Characters with multiple backstories

[j swift]

Whether it is due to a change in writers or a new producer some characters can not keep their backstory straight over the years.  I've thought of a couple but I would be eager to hear about others who suffer from the same flaw.

 

1. Max Holden (OLTL), came to LLandview as a rancher who lived in Argentina with a brother named Steve.  Later, he had a father in Texas with a ranch with his new siblings Jake and Andi.

 

2.Steve Frame (AW), from only child former football player to oldest of seven from a farm town.

 

3.John Black (Days), the classic in this category former priest/spy/jewel thief/heir to two family fortunes

 

4. Doug Williams (Days) - from Bill Horton's conman cellmate to having a long lost rich twin that left town and was never discussed again. 

 

5. Jake McKinnon (AW) - grew up in Lassiter, Pennsylvania but somehow his uncle Vince and cousins were in town for years and he never contacted them nor invited them to his first wedding to Marley?

 

[Khan]

I'm not sure if this counts, but at one point during the '70's John Beradino (Steve, GH) had to "go upstairs" and remind the writers at that time that he, and not Dr. Steve Hardy, had played professional baseball.  (Steve was supposedly raised overseas by his parents, who had worked as missionaries in China.)

[YRBB]

John Black has got to be the one with the most... "reinventions". Ludicrous, really.

 

They should have named him John Blank, a blank slate to project everything and anything the writers feel like at the moment.

[Efulton]

I don’t understand your point about Jake McKinnon. Jake interacted quite a bit with Vince and his cousins from the moment he arrived in Bay City.  And Vince, Kathleen, Cheryl and MJ were in Jake and Marley’s wedding party. M.J. also sang at the wedding.

[danfling]

Cordero Roberts (on One Life to Live) grew up in Texas with a Caucasian father and a Latino mother.  Surely, he knew Spanish, and I think that he spoke it onscreen at one time.

Yet, when his step-sister Jessica had Latino boyfriends, he never even greeted them once in Spanish.

 

 

[danfling]

Also:  on Dark Shadows, the younger sister of Tom and Chris Jennings was called Molly several times prior to her introduction.   However, on the first episode on which she appeared, her name of Amy Jennings.  I guess the show did not want to foretell that the trio were the grandchildren of Molly Collins (daughter of Quentin and Jenny the Gypsy).

[robbwolff]

Quentin and Jenny’s daughter was named Lenore, not Molly.

[danfling]

I stand corrected.

 

Also on Dark Shadows, Roxanne was named as the off-screen girlfriend of Willie Loomis.   However, when Barnabas and Willie found the girl in the woods, Barnabas was instantly smitten with her and learned that her name was Roxanne.  I thought that the show was leading to a Barnabas-Roxanne-Willie triangle, but Willie seemed totally disinterested in Roxanne.

[jam6242]

Doug Williams' long-lost brother, Byron, wasn't a twin (though played by Bill Hayes).  He was an older half-brother that Doug (who had lived in an orphanage) didn't know about.  He was only on a few episodes and then died.  So I don't think that really changed Doug's back story.

[robbwolff]

A point of clarification. I recently binged the last year or so of Dark Shadows on Amazon Prime. I'm now watching the early episodes. Willie did have a fiancee named Roxanne (established during the Leviathan storyline). However, the Roxanne you speak of appeared in the 1970 parallel time story. In that world, Willie was known as William H. Loomis (aka Will) and was an author. He was married to Carolyn in that timeline. Will had had an affair with Quentin's late wife Angelique. Barnabas and Julia discovered Roxanne in Stokes' house where she was serving as the life force for the back from the dead Angelique. Barnabas fell in love with Roxanne at first sight. I don't recall any romantic connection between Will and that Roxanne.

[danfling]

No romantic scenes were ever shown.   Willie had this girlfriend he mentioned named Roxanne.

 

However, it was in the 1970 regular time (not the parallel) in which Barnabas and Willie found Roxanne Drew.  Barnabas was immediately attracted to her, and Willie did not mention his girlfriend Roxanne.  This Roxanne may have become a vampire (I cannot remember exactly), but she was seen on the show prior to trip back to 1840.

 

In that time, Roxanne was the sister of Randall and Samantha.

[robbwolff]

Sorry to disagree, but the scenes are fresh in my mind as I watched the episodes just a month ago. You can find the synopses online and the videos are available on Amazon Prime. Barnabas and Willie did not find Roxanne. Barnabas found her when he went alone to Sebastian Shaw's house. Willie wasn't even around at that point. He didn't resurface until later in the 1970 possession storyline. He was only on for a handful of episodes at that point -- interacting with David, Hallie, and Maggie (who had been bitten by vampire Roxanne). Willie's last appearances are when he and Julia go to the crypt to kill the vampire and Julia realizes that Roxanne is the vampire. They open the coffin and Julia gasps. Willie says upon looking at the vampire, "Julia, who is it?" Julia then explains that it's Roxanne, the woman Barnabas believes he's in love with. It's the first time Willie sees Roxanne and it's also Willie's last episode on Dark Shadows.

 

 

[j swift]

I forgot a few

 

Shane Roberts/Bobby Reno (AW) - he's a carpenter/doctor/race car driver who also may have murdered someone and also was married to Ava from Loving - another classic in this category - Bay City was a place where a guy could start a new life but somehow his lost wives and children always find them.

 

Monica Quartermaine (GH) - came town married to Jeff but in love with his long lost brother Rick but also had an affair in med school that resulted in Dawn

 

EJ Dimera (Days) - also a race car driver and an attorney-at-law - a lot of people gave up professional careers for race car driving in soaps

 

Robert Barr (SB) - right hand man of mob boss Tonnelli but also a twin from a gothic family in New Orleans but also knew Eden as a teenager but not in Santa Barbara when she knew Cruz, Tori, and Keith

 

Palmer Cortland (AMC) - told Nina that Cortland Manor was his ancestral home until we found out that he was from Pidgin Hollow

 

John Hudson (AW) - merchant marine/n'er do well brother who hated his brother but also changed his last name to the same assumed last name of his brother and also was a doctor but he didn't tell anyone he was a doctor for about five years

 

[Xanthe]

 

The name thing was never really explained, but John's medical experience was not hidden. I think maybe the Vietnam medic part was based on the actor David Forsyth's history, and later they developed it into an actual profession for him. But when I scan the AWHP synopses, John first appears in April or May 1987, and in October 1987 there is a clear acknowledgement:

 

OCTOBER 5-9, 1987
"John used his Vietnam doctoring expertise to save Vicky's life after she crashed her sports car."

 

But because he had not formally trained, when he arrived in Bay City he was not qualified to practice medicine and it wasn't until sometime later that he took it up as a career.

 

Does a character have to have been onscreen for the backstory to be considered "changed"? Donna Love's father was originally introduced as dead. In 1986 he figured in Chris Chapin's backstory and was called Brandon. However in 1987 they brought him back from the dead and called him Reginald. I don't consider being brought back from the dead changing the story; if they explain where the character was and it doesn't contradict anything that was previously shown onscreen, fine, whatever. But changing the name when it was previously established as something else is a change in my book.

 

 

 

[Efulton]

I think Michael explained that he had John, Clara and himself change their name from Garrison to Hudson to distance themselves from his father.  It was a bit of a stretch.