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Watching some of these mid/late 80s AE clips has got me thinking about the Rauch era and the Gottlieb/Malone/Griffith(basically until JFP became producer) era that immediately succeeded it.  Has any other soap seen two back-to-back eras like that that are so polar opposites and yet both so celebrated/polarizing?

On the one hand you have the Rauch era, known both for it's campiness and over-the-top melodrama, featuring storylines like:

The revelation that Tina is Viki's sister

Nikki Smith/DID 1985

Alison Perkins kidnapping Jessica

The initial Cord/Tina/Maria saga

Viki's aneurysm and trip to Heaven

Everything involving Argentina, Iguazu Falls, Tina's "death" and return, Cord and Marcia Cross's Kate, and Max/Gabrielle's origins

Buchanan City/1888

The Lost Underground City Of Eterna

The Fraternity Row stuff

Viki as mayor

Crown Jewels of Mendora

Badderly Island

Many loved it and still think of it as a golden era, peak soap opera, the heyday of Viki/Clint, Tina/Cord, and Max/Gabrielle, all soundtracked by the Peabo Bryson song; others found it to be too over-the-top, and times delving too much into fantasy and sci-fi.

And then you have 1992-1998, starting with Gottlieb and Malone, and extending really all the way until JFP took over at the end of 1997.  This era is obviously known for much more grounded storytelling in contrast to the previous era, but also storylines that led naturally in and out of each other, starting with:

Megan and Cord's deaths, leading into

Clint/Viki growing apart, enter the Carpenters...

Viki/Sloan affair(some don't like it but I think it's one of the most well-written adultery storylines I can remember)

The Billy Douglas story

Andrew/Cassie relationship, culminating in her 1993 miscarriage and their subsequent adoption of River

Also enter Marty/Nora/Todd/Blair, the Bo/Nora romance, and the legendary Spring Fling story

Also enter the Gannon family

Cord's return from the dead to Karen Witter's Tina

Max/Luna and Max's gambling addiction story

The Lord-ification of Todd and Todd/Blair

Sloan's book leads to Dorian ending up on death row, after which she retaliates by seducing Viki's son Joey, which leads to Dorian telling Viki the truth about Victor...

Viki's 1995 DID story

Todd's 1995 "death" in Ireland and Marty/Patrick/Dylan

Enter Angel Square and the Vegas, which leads to

Luna's 1995 death

Jessica/Cristian teen romance

Starr's birth, Todd's 1996 return from the dead, and Todd/Blair/Patrick/Marty/Kelly

Marty/Patrick wedding/departure

And the last gasps of the era in the early days of JFP imo were the Dorian/Mel relationship, the initial Todd/Tea story, the Who Killed Georgie story which climaxed with a primetime special in the summer of 1998 and Drew's death in late 1998(which Bob Woods did some great work for), but that was it, then the "Rappaport takeover" happened, and it was a different era entirely.

Many have celebrated this as a golden era for the show, for the adult topics it explored(death of children and how a couple can grow apart because of it, homosexuality at a time when it wasn't popular to talk about it, miscarriage, gambling addiction, the question of whether or not a rapist can be reformed or if he should be given a second chance, child molestation via Viki's DID story), the diversification of the cast via the Gannons, Vegas, and Angel Square, and all the new characters it introduced(Sloan, Andrew, Nora, Marty, Todd, Blair, Kelly, Luna, Patrick, Dylan, Addie, Starr, Hank, RJ, Rachel, Carlotta, Antonio, Cristian, Tea), many of whom became legacy characters.

Yet, not everyone loved it - there were criticisms of the show being too un-soap-like, of the stories being too grounded(I've seen someone on here once derisively refer to this era as "thirtysomething in the daytime"), complaints about the decision to break Viki and Clint up, the apparent retconning of Victor Lord's character(and death), Max and Luna(instead of Max and Gabrielle, even though FH had left), and the "90s Tinas", as well as moral objections to much of the Todd stories.

I just find it fascinating that these two completely opposite eras happened back-to-back and are yet both so memorable in their own distinct ways.

Today marks ten years since OLTL aired its final episode on ABC on January 13, 2012.  It marked the culmination of a very substantial purge in the daytime soap genre over the course of the previous three years.

CBS announced the cancellation of Guiding Light on April 1, 2009, and five months later the final episode aired on September 18.  Less than three months later, on December 8, CBS announced the cancellation of As The World Turns and, nine months later, that show aired its final episode on September 17, 2010.  Seven months after that, ABC announced the cancellations of All My Children and One Life To Live on April 14, 2011.  Just over five months later, All My Children aired it's last episode on September 23 and, just under four months after that, on this day, One Life To Live aired its final episode.

When the dust cleared, only General Hospital, Days Of Our Lives, The Young And The Restless, and The Bold And The Beautiful were left standing.  If you'd asked people in January 2012 if these last four would survive another decade, I feel like most would have said no.  It really felt like the networks were done with soaps and that they would all be gone in short order.

So I start this topic to pose three questions to the community here:

1. How have the remaining four survived another decade after the purge?  Is it just that the networks have decided the afternoon hours on weekdays are a dead zone and no one is going to watch anything they put there anyway, so they might as well leave the soaps?  Did the failures of The Chew and The Revolution give other networks pause?  Has the audience for the remaining shows simply proven to be big enough to make the shows profitable?  Curious to know your views on this.

