ALL: They Almost Became

[Vee]

Gerry Waggett's OLTL trivia book claims the show wanted Genie Francis for a Sarah Gordon recast when Jensen Buchanan first left, but Agnes Nixon lured her to AMC to play Ceara Connor instead. I'd never known that. (It also claims they gave up on the oft-recast Dan Wolek because one of the producers called its revolving door status "the role from hell".)

Edited April 3, 2015 by Vee

[AArredondo02]

Interesting you should mention Genie Francis. In 1982, when Genie departed GH for the first time, the show was said to consider recasting the role of Laura Spencer with actresses like Sharon Stone (very pre-Basic Instinct) and Catherine Hickland. Rumor has it, Sharon auditioned for the Heather Webber role on the same show back in the late seventies, but Robin Mattson got the job.

Oh, Francis was rumored to be in contention for both the Eden and Kelly roles when Santa Barbara first went on the air in 1984.

[Khan]

Nabbing Genie Francis for SANTA BARBARA might have been a coup...but I think she would've been better as a slightly older Laken Lockridge.

[Paul Raven]

Wasn't Genie also mentioned when there was talk of keeping Caroline on B&B when Joanna Johnson left?

[SFK]

When Genie first appeared on All My Children, I was in the room watching with my mother and she commented about rumors of the show's plans to make her "the new Erica" as it looked like Susan might permanently leave for primetime. Was this legit soap magazine speculation or just my mom and her friends at work hypothesizing?

[frequentsoapfan]

I thought James was too young as well. It was hard to buy him as someone old enough to be a father figure to Hank(since I believe it was said Sam raised him since he was a kid) and even Luis(since he was the same age as Hank)

[titan1978]

I thought the original Passions cast was mostly awful and miscast, james being a pretty good example. I think they did a better job with the casting at Sunset Beach, they just had writing with no clear point of view. Aside from a few key people Reilly had some of the worst actors when Passions began.

Edited April 5, 2015 by titan1978

[frequentsoapfan]

Passions had some of the worst actors when it ended too! The bad ones from the beginning merely became passable, some of the good ones the show managed to get had left by the end.

I always though McKenzie Westmore was miscast too. I actually preferred Kam in the role.

[Paul Raven]

GH had cast Keely Shaye Smith as Katherine Delafield,Scorpio's new love interest, a concert pianist.

Edie Lehmann was brought in to play piano for close ups but exec producer Joe Hardy was impressed with her look even though she had never acted and gave her the role of Katherine,

Keely got to play Valerie a therapist.

[DRW50]

Not sure if this was already known, but I was reading the DAYS 50th issue and Eileen Davidson said that they were going to cast Brenda Epperson to play Susan, but Eileen decided she wanted to try to do it herself.

[John]

That would have been cool

[YRfan23]

I love the idea about someone as beautiful and glamorous looking as BE playing Susan.....I wish they had stuck with that idea, and would have been so funny hearing her do her accent..

[amybrickwallace]

That would have been inspired casting, as both had played Y&R's Ashley.

[Paul Raven]

Michael Lundrum auditioned for the part of Alan Stewart on The Doctors,which went to Gil Gerard.He later played Mike Powers on TD

[ghfan89]

John Callahan said he was offered the part of Jeremy Hunter on AMC years before he played Edmund, but had turned down the part to do Falcon's Crest.

Edited November 19, 2015 by ghfan89