ALL: Characters you are surprised lasted so long

[FrenchBug82]

As a side note, I really really really hope I one day get to hear the whole story of what happened there coz it looks like massive backstage shenanigans at the very least.

[carolineg]

Yeah to go from NL to TB as a recast is just so odd.  They aren't that far apart in age, but for me it was jarring because they are literally two different generations on GH.  Plus, TB is about 10 years older than the original Taylor and older than AZ. 

Oh well, it seems like things were dropped or rewritten for sure.  

[Max]

On AW, Mac Cory's last air date was on 5/10/89, and yet Carmen Duncan's Iris remained on the show until 9/19/94. I think that Duncan was a very talented actress and am glad she remained on AW for that long. But I find this to have been a (pleasant) surprise, given how much Iris' relationship to her father drover her story.

Edited November 11, 2021 by Max

[Paul Raven]

Days - Maggie

Like several other characters in the 80's-Bill, Laura,Don, Marie, Doug,Julie etc Maggie departed Salem.

But Suzanne was welcomed back and managed to stay on ever since, surviving Mickey and marrying Victor as well having retcon children created for her.

At many points it wouldn't have been a surprise had Maggie left town or simply ceased to exist. But Ken Corday does have some loyalty to her.

[DaytimeFan]

Yes, on another show a character like Maggie wouldn’t have survived the mid 80s…but Ken Corday’s show isn’t quite like the rest and the canvas has the vets to prove it.

By all accounts Suzanne is a very nice person and totally professional. It’s easier to keep a kind person on the canvas.  

[FrenchBug82]

All in all these two factors - professionalism and being well-liked on-set - explains 90% of the names in this thread.
Some more interesting characters played by more difficult actors may have come and gone but if you are likeable and liked and always on-point, efforts can be made to keep you around

[Antoyne]

Rafe freakin Hernandez

[Broderick]

Back in the early days of Y&R, the "A-list" storylines involved Snapper & Chris, and the Leslie-Brad-Lorie triangle.  The storyline with Jill going to work for Mrs. Chancellor was at best a B-level story.

Likewise, in the late 1970s, the escapades of Nikki and Paul and their venereal diseases was definitely a C-level storyline at the most.

But as the show moved from the half-hour format into the Y&R of the 1980s, it was (strangely) those four characters -- Kay Chancellor, Jill Foster, Nikki Reed, and Paul Williams -- who connected the "lost" Y&R of the 1970s with the Jabot-Newman Y&R of the 1980s and 1990s.  If you'd asked most viewers in 1979 who'd propel the show forward in the coming years, these are four characters you likely wouldn't have chosen to last for decades.    

[Soaplovers]

Brooke Logan B & B

At best, she should have been written out after the first ten to fifteen years when it became apparent Bradley Bell was unwilling to move her character into new territory.

John Black Days

He worked well in the 80s and 90s, but while Marlena has remained useful (thanks to Deidre Hall being an effective performer no matter what the show throws at her)...he's become her arm candy and has stagnated as a character. 

[titan1978]

Well Tomlin must have adored her too- she became a more important character during one of his stints, and he used her each time he was at the show.

 

Thinking about this thread reminds me of something Claire Labine said in an interview about her time on GH- when she got there, the hospital was not a focus, the only family with multiple members still there was the Quartermaines, and she had a returning Luke and Laura and a handful of characters from other eras that were still just there.  And that was kind of true- Felicia without Frisco, Sean, Tiffany, Robin and Mac without Robert and Anna.  The show hadn’t really been a family driven one, but the hospital hub wasn’t a focus and the WSB/action hub has kind of fallen apart without Robert and Anna.

[AMCOLTLLover]

I have to disagree on Jill.. She was definitley a character people would have suspected to have a long life on that show tbh

[Paul Raven]

Barabara Ryan ATWT

She was brought back in 78 after a brief stint years before.

She was Kim's niece and Bob's stepdaughter but considering Bob's own daughter Frannie was finally dropped her longevity was impressive. So many other major characters came and went in that time.

[Liberty City]

Ben Rogers Weston.

[Planet Soap]

Facts. Jill & Phillip were basically the show's landmark storyline that fueled years of conflict, so I'm not surprised she lasted as long as she did.

Edited November 12, 2021 by ironlion

[ReddFoxx]

Cane Ashby on Y&R. After he was undone as Jill's son it was surprising that he even kept on.