ALL: Which back-from-the-dead characters should have stayed dead?

[Lye-C]

This is sort of a companion to the thread about characters who shouldn’t have been killed off. Which resurrected characters should never have come back?

DAYS:

Andre

Abe

Maggie

Caroline

Cassie

Roman

Doug

Alice

Megan

Orpheus

Ava

Colin

Stefan

Y&R:

Adam

GH:

Jason

Edited February 10, 2024 by Lye-C

[Mitch64]

Reva-GL wins this.  The only writer who got her was Long (and perhaps Curlee) and she came back as a self-righteous plot point...things happened to her instead of her making things happen as in the past, and she was well past her expiration date of the love goddess no man can resist.  

[carolineg]

GH-Jason, Faison, Helena  Once was fine, but multiple times is excessive

Days-so many, but bringing someone like Stefan back was silly.

[Lye-C]

Did you notice they only brought Stefan back after his rape victim was dead?

[carolineg]

Yeah, but I think the show just messed it all up.  I am not sure it had anything to do with Abby in particular.  BB was just going to finish Tyler's stint up, but Gabi/Stefan caught some fans and then they bring Jake in and that failed.  Then the show kills Jake off and brings Stefan back.  It just seems completely bungled from start to finish and a downside to filming a million years in advance.

[I Am A Swede]

Anyone who has died on-screen in front of the audience. The perfect example is Taylor on B&B after her second "death".  Not because I have anything against Taylor as a character, but because of how she died and the ridiculous jumping through hoops the show had to do to explain her return. We saw her flatline and die in Ridge's arms right in front of our eyes. For a show that, up till then, had remained fairly realistic the re-writing mess that was needed to make it possible for her to return was a jump-the-shark moment.

[Soaplovers]

Making Reva a love goddess was out of character... Reva was a character that got along better with men then she did with women.  Her platonic friendships with Phillip and Fletcher in the 80s proved that.

Plus, Reva was an 80s character type that didn't carry over well into the 90s or 2000s.

[Khan]

I've always said that older Reva should have been like Miss Sally Gleason: a "trashy lady" in her youth, who finally discovers class once she comes into money.

[Paul Raven]

Y&R

Phillip Chancellor 

Diane Jenkins

[Legacy]

I cant lie at first i didnt want diane to die the way she did, but when they brang her back with the story not making sense she could have stayed dead.

It amazes me they can bring diane back but not find a way to bring back characters like Drucilla or Hilary or keeping brad.

[Lye-C]

Griffith did this on Days too. Brought characters back from the dead without any attempt to properly explain it.

I don’t think Phillip should’ve been killed off in the first place so I was glad he returned. Foolishly I thought Daniel Goddard was going to leave the show when Phillip returned but it was the other way around. 

[Xanthe]

Are you back from the dead if you had never been a live character, only a dead relative or connection to existing characters, but then someone decided they had an exciting storyline for you and brought you to town? If so, for AW I would nominate Reginald Love and Brittany Peterson, at least as they were handled.

[DramatistDreamer]

Anthony Herrera brought life to one of the best ever villains in daytime dramatic history but James Stenbeck should have stayed dead in 1989 after his son Paul pumped multiple bullets into him. And especially given the fact that the writing portrayed James as a cartoon villain when he reappeared on the canvas in the ‘00s

Yes, I know that a lot of people loved that spa storyline but they could have used any number of other villains in the history of the show to carry out this plot. By then Emily and Lily and Carly each had enough enemies to fill a mansion in the Swiss Alps to fulfill the plot.

[te.]

This. I'm generally fine with being back from the dead if it's the usual vague soap opera death, but if you have them die on screen that should be it, as regrettable as that is for some characters.

[Lye-C]

What about a situation like Patch on Days where he was injected with something while dying in the hospital, died onscreen, and then his coffin was shown being switched with another coffin?