2. Will they survive another decade, in your opinion?  Or are they inching closer to demise?  Will there still be daytime soaps on network television a decade from now, or will it be completely over?

3. Put aside 'will they' for a moment; Should they survive another decade?  Does the recent quality of the shows warrant it?  Does the audience still care enough?  Or are these shows just zombies at this point that should put out of their misery?

I felt the occasion of this anniversary was an opportune time to bring up these questions and start a potentially interesting conversation.

21 hours ago, DramatistDreamer said:

Also, I can't remember the last time a daytime soap truly blazed a trail, rather than followed a trend. You could argue that Port Charles got out ahead of the vampire craze, although the Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Dark Shadows people would probably have a bone to pick with you there. There's a saying that "there is nothing new under the sun", which is an apt saying because it does bear a bit of truth.

JMO but I really haven't seen daytime soaps (in the U.S.) have true innovation in a very long time.

AMC tried some things in the early/mid 00s. 

The Bianca coming out storyline was a big deal, a first for daytime, even though it had already been done in primetime with Ellen/Will & Grace, etc.

Then there was the Zarf/Zoe storyline in 06/07, which I think(not sure) is still the only transgender storyline ever done in soaps.  I gather that there was some criticism that they essentially created a throwaway character to do it with instead of doing it with an established character, but at least they tried.

AMC

I never hated Krystal and Babe.  They garnered a lot of ill will for what they did to Bianca wrt to the baby switch, and a lot of people never forgave them, but I always thought it was over the top.  I thought Bobbie Eakes and Alexa Havens were really good, and I think Krystal was one of Adam's best romantic pairings, maybe the best outside of Brooke.  I think Adam loved her for real and was truly devastated when it came out that her baby was Tad's.

I know a lot of people love David Hayward a lot, and Vincent Irizarry is great, but I felt the character became progressively more cartoonish as time went on - at times being inserted as a villain in certain storylines when it wasn't necessary(like when Maria returned in 2002), and at times having his medical abilities put him just a step away from being a Marvel superhero(just magically bringing people back from the dead at the very end in 2011...I loved Dixie and Zach coming back, but it was a ridiculous storyline).  Plus he always was getting in the way of Tad/Dixie.  Irizarry is a great actor, and at his best, the character was pretty compelling, but I don't hold him up in quite as high a regard as some do.

I liked Sabine Singh as Greenlee.  I don't usually take to recasts very well, at least not very quickly, I don't think anyone does, but I liked Sabine.

OLTL

Jerry verDorn was a great Clint recast.  Clint Ritchie will always be the best, but I think verDorn was a good a replacement as anyone could've hoped for.  His Clint got a fair amount of criticism, particularly when he was made into some kind of supervillain when the character had never, ever been that in the three decades he'd been on canvas, but that's an issue with the writing.  Acting-wise, I thought verDorn was great. 

I think I may prefer shorter-lived, original Cristian(Yorlin Madera) to David Fumero.

I liked the character of Luna and still think she was Max's best pairing, someone who would push Max to be his best self.

Sandra P. Grant was maybe my favorite Rachel.  I know this is unpopular as I've seen people say they'd take both Ellen Bethea or Daphne Duplaix over her.

I think Nash was always polarizing, but I still think he was Jessica's best pairing.  FM was maybe not the greatest actor, but the chemistry between him and BW was real.  I still hate that they killed him off.  No pairing Jessica had after was close imo.

GH

Tony Geary is....a bit overrated?  I mean he's turned in some great performances to be sure, but he was working half-years for the last decade+ he was on the show and seemed to be phoning it in a lot of the time when he was on screen. 

I don't know if this is actually unpopular, but...Laura Wright is the definitive Carly.  I know some still love SJB or TB over Laura, but Laura's been playing the role longer now than SJB and TB(and Jennifer Bransford) combined.  I think she's earned it.  TBH, I think TB is the anomaly, insofar as I can imagine SJB's Carly and LW's Carly being the same person, but TB's is just different, softer.  That's not any kind of criticism of TB's acting ability, it's just her take on the character was different.

As a OLTL lifer, I wish those four characters had never been brought over to GH.

OLTL/GH

Roger Howarth gets a lot of criticism around here...and TBH I don't really care about any of the roles he's done outside of OLTL, and I agree having him play two, and now three, different characters on GH in close proximity is dumb(they did the same think with Michael Easton).  But his performance as Todd imo earns him a place among the greats of soap actors.

I've come up with a number of fairly notable ones, that iMDB says never acted in another soap...

 

Michael Nader - AMC(if we're only counting daytime; he was obviously on Dynasty)

Cameron Mathison - AMC

Sarah Michelle Geller - AMC

Colin Eggsfield - AMC

Trevor St. John - OLTL

Renee Elise Goldsberry - OLTL

Michael Storm - OLTL

Clint Ritchie - OLTL

Phil Carey - OLTL

Thom Christopher - OLTL

Jonathan Jackson - GH

These are some outside-the-box examples, and they happen to fall in the same family orbit on AMC, but...

 

Zach has a child, Ian, with Kendall, and he was also the sperm donor for Bianca's second child, Gabrielle.

 

Bianca has said daughter with Zach, and she also has Miranda, with Zach's brother, Michael Cambias, although I don't know if anyone wants to count that in light how she was conceived.

