ALL: Characters you are surprised lasted so long

[amybrickwallace]

I thought of this topic with the news of Ingo Rademacher being fired from GH. It's amazing he lasted so long on the show, being so deeply tied to Brenda and ultimately being her second choice.

Nicole on DAYS has been on the show on and off since 1998. She started out as a generic Titan model and became so much more.

[AlexElizabeth]

Rafe freaking Hernandez. Does this character have fans? He has somehow been around for 13 years. 

[AbcNbc247]

GH kinda owns this thread, if you think about it lol

[victoria foxton]

GH loves keeping played out characters. Long pass their expiration date.

[Errol]

Might be a little controversial, but I'd say pretty much any character on soaps. I'm of the opinion that no character/actor should have a lifelong job or storyline on soaps. It's nothing personal against anyone but a lot of times you find that the show struggles to write something new or fresh for characters that have been on forever. While you can always come up with something for them to do it's not easy to create long lost children, supposed childhood experiences, friendships or exes out of thin air when viewers have watched many of these characters on the show for decades, and still make the storyline beats believable -- if that's even the intent. 

[amybrickwallace]

I've never heard of him being popular except sometimes in the Sami pairing. By himself? No.

[titan1978]

I don’t disagree.  I think they have lost their way over the last few decades of letting the characters mature or fade away if there is no longer a story to tell.

Look at someone like Alice Horton.  She didn’t often have a story, but she added a lot to the show over the years and had a point of view and important place.  Now compare her to someone like Marlena- while I think Tomlin was using her well with Will and Sonny, I don’t think she and John should be in these action adventure stories they keep putting them in.  Doesn’t mean they can’t have a place, but to try to have them be front burner for 40 years is not feasible.  But they haven’t developed/invested the next generations enough to let them take over their natural place.

[Paul Raven]

have to agree in general.

Watching Y&R and seeing storylines created just to serve vet characters even if logic and past experiences get thrown out the window.

Most characters can stand 10-15 years as frontburner at which point they have to take a back seat or be dropped altogether.

It's great to see Jack Abbott onscreen after all these years but 3 days a week is not necessary. If the shows were structured properly, he would be the patriach at work and home to family and employees, not mooning after his twice ex wife who has betrayed him multiple times.

By choice/necessity Bill Bell revamped Y&R after several years and gave the show new life. It's a pity he didn't follow through in the 90's and introduce a viable set of new characters and drop some others along the way.

[j swift]

I would add Y&R's Michael Baldwin to this list.  Someone recently posted that it will be 30 years since he was introduced.  I could not have predicted after his introductory story as sexual harasser turned rapist that Michael would have not only gotten more airtime than Cricket in the last decade, but would also get an entire family built around him, and a romantic partner.

Helena Cassadine (GH) started as stunt casting for L&L's wedding, but she has driven story since the late 1990s

Abe Carver (DAYS), Abe's been backburnered so many times that the actor left the show at one point and nobody noticed.  However, looking back from the Reilly years to today he has been a part of most major stories.

Honorable mention to Marlena Evans (DAYS), in a show where families dominate the town we've only met her kids (and briefly her sister Samantha and niece Trista).  She is an honorary Brady, but there's never been a family built around Marlena.  Coupled with the fact that the actress has been fired for being too expensive and the character killed half the town at one point, it is an unexpected trajectory that she would still be a leading lady in 2020.

Edited November 9, 2021 by j swift

[titan1978]

Think about if they had let that next generation of Abbott’s and Newman’s actually age and have the correct storyline trajectory.  I think there is years of story with Victoria (I’m talking back in the day, when HT was still there) slowly taking over her father’s business and he has decided to just be married to Nikki and enjoy his life.  And he hates it.  But he can’t get back into power at Newman.  So he starts from scratch again.  You get to introduce new characters to set up his new venture, he gets to squabble with Jabot and Newman a little.  Nikki has an in character reason to be upset and turn to let’s say Jack- because she finally had victor’s full attention and he has told her (bluntly as he would) that she is not enough.

Told correctly that could be five years of story where everyone grows, and we slowly pull Victor away from everything having to revolve around him.

Look at trying to keep Nicolas and Sharon young by killing Cassie and the other stories they have been through in the last 20 years.  Same with Hope on DAYS- they have been stuck and the shows just keep putting them in stories like they are still 30.

[carolineg]

I am shocked people are saying Marlena.  She is Days to me and deserves silly front burner stories.  I would rather watch her and John over 90% of the cast.  I do agree they haven't built up the next generation well, but I don't think Marlena has ever outlived her usefulness.  She carried Days for 20 plus years.

If we are talking about Days characters that have outlived their usefulness I would nominate Kate, Roman, and Victor.  All amazing characters in their day, but nothing anymore.

I would agree GH owns this thread.  I would nominate Jax first, but Sonny also comes to mind.  He just created a slightly better trajectory for the character with the Carly pairing.

[Vee]

People have been talking shít to me for 15 years for saying Kate is Played Out. She was played out by 2005! I think people just loved Lauren Koslow. Yet she somehow has boomeranged back around, I guess, bc she's still fun and I can think of people I'd much sooner cut than Kate today. Go figure. I do think she is used as a mattress too often.

[j swift]

@carolineg To be fair, the topic is characters that we're surprised lasted, not character that are useless.  As for Marlena, you'd have to agree that she is an outlier on a soap that values youth.  I mean how many other great-grandmothers are still driving stories in daytime?  From my point of view that defines "surprising"

Edited November 10, 2021 by j swift

[carolineg]

I love Lauren Koslow and she is amazing, but Kate is not a character that should still be so prevalent.  Especially in the way they use her as the town welcoming committee for young guys.  It's so not the character Kate should even be.

 

Fair.  But Marlena was pretty popular from the jump and practically help create the Brady's so I am not shocked. I 100% get your point, but I think it's just a newly created character that became a legend.  And also what other great-grandma is as cool as Marlena?

[Vee]

It's endless!