Too Young To Be That Kids Parents

[All My Shadows]

Please tell me again how SORAS is necessary lol I know that not all of these are due to SORAS, but still.

Barbara Bel Geddes was only 9 years older than onscreen son Larry Hagman.

Helen Wagner didn't have many years on her onscreen children on ATWT. Twelve years older than Rosemary Prinz, sixteen years older than Don Hastings, and she was entirely too young to play mother to most of the actors who played Donald:

Hal Studer (1956) - five years younger than HW
Richard Holland (1956-1962) - four years younger than HW
James Noble (1962) - four years younger than HW
Peter Brandon (1965-1972) - eight years younger than HW
Martin West (1976-1978) - nineteen years younger than HW
Conard Fowkes (1978-1981) - fifteen years younger than HW

In the original story bible, Don was "in his senior year of high school" lol They finally got it right in the 70s, but still, if you think that a focus on hiring younger actress over older actress began in the 80s, you're wrong.

[soapfan770]

 

Haha that’s true and a good point. It’s also a reason I’ve never understood why people in their late 20’s get hired on to play teenagers. Gabrielle Cateris on 90210 and Blair Redford on The Lying Game are prime examples of this. 

[juppiter]

SORAS is definitely an overused crutch. 

[Darn]

 

That reminds me that this 29 year old grown man with a heavily wrinkled face is playing a teenager on the Netflix series Never Have I Ever.

 

 

[AbcNbc247]

This is off topic, but who was the first soap character to be SORASed? 

[ChitHappens]

 

I agree McCook/Moss, Hagman and Bel Geddes certainly passed, but I will never not be bothered by this:

 

starts @ 4:34

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[GLATWT88]

 

I was going to mention this one as well. Also, Susan Flannery is only 12 years older than Ron Moss. Although, the mother/son thing was more visually believable as Susan got older. 

[soapfan770]

Earliest one I know of has got to be Mike Bauer on GL.

[AbcNbc247]

Thanks!

 

I had a feeling it was either on GL or ATWT. I guess we can attribute SORASing to Irna too.

[YRBB]

 

Undoubtedly!

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 Those actors did NOT read as father and daughter, fabulous as they were.

[Paul Raven]

ATWT

Eileen Fulton (Lisa) was born in 1933

Don Hastings (Bob) was born in 1934

 

Their onscreen son Tom born 1961

Once SORASED played by these actors

Peter Link born 1944

Peter Galman born 1944

C David Colson 1941

Ton Tammi born 1945

Justin Deas born 1948

Jason Kincaid born 1952

Gregg Marx born 1955

Scott Holes born 1952

 

 

[lcrtorch]

Genie Francis was only nine years older than Tyler Christopher (ex Nik).

 

[titan1978]

They at least tried to make the math work. I think he was supposed to be 16-17, which was pretty close to what his actual age should have been.  He didn’t look a day younger than 18, but he was supposed to be high school aged.

 

Lucky was a little aged up too.  But viewers had a decade of not seeing them so it was not a jarring situation.

Pretty typical Hollywood sexism though for all these women to be so close in age to the actors hired to be their kids.

 

Edited June 7, 2020 by titan1978

[BetterForgotten]

I guess it helped that GH tended to dress and style Genie so damn matronly in the 90’s that she often looked so much older than she really was...

[titan1978]

They really seem more like a big brother and sister.

 

What fun McKinsey must have had as Iris though.  And the fight between Mac and Rachel at the end was pretty fantastic.

They really did!  The show had Laura often looking downright frumpy.  Right before Lucky died they bought her all these new cloths, did a bunch of photo shoots,  and she had a really flattering haircut with bangs that reminded me that Laura is not in the same age range as Monica.  It was a welcome change.