Back from the dead - The good, the bad, & the ugly

[Wendy]

No, I wasn't.

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Hated Billie, no matter who played her.

[Michael]

Oh, I agree. It's all so retroactive and ridiculous. There's just nothing to distinguish them from one another anymore besides loving Anna, and I guess that Tony is nicER or sillier or whatever. They're just not even really characters to me.

[Planet Soap]

All of this sounds so confusing. As a light Days watcher, I'm just now figuring out that those two are separate characters.

[Contessa Donatella]

I get a word a day in email from dictionary.com & last week one day the word was retcon. Naturally I thought of sharing with my soap friends.

WHAT IS THE ORIGIN OF RETCON?

Retcon, “to later revise (an established element of a fictional story),” is a shortening based on the first syllables in retroactive continuity. This type of shortening is called syllabic abbreviation, and other common examples in English include fro-yo (from frozen yogurt), hazmat (from hazardous material), and sitcom (from situation comedy). Ultimately, retroactive is from Latin retrō, “back, backward,” combined with agere (past participle stem āct-), “to do,” while continuity is formed from Latin con-, “with, together,” combined with tenēre (combining stem tin-), “to hold.” Retcon was first recorded in the early 1980s.

EXAMPLE OF RETCON USED IN A SENTENCE

Though the first season showed the doctor naming the family spaceship after her favorite Norse god, later seasons retconned this and gave all the ships that same name.

Now, my opinion about soap retcons: 

Worst soap about doing retcons, IMO, DOOL.

Worst DOOL retcons. IMO, Tony/Andre' #1 with John Black being #2 through #5! Or, as I really like to call him, Forest Alamain.

At one point in DOOL history, it was clear that Tony was Stefano & Daphne's son & he was a relatively good man who loved Anna, who was nice to her daughter Carrie, who enjoyed the finer things in life like wines, etc. Also clear was it that Andre' was a distant cousin who resembled Tony & who had plastic surgery to enhance that to impersonate Tony. Andre' was not a good man, not nice to anyone unless he was pretending for some grifter plan, etc. At that point in Salem time, Tony & Andre' made sense, or at least DOOL sense. Then, they retconned both of them ONE MORE TIME & now it makes no sense at all. Daphne & the gardener?!! Argh. 

[AMCOLTLLover]

My favorite will always be Taylor Hayes return from the dead in 1994 as Princess!

Frisco on GH in like 88/89-ish if I remember correctly.

I also liked Nick Newman’s return from the plane crash in 2007. 
Brenda on GH in 2002-2003
 

Greenlee on AMC! Project Orpheus will always be my favorite part of AMC final years 

worst: Nearly every dead person on Days of our lives! That show killed my interest in back from the dead!

[Planet Soap]

Reguarding back from the dead with a new face:

I think it's best that writers not acknowledge a character's new face because that assumes the recast is permanent. 

Look at Adam on Y&R. He was recasted as an adult four times, but they only acknowledged his new face in the transition between Muney and Heartley's portrayls.

Unless it serves story purpose for a character to look different, recasts don't need to be acknowedged. 

I also think recasts shouldn't disqualify flash back scenes with different portrayers. Unless it's an issue of residuals, shows could simply have a caption at the bottom the screen saying something like : "Ashley was protrayed by Brenda Epperson at the time".

Despite continuity concerns, fans understand the nature of the businesses is to have actors be leave, be replaced, and return. 

Edited February 2, 2023 by ironlion

[carolineg]

Obviously, I am going to choose Brenda's return because there is no other choice for me.  The actual return was great.  But the reasoning behind her faking her own death always annoyed me-from the unnamed disease to the fact that it was actually pretty selfish and a really crappy thing to do to Jax and everyone that loved her overall lol.  If I were to nitpick I would have had Luis holding her captive for revenge instead or something else keeping her away like she JUST recovered from her injuries from the crash.  Anyway, good story and brought a lot to the canvas.

