tom back.

I'm glad Nina and Cliff drove off into the sunset with a happy ending. Fans just weren't going to accept anything but happily ever after with them. You can only write happy for so long on a soap. It's too bad fans weren't accepting because I loved the romance between Cliff and Angie.

AMC was really riding high with Cliff and Nina. It was obvious they weren't going to ride into the sunset after they were married and their troubles were very realistic. The scene where Cliff finds out about her affair and she looks through the scrapbook of their life together brought a tear to many eyes because we lived the scenes with them. AMC chased the dragon after that.

I was never a huge GL fan, but Carl Tye Evans was really good, and so cute. WHET?

Canadian Jessica Steen was not a very good replacement Trisha on Loving. She was just SO different from the beautiful Noelle Beckman. Steen has had a pretty long career though.

That can't be said about this person called O'Hara Parker, who only had two more credits after her disastrous tenure replacing Susan Walters as Lorna Forbes. (Loved her!)

Y&R is so erratic with re-casts.

Billy Miller was great as Billy, reinvented the character and made Amelia Heinle much better an actress.

Brenda Epperson was a good Ashley but Shari Shattuck was horrible. I can't believe she played Ashley for more than six months.

I don't mind Gina Tognoni as Phyllis. I do think Sandra Nelson did a great job as Phyllis considering she had to take over from Michelle Stafford when the character was in a big story. She played Phyllis with less humour and with more of an edge.

I agree with r42, though, that Jack has turned into a wimp. I'm not sure if it's Bergman or the writers but Jack doesn't have that edge that Lester brought.

I don't want to criticize Rick Hearst but I preferred Carl Evans in the role. Good little actor, the character grew with him, and so fuckable. Imagine a story with him and Frank Cooper discovering a mutually beneficial relationship.

Max on OLTL - when they brought back DePaiva they just had him meditate and undo the whole facial reconstruction - OLTL again when they recast half asian Blair Cramer with Cassie DePaiva. They had her leave asian and come back white, southern and singing country music.

Rumor has it Shattuck got the role because of negotiations with then husband Ron Moss.

What I hate is when an actor leaves a role, they find a great recast, then the original actor wants to return and the recast gets shit on.

r95 you mean like Elaine Prince as Dorian on OLTL - she made Dorian her own then Strasser wanted her job back so they just dumped Princi.

The acknowledged Blair's changing ethnicity at about 8:15 in this clip.

making a joke about it and actually addressing it are two different things. It was kind of a big deal when it happened because there are so few asians in Daytime. To simply just erase it and make her a white woman was offensive.

Silver Kane on AMC.

Which one, R99? The one who Lucci had fired because she was too beautiful looking or the mousey one with reddish hair who replaced her?

[quote] making a joke about it and actually addressing it are two different things. It was kind of a big deal when it happened because there are so few asians in Daytime. To simply just erase it and make her a white woman was offensive.

Look what you've done, you've upset Kim Fong Toy!

Neither of the real Silver Kanes were as interesting as fake Silver Kane.

The first real Silver Kane might have been pretty, but she was kind of just there. She was not very memorable. The recast was a better actress, but I think her character was sacrificed to bad writing due to the strike. She went from the sweet ingenue to going completely crazy.

My opinion on Paulinas: Judy Evans was doing fantastic when the storylines were simply the continuation of what had been established with Timmins. Absolutely adored the Paulina/Jake saga. She is not the one who ruined the character: the writers did when they made her a housewife with a dull husband. That wasn't down to her portrayal. She was sexy and exciting when she first came in.

I'd also add Matthew Cory to the list. Matt Crane was the character and there was really no need to recast him. The show could have done without the character for a while. On the other hand, I'll never understand why he left again with only a few months left in the show. He really couldn't stay a bit longer for closure?

But Judi was the wrong kind of sexy. Cali played Paulina like a Gloria Grahame film noir vixen. Judi cam him and just had on tight clothes and shoved her big tits around. It was a different vibe.

That should have been "Judi came on and just had on tight clothes..."

Faux Silver was just the fucking best. There was no replacing her. Fortunately they killed off the character. We used to cheer when Faux Silver was giving Erica the business. Faux Silver knew how to give good phone. Just like Joan Crawford.

They killed real Silver -- faux Silver went to jail.

Deborah Goodrich, Faux Silver aka Connie Wilkes, is now a society matron and was also, inexplicably, a bridesmaid at Julia Roberts' wedding to Lyle Lovett.

I don't think Goodrich just married money. I think she came from money herself. She's the one that Lucci really hated.

R105 Which is why it is understandable to prefer one portrayal over the other. That's a matter of taste. I personally thought that, while a different take, her character was not a wide departure from who Timmins was portraying. A different kind of spunky and sexy but spunky and sultry nevertheless. But I continue to say that the general consensus that Evans "ruined" the character is unfair to her and is entirely linked to late-era-Paulina which was indeed dreadful but because of the writing. She didn't change the character in a completely different direction: they did.

Let me offer a parallel: I think we can all agree that Anna Stuart was a vastly superior Donna Love than Philece Sampler. Not because Philece Sampler was not a good actress. And she clearly had a different take on the character but it was still by large Donna Love. So no one thinks she "ruined" the character. She just wasn't as great. You may or may not think Judy Evans was "as great" as Paulina but the reason we consider her character "ruined" was due to the writing, several years after the recast.

Now you might argue that the writing went in that direction because of things that were inherent to Judy Evans - like her real-life pregnancies and weight gain. I say that's because the writing teams of those last six years were absolutely crap with no imagination or respect for the show.

Which one was, I think a fake Silver, a little blonde with big glasses, Pia Zadora-ish . She'd act out her frustration and displeasure with that egotistical cunt Erica when no one was around. Erica would leave the room and Silver would be all "go to hell Erica!"

And who wouldn't get frustrated working for that conceited little bitch? I found myself sympathizing with Silver. And then I missed a week or two and POOF! She was gone and apparently exposed as an imposter.

R42; Holmes was not only lacking in sex appeal, but he played Tom so pompous he make Mike Bauer look bearable; always blathering on about the law!

They actually had people saying wow, Tom could have won that case (I think against Caleb for Henry Lang's murder) but he was more interested in the law and what was right.

Made no sense.