 

Also, I don't know if we're only looking for biological connections here, but Trevor was Tim's adoptive father with Natalie, and Amanda's biological father with Janet.

Does anyone else agree that Dixie's 2005-07 return was pretty much botched from beginning to end?  I don't just mean it how it ended(everybody hated the pancakes), but the whole thing.

 

First, the whole Di story preceded it for the better part of a year.  Someone in here a while back said they weren't sure if Di was always supposed to be lying about being Dixie or if the writers just changed their minds because no one was buying it, and I think that's a fair question.

 

Then Cady first appears again around Christmas 2005 in a bizarre scene with Di in Paris where Di updates her on life in Pine Valley and asks if she's going to come home.  This is the problem with the initial return story.  Dixie would not allow Tad and JR and the rest of her family to think she was dead.  It was completely out of character.

 

And then she does return to Pine Valley, where the skulks in the shadows for two months(I know this is a soap right of passage for people coming back from the dead, but it's still dumb) and reveals that she signed her and Tad's baby away just like that upon birth for the half-baked reason that she briefly thought she was going to die and had let the doctor, Greg Madden, manipulate her into thinking that Tad would blame the baby for her death.  Tad and JR are understandably pissed. 

 

And then so much of Dixie's airtime was dedicated to the Greg Madden nonsense, culminating in Tad burying the guy alive.  

 

And then pancakes.  Because, I think, McClain had been too publicly vocal in disparaging TPTB for treating older actors, specifically older actresses, like Julia Barr, badly in favor of youth.

 

It was just poorly written.

Yeah, I've been watching those "Wildwind Chronicles" YT clips as well, and I noticed the same thing while watching the 2002/03 Maria return storyline - that it felt a lot different than the show would by as early as late 2003 when the Bianca/Babe baby switch started.

 

In hindsight, 2002/03 was a time of transition.  These Maria/Edmund/Brooke clips feel like 90s AMC, but at the same time, on the periphery, there are characters like Kendall, Ryan, Zach, Aidan, etc, some of whom would become cornerstone characters of the show's last decade, early-ish in their runs.

 

By 2004, you had SORASED JR and Jamie on canvas, along with Babe, while Brooke was backburnered(and ultimately written out), and Edmund/Maria were torn apart for no reason before Edmund was killed off and Maria left again.  All of a sudden, all of the old-school vets other than Erica/Tad/Adam/maybe Jack/David(on-and-off) were marginalized and Kendall/Bianca/JR/Jaimie/Babe/Ryan/Greenlee/Zach/Aidan/eventually SORASED Amanda/etc were upfront.

 

It wasn't all bad post-2003, and I remember a good deal of it fondly, but it was definitely a different show.

13 minutes ago, Vee said:

Michael McBain on OLTL. Yeah, I said it! Only created because the cast and (some) fans liked Nate Marston so much despite his troubles. He was recast with a superior actor, Chris Stack, after Marston got into a brawl with a traffic cone, but Stack could not undo the fact that Michael was the goat boy story-wise created to do nothing but be Marcie's piece.

 

I'll disagree with this.  I thought Marston had much more presence than Stack.  Also, that scene when Michael has to identify his brother John's body with Bo after John's "death", and Michael just breaks down sobbing in Bo's arms, has stayed with me ever since.

Recasts are hard, but an unavoidable part of soap operas.  It's never easy for an actor to step into a role that the preceding actor made a big impact in and was closely identified with.  It can take a while for audiences to accept a new face in a role(hence the "nu" prefix).  In some cases, audiences never stop missing the departed actor.  More often than not, they just have to live with it.  Sometimes, the recast eventually ends up being accepted and loved in their own right.  But sometimes, audiences get their wish and, whether it's a short while later or a long while later, the role is "un-recasted" and the departed actor returns.  That's what this topic is about.  

 

I've compiled a list of all the notable instances of this that I can think of - full disclosure, I only ever watched the ABC shows(AMC and OLTL for years and years, and GH more casually), so that's where my list comes from.  Also, I'm only looking at instances where the recast was on contract and the returning actor was on contract.  So, the following aren't considered: temporary replacements, one-off return appearances, absences due to illness, etc.  A couple of examples like this that I didn't include:

 

Kirsten Storms missed a year on GH due to illness, but I think she was always coming back when she was able. 

 

Anthony Addabbo replaced Michael Nader as Dimitri for a few months in 2001, but I don't think he was ever under contract, and the character was written out when they decided not to bring Nader back(Nader did come back for AMC's PP incarnation). 

 

Alexa Havins came back as Babe's ghost for two episodes after Amanda Baker's Babe had died, but that was only two episodes.

 

So that said, here's my list(in lieu of a better order, I've listed them in alphabetical order of character last name).  I look forward to your comments on these and your own examples!

 

Nikolas Cassadine, GH

Tyler Christopher(1996-1999, 2003-2011, 2013-2016)

Stephen Martines(1999-2003)

 

 

Christopher originated the role in 1996, and then left when his contract was up to try primetime.  After a few years of that, during which Stephen Martines was playing the character, Christopher returned in 2003 and played the character for 13 years(with a two year break) before departing again over a contract dispute.  

 

Christopher proceeded to have a stint on DOOL while the Nikolas role was vacated for three years.

