On Ryan's Hope, I think they made a mistake by canning Nancy Barrett as Faith as soon as they did. She's a great actress and I think she could've settled into the role nicely. Another one is on Guiding Light when they recast Marina. I believe that woman was named Kit something and she was TERRIBLE when she started. It wasn't that she couldn't act, but she was clearly theater trained and was too over the top for tv. It seemed like as soon as they announced her departure, her performances had already improved. The Marina we ended up with was terrible.

They had someone else as Josh on AMC before Colin Egglesfield who was on a short time but I forget how long. Rumor was the original guy had an attitude problem I think?

Scott Kinworthy. He bore a bit of a resemblance to Vincent Irizarry so there were some rumors of a connection between the two characters, but that never really panned out. He seemed like a decent enough Josh. I liked Colin's Josh too, save for the Babe obsession.

On ATWT, the Tad Channing character was played by a much younger man before being replaced by Larry Pine, who portrayed Channing as a much more malevolent, rape-y character.

I guess TPTB wanted to kill the character and build a murder mystery, so they may have figured the other guy might present an obstacle to making that happen.

This may be open for debate, but I feel like Davetta Sherwood on the Young & the Restless was dropped rather quickly. The reasons, by now, also much debated.

Kelli Barrett played Maddie Coleman on ATWT over Christmas 2008, but left quickly. I'm not sure though if it was always meant to be just a short visit or not.

Emily Harrison replaced Jennifer Finnigan as Bridget on B&B, but her screentime diminished rapidly and after a few months she was gone completely. Coming after JF was always going to be difficult since she was so successful in the role with three consecutive Emmys, but EH hardly got a chance to put her stamp on the role.

Jennifer Bransford as Carly #3 on GH. She was definitely a solid actress, the problem was that she was VERY different than Sarah Braun and Tamara Braun. She was growing into the role very well by the end, but alas she was fired and replaced by LW.

Now, my personal opinion is that they deliberately set up JB to fail. They knew she was a very different actress, and fans would initially reject her. They also knew LW, who they really wanted, was very different as well. Not to mention she was unavailable. So they hired JB not only to fill the time, but to make sure that LW would be accepted in the role. Very shady, ABCD.

In 1982-83 there was a character on Y&R named Brian Forbes played by an actor named Jay Kerr. He was a love interest for Ashley and they worked in the Jabot lab together. They were featured on the cover of SOD. One day he went to make a phone call and never came back.

Grant Kramer who played psycho Shawn in the 80's came back in the 90's with a mustache and dyed brown hair as a character named Adam Hunter who was going to be paired with Ashley. He disappeared after a few episodes.

Leigh J. McCloskey was brought on as Dr. Kurt Costner to be paired with Shari Shattucks Ashley, but then was put with Hope before being written out. He is now back recurring after years being away.

ellabelle mentioned the first blonde Laurel (who resembled Donna Dixon), she was who immediately came to mind. Kari Gibson may not have lasted long as Dixie, but she certainly made an impression in those early days of the character. I still remember her sneaking around the manor in her maid's uniform closing the library doors behind her and speaking in hushed tones to Will #1.

An older actor played Reggie for a few episodes before Michael B. Jordan took over.

A shorter, stouter actress appeared as OLTL's mostly off-screen Carlotta before PM was put on contract.

Meg Mundy was the original Isabelle on Loving but quickly replaced by Augusta Dabney

Similarly, I think Robert Sampson may have only done the primetime pilot movie of Capitol before Sam Clegg was recast with Richard Egan in daytime.

AMC pretty much owns this thread for me!!

AMC:

Grandma Kate

Dixie

Sky

Trevor

Brooke

I think one of the Tara's

Josh

Nina II

Liza II (Before Jaime Lunar there was a recast in 1984)

Oh, we can't forget Bobby!!!!

EricMontreal, wasn't there an original Kevin Sheffield?

I don't know what's the cut-off point for this "game", but AMC's original Terrence, An-Li, Jamal, and Dr. Jonathan Kinder all come to mind even though they weren't exactly flashes in the pan.

Yes there was.

ATWT had tons of actors in its last years who presumably should have had more to do but never did, like Emily and Larry's son, Hunter.

Speaking of ATWT, there was a scene which baffled me, around the very end of FMB/Lorraine Broderick's run, and the start of Goutman's. Jennifer Hughes (a teenage girl) was returning to Oakdale. Her younger brother, Adam, saw a woman he thought was her, but when she turned around, she was a young woman who had a bit of a punk or bad girl look (for soaps, anyway). She said something to Adam like she'd see him soon.

I assumed this was going to lead to some sort of story, maybe she would be the new bad girl in town. Instead, she never appeared again.

I don't know what's the cut-off point for this "game", but AMC's original Terrence, An-Li, Jamal, and Dr. Jonathan Kinder all come to mind even though they weren't exactly flashes in the pan.

Oh yes - I had forgotten about the original Jonathan Kinder! Michael Sabatino was SO much better in the role. He was one villain I would have loved to see return to Pine Valley.

On AW, Andre De Shields and Dean Irby both had very short stints as Marshall replacing Randy Brooks.

Didnt quite a few actresses play Lexie on DAYS?