This is about characters who started out as the sole member of their family on a show and around whom family members were later added, with those people becoming regular characters as well. I'm referring to their birth family rather than the character having children. Also not referring to sporadic appearances by relatives, like GH's Jax's parents.

For instance, on OLTL, Clint Buchanan arrived in town on his own in 1979 while his brother, Bo, and father, Asa, came on a couple of months later, thus beginning decades of Buchanan family story.

Who else?

Gilly Grant on GL, which Amelia Marshall spoke about recently in her Locher Room interview.

Roman, DOOL

Rafe, DOOL

Steve, AW

M.J, AW

Ford, OLTL

 

 

 

Edited October 19, 20205 yr by AbcNbc247

The Rosales family on Y&R was built around... Arturo lol.

Derek Frye , Rose Keefer, Maria Santos AMC

Dorian Cramer OLTL

Reva Shayne GL

Peter Love and Cass Winthrop AW

Alan Quartermaine GH

Was Trish or Josh the first Lewis on GL?

Edited October 19, 20205 yr by rlj

These are the ones off the top of my head that ended up with families that dominated their shows-

 

GH- Bobbie Spencer and Alan Quartermaine.  By the time GH exploded in 1981, you would think those families had been major for a much longer time period.  By the 1990’s, they were the major families in the show (which for GH isn’t saying all that much, as family dynamics did not drive relationships or story during most of the 1980’s).

 

Josh Lewis on GL- again, by 1990, the Lewis family is involved in everything.  Mindy has her affair with Roger and soon Alexandra will find out, Billy and Vanessa are still in love but apart and he is married to Nadine, tying him to the Coopers.  Dylan is in one love story after another, and soon tied to both Vanessa and Nadine with Bridget. Reva, who has driven the story for years is about to die, leaving Josh a mess.  Little Bill and Michelle looked to be the future.  And the constant Spaulding/Lewis business storylines.  That’s pretty full integration.

 

Roman on DAYS-  I mean the Brady’s pretty much took over shortly after Roman arrived, especially once Bo and Kayla became major characters too.  Which leads all the way to today with Sami.  By the late 1980’s it felt like the Brady family was the central family on the show, especially once Hope left and only Jennifer was really given tons of material.

 

Lots of other examples- Alan Spaulding, Nola Reardon.  Paul Williams and Jack Abbott allowed Bill Bell to recreate the entire show!  Stefano Dimera (or was Tony first)?

 

Also the minor ones.  Julia and Harlan were there before Brenda Barrett, but not as important as she was.

Holden Snyder, ATWT (unless Emma and Iva were introduced at the same time but I'm thinking they came later). 

6 minutes ago, titan1978 said:

Stefano Dimera (or was Tony first)?

 

Tony was the first, unless you count Renee Dumonde who debuted on the show first, but was revealed as a DiMera afterwards.

Alan arrived with a wife and child, GL

1 hour ago, titan1978 said:

Paul Williams and Jack Abbott allowed Bill Bell to recreate the entire show!  

Also on Y&R, Mamie. The Barber sisters are her nieces. Then the Winters brothers were brought on.

Rosanna on ATWT. She was given her father Alexander first and we briefly had her Cabot siblings Peter & Lauren before we got Carly, then her cousins Molly and of course Carly’s own half sister Gwen. 

The Doctors - Joan Dancy, in a coma due to a drug overdose and her brother Jerry were the first members of a family that eventually numbered seven. Introduced in 1975-76, the longest-running Dancy was Luke (Frank Telfer). He was the only one to stay through the series finale on NYE 1982.

Edited October 19, 20205 yr by amybrickwallace

OLTL - Sarah Gordon debuted as Clint's therapist when he was blind, then along came Megan and Roger.

DOOL - Steve Johnson came first. Then there were Adrienne, Jo and Billy/Jack.

Sometimes the relatives stick around longer than the original:
GH - Robert Scorpio gained a brother, Mac, who became a dominant character on the show (as well as a daughter he didn't initially know he had). Likewise, Ryan Chamberlain gained a twin brother in Kevin Collins, who became a longtime character.
 

15 minutes ago, applcin said:

Sometimes the relatives stick around longer than the original

Y&R's Reed sisters. Casey was the new doctor in town and her troublemaking younger sister Nikki was introduced shortly after. Casey left and Nikki remains to this day.

Edited October 20, 20205 yr by kalbir

We could split this topic into two categories

1 Characters who were introduced with the clear intent of following with a family eg Iva Snyder ATWT

2. Characters who had families added as they became popular. eg Steve Days

 

Of course, there will always be a grey area as we don't know in some cases what the writers plans were...

 

Casey and Nikki's mother was alive when they came on but never seen and killed in a car crash. Then daddy Nick Reed turned up....

 

Paul Williams had an entire family built around him in 1980 after he was first seen in 78.

 

One odd example was back in the 80's on Days when Gwen Davies and woody King were introduced and later revealed as siblings.Then Esther Kensington a cleaning lady was revealed as their mom and Orby Jensen a criminal was their dad but nothing ever really came of it.

Another Days family was built around Pete Jannings when the character became popular.He got a sister Tess and a dad Barney.