 

In 2019, the role was recast with Marcus Coloma.

 

Worth it?  TBH, I really never saw Martines in the role, so I can't comment on that.  But Christopher came back and played the character for another 13 years during which Nik became a major, front-burner player for most of it, so I'd say yeah, it was worth it.  I haven't seen this new guy, Marcus Coloma, but I don't envy him.  

 

Kristina Davis Corinthos, GH

Lexi Ainsworth(2009-2011, 2015-Present)

Lindsey Morgan(2012-2013)

 

 

Ainsworth took over the role of a SORASED teenage Kristina in 2009, and made a big mark in her first two-and-a-half-year stint, earning an Emmy nomination in 2011 and the praise of the fanbase.  She was let go in late 2011 - some suggest because TPTB wanted Kristina to appear older than Ainsworth.  The character was written off by sending her to college.

 

Six months later, Kristina returned home, played by Lindsey Morgan, having dropped out, upset that her parents had pulled strings to get her into Yale.

 

Morgan was in the role for less than a year, and I think was not very popular in the role.  It was, I believe, a combination of Ainsworth having been very popular in the role, and of the storylines during Morgan's tenure not being well-received - the reality show stuff, etc.  There was also a sentiment that she was being written almost like a different character than Ainsworth's Kristina.  Not the actress's fault.

 

Morgan was let go after ten months in the Spring of 2013, and Kristina went off to Wesleyan University.

 

Two-and-a-half-years later, in the fall of 2015, Ainsworth returned to the role as Kristina came home when Sonny was having surgery, and has been in the role ever since.

 

Worth it?  Yeah, probably.  Ainsworth is very popular in the role and won an Emmy for her work in 2017.

 

 

Kelly Cramer, OLTL

Gina Tognoni(1995-2002, 2010-11)

Tracy Melchoir(2003)

Heather Tom(2003-06)

 

 

Kelly was introduced in the mid-90s, the brash young daughter of Dorian Lord's sister, Melinda.  With Gina Tognoni in the role, she became a major character, becoming embroiled in an intense on-off-on-again romance with Viki's son Joey.  Late in Tognoni's tenure, Kelly has an affair with Joey's brother Kevin while engaged to Joey.  Kelly marries Joey, but when it comes out about Kevin, Joey leaves town.  Soon after, Kevin goes to Texas to be near his son Duke, and Kelly follows. 

 

When they return to town in 2003, they are both played by new actors.  Tracy Melchoir briefly played Kelly but was replaced after only a few months with Heather Tom, alongside Dan Gauthier's Kevin.

 

The first nearly year-and-a-half of Tom's tenure as Kelly was dedicated to the infamous Landview/Pine Vally three-way baby switch of 2004.  She did great work in that storyline, but once that story was over by the Spring of 2005, the character stagnated.  Because of this, Tom chose not to renew her contract and go instead to BB where she is to this day.  By the time she left in late 2006, Kelly had given birth to a baby by Kevin's SORASED son Duke - in a storyline that was not popular - and the three of them moved to London together.

 

Tognoni returned to the role in 2010 after having spent the interm on GL, and stayed nearly to show's end, leaving a few months early in August 2011, with a reunited Kelly and Joey going back to London so Kelly could be with her son Zane.

 

Worth it?  This one cuts both ways - Tom portrayed her during what was probably the character's most famous storyline - the baby switch.  Still, Tognoni is associated with a golden era for OLTL and is probably the only Kelly most want to see.  And she got her happy ending with Joey(thought that would've been even better if it had been Nathan Fillion's Joey).  So yeah, worth it.

 

 

Janet Green Dillon, AMC

Kate Collins(91-92, 05-11[on and off])

Robin Mattson(94-00)

 

 

This is kind of a strange one - maybe the only one on this list where the recast is actually preferred by a substantial number of people - honestly, probably most.  Kate Collins played Natalie Marlowe for 7 years - 1985-1992 - but only in the last year of that run did she play the dual role of Natalie's mentally ill sister Janet "From Another Planet" Green.  Janet eventually went to prison in 1992, at which point Collins left the show - both roles.  Natalie was on the canvas for a little while longer, played by Melody Anderson, before being killed off in 1993.

 

Robin Mattson assumed the role of Janet in 1994, having been released from prison after undergoing experimental plastic surgery to give herself a new face.  Mattson played the role for six years, while Collins returned for several brief appearances as Natalie's ghost.

 

Mattson departed the role in 2000, and the role was dormant for five years until Collins returned as Janet in 2005.  I read in a YT comment - and it's a YT comment so take it for what it's worth - that they were originally going to bring Mattson back, but that when her 2004 GH comeback(as Heather Webber) didn't do much ratings-wise, they opted for Collins instead.  Collins performed several stints as Janet, usually measured in months, between 2005 and the show's cancellation in 2011.