I would have written Tom AND Margo out if they could not have found a replacement for Holmes. He was smart though, stayed with the show till the end, may have a pension.

Philece was too young to play Donna.

Judi Evans is a doll, good to fans; but Cali Timmins WAS Paulina.

Do any of you remember that awful commercial Holmes did for ATWT?

My sister. She's a star.

Kentucky bred Kassie Wesley stepping in for Asian Mia Korff as Blair on One Life. Hysterical.

I hated all the Carlys on GH. I never understood the character's appeal. How many have there been?

"Do any of you remember that awful commercial Holmes did for ATWT?"

No. What was so awful about it? Is there video on Youtube?

Deborah Goodrich was sublime as faux Silver. It was hard to accept anyone else as real Silver after Goodrich. But I do appreciate this clip of Claire Beckman's Silver.

Fat Kevin and Joey Buchanan were the best. Kevin Stapleton and Nathan Fillion made the adult version of their characters work. Did anyone care for Tim Gibbs' version of Kevin? Kevin and Joey became irrevalent with every hunkier version and the increased focus on Todd.

Ken Kenitzer and Bruce Michael Hall were the worst of all the Kevin and Joey's.

R118 Four? Sarah Brown, Tamara Braun, that controversial one who got fired and Laura Wright. All wonderful actresses and I like what they all did with the role but, yeah, the character is heinous so it is not down to the recasts. I didn't hate Jennifer Bransford (the third one) like so many did and I don't think it was a disastrous recast but, while Carly has gotten more unlikeable with time, Laura Wright was definitely an improvement and overall the switch was justified.

Probably doesn't count as worst recast either since the character sucked before and after - for different reasons - but one day I'd love to hear the real reason DOOL fired Natalia Livingstone and recast Taylor with Tamara Braun. Was such a bizarre succession of events

J'adore faux Silver Kane.

I don't know if it's a bad recast. The character was so changed with a recast that it was really a different character. That's Dorian on OLTL. The biggest what if in daytime history is what if Nancy Pinkerton stayed as Dorian.

Benny Sago. I hated that fleshy faced, bulldog eyed bore. The first Benny Sago was a nasty character and sex on a stick. The way he would come on to Pheebs was hysterical.

Harriet somebody played Brooke English for a while. She was boring as hell and had zero chemistry with Mitch Shoberg.

I liked Brooke well enough but sometimes her hair color tended toward orange, thus emphasizing her resemblance to a goldfish.

You can Add Jeff Trachta as Thorne on B&B. Clayton was as boring and one note as Ronn Moss but he was drop dead gorgeous and well...short. Replacing him with Very Tall, very flamboyant Trachta. Say what you want but Moss and Norcross looked like brothers. Both Ken doll looks. Trachta actually read for the Role of Jack Abbott but it went to Peter Bergman...another Mo.

Kendall will always be Sarah Michelle Gellar to me.

r130 same here. when they recast her, Kenall completely changed. Gellar brought an edge to Kendall and I loved the iciness between her and Lucci; it made a much more believable relationship.

Gellar had resting bitch face.

Gellar was a stronger actress, but I thought they did a fairly decent job with slowly shifting Minshaw's Kendell and Erica from adversaries, to a wary truce, friendly but not fully accepting of each other, to mother and daughter. It helped that Minshaw had good sister chemistry with Eden's Bianca, and did work well with Lucci as well.

Still - they did an excellent job with SMG's exit. Taking the high road and having Erica and Kendell resolve their issues and acknowledge there would probably always be a barrier between them. That was probably a more realistic resolution to their relationship, but at least they did not have to the two characters instantly bond with the recast and had a gradual transition to mother-daughter. Recast Kendell did not immediately start calling Erica mom as soon as they stopped feuding, it took awhile.

Gellar was very good earlier in her stint in AMC. She didn't impress me much later on and I was over the character by the time she left the show. I haven't cared much for her work after AMC. Could never see why "Buffy" was so popular.

Alicia Minshew was very mediocre. She was very pretty, though.

[quote]Gellar was very good earlier in her stint in AMC.

Gellar's first year was great, she was kind of one note the second year. I am not sure if it was because she was bored, or if it was due to the growing fued with Lucci, or simply the story lines were pretty weak post-Richard Fields (although I liked her relationship with Janet). There was also a bit more of a mystery with Kendell her first year - you were not sure whether she wanted to destroy Erica or be accepted by her (and not sure Kendell herself knew). After she lied about Dimitiri raping her, she was much more of a two-dimensional villain and her performance was less layered. Much more one-note shouting.

I did not watch Buffy through the end of the series, but I heard her performance on that show in later years also became a bit more flat, as if she had become bored with the show.

I saw a scene in which Minshew's Kendall says to Zach: I'm angry Zach. I'm angry.

She was not angry. She was flat and monotone.

Lovely woman. Great mother. But not an actress.

Lightning struck twice on GH when they found Braun; I think they assumed they could do it again. I thought Jennifer was too old in the part; Wright is just wrong.

No chemistry with Maurice. She's all technique and no real talent. She cries. She cares. And all I can see is a soap star hitting her mark and thinking of her next line. She's tough, which is what I think you need to be in order to survive there.

The problem is the writing; she moved in with Sonny, a known mobster, because she didn't think AJ would be a good father. Okay, but her son ends up killing someone, going to jail and getting butt fucked -- all because of Sonny's mob ties.

Maybe she could have urged AJ to go to AA.

R129 The only thing I liked about Trachta's Thorne is that his relationship with Macy was believable. Both of them were homely but they had enjoyable chemistry. Winsor Harmon was a much more appropriate casting choice and I loved his chemistry with KKL. Can't understand why they would recast the role now that they are apparently trying to go down that road again...

R136 That's VERY interesting. I had never thought of the "problem with Wright" but you hit the nail on the head: the professionalism shows in a bad way. It is efficient acting with no art and no heart. I still think the fact Carly is just an abominable character that there is nothing that could save it, regardless of actress, so might as well get one that knows what she is doing. Of course, I also think Maurice B. sucks the life out of every scene and every actress he is paired with and is absolutely dreadful.

R137, I agree; I think Ingo's fine in the role but the show invited Winsor to the fan event in August because it had plans to bring him back; people make a decision on whim and it really affects people's lives.

