The Chad Dimera Award for Most Unlikely Leading Character

[Michael]

I'd put Gabi Hernandez in this bucket, too. She was a random, nondescript younger sister of Rafe and Arianna who was brought in to fill out the teen scene with Will, Mia, and Chad. She just kind of existed until they hit on the pregnancy and the pairing with Nick Fallon, which elevated her to a lead. When the first Gabi showed up in 2009, there's no way I would've thought the character would still be around in 2023.

[~bl~]

Nurse Simpson on the Doctors, originally she didn’t have a first name, and was an under five, but later was a main principal character. 

[Paul Raven]

Lauren Y&R-the bitchy rival to our heroine Traci. could have easily been sent packing at the end of Summer.

Brittany Y&R-part of the teen scene to boost Mac & Billy but became the focus for several years.

I guess you would have to include Luke on GH.

[BoldRestless]

Kevin Fisher... the pervert who did mobster Bobby Marsino's books.

 

Nikki Reed - Town skank who gave Paul VD. Or vice versa. 

 

 

[dragonflies]

Tracey said Lauren was supposed to be a "summer job" for too originally lol 

[Soaplovers]

Nina Webster on Y & R was a runaway pregnant teen that had her baby stolen by shady Rose.   She was supposed to be part of the teen summer story and then would be written off... but she ended up coming back weeks later found homeless by Chris/Philip... and she ended up a major focus in the late 80s through the 90s as the everywoman that was tied to the Chancellors

[kalbir]

On the Bill Bell summer storyline vein, would Danny Romalotti apply?

[soapfave06]

I wish soaps would introduce characters like this more often, gives time to test the chemistry and where they fit best in the canvas and the see the strengths of the actor. 
 

I don’t know if she exactly counts but Tina on OLTL was brought in as Viki's ward, seemed to just cause trouble here and there with no successful pairing or long term story until leaving, returning in 1984 searching for her father and catapulting to the front burner. I wonder who dug into the history books and decided to go there? 

[j swift]

I guess a Y&R example would be Chelsea.

Although she is played by an established soap actor, it would be difficult to predict that the one time foreign fling of Billy Abbott would get a whole family introduced and be a lead character for more than a decade.

However, she breaks one of my cardinal soap rules.  She's established as a world traveler, partying it up in Myanmar, but maintains none of those characteristics as she evolved.  When she was with Adam, she never seemed like a woman who once made a living conning men in Asian poker rooms in comparison to a guy who grew up on a farm in Kansas.  I get that she's reformed, but where's the knowledge and experience gained from being raised by two scam artists?

Edited May 25, 2023 by j swift

[Vee]

I remember Spinelli's debut. I thought he was pretty cute in an unconventional way back then and hoped he might live and hang around, and was pleased when he did. His schtick got old fast.

Evangeline on OLTL was on contract almost immediately, IIRC. I think she stayed on recurring only maybe a month or two. I remember being very pleased Malone had returned and hired a new Black woman and was very excited about the character, but she didn't get much to do for the first year. What happened later is she took off being paired with ME because the intended romantic spoiler for him and Melissa Archer couldn't act, so they killed that performer (Kathy Tong) off and slotted in REG.

Edited May 25, 2023 by Vee

[dc11786]

I think Chad was supposed to be a solid player in the teen scene of 2009-2010. The characters who were introduced in that period typically had at least two stories that would be made fairly clear at the arrival. Chad didn't even know about the baby Mia had because he had been off in rehab for a drug problem (which has never really been revisited). His initial arc was a) learning of the existence of the child and b) actively trying to win back Mia even though she was involved with Will. There story was definitely a C-story at best and I think it only played out several times a month. It was definitely interlaced into the larger narrative of baby switch saga with Grace and Sydney. 

I think what helped elevate Chad as a character were he was the most charismatic and capable of the younger set he was in. Dylan Patton and Gabriela Rodrigues were very green as Will and Gabi. Taylor Sprietler wasn't much better, but showed a little energy in her last few month (not much, but more than before) when they turned her into a vixen before Madeline paid her off to leave town. 

On the topic of Chad's bizarre origins, I believe his original parentage may have also been tacked on at last minute. Chad was initially Chad Peterson and then Chad Peterson-Woods when they decided he was going to be the son of D.A. Peterson (David Leisure). 

And Mia, while certainly not a long term character, may have also been a bit of a case of a change in story. Originally, at the end of 2008, the casting call for Will had him as a college baseball star who had an interest in Melanie. At the time, I felt the plan was to make Melanie Nicole's daughter as I seem to recall there was a suggestion in late 2008 before Trent died that they had a child together. Melanie's parentage, which I imagined Sami would have kept from Nicole, seemed life the original second arc of the baby saga that was dumped pretty early. Then they decided to make Mia a more permanent character and cast Dylan Patton as Will and the story entered more C-level territory. A lot of these elements eventually popped up in other stories (what I imagined would have been tension between Melanie and Will over Nick became tension between Melanie and Nathan over Nick as well as the revelation that Melanie was the daughter of Carly and Daniel). 

Before Chandler Massey was cast, I think they had already set in motion the plans to build a frienemy relationship between Chad and Will with Chad's parentage being the source of drama. The secret that Madeline was Chad's mother was a story built not just for Chad, but for Kate and Stefano. I imagine the longterm plan was for Will to become jealous, or at least feel complicated emotions, about Kate's mothering Chad. Massey and Diedrick played very well off each other, but finding a strong female partner took a lot of away from their story potential.  