 

The thing is, while Collins' Natalie was an iconic role, she only played Janet for a year before leaving.  In contrast, Mattson played the character for six years.  While Collins' first stint as Janet was just a crazy sister type, Mattson played a more nuanced, complex version of the character, a woman struggling to heal herself and earn the trust and acceptance of those around her.  I've been watching some clips from her tenure, and it's really a beautiful story of redemption that was told with Mattson's Janet.  That Janet left the canvas a woman who was still dealing with her issues, but committed to being a good mother to Amanda and a good wife to Trevor.  Mattson's Janet is still beloved by a lot of people.  Here are some clips to illustrate the character development in these years:

 

 

(This is Amanda calling Janet "mommy" for the first time - full episode because there's no separate clip)

 

 

(Another full episode, this is Janet and Natalie's ghost)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When Collins came back in 05, it was like all that character development was erased, and she went right back to where she was in 1992, but worse, because the Janet of 05-11 was cartoon-ish and simply not believable as the same character Mattson was playing.  It didn't have to be that way - a casual viewing of clips of Collins as Natalie shows that she's perfectly capable of playing someone who isn't cartoon crazy.  To top it all off, they had this Janet kill Trevor off-screen, something many Dillon family fans never forgave.  It was totally unnecessary.

 

So, Collins coming back was met with fanfare, but ultimately a lot of people prefer Mattson in the role.

 

Worth it?  No.  In terms of total screen time, Mattson played the role for just about twice as long as Collins, and many people preferred her more humanized, more nuanced version of the character to what was perceived as a more cartoonish interpretation by Collins, particularly in her 2005-11 returns.  Janet's 05-11 appearances added nothing to the character and, in fact, took away from said character.

 

 

Max Holden, OLTL

James Depaiva(1987-1990, 1991-2003)

Nicholas Walker(1990-1991)

 

 

This one makes me laugh.  Of all the people on this list, this one had the shortest amount of time between when the first actor left and came back.  A year and a half.  DePaiva originated the role in 1987 and, after three years, and having already established a fan-favorite romance with Fiona Hutchison's Gabreille, left in February 1990, presumed dead in a car wreck that burned him beyond recognition.

 

Nicholas Walker took over the following month, and they did the whole thing - plastic surgery, assuming a new identity, becoming close with everyone Max was close to, and after months, finally, dramatically revealing himself as Max by the end of 1990:

 

 

 

And then in the fall of 1991, DePaiva returned, everyone suddenly forgot that he ever looked any different, and that was that.  Unlike similar storylines in the future, no attempt was made to explain it.  If this was happening today, you can bet they'd do a story where Walker was an imposter all along.  DePaiva played the role for eleven more years before leaving again in 2003, becoming a OLTL legend, while Nicholas Walker's Max became a footnote, a curiosity.

 

Worth it?  Obviously.  Depaiva's Max is classic.

 

 

Dorian Lord, OLTL

Robin Strasser(1979-1987, 1993-2000, 2003-2011)

Elaine Princi(1989-1993)

 

 

Dorian is a cornerstone character in OLTL, created in 1973.  There were two Dorians before Robin Strasser - Nancy Pinkerton and Clair Malis.  There are only a scarce few clips of either on YT, so most of their work lives on only as memories in those old enough to have watched the show back then - which I am not.  I have seen some of those who are say that Pinkerton in particular was great in the role, though she interpreted the character very differently than Strasser would - colder, scarier.

 

Strasser took over the role in 1979 and made it completely her own for the next eight years.  In 1987, in light of disagreements with the producers at the time and perhaps a desire to test the primetime waters, she left.

 

Elaine Princi took over the role two years later, and was around for four years until 1993.  I haven't seen much of her Dorian, but most of the commentary I've seen about it has been positive.  Basically, that she was really very good, she just wasn't Robin Strasser.  In fact, there are some that say they preferred her Dorian to Strasser's.

 

In 1993, with Princi's contract up for renewal, and a new regime running the show, Strasser made it known she was available.  Princi was let go at the end of her contract in order to make way for Strasser, who returned and dove headfirst into some of the most intense storylines of her career(her being on deathrow, her affair with Joey, Vicki's DID) and played the role on and off until the series cancellation.

 

 

Worth it?  Yes.  I am not old enough to have seen the first two Dorian's, and I know Princi's Dorian only through YT, but while Princi was very good, Strasser is a living legend of the genre, and her and Erika Slezak are one of the most celebrated 'rival' pairings ever.  Anytime you saw those two going at it together, it was like watching heavyweights in a boxing ring.  I don't know if the character of Dorian would have the same place in soap history were it not for Strasser, even if she did get a little OTT in later years.

 

 

Tina Lord, OLTL

Andrea Evans(1978-1981, 1985-1990, 2008, 2011)

Karen Witter(1990-1994)

Krista Tesreau(1994-1996)

 

 

Tina was a cornerstone character in the old days of OLTL.  Not only the half-sister of show centerpiece Viki, but also one half of a supercouple with Cord Roberts.  I was too young to be watching back in the 80s, but Andrea Evans is legendary in the role.

 

Evans quit in 1990, later revealing that she'd done so to escape a stalker.  Tina briefly moved to California before returning later in 1990 with a new actor.

 

There were two Tina recasts in the 90s - Karen Witter and Krista Tesreau.  Neither was as accepted as Evans, but I think Witter at least had some fans, whereas Tesreau...I see mostly negative sentiment about her.

 

Tesreau departed in 1996, with a brief special appearance in 1997, and then the character was dormant for over a decade.

 

In 2008, Evans returned for the first of two times, each measured in months.  Evans coming back was a big deal and was promoted a lot.  Unfortunately, her first return stint was...not good imo.  She was around for five months, introduced via that stupid Mendorra storyline, and then the only thing she did of consequence was to not tell Vicki that Tess had Natalie trapped in the basement at Lanfair.