I always thought Clayton was canned as Thorne because he had way too much chemistry with Ronn. 'Oh, no, little brother, I'm going to be with Caroline.' "Oh, NO, Big Brother, Caroline is mine..."

Forget Caroline, they just wanted to go at it.

Winsor Harmon - just had a flashback to when they paired him with 17 or 18 year old SMG. That just seemed wrong.

Del Henry was a pointless character and a pointless recast.

Megyn Kelly

r137 totally agree with you. I LOVED the pairing of Thorne and Brooke. I hated that they just abruptly ended it and then treated it like they were never in love. It was so stupid because Stephanie had almost killed Brooke and Macy went crazy jealous. It created so much conflict and then eventually Stephanie relented and then Brooke went back to pining over Ridge.

KKL and WH created much more heat than her with the block of wood Ronn Moss.

[quote]Roger Howarth as Franco. Is this case I really like the actor, but they should have made him a long lost Q.

Franco with James Franco in the role was a short term celebrity guest stunt and a role that never should have been recast at all. Cartini did try to make Roger Howarth's Franco into a long lost Q in the beginning but GH fans were having none of it.

R143 OMG They literally broke them up in ONE WEEK worth of shows. After investing years of storyline into that coupling, Thorne overhears Brooke make an off-hand reference to Ridge as her soulmate, he confronts her the next episode, their marriage is annulled the next week. Of my thirty years of soap-watching, I still think of it as one of the most disrespectful moments to the audience that I have witnessed. So lackadaisical. Urgh. Makes me mad bringing it up again.

News of John Conboy's passing reminded me of another horrendous recast: Marty West. Boy was that a shitty move.

Ingo as Throne is a joke. He is a leading man not a little brother second banana. But that makes at least three people to play Thorne who like cock.

I hadn't heard that Lucci got rid of Deborah Goodrich; is there any truth to that, or is it just gossip trotted out by the folks who think Lucci is the devil?

I always assumed Goodrich was short-term based on her own career desires, she basically didn't miss a beat and went on to some prime time television and film appearances, until she stopped acting in the early 90s.

The faux Silver storyline remains one of my favorites 35 years later, thanks to the Goodrich and Lucci performances.

Lucci isn't the devil, but she didn't get to where she is by always being sweetness and light either. She has had to pull a switchblade from her weave every now and again, it's just part of the gig.

The one I have a harder time believing is that Lucci got rid of the first real Silver. They barely had any scenes (the character had amnesia and did not know she was Erica's sister until after the recast), she was pretty - but not the most attractive woman on the show, and while pretty ' she did not have a lot of presense. She would not have been a threat ti Lucci in this scene. Also, Lucciwould continue to have many scene with Collins (they restarted the Erica-Natalie fumed after the actress had been fired), and Collins was both very attractive and had a presense.

I suspect she was recast, because they wanted someone with better acting chops. She recast later had a lot of dramatic scenes. I have no idea about fake Silver, but she was such a presence, that would make a little more sense that Lucci would see her as a threat, although I have heard talk about that story line fondly.

I love Lucci but she did push to get rid of Faux Silver. It also helped that Deb was pretty much ready to leave. Lucci's reasoning was nothing against Deb it was against the Faux Silver character. She felt Faux Silver was damaging the Erica brand because way to many of the fans were loving how Faux Silver was bit by bit tearing apart Erica. Erica was becoming a laughing stock because the character was being attacked through humor. They had no idea how Faux Silver would become so popular so quickly. Everyone thought the reaction would be the opposite. People would root for Erica to discover Faux Silver. It was just the opposite. After all these years they loved seeing someone finally take Erica down a peg or two and it helped that it was hysterical.

The way the story was resolved though was an insult to the viewers. This comedic story line turned into this dramatic shooting and Connie Wilkes bullshit. It was a shitty ending and it was all Lucci.

Lucci got rid of the first real Silver, Rosalind Allen (aka Ingledew) because she was absolutely gorgeous and her character was moving in on Erica’s love interest Jeremy.

Susan Lucci was the Helen Lawson of daytime TV.

Lucci’s always had the rep of being an extremely nice lady but she’s human and occasionally felt “threatened,” especially after turning 40.

She's an actress.

The tit grabber who replaced a hot actor on Y&R.

I can believe Lucci didn't like the Faux Silver storyline, but I don't think she necessarily pushed to get "rid" of anyone...she always seemed to enjoy her "rivals"--Kate Collins was carrying the show for a bit there and by all accounts, Lucci and Collins loved working together.

Lucci lost her shit when Sarah Michelle Gellar got nominated in 94 and won in 95 best younger leading actress. Wanted her GONE..

What other Nina's. I don't think they ever recasted Taylor.

R199, go check this thread. The two terrible Nina recasts are shown.

I didn't mind the first Nina recast; she got hysterical a lot, but Zach and Melissa Leo drugged her and took naked pictures of her.

Taylor just was Nina. There just wasn't going to be any replacing her and they should have known.

I'm reading about this. I watched AMC and OLTL since a kid till they ended and I cannot remember any other Nina's. I knew there were other Tina's than Andrea Evans but I couldn't remember them, I went on youtube to see these names and I do recall Karen Witter now. I think the best way to judge if a recast was good or not is; first if you so digusted, everyone knows ala Emma Samms as Fallon, or you can't remember there have ever been one, ala these Nina recasts.

There was a JR recast of a guy that was so bad I just couldn't watch. Before Jacob Young.

r55, I blocked that shit out.

I loved Faux Silver.

[quote]Lucci got rid of the first real Silver, Rosalind Allen (aka Ingledew) because she was absolutely gorgeous and her character was moving in on Erica’s love interest Jeremy.

Except Erica had completely moved on from Jeremy, was in love with Travis and never seemed remotely interested in Jeremy again (Jeremy moved on to Natalie once the second real Silver went insane and died). Lucci has said that the Jeremy pairing was probably a mistake, because Erica acted out of character (thoughtful of other people's feelings) when she was with him, so I don't think she wanted to bring back that pairing.

I forgot about the JR recast during the Laurie - Joni era. There was also a really bad Jamie recast right before he became a teen.

I thought all Lucky Spencers were awful after Jonathan Jackson left. And so hated Natalia Livingston as Emily.