I think Gabi was definitely broadly defined when she arrived, but the nature of her arc was pretty fascinating from the perspective of how linear it felt. When she was originally introduced, Gabi was very nasty to Arianna because she had been in prison because of a nasty relationship with a boyfriend that had landed Arianna in prison on drug charges. I don't remember if Gabi was religious at the beginning, but the character was definitely naive and sheltered. Camila Banus came on for Arianna's death which was definitely a life changing moment for the character as I don't think they had completely reconciled. I believe had Tomlin/Higley/Whitsell had stayed, Gabi would have ended up pregnant by Will in late 2011 with Will and Sonny hooking up around the same time. Utilizing the fake stalker arc, which was one of the strongest stories from MarDar's run in my opinion, and pairing Gabi with Nick was just brilliant. As much as I hated losing Nick and Gabi, having Gabi leave her daughter to go off to jail because she had an abusive man in her life (like her sister Arianna) seemed like a great way to touch on the character's origins. I hope, one day, they explore the impact of Gabi's absence on her daughter's life and having her reflect on the way she treated her own sister. 

[Vee]

I was just telling Darn I have never understood how Gabi has survived. Camila Banus bounced from a bland teen role gone bad on OLTL (Lola Montez) to playing Gabi who followed essentially the same personality and trajectory on DAYS, at least in her early run.

She seemed to become a Dena Higley passion project, somehow - I could swear it was Dena who inexplicably got Gabi out of prison to great fanfare in the story, like this was some major character we were supposed to be super amped up about re: their return. I didn't get it. I still don't get it.

Edited May 25, 2023 by Vee

[dc11786]

For me, Gabi's appeal comes from the fact she was part of one of the strongest young adult sets the show had developed in years with Will, Sonny, Chad, Abigail, and Gabi and the actors were (for the most part) willing to stay or come back. Banus was much stronger than her predecessor and came on with some heavy material to play (the aftermath of Arianna's death), which gave her some fan interest when she arrived. Gabi as Will's beard worked for me. The decision under Tomsell to make Gabi a social pariah was pretty appealing to me. Under MarDar, Chad and Gabi became models, which I think replaced the gambling website story they quickly abandoned. Trying to lure Chad away from Melanie, Gabi claimed to have a stalker and roped some deranged dude, Andrew (played by Caleb Hunt who was fairly good), leading to the kidnapping of Melanie at the start of the explosion that started off Tomsell's run. This was one of the only stories that appealed to me when I started watching more frequently in preparation for Tomlin and Whitsell's return (the other was Nicole's pregnancy). 

Gabi's role revealed coinciding with the return of Nick with Nick and Gabi working together at the Brady Pub was just really fun to watch. Blake Berris and Camila Banus were great together. Gabi's pregnancy was a great cause of conflict between that whole set of characters with Will going along with the lie to keep Sonny in the dark and Nick's homophobia stemming from his prison rape. This in turn leading to the rapist escaping, the rapist kidnapping Gabi, Sonny helping Gabi give birth on the island, and Will heroism as he attacked the rapist when the man threatened Gabi, Arianna, and Sonny's life was just a really strong story for a show that hadn't really had much plot in the past year. The show also took time to develop all of those relationships, Nick/Will, Sonny/Gabi, and Gabi/Will. It was a solid set of characters. Gabi is interesting as a piece of the bigger story. 

I thought pairing Gabi and JJ was an appealing move. Making J.J. move on from bland Paige to her half-sister Gabi with similar features worked for me. The history between Gabi and Nick gave the relationship some conflict to build off of and Gabi and Sonny (when he was around) co-parenting Arianna after Will's death were all interesting even though they never really tapped into all of that.

Ultimately, though, I could see where most of my interest in Gabi lies in her potential rather than her actual presence on the canvas. In many ways, though, I often find myself feeling the same way about Nicole, who I adore, but has only had about four or five stories that I really have enjoyed over her multiple runs. 

[carolineg]

I don't doubt your theory that Banus/Gabi might have been a Dena Higley thing, but I feel like the show was bleeding out so many young leads at the time she just survived because she was willing to stay at the right time and it also helped the show has always tried to make Rafe a lead.  Idk, that time period just seemed to have a revolving door of similar young leading ladies and Gabi did have a slightly different backstory and had Sami's first grandchild which did carry weight in the Ali Sweeney leading lady years.  I think it was a combination of several minor things that made Gabi a bigger deal.

[soapfave06]

That time of DAYS was pretty great and for the most part, character driven. If they had given John/Marlena some better material and not destroyed Jennifer and Nicole at the altar of Daniel, I don’t think I would have had complaints. Nick/Gabi/Will/Sonny could have lasted years, Sami/Gabi/Kate teaming up to dispose of Nick’s body was awesome, but for some reason I remember it all falling apart and losing interest with his return and murder. But from Fall 2012-Fall 2013, added with the return of Kristen, it was pretty on fire. 
 

I think Banus could command a scene, wish they did more with Gabi in contrast to Sonny and Will and versus Sami, and then when she finally had a great pairing with Stefan, they killed him off and did the Jake debacle. And I must admit, I did love the story of the heart transplant and Gabi controlling Julie’s heart lol