 

She came back again in 2011, near the end of the show, as part of another storyline on this list, and it was better - a good way for her to go out, in fact.  She inherited the fortune that was rightly Todd's, and gave it back to him, thus earning Cord's trust, and then the two of them got their happy ending.

 

Worth it?  To be perfectly honest, I've never been the biggest fan of the character, who often seemed to be unable to get past the mental age of 13.  That said, Evans' returns ended up giving the character some closure, and that's always good.  I'm sure Tina/Cord shippers were happy to see Evans' Tina and Cord get their happy ending.

 

 

Todd Manning, OLTL

Roger Howarth(1992-1995, 1996-1998, 2000-2003, 2011-2012)

Trevor St. John[i.e. Victor Lord Jr.](2003-2011)

 

 

Upon looking through some of the old threads here, it appears that not everyone is a fan of Howarth.  I'll say this - I don't really care for him as Franco(mainly because I can't buy him and James Franco as the same person at all, and also because I can't see RH as anything but Todd), and I never watched ATWT so I can't speak to his performances there, but what I can say is that I think RH's Todd is one of the greatest characters in soap history.  There are times when the merging of an actor and a character creates something greater than the sum of its parts.  This was one of those times.

 

The thing about the Todd character was that he had no business existing beyond his initial storyline.  He wasn't supposed to.  But RH elevated the character to a point where they couldn't let him go.  I found him captivating back then.  He gave the character such depth, and he was so iconoclastic with the hair and the scar and everything.

 

We can debate endlessly about whether any attempt should've been made to 'redeem' such a character, and indeed even RH had reservations about it, it was the reason he left the first time in 1995, but ultimately I don't have a problem with it.  I can believe in second chances - for people who show appropriate remorse as Todd grew to - while acknowledging the horrendousness of what he did.

 

So I was a huge fan of RH's Todd, though I will say that the whole selling Jack into the black market thing was tough to swallow if he was supposed to be trying to be a better person.  I didn't really love the character's 2000-2003 stint.

 

Anyway, when RH finally departed for good to do ATWT in 2003, the decision was made to recast the character, the logic being that the character had become too central to too many other characters to be written out.  In hindsight, they probably should've just written the character out - he'd been on canvas for most of the past decade, so it would've been a good time to take a break before people burned out on the character(it may already have been happening).  

 

I think Trevor St. John is a fantastic actor.  In fact, when Todd is being executed for a crime he didn't commit, and he's behind the glass, addressing Viki and Blair and Evangeline for the last time, that to me was one of the greatest single-episode performances in daytime history.  I'm still amazed he didn't win an Emmy for it.

 

But one episode does not a character make.  The reality, and I feel many would agree, is that TSJ was given a lot of really poor material over the years.  Being taken hostage by Margaret, being made a fool of by that truly awful Spencer Truman character, being dragged around unconscious(I think that was equivalent to a contract coma), and then none so bad as trying to have a relationship with amnesiac Marty, and attempting to kidnap Starr's baby and raise her with Marty.  That last one was the point of no return for a lot of Todd fans that had been trying to buy TSJ as Todd.  And then after all of that, the character was taken from him.  There were reports that TSJ wasn't thrilled about his character being retconned, and I can't say I blame him.  

 

A lot of people were very happy when it was announced that RH was coming back.  I was happy.  I had reservations about the silliness of the story - I freely admit that it was a ridiculous storyline - but none of that mattered once I saw him on screen.  The ends justified the means.  To see RH's Todd interacting with Viki, Blair, and Kristen Alderson's Starr(they always had such a beautiful connection) again, and even Jessica(even though it was Bree Williamson instead of Erin Torpey at this point) after all those years, when I thought it would never happen, was amazing.  

 

There are scenes from that storyline that stay with me: 

 

 

 

 

 

RH Todd talking to Starr one-on-one from a jail cell, telling her that when Vicki put her in his arms all those years ago, it was the first time in his life that the sun came out, finishing with "thank you my little Starr".

 

Him telling Starr that it's been proven that he is in fact Todd, something about the way he says, "I...shorty it's me, I'm me" and the way that the way he says that convinces her.

 

And the writers also did a smart, sort of meta thing, calling themselves out on past mistakes, by having it revealed to RH Todd that TSJ Todd/Victor had kidnapped amnesiac Marty and tried to have a relationship with her.  RH's reactions to that are priceless: "Nobody questioned that?!?"; "This guy has a relationship with Marty Saybrooke and none of you figured out that he wasn't me?  It didn't occur to you that that might not be something that I would do?"

 

Anyway, Todd is one of the most controversial and polarizing characters ever in soaps, and I get that while a lot of people love the character, a lot of people can't stand the character.  But I was a fan, and the restoration of the character to RH was, for me, one of the most exciting things that happened in the last ten years of OLTL or AMC, and is by far the example on this list that excited me the most.  I pretend the GH stuff after OLTL never happened, though.

 

Worth it?  100%.  See above.

 

 

Jason Morgan, GH

Steve Burton(1991-2012, 2017-Present)

Billy Miller[i.e. Andrew Cain](2014-2017)

 

 

Burton obviously made the Jason Quartermane/Jason Morgan character famous over his initial two decade run(he did take a few years off).  He had flirted with leaving multiple times, and he finally did in 2012 because of contract stuff, and instead took a role on YR.

