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ALL SOAPS: Best and Worst Recasts


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I'm not going to try to judge recasts that took place years before I was born or where I otherwise never saw other portrayers of the character. This is just going strictly off characters where I can compare different people who played them:

BEST

Matt Crane as Matt Cory, AW

Brian Krause as Matt Cory, AW

Van Hansis as Luke Snyder, ATWT

Billy Magnussen as Casey Hughes, ATWT

Mick Hazen as Parker Munson, ATWT

Jesse Soffer as Will Munson, ATWT

Daniel Cosgrove as Bill Lewis, GL

Marcy Rylan as Lizzie Spaulding, GL

Jennifer Hammon as Karen Wexler, GH/PC

Jonathan Bennett as JR Chandler, AMC

WORST

Kelli Barrett as Maddie Coleman, ATWT

Paul Korver as Chris Hughes, ATWT

Cady McClain as Rosanna Cabot, ATWT

Jeff Phillips as Matt Cory, AW

Michael Dempsey as Alan-Michael Spaulding, GL

Stephen Martines as Tony Santos, GL

Jacob Young as Lucky Spencer, GH

David Gail as Joe Scanlon, PC

Alex Mendoza as Joe Scanlon, PC

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Susan Batten (as ATWT;s Connor), Billy Warlock (as GH's AJ Quartermaine), and Jennifer Bransford (as GH's Carly Corinthos)... it's a wonder no one in casting lost a job over those three. Batten and Warlock are strong actors, just not in those roles.

Heather Rattray as ATWT's Lily? She made me almost like Lily. She gave her such a strong edge. MB's Lily always whined too much. Heather's Lily was a take-no-prisoners person. She was fantastic. She made me believe that she was the daughter of 'ole Lucy Walsh'.

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I forgot completley about recast Taylor! even though I think she may have been on longer than a year, right? But yeah the writing for her was just out of character and pretty useless.

I actually liked Gibbs as Kevin on OLTL though I agree he may have been the wrong choice. I also liked Tacy Melchoir as Kelly and felt she was never given enough time to come into her own (though ultimately I was fine with Heather Thom replacing her).

I admit some of my choices are unfair--I liked Laurence Lau as Sam on OLTL simply because I NEVER liked the guy who first played him--just a personal reaction I think lol.

Loving had a LOT of recasts and I'm not sure I can even go thru which I liked and which I didn't. It seemed like every Alden was played by 4 actors... I had NO idea Elizabeth Mitchell- who I LOVE on Lost -was a Dinah Lee recast. That wouldn't work IMHO.

I had no idea Felicity LaFortune was Nora on OLTL for a while.

Another bad one though he never was given much to do anyway was the model who last played Del on AMC.

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Awww, I loved me some Alec Musser. Hot & cocky= the perfect combination.

On to more Re-casts:

BEST:

Kassie DePaiva as Blair Cramer, OLTL

Jon Lindstrom as Craig Montgomery, ATWT

Marcy Rylan as Lizzie, GL

Beth Chaimberlain as Beth Raines, GL

Mary Beth Evans as Kayla Brady, DAYS

WORST:

Marj Dusay as Pamela Conrad, SB

Kimberlee McArthur as Kelly Capwell, SB

Lauren Koslow as Kate Roberts, DAYS (Deborah Adair IS Kate Roberts!)

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LOV and RH both were swallowed by recasts, it seems. Even the show mainstays were played by three or four people. I've never seen Lisa Peluso as LOV's Ava, but I've seen Roya Megnot and I absolutely floved her. There's an episode on YouTube where it's Jack and Stacy's wedding rehearsal, and Ava decides to be a self-centered bitch and announces that she and Curtis have gotten married, thus taking the spotlight from Jack and Stacy and putting it on herself. Very good stuff. Roya's Ava was a lot like early Erica Kane to me.

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Roya Megnot was special and Peluso definitely took some getting used to, considering how glamorous she was. The character certainly changed- it was a lot easier to believe that Roya's Ava was raised by Nada Rowland's Kate in a blue collar lifestyle than it was Peluso. But in the end, Peluso is the poo and there is no denying that she made Ava Rescott all her own. To tell the truth, any soap would be lucky to snap up Peluso. She's an absolute gem and is always entertaining to watch.

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I mentioned her upthread, and David followed up. :D

Melody is in one of my favorite movies, Speed Zone!, of the Cannonball Run family of fine films. She and Shari Belafonte are racing partners in a high-tech Ferrari.

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That's what I was thinking. I think there might be a Peluso episode on YouTube, I'll have to look and see so I can watch and compare. I definitely got the blue-collar feeling from Roya's Ava, the early Erica qualities of being blue-collar but very much (and unapologetically) believing that she deserves and can get much, much better. The way Curtis handles her around the room, the way everyone makes sure to get in their digs at her ("Ava, you win the bad taste award for 1986!").

Oooh, there's some Lisa Peluso on YT, but it's all clips of her with Paul Anthony Stewart.

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Lisa Peluso was great, but I think she may have been even greater on AW. I met her at the Emmys during this time, and she's a very attractive lady. Oh man, I'm forgetting what happened now, but about a year ago she made news here in the NY area. I'll have to look it up... Anyway, I wasn't a big AW watcher, but from the few times I saw her, her Lila character was cracking me up. The way she said "go'in own" (going on) in that southern fried drawl, she tickled me. But Roya, like Susan on AMC, she's responsible for a lot of my early soap memories. I said this in another thread months ago, but she was like a cross between Erica Kane and Tina Lord. She had that petite, petulant thing going on. And that amazing exotic face. I can see her strutting into Kate's with one of those little hats with the veil on top of her head. There was nothing subtle about the Ava & Kate/Erica & Mona connection, it was downright boldfaced. :P

***

I wasn't around for early Erica, but from fans who were, they seem to agree that Rachel (Robin Strasser) on AW was much more the blue collar, "around the way girl" than Erica was. Erica was a princess who acted like she was already rich, a real priss. Rachel was more down to earth, more "real", calling Ada "Mom" and not "Oh Mother!-ing" her all the time like Erica to Mona.

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