What recast of any character has been your favorite?

[lucaslesann23]

imagine if he never got the part and stayed at YR until now. I wonder if griffith or sally and mal would have kept the saint adam stuff or reverted him back to evil.

[slick jones]

Sally would have had him more of a gray-area character, not good but not as bad as Muhney, IMO.

[lucaslesann23]

would she work as a co HW for Josh? I was thinking maybe but they are basically the same writers. so idk

[titan1978]

Jess Walton was quite a success.  Jill was an important character, in her own story and central in other stories.  Brenda originated the character, then kind of reinvented her again as a daytime Dynasty diva.  She also had fantastic chemistry with Jack, John, Katherine and Philip and Nina.

 

And Jess arrived and eventually brought us a gritty, grounded Jill that was just as combustible and sexy as Brenda’s, plus she brought back some of that younger Jill vulnerability.  When she fought with Katherine it seemed like Jill was doing it, not a recast.

 

With Katherine- Brenda made me feel like she was pissed at her for their shared past.  Jess made me feel like Katherine had deeply hurt her.  There is a difference. They both played the anger and the snide remarks.  Jess just also brings out the pain of Katherine’s years of torments and killing Phillip.

 

And I loved Brenda in the role.  But Jess is a stronger overall actress.

 

[will81]

While I prefer Eileen, I have to say I loved Brenda as Ashley. I can watch any episode she is in and still love the character and feel like it is still Ashley, just a different side of Ashley. Brenda still got the important parts of the character, she just displayed them differently.

 

Jess really was the best recast. She grounded Jill more and added depth that Brenda once had but had lost by the end of her run.

 

I would also add Sandra Nelson as Phyllis. Michelle, even back then had really put her stamp on the character and I wasn't sure anyone could match her, but Sandra really was great in the role and honestly I would have been happy to have kept her there.

 

I agree Y&R did a great job recasting, some exceptions were Shari Shuttuck as Ashley and Sarah Aldrich as Victoria (though Sarah was there for roughly six months and barely had story before Heather Tom returned, she seems more like a sub to be honest)

[glatwt]

I would also like to add sherry stringfield to this list as Blake on GL since she was technically a recast. Can't say i didn't like Dehenney in the role and would have loved what she brought later on or even if she was cast as a different character! Her and Stringfield Blake almost seemed like two completely characters but Stringfield knocked her Blake out of the park! I definitely couldn't see Elizabeth's version seducing Ross away from Holly! But again, i can't say i didn't like Dehenney in the role!

[titan1978]

Recasts are weird to me.  When I was a kid in the 1980’s, my favorite two shows GH and DAYS rarely recast a major part, and if they did it was to drive a major story- like Roman in DAYS.

 

On GH- when Luke and Laura, Holly, Frisco, Lesley, Jimmy Lee, etc left the show they left and their characters left town or were presumed dead.  Monty didn’t really recast major roles once we got past the Heather and Rick recasts of the late 1970’s.  DAYS was the same in the 1980’s as far as I can remember, with Roman being the major exception (and again, to drive story).  I don’t remember a GH recast until Duke, and that was a storytelling mess.

 

Y&R was relatively stable until Brenda Dickson left during that time too.  I don’t recall a major role being recast once the show really took off again mid 1980’s until Jill and then later, Jack.

 

It wasn’t until later, when I started to watch more of other soaps that I really noticed the recasts to keep story going.

Edited September 2, 2019 by titan1978

[Dr Neil Curtis]

Charity Rahmer as Belle

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[Fevuh]

Heather Rattray as Lily?  Good God.  She was horrible.  Only Martha Byrne was Lily.  Heather was like watching paint dry.  

[Faulkner]

A favorite recast of a character whose previous portrayal I actually really liked? Gina Tognoni as Dinah on GL. Granted, there had been a gap after Wendy Moniz left.

[SFK]

 

I was going to say both Gina AND Wendy. But in the case of Wendy (like so many others, e.g., Robin Strasser), she's a favorite who happened to be a recast when I had no prior viewing experience of her predecessor. I absolutely adored Strasser on OLTL, but it would be unfair of me to declare that she's the best Dorian or I enjoyed her performance more than the ladies before her when I only have a couple of clips to compare.

[Taoboi]

THIS. Second person who came to mind.

 

In recent memory, I liked Jen Lilley as Maxie on GH. For so long, I had disliked KS as Maxie. Not that the writing helped. And JL's Maxie was like a soft reboot, using mannerisms I was used to from KS's Maxie and then giving her layers and making her her own.

[Efulton]

Amy Carlson (Josie),  Anne Heche (Victoria / Marely), Jennifer Runyon and Mary Page Keller (Sally) and Carmen Duncan (Iris) all on Another World.

Edited September 3, 2019 by Efulton

[Broderick]

 

Y&R was kinda "jarring" by 1989, because three big roles in the Abbott family had been recast.   While all of the recasts were "workable", they were each FAR less quirky and individualized than their predecessors.   Say what you will about Brenda Dickson's Jill, but she was a very unique character, and when Jess Walton took over in 1987, the character became perhaps more real and relatable, but lacked that wooden, stylized, stare-off-in-the-distance-and-bark-out-your-lines craziness of Brenda Dickson's Jill.  Then in 1988, Eileen Davidson's cool, aloof, eye-rolling Ashley was replaced by the kinder, gentler, more approachable, more down-to-earth Brenda Epperson, who did fine but obviously lacked the acting quirks of Eileen Davidson.   And then in 1989, Terry Lester's flustered, yelling, grinning, bad-boy Jack Abbott was replaced by the more debonair and sauve (but far less quirky) Peter Bergman.   There were times in 1989 when Jack, Ashley, and Jill would share a scene and I'd just think, "Who ARE these people!?")  They were all just fine in their roles, but were so much less bizarre and engaging and unique than the actors they replaced.   

[Khan]

 

I'll say this much: Sally Sussman (Morina) has a better understanding of what is and isn't story than Josh Griffith does.  Now, does Sally know how to EXECUTE story?  That's the $64,000 question!

 

Not that Justin Hartley didn't try his best, though!  He almost rehabilitated that character into something palatable.  Almost.

Edited September 4, 2019 by Khan