 

Two years later, the role was recast with Billy Miller.  It probably never should've been recast, but it was.  They did the whole plastic surgery thing and eventually he was accepted as Jason, by the characters around him if not the audience.

 

Then Burton's YR contract expired in 2017, and GH snatched him up again.

 

The storyline they used to bring him back was a carbon copy of the storyline used for the Todd Manning storyline on OLTL.  It's like they copy-and-pasted the story and changed the names.  

 

Anyway, it accomplished task of restoring Burton as Jason while giving Miller an interesting new identity to bite into.  Though I guess it wasn't interesting enough for Billy Miller, seeing as he ended up quitting the show last year.

 

Worth it?  Yes.  Jason is a central character of the whole show - fortunately or unfortunately depending on your point of view - and it was probably folly to think you could successfully recast the role after one guy spent 20+ years playing him and making him one of the cornerstones the show is built around.

 

 

Edward Quartermaine, GH

John Ingle(1993-2004, 2006-2012)

Jed Allan(2004-2006)

 

 

Just one example of many in the 00s of soaps trying to get rid of the old people to make way for younger characters.  Ingle wasn't the original Edward, but he'd become quite recognizable and loved in the role over the decade+ he played it.  He was let go in 2004, at the age of 75-76, with Edward initially planned to be killed off.  TPTB apparently changed their minds about killing him off, but Ingle had signed with DOOL.  Jed Allan was recast in the role and played him, I guess, in a recurring role for two years before Ingle returned.

 

Worth it?  Yes.  He never should've been let go.

 

 

Marty Saybrooke, OLTL

Susan Haskell(1992-1997, 2004/2005(special appearances), 2008-11)

Christina Chambers(2006-07)

 

 

Marty was introduced in the 90s and, while she was only on the show for five years in her original run, she became a beloved character in that relatively short period of time, for her fighting to be believed about the Spring Fling, and her relationship with Patrick Thornhart, for her evolution from party girl to doctor.  She left Landview with Patrick in 1997.

 

After Haskell made a couple of brief return appearances in 2004 and 2005, the role was recast with Christina Chambers in late 2006.  Chambers' Marty was on the canvas for just over a year, during which we met her son, Cole, and found out that Patrick had died.  They honestly didn't do much with the character except get her mixed up with the Spencer Truman nonsense.  Chambers' brief tenure ended at the end of 2007 with Marty and Cole being abducted and taken to Ireland by a former associate of Patrick's, wherein Cole is saved but Marty 'dies' in a van explosion.

 

Six months later, Haskell returned as an alive, amnesiac Marty being held prisoner by TSJ's Todd/Victor in that much-hated storyline, and remained with the show until six months before it went off the air.  People were initially happy that Haskell was returning to the role, but this second long-term stint of hers became much maligned, from Todd/Victor Jr. manipulating the amnesiac Marty into a relationship, to Marty later kidnapping someone else's baby after her own died(which was out of character at this point in her life).  I've seen people say that her character was 'destroyed' in these years.  Her final exit came when she boarded a plane with an apparently-still-alive-but-not-seen Patrick(a storyline that was never fleshed out the way it should've been).

 

There's probably a decent number of people that wish the character had never come back after 1997.

 

Worth it?  Probably not.  The character probably shouldn't have been recast in the first place.  Some might argue that nothing worthwhile happened for the character in either Chambers' stint or Haskell's return.

 

 

Greenlee Smythe, AMC

Rebecca Budig(1999-2005, 2008-11)

Sabine Singh(2007-08)

 

 

This was by far the most controversial on this list, due to the way it was handled.  Budig originated the role of Greenlee in 1999 and played her for six years before Greenlee left town in late 2005, feeling betrayed by both Ryan(who had faked his death) and Kendall(who had used her own eggs rather than Greenlee's for her IVF pregnancy) .  In that time, she had become a fan favorite.  Her reason for leaving was, I believe, primarily about the fact that she lived in LA, the show was still produced in NY at that point, and she didn't want to commute anymore.

 

A year and a half later, in the Spring of 2007, the character was recast with Sabine Singh in the role.  Singh was only in the role for eight months, during which she was involved in several memorable storylines, including the almost-kidnapping of Spike after which it was found out that he was deaf, and the ordeal of her being trapped in an underground bomb shelter with Zach Slater.

 

Apparently, the network started talking to Budig "before Thanksgiving" in 2007 about her coming back.  Singh was in the first year of a four year contract.  In early December, Budig's return was announced, and Singh was told she was out and given a week to "leave quietly".

 

Now, look, an actor getting fired to facilitate the return of another actor is unfortunate, but it happens - it's happened in multiple other instances on this list - and is not unique to this situation.  But it didn't end there.

 

ABC proceeded to run a spectacularly insensitive ad campaign promoting Budig's return, in which the phrase that will live in infamy was used: "The Real Greenlee Returns".  Not only this, but there was a countdown of days until Budig's first airdate back.  And these ads were airing while episodes with Singh were still airing.  ABC was rightly, and roundly, roasted for this. 

 

 

Recasts are a part of the business, and it's one thing for viewers to say 'that actor's interpretation of the character isn't real to me', but it's another for the network to imply that one actor's interpretation of a role was 'less real' than another's.  And it was especially tactless to do that to an actress who had just been suddenly and unexpectedly let go for no fault of her own.

