Stars you're surprised have lasted so long on daytime

[Gray Bunny]

For *characters*, well let's see about good ol' Days of Our Lives: 

 

-Daniel Jonas

-Rafe Hernandez

-Gabi Hernandez

-Mimi Lockhart

-Nicole Walker... I mean early on, who'd of thunk that weak actress playing a barista at the Java Cafe would still be here 22 years later? It wasn't until she became Lucas' drunk, unhappy wife-for-hire that she finally started showing potential. 

[Faulkner]

As much as it pains me, Devon Hamilton. He’s never really lived up to his potential, for obvious reasons, but he’s been kept on year after year. 

[titan1978]

Rafe is a pretty great example of this.  He has been tied to Sami, Hope, Carrie (briefly).  And he is still here.  And when he is gone, I won’t miss him at all.

 

I will give you another one.  Jax on GH.  I loved him once upon a time.  But after Brenda’s first return, he has just treaded water to me.  Every bit of charm and edge he had was slowly stripped away.  I liked him with Laura’s Carly, and yet, why would either character have ever ended up with each other?  And when he is gone, I don’t really miss him.  I think I miss the idea of Jax more than the actual character.  And yet, he’s back again.

[Chris B]

I feel like Y&R owns this. They have so much dead weight on the show and rarely seem to freshen up their cast. People were upset when SSM came on and wrote out characters like Chelsea, Chloe and Kevin, but it needed to be done. Everybody was so upset she (and later Mal Young) wouldn't bring back Adam, but why would they? That character had run through 4 actors and so much story in a short amount of time. It's like the shows and viewers don't want new characters or to revisit the past so you end up going in circles with the same people.

[Paul Raven]

Exactly - with so many vet characters to support they need to make cuts where they can.

 

Chelsea, Chloe and Kevin were dispensable, especially in light of some of the stories they were given.

 

Phyllis should have been dropped when La Staff left a few years ago and GT could have been a new character.

 

CLB could have been written off in a variety of circumstances leaving Lauren with new possibilities.

 

In light of what has happened Adam should have stayed offscreen also.

[Chris B]

 

And this is how it always was. So many big characters would come and go as needed. If the show was written by todays standards, David Kimble and Sheila would've stayed on Y&R for 15+ years straight to the point of it being parody and we wouldn't have had half the new characters we did get in the 80s and 90s. There is nothing wrong with resting supporting characters and freshening up your cast. 

[mango]

 

A third of the first one is painful for me (but true about all three on Y&R). I adore Elizabeth Hendrickson. She's wonderful, but Chloe sucks. What a total drag of a character. The only pairing half decent was with Chance, because it was fun seeing EH versus Tricia Cast.

 

The second point...nothing has been truer in the last decade on Y&R. I'm genuinely pissed at how things ended with Gina Tognoni. Brilliance falls on your lap and that's what you do? 

 

Good to see Daniel Goddard repeatedly mentioned. Woof. Fart acting at its finest.

[carolineg]

 

I think IR and Jax are pretty popular.  But I agree, I like the idea of Jax more than the actual character.  Once Brenda was out of the picture the character became pretty useless.  Outside of Carly-which is a moderately  popular pairing-he really hasn't clicked with any leading lady.  And I love that he still calls out Sonny, but it seems more like jealously than actual truth telling.  IR is very handsome and charming but I don't think I have liked Jax since like 2002.  It's definitely a case of an actor being popular in one story, for a very specific purpose, and GH just decided to keep him forever and ever, well after he outlived his usefulness.  

[titan1978]

That is exactly it.  They also only wrote to one facet of his personality- knight in shining armor.  His contemporaries, Brenda and Sonny, have much fuller characterizations and generate ample story from and about them.  Even if you don’t care for them, they have been mined for material.  We barely scratched the surface with Jax.  He was supposed to be ruthless at times, and dangerous.  We rarely if ever saw that.  Kind of like year one Mac was nothing like Mac after Robert died.  But at least he had a reason to change with Robin.

[carolineg]

 

I mean 90's Sonny and Brenda are just better characters period.  But to your point, Jax has been pigeon holed in the knight in shining armor role and he would be so much more interesting with shades of grey.  Because at this point, it's not really romantic to save the 100th heroine that needs saving it's looking like poor life choices.   At least give him a point of view that makes him realize he has a savior complex.

[full hearts]

I feel like early on Jax had great potential and I enjoyed his various dynamics. Even after Brenda had died, I liked Jax with Alexis and even Skye. Or that short period of time, he had the club with Carly. I can't remember what happened to Jax after he left Brenda at the altar tho. The writers playing Jax off Sonny for so long kind of hurt the character. It became so black and white. Jax automatically became perfect rebound guy because he wasn't tied to the mob. He was handsome, rich, and charming. Any female character would be an idiot not to like him vs the mobsters. Meanwhile, Jax had/has his flaws. He became the placeholder until the his love interest moved onto who they really wanted. 

[carolineg]

Jax ended up with Sam post-Brenda.  How can you forget the glorious tale of the Dead Man's Hand lol?  Jax/Sonny/Brenda made sense.  You could understand Brenda being torn because we witnessed her love story with both men.  The problem is GH basically has played the same Jax vs. Sonny story a million times with less charismatic love interests.  It's actually silly because LW has 1000 times more chemistry with Ingo than Mo but we are stuck with Carson for ever.

[Marco Dane]

Maurice Bernard....

[Gray Bunny]

There's a reason why they always package characters like Michael, Lauren, Kevin, Chloe, Esther etc. together nowadays.  Alone, they're weak, but as a group, they provide banter. I always liked Lauren in the business setting with Jabot, etc. but otherwise, these are all filler characters nowadays unless the Newmans need a lawyer to get them out of their latest jam. 

[full hearts]

 

I forgot that Brenda leaving and Sam showing up happened the same year. So weird. Feels like two different eras to me. LW/IR do fit better but even during the good days of CarJax the writers undermined the pairing so much.