Recasts on shows: good, bad, in between

[Fevuh]

Thank you for posting this picture!  I'd never seen it.  What a great group of actresses...I loved every Blake.  I still think maybe the most successful re-casted role in all of daytime, for the number we had.  I loved Dennehy (sp?)....during the time Glenn Close was so popular, it was like you were watching her sister on Guiding Light.  

[Chris 2]

Good point on the Glenn Close comparison.

I always thought Liz Keifer was such a beauty. But I’ve always been partial to strawberry blondes.

[Mitch]

I think Keifer was good as a more adult Blake that, while still making mistakes...was softer and warmer.  They really missed the boat in not making Ross and Blake the tentpole couple during Wheeler and Kreizman.

[Joseph]

On Santa Barbara who was the Worst and Best:

Santana Andrade

Kelly Capwell

[danfling]

I think that one recast that was atrocious was the casting of Renee Jarrett as Phoebe Smith on The Edge of Night.    Had she not been a replacement in the role would probably have been better.   But she was no match for the original Phoebe, the late Heidi Vaughn.

[Nicholas Blair]

AW: Audra Lindley seemed difficult if not impossible to replace, but Nancy Wickwire was also outstanding, and Irene Dailey was a great choice, even if she never got to play the sociopath that Liz Matthews truly was.

Susan Sullivan was the perfect choice to replace Judith Barcroft as Lenore. Victoria Wyndham was also the best possible choice to play Rachel after Robin Strasser left.

As has been noted, Douglass Watson was a recast for Mac. The original idea for the character must have been an overbearing, unattractive rich man, and that's how the part was cast, but making Mac sophisticated and attractive opened up far more possibilities. Robert Milli as Wayne Addison was also recast as a sophisticated, attractive plausible love interest for Liz Matthews, which later would be the idea for casting Douglass Watson.

AW never found a Russ Matthews equal to Sam Groom, though David Bailey was easy on the eyes. No Alice recast came close to Jacqueline Courtney.

Brian Murray wasn't the equal of John Cunningham as Dan Shearer, and Lynn Milgrim was nowhere near the quality of Lisa Cameron as Susan. You can find scenes of Milgrim as Orlena on ATWT, where she is more ridiculous than Marj Dusay in that GL wedding scene. Milgrim never reached that degree of badness as Susan, but she was stiff and theatrical.

Y&R: I loved Gina Tognoni's Phyllis. David Hasselhoff turned out to be a good recast for William Gray Espy's Snapper (still the best). For Snapper's brother Greg, neither Brian Kerwin (who has since become an excellent actor) nor Wings Hauser was even as good as James Houghton, and none of the three was at all believable as a lawyer.

RH: I loved Andrew Robinson, but Daniel Hugh-Kelly was a great recast. If you could accept Randall Edwards' light comedy Delia as being very different from Ilene Kirsten's heavy drama Delia, I thought Edwards was a successful recast.

[Chris 2]

One of the reasons that Daniel Hugh Kelly seemed so strong as Frank Ryan on RH is because his two immediate predecessors were miscast. Michael Hawkins was a block of wood (not to mention too old for the role), and Andrew Robinson - a fine character actor - did not have the leading man looks or presence the role required. Robinson was certainly a better actor at the time than DHK, who was a bit stiff early on. But DHK grew in the role and his Frank was eventually the charismatic, center-of-attention politician-type that the character was always meant to be.

Edited October 27, 2021 by Chris 2

[amybrickwallace]

He was, and Pierson and Sanderford also had some of the same qualities as Frank.

[Darn]

I never cared for Elizabeth Keifer as Blake largely because she looked more than Maureen Garrett's mother than the other way around. It just felt so weird to see her call this woman mom. She also played the character so matronly and neurotic, which didn't make sense since her parents were both so...cool. How'd they make this lame duck?

[Chris B]

We all know how the Alice recasts went on Another World, but my question is, are there any actresses from that time period who you all think could've been good in that role? I never seemed to understand what they were going for since the recasts all seem so different from what I've seen of them. I recall one even being a brunette.

[Mitch]

See, I thought Keifer played Blake more as a conflicted woman who was essentially raised as a Bauer, ripped out of that enviorment and had the "ghost" of her bio day haunting her..so she was basically a warm woman who made really bad decisions, and yes, neurotic (but Holly was Queen Neurotic, hidden behind a sleek sarcastic facade.) I know everyone else seems to love SS but I thought her Blake, while fun, was campy and OTT, plus with all the 80s hair she seemd to TOWER over little AM.

 

Which reminds me..one of the worst recast ever...Michael Dietz as Alan Michael Spaulding...he would have been poorly cast as the busboy at Company much less taking over for Hearst!

 

Edited October 29, 2021 by Mitch

[Nicholas Blair]

For my taste, the best choice would have been Jada Rowland. Not a blonde, but definitely a star who could have held her own against Victoria Wyndham, Beverlee McKinsey, or anyone else. If this idea seems out there, so was casting Jada to replace Carolee Campbell, an actress she had almost nothing in common with except the ability to work well with David O'Brien.

[Paul Raven]

Jada is certainly an out there choice.

No denying she is a great actress but I can't see her as Alice. Jada as Carolee worked in that physically she fit the look for Carolee. It's like suggesting Jacquie Courtney could have stepped in as Carolee.

I think recasts work best when there is some sort of physical resemblance. That's how its mostly done.

[j swift]

I was just thinking that without the recasting of Rebecca on Passions from Maureen McCormick to Andrea Evans, I doubt that character would have had so much longevity.  Kim Ulrich's Ivy was virtually cast aside for Rebecca.  One tends to think without the recast she might never have returned after her daughter's wedding.

Also, as much as I find Travis Schuldt charming as an actor, I think Eric Martsolf was better suited to play Ethan as the object of multiple women's affection.  And I think Adrian Bellani was a better Miguel than Jesse Metcalfe, as was Charles Divens an upgrade as Chad over Donn Swaby

On the other hand, Blair Redford was a terrible recast Miguel.  I know that a lot of humor was derived over the hyphenate of the Lopez-Fitzgarald clan, and neither Luis nor Theresa were played by actors who identify as part of the Latinx community, but I cannot think of a more white washed casting than going from Adrian Bellani to Blair Redford to play Miguel, except of course for OLTL's recasting of Blair Cramer.

Edited October 29, 2021 by j swift

[FrenchBug82]

Andrea Evans was perfect for the tone of Passions.
She can act and she can do money-hungry desperation like anyone else but there is always an undertone of comedy and ridiculousness she carries with her that perfectly fit Passions.
On the other hand as Tawny on B&B I thought that comedic ability undermined her; the character was fundamentally similar but I thought the storyline would have worked better if Tawny was a darker manipulative character rather than Andrea's familiar shtick.