The Chad Dimera Award for Most Unlikely Leading Character

[AbcNbc247]

Bobbie and Luke?

[carolineg]

Jax was created for Lois and Rena got pregnant and didn't re-sign so I guess the show just decided to throw him at Brenda.  It really all made sense for Brenda/Jax to be paired at the time, but if you remember Jax was initially in love with Lois and trying to steal her from Ned.  It's actually creepy considering she was married and pregnant lol.  Obviously, I think the stark contrast to Sonny stuff was created later because I do believe Jax was supposed to be more of a villian or a grey character with him working with Tracy to take over ELQ. 

[Darn]

Good one! And I should have expanded upon my question, siblings where the established one faded into more of a bit of trivia themselves like Casey and Nikki.

Ah see I've never seen Jax's introduction. Middle school really did a number on my soap watching (and AMC and OLTL were my mother's soaps, GH was more of an afterthought). I'm so surprised.

 

[carolineg]

Makes sense.  I recorded Days and GH, so the others were my afterthoughts.  Anyway, trying to get Lois was how Jax/Brenda hooked up.  Brenda offered information and help with Lois (which she made no effort to actually provide lol) and Jax offered to help make Sonny jealous by pretending to date Brenda and that's how it all started.

[kalbir]

Casey was introduced as the new doctor in town (from the 1978 recaps it seems as though she was brought on to be a Chris Brooks replacement) and her troublemaking younger sister Nikki followed not long after. Casey left in 1981 while Nikki remained. Casey made on-and-off appearances from 1984-1989 but she got replaced as the go-to doctor by Scott and later Olivia.

 

[Darn]

I have to read up/watch clips from his introduction. All these years I've been thinking that Jax's existence was some real paint-by-the-numbers laziness. I've been unfair.

Oh I know all about them, I was thinking of other sibling pairs similar to them where the new one ends up overshadowing the original.

Thought of one not disimilary: Carly on ATWT went from Rosanna's duplicitous sister out for a dime to the leading lady of the show and Rosanna, while notable, became completely eclipsed by her.

[kalbir]

Malcolm/Neil.

[j swift]

The examples that came to mind were Ava and Julian Jerome (GH), she out lived, out lasted, and out smarted him

Natalie & Janet on AMC, Janet was arguably more iconic and had a longer lasting impact on the story over time

On Another World Vicky out shined Marley, Donna certainly surpassed Peter who was introduced first, and while Catlin may have lasted less time than Blaine, he was much more of a central character than Larry who preceded him.

And nobody could've predicted that GH's Tony Jones would've overshadowed Frisco, given that he supposed to be killed off in his year on the show.

Edited June 6, 2023 by j swift