Successful Characters with No Family or Ties to Canvas

[Ann_SS]

GH

Robert Scorpio

Sean Donnelly

Sonny Corinthos

Duke Lavery

Anna Devane

Y&R

JT Hellstrom

[SoapSurvivor]

Well Vicki's daughters were prominent to the early 2000's, besides the few years. But Vicki lost her mother, sister, bro and father. She worked in stories by herself, the built new characters and families around her character. And retconned 3 (Tina/Todds) paternities to make other characters more important.

[Cheap21]

Viki being mentioned just seems contradictory to what you opened this thread up with. You know characters that came on with no family and became successfull in spite of that. Viki was already a star and successful by the time you felt her family got marginalzed. Some of her family may have died, but she's gained plenty of new relatives since the show begain in 1968. She's never been isolated alone

[SoapSurvivor]

You are correct. But I kinda paraphrased and guess that would be another topic. Some core families on other soaps got phased out entirely. I get what you're saying I guess.

[DRW50]

Meta Bauer. She was used to help bring a family in to GL, a family that probably kept it on the air for most of its 70+ year run.

[y&r_fan]

Y&R

Nikki Reed

Victor Newman

Diane Jenkins

Neil Winters

Sheila Carter

Ryan McNeil

Michael Baldwin

Phyllis Summers

J.T. Hellstrom

Brittany Hodges

Raul Guittierez

Bobby Marsino

Amber Moore

B&B

Taylor Hayes

Sheila Carter

Lauren Fenmore

Amber Moore

Deacon Sharpe

Dayzee Leigh

[DeeeDee]

Y&R

Brad Elliot

Andy Richards

Nina Webster

Steve Connolly

Steve Lassiter

Leanna Love

Mari Jo Mason

Julia Newman

Lynne Bassett

Tim Sullivan

[DRW50]

What this should tell someone who writes for a soap is that you don't need to be someone's fifth cousin twice removed to be able to have an impact on a show. Viewers don't care about that garbage. It's just a way for a writer to wink at their cleverness, not a way to integrate a new character. If anything, family ties can choke more than strengthen.

Edge of Night is probably the best example of a show that brought in a ton of important characters without family ties.

Adam Drake

Nicole Travis

Miles Cavanaugh

Draper Scott

Bill Marceau

among many others I'm forgetting

[VirginiaHamilton]

OLTL's Evangeline Williamson

[katie_9918]

Very true. Though listeners (yes, you read that right) didn't know it at the time, popular Jan Carter (who'd gotten herself in a big pickle with Ted White) did turn out to be Papa and Mama Bauer's lost daughter, Meta. But both the Bauers and Jan Carter were reasonably established (for a 15-minute radio show) before the connection was revealed.

Or so my grandma told me, anyway.

[ellabelle]

On AMC:

Adam Chandler - he was initially there on his own. Stuart and Ross came along later, IIRC.

Dimitri Marick - yes he eventually had a brother and a long-lost son, but he did well as a stand-alone character.

Tom Cudahy - I think his brother was on the show for a while in the 70s, but he was a stand-alone character for most of his time on the show.

David Hayward - he was eventually given a mother and some long-lost relatives, but he made quite an impression on his own.

[Michael]

Nicole on Days is a really strong example. She has been given family members, but none of them were really long-term or important (shuddering at Taylor 2.0), and Nicole has always been THEIR link to the show, not vice-versa.

Chloe Lane is another Days example. She turned out to be the long-lost child of Craig and Nancy, but they weren't exactly core characters, and she's remained important for several years.

[SoapSurvivor]

I'm shocked DOOL got this right, considering their need to tie Daniel to every character on the show. And although John came on as Roman he eventually became a stand alone character married to another stand alone character (Marlena) and they were the center of the show. Will not mention that John is a Dimera now.

[katie_9918]

Yeah, but how long did it take to figure out that John was a DiMera?

There's case for him not counting, due to all the different ways different Days writers tried to make him more important, but still...

[Skin]

Brenda Barrett