 

Anyway, Budig started airing again in January 2008 and played the role until the show ended in 2011.

 

Worth it?  I guess.  I don't really remember if Greenlee had any super memorable storylines from 2008-2011.  I also didn't mind Singh's Greenlee.  I'm sure it was worth it if you were a big Greenlee fan.  But the network handled it horribly.

 

 

Lucky Spencer, GH

Jonathan Jackson(1993-1999, 2009-2011, 2015)

Jacob Young(2000-2003)

Greg Vaughan(2003-2009)

 

 

JJ was a child actor on GH, only 10-11 when he started.  He impressed in his initial tenure, particularly in his teen romance with Elizabeth, and in his reaction to finding out what Luke had done to Laura, and he won three Emmys for his work.  Has there ever been another teenager that won that many Emmys?  He left the show when he was 17, with Lucky presumed dead.

 

Jacob Young - pre-AMC - played an alive-after-all Lucky for a few years, followed by Greg Vaughan for a longer period of time.  I guess Young wasn't really accepted in the role, and Vaughan was polarizing, with some liking him and some insisting that his Lucky was fundamentally a different person than JJ's.  I tend to agree with the latter sentiment - I'd take Young over Vaughn for Lucky. 

 

JJ, a decade after leaving, returned with great fanfare in 2009, and turned in some absolutely fantastic performances over the next two years(I remember in particular Lucky trashing his house and having a breakdown after finding out that Liz was cheating on him with Nikolas) and won another two back-to-back Emmys.

 

 

 

 

 

JJ left again in 2011, I guess because he got a primetime gig with Nashville.  He returned briefly for Anthony Geary's farewell in 2015, but Lucky hasn't been seen since.  There's been some speculation that he could return again in the near future, but it's not clear if that means JJ or someone else.

  

Worth it?  100%.  In the same way that RH is Todd Manning, JJ is Lucky, and I feel like no one else should play him.

Kendall(Alicia Minshew) and Bianca(Eden Reigel), AMC

 

I always loved their relationship.  A lot of soap sibling relationships are complex, with both parties hurting each other and what not, but some are just really solid, loving relationships, and this is one of those.

 

I just think it's an interesting dynamic between them.  One of Kendall's core characteristics is that she doesn't trust easily, and thus doesn't let people 'in' easily, whereas Bianca was one of the most open-hearted characters on the show.  Kendall had to fight her way into being accepted by Erica, whereas Bianca was the golden child.

 

Given these dynamics, the relationship easily could've been written differently, with Kendall resenting Bianca and so forth.  But instead, even in the 90s when SMG was Kendall and Bianca was still a little kid and Kendall was battling Erica, she still protected Bianca from Richard.

 

By the time Minshew and Riegel were in the roles, they slowly but surely developed a super close relationship.  Kendall may not let people 'in' easily, but she let Bianca in in a big way.  She loved Bianca more than just about anyone other than her kids; like, she probably would've taken a bullet for Bianca, and vice versa.  Bianca softened Kendall up a little, and Kendall toughened Bianca up a little.  They were good for each other.  Once Pratt became the HW the last few years, he did some unnecessary damage to the relationship, but they made up in the end, so all's well that ends well.

 

I think Bianca's nickname "Binx" was Kendall's doing, too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vicki(Erika Slezak) and Todd(Roger Howarth), OLTL

 

One of the most complex sibling relationships, imo.  They couldn't have had more different positions in the social structure of Lanview when Todd first came on the scene.  She was perhaps the most beloved person in town, and he was a pariah, a violent and profoundly damaged individual.  When it was revealed that he was her brother, her acceptance of him was a big deal.  If she had shunned him, there's no way he could've developed into the character he became.

 

Vicki was probably one of the first, if not the first, person to look at Todd like a human being instead of monster, to believe there was good in him.  She was the one that put Starr in his arms for the first time and made him believe he could be a father.

 

I think Vicki mattered to Todd more than almost anyone else outside of his kids, because she believed in him when no one else did.   In his 2011 return, RH's Todd said to her, "I trust you above all others".

 

Vicki developed a real, true love for him, but also wasn't afraid to tell him off and rip him a new one when he deserved it, and she was probably one of the people who could do so and make any kind of an impact on him.  I believe Viki had a deeper relationship with him than with her sister Tina.

 

And yes, I'm only talking about RH Todd here.  I never felt the same chemistry with TSJ, except for his famous execution scene. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Adam and Stuart(David Canary), AMC

 

David Canary was one of the GOATS of the genre, easily.  His ability to play two characters with such dramatically disparate personalities and do so so convincingly is the work of a master.  Jacob Young was talking about this one of those reunion videos on YT recently, and he was on the money.

 

Adam didn't always treat Stuart well, but he knew that Stuart was a far better man, and he loved him deeply.  This is evidenced by how wrecked Adam was when Stuart "died".  Both times.  We all remember Stuart dying in 2009 and being resurrected in 2011, but don't forget that storyline in 2000 when Stuart was though to have died in a cabin fire.  Both times, Adam hardly wanted to live anymore without his twin.

 

For Stuart's part, he was infinitely more forgiving than Adam, and always strove to see the good in Adam where others wouldn't bother.