ALL: Popular Actors playing Unpopular Characters

[Contessa Donatella]

And, don't forget Brittany went on trial for shooting Peter. The audience was her jury. No video clips, just oral testimony. She alleged self defense the whole time. They found her guilty. I had a clip clearly showing self defense & she nearly died!! 

[Vee]

Still not sure if I hallucinated that. I was just aghast at how far GH had fallen and how fast.

[dragonflies]

I'd take Rachel over the boring mess Bell has turned Sheila into TBH

[Xanthe]

I wonder a lot about what influenced the changes in her character. (Brittany was never an amnesiac -- she was deaf and mute and had believed that both Catlin (whom she had known as Josh) and their baby Evan had died until Peter somehow tracked her down in order to prevent Sally from marrying Catlin.) She was introduced not as a scheming villain but as a stubborn and deprived woman. That lasted during a strike and a prolonged period without a head writer until after Mary Page Keller was replaced as Sally by Taylor Miller. Was it audience feedback or just a new HW that caused Brittany to start transparently lying and scheming to break up Catlin's marriage? That was the Brittany who entrapped Peter into marrying her, and it wasn't until Margaret DePriest came in and brought Reginald into the picture that Peter became abusive to her. Was that because the audience wanted to see Brittany punished (gross!), or was it just in order to turn Brittany into a victim so that she could be rewarded by being reunited with Catlin after Sally was killed off?

 

Edited February 16 by Xanthe

[DRW50]

I thought it might have been done to help set up the whole gimmick with viewers voting for whether or not she should get off for shooting Peter. 

Given that Sharon and Thomas were both already leaving (presumably), I'm not sure why they needed such a laborious setup for her shooting Peter anyway - wasn't it something about how he frightened a horse, and she shot him on reflex? I can't remember. I'm probably wrong. 

I'm sure someone enjoyed the Love material under DePriest, as the ratings went up, but anything I've tried to sit through has made me very uncomfortable and I just can't even watch. John Considine was so badly miscast and poorly directed, Marcus Smythe was not good as a full heel, all the women were victims...on and on and on.

Edited February 17 by DRW50

[Contessa Donatella]

All I know, and I do know it because I watched the clip & also gave the link to Sharon Rose Gabet who was delighted with it since it confirmed what Brittany had always maintained. She shot him in self-defense. But the trial did not include video, of course, and she was unfairly found guilty. 

 

[Xanthe]

 

I believe Thomas Ian Griffith intended to leave at the end of his contract since he and Mary Page Keller wanted to go out to California. He was on the show for 3 years. 

I seem to recall that Gabet was released from her contract early because she was so miserable. She was on from mid-March 1985 to early January 1987, so not quite 2 years. Based on the AWHP synopses, as early as August 1986 Brittany had a gun to protect herself from Peter. She shot him in mid-November. Did the show really have a plan for her exit in January and drag it out over so many months when Gabet so badly wanted to leave? Or did they have a different vision of the abuse leading to [attempted] murder that they had to throw out the window and rejig?

According to the AWHP, this is how the verdict worked:

I wish we had one of the advertisements for reference and knew the timing of when those went out.

[AbcNbc247]

I can't help but think that it might have just been new producers and new writers not doing their homework, especially since Brittany was written so differently under each new team. 

[Contessa Donatella]

She did leave early but I'm not at all sure it was because she was miserable. I recall that her husband became involved. She was very pregnant & the story called for Peter to "menace her" & it was felt that the actor was going overboard & that it was too physically menacing so they let her go, early. This was after her husband spoke with them at the studio.

[Xanthe]

Based on Gabet's public comment when Marcus Smythe passed away it feels unfair to blame him personally.

Smythe was quite tall though and she describes the abuse scenes as rough to play, so it makes sense that the circumstances were stressful. 

[DRW50]

Thank you for all the extra information. I know I probably took this thread off course. I will just say the info about how the show treated Sharon when she was pregnant makes that story even