106 replies to this topic

[CarlD2]

This has been discussed a million times before, but so has everything else.

This is only about recasts of actors you liked, not about recasts of actors you hated.

What was the longest amount of time it took you to fully accept a recast of an actor/character you were extremely fond of?

What was the shortest amount of time?

What was the longest amount of time you were never able to fully accept a recast?

My longest to fully accept:

GL - Blake Marler (Sherry Stringfield to Liz Keifer) - 3 and a half to 4 years.

Shortest:

Ryan's Hope - Delia Reid Ryan Ryan Coleridge (Ilene Kristen to Randall Edwards) - um...about two or three episodes, if that. *

* (I'm not counting the Betty Boop woman who played Delia in the interim for a week or two)

Never able to fully accept:

ATWT, Emily Stewart (Melanie Smith to Kelley Menighan Hensley). 18 years. Sorry Kelley! Fortunately for her, I was one of the few.

Edited by CarlD2, 12 November 2012 - 08:40 PM.

[Cheap21]

Laura Wright as Carly. Ive only now started to warm up to her

[CarlD2]

So that's 7 years?

[marceline]

I've said this before many times: I don't do recasts.

The only recasts I ever grew to fully accept were both on OLTL. Dan Gauthier as Kevin and Trevor St. John as Todd.

DG was fairly easy to accept after Tim Gibbs. If he'd come on right after Stapleton, I probably wouldn't have ever accepted him.

It took a while for me to accept TSJ as Todd because, believe it or not, I loved RH but after "Walker" told Starr that he was Todd, I was 100% on board.

Never able to accept:

KDP as Blair. I never stopped wondering what it would've been like if Mia Korf were still in the role.

Bree Williamson as Jessica. The show used the recast to take Jessica in "a new direction." I found that direction to be unpalatable to say the least.

GL:

While I think Liz Kiefer did great work as Blake, for me the role began and ended with Sherry Stringfield. Even though my first introduction to the character was Elizabeth Dennehy and it took me a while to accept Sherry in the role after her. (When I saw I don't do recasts, I mean it.)

Special award goes to:

AMC:

Amanda Baker as Babe. I was sick to death of Alexa Havins and hated the character of Babe but AB did such amazing work at the end with Babe's death after the tornado.

Jill Parsons' Opal. I loved her but part of me always wondered what the role would be like if Dorothy Lyman were in it. Lyman's Opal was equal parts dark and comic. Parsons Opal wasn't written that way.

Edited by marceline, 12 November 2012 - 09:01 PM.

[Mr. Vixen]

Laura Wright as Carly. Ive only now started to warm up to her

Me too, but she's still the worst of the 4.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Sherry Stringfield is still the ONLY Blake to me, just as Kimberly Simms is the ONLY Mindy to me. I'm sorry, I never gave one sh!t about Krista Tesreau.

Edited by Y&RWorldTurner, 12 November 2012 - 09:09 PM.

[Cheap21]

Me too, but she's still the worst of the 4.

Oh IA, but Im finally at a point where I can stomach her and actually enjoy her onscreen

[Mr. Vixen]

It took me a long time but I eventually learned to love Maura West as Diane, even though she was miscast.

[CarlD2]

Sherry Stringfield is still the ONLY Blake to me, just Kimberly Simms is the ONLY Mindy to me. I'm sorry, I never gave one sh!t about Krista Tesreau.

I began to like Keifer's Blake more when they embraced some of the unintentional comedy of the character, which Keifer played well. I never stopped totally missing Sherry, but i was able to get used to Keifer. I think it was around that hideous "twins with two fathers" story that I thought was unplayable.

[marceline]

Sherry Stringfield is still the ONLY Blake to me, just Kimberly Simms is the ONLY Mindy to me. I'm sorry, I never gave one sh!t about Krista Tesreau.

Tesreau was my first Mindy so she was the definitive one for me but Simms did a damn good job in the role.

Speaking of Tesreau reminds me of two other recasts...

I thought that Karen Witter was a great recast for Tina Lord. I didn't miss AE a bit.

