Characters that didn't survive a recast...

[ChitHappens]

 

+1

[juppiter]

It was especially awkward because they re-cast Hal's daughter Nikki at the same time, and the actress resembled Lesli Kay.

 

The character needed a break though. They shouldn't have re-cast at all. I was happy to see Lesli Kay go, and then I was happy to see her come back. I liked her, but years of hearing "my dotter *sob*" had worn thin, and then she came back and I remembered why I had ever liked her in the first place.

[Paul Raven]

After Maree Cheatham had played Stephanie on SFT for 10 years Louise Shaffer took over and the character was murdered a year later.

[soapfan770]

 

Murder She Wrote had an episode called "Murder in the Afternoon" in 1985 which was set on the set of a soap opera that Jessica's niece was starring called "Our Secret Lives"; however on my second watch it was pretty obvious the fictional soap is really intended to be SFT! Right down to serial killers, ratings and production woes, mention of a network switch and the show's logo looking suspiciously like SFT's font.  

 

I liked Shaffer on Ryan's Hope; however only Maree could be the true Stephanie. I wonder why the show recast; their Stephanie replacement came in the form of Domini Blythe's Estelle. 

[You're Soaking in it]

 

AMC was hit hard with departures around 1984... Marcy Walker, Taylor Miller's Nina (unsuccessfully recast with Heather Stanford, then Barbara Kearns). One they didn't recast was Kim Delaney's Jenny. And even then, they sort of tried to "replace" her with Sheila Thompson, a Jenny look-a-like & failed love interest for Greg played by Cynthia Sullivan.

 

There was also Nicholas Surovy as the love of Erica's life, Mike Roy - recast with Hugo Napier (formerly ATWT's Gunnar Stenbeck, later GH's Larry Ashton). I liked him well enough, and he had good presence. But he was a different Mike than Surovy, and it almost seemed like the plan was to conclude his storyline & move Erica in a new direction.

 

A bit later, Laurence Lau left as Greg, replaced by Jack Armstrong (who would play OLTL's Kevin Buchanan a whole decade later!). 

 

Honorable mention: Brian Lane Green replacing Matt Borlenghi as Brian Bodine. It was as if they didn't even try with that one.

 

For OLTL, I'd add Krista Tesreau's Tina. She was hired without even an audition by then-EP Susan Horgan, who previously worked with KT when she was GL's Mindy. She was brought on with much fanfare, and thrust into front-burner story... which started to fizzle out after about 6 months when 20/20 hindsight started settling in: This was a character, played by an attractive soap vet who's blonde & perky... but didn't have much Tina-like energy at all.

 

(Karen Witter's Tina had moved & evolved away from the more infamous & OTT traits that popularized her under Andrea Evans... But Witter shared with Evans a combination of presence, nuance, spark & subtext that really connected them & made them feel like Tina the whole way through). 

 

From there, KT basically place-held for another year, mostly back-burnered with throw-away scenes, plus one VERY UN-Tina&Cord-like romp in the sack scene with Cord. Then she left town quietly, not to be seen again for 12 years until Evans returned.

[Faulkner]

I’d said it before, though: Krista Tesreau had scorching hot chemistry with Tuc Watkins unlike I’ve seen with any of his female co-stars since, including Robin Strasser.

 

Like it was gross that she was banging a guy she thought might be her brother, but yet I sort of understood it.

[You're Soaking in it]

 

It was grosser than gross, written that she was having sex with a man she knew was her full brother (which of course isn't Tesreau's fault). That was downplayed going forward, almost passively-retconned that she was just always in on the scam - ala Natalie & Jared a decade later. And who can blame them? I try to forget that, too, lol...

 

And what you say about her chemistry with TW is 100% true. I just don't think an actor's chemistry with a different actor's brand new character necessarily contributes to being a good recast. Tesreau is a good actress! Just not ultimately a good fit for this character...

[DRW50]

 

I thought Krista was very badly self-conscious as Tina. Tina was a self-conscious character, especially with Andrea Evans, but Andrea and Karen Witter didn't let it overwhelm their work. Krista did. And she was not right with Erika Slezak - Erika wiped the floor with her in dramatic scenes. 

 

I blame a lot of it on the writing. I don't believe Malone ever understood who Tina was. His 2003 retcon of her abandoning her children to run off with Cain reminded me of that. Even his "best" Tina, Karen Witter, was an empty shell carried along by Witter's own charm and beauty and talent (and chemistry with Christopher Cousins).

[Faulkner]

For me, I only started watching OLTL during the Gottlieb/Malone years (my mom watched ATWT), but after going back and watching some of Andrea Evans and even Karen Witter, I realize how miscast KT was. I thought the ditzy blonde was just Tina.

[Vee]

I agree the Tina retcon in '03 was not good, but IIRC she didn't abandon the kids - they both ran away because of her and Cain being lousy parents. The show had intended to bring her on at the time, possibly played by Cali Timmons, but that got nixed.

 

I do agree Malone didn't really get the original Tina, but I don't think Karen Witter's was a shell. I think she just evolved into a considerably different character for the new decade. For some Witter's version worked, for others she didn't. For me she mostly did. But no one beats Andrea Evans.

[amybrickwallace]

I think Cali Timmins could have made a great Tina. Her Maggie on RH made her a force to be reckoned with.

[You're Soaking in it]

Oh, those scenes were painful to watch! Her Tina was a MESS with Slezak during the DID story. There was no history, no chemistry there. As a matter of fact, all of Tina's relationships - good or bad - with other Llanview women went down a few notches under Tesreau. Scenes opposite rivals left her looking defeated (she was like "Pac-Man eaten by a Ghost" whenever Kassie DePaiva's Blair so much as spoke to her)... Her friendship with Luna lost its depth - horribly obvious after Luna died.

 

In scenes with Witter, you felt the histories with Viki, Dorian, Max, Cord: This was the same woman who went over the waterfalls & fell out of a lighthouse and still survived... But with Tesreau, that history was just gone.

 

Poor Cali never had the stars aligned for Tina! She was up for it when Tesreau was cast, and was considered a second time, as Vee mentioned. She wasn't, though, for when Evans left - she was cast as AW's Paulina right about the time Andrea exited. Hundreds of actresses read for Tina, and apparently Witter really just stood out. But a few other screen-testers were cast for other roles - namely Audrey Landers as Charlotte Hesser, and Neith Hunter as Laura Jean Ellis. 

 

There's also a case where Tina dodged a bullet of a likely doomed recast: In 2001, then-HW Lorraine Broderick pitched a pivot in the Mitch storyline that would return Tina to Llanview. But her boss, then-EP Gary Tomlin instantly had a horrible idea: He wanted to cast his good pal from Sunset Beach, Sarah Buxton, in the role. Thankfully, his bosses at ABC said no. As Buxton herself described later, they just "didn't visualize" her as Tina. 

[Vee]

Yes, I remember Tomlin wanted Sarah Buxton. Ugh.

[Dr Neil Curtis]

For one Sarah was too young to be Tina in my book. I only liked KT when she was in scenes with Tuc. I personally think she should have been cast as someone else hell I don’t know, Kelly Cramer’s mom or something, just not Tina. Andrea first run was good, I didn’t care for her Rebecca Hotchkiss version in 2011 but it was good to see her again in scenes with ES and JL. 

[SoapDope]

I always thought Krista Tesreau might have been a good recast for Patty Williams on Y&R. Catherine Hickland may have worked as well.