Legacy characters who were killed off...

[Dale]

That's very true Eric. While I loved that whole week they played out Megan's death with all those flashbacks, I thought it was very shortsighted to kill the character off. Recasting Megan would have been a very tricky proposition, indeed. She should have slipped into a coma and gotten shipped off to Switzerland. Bigger and better than Jessica Tuck have come back.

[P.J.]

And on that (one) level, Bryant's death worked. Unfortunately, Sheffer then wasted (or was simply incapable) the opportunity to push his characters in new directions. Bryant's death was used to buy sympathy for the unsympathetic and completely disgusting Craig.

[Quent]

I have mixed feelings about Jennifer's death on ATWT. On the one hand, she was Barbara's daughter and tied to most of the character's on the canvas. On the other hand, she had possibly the best soap death scenes I've ever witnessed.

[MissLlanviewPA]

OLTL:

Al Holden

[SFK]

I really hated the whole switching his soul with Michael thing. Didn't sit right with me.

[AdelaideCate007]

At least we got months of ghost Luna out of it.

(I kid, I kid....maybe)

[EricMontreal22]

Yeah one of Malone's misfires--What I didn't get was... Why was Michael's soul not worthy? I mean that whole aspect just irked me--what was so great about Al that he should be given by God or whoever the right to switch?

[SFK]

Exactly. It was just an unsettling concept to me.

[Vee]

I grew up with Al Holden. He was horribly miscast with NM - whose only good story was with Kathy Brier as Marcie - but they should have recast, not killed him off. That really hurt me.

[Cheap21]

OLTL did alot of recasting of important characters. Virtually everyone in Viki's family except 2 of her daughters have been recast at some point. All the Cramer clan except Addie have as well. The Buchs had more stability with pivotal roles such as Bo, Asa and Cord, not touched but then you had Clint and his sons recasted. Plenty more examples of legacy characters recanted from this show. OLTL was no different from the rest

[Paul Raven]

Irna Phillips decided to kill off Paul Stewart,when the character could have easily left town for a while as Don Hughes did over the years.

A few years later Ellis/Hunt headwriting team killed off Dan Stewart. I think SORAS was in part to blame for this. Dan should only have been 21 at the time of his death but because Irna loved to age characters,Dan became an adult when he should have been 8 yrs old.So ten years later he'd already been through 3 marriages,had 2 children etc

[EricMontreal22]

Vee, of all people you should know (if anyone does)--did they always know they were gonna do the Heaven Can Wait rip off story--or was it only brought about because people were so upset Al was killed off?

I like that on http://llanviewlabyrinth.webs.com/recastcontrasts/ they seem to agree with my take--I didn't mind NM as Al (though less so than them), but the odd thing about that story was the VERY little we saw of original Michael before Al took over his body was more appealing than I think Malone/Griffith/Valentini ever intended him to be. I was hoping there would be more to his character--even something cheezy like a fight for his soul (which gives me flashbacks to that campy Gottlieb era story with Luna Max and that ghost--which I admit as a 12 year old I kinda loved--I think his name was Bobby). NM never was appealing as Micheal--who was basically a toned down Al with little to do, anyway...

[Vee]

To the best of my knowledge, no, they did not have it planned. It was a rewrite.

NM was fired because of chronic lateness and other more serious BTS issues which have plagued him since his time at ATWT. Thus, Al's death was penned and shot. When fan outcry proved very intense and ABC realized Marcie and Al was the only truly popular new couple at OLTL that summer, Frons relented and OLTL hired Marston back, whipping up the ludicrous "Heaven Can Wait" story in record time.

Ultimately, of course, years later, NM was fired again for the same kind of issues, and stayed gone.

I never liked NM as Al until the pairing with Marcie, I definitely never liked him as Michael who was just an Al placeholder. Only Chris Stack really made me feel anything for Michael other than "Substitute Al." It was a pointless storyline, and HCW was absolutely idiotic to watch day to day.

[Ann_SS]

Al's pairing with Marcie was a surprising success for OLTL. I ready adored Marcie and it made me really like the uninteresting NM/Al. As usual, I have no idea what possessed the writers to killed off Al just because they fired NM. Yes, a recast would have been difficult because of the popularity of Al and Marice, but all they could have easily had him fall off a cliff be presumed dead or go into a coma for a few months before recasting the role.

I have been thinking that maybe there is a way to bring back Colleen on Y&R. This is a soap after all. Maybe she was kidnapped and her body switched by LML gold hunters before she died. Something, anything to fix that horrible mistake.

[y&r_fan]

Nice idea, but if the current regime resurrected Colleen I fear it would be in the form of FOJ Adrianne Leon, my least favorite of the three, since Lyndsy Fonseca is otherwise occupied and I doubt Tammin Sursok would want to return.

I'd rather they resurrect Cassie actually.