Can not get used to long time actors switching soaps.

[DRW50]

I don't have a big problem with actors switching roles if the writing is there. I never saw Ross when I saw JvD's Clint. I never confused MZ's David Renaldi with Roger Thorpe. Liz Hubbard's Althea seems like night and day to Lucinda Walsh. Grant Aleksander is very different in his roles. Crystal Chappell was very different in her soap roles (at least up to that ill-fated DAYS return).

When the writing fails, nothing can be done.

[JaneAusten]

Crystal Chappells last Days return of an example of them just wanting the name and fanbase but that's been the case with most soap jumpers the last 5 to 10 years as the writing has deteriorated across the board. But in CC's part I recall her interviews before she started airing on Days and she actually talked about playing Carly differently than she had before almost to mesh more with her Olivia on GL. Y&R and Days have been the prototype for this type of casting and writing the last 10 years.JvD IMO was a rare exception. But soaps no longer cast roles out of need for the most part it's more out of this name is available let's create a role for them.

[DRW50]

That's true. They cast actors to get attention and then just write to the actor's limitations, or don't write for them at all. I still have no idea what Y&R was doing with Eden Reigel.

[~bl~]

They just wanted Eden because they could get her...that's what it felt like.

[SFK]

They just recast Bianca so they could stick it to her...that's what it felt like.

[JackPeyton]

Thats exactly what it was. They just got her and gave her a role, even tho she was all wrong for it.

Hummm idk. I def think thaty was part of it but i also think they didnt recast previously because ER would come in for stints, but apperantly nothing long term then went a signed a contract at Y&R so they had to have been pressed about that but they also could no longer have bianca pop in, so a recast was needed. At least they got a good recast.

[John]

Eden said she met with AMC about returning Full time when AMC moved to LA But they wanted a long term contract, which ER was not opposed to but had no story in mind, so she passed and when Y&R came along & Heather opposite of Bianca she took that Job.

AMC then cast CBL as Bianca and Bianaca did nothing for quite a while when she came back

[applcin]

More or less ditto to everything, with a couple of exceptions. I wonder sometimes whether it's easier or harder when the second character is tied to or related to the first. I'm thinking of Finola Hughes coming to AMC as Alex Devane. It was Anna Devane who had been the popular character on another soap and now here comes the same actress, playing her twin on another soap...it was like you either wanted her to be Anna or just be somebody totally unrelated altogether.

I remember thinking I wonder how GF will fare on Days, away from Laura and the whole L & L image and the pairing that was so indelible at the time. But I not only liked her as Diana Colville, I liked her chemistry with Drake Hogestyn. I wasn't seeing her as Laura Spencer anymore.

On the other hand, Tony Geary coming back to GH as Bill Eckert...it's not that I thought he was bad at it, it just seemed all sorts of wrong. Might have been different had he played both characters simultaneously for more than a day. But Bill was meant to replace Luke so TG could be on the show and play a different character without the Luke baggage and then Luke replaced Bill when Bill was killed off so the big Spencer family return could happen.

Also, I had really liked/loved Stephen Nichols and MBE on Days but I didn't care for either of their characters on GH. I never wanted to see any Cassadine beyond the 1980s so that whole family's later presence on GH was a turn-off to me. And Katherine Bell just never felt like a well-established character to me.

[Cheap21]

I love FH, but she doesnt have the range to play twins. She even admitted so in an interview and didnt want to do a dual role. Alex always came across as Anna-lite and when both of them were on, they really tried to butch Anna up to make her come across more masculine while ramping up Alex as more sophisticated to make them appear seperate. Eventually Alex was gonna and FH was back to playing Anna similarly to how she was with Alex.

[RomeAt50]

IIRC it took over six months for Bianca to start to get a real story.