Was Real Silver really Erica's sister and did Erica have any interaction with her. I hated all those other Silvers and never paid attention. I just can't remember now.

Yes, Real Silver was her half sister. Goldie (get it?) was Silver’s mother. I remember when she was first mentioned (when Faux Silver got arrested) that she was an archeologist but I think they dropped that idea.

No wonder Lucci wanted Miss Faux gone. Thirty years later and someone who was on the show for a year still gets raves.

LOL, R170. Deborah Goodrich was really special.

Faux Silver got me into soaps! I had sort of watched Guiding Light with my older siblings, but I never really cared about soaps until one day in 1982 I was home from school--maybe it was during the summer??--and as I flipped through the channels I saw this mousy girl on a plane telling someone she was on the way to "Pine Valley" to meet her "famous" sister, Erica Kane. I was intrigued and kept watching. I remember a few months later the cliff hanger one day was the "reveal" of her makeover. I faked being sick the next day so I could stay home to see it. I begged and I got a VCR that Christmas.

I was in 7th grade. What a little homo!

Wasn't AMC running on all cylinders during the faux Silver era in general? Greg/Jenny/Liza/Tad, Cliff/Nina/Dack Rambo etc.

There are youtube clips of the Erica on the run and in jail portion of the story (where she is terrorized by Kathy Bates - who she calls a Rhino). They show where she meets Tad who offers to help her out for a price. He was definitely pretty, but had a dark streak. In later years, they still had him screw up, but they always went to the infidelity card, and overall still painted him as a good guy. If you see some of his earlier work, he really did have a bit of Ray Gardner in him. Not that he was evil, but he was not all bad jokes and goofy charm.

Faux Silver Era is Golden Age AMC.

Yeah AMC had everything from about 1979 until about 1990. Don't forget real Opal and Angie and Jesse. I think it was Real Opal that shook AMC back to life. They realized they could go big and it worked. Also Daisy and Palmer. Pheebs was in her prime. Brooke was still a major character. It was hard to point to something that wasn't working on AMC.

Remember when faux Silver was going on a blind date with a guy who was all excited to be going out with Erica Kane's sister? The makeover was a complete disaster and the opposite of what we were expecting.

Dorothy Lyman's hijinx would never be tolerated today. When running for office, she tells an African American not to worry about his food stamps. Remember when she told Langley that her heart was racing and she grabbed his hand and put it on her boob.

And speaking of bad recasts on AMC, remember the actor who left in a huff when he found out that his character's deep dark secret was that he was really a Nazi? They replaced him with another soap actor who'd been around for ages and it totally negated the effect of the storyline.

I think Opal was the first racist on daytime TV. They kind of retconned that, but it made her interesting.

There’s only 1 Jill Foster Abbott

Actually, both men who played Lars Bogard -- Robert Milli and Jack Betts -- were daytime veterans.

There’s a character on the UK soap EastEnders who’s really a modern day version of Real Opal-her name’s Karen Taylor and she’s also a racist.

Felicity LaFortune as Laurel Banning on AMC. She went from being this lovely blonde, (Kristen Jensen) who had great chemistry with Walt Willey, to the frumpy frau LaFortune about 3 months later. Suddenly, Walt Willey was prettier than his female co-star.

I love you, R172!

Well who didn't skip school to see Ms. F. Silver's reveal?

R181 I think that is why they paired Laurel with Trevor then; they were more convincing as a couple with that recast.

That really explains it, R184, thanks. I remember rooting for Robin Mattson's Janet, (one of my favorite recasts) every time she tried to kill Laurel, because I couldn't stand Laurel's sanctimonious attitude towards Janet.

I know she has her fans on DL, and I feel badly speaking ill of the dead (RIP), but when I first saw Roya Megnot as a recast Ava in Loving, my first thought was "isn't Ava supposed to be pretty?" To be fair, many people found Roya attractive... but I was not one of them.

Walt Willey once implied that the first Laurel was let go because she was a bit green and not ready to handle the daytime work load and scripts. While he liked Felicity, I think he felt the recast really changed the course of his story.

I think a lot of people were cheering on Janet when it came to Laurel. Felicity was a good actress, but they were really heavy handed on how "good" we were supposed to think she was. Oh look -- she lets her face get smudged when she plays catch with Timmy -- she is the salt of the earth who all kids and animals love because they sense her inner goodness.

I remember staring at Roya’s nostrils, which were not camera ready. She was a good actress, though.

It didn't help that they paired Roya with dreamy Perry Stephens (another RIP).

I don't remember Kristen Jensen being that bad in her first stint. Of course they didn't give her a lot of difficult material in her short stint. She said in one of the soap mags that she was blindsided by her firing and that the producers never voiced any concerns to her. She just rented out an apartment in NY just before she was fired.

Felicity LaFortune was a jarring recast. She couldn't be more different than Jensen. She was a stronger actress, but I hated her Laurel from her first scene (coming down the stairs with a baseball to play ball with Timmy) and her character only became even more insufferable. I will say, I'm not sure Jensen could've pulled off the scenes where Laurel killed her ex (played by Kale Brown) in self defense. I think Melody Anderson (who was totally wrong for Natalie) would've made for a better Laurel. Closer in looks to the original and could've played her in a more likeable way than Lafortune.

Melody Anderson was apparently a cunt, though, so would have been out the door nevertheless.

I think they tried to play off Anderson leaving as saying she got a part in a TV movie about Marilyn Monroe. I think the real reason was that she was not accepted by viewers as Natalie and wasn't working out. Of course she might have been difficult as well and that played a part in it was well. Although I remember hearing that Kiberd liked her.

I thought both recasts of Pierce were awful. Greg Wrangler was just plain awful in the role and Maxwell Caulfield, while a better actor, was not believable as a former mercenary at all.

I remember there being some kind of controversy behind the hunky original Pierce ( Jim Fitzpatrick) being fired, but I can't find anything. Anyone else remember?

Pierce was inappropriate with a female fan at a fan event and I believe drunk. There might have been groping involved. He was gone immediately and the Pierce story never really recovered as they scrambled with the quick departure. It was bad timing because it was in the middle of the story line involving both Brooke and Janet.