Another obvious one is Marlena/Real Roman's return.  We always knew Marlena was most likely alive, but they kept that thread going without Marlena/DH for her entire time away.  The John/Marlena reunion on the pier was great and so was seeing Wayne's Roman for the first time.  I actually hated pretty much all of the Tale of 2 Romans, but it started strong and did provide the 90's with a ton of drama.

As far as Tony/Andre, I don't even remember the entire back and forth with them, but I thought the idea of Andre being Tony through all the Kristen/John drama was a good one.  But like with Days all the time one good idea is played out or retconned to suit the endless string of producers and writers.

[Taoboi]

Yeah, I can see that. 

[Vee]

I thought Brenda had no idea who she was until not long after she returned in '02 and that Luis had told her she was definitely ill.

[carolineg]

Brenda was injured in the crash, but always knew who she was.  She decided to not tell anyone she was alive before she got tested again for that disease.  Luis had the results doctored so she thought she was sick, but in order to spare Jax pain she just stayed presumed dead.  Luis was drugging her, but it's a little unclear how that effected her.  I think it was a valium ish type drug and Luis was gaslighting her into thinking she was losing it more than she was.   The only reason she reappeared is she realized Luis was nuts and going to kill Jax/Sonny.  Jax was the only person really mad at her about it, but he forgave in like 5 episodes.

Edited February 2, 2023 by carolineg

[Vee]

That's dumb. I'd thought the drugging fucked with her memory up til very shortly after she returned. It seemed clear to me the Brenda who first turned up in Rome? Milan? in like 2000 was not in her right mind to be living it up in secrecy away from her loved ones.

[carolineg]

I think it could have gone either way with the clarity on the scene in 2000, but when she explained it to Jax in 2002, I didn't get the impression she wasn't in her right mind or that was the excuse.  I could be a bit off as I haven't seen it in a while, but the way the show framed it is that Luis offered to protect her and take care of her until she died and she made the decision to stay with him and not let anyone know she was alive.  Until the very end she was his willing companion and wasn't being kept captive.  The only thing I can't say for sure is if the drugs altered her decision making/clarity or if Luis and the drs. were just filling her with lies and telling her she was doing things she couldn't remember.  The show wasn't the most clear on that.  Maybe both?

Anyway, her reasoning about leaving was always pretty thin.  She said she stayed with Luis because she didn't love him and didn't want a person she loved to see her go mad.  Hence, the initial reason she married Jason.  It seems super selfish and something I don't see Brenda doing to Jax after Sonny left her at the altar like that.  I don't know if Brenda/Luis were living it up, but the show did make it clear that they would travel together and he would spare no expense on her-he was just basically the only person interacting with her.  

Looking at it now as adult, I think you could absolutely excuse Brenda's decision making because Luis was lying and manipulating her so badly, but I could have just done without it at all and made her ill/injured for that time.  I do think the entire situation and her fake death is basically erased from existence though.  I don't think a single character brought it up in 2010.

 

[Contessa Donatella]

I recalled reading about DARK SHADOWS doing the first back from the dead storylines so I looked it up. Elana Levine's book HER STORIES p. 101. DARK SHADOWS began two things (1) back from the dead and (2) single characters playing multiple parts. Example, someone playing their own ancestors in a different timeline. I suppose the back from the dead is with the vampires. She goes on to say that soaps in general did not include these till the '90s. Then she talks about soaps as early as the 60s beginning to use comedy. Some examples, etc. Then the Dobsons increased comedy even more, first at GL & then at SB. Just a little tidbit from academia, offered strictly FYI if anyone finds it of interest. 

[Vee]

It is absolutely not true that soaps only started bringing characters back from the dead in the '90s.

[Contessa Donatella]

"The boldness of DARK SHADOWS in bringing characters b ack from the dead and allowing actors to play different roles opened the door for other soaps to draw upon similar devices, although such practices were uncommon before the late 1970s and would not be embraced to the same extremes until the 1990s." So my paraphrase was inelegant & sloppy. The error is on me.