While I thought Grace Philips did a decent job as Sarah Buchanan, nothing and no one could ever have taken Jensen Buchanan's place.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I think I came around to Liz too, but it just wasn't the same character I had fallen in love with initially.

Mindy was a harder pill to swallow - Ann Hamilton, Barbara Crampton, and yes Krista Tesreau?

Kimberly Simms was entirely underrated, and by far the definitive Mindy to me.

Edited by Y&RWorldTurner, 12 November 2012 - 09:16 PM.

[Faulkner]

Sherry Stringfield is still the ONLY Blake to me, just as Kimberly Simms is the ONLY Mindy to me. I'm sorry, I never gave one sh!t about Krista Tesreau.

Word. Never warmed to Liz Keifer. And KS was my first Mindy and certainly the best I saw. Barbara Crampton? Pffft.

Admittedly, I'm not good with recasts. I don't think there's even been one I fully accepted, unless the originator(s) of the role wasn't particularly noteworthy (like Sharon Case's predecessors on Y&R).

[CarlD2]

Kim was my first Mindy, and I just adored her, especially before Nick came around, and she had the stories with Mallet and Roger.

I thought I'd like Barbara Crampton, based on Y&R, but she was drained of all life - I still don't get that.

I liked Krista's brief return appearances. If she'd been there permanently, I'm not sure how I would have reacted. When I go back to her first run, I think she played that Mindy very well (flighty, spoiled, big heart). Kimberley played the more broken, but still sultry, Mindy. I'm sorry she didn't get a chance to come back a little longer in the late 90s.

Marj Dusay is another GL recast I sort of accepted, around the time of the ridiculous Hawk/Alex stuff which she played with gusto. I never totally accepted her, but I grew to like her.

I did totally accept Joan Collins though.

[Faulkner]

Unpopular opinion: but I totally dug Krista Tesreau as Tina on OLTL. I'd seen only a little of Karen Witter, as OLTL wasn't really my show. (And I'd never seen AE's Tina, which might explain my lack of knowledge of the character's uniqueness.) But she and Tuc Watkins had probably the most sizzling chemistry I've seen in my years of soap watching.

[marceline]

Marj Dusay is another GL recast I sort of accepted, around the time of the ridiculous Hawk/Alex stuff which she played with gusto. I never totally accepted her, but I grew to like her.

I think I was the same way about Marj. I loved her and always thought she was wildly talented but I often wondered how McKinsey would've done things. THat was a case where I thought the recast and the originator were equally talented yet simply had different styles.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I don't think I ever accepted Marj - I just saw her as one big stuttering hot tranny mess most of the time. I preferred her on AMC though.

McKinsey had just defined that role, just as Chris Bernau defined Alan.

[CarlD2]

I think I was the same way about Marj. I loved her and always thought she was wildly talented but I often wondered how McKinsey would've done things. THat was a case where I thought the recast and the originator were equally talented yet simply had different styles.

Well, Marj had poor writing for about 90% of her tenure. I never could imagine anyone but Beverlee McKinsey in the role, but so much of what they gave Alex was so poor (which is one of the reasons McKinsey left - that started in her last year as Alex). She was campier, way too campy, but she also had a bad hand. I think when she played Vanessa she got more of a chance to show her range.

[Faulkner]

I think I was the same way about Marj. I loved her and always thought she was wildly talented but I often wondered how McKinsey would've done things. THat was a case where I thought the recast and the originator were equally talented yet simply had different styles.

Love Marj, but for me it was like Glenn Close subbing in for Meryl Streep. Brilliant actress in her own right, but she was replacing THE best ever. And yeah, I was always imagining how Bev would play a scene, whether she was railing against Roger or flirting with Fletcher.

[CarlD2]

I've said this before many times: I don't do recasts.

Did you ever watch Ryan's Hope? That show was like the Let's Make a Deal of recasts, you never knew what would be behind the curtain. Recasts were even blamed by some like Carolyn Hinsey for the show's death (I think it was inability to move on from the same few stories). They had three of my favorite recasts ever (Randall, Daniel Hugh Kelley, John Blazo). Then they had others I...would rather forget.

[chicklitsandfantasies]

Which soap had recasts that were consistently worse than the originals?