How so? Granted, the awful writing has done her much harm, likely more than most long term characters, but she is one of the few people on GH who actually belongs on GH in the role they are in. Beyond being a webber, and a nurse, she is an essential character every soap needs: a character that can float between lead, supporting, and background as needed. Plus, all of her pairings take off and are popular, even her least liked pairing with Nikolas had fans and was a good story until she was thrown under the bud and ran over for JJLucky. She is the kind of character I tune into for soaps. She can be good, she can be bad, she can be major or minor. This is the best her character has been in well over 5 years, so thats nice.

Please. You dont want to get her started. Dont say I didnt warn you for opening up this can of worms

Please. You dont want to get her started. Dont say I didnt warn you for opening up this can of worms

I get hating her and not wantiong her on the show, but i cant understand her having no legs in daytime so i really do want an answer, lol.

I get hating her and not wantiong her on the show, but i cant understand her having no legs in daytime so i really do want an answer, lol.

LOL....check about the dozen or so threads with multiple paes about just how awful and unnecesary she thinks Elizabeth is

I don't think Babe necessarily took Amanda's place - I think Babe was initially a good concept for a character and I think that she worked well initially as an outsider. I do think that the baby story would have worked better with Amanda, just based on history. I also think that Babe didn't necessarily need a baby to tie her down to the canvas, whereas a baby might have helped give Amanda more story than floating from man to man who treated her like a whore.

I would agree that Amanda having a baby could have helped her early on in her debut into AMC, but at the same time look at what having Trevor Jr eventually did for her character? Virtually nothing, she was the same dull character she always was. Amanda only sparked or had worth of purpose when she was with Janet. She never meant much as a character outside of that and I think that's the problem. For all of Babe's flaws I actually do think she had a purpose for her first three and a half years on the show. She only started becoming dull and pointless in 2007 and that was because she was constantly in the middle of love triangles with JR. She didn't work well in the Slavery orbit and the Chandlers/Martins at that point in time were gradually losing importance in the show and her character became needless.

she is one of the few people on GH who actually belongs on GH in the role they are in. Beyond being a webber, and a nurse, she is an essential character every soap needs: a character that can float between lead, supporting, and background as needed. Plus, all of her pairings take off and are popular, even her least liked pairing with Nikolas had fans and was a good story until she was thrown under the bud and ran over for JJLucky. She is the kind of character I tune into for soaps. She can be good, she can be bad, she can be major or minor. This is the best her character has been in well over 5 years, so thats nice.

What is her role? Nurse #65? She doesn't do anything but sit around the hospital or mope around her house with strange men. She has no meaning on this show and she has no point outside of her relationships. They destroyed LL2 which was her sole justification for staying on the show post 2005 add in the fact that Laison/Jason is the pits and would completely destroy her sainted image and there is not much to run with. She has no point, she doesn't fit with Ewan, Matt, Patrick or any of the men that they try to pair her with. Liz is definied by her men and pairings specifically Jason and Lucky. She is too heavily in grossed in those two men and she responds based on their inferiority/superiority in their stories. She has no sense of direction and has been largely used as a ping pong ball between them from 05' onward, you can inject Nikolas in there as well.

Neither of her past pairings would work at this point anyway for obvious reasons. Niz was a disaster and destroyed any possibility of LL2 happening ever again and there is no way Liz could justify herself with living with a man that would put her children's lives at risk and sleep with a man who kills people for a living, etc.

If this was 2002-2004 I could see your point maybe because Liz had the ability then to go from man to man and make it semi-work. She had on going relationships that were plausible with Zander, Jason, Lucky and Ric all happening and it sort of made sense. Now? She has completely lost her luster as a romantic leading heroine because of her back to back infidelities and her falling in love with whatever person takes their shirt off at the right moment. Her "love" and currency as a romantic heroine is less then worthless at this point. She is a bankrupt romantic leading lady -- because she falls in "love" too easily. Much like how Sonny is the same in all of his pairings, his feelings for women at this point are simply not believable because of his constant relationships and romantic overturns that fly off at the drop of a hat. Liz's "love" means nothing at this point making her a useless romantic entity. She also serves no dramatic purpose as a female lead either. Lucky, Luke, Maxie and Siobohan were the characters who have truly carried the brunt of her storylines in terms of character actions, motivations and moving story forward -- Liz has no autonomy as a character and doesn't really make any actions on her own to support herself as a lead character/entity. Liz is not an action character. She reacts and now she doesn't even have characters around her who are worth reacting to. This easily diminishes her value as a dramatic character/entity. She's meaningless because her worth is accumulated by her opposite screen partner.

As to Liz fluctuating between lead, supporting or whatever -- Liz hasn't been lead in a long time. Likely around the time when Lucky first started popping pills. It's always been Jason, Sam, Lucky, Rebecca, Nikolas or someone else in her sphere driving her story and Liz sitting their like she can't believe what's happening. Liz has been at most a supporting capacity character for awhile now and she has even been starting to lose that with the loss of Lucky.

Yeah I don't think Liz is anywhere near that multi-faceted. She's is a glamorized version of Carly who is also quite useless as a character at this point as a mob pin-up girl. I have yet to see a huge following for either of her pairings with Matt or Ewan -- and on the contrast viewers were enraged by Niz and the mere thought of pairing Patrick up with Liz so swiftly after Robin's death sent Scrubs fans into a seething rage, so I must disagree there as well.

As to her character being the best she has been in 5 years, I don't see it. The last time Liz was a fascinating character to me was sometime around the Panic room storyline with Carly and when she was with Ric with slight flashes of compelling characterization during her marriage to Lucky and the trainwreck storyline around 2005.

Edited April 26, 201213 yr by Skin

People would just be infuriated and complain that they ruined a legacy character like Amanda if they had her keep Bianca's baby the way Babe did.

