Characters that didn't survive a recast...

[Khan]

Catherine Hickland as a Patty recast, sane or insane, would have been wonderful.

[Faulkner]

Agreed. KT I can’t quite see, but CH would have been fabulous.

[glatwt]

This makes me think of the actor who replaced Jordan Clarke on GL. Man was he awful and thank goodness he didn’t last long as billy! Come to think about it, most of Phelps recasts on GL we’re not good besides Liz Kiefer imo!                                  

 

I loved Krista from all the way back as Mindy Lewis and was excited about her return to daytime, but she wasn’t Tina and I wish they brought her in as a new character ! 

[Faulkner]

So many recasts have ruined more than just characters, they’ve damaged shows. New producers wanting to put their stamps on their soaps will just say, “F*** your years of history. I’m going to hire my friends and mold these characters to their specific talents or lack thereof.” And it becomes this game of telephone in which the characters we knew and loved become unrecognizable through these new interpretations from different actors and writers/EPs.

[DRW50]

 

Geoffrey Scott. Woeful. This, Liz Keifer, Barbara Crampton - all in the space of a year. Between that and characters like Maureen dying and Alex leaving (and then that recast was a mess too) and Harley leaving and Buzz...buzzing, I could barely watch the show. 

 

I grew to accept Liz over time but I could never have done that with the recast Billy, with that dodgy accent they quickly dropped, with the total lack of charisma, with the anti-chemistry with Maeve Kinkead. Awful awful awful awful.

 

Barbara Crampton just lacked any spark as Mindy. The story was terrible (I still wince when I remember Nick saying in that ever-so-sanctimonious way - "Melinda"), but she just felt dead and plastic. I was so disappointed because I had loved her as Leanna. I felt betrayed, in a sense.

[soapfan770]

 

She was MILES better than that awful Ann Hamilton but year as much as I loved her as Leanna and later Maggie on B&B she just wasn't Mindy and was probably just a few years too old to play Mindy. The stories were all BAD--Eve in a Mindy wig(or was that Hamilton?), Nick and Mindy's 1994 wedding being a poor farcical repeat of their 1992 wedding, and then the baby blues and Rick returning to Springfield finding out Mindy doesn't really love Nick at all. Pointlessness. 

 

I'd also throw in Signey Coleman as Annie but they should be saved for a future "Unnecessary recasts" thread. 

 

I remember that, the Nikki actress really could have pulled off Molly quite well. Then I also remember thinking Sarah Brown was going to be the new Molly since ATWT went above and beyond in hyping up her casting(also a disaster). You're right though, the ever snake-bitten Molly needed a break and her return was pretty much perfect timing. 

[MichaelGL]

I've always felt puzzled about the praise Barbara Crampton gets for her role on Y&R, but the hate she gets for having played Mindy. It's almost as if we're talking about two different actresses. 

 

 

[You're Soaking in it]

 

Crampton was basically brought in as a rescue from their miscast. She had good presence, knew how to work on a soap, and generally understood who she was playing. It felt like she was just doing the job they wanted her to do, and that there wasn't a lot of investment in Mindy the character - as if she and we all knew that this wasn't going to be a forever thing.

 

Why they didn't ask Krista Tesreau back is beyond me. She had the history, the understanding of the character and familiarity to the audience. She very likely would have been able to pick up the threads of where Mindy went under Kimberly Simms, and take them under her own portrayal... Plus she was available by then, and I sure would have appreciated them making her UNavailable to OLTL the following year, lol...

 

IIRC, Geoffrey Scott was an urgent recast situation, as well. They just needed him to get them through the longterm story already written for Billy. 

[amybrickwallace]

 

Didn't they let him go and have Billy leave town as soon as his story was over?

[You're Soaking in it]

 

I believe that's how it went. I want to say he went to jail for shooting Roger... but if I'm wrong, someone please chime in.

[amybrickwallace]

Wasn't Jordan Clarke arrested in real life then, which was why they needed a recast in the first place?

[You're Soaking in it]

 

That I don't know. I do remember that he had alcohol / substance abuse problems that were escalating.

[titan1978]

Kimberly Simms was a great Mindy. Probably my favorite, although I came to that show mostly through YouTube edits and episodes.  But still, I loved her in that story with Alexandra and Roger.

[alexisfan07]

AMC's Babe. I loathed the character regardless but the successor was so awful, they had no choice but to kill her off. So heinous. 

[~bl~]

Jordan's legal problems came later - after Larry Gates (HB) died, he started appearing more in the later 90s, but the law problems happened and Billy disappeared again.