Character original names

[Sapounopera]

Ashley was Tiffany Abbott on Y&R.

Reva was Joanna Lewis on GL.

Maggie was Hannah Forrester on B&B.

Pam was Lorraine Davis on B&B.

Any others?

Edited October 29, 2022 by SAPOUNOPERA

[j swift]

AW - Reginald Love was originally referred to as Brandon

GH - Harland Barrett and his daughters Julia and Brenda were initially proposed as a wheeling-dealing sexy businessman in his 50's and his daughters Justine and Kelly

Edited October 29, 2022 by j swift

[Titus Andronicus]

It appears that Bo Brady was originally named Marcus Aurelius. Original Kayla referred to him as that before he was an on-air character.

Theresa, of course, was Jeannie when the character was born.

[Paul Raven]

DOOL

Tom Horton Jnr (Tommy) was referred to as Dan early on.

[Sapounopera]

Alexis was Madeline Carrington on Dynasty.

Myles was Maxwell Colby on the Colbys.

Brooke Logan was Jessica Chandler on B&B.

Bonnie was Maureen Lockhart on DAYS.

Julia was Dorcas on Falcon Crest. 

[SteelCity]

I can't even imagine calling the character Jessica now!

[Broderick]

When Brittany Hodges first appeared on Y&R (played by Greg Evigan's daughter), John Abbott and Jill agreed she'd be a good match for Billy -- after all, "she's the daughter of our friends Fred and June Hodges of Hodges Savings & Loan!"

Lauren Woodland took over the role of Brittany, and a casting call went out for her parents -- Leland & Paige Hodges, a prominent attorney & his wife.  

By the time the roles had been cast, they'd been transformed into Frederick & Anita Hodges. 

I used to call Mitzi Kapture's character "June Paige Anita".   

[Aback]

Which reminds me - I'm pretty sure there was some confusion early on, with Brittany's name being spelled Britney and her friend Rihanna's name being Brianne.

[Spoon]

GL: Phillip and Harley's son Zack was originally named Alan, after Alan's heartatteache at the time.

 

GL: Danny Santos was originally referred to as Denny.

 

GL: Nola and Floyd's daughter Anastasia was originally named Kelly after Kelly Nelson who she tried to pin the parentage on.

 

GL: Christina "Blake" Thorpe

 

GL: I remember Michelle was originally named Berta after grandma Bert.

Edited October 31, 2022 by Spoon

[Broderick]

Gosh it's hard to remember.  Brittany, Rhianna, and JT were all such MINOR characters at first, and they really didn't come into their own until that party when Billy got locked outside in the snow and nearly croaked.  I just remember John and Jill Abbott were fretting about whether to tell JT's parents (Tom & Martha Hellstrom, who were friends of the Abbotts) and Brittany's parents (Fred & June Hodges, who were also acquaintances).  

[Paul Raven]

i believe Ed Bauer was originally Billy in the 1950's as a child.

On SFT Tom Bergman was always referred to as Junior in cast lists and synopses from the 60's,assuming he was also named Stuart (Stu). At some point when he was SORASED he became Tom.

[ClassicsSoapFan]

GL :If I am not mistaken,the Coopers were going to be Bauers - related to Johnny Bauer. Pam Long returned and made them Coopers.

The Santos family were to be the Santo family before they added the "S". That is a lot better. I did not care for the Santos family though!

[Joseph]

I can only Think Of Alexis Morell Was Originally Referred As Madeleine 

[SFK]

The City’s Sydney Chase was originally named Lauren, and even appeared so in at least one magazine before the show aired. It was Morgan’s idea to change the character’s name as there were so many Laurens out there (Hutton, Bacall…) adding that she liked men’s names. (Lauren is actually a man’s name too.)

On Dynasty, The Carringtons were originally the Parkhursts, and the Colbys were the Corbys.

Dominique’s original name was Johnni (sp?) iirc, Diahann Carroll wrote about it in her autobiography, Diahann!

[Xanthe]

Kathleen said her middle name was Theresa after her dead mother but when they started the Reginald storyline she became Mary.

When Kathleen met up with Jake's mother to find out about Mary for a book she was writing the character was called Helen. Later Jake's parents were called Alice and Ray.

Alicia Coppola has said that when she auditioned the character that became Lorna Devon was being called Mavis Lane.