Snicker. True, but simply being "a legacy character" doesn't mean the character is worth keeping. Janet would absolutely take Bianca's baby to make Amanda happy, and Janet would have brought some humor to it too, which would have been infinitely better than watching Bobbie Eakes slink around the set in trashy clothes and bleached hair, looking like she'd been rode hard and put up wet. I'd have much rather watched a baby swap story with Janet and Amanda than I would Babe/Krystal because Krystal was SO obnoxiously awful.

I actually really liked Alexa Havins' Babe, but I thought Krystal put her in a HORRIBLE position by telling her the truth about Bess being Miranda. WHY the writers did that is beyond me. Babe would have been far more likeable and salvageable if they had left her in the dark, letting her figure it out on her own when she found Ace. I was still able to get past Babe knowing and not telling, but Krystal was just such an awful character that she made me hate Babe because Babe constantly stuck up for her even when she shouldn't have (the whole KWAK pregnant by Tad storyline comes to mind).

Even so... I do agree with those who said that having a baby did not make Amanda a more likeable character. She was still whiny, slutty and insecure, so having her in the baby swap story wouldn't have improved that much unless it somehow led her to get intensive therapy.

How about GL bringing on Brian Gaskill as Dylan in 2007? That was an epic fail from the very beginning.

Other ones, most already mentioned: GL's Rafe & Natalia, DAYS' Roman (Josh Taylor), Daniel, Mia, and this latest run with Jack.

DAYS' Steve and Kayla were also done & over with by their 2006 return (it's no wonder they left without an actual send-off)

On paper, Dylan's return should have worked. I think the show was just poorly written, and Gaskill was horribly miscast.

^

I agree that his return should've worked and that Brian Gaskill was miscast. I've always wondered if they even bothered to ask Morgan Englund back around that time. But Dylan would've still been doomed b/c Daisy's stories were stupid, Harley (as a character) was becoming stupid, and they hardly let him (IMO) interact with the Lewises. My dream would've been for them to have paired Dylan with Olivia (before she became a lesbian) b/c that could've reignited Reva v. Olivia -- a feud I feel that was so desperately needed in the final years of GL.

I actually really liked Alexa Havins' Babe, but I thought Krystal put her in a HORRIBLE position by telling her the truth about Bess being Miranda. WHY the writers did that is beyond me. Babe would have been far more likeable and salvageable if they had left her in the dark, letting her figure it out on her own when she found Ace. I was still able to get past Babe knowing and not telling, but Krystal was just such an awful character that she made me hate Babe because Babe constantly stuck up for her even when she shouldn't have (the whole KWAK pregnant by Tad storyline comes to mind).

Even so... I do agree with those who said that having a baby did not make Amanda a more likeable character. She was still whiny, slutty and insecure, so having her in the baby swap story wouldn't have improved that much unless it somehow led her to get intensive therapy.

+1 on keeping Babe in the dark making her more likeable, but hindsight is 20/20.

I'm not sure Babe was ever meant to be long-term. I think she was probably supposed to come on for the baby swap and then slink off, Baby Dawl and Mama in prison in Seattle or something...

The problem was that damn Alexa Havins. There is a vulnerability and presence about her that made her so durn likable that people (including myself) started caring for Babe. I know several who were watching at the time, and they all agreed that Alexa was one of the best "finds" on AMC in some time. I don't know if that girl knew what she was doing, because she played so excellently the "obnoxious trailer trash" that then turned "heroine" that I don't wonder if Havins didn't engineer it to parlay a short-term stint into a long-term role. And then she took the first out she got to make it elsewhere (she does consistently work). I digress...

So of course the writers wouldn't know any better to keep her in the dark.

And don't get me started on Amanda. I adored the little girl who played her before she left PV the first time, and hated that she didn't get to age on the show, as I thought she showed talent. Also Amanda-as-little-girl was a very smart, almost prototype-feminist, and then she came back to town as slutty Amanda. Honestly, I love her, but Chrishell, I believe was initially cast because (let's face it) that body is banging. She grew a lot on the show (think of her last months with the cancer) but I think her lack of heavy storyline was due to the actresses greenery.

But I'm biased...in my 21 years of watching AMC (almost to the day), I think the baby switch is my #2...The Writer, be damned.

They asked Morgan Englund, but when they said how much he would have to work he said no as he no longer lives near NYC. The amount of airtime Brian Gaskill actually was given on GL was so minimal that it is possible Morgan may have said agreed.

I'm curious... is the topic discussing characters that stayed too long.. or characters that shouldnt have bcome permanent fixtures?

They asked Morgan Englund, but when they said how much he would have to work he said no as he no longer lives near NYC. The amount of airtime Brian Gaskill actually was given on GL was so minimal that it is possible Morgan may have said agreed.

I think it had more to do with length of time. BG's Dylan was on about 40 episodes in a span of 10 months. Maybe ME didnt want to give 10 months to the show

And don't get me started on Amanda. I adored the little girl who played her before she left PV the first time, and hated that she didn't get to age on the show, as I thought she showed talent. Also Amanda-as-little-girl was a very smart, almost prototype-feminist, and then she came back to town as slutty Amanda. Honestly, I love her, but Chrishell, I believe was initially cast because (let's face it) that body is banging. She grew a lot on the show (think of her last months with the cancer) but I think her lack of heavy storyline was due to the actresses greenery.

Ah Chrishell... beautiful girl, great ability to cry on command, but not much else there. There was so much they could have done with Amanda, but they never did. I don't know if it was because they thought Chrishell wasn't up to it or if they just liked the way she played Amanda or what, but it was sorely disappointing to see what became of the character. I'd have been much happier if Amanda had hooked up with Jamie Martin and left town.