SORASing: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

[Khan]

 

It's hard for me to picture anyone other than Marcy Walker as Liza (or as Eden).  Plus, they tried once before to recast, with Alice Haining (ex-Angel, ATWT), and she was so damn wrong for that particular role, it wasn't funny.

 

 

I'm not sure about Katie and Donna, but I definitely think they de-aged Storm when they cast DeVry.  No way could he and Ethan Wayne be the same age, lol.

[Franko]

Yup. Mike got younger. Michael T. Weiss is 11 years younger than Eure. Roark was actually just a year younger than Weiss, but looked younger. The better to somehow be Carrie's contemporary.

 

Jamie Frame also seemed to have a longer than usual young adulthood. 

[Khan]

 

Yeah, he's another one who seemed to de-age over time.  And if not de-age, then he stayed pretty much the same age throughout most of the '80's, from Richard Bekins all the way to Laurence Lau.

 

 

Given how long Mike had been a presence in Salem, it seemed weird that Roark's Mike was hooking up with Christie Clark's Carrie -- who was still just a little girl when Weiss' Mike showed up -- and we were supposed to consider them contemporaries.  Same goes for AW's Jamie and Vicky, when Jamie probably should've been as old as Michael and Donna.

 

Another de-SORAS'ed soap kid: SFT's Patti Barron Tate Whiting (...and I'm probably forgetting a few other last names).  She and Len left Henderson sometime during the Carter administration.  Yet, by the time she returned in '85 or so, with Jacqueline Schultz in the role, she appeared to be as old as Liza, even though she had grown up alongside Liza's mom, Janet.

[Vee]

If DAYS had a real budget again (haha) or better creative management (hahahahahahaha!!) they could probably afford Weiss today. He was so hot in the '90s.

[Paul Raven]

Deidre hall is 71 but Marlena seems to have stayed the same age (mid 50's?) ever since Deidre was in her mid 50's.

Of course excellent cosmetic surgery is a major factor here.

[juppiter]

Certain characters like Jamie Frame, Tom Hughes, and Mike Horton seemed like Spider-Man or Batman in that they seemed almost preserved in time; the fossilized amber of daytime, if you will. 

[Dr Neil Curtis]

Was Cane suppose to be Phillip III age on Y&R?

[All My Shadows]

She has a great-granddaughter! I would love to sit down with TPTB at DAYS and ask them, simply, "How old is Marlena Evans?" If they'd tell me anything under 65, I'd be laughing and leaving.

[carolineg]

I'd say Marlena is about 60.  She has a great granddaughter but Sami and Will were young parents.   Up until the last 2-3 years I would have bought 50 ish for her age.  She looked good.

[John]

When Amber found proof, that Cane was Phillip, the age listed for Phillip was the same as Daniel Goddard. So they deaged him and then thru that out when Thom Bierdz returned I guess

[Huntress]

 

Somehow, the first batch of actors portraying the Logan family members carried their worn out 80s looks into the mid 00s – and that's why the recasts were so glaringly different, because the new actors looked fresher and way more attractive.

 

Nancy Sloan (1st Katie) is 10 years older than Heather Tom, so they definitely de-aged Katie when Tom took over in 2007. Nancy Sloan's version of Katie still looked like a frumpy wallflower when she last appeared in 2004.

 

With Donna, it's a bit tougher because Carrie Mitchum and Jennifer Gareis are only 5 years apart. IMO, Jennifer Gareis even looked older than KKL's Brooke (and both actresses have had work done) when she first appeared in 2006.

 

Regarding Storm, Ethan Wayne (Storm #1) is just 6 years older than William deVry (Storm #3). However, Brian Patrick Clarke who played Storm from 1990 to 1991 was way older (almost 10 years older than Wayne).

 

They also slightly de-aged Stephen and Beth Logan when Patrick Duffy and Robin Riker took over in 2006 and 2008, respectively. But again, it was probably due to the more youthful appearance of the new actors compared to their predecessors that made the contrast seem so stark. That was also the case when Lesli Kay replaced Colleen Dion as Felicia Forrester. Both actresses are the same age, but Kay looked so much fresher and "up to date" whereas Dion was pale and looked tired in comparison.

[Gray Bunny]

On DAYS, considering Julie was Alice's granddaughter (which made Addie how old...?) who was around 16 years old in 1965, but the mother of an adult David by the mid-70's and grandmother of Rick Hearst by the late 80's, I'd love to see how they'd explain Julie's current age, and more importantly, how old was Alice Horton when she died? 130? 

[vetsoapfan]

 

On-air in 1977, Marlena was said to be 28, making her year of birth 1949. So she should be 70-71, like Deidre Hall, but of course TPTB would be loathe to acknowledge that now.

[Broderick]

 

I think that's exactly what happened.   When Thom Bierdz was on the show in the late 1980s as PCIII, he had a "lost look" on his face and an awkward, stilted line delivery that truly suited a character who'd been shipped away to boarding school as a child, hadn't had a relationship with his mother at all, didn't know much of anything about his father, and didn't feel loved or wanted by anyone.   But when he was "resurrected from the dead" circa 2009, his acting was FAR WORSE than it had been before and didn't compliment the "comfortable, out-and-proud" character he was now being described in the script as being.  It just didn't work.  Plus the writing itself was terrible.  (The two women who'd fought tooth and nail for custody of him in the 1980s -- Kay and Jill --- barely seemed touched by his reappearance, and seemed reluctant even to embrace him.   Mrs. Chancellor had spent years carressing and fondling him, fawning all over him, and would do anything to win his favor.  When he returned from the dead, she was like, "Oh well.")  The whole storyline was just a complete dud.   The only thing accomplished, on a positive note, was that it established once and for all that Cane Ashby wasn't Jill's son.   But then the writers opted to have Jill marry Cane's father and become Cane's stepmother, so that the one positive development was undone.    The story would've only worked if Bierdz had played the "reborn character" for a while, and then replaced by a smoother, more polished performer who could've had some genuine fun with the role.  (Jacob Young, who was being squandered on B&B, came to my mind immediately.  He's a lot younger than Beirdz, but plays a little older than his real-life age, and it would've given the writers an opportunity to de-age "Chance" as well, and reboot that entire family.) 

[carolineg]

Oh, I know you are right.  I think the show referenced her age as 50 in 1999 for her birthday, but I think they de-SORASed her for the Roman/Marlena affair/pregnancy story in 2005.  So stupid.  I actually really don't know what the goal age is for Marlena, but I definitely think she is supposed to be younger than Deidre Hall.