ALL: They Almost Became

[Dr Neil Curtis]

According to this weeks Digest/Jeanne Cooper, she almost became someone on ATWT when Doug Marland was headwriter. She was all set to leave Genoa City for Oakdale, but sadly Mr. Marland died three days later.

[jcar03]

Alicia Leigh Willis filmed an scenes as Chloe on DAYS when Nadia Bjorlin was sick. The show ended up reshooting the scenes with Bjorlin.

[Paul Raven]

Carl,Leslie Denniston wasn't the ballerina that was involved with Bob. That was Dana, played by Deborah Hobart,who went on to play Amy Dudley on AW.

Leslie's character Karen was an earlier romance for Bob(78). Karen had some sort of shady connections. I think that Karen was dumped when Hunt/Ellis took over from the Soderbergs.

When Steven Markle was cast as Mel on OLTL.SOW stated that Robert Foxworth, Gil Gerard and Kent McCord (Adam 12) were considered for the role. I wonder if this was just a wish list and those actors were not actually involved at any stage. It seems unlikely that Robert Foxworth in particular would be interested in soaps.

[DRW50]

Oh that's right, I forgot - I had assumed Leslie was involved with Bob on ATWT.

I can't see most of those guys being interested in playing Mel.

Catherine Hicks said in an interview over in the RH thread that she had auditioned for the role of GL's Holly before she was cast as Faith.

[Soaplovers]

Not sure if this was mentioned before or not but Elizabeth Hendrickson (Chloe Y & R) tried out for Michelle in the mid 90's but lost out to Rebecca Budig.

Also, Eric Martsolf (Brady DAYS) tried out for Rafe but was cast as Brady

[Jonathan]

I would've had a sh*t attack if another actress played Erica.

[SFK]

I know, right? And YET... I'm a little intrigued. Roya Megnot would have been a better Erica than Lisa Peluso, but in both cases it would have looked like little girls playing dress up, both too young. I used to think Anna Stuart would make for a good temp Erica when she was still on AW but I don't necessarily agree with that anymore. Her energy is perfect for women like Mary Smythe.

[Cheap21]

But both actresses would have been alot more age approrpiate for the deSORASed rape retcon Erica...lol. I can buy Peluso as 14 years older than Kendall. That would have been interesting to see her in the role

[Jonathan]

I don't really believe JDB considered temporarily recasting Erica. If she did, she's f*ckin crazy and deserved to be fired.

[jcar03]

I saw a few primetime mentions in the original post so I thought I would include these:

Ryan Gosling told Entertainment Weekly that he audtioned numerous times for Dawson's Creek but was always turned down. He didn't mention specifically what roles. I also remember reading that Josh Harnett had audtion for Dawson's Creek.

[John]

According To Eileen Fulton (Lisa, ATWT) During Her Apperance On SoapCentralLive She Met With Her Agent In 1960 & On That Day He Got A Call From ATWT. They Wanted To See Another One Of His Clients, Lois Smith To Read For Lisa.

The Agent Told ATWT That Lois Smith Was About To Have a Baby & He Suggested Eileen. Eileen Went In & Got The Role

Can You Imagine Lois Smith Who was last on Daytime as Besty Cramer On OLTL in 2003-04 and recurs as Tom's mother on Desperate Housewives playing Lisa?

[MontyB]

Wow! Cool thread. Just now seeing this. That list is quite interesting.

Anyway, about Lois Smith. I'm glad she didn't do ATWT. Her character on Somerset is what got me really hooked on the "stories" Somerset used come on late in the afternoon here in NYC in the early 70's and Lois play Zoe and when I got home from school I would ask my sister is Zoe on. I was upset when turned into a killer. Lois Smith is one of the finest character actress around and I'm glad she endured all these years.

[SFK]

She is a fine actress, a friend of mine did Trip to Bountiful with her. I didn't realize her soap career went that far back. I also have trouble imagining her as glamorous Lisa, and for some reson, the ages (in my mind at least, to lazy to actually look it up ) don't seem to match up.

She did this taped very soap-looking production of Tennessee Williams' "Talk to Me Like the Rain and Let Me Listen" for NY PBS which was mid-'70s, I guess a little after her Somerset gig. And this isn't a soap "They Almost Became", but Meryl Streep was the original choice for Lois' role as the kinda kooky gardener in Minority Report with Tom Cruise.

[DRW50]

I will never NOT want to see Lois' work on Somerset. I have seen little of her work, just some of her OLTL run. I guess I should find more of her stuff. For a while I mostly just knew her from a negative Pauline Kael review.

Speaking of ATWT, Donna Wandrey, the wooden but striking Roxanne Drew of Dark Shadows, auditioned to be Rachel on AW after Robin Strasser left, I believe the first time, not sure. They told her she was too nice. She went out shopping and when she checked her service, her agent told her ATWT wanted her to read for Barbara.

[MontyB]

I would really love to see that.