Vee

A lot of fans disliked Sabrina, that's why she got written off. I don't think she needed to be among the multiple young women slaughtered in succession at the time though.

Lorenzo was definitely the most fleshed out with a deep backstory. They did a great deal with him very quickly and it worked out. It was when he became a direct threat to Sonny's primacy with the audience that they began working to emasculate and marginalize him in story and with women. The Jacob thing was also stronger because at the time, audiences pretty much accepted that Jesse's death was permanent and untouchable. It was a big shock when he came back for real in '08. Y&R could bring Hilary back tomorrow and no one would blink - the Amanda thing doesn't work.

Jacob on Loving/The City worked, but he was also pretty much just Jesse Hubbard.

Yeah, it should never have happened despite her doing a good job. Bringing on a prominent actor as a new character is almost always stupid to me unless it is somehow directly tied into the prior character like a twin or what not, and even then it usually fails.

I think he was very good at that, as I said. The problem was the show wanted to write both the sociopath he was often playing onscreen/trolling the show with and the romantic hero in one at the same time. It was disgusting on the creative team's part. There's a reason the Two Todds story happened, and it's because TSJ had no interest in playing anything but the darkest side of the character after his first couple years on the show. He checked out on anything but subversion. That had happened with Howarth too back in the day, but Roger returned engaged; Trevor didn't get there again until his brief appearance on Prospect Park. The character he ended up being given is a fascinating changeling sort of villain we'll sadly probably never see again, but that's all Victor is to me. You can never center a show around a pair of rapists again.

He was good sometimes. Other times he was awful. YMMV.

There was never any credible rumor about TSJ joining the show. When he's engaged he can play very compelling, creepy and at times seductive villains. When you ask him to play much else he tunes out and starts trolling the camera.

Failed? Cassie was a beloved character for decades over several actors (I still know some people who talk up Ava Haddad), Laura Bonarrigo was on the show for the better part of a decade herself and fans were not happy when she was fired. She had a lot of support, particularly with the Kevin pairing. I liked Rohm on Angel. But I'd love to know just what happened BTS, because they were pushing her hard as a potential love interest for Angel and then wrote her out in some weird ways. I know the fans weren't big on her at the time at all. I still feel bad for Annie Parisse re: L&O.

Meanwhile, Meghann Fahy (Hannah, OLTL) is doing Season 2 of The White Lotus.

Lord. Kate doesn't need any more roles that could easily border on caricature.

Because Joss is under 25, white and fulfills the Starr/Kristen Alderson archetype Frank has been desperate to fill on this show for years.

Nazanin Boniadi (Leyla, GH) co-stars on Amazon's new Lord of the Rings show.

Laura being somehow coerced into a marriage of convenience (and nothing else, ever!) with Victor would be a fun storyline, so of course it won't happen.

What was the deal with Higley and the guy with the goo who Bo and Hope were hunting down again? Oh, I know, it's so ridiculous. I remember groaning audibly when it turned out somehow Steve's captors were Stefano too. At least on GH they interconnected their supervillains many years ago.

Oscar is roasting in Hell with Morgan.

I think the idea was for poor Ian Buchanan to replace the ailing Joe Mascolo as the new villain and oof, what a debacle. I did always like that writing team despite their social media wars, so I was pleased to be validated when at least one of them had a solid run at AMC 2.0.

I think fans tend to conjure up theories about characters they truly love at the drop of a hat, get overexcited and just repost shít without fact-checking and the game of telephone is easy to play in the social media age. I just don't think it got very far if it was even real, which I don't fully believe. But who knows.

Sarah had great chemistry with Eric Martsolf and their storyline, initially at least, was actually an intelligent business story for DAYS. But people turned on that creative regime very fast, and they did make mistakes. Oh well. Since we're mentioning Oscar I'd like to once again reiterate he was played by the single worst young actor I have ever seen on General Hospital, and possibly the entirety of my experience in daytime short of Charity Rahmer. Rot in your grave, Oscar.

I believe the Kate story because I heard it a lot at the time and it was very stupid, almost as stupid as Kim Nero. I don't believe the Oscar thing. I don't know what they had in mind but I don't buy that it would ever have involved bringing on Brenda.

I don't think so, no. I think fans made that shít up same as they came up with the absolutely idiotic theory that somehow, Brenda's son was Dev the street kid deep in the Middle East. Frank does not want Brenda back. I actually loved her on DAYS. I don't think people gave her on that show or that regime enough credit. But I was in the minority. I also thought she did a good job with very ropey material as Claudia.

I seem to recall an interview where she said it was both. I don't think Frank is that stupid, and Frank's ego has seemingly led him to do many stupid things. I think they hedged their bets on Brenda many times in the 2000s gambling that they could lure VM back, including whatever the hell that was on Night Shift.

Yeah, she was not on long at all.

It was a very uninspired teen story involving her son falling for Starr Manning, and positioning her to get involved with John McBain. Dena Higley only wrote schlock. Susan's Marty did continue the romance with McBain later on, but it didn't last. I do tend to think they misled her about how Carlivati's 'rapemance' story would actually play out when she did come back - she's never spoken about it in detail - and I know she allegedly left the show in 2011 furious with her subsequent storyline and felt she'd never been treated worse, which is why her husband (Thorsten Kaye) refused to return for the cameo offered as Patrick at the time. I feel like any attempts at floating a Brenda recast were mere spitballing and tactics to try to lure Vanessa back. I don't think they'd have ever dared pull the trigger.

100%. Though frankly, I think the fact that Jackee is retro TV royalty is the primary reason Ron is writing for her at all. He generally couldn't be bothered to write for most of the Black characters on GH or OLTL.