Characters you thought would never return...but did

[Bright Eyes]

HO: Rory 'Finn' Finnigan (James Redmond) and Kurt Benson (Jeremy Edwards)

ED: Steph Stokes (Lorraine Chase)

CS: Dennis Tanner (Philip Lowrie) - after 43 years!

[DRW50]

They treated Dennis so horribly. I hate thinking about it.

Jed Stone can count there too.

[SoapDope]

Y&R Snapper & Greg Foster: I never thought William Gray Espy or James Houghton would ever appear on the show ever again. I would like to forget David Hasselhoff and Wings Hausers return.

[Paul Raven]

• • Re Patti on SFT. Yes she was supposed to be roughly of similar age to Janet Bergman,but in the early 70's Janet returned with two teenage children which pushed her into the 30's age bracket. Millee Taggart was 31 but playing older.So back then Janet was older than Patti.

[slick jones]

Laurie Ann Karr, Alicia Van Dyne in EoN's finale

[Vee]

I definitely never believed Kathy Beale would return from the dead on Eastenders. That's almost an incentive to start finding some way, any way to watch the current show again. Now let's really try to do the impossible and bring back Michelle Fowler.

Honorary mentions: Andrea Evans as Tina on OLTL, Echo DiSavoy (totally obscure), and yes, Roger Howarth's Todd Manning. I never believed Ron Carlivati would invalidate his own (ruinous) work on that character, or that a "Two Todds" saga would ever happen. I also never believed A.J. would return on GH, but we know what happened there.

[Khan]

Another one: Sam Brady, at the end of AMC's ABC finale. They got Jason Kincaid to come back and everything!

[All My Shadows]

I honestly thought Angie and Jesse would remain an important page in the AMC history book before they came back and became their generation's Joe and Ruth (as much as the hideous writing they sometimes had to deal with would allow them to, at least). Other AMCers: Jeff Martin, Leo in ghost form, Daisy and Nina for Palmer's funeral.

I'd love to include some ATWT people, but wow, they really didn't bring a whole lot of people back during the last 5-10 years. John Dixon is the main one, and JM's Frannie. I guess I was surprised to see Mike and Ben during that bizarre Jack story that looked like a season of Route 66.

[Paul Raven]

Rosemary Prinz coming back in 86 as Penny Hughes was a surprise as Ms Prinz was quite vocal about never returning when she left in 68.Guess the fact that it was a short stint,Irna was long gone and Rosemary herself mellowing accounted for her re-appearance.

[allmc2008]

AMC: BROOKE ALLISON ENGLISH.

[titan1978]

Sarah Brown as Carly, even if it was just for one day.

[AlexElizabeth]

Peter Harrell on GH because why.

[Cheap21]

LOL....I didnt even know he existed

Days - Kristen. She was like a lost relic from the 90s. Who actually expected her back?

[soapfan770]

My mistake, I meant Melissa! Of course I doubt we'll ever see Sarah again either.

[MissLlanviewPA]

OLTL--Gabrielle, either time really. From what I understand, every single EP after she left in 1991 tried to get her back (and IIRC, Paul Rauch did NOT want her to go when she first left, either--and given that Andrea Evans had left the year before and Jessica Tuck would soon be gone herself, why would he?), but it took Gary Tomlin to actually make it happen. And even if her 2012 return could have been better (understatement, to say the least), I cannot put into words the joy I felt the day I found out she was coming back. I was over the moon.

Max in 2007 for Asa's funeral. That one was the most pleasant surprise for me. I went back to OLTL for those three episodes before returning full time a few months later. If he had come back for the end, y'all would've had to revive me!

GL--Phillip. I got the impression that GA had burned a few bridges when he left in 2004, so him coming back was a nice surprise for me.