Recasting and pregnant actresses

[DRW50]

I know in some cases, instead of writing characters out when an actress goes on maternity leave, a soap will simply bring an actress in. In other cases, they will write the character out until the actress is ready to return. I was thinking about this again because of some of the clips I've seen and the recent discussion of when Anna Stuart filled in for Maeve Kinkead at GL back in the early 80s, as well as because of what's going on in the UK, where Coronation Street has had to write story around the departures of two of the show's best and most leading actresses, Alison King (Carla Gordon) and Jane Danson (Leanne Battersby).

Which method do you prefer? Is there a method which was more common at one point and less common now?

Are there any situations where recasting or not recasting had a significant effect on the status of the character?

Like Laura, on GH. Do you think the status of her character was compromised because Genie Francis went on maternity leave for over a year?

Do you think a show should always try to replace a pregnant actress so she won't have to play out miscarriage sequences in her late term (as Lynn Herring, Maura West and Kassie de Paiva had to do in the 90s)? Should this be up to the actresses, or does having a genuinely pregnant actress playing this material more unsettling for viewers (at least those who know the actress is really pregnant)?

Who are some of the pregnancy recasts who stood out for you (in a good or bad way)? I still remember Hayley Sparks, who replaced Beth Ehlers as GL's Harley during her breaks. I actually liked her more in the role than I liked her as Courtney Baxter on ATWT.

[Dr Neil Curtis]

Only If the Recast is a good one, such as Hayley Sparks. I have seen some that were bad and some that were good. Passions did one with both Lindsay Korman and McKenzie Westmore, and I liked McKenzie recast better than Lindsay's. I also think if the Character is in a big storyline where she is needed than just find a good recast for the character. I also think that cause the actress is pregnant the character have to get pregnant.

[DRW50]

Who were the fill ins for McKenzie and Lindsay? Gabi from SuBe was a fill-in at one point wasn't she?

Sometimes I prefer the show making a character pregnant if the actress is pregnant, but it depends on the story. On DAYS, when Billie wasn't supposed to be pregnant, it was still very distracting, and difficult, to watch scenes of Krista Allen, 8-9 months pregnant, as Billie was forced to go back on heroin.

[applcin]

I think recasting or not really depends on where the story is at that point and where it's going, and how long the actress plans to be out.

I had to hand it to Mary Beth Evans and DOOL that they didn't recast her. Steve and Kayla were a pretty hot commodity back then; I don't know that the viewers would have cared for a temp, no matter how good she was. They did a lot of hiding behind bags, lying in bed (which worked cuz Kayla was being poisoned). Still it was funny because MBE's face changed--she joked about her nose spreading across her face-- so it was really obvious she was huge. I don't know if they wrote the poisoning to accomodate her pregnancy or if they were going to do that anyway, but it fit with what was happening storywise at the time, and MBE wasn't off for too long anyway.

On the other hand, I remember Christine Jones subbing for Erika Slezak for some time. She did fine. I don't think the character was significantly affected at all.

A rather unique scenario played out when Kate Mulgrew was still on RH. Kate got pregnant but gave her child up for adoption. Mary was very briefly played by a temp, who was not great, but it had no impact on the character (other than, I'm assuming, viewer displeasure) but I don't think it really changed anything. But then, Kate had to play out Mary's pregnancy. That must have been difficult.

I always wondered about that. Genie's pregnancy came not long after Luke and Laura returned to town from Canada in the early 90s. I always wondered if the show had intended on keeping L & L in that action-adventure-couple mode they were famous for, and if GF's pregnancy put the kibosh on that. It was at this time Laura decided to live in the old Ward house and become Earth Mother, while Luke continued his adventurous ways. They made a huge issue out of her wanting a stable home vs. Luke hating the whole domestic scene and it contributed to the breakup of their relationship. I mean, I don't know for a fact, of course, but I do believe her pregnancy made GH shift gears with Laura.

[SFK]

WOW, I never knew that about Kate Mulgrew, how in the world was that handled (if at all) in the soap press back then? How incredibly personal.

[applcin]

I only found out about it online within the last couple of years, so I'm not sure about the press other than from what I've googled. From what I gathered, there were rumors in the rags of an earlier fling with William Grey Espy but he was not the father. She apparently had a boyfriend but was not wanting to get married at that time. Also, she and her daughter reunited years later.

[Cheap21]

Just dont get pregnant while working with JFP. She'll fire you

[Quent]

I still love the way ATWT handled it when three of their actresses got pregnant at the same time. They were all enemies of character Barbara Ryan, who had her evil ex-husband kidnap them and take them to a spa, where they were aged 50 years by a mad scientist!

[Dr Neil Curtis]

Gabi was Lindsay's subb and Catlin #2 from Sunset was McKenzie's subb. Some say she was better than McKenzie. I liked her but I don't personally see where she was any different from McKenzie. Major Stars that are parts of Supercouple shouldnt be recast just written out, like kidnapped, went to visit relatives out of town, etc.

[Gray Bunny]

I remember when B&B's Katherine Kelly Lang went on maternity leave in 1997, the voiceover announcer made it clear to viewers that the 'new' Brooke was only a temporary replacement by saying ''While Katherine Kelly Lang is on maternity leave, the role of Brooke Chambers is temporarily being played by Sandra Ferguson." Although it would've been nice to see KKL playing out the scenes where Brooke learns that son Rick was the one who shot Grant, at least the storyline didn't have to be prolonged or wrapped up quickly to accommodate KKL's absense.

I remember when Laura Wright was pregnant in late 1998, Guiding Light must've given her only a few weeks leave, because she was seriously only off screen only 2 weeks at most. It was right at the height of the Cassie/Hart/Dinah storyline and they wrote Cassie off by having her leave town for a bit because a drugged-up Josh was making advances towards her, but just as soon as she left, she was back, giving birth in a car during a snow storm with Dinah helping her out. Then she was off again for about a week or so.

Overall, I think it's best when the show plans well-ahead to pace out the character's storyline so that the maternity leave doesn't occur during a moment of heavy storyline. Then, do alot of pre-taping and post-taping so that the actress's absense isn't too noticeable.

[SteveFrame]

It depends on the story in a big way for me.

I'll tell you in the case of Maura West's last maternity leave I would have rather had a replacement than have her written off the way she was. It was totally messed up and ruined the character of Carly for me.

[ian]

I thought Lily's coma was well done while Martha had her baby, then when Lily woke up during the ice storm in the hospital it was really well done.