SORASing: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

[mikelyons]

I've always hated SORASing on soaps. Always. It makes the past irrelevant, creates too many plot holes for established characters, and rarely serves a good purpose except to bring in the "teen set". To me, SORASing is the definition of lazy writing and most soap writers (including the greats) are guilty of it.

 

What are your favorite GOOD, BAD, and UGLY case of SORASing over the years?

 

Good: NONE

 

Bad: Phillip Chancellor, III. Even though he was born on-screen in 1976 and returned as a teen in 1986, Phillip's return re-ignited the feud between Kay and Jill, paired him with Nina, spawned the wonderful feud of Jill & Nina with Kay siding with Nina, and gave him a wonderful death (which never should've happened and was retconned anyway). 

 

Ugly: Y&R is the worst culprit in my book of SORASing. Victoria, Nick, Billy, Daniel Colleen, Reed, Summer, Abby, Lily, Kyle, etc... Ugh. I think SORASing Billy Abbot & Lily Winters on Y&R threw the show out of whack. She was suddenly older than Cassie (who was six when Lily was born!), and old as Colleen, Nate, and Daniel (who were all born between 1992-1993). It's long been rumored that Nate won't come back to Y&R because he'd be too old to play against characters who should be his peers because of the way the show was handled SORASing; he'd probably be the same age as Paul at this point. Billy Abbott probably the worst case of SORASing due to the fact he's supposed to the same age as Cassie, Colleen, Nate, and Daniel, but he's a pushing well past middle age - the whole thing makes my head hurt.

[Antoyne]

Ugly: EJ Wells Dimera owns this thread. The supposed love of his life was like 20 something when he was born and had a kid, and then suddenly he was the same age as Sami and older than not only her kid but every other child born onscreen years before him.

Edited May 18, 2018 by Antoyne

[amybrickwallace]

How about Alicia Leigh Willis as AW's Alli? No way could I buy her as Sandra Ferguson's (Amanda) kid.

[Elsa]

Leah Bauer became a teenager way too soon for no reason.

 

Billy Abbott should be younger than Phillip IV. (I refuse to call him Chance.)

 

Shawn-Douglas and Belle are not the same age. Belle and Phillip grew up way too soon. 

 

Alan-Michael Spaulding grew up way too fast.

 

Cane Ashby is supposed to be the same age as Phillip III. Are we supposed to forget that? His wife Lily is several years younger than Phillip IV by the way. 

 

 

[Franko]

"Here's the baby who just grew/15 years in only two ..." -- oh, sorry, lost myself there.

 

My attitude is SORASing is okay if it's not at the expense of the parents as major players. Hope Bauer, yes. Hope Williams, no.

[SoapDope]

Y&R.....I always thought it was funny that I remember when Victoria and Nicholas Newman were born, now they are both older than me....LOL. The same for Leslie and Lance's baby Brooks.

 

B&B......I was a teen when Brook had Rick, now we are about the same age. 

 

 

[Elsa]

Julie's son David Banning was a grown man in the 70s and SSH ended up with Rick Hearst as her grandson in 1990. 

[KMan101]

7 hours ago, Elsa said:

Julie's son David Banning was a grown man in the 70s and SSH ended up with Rick Hearst as her grandson in 1990. 

 

Not that I was around then, lol, but it always felt like they aged David and Mike way too soon. But then that could be said with almost every child born on DAYS. Lawd. The sorasing has been SO bad.

[All My Shadows]

Every single example of it is ugly, IMO. There is literally no reason at all to do it. Characters that could flourish for 10-15 more years are slowly but steadily pushed to the sideline way earlier than need be because of it.

[soapfan770]

Tom Hughes was SOARSed way too quickly in the late '60s and would spend the next 40 years almost ageless! 

[jcar03]

I didn't mind that DAYS aged Ciara, Claire, Theo but they should of been 14/15 not turning 18 and going to college.

[Titus Andronicus]

6 hours ago, soapfan770 said:

Tom Hughes was SOARSed way too quickly in the late '60s and would spend the next 40 years almost ageless! 

 

Mike Horton, too. He was SORAS'ed so fast, he easily could have been Carrie Brady's father. Then he became her contemporary.

 

Mike was dating Carrie 20 years after he was a widower.

[amybrickwallace]

I can't imagine GH without Robin and her only portrayer, Kimberly McCullough. She has been on and off the show since 1985, when she was 7. Now she's 40!!! That's what I call growing up in front of America!! She's my biggest argument against SORAS.

[titan1978]

28 minutes ago, amybrickwallace said:

I can't imagine GH without Robin and her only portrayer, Kimberly McCullough. She has been on and off the show since 1985, when she was 7. Now she's 40!!! That's what I call growing up in front of America!! She's my biggest argument against SORAS.

I think the reason why they didn’t push her out and recast was Monty and the producers between her didn’t want to age Anna and Robert out of lead character status into parents of leads.  

 

Plus Finola and Tristan would have probably been very angry because they loved her.  By the time Wendy got there Robin was old enough for a teen romance.

 

I remember thinking after they died, that would be the end of Robin.  I’m so glad they kept her.  Her relationships with Stone, Jason and Patrick, friendship with Brenda and hatred for Carly were some of my favorite parts of the show.

[Soaplovers]

8 hours ago, jcar03 said:

I didn't mind that DAYS aged Ciara, Claire, Theo but they should of been 14/15 not turning 18 and going to college.

 

Like Y & R did with Victoria.. aging her from 8 to 15.