Notable Un-Recasts

[Chris B]

See, I found her campy during her original stint, but a darker, more subtle camp which could’ve been down to the writing or production staff. She only lost it once Phick became a thing and the new writers turned her into a heroine. I do agree that Sandra Nelson was the best. She had that fun, but added depth to the role. I feel like now the way to fix Phyllis would be to re-pair her with Christine. Lauralee Bell brings the best out of Michelle Stafford. 

[will81]

A couple more for Y&R

 

Jill Foster

Brenda Dickson 1973 - 1980 / 1983 - 1987

Bond Gideon 1980 - 1980

Deborah Adair 1980 - 1983

Jess Walton 1987 -

 

Peggy Brooks

Pamela Peters 1973 - 1977 / 1980 - 1981

Patricia Everly 1979 - 1979 

 

 

In terms of Brenda, she was good until she wasn't, haha. Definitely the last year of her second run was pretty awful most of the time. Jess was great initially but both the writing and Jess' grumpy Jill act (and scratchy smoker's voice) helped ruin the character by the mid to late 90's. I'd say the Jed Sanders affair was the end of that character to me, although having her fight for the Chancellor estate and end up living with Kay was a good end to both Jill and Kay's story. 

 

Deborah was a great actress, but from what I have seen, she never really got Jill. Jill grew up without ever feeling safe and secure. So she was constantly manipulating and scheming to ensure her own future, because she didn't trust in life or the people around her. Her father abandonded her and she was forced to grow up and look after the family.

 

That's why she loved people, but loved herself more. Even in the 1974 episode you can feel the tension with Jill. She hates being poor and knows no one else is going to help her get out from under, because in her mind, she has always been alone. The trauma with Kay only cemented that more and hardened her more.

 

You can feel the tension as soon as Brenda steps into the Abbott home. She is a ball of nerves. Deborah seemed to play Jill as spoiled and entitled, but never got why she was like that. Every time John sided with Dina, it was a shard of glass in Jill's heart. It just confirmed no one cared for her. Dina was not just annoyance to Jill, you see that in Brenda's first scene back. She is a mess. Jess got this a bit more, but only Brenda really understood this part of Jill, which was such a driving motivation for the character.

[Soaplovers]

 

Putting Nina in Jill's orbit was right before Brenda was fired.  I often wonder how the Nina story would have gone ccause I don't see Brenda's Jill ever teaming with Kay to drive out Nina.

 

[will81]

I think she might have, but the softer more comedic tone would not have been there. I think Brenda's Jill hated Nina even more than Jess', haha

[amybrickwallace]

Didn't Ava Haddad return briefly to reprise Cassie on OLTL between Holly Gagnier's exit and Laura Bonarrigo's entrance?

[John]

Yes in 1990

[Pine Charles]

It’s often erroneously stated on sites that Natalie & Janet were twins; if you watch the “Natalie In the Well” story (which is on YouTube from start to finish), however, it’s clearly written that Janet is Natalie’s younger sister (by one year).

Janet was introduced as an overweight woman with dark brown hair, who looked NOTHING like Natalie (other than facial features).

I’m always annoyed when I read that they were “twins”, when they only looked identical after Janet made herself over.

Yes, it’s incredibly far-fetched that a non-twin sibling could make herself over to look identical to her sister, but Kate Collins did such a stellar job.

The storyline has become iconic. 

Edited September 27, 2020 by Pine Charles
I see Jonathan already explained this earlier

[Khan]

 

A clear, early indication that Megan McTavish was going to be a TERRIBLE HW.

