All soaps - actors who were quickly dropped

[Vee]

OLTL had its fair share of fast recasts in the first years apparently, as well. There were at least two Larry Woleks before Mike Storm, and the original (Paul Tully?) was a sort of pretty young man - how long did he even air? And a couple Julie and Tim Siegels; the first couple may have just been kids or tweens for all I know. There's also Robert Milli (Adam Thorpe on GL, IIRC) as the younger, more virile Jim Craig; Ellen Holly complained about his being recast, as Jim was part of her initial love triangle story on the show.

There was also at least one Meredith before Lynn Benesch - was it Trish Van Devere, a.k.a. Mrs. George C. Scott? And, I believe, one Viki before Gillian Spencer who may never have aired.

Re: the Jennifer Bransford debacle on GH, that was a rarity for me because in my history with the show I scarcely remembered such a massive cock-up under the Riche/Labine/Guza administration. That's why I chalked that up to JFP, and that's why I don't believe she was truly intended as just a placeholder for Laura Wright - I think Jill truly believed she could put her old OLTL hire over as the new Carly. They had been hoping Tamara would stay, and she walked; I think Jill seized the moment while everyone freaked. I was under the impression no one else BTS at GH was happy with it, but I think JFP went for it. And of course it didn't work. I thought Bransford was talented, and she actually reminded me a fair bit of Sarah Brown's Carly - she had that great fight scene with Sam where she apparently really did wallop a chagrined Kelly Monaco - but she was just too hard and too off-brand, too strange. So of course they went for Wright as soon as they had the opening.

Jill wasn't a stranger to these kind of awkward, inappropriate power moves even in her later years at GH, either, even when Guza and Frons were supposed to be in primary control. When the writer's strike hit in '08, she took the opportunity to go full on JFP's World again for the first time in years and years - a major storyline for Rick Hearst with Ric falling for some Latina immigrant out of nowhere, and a lot of color fetish/schema for the introduction of Claudia as "the woman in red". All that stuff goes way back to her days at OLTL and GL. As soon as the strike ended and the others came back, it all disappeared.

[P.J.]

ATWT---Alan White as Chris Hughes. That guy must have been fired before lunch on his first day. I think he made one appearance (in a ducky towel, nonetheless) before they drop-kicked him out of town and recast him a few months later with Bailey Chase.

I'm sure Kelli Barret as Maddie was a last minute substitute when Alex Chando was unavailable.

[All My Shadows]

Matthew Morrison (of Glee) played Adam Munson on ATWT for a hot minute in 2006 before Matt Cavenaugh took over.

[Vee]

I remember that.

I always thought they hired two ridiculous choices for that role - I remembered Craig Lawlor. It was like night and day. And of course, what they did to that character was an abomination. Like 95% of ATWT in its last 5 or 6 years.

[soapsnstuds]

This guy, Cam Gigandet, played a really rascally, shirt-free muscle pup Daniel Romalotti on Young and the Restless for seven episodes in late 2004 until being recast with one of the worst actors in soap history.

[katie_9918]

Ray Santos on Guiding Light. The first guy was at Danny and Michelle's first on-screen wedding, and then suddenly became a priest with a different face. I always wished they'd done more with George Alvarez's Father Ray.

Daniel Pilon didn't seem to last long as Alan, but memory's kind of hazy there.

[John]

yeah Shawn Hatosy

starts at 5:00

http://youtu.be/aGhwwbMiOXo

[cassadine1991]

You speaking of George Alvarez reminds me how I miss him on GH

[edgeofnik]

I was just going to add him to my post - I think his first scene was a phone call with Phyllis and he was in a towel with some chick in his bed. I guess TPTB decided that Daniel was NOT going to be like his mom. I thought that was a mistake.

The most memorable for me was the "Alpo" recast of the beautiful and sophisticated Allyson Rice Taylor (Connor ATWT) because of some "change in character's direction BS). I loved it when I read that ATWT was receiving cans of dog food after the recast. Thankfully she was gone, but I wish they'd brought back ART.

The horrible recast of Molly ATWT by the woman I think from SB?

Y&R Diego was replaced quickly with Greg Vaughn, but that may have been a case (and in Y&R tradition) that they hire "placeholders" to get the story moving until they can find the right actor.

[cassadine1991]

The same woman (Christina Chambers) who replaced Lesli Kay as Molly also played Marty on OLTL when Susan Haskell was unavailable

[juniorz1]

Wasn't AW's Diego Serrano the original Diego on Y&R?

Brandon Tyler was the original Philip Kiriakis on DAYS- I think he lasted maybe a month!?!

Shirley Anne Field played Pamela Capwell Conrad on SB for a few months before Marj Dusay was brought on. The casting of Pamela was a point of contention in the Anne Howard Bailey/Jerome & Bridget Dobson war (the Dobsons wanted Dusay all along).

Rosemary Forsyth briefly played Sophia on SB before Judith McConnell took over.

[Cheap21]

She was on OLTL for a little over a year. I wouldn't say she was quickly dropped

[cassadine1991]

I know, I was just stating that Maria and Molly weren't her only soap roles

[SFK]

And Samantha Eggar quit as Pamela before her episodes even made it to air. The workload was too much for her. She did go on to play Alex and Anna's wicked stepmum on AMC about a decade later.

[Cheap21]

oh ok. My bad then.

Not sure if mentioned but I'll throw in AMC'S Raquel. The first one was dropped after 4 months.

First actress to play Sarah on SuBe