'Do I know you?': Soaps’ strangest recasts!

[Ryan Chamberlain]

Just thought of my current one. Burgess Jenkins as Billy Abbott. I cannot stand this dude. He's nothing like Billy should be. He looks as old as his brother Jack and he has an Australian accent that he doesn't even try to cover up.

This guy bugs the s**t out of me. Period.

[John]

Yeah like I just said in YR July thread, Burgess is a miscat. JFP wont recast because she would have to admit her error. I feel for Burgess cause he just took a job & some fans have been horrid to him.

[Ryan Chamberlain]

I could have seen him playing a new character. But, the guy just don't work at all as Billy.

[John]

Agreed. I guess he was up for Adam & I dont see that either

[SoapDope]

Y&R always did bizarre recasts. Janice Lynde to Victoria Mallory (Leslie).William Gray Espy to David Hasselhoff (Snapper). Terry Lester to Peter Bergmen (Jack). James Houghton to Brian Kerwin & Wings Hauser (Greg). Lilibet Stern to Andrea Evans & whats her face with the dead cat.

What's next, Susan Lucci as Julia Newman ?

[Days22]

I disagree a lot. Beverlee was obviously just fantastic. However I think Marj is one of the best recasts ever. That was one hard act to follow and she was certainly up for the job. The writing for Alex became weaker and weaker was the problem.

[smirks]

Oh, speaking of Y&R, what about...all of the Colleens, from Lyndsy Fonseca to Adrienne Leon to Tamin Sursok. Those transitions were all really weird as well.

[kalbir]

I really thought MAB would make that happen.

[robbwolff]

I have to agree. Marj was pretty incredible as Alex, especially during her first stint. Alex then was a multi-faceted character who could be vulnerable, ruthless, compassionate, loving, passionate. The character devolved into camp in the 2000s due to the weak writing.

[cassadine1991]

Nicole Forester taking over as Cassie from Laura Wright on GL

[StevieM]

This was in the summer of 1991, way before JFP arrived. I seem to remember reading in one of the magazines that they strongly considered bringing back Ellen, and the mags suggested they made a mistake by not taking her back, after the success she had when originating the role. But apparently Jensen had a knock out audition with Tom Eplin (Jake), and the show went with her. Jensen was also a pretty big star on OLTL as Sarah Buchanan, Bo Buchanan's wife.

Interestingly, Vicky and Jake were the furthest thing from the writers mind at this point. Vicky and Ryan were just taking off as a super couple and Jake had been Marley's husband for many years, with his story revolving around her. But then Jake raped Marley, she hated him, and she was in a romance with Jamie. Jake was in the Paulina story for years, while Vicky did the triangle with Ryan and Grant, and Marley was written off the show. Vicky and Jake didn't come until much later. I never thought they held a candle to Vicky&Ryan or Jake&Paulina. But when competing with Vicky and Shane (Robert Kelker-Kelley) they were pretty popular. And Shane Roberts/Bobby Reno? That character was all JFP. She loved RKK/Shane and Vicky&Shane. Unfortunately, no one else did. But man...she fought for them until the bitter end.

[koos]

This one goes down as worse than Charity Rahmer, in my eyes. NF isn't nearly as bad as poor Charity, but the fact that they kept her on, and didn't quickly re-recast, makes it worse, and even more WTF.

[EricMontreal22]

Although they barely used him anyway, even though he stuck around an awful long time all things considered, AMC bringing back Del in the form of that reality TV show winner was just random and bizarre to me, not to mention that he was pretty awful (Alex Musser? I can't even remember his name.) It's not that Winsor Harmon was brilliant in his 90s run but I thought he at least showed screen chemistry--but it was a bizarre recast anyway, to bring back Dixie's brother and then barely show them interacting, etc.

The Bell soaps recasting with very different actors seems to be something that even Bill Bell liked to do to some extent. I almost feel like he felt if an actor was leaving he would just say !@#$%^&*] it and go with someone completely different...It has worked in instances like Jill, but...

[Ryan Chamberlain]

Especially with Tammin. Never could get used to her. I really enjoyed both Lyndsy and Adrienne's portrayals.

[SFK]

Even more so than Mia to Kassie, the example that immediately comes to mind when we discuss this topic are the two Laurels on AMC.