Most Improved Actors From Their Soap Debuts

[Paul Raven]

Don Diamont was pretty raw as Carlo on Days but by the time he got to Y&R he had upped his game and kept on improving.

[soapfan770]

Zuker’s turnaround was simply amazing. She was dumped off the show unceremoniously in 2006 after being written into a corner. Within a year of her 2008 return AZ was carrying the show and was simply amazing while doing it. 
 

And count me in with Tammy Blanchard being most improved as well. When she and Drew where first introduced I thought they she was utterly pointless but by summer 1999 in the midst of Santos & San Cristobel drivel I adored Drew’s story mainly because Blanchard really put her heart into the character about her putting together a family. 

[Soapsuds]

Well to be fair it wasn't too hard to play a pool boy.

[j swift]

There's a great story in Don's memoir (which admittedly I bought hoping there would be pictures; there's not) where he had trouble remembering his lines on the set of DAYS and Al Rabin comes down to the production floor and essentially says to him that there's a handsome guy every five feet in LA who could play his part and if he didn't get serious and learn his craft he would be easily replaceable.  He was so mortified that it changed the way he studied scripts and he learned to be more professional.  He credits his professionalism, more than his talent, for staying employed in daytime for so long.

Speaking of Lauralee as Cricket someone posted this scene on Tiktok and it was so amusing to me that Joanna questions Cricket's mood when the actress did nothing to indicate any emotion at all; unless her hair was meant to convey something...

 

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Edited February 20, 2022 by j swift

[ChickenNuggetz92]

Tamara Braun arguably had a very rough start as Carly after taking over Sarah Joy Brown but really came into her own after about a year.

[SteelCity]

Wasn't she immediately sent away to acting classes or something?

[ChickenNuggetz92]

I don't remember hearing that at all about TB - I remember hearing that about Erin Sanders as Eden on Y&R. I do know TB went to a very prestigious acting school that had a very limited acceptance rate, but did not have anything to do with her first few months as Carly.

[SteelCity]

I just remember hearing that, mostly about her being sent away almost immediately to improve.

[Darn]

I don't know, I always thought Tamara hit the ground running. Maybe that was just a reaction to Jennifer Branson being so terribly miscast.

[BetterForgotten]

That first year or so with Tamara was rough - you can tell someone told her she needed to try to imitate SJB (even down to her awful dyed blonde hair), and then they wrote the character extra wimpy for a while. She came into her own when let her play the character based on her own instincts, and of course when they let her wear her natural hair color. 

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[MichaelGL]

Marci Miller as Abby on DAYS.

My, what wonders being released from DAYS, having your predecessor be brought back, and then being hired again for the same role, does.

[Gray Bunny]

That's who I came here to say. Never thought that bland waitress at Salem Place would blossom into a fabulous leading lady. 

 

Edited February 22, 2022 by Gray Bunny

[SteelCity]

I jump in here to add Lindsay Korman. Short of being able to cry on cue, she was damn awful. Most of the younger cast was, but she the f---ing lead! By the time she got to All My Children I didn't even recognize her! She definitely grew leaps and bounds! Which is unfortunate for all her scene partners who stagnated. 

[allmc2008]

She's acting sullen through out the scene. Also, her mood NOT changing indicated, what Joann said, that her heart wasn't in it (which knowing YNR there was something internal going on).

Had she prepped up a bit Joann wouldn't have said that.

[FrenchBug82]

On a similar note, while I still run hot and cold with his acting to this day, I didn't really have "Eric Martsolf, Emmy Winner" on my bingo card when he first started on Passions