Soap actors/kids grow up on screen

[DRW50]

I remembered Michelle going away in early/spring 1995, which was still JFP, so I had assumed it was her. Thanks for correcting me.

In some ways I think Laibson understood part of GL, as he had produced AW for several years and made some moves that were needed (like bringing back Rick Bauer - he also had Barbara Berjer make a few appearances as Holly's mother, which I loved) but he allowed too many ugly McTavish stories and trashing of characters like Nola. It's a shame because I thought the show had potential and some good moments up to about spring 1996.

[~bl~]

JFP brought back Rick Bauer, not Laibson. That happened in February or March of 95...well before Laibson was hired AFAICK. Laibson had a prior relationship with Barbara Berjer, as he was EXP over there when she still had story.

[DRW50]

OK. Since I thought Miner left around the time Rick came back I thought they were the same decision. I was thinking of when Laibson/McTavish got all the praise for bringing people back.

Whatever his reasons I was happy they brought Barbara back, as I'm not even sure if she was mentioned until then. I wish they'd brought her in again when they had Ken show up a few years later.

I wonder if JFP was forced to bring him back (as P&G I think forced her to do the awful "Reva the ghost" story). I thought JFP felt you shouldn't bring back past characters.

[BKuzak]

I think the worst cast of SORAS'd is Nick Newman. He was born in 1988 and by 1994 he was played by teen Josh Morrow. I like Josh now but i thought that was the worst case of aging. it was weird when he was presumed dead and Niki was talking to Katherine about these memories of him as a kid and you know damn well they never could have happend because he had been SORAS'd.

At least with Viki and Clint Buchanan, they didn't SORAS there boys Kevin and Joey that much. from like 1983 to 1990, they were played by the same two kids. They probably weren't on all the time but they were on for holidays, weddings and plot devices like all soap kids. then they'd go back "upstairs" with nanny Kim. they weren't aged until 1990 when they aged all three of Viki's kids five years. Kevin went from someone starting Junior High to starting college. Joey went from grade school to high school. I know Kevin and Joey were played by many actors over the years since then but as kids they pretty much stayed the same. Then when Joey was aged with Nathan Fillion, he was only colleged aged. and Kevin really wasn't aged too much after the big five year jump. Yes he was played by a lot of actors but it wasn't to age him, it was because nobody fit right. in 1986 they celebrated the characters 10th birthday (Viki was pregnant with jessica) and by 1996 he was played by Kevin Stapleton who looked like he was in his 30's. and by 2006 he was played by Dan Guither who passed for a 40 year old. Joey now is suposed to be in his early 30's and this actor who plays him does look like he's in his 30's.

[Khan]

I don't think PGP forced JFP to do that particular story. Yes, when Kim Zimmer decided to return, PGP jumped aboard the idea of bringing her back, b/c they felt it would only help GUIDING LIGHT's ratings. "Ghost Reva," however, might have been more JFP's idea than theirs, simply because of the non-commital way the story was structured. (Meaning, was it really Reva's ghost, or a figment of Josh's imagination? For most of the storyline, that was left up to viewers to decide.) If Reva/KZ's return does nothing for the ratings, JFP might've thought, then they could chalk up the whole thing to Josh's imagination, tell Kim, "Thanks, but no thanks," and then proceed with the Josh/Annie relationship. Unfortunately, from a pure ratings standpoint, I think the return did more for the show than JFP had bargained for. After all, GL had managed to go on successfully for awhile after KZ's departure, so it wasn't as if the show could never have survived without her. OTOH, though, the entire show was in such trouble that, lingering anti-Reva sentiment aside, her return was welcomed by many longtime fans.

Was "Ghost Reva" problematic? Yes. If you look at it as a sort of trial run or test, however, it was probably the only option they had since an outright resurrection at that point would have been more trouble than it was worth, especially if her return alone had done absolutely nothing for the ratings. Therefore, the real abomination, IMO, was Reva's true back-from-the-dead story, better known as "Amish Reva." There were a million and one ways to explain where Reva had been since '90 and why she hadn't returned to her family -- and even if you had to justify the whole thing (as I did) with, "Well, maybe she was drawn to Goshen, b/c it evoked memories of the Amish farm she and Kyle Sampson stayed on after their plane had crashed years ago...", the handling of that entire story was a plain, hot mess.

[DRW50]

I wondered if P&G pushed it because this was when DAYS had success with supernatural stories. JFP did the same type of stories, sort of, at AW, and they continued after she left.

I liked some of the Amish story, Abigail's introduction, and how quiet the story was, but it definitely could have been better.

In an ideal world, GL did not need Reva, but JFP had destroyed and fizzled away so much of the show's foundation in 1993 and 1994 that she had taken away pretty much everything which had been built up after Reva left. I guess it was kind of funny that after JFP left, Reva ended up with JFP's (I'm assuming) favorite character, Buzz.