I think they really wanted the Pierce character to work. I think they were hoping he would be a leading man/hunk for the show. I think it would've succeeded if Fitzpatrick stayed in the role. He was hunky, a good enough actor and was liked by viewers.

But I don't think they had much choice in letting him go. Supposedly he was caught groping the woman and he was also married. The female fans wouldn't support him after that, most likely. But you never know, since Michael Muhney had his supporters over at Y&R.

Drew Carey replacing Bob Barker.

If you're going to go there R197, Sherri Shepherd replacing Bob Eubanks. I know, I know.

Wayne Brady replacing Monty Hall in Let's Make A Deal.

Steve Harvey replacing anyone on Family Feud

R40 It was HILARIOUS how then EP Paul Rauch and head writer Maria Arena Bell tried to sell the Darius McCrary recast of "Malcolm Winters." .. From their interview with Michael Fairman:

---------------

MICHAEL:When the two of you are in auditions together, do you know immediately when the right actor walks in for the part you are casting?

MARIA: We have been really in sync, such as the character of Daisy. When Yvonne Zima came in to read for that role, it was like, “Wow, did she pop!” She made us go, “Oh, my gosh. She is fantastic!” You just feel it…. that everything we have talked about in regards to that character, and then that person walks in, you know it. It was also true of Darius.

PAUL: The Darius McCray audition was one of the greatest the network had seen in 20 years.

MARIA: The quality of the actors that were up for the role was extraordinarily high. Everyone who came in for the final audition, and there were four in the finals, they were all fantastic. They were all very different from one another, and in the end, it was about this kind of special quality that Darius had. We just felt that “Star Quality”.

---------------

Meanwhile, viewers were like, you can't be serious!?. .. Malcom is supposed to be a fashion photographer, and Darius couldn't even hold and operate a camera properly.

Finola Hughes and Susan Lucci did not get along at all. I do think Finola learned from it. She basically comes to work, does her scenes and goes home. She doesn't get involved with co-stars much at all.

Jim Fitzpatrick can cum inside me!

[quote] Meanwhile, viewers were like, you can't be serious!?. .. Malcom is supposed to be a fashion photographer, and Darius couldn't even hold and operate a camera properly.

Not to mention that Shemar "Shimmy" Moore is one of the most beautiful men in the world....and Darius McCrary was a fat, sweaty, ashy dude whose face looked like a bulldog's ass,

For a show that in the 1980s and 1990s had great recasts, Guiding Light had some truly terrible ones later on.

Michael Dempsey as Alan-Michael, looking 20 years younger than the character.

Toby Poser as Amanda

Nancy St Alban as Michelle

And perhaps the all time worst recast - Nicole Forester as Cassie Layne.

I don't think Goodrich was crying after leaving AMC. Her acting career started to grow but then she just left acting. Then she became some kind of script writer or consultant. Something like that. How I don't know. Then she became a pretty high level producer....or something like that. How I don't know. Then she became besties with Julia Roberts. How I don't know. Then she married some kind of mogul and gets up at noon.

R204 Based on looks, about the only role DM should have played on Y&R would be "Prison Thug No. 4."

the bad teen Jamie and JR's were ripped to shreds more than once in a daytime mag; it got repetitive and overkill.

we get it. they can't act.

The "bad teen Jamie", Micah Alberti, used to date Rumer Willis.

Andrew Ridings, the "bad teen JR" has had a pretty decent career post-AMC.

I did not think Micah was that bad it was Mute Jamie the adolescent right before him that was bad. Not sure why they cast someone so big for someone who was supposed to be a vulnerable child. I think he was supposed to be a pre-teen -although he was a teen months later with a recast.

Frances Reid was an ok recast of the original Alice Horton.

Jeffrey Meek as Craig Montgomery. Oye vey!

[quote] It was bad timing because it was in the middle of the story line involving both Brooke and Janet.

Those stories really fucked over poor Julia Barr (Brooke).

Within a few years the Pierce thing fizzled out because of the emergency recast, there was the thing where Roscoe Born quit and walked off the set, and then the whole thing where they decided that the hot man she'd been seeing was actually the one that drunkenly hit Laura with his car.

The Reverend story was an example of a soap shooting itself in the foot trying to have a shocking twist. They could have simply had him be someone who had killed someone drunken driving and Brooke might have gotten past it, but they had to have the shocking twist he was Laura's killer with plastic surgery so she did not recognize him. Of course the actor was about a foot taller than the original driver and aged about 15 years (the cop who ran over Laura was a peer of Cecily ). The audience could not buy that Brooke would ever forgive him (and they were right) so he was gone. Too bad, because I liked the actor and he had chemistry with Brooke.

I have no idea what they were thinking when they had Brooke be involved with a child pornographer -- who of course had happened to victimize Laura. Then they have her shoot him in the back and go on trial for murder claiming justifiable homicide.

Great actress great character, and perfect foil for Erica, but I am not sure she truly had a good story line after Edmund and the ill-advised marriage to Tad (which also seemed out of character, since she was smart enough to know Tad really loved Dixie and Brooke was at a point where she did to marry a man just because he was the father of her child).

So Brooke was involved with the revolving Piereces to dating the person who did pornos with her underage daughter Laura (and also murdered a plane full of people), to dating a reverend who had a complete face reconstruction so she could not recognize him as the person who killed her other daughter (whose name her adopted daughter shared making their initial story line have a bit of a creepy stalker feel to it). Later Laura the second was recast by an actress so bad, people cheered for Greenlee to toss her off a boat and they ended up writing her off as crazy.

Later after years of fans wanting her back with Edmund they had them marry only to have Brooke again act out of character and hide the fact that Maria, Edmund;s wife did not die on the plane crash cause by Brooke's ex-boyfriend [who she killed] but was alive. This was also when I knew AMC was never coming back and might have stopped watching for the most part. They had a triangle with a lot of history and good chemistry between all the characters and immediately got rid of one of the parties and instead brought in pretty boy Aiden with no history to be the tension in the triangle and had Maria run around in a bikini like she was 20 years old.

Finally they ended up taking her off contract and just had her disappear - no exit story and just some rare random references that she was somewhere on assignment. They really did not treat her like she deserved to be treated. At least she was used well with Adam's exit and the finale and had some good scenes with Adam and with Erica.

