All Soaps: Unpopular Actors/Characters that you don't mind

[Faulkner]

He and Robin Mattson were so magical together on SB that I’m surprised that she didn’t end up back on GL and re-paired with him at some point.

[carolineg]

I am actually embarrassed to admit this but I actually liked Molly Burnett's Melanie.  Her stories were often stupid, but I thought she was a charming performer lol.  That has to be one of the most unpopular opinions ever.

 

I like SBu as well.  I agree he has good chemistry with his leading ladies and has had quite a few popular pairings.  And I like BA/Spinelli too.  He can be annoying but he never really bothered me.

[detroitpiston]

Laura Wright can do no wrong for me, love watching her.

 

I loved Alexa Havin's Babe on AMC, yeah she ate the show and got propped to hell but she was beautiful and a really good actress.

[prefab1]

Not an unpopular opinion with me. I thought Molly Burnett was great, and I'd welcome her back to the show at any time. Ingenue characters on soaps are often incredibly bland--see all those interchangeable young women currently on GH and Y&R for examples--and so I appreciated how Molly Burnett imbued Melanie with a very distinctive personality and voice. 

[victoria foxton]

I loved Dawn & Decker on GH. I liked the Rappaport family on OLTL. Really liked Denise on ATWT. Loved Nick Fallon on Days. I also liked Melanie's offbeat charm. Even though she was a  Dena Higley creation.  I really wanted her and Dario to get together. Early Katie and Henry were a hoot. Years of bad writing screwed them up. 

Edited November 13, 2020 by victoria foxton

[soapfan770]

ATWT: I did not mind Grayson McCouch as Dusty Donovan at all and grew to like him as time went on. I really enjoyed the Dusty/Jennifer pairing it’s a shame the show pulled the plug on it as they never recovered. 
 

B&B: Matthew Atkinson as Thomas on B&B. Thomas is a complete and utter disaster at the moment but Atkinson is IMO the best actor in the role since Drew Tyler Bell.

 

Days: @carolinegYes I really enjoyed Melanie as well. Also liked Mia and Dylan Patton’s Will during that era as well. I have enjoyed all the Will actors including Gerse and Wilson despite the naysayers lol.
 

GL: Loved Jesse & Drew in the late 90’s. Also I grew to really enjoy the Doris Wolfe character in the 00’s.

 

Y&R: Ho boy of all the actors we’ve put up with (Morrow, Rikaart, Stafford  etc) I will say I do like Jason Thompson as Billy even though the writing is dreadful. Also CKLily has finally grown on me the last couple of years oddly.

 

 

Edited November 13, 2020 by soapfan770

[All My Shadows]

I thought AMC's Krystal was a perfect fit for the show, and Bobbie Eakes was, of course, great. I think she and Babe both suffered from obnoxious writing, but in another time and with another story, Krystal would have been a beloved character.

[titan1978]

I agree with this whole post.  I like Melanie for the same reasons you did, she brought spark to the role.  And I love Spinelli.

 

Also agree with @victoria foxton about Dawn and Decker from GH, and Nick Fallon on DAYS.  I really liked them!

[carolineg]

 

Yay!  There are 5 admitted Melanie fans out there!  I liked Mia on Days too.  And I liked Morgan Hollingsworth as well even though she randomly took over the show for a minute there.

 

GH:  I liked Tava Smiley as Chloe Morgan.  She wasn't the most dynamic, but I thought she had a likability about her.  She didn't spark with Ingo much, but there was definitely opportunity to use her elsewhere on the canvas.  

 

 

Is it unpopular to like Nick Fallon?  Before the writers destroyed him I thought he and his pairing with Chelsea had a decent following.  But I liked him too.

[Soap-princess]

Morrow has always been ok, but his screen partners and looks have always propped him up more than his acting ability.
 

I didn’t mind Clementine’s Mac for about 3-4 months until the writing went off the deep end for the character. I didn’t even mind Kelly Kruger’s Mac at the beginning until she was paired with Ryan Brown and I think she was the issue and not him.   I actually wish they kept Ryan Brown’s Billy around longer. He had chemistry with Jess Walton and the other teen characters. 
 

 

I thought Liz Huber’s Gwen was very good and had more chemistry with Eric Martsolf than Lindsey Hartman. 

Edited November 14, 2020 by Soap-princess

[Taoboi]

THANK YOU!!!! Same. 

 

Joshua Morrow is great with his family ESPECIALLY children once he had some of his own in real life. He has chemistry with SC and MS. And as someone said above, it was great that he used to be written as a male Nikki (with Heather Tom's Victoria more like Victor) and I loved the dichotomy of it. 

 

I don't even mind Melissa Ordway as Abby...especially when she feuds with Victoria.

 

 

[Soap-princess]

I think the issue with Morrow has been his weak acting and being carried by his more talented female costars. 

[titan1978]

When you look at daytime, there are like three types of actors-

 

The real deal.  The ones that did good work, sometimes flashy, sometimes subtle, or both, but undisputed by their peers (even if some of us do not get it).  Lots of them in parts big and small on the New York soaps because of the ease of working soaps and theater at night.

 

Charisma- This is where a lot of soap actors from the 80’s on to today land for me (although some came before that time). People with tons of charisma and charm, which made up for them not being as talented as the real deal types.  Lots of soap hunks and popular super couple people fall in this category- Morrow being one.  They carry a lot of romance storylines.  Thai might be controversial, but I would put Susan Lucci in this column.  Works best when supported by the real deal types.

 

 

Models- really took over by the late 1980’s, made worse by network execs trying to skew the shows sexier and younger, which meant they drove too much story.  Some of these folks ended up with some talent and weren’t just blocks of wood, but a lot of them did not.  IMO DAYS really suffered from this several times over the years.

[Vee]

IMO the difference is Susan never got stories, however bad, that permanently damaged the show or her standing with the audience in the same way the mono-focus on stuff Morrow can't successfully pull off has on Y&R. (Even the unabortion came and went.) Granted, Erica Kane was fundamentally the center of AMC in a way Nick Newman was not. But they largely understood what Erica could do and what she couldn't. But it's also a sexism issue, because Nick, as a man, has gotten the Ryan Lavery treatment. In some stories all roads lead back to the man, and the man can do anything and should dominate story even if the performer can't handle it because they're mediocre talent. I like Cameron Mathison IRL a lot, but he should never have gotten half of the crap frontburner story he got in the last decade of the show.

 

I don't think they ever will or should recast Morrow. But they need to stop pretending he is remotely the heir to Braeden or Bergman, because he never has been and never will be.

[Faulkner]

Y&R really can’t figure out what to do with Nick. I think they realize he can’t play business mogul, and he’s been eclipsed by Adam and Billy, both played by more skilled actors. He’s basically become a sex object/tut-tut scold for Phyllis, who is now Genoa City’s Lucy Coe.

They’re also in a holding pattern with Victoria. She exists only to swat away Adam and to tangle with Phyllis every now and then. Yet the rivalry really being played isn’t Adam vs. the Newmans, aside from Adam’s daddy issues with Victor; it’s Adam vs. Billy they’ve focused on, who would seem to be assuming the Victor/Jack roles (which leaves Nick as who?). The more I think about it, the more of a mess Y&R seems.

Edited November 15, 2020 by Faulkner