[Khan]

I've said this before, and I'll say it again: as someone who had watched ANOTHER WORLD when he was EP, and who remembers the brief period when he and colleague Susan Bedsow Horgan head-wrote AS THE WORLD TURNS pre-Marland, I don't believe Michael Laibson was truly responsible for the mess that GUIDING LIGHT became under his watch. If anything, his time as EP was probably the last when GL truly felt like GL, despite the awful and tasteless material MMT kept serving up to viewers. If he had had a halfway decent HW, and if PGP had not insisted on making GUIDING LIGHT compete with DAYS and other, gimmicky shows at that time, he would have been more successful, IMO.

[Mitch]

Leah was just a f*cked up Wheeler project from the get go. The only reason they did it was the backlash she was receiving about obscuring the Bauers in favor of the Coopers. At that time both MOL and Mel were on recurring and Simon was long gone. They can't age Harleys kids as...gasp that would make Ehlers/Harley look older (thought Ehlers was playing Harley way younger then she should have been...) and ruin what Wheeler/Kreizman felt was their romantic heroine. So they said, "Oh, we have a story for the Bauers, " and it was the Mel/Rick/Beth thing which could have been really, really good and utilized history and gave the Mel character more definition, but it was treated as a D story and we had to watch Gus and Harley baby talk and Jonathon scream everyday. So I understand the need to have an older child to react to the Mel/Rick problems but they aged the wrong kid.

[applcin]

Brighton Hertford (sp?) played BJ Jones on General Hospital from the time she was a baby until she died. It made her death all the more wrenching because we had seen her grow up from a baby to grade school. I still have the scene on tape where Tania has just died and Tony goes home and sobs over a crying baby Brighton in his arms.

Edited: Sorry, just realized the OP says to "adulthood" so that leaves BH/BJ out.

[IcyOne]

ITA. No child actor should play the role for longer than five years. Starr Manning's escape to New York with Travis should have been Kristen's final story, and they should have SORAS'd her after that. Eddie Alderson (who was absolutely horrific for years, and has only JUST started to improve) should have never been hired in the first place; I'm sure Tomlin just thought it would be "cute" to have KA's brother in the cast...that they could share scenes, and whatnot. Erin Torpey was ok as a pre-teen Jessica, but she was never believeable when the role was coming of age. Like KA, she continued looking 14 when the role was 19-20. JFP wanted to replace her, it was Slezak that intervened and threatened to walk herself if ET was let go.

This is why I support the Jack Manning recast. I enjoyed Carmen, but I had no desire to sit and tediously watch him grow up in real time. It's a slow process. Furthermore, it makes their 'growing up/coming of age' sex and drugs stories hard to take when you look at them and recall the eight year old they were when they started.

[DRW50]

She was more believable than Bree has ever been IMO.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Neither of them are very good, IMO.

Erin lost steam over time and was clearly bored by the end (not that I blame her given the material in her last few years).

Bree has never worked in the role of Jessica, she initially showed some spark as Tess, but that was very limited and soon became very played out. Bree is generally a horrible actress, IMO. She can't play a lot of the things they write for her and her choices are very limited as an actress.

[DRW50]

Erin wasn't the best actress but she had a connection with Erika Slezak (in my opinion Bree never has), and she was able to play thoughtfulness and quiet (Bree just looks stupid/bored). This served her well in stories that otherwise would have been bad, or even worse, like Jessica's pregnancy, or the early Natalie story. Just compare Erin's performance during the pregnancy/stillbirth/breakdown to everything with Bree in similar stories.

I think Jessica should have been rested after Erin left. From the first time I saw Bree's Jessica, kicking a Coke machine, she seemed fake, and it's gotten worse and worse with each passing year. Ultimately this has had a horrible effect not only on Jessica but on the bad joke the Buchanan family has become.

[Khan]

Can you blame her? Look at how many Kevin and Joey recasts she's had to put up with over the years. (In fact, Melissa Archer's Natalie and Jessica Tuck's Megan might be the most "successful" on-screen kids that ES has had...and it probably says a lot, too, that neither role has been recast and that we were perhaps spared from watching either daughter during her so-called "formative years.")

I don't mind watching a child actor evolve into a young adult and/or adult actor, so long as the writer(s) continue paying attention to that actor and writing to his/her strengths. Unfortunately, most HW's saddle these youngins with heavy material that is simply beyond their range (not to mention, excruciating to watch).

[IcyOne]

...and I totally disagree. In addition to Erin looking distractingly young past the age of 14, she played Jessica in this very odd half-snotty/half-Pollyanna-ish way that wasn't at all favorable. She was like a stuck up princess in a Disney fable, and I never bought her getting all those guys fist fighting over her. I was thrilled when I heard she was leaving and that Jessica would be recast, it was needed, and immediately took to Bree from her very first scene in the train station – even when she kicked the vending machine, and wound up stuck in Antonio Vega hell. There was no way Jessica would have continued to work as an adult with Erin in the role. Like Kristen Alderson, she too lasted five years longer than she should have.