Y&R: Retcon Family Member Joining

[jcren]

I hope BM re-signs but I can understand if Sony and JFP don't have time for his annual "Will I or Won't I" nonsense.

I think MTS will re-sign with no issue. They are making her frontburner. She seems like a happy camper these days. She is the mother of the two golden boys of Y&R. Her screentime is fine.

[chicklitsandfantasies]

Well apparently she and BM have the same manager and said manager leaks casting spoilers to DC so they kiss her clients ass.

[jjjg]

Michael Logan at TV Guide is saying Billy's out and David Tom will replace him.

[Vee]

David's looking pretty good these days. I heard he had some rough times, and I know he did at OLTL; I wasn't sure he was working anymore at all. I'm glad for him if it's so. I can't wait to see the reaction of some of the fan press.

[cassadine1991]

Angelica McDaniel ‏@AngelicaMcD26m

I respect Billy Miller's decision to move on and wish him great success in his future endeavors.

Angelica McDaniel ‏@AngelicaMcD24m

Please join me in welcoming Daytime Emmy winner David Tom back to #YR and @CBSDaytime as Billy Abbott’s exciting storyline continues.

[DRW50]

Wow. I never thought Mickey Rooney Jr. would be back.

One egomaniac down, one to go, although Muhney doesn't seem like he wants to leave.

I've never been a fan of any actor who played Billy, but I will be very happy to see Filler Miller finally go off to that amazing, fantastic film and primetime career I've been hearing Jamey and friends go on about since the first time he spread Kool Aid onto the Y&R canvas.

And I look forward to seeing the same people who have spent years screeching about how Y&R is *nothing* without Miller and how arrogant PTB will replace him with someone horrible and how dare they now get to react to the role being recast with the Emmy winner who basically originated it.

[Vee]

Ha! That's fair.

I have a soft spot for David Tom, but admittedly that's because I had a crush on him when he was first on the show when I was in HS, and I also remembered him from one of the ridiculous Stepfather movies when I was a kid. But you are absolutely right that he never outgrew the whole baby-faced manchild thing. I thought it would work for him when he became Paul Cramer on OLTL, but they made the character into the sleaziest possible creep on the show overnight - he played it to the hilt but at the same time, it made him very unappealing. And there were a lot of stories floating around him at the time, and by the end of his run there he just did not look well at all.

I saw an interview with him recently where he looked pretty damn good, albeit still the babyface amidst all that scruff. He's never going to be the alpha male, but he's talented and I'd rather watch him than Billy Miller.

I can't imagine how they expect to play him off against Victor, or Adam, or certainly Amelia Heinle or Cynthia Watros. He looks like a baby next to all of them. But it's not like anything they have that character doing on the show right now is terribly interesting, so who cares? Scrap it all.

[DRW50]

It's not just the age, it's the tics.

With that said, I'd rather watch him over Miller any day of the week, and this means they will have to rewrite the character, because Tom has a very different acting style. Billy is a pathetic broken down character and perhaps now this will finally be addressed, since the role will be played by someone who isn't smirking his way through every line until he can get back onto some amazing guest spot on Haven, or whatever.

I've seen Tom on a few things over the years and he looked very different than his old self. I'm sure he's cleaned up some or they wouldn't have brought him back.

I give the show credit for bringing back an actor and not just doing what was expected and hiring someone who'd once been on an ABC soap. (Tom was on OLTL, but you know what I mean)

[cassadine1991]

you mean this interview

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hWWevE4Tns

[Vee]

David Tom was nothing but tics on OLTL. His character was basically a Peter Lorre - overnight, Paul Cramer went from a bland, nice cipher with no overt personality who was potentially part of an embryonic gay storyline Michael Malone had planned, to (upon the recast) a scheming, venal ne'er-do-well who switched the crossover babies and bedded Natalie as the "wrong man" in her life while she tried to get over her thing for John. The problem was that Paul was so obviously a skeez that it all got very old very fast. Also, Tom looked pretty rough, and I'm saying that even though I have quite the thing for the "average" guy. He had one mode on that show: Wheedling scuzz.

That said, it's far from all he can do. And his tics on OLTL were another character entirely, and even if they carry over he doesn't instantly bore me as much as Billy Miller now does. But as good as DT's looked recently he still comes off very boyish, so it'll be interesting to see what they do with him, even though I think that entire show is pretty much an exercise in sleep therapy today.