Characters Without a Fanbase

[carolineg]

I think the reality that Jax was a long term foe to Sonny speaks to the fact that Guza liked him.  Jax wasn't crazy or evil like most of Sonny's mobster enemies of the week/month/year.  Even if he lost to Sonny, Jax was more or less the voice of reason for the audience in regard to Sonny/Jason's lifestyle.

As you said there was clear investment in Jax/Ingo and he had pairings that were heavily pushed like Chloe and Sam.   Both of those pairings flopped big time.  The Carly/Jax pairing was his most popular non-Brenda pairing.  I am not saying Guza didn't lose interest or didn't have Jax do the same things over and over, but there was a clear interest and investment with Jax for a while.

I believe Guza was for Alexis/Jax and Riche was against it because Alexis was 'too old'. 

[Vee]

I think it's all true what you two have said. Once Ingo left the first time and Jaxis was off the table, Guza lost all prior interest in him. Ingo was brought back by Jill and Megan after Titans flopped and it was clear even before Guza returned that he was a spare part without purpose. He had an embarrassing off-brand cat burglar/Bond reintroduction doing goofy low-budget wire-fu acrobatics trying to steal something, and then they clumsily tested him with Angel and it was just awful. Then came trying to put Skye over with him - very very quickly.

I will say I always liked Tava Smiley as Chloe, and felt she never got a fair shake. I thought she had chemistry with both Stephen Nichols and Ingo, it just wasn't enough compared to NLG or Vanessa Marcil. I hated that they killed her off.

Edited September 28, 2023 by Vee

[Contessa Donatella]

Boy, that does not sound like Riche. 

[althea-davis]

What about Steve Burton and Tamara Braun's characters post-GH? Ava/Reese and Harris/Dylan really haven't seemed to set the soap world on fire. I don't see a ton of fan support of those characters, whereas on GH, her Carly and his Jason seemed highly popular. 

[carolineg]

I think Jax's big thing when Titans flopped was introducing OGKristina as well which was very convoluted.   It was a strange entrance because he left to find Brenda and ended up with Alexis's unknown sister.  Cool.  Makes sense. 

I liked Chloe too.  Tava Smiley really had a lovely, lighthearted presence.  I think both Chloe and Hannah were just introduced too soon to be viable love interests for Jax and Sonny. 

You would swear it was Guza, but he was for the pairing.

I'd probably say the same for any Sarah Brown character post-Carly.  Ava was pretty popular when she was first introduced a million years and personalities ago though.

[Contessa Donatella]

On AMC despite Chuck Pratt's ridiculous writing Bianca/Reese was very popular. Both Eden Riegel and Tamara Braun have individual fanbases that are there for them no matter the pairing du jour. 

Steve Burton, the last time I liked him he was Jason Q, golden boy, and when I found out that they wanted to take him back to that & he declined, well, that's just not an actor that I would follow. That would have been an Emmy storyline. 

[Vee]

It was all of the above - he knew Angel from Europe and his travels where she had worked as a private detective or something, and IIRC she had worked to help Kristina find her birth family. It was so convoluted.

[carolineg]

Angel was such a strange character.  I honestly don't remember any of this about her lol.  I just remember Jax talking a lot about all this nonsense he did in Europe while he was away and I was like no wonder you didn't find Brenda.   I know the show was limited in how they could explain Jax's return, but I remember tuning in wondering what Jax was going to say and it amounted to "Brenda's dead, but I found Kristina instead." and I think I tuned right back out.  I think if I re-read the story a lot would come back to me.  I just remember being disappointed with the return and thinking Jax really didn't belong in that story at all.

[Vee]

It was during their very brief attempt to retool her - suddenly she was a world traveler and 'expert at finding people' (they kept saying it that way IIRC) with a past with Jax, she dramatically unveiled herself at her father's funeral(?) as now being super into red clothing instead lol, she was tested with Jax. Then that wrapped up quick because the character was a total bomb.

And no, Jax didn't belong in it at all and his return felt pointless to me from the jump. It was mishandled and stayed that way until Brenda came back, and even then he was not a priority obviously.

[carolineg]

I do remember Angel changing from white clothing to red.  The show at the time felt very boring but the stories were very complicated as well.   I honestly probably thought Brenda was going to pop right back up because I was young and naive then and didn't understand what a flakey lady Vanessa was at the time.

Anyhow, I agree this is when Jax started stagnating.  I think the show has a history of bringing Jax back and not really knowing what to do with him so they just throw him at the current Sonny pairing.  The show knew that was a good default place for Jax.

[dragonflies]

I loved Tava Smiley, and Chloe and Jax I loved them

[althea-davis]

Tava was a sparkly person. She kind of walked onto the set and you saw glitter and sunshine bursting from her pores. I really liked the Chloe character and she made Jax watchable. I wonder why she never did another soap. 

[Vee]

My understanding is Tava largely hosts for various Access Hollywood-type shows and outlets or cable/shopping networks now. I've seen her around here and there in stuff like that. She still looks beautiful.

[j swift]

I feel out of touch, but are character fanbases still a thing?

I recall the hoopla of GL's Otalia fans, and rabid forces arguing over GH's Jason love life, but it feels like those were the old days of social media, and that type of community has moved on to be fascinated by a handful of female pop stars.

[DemetriKane]

I hate to go against the grain but I just don't buy that some characters don't have a fanbase. I believe theirs a fanbase for each character,  whether big or small, if you have 3 supporters that's a fanbase.

With that said, Skye has always been popular to me. Not wildly, but definitely middle tier. AMC fans always asked for her return during their last decade.

Me! I loved Ryan Lavery and still do til this day.

!!! She does belong in Pine Valley. Making Skye Stuart's daughter is a pretty good idea, that could have worked so well for Her.

Reese was such a cool character to me, Pratt was onto to something special! I wished she stayed around longer.