[Skin]

 

I'm going to stick up for Budig here, there was a lot wrong with Greenlee post-Leo and I think it's obvious Rebecca and Greenlee struggled without him, but I think that's actually because the show kept trying to write her as an Erica-lite Romantic Leading actress, and that isn't what Rebecca excels in. There was a lot wrong with 2003-2004 Greenlee, and we could see that with the Juan Pablo and Carlos arcs but I disagree that Budig herself was the problem or that she was phoning it in, she had pretty dynamic performances with the Jackson is her father reveal and her surrogacy exit storyline. Her tearing into Minshew and La Kane is must see television and she did a great job with those reveals and confrontation scenes selling her worth as a forceful dramatic lead actress in her own right. There was a worthy successor to Julia Barr in there somewhere but ABC wanted to put her in that lukewarm pairing with Ryan, and that was all she wrote. She had some spark with Vincent Irizarry's David as well, again showing her worth as a villainous character, but they ruined it again to put her back with Ryan. Sabine was basically a brand new character, who floundered and couldn't excel at being the bruising Greenlee so they wrote her as a misunderstood damsel in distress that Josh, David and Ryan could save and Sabine could play that, so they wrote a watered down heroine role instead. Greenlee would never ever say "my only crime was coming home". She would be embarrassed to utter those words and vie for sympathy so blatantly, nakedly and boldly. All that is to say I don't think we can question Budig's dedication to the material during her first run. Her second and third stints were more questionable. 

 

 

I always felt that Greenlee was more of a Liza than an Erica. Budig was great at playing tough as nail's soap bitches and she hit that and more with Greenlee. The pairing with Leo turned that on it's head and made the despicable tender. Budig is not versatile and as such I don't think she plays well in romance without a very specific kind of male lead to bring out other sides of her. Josh for instance was able to make her funny.   

 

 

I remember reading an article about acting and "scene stealers", at first scene stealing is seen and understood as a practice that separates good actors from great actors, and shows some promise of the actors capability but overtime it becomes a calling card for actors not knowing the true value of creating a scene, and accomplishing great cinema. If actors are always looking to "steal" something, it takes away from the narrative which is trying to be communicated to the audience, and it comes at great cost because no value is being created for the view to invest in. Also scene stealers need something of value to "steal", so if nothing is being created that is worth value to the audience, the audience comes away feeling that the scene in question was just bad. This strikes me at what MS and the VR scene is. VR provided the "value" in the scene that MS "stole", and thus she gets credit for making her co-star look bad or less than. If she was an amazing actress the scene could have been elevated and the work itself would have been elevated from all parties in the scene.  

 

 

I disagree, I always look at the scene where JJ's Lucky rips Elizabeth apart as karmic vengeance for GV's Lucky. If JJ never came back, we never would have gotten that scene because GV could have never handled anything like that. Guza would have had him crying on his hands and knees gargling glass, while he rolled on pins and needles begging for Liz's forgiveness and asking if he could watch while Jason makes love to her again, so he could be apart of their next child's conception. That was how sad Guza had made Lucky during GV's tenure. Lucky was screwed around on not only with Jason, but also Nikolas. He begged Liz to take him back, believed he was a father to Liz's child and Elizabeth refused to tell him the truth, all the while getting high off of Lucky begging her to take him back. Then she turned around and used the fact that Lucky was a recovering drug addict as an excuse not to tell him the truth for like a year. She basically used his addiction against him so she could keep telling him lies. It was nauseatingly disgusting. GV's Lucky was a simpering cuckold to Elizabeth and her beau of the month. JJ at least was able to give the character back some semblance of dignity after Elizabeth's treatment toward him for the better part of 6 years. JJ coming back to the role just for those scenes alone, was well worth kicking GV off contract.  

 

[ghfan89]

One I read about, but never saw was Samantha on OLTL. The original actress, Julie Montgomery, left the show, and had her in a car wreck. She woke up with plastic surgery with Susan Keith in the role, who was a miscast. The writers then wrote that Sam didn't like her plastic surgery and found a different surgeon. She had another plastic surgery, and was back to being Julie Montgomery again.

[Planet Soap]

Agreed, Elizabeth needed to hear that.

Edited October 18, 2020 by ironlion

[amybrickwallace]

 

Was that the only time TD brought back the original portrayer after a recast? We've seen many recasts in 12 years' worth of reruns, but I'm pretty sure that was the only time.