[quote] Finally they ended up taking her off contract and just had her disappear - no exit story and just some rare random references that she was somewhere on assignment.

That was one of the things that they fixed nicely when Lorraine Broderick came back to shore up the show. Giving Brooke a nice ending was a good thing.

R213 , I'm actually one of the few who really liked Jeff Meek on ATWT. He was a very good actor...he just wasn't Craig Montgomery. I think it had to do with his dark looks. He would have been perfect as a Stenbeck son or brother. Scott Bryce was the only Craig for me. Hunt Block was entertaining, but if he was called on to be anything but comic or sarcastic, he was absolutely awful. Jon Lindstrom was even worse...he made Craig boring.

Loved Jason Thompson as Robin's husband Patrick Drake on GH, but I just don't think he's right for the role of Billy on Y&R.

And even though Laura Wright has been playing Carly for almost 13 years on GH, I'd love to see someone like Gina Tognoni take on the role. Gina has a similar acting style, but I think she would have more chemistry with just about anyone on GH, where as the only person Laura Wright had any chemistry with was Ingo Rademacher.

By the way, I realize that Gina has been playing Phyllis on y&r, but it seems like her character hasn't had much to do on the show these days.

Love reading about AMC. I forgot about how good the show was and then r215 brilliantly summarizing how it went downhill (I forgot Brooke was in those horrible stories).

Love hearing about Robin Mattson as Janet. Definitely one of the best recasts.

The problem with AMC is it lost way too much talent all at once. It went into a tailspin and never pulled out of it. They just didn't seem to know what to do with anyone. Mattson was terrific in anything she ever did in the soap world. She never phoned it in. Not once. She wasn't right for Dee on Ryan's Hope but that wasn't really her fault.

I think AMC was good until about 96 or 97 -- the TadMic/Dixie/Liza - Michael (and Kevin) coming out - and the Erica drug stories were all good and Janet had not been turned into the Mrs. Trevor Dilllon stepford wife yet. I think it was then mediocre for a few years and was on the verge of being good again with the addition of David, Vanessa, Leo, pre-Ryan Greenlee, Eden's Bianca, but it did not stick and they wasted the potential of the characters. By the mid-aughts it probably started the decline that never stopped.

While not a "worst" recast per se, how about Jayne Bentzen as Nicole Travis on TEON. They called the character Nicole, but that wasn't really Nicole.

I agree about Laura Wright as carly and Gina would have made a much better fit.

Never understood the Annie recast on GL with blind Hope taking over the role.

I believe Most roles can be recast but when Jacob Young took over for JJ As Lucky it was a hot mess!!!

Greg Vaughan I liked but the way Lucky was written it was intentional to make his Lucky look like an idiot!

Some of the Kevin and Joey recasts on OLTL were god awful.

jacob Young was also one of the better recasts when he took over the role of JR Chandler, not that there was a real strong actor in the role previously, so that probably made it easier.

Gina was offered Victoria Newman at the time of GL's cancellation but didn't take it. I think the next year was when Heinle won an Emmy and her onscreen chemistry with Billy Miller was truly good so she grew into the part.

I thought Victoria Mallory was a dud as Leslie on Y&R. Mind you, Leslie was always a meek mousy type, but Janice Lynde suggested more because she was physically not the type. Mallory couldn't bridge that to leading lady.

[quote] think the next year was when Heinle won an Emmy and her onscreen chemistry with Billy Miller was truly good so she grew into the part.

Heinle has always been a terrible Victoria and that Emmy was bought and paid for.

Yeah, Signy Coleman as nuAnnie was horrible.

Did Lucci and Dorothy Lyman get along? Lyman won back-to-back Emmys (in 1982 and 1983) including in Susan's category of Lead Actress. I thought I read once that after Lyman won in 1983, Susan pounded the table and stormed out of the ceremony.

Lucci actually flipped the table over when she lost in '83, which shockingly revealed Ruth Warrick on all fours servicing Fra Heflin. It was not a pretty sight.

R229 It's hilarious how Heinle puts herself in the supporting Emmy category (her two wins) when really she's been Y&R's screenhog lead for years, often getting the most episodes of any actress on the show. Who the hell does she think she's supporting, that mop of hair?

Yes, Faux-Silver was great. Blew Lucci away here.

I had totally forgotten that beautiful, bisexual, Big Dick Dack Rambo was on All My Children.

Wasn't the deal that this Silver became the faux Silver because Lucci realized how she was being outacted and outdone?

The "real" Silver was, unsurprisingly, dull and in and out of PV in a flash.

Thanks for posting, R234. I love the bit when Faux Silver yells “YOU THREW ME OUT!” and Lucci flinches and puts her hand up to her face. I have a feeling Lucci wasn’t expecting the line to be yelled out like that. Goodrich was really terrific.

Both Goodrich and Lucci were terrific in that scene. I watched a few of the videos expecting Lucci to be hammy and overacting, but she did a good job of it.

The thing about Lucci in that scene is that she comes off as timid and scared, which is unusual for the character. She is in a way overpowered, but I think part of it is the character is being overwhelmed at that point with Silver having all the power. This is kind of the bookend to the scene starting at about 3 minutes where the roles are reversed. Before that you can see Tad being thwarted by Joe in obtaining Erica's award money. I loved Joe, and was a great character, but he did not exactly show a lot of range of emotions. He really was Ward Cleaver.

R29 Her name should have been Karen Witless. Cute Playboy centerfold but not a good actress. I didn't mind KT . Unlike Witter she wasn't doing a bad impression of Andrea Evans.

R229 She is a blah actress BUT she is pretty fucking hot. I wonder if she pulled a Lewinsky on the soap opera version of Heavy Whalestein .......

I reemember when Heinle was on AMC, she was not bad, but not exactly irreplaceable or indispensable. I don't think it helped that the show did not really know what they wanted with the character - was she a bad girl out for revenge - was she a good girl who wanted a relationship - p lus they changed her hair style and color every two weeks. Plus, the whole sex in the city vibe they tried to get with the Fusion Girls was more annoying than anything else.

Speaking of AMC. Antoinette Byron as the original Skye was fabulous. She had a saucy Aussieness about her. Then they bring in pretty white ethnic , Robin Christopher, and the whole thing became a snoozefest. RC is a cute girl but an overrated actress.

