Characters you think writers struggled to write for

[Forever8]

I thought it would be fun and insightful topic about in your opinion or what you've heard about writers not necessarily capturing the particular essence of a certain character past or present regimes were able to capture. 

 

i.e. I heard Claire Labine didn't get Sean & Tiffany and that's why in a year and a half she got there they were essentially off the canvas. 

 

So who were the characters and writers that didn't mesh well? 

[Faulkner]

Michael Malone and Tina on OLTL. 
 

Bob Guza and Justus/the Wards on GH

[soapfan770]

Marland on ATWT with Steve, Betsy, Frank and Maggie, all written out pretty quick. 
 

More infamously, Reilly on Days with Victor.

 

Latham on Y&R with Ashley. I remember Latham apparently didn’t understand Ashley at all. 

[Faulkner]

I almost feel like only Bill Bell truly understood Ashley.

On OLTL, Labine really didn’t seem to get Nora or Viki, which surprised me, as she wrote 40+ female characters so well elsewhere. Nora got menopause and Viki was in sex therapy, I recall. Just very cliché.

[dragonflies]

Guza and every character not named Sonny, Jason, Sam and Carly

[Faulkner]

Pretty much.

[Soapsuds]

Betsy was on the canvas for 3 years during Marlands run. 

 

Broderick and FMB had no clue who Connor Walsh was thus recasting and doing nothing with her.

[Skin]

I don't necessarily think that it was the character so much as the actors who played them, but I think the writing got much better when the roles were recasted. Greg Vaughn's Lucky and Billy Warlock's AJ got really horrible treatment under Guza but were better written or at least written with more dignity and integrity when Jonathan Jackson and Sean Kanan returned to the roles. 

[teplin]

 

Reilly also didn't get Julie.

[RavenWhitney]

Days: Ron Carlivati can only write for look a likes and back from the dead; everyone else, fuggettaboutittt

[AbcNbc247]

Days: TomSell seemed to struggle with John once the initial Kristen return storyline ended. He was written out, only to come back and be written into a coma.

 

GH: Chris Van Etten and the character of Dev

       Jean Passanante and Shelly Altman and Kristina

 

SB: Anna Howard Bailey and Brick and Santana

[Forever8]

Reilly didn't get Jack either. 

[ChickenNuggetz92]

 

In a similar vein, Brad Bell and every character not named Liam, Steffy, Hope, and Brooke.

 

Also just before this era he got captivating talent like Sarah Joy Brown as Agnes and Rick Hearst as Whip and the both of them along with the rest of the Jones family just unceremoniously disappeared after 2 years (thanks to shifting his focus on Liam and expanding his family).

[Pine Charles]

Greenlee - after Frons shackled her to Ryan.

Edited March 26, 2021 by Pine Charles

[j swift]

It seems like it would be difficult to write for characters like Sonny and Jason who were created using such strict rules.  Sonny's in the mob, but he can't be involved with drugs, racketeering, or murder.  Jason's a leading man, but he has a brain injury which prevents him from expressing emotion.  Maxie needs a family based storyline, but it was established that she couldn't bare children.

 

Some writers have the unfortunate circumstance of inheriting characters that have already been written into a proverbial corner.  Y&R has Adam who is supposed to be able to be in romantic scenarios, but has a rap sheet of kidnapping, loose retinas, and gay baiting.  DAYS is in a similar situation with Ben.  OLTL Viki had a history of mental illness, but still needed to be portrayed as a reliable head of her family.  AW Felicia never had kids on screen, so long lost children suddenly had to appear out of thin air. Through no fault of the current headwriter, they have to do plot gymnastics to create ongoing drama for popular actors playing characters that are uniquely trapped by their own history.