The Chad Dimera Award for Most Unlikely Leading Character

[carolineg]

I swear I always thought Mia was going to turn out to be Nicole's daughter.   I am not exactly sure why I did, but I thought that was where the story was going instead of the Melanie angle for Nicole.

[Darn]

I want a count of how many characters have ended up gay due to fan demand. I can think of Will, Lucas on GH, Luke on ATWT and Mariah on Y&R. Anyone else?

[Vee]

God, Christopher Gerse. I still can't get over last seeing him as the pervy scientist on Westworld beating his meat to sexbot Rodrigo Santoro who promptly kills him. But hey, he's still working!

[BoldRestless]

Fenmore Baldwin on Y&R (if only for one episode 

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).

[P.J.]

Katie Peretti, ATWT. She was a direction-less teen also ran for about two years, until she got thrown into an All About Eve-esque plot and decided to try and bed Holden. (and she's about the only woman he ever passed on...but I digress.) And she probably would've ended up on the same scrap heap as the rest of Lily's rivals, except for the fact she clicked with Paul Leyden. The rest is infamy. 

[Soaplovers]

I think Brenda Barrett on GH would kind of count.

She was introduced as the wild child younger sister to type A Julia and was just a spoiler to Karen/Jagger for the first several months of her stint.  Interesting..but nothing really indicated in those early months that she would be a leading lady...maybe an anti heroine.

Then the show knowing that Jagger and Karen were leaving the show, started to test Brenda to see where she would fit (in fact, I think it was a dream sequence of Brenda with most of the men)..and she/Sonny had chemistry..and the rest is history 

[Darn]

Similar trajectory to Greenlee on AMC. Introduced as a spoiler for Becca and Scott who were both swiftly let go. Greenlee and Leo's pairing skyrocketed them both and then eventually she was revealed as Jack's daughter cementing her place on the canvas.

[Vee]

I can't speak to Vanessa's debut, but it wasn't all that unlikely the instant you saw either Budig or Josh Duhamel onscreen IMO. They were introduced as spoilers for the latest iteration of Agnes' classic innocent young lovers couple - Scott and Becca - but neither poor Abigail Spencer nor a truly dreadful, pre-hambone Forbes March caught on with the audience at all even before Leo or Greenlee appeared. Once Josh and Budig showed up they were both electric. So you knew it pretty quick.

[carolineg]

I think Sonny would be the better example over Brenda.  They had a huge casting call for the part. Vanessa had a contract and it was clear the show was building the teen scene.  I think it's obvious she was meant to be a B character, but I think there was at least loosely a plan to have her end up with Jason or AJ at some point if not play the spoiler for Karen/Jagger for a long while had ASJ and CS stayed on.  I am sure the GH didn't see her as the future leading lady she became, but I think Brenda's character at least a character they had investment in.  I think it was more of a combination of a charismatic actress, CS leaving, and a fire pairing that made her a star though.

@VeeAs far as Vanessa's debut, she was initially pretty rough, but I thought she quickly became the breakout of the teen scene.  People seemed to love CS's Karen, though.

Sonny/Mo had the Karen story and was going to be killed off? I believe after that arc.  He was so awful and smarmy I can't believe he made it past that story.

[titan1978]

They totally used Luke to buy time with Sonny. This was back when Luke was still a rootable character.  Sonny was the short term character that within two years had his own little corner of the show- Stone, Brenda, Mike and the mob.  First he was partnered with Luke, then he and Brenda took off. This doesn’t even include how important Robin and especially Stone became in establishing Sonny for the audience as not just a slimeball.

I loved Karen and Brenda equally before CS left the show. They let Vanessa play volatile, but also vulnerable, which helped Brenda in the long run. I also felt that using Ruby helped her too- Ruby clearly had a soft spot for Brenda.

[carolineg]

Luke absolutely was used to prop Sonny, but TG and MB had such a good rapport I can see why they went with that and the show quickly got that strip club out of the way once they decided to keep Sonny.  Brenda, Robin, Stone, and his sad backstory definitely helped Sonny become viable.

I also think Karen/Jagger leaving benefitted Sonny as well.  It was easy to not talk about the Karen stuff when she wasn't around.  Plus it gave the writers the oppurtunity to move Brenda into adult stories (and age her up onscreen) without much complication so Sonny/Brenda didn't seem as creepy.  She was still bff with Robin, but suddenly Robin seemed much younger than Brenda.  I do often wonder how things would have played out if Jagger/Karen stayed on and how Jagger/Karen as a married couple would have developed.  

[Darn]

I can't say I agree. Budig was coming off of a failure in casting on GL and I watched her intro scenes on AMC recently and she was a pretty generic soap bîtch. It wasn't until she was paired with Duhamel that she took off. He however made a pretty quick splash as Leo.

I watched her first scenes recently and I actually think she was immediately great. I didn't hurt that she's probably one of the most beautiful women to ever walk the planet but she did a lot of heavy lifting in those scenes with Julia. Maybe hindsight is coloring my opinion but I found her to be captivating and natural.

Karen was a dour bore to me. They seemed to put a lot of effort into a character connected to no one. The Scotty connection wasn't revealed until right before she left, right? Why was so much focus placed on this malcontent?

[carolineg]

I think Vanessa was obviously one of the most stunning women I have ever seen from first sight, but I do find her initial scenes a little stilted.  You can tell she's a bit nervous and very green, but she still had instant charisma. I think once she relaxes into the role after about a month or so she's clearly so much better.  Once Vanessa truly finds Brenda's groove about a year in she's clearly a star even in a teen story.

With Karen I could not agree more.  She never was happy.  Obviously the trauma of her entire life didn't help, but she was so sad all the time and it bothered me she never really stood up to Brenda.  Bitchy comments aren't standing your ground.  Everytime Brenda did something to her she just waited for someone else to save her (Jagger/Jason/Robin).  She wasn't a great heroine and her story was so dark although I think she could have been built into one if CS stayed.  I believe Scotty was revealed as her father right before she left, but I could be wrong. 

[Darn]

Maybe I'm comparing her to some of the younger actors we have now who takes years to get halfway decent (ahem Eden McCoy). Of course the benefited from a lot more rehearsal time back then but even still there was a ton more dialogue and blocking to remember back in the day.

[carolineg]

I do think Vanessa specifically mentioned she worked with John Homa a lot on her acting.  I think Homa is still around, but I am not sure the current actors utilize him or even have time to.  I think soaps were much more cutthroat and competitive back then.   People worked to be better because they could be replaced.  Eden has been playing this role since she was 14 with little improvement and still gets tons of accolades.  She's not in danger of being replaced and gets rewarded even if she is mediocre at best.