R235, Dack Rambo was about as bisexual as Richard Simmons.

I would pay good money to see a video of Rambo boning Cover Up star Anthony Hamilton.

Rambo bisexual? hahahahahhahahahhahahahahhahahhahahahahhahahhah

I'm trying to remember the timing on the Faux Silver story. I think she may have started in the summer of '82, when I was watching over school break. Then she started to go from duckling to swan in late '82, and I caught those episodes on Thanksgiving and Christmas break. Kent probably died early '83, so I caught up over winter break, and I remember Erica hiding out at the boardinghouse so that was probably spring break. But then when summer rolled around, Silver was gone, and when I heard how they finished the storyline I was a little let down.

Watching those clips, I feel much the same way. It could be the way they're edited, but the whole story seems so rushed at the end. Tad shows up with the info and a week or two later, Silver's gone. I really felt like they could have played it out a little further. (Or even better, kept Silver around as a villain, like Heather Webber.)

Funny to think I was 14 at the time, but the Silver story remains one of my favorite soap plots. I wish there were more clips of the early Silver, when she was still mousy.

Then to think I was watching my favorite soap storyline (Diana Taylor's murder) when I was 12 - 13 years old. I watched more soap operas between 1980-1985 than I've watched in the 30+ years since!

I'm loving that so many of us young gaylings were obsessed with Faux Silver!

I always thought they should have brought back Connie Wilkes (her real identity) to get revenge on Erica and Tad. It would have been hard to top Goodrich, though...not sure who could have played it.

Maggie Impert owns this thread.

It's Margie, you bug eyed bitch!

I still maintain that when Erica was held hostage by an Erica double during the last year of AMC it should have been revealed that it was actually Connie Wilkes who’d spent her years out of prison getting extensive plastic surgery.

R186 I feel bad feeling that way but I too have had some recasts that bothered me because of them simply not being attractive enough. I could never get past it with Sandra Nelson (Y&R) or (sorry to say) Larkin Malloy as Loving's Clay Alden (talk about nostrils!).

R251, I thought the same thing!

Debbi Morgan’s replacement as Angie (Sandra something) was woeful.

Never knew they had a fake Angie.

Fake Angie was Sandra Quaterman, who went on to star in several seasons of the ABC sitcom, HANGIN' WITH MR. COOPER.

AMC's first Taylor Roxbury-Cannon, Ingrid Rogers, was classy and was a great character. Loved when she went "undercover" as a basic white girl! After three years, they recast her with "sexier" Kelli Taylor to be a foil for the Julia/Noah romance and that made Taylor a HATED character.

AMC had some big balls to think they could just recast some of these iconic characters.

Peter Bergman as Jack on Y&R.. Zero charisma and sex appeal. Zero charm and wit. He worked up mannerisms and a demeanor and the daytime media swooned "He played good guy Cliff but look he can play Jack!" No, he couldn't. He was miscast.

Also years ago on B&B Lane Davies filled in for Ron Moss for six weeks. Now Davies can act some and Moss really can't, but that was ludicrously miscast.

The only good Tinas on OLTL were Andrea Evans and Karen Witter.

Did they recast Judith Light's character?

Kudos to the first poster who called her Faux Silver. Fake Silver was just so declasse.

R260, Judith Light was actually a replacement as Karen Wolek but they never brought in another Karen after Light left.

There were two fake Gregs on AMC

Many thanks to the Faux Silver posters. I've availed myself of some of 1982-83 on YT but more importantly, I got sucked into that damn Natalie (her voice is so sexy) hiding other Silver's body under the coffee table in 1988. God, that's good. AMC is largely new to me, it aired too early in my market to catch it when I was in school.

Dead Silver on the floor and Natalie in silk pajamas, holding baby Timothy and assuring him that Mother is here. Kate was amazing.

Did anyone bring up the Fake Lizas? They rival All My Ninas.

Fake Angie was short-lived. I don't think they anticipated Morgan would quit. I believe Morgan was not happy about the firing of Bergman and the reason for it (to appease the people complaining about a mixed race couple).

I forgot about the fake Taylor. The first one was great, and had started out as a bitchy schemer, so she would have been great as a foil to Noah and Julia. I actually thought they had watered her down too much and made her too nice. She was also really pretty - very classy looking and made more sense as a real threat to Julia and could have been a long term character causing problems with her plotting - alal a young Erica Kane - vs. the recast simply going the boring psycho route.

I loved Cliff and Angie. Can't believe how they just cut that story off. Nina was my all time favorite character and even I accepted her moving on and Cliff moving on. It pisses me off that so many, well nearly all, of the fans just couldn't let it go.

r210 , in what? I never heard of him. His mouth is funny.

I think Fake Angie lasted about a year, though, that was way too long.

I think fake Greg up above (Don Scardino) was one of Betsy's boyfriends pre-Meg Ryan.

Scardino was also one of Nancy McGowan’s boyfriends on AW.

Faux Liza Jamie Luner was fucking awful.

[quote]Faux Liza Jamie Luner was fucking awful.

Was it Pratt whose great skills of diplomacy trumpeted how Lunar would show the cast a thing or two on how the job was done? I don;t think he was loved on the set. Lucci has publicly spoken out about two people in 40 years and he was one of them (along with Frons).

She might have been fine as a different character, but was all wrong for the role of Liza.

Jamie Luner would have been okay as a recast Julie Chandler, who actually left Pine Valley for law school. She's also related to the Chandlers, Kanes, and Cortlandts. They brought "Liza", who'd been a tv producer, back as a lawyer. I get that Marcy Walker got religion and didn't want to come back, but they could have brought in someone like Mary Beth Evans or Beth Chamberlin to play Liza and scrapped the lawyer crap.

There was so much history Liza had with Jesse, Angie, Tad, Opal...Luner just looked too young to be their contemporary.

R272, yes I remember him - Chris Chapin. He was also in the movie Cruising as Al Pacino's gay friend.

I didn't mind Jill Larson as Opal. She brought some comedy to the show when it often sorely needed it. But Lyman was spectacular.

I also like Joan Collins' spin on Alexandra more than Marj's.

And way too ugly to be greg.

Did Lau ever come out?

[R. 275] I think Jamie Luner would have been too young to play Julie Chandler as well.

Jamie Luner was totally wrong for Liza, but she added some much needed spice to the show when it was a shell of it's former self.

Sandra Quarterman was miscast as Angie but was a good actress though. She was too young to be Angie too although she looked/seemed older than her actual age.

Kelli Taylor was totally different than Ingrid Rogers in just about every way. I didn't dislike her but they made her Taylor pretty unlikeable. They essentially sacrificed the Taylor character to prop Julia and Noah, although they didn't need to. I've heard rumors that even though KT version was supposed to have been sexier, she took negative remarks by fans about her looks to heart and drastically changed her looks during the latter half her stint. She chopped off her long, curly hair and lost a noticeable amount of weight.

R279 Apparently not, since he posts pictures of himself and the woman he refers to as his 'girlfriend.' In 2016, he said they were celebrating their 6th anniversary together. This is from 2017.

The ultimate is definitely Melody Anderson replacing the brilliant Kate Collins (as mentioned plenty above) but a less consequential but no less character ruining moment happened when Matt Borlenghi left the role of Brian Bodine on AMC. I can’t recall the actor’s name who replaced him (or even find online which says everything) but Brian went from teen dream heartthrob to a wussy weenie. Matt B’s chemistrg with Cady McClain was fantastic. I still remember their first love scene set to Bruce Springsteen’s Human Touch. And then the new actor looked like someone who couldn’t throw down to save his life. Brian went away soon after.

Brian Lane Green is the actor who replaced Matt. I remember him not being much of an actor, but I still thought he was cute... And turns out he's gay in real life.

The three Brian's were all very different. The first one (Gregory Gordon) was cute but just was bland. Borlenghi wasn't the best actor but he did have presence and was sexy. The best Brian by far. Lane Green was my least favorite. He had no romantic chemistry with Cady McClain and was an underwhelming actor.

I found a Variety puff piece with AMC actors of yore singing Kelly Ripa’s praises and apparently she and Matt Borlenghi had lots of on set fights. They had great chemistry as well, so it actually translated nicely. When he came back years later, lightning didn’t strike twice. It wasn’t a triumphant return. At that point, no one could be believable romantic competition for Mark Consuelos who was sex on a stick.

R285, Lane Green was a complete queen. I saw him on the Tony Awards in Starmites and he was a joke as a romantic lead. The included clip is often referenced as the worst musical number ever on the Tonys.

[quote]Brian Lane Green is the actor who replaced Matt. I remember him not being much of an actor, but I still thought he was cute... And turns out he's gay in real life.

Green was also the worst of the Sam Fowlers on Another World.

Wasn't Brian's (Matt;s) return always supposed to be short term? Part of the problem with his return is that they changed the character. I barely remember it - but I think he was now a slick Hollywood type where he had been an honest salt of the earth character during his first run of the show.

Hayley and Mateo had good chemistry, but I thought it was mistake to tied a daughter of Adam Chandler to one man and settling down as the owner of a bar, esp. since they did it while she was in early twenties. She should have been involved with some of the corporate intrigue and had a number of relationships instead of just basically becoming Mrs. Mateo Santos. They really seemed reluctant to truly break them up. I think the most they ever even went was having Hayley kiss Ryan (who she actually had chemistry with) and Mateo being manipulated by the mother of his unknown child.

R286, puff pieces usually don't contain dish on backstage squabbles.

R259 Karen Witter was hot BUT she couldn't act for shit. Andrea's eyebags should have had their own show......

Peter Bergman has done well with Jack. Of course Terry Lester was better but alas Empress Terry is gone.

Much in the same vein, Jess Walton is a good actress(much better than MBD) BUT she was so wrong for Jill. Miss Brenda's camp act was beyond fabulous. I think Jess Walton is attractive and talented but she wasn't sultry and campy like Miss Brenda Dickson was.

R282 Can anyone get a walker for her? She's a gilf at best when Ms Lau could get much better.

I loved when Real Jill always flirted with the masseuse until he finally flirted back. Then she had him fired for flirting.

R290. Agree puff pieces don’t usually discuss on set friction but I left out that they eventually made peace and he now adores her. Pardon me for leaving that out!

A lot of recasts come in and the character changes!

Brenda D is Jill Abbott!

Loved Karen Witter but she made Tina a viable leading lady not the scheming bimbo vixen that the one and only Andrea Evans perfected!!!

General Hospital's Gia Campbell, going from beautiful model Marisa Ramirez to plain Jane Andrea Pearson was a lousy recast that stands out.

Oriiginal Gia was great with recast Nik, but once original Nik came back, they dropped their coupling. Recast Gia wanted to be a lawyer and then faded into the background?

Actually, recast Gia was already on GH before original Nik came back. Recast Gia and recast Nik quickly fizzled as soon as she joined the show.

R294, I found the piece and read it; Matt said Kelly will mention him by name during the morning chat on LIVE!

If she does that then they DID make up. The piece was for a Variety tribute to Kelly when she got her star on the walk of fame so yeah, it's not going to be a tell-all.

I remember watching as a kid when my mother had the soaps on, and when there was a re-cast or fill-in, an announcer would come on and say "The role of Dr. Bill Smith is now being played by John Brown". Does anyone else remember those announcements or am I having an aneurysm? Was it only done on certain shows? Certain networks?

R300 Yes, those announcements were the norm for quite some time.

they still do it.

I think they did it on Ingo's first day as Thorne.

Drew Garrett and Chad Duell sucked donkey balls!

Drew Garrett would have been a better Will than Guy Wilson.

Chad's Michael always looks constipated.

He's a beautiful young man with shiny hair and nice skin, but I see him ready to say his next line and he looks all backed up.

He kills every scene he's in.

I hope he never reads this.

Poor Dylan Cash. Getting recast was inevitable once puberty took over and didn't do him any favors.

Chad Duell DOES have the Dick of Death, remember.

If he gives it to Frankie V I'm sure that's why he's still there.

I can say that making Starr Manning "Kiki" was a wipeout.

Bovina as a sexy chick? Ow my sides!

The recast of Babe Chandler on All My Children. We see her mother give her a hug and she's Alexa Havins and when she pulls away she's Amanda Baker.

R78 But Lawrence Lau was still very hot at that time so I didn't mind. I'm a sucker for his southern twang.