Characters that didn't survive a recast...

[Melroser]

How long was Taylor Miller on AW as Sally after Mary Page Keller before she was "killed off"? 

 

David Canary taking over as Steve Frame was a bust too, in my opinion. Totally different character from what little I've seen of Reinholt. 

 

Rhonda Lewin as Victoria after Ellen Wheeler was a bust but the character was later saved by Anne Heche. (THANK GOD!)

 

[victoria foxton]

TM was on from July 22 1985- May 26 1986. DePriest shouldn't have killed her. She should've simply had her leave Bay City.

[You're Soaking in it]

 

I remember Digest's Best & Worst of '86 issue awarding AW "Biggest Waste of Talent" for Taylor Miller as Sally Frame. I wasn't deeply familiar with MPK as Sally, and I was pretty young. But in the YouTube clips I've seen of Miller, she's engaging, has great presence, seems to have good rapport with co-stars...

 

Taking a wild guess here - but did the popularity of Sally & Catlin as played by real-life couple MPK & Thomas Ian Griffith loom over this recast? (Maybe combined with AW's writers mishandling / neglecting storyline for the character since Miller took over?)  

 

I'm certainly not complaining. This AMC kid was very happy to have Miller walk on to the set as Nina again a month or so later... I'm just curious about what perspective AW viewers were seeing at the time.

[soapfan770]

 

AW was notorious for killing off people throughout the 80s (Julia, Steve, Perry, Zane, Quinn etc.) that it would make sense that a legacy character like Sally would fall into the same trap. It didn't help that Miller came out to AW during a cliff fall in the show's history for 1985-1986 after coming off of the stabilizing 1983-1985 period. The cliff fall wouldn't be corrected until the Sin Stalker. 

[amybrickwallace]

Thanks for clarifying that about Jordan Clarke. Do you know why he left the first time?

 

You're certainly right about the MPK/TIG real-life aspect. Sharon Gabet, who played Brittany, said in a podcast interview a few years ago that for that very reason it was hard to play the spoiler in the Sally/Catlin relationship. 

 

In any case, Taylor didn’t last long in the part. She played Sally from July 1985 to May 1986, per the AW Homepage:

 

http://www.anotherworldhomepage.com/1sally.html

[DRW50]

 

True, but I didn't really know that at the time. If I knew then what I know now, I might have been more sympathetic (although I think they could have found a much better pinch-hitter).

 

Jordan was always a much more integral part of GL than it likely seemed on paper, which is probably one of the reasons they were so loyal to him all the way to the end of the show. He was always the heart of the Lewis family for me, along with HB.

 

 

Kimberley was the first Mindy I ever saw, and she was very special to me. I loved the story of her doomed affair with Roger, her miscarriage, her friendship with Mallet. As soon as Nick came around I started to lose some interest. Nick really was a parasite - he just sucked the life out of everyone he shared story with (Alex, Mindy, Alan-Michael). Only when they put him at the paper with Fletcher and Holly and Tangie (another problem character) did he have more of his own positive identity. Even Eve - I remember how drastically I thought she improved once she was paired with Ed. 

 

It's a shame aside from guest appearances Mindy never got back that Nick story. I don't know why they didn't bring her back for a longer stint in the late '90s, especially since Simms was fine in her return spots. Maybe it's for the best. 

 

I did like her brief returns under Krista, even the prefab reunion with Rick at the end. In spite of all the years again, Krista stepped back into the role effortlessly. 

 

Substance abuse problems, I believe. 

[Melroser]

I  wasn't even in my teens yet when Taylor Miller was on AW.  I don't remember disliking her exactly but she just wasn't MPK. I really liked Sally and Catlin together and after MPK left as Sally I lost interest in Catlin too. There didn't seem to be the spark anymore that TIG and MPK had together (which obviously led to them offscreen as well), 

 

Side note: The only time I liked Sharon Gabet on AW was her storyline in the triangle with Sally and Catlin when it was MPK. The deaf storyline as a friend of Zane's in the beginning I found boring although I know SG said in that podcast she enjoyed it very much. I then HATED Brittany once she became weak in the abusive Peter story. 

[BingCherry]

Gia on GH; as played by Marisa Ramirez, she was essentially one of the main ingénues with a front burner romance with Nikolas.  The writing took a total 180 with Andrea Pearson in the part; backburnering her, abruptly putting her with Zander and dropping the modeling aspect for law enforcement.  Inside of six months she was gone.

[Taoboi]

I miss MR as Gia. 

 

 

[You're Soaking in it]

 

I tend to think that most recasts are doomed when the story is written to emphasize a super-couple above the actual character. So much rests on the chemistry between the actors, which can cut both ways. In AW's case here, it sounds like Sally was written for Taylor Miller merely as one-half a whole, or as an accessory to TIG's Catlin (and that Sharon Gabet was in the same shoes / different corner).

 

Then there's the opposite side. Like on OLTL, where Nicholas Walker was chosen to replace James DePaiva as Max - over seemingly better fits like Richard Eden (ex-Brick Wallace, SaBa) and Joe Lando (who would have Jake created for him) - entirely because his, as OLTL put it, "chemistry was off the charts" with Fiona Hutchison's Gabrielle. Yeah... how did that work out for NW's Max when she left the show 5 minutes later? 

 

I know I'm veering off a bit. It just reminds me of how recasts fail when they're not focused on the character itself. Whether it's because they're over-thinking their choices ... or if they're under-thinking them (i.e. choosing some lookalike and/or lazily picking any warm breathing body.)

[P.J.]

 

Oh, and it was at such a pivotal time. Molly'd been spinning her wheels for a while,  and suddenly she was at the center of Jack's "death". Those could've been heartwrenching scenes, having Carly disown her....and they fell flatter than a pancake. Chambers was one of the few actors Maura couldn't inspire to up her game AT ALL. I mean even bad actors usually try in scenes with her. 

 

[Soaplovers]

I've seen episodes with Taylor Miller playing Sally.. and she's decent.. perhaps breaking up her and Caitlin might have been the answer instead of killing her off.. since she was one of the last of the Matthews Clan still on the show at that time and point.

[Paul Raven]

Taylor only agreed to a 1 year contract. She planned to leave so they killed off Sally for the drama.

Probably better to have her leave town or go missing.

 

GL

Jackie Marler. Carrie Mowery had none of Cindy Pickett's strength and Jackie was killed off.

[amybrickwallace]

Over at GH, four actresses played the doomed role of Monica Q's long-lost daughter, Dawn. One of the actresses was a pre-Y&R Sharon Case, and another one went on to marry Dan Gauthier (who himself was the last in a sea of recasts as OLTL's Kevin). Finally, GH cut their losses and killed Dawn off.

 

At OLTL, Larry Wolek's son Danny was deemed "the role from hell" because none of the actors who played him clicked. I don't know if it was bad writing, bad acting or both, but Danny was eventually sent out of Llanview, never to be seen again.

[Franko]

Hindsight is 50/50, but I wish they'd have killed off Decker instead of Dawn and given her Jenny Eckert's storyline. Was Jennifer Guthrie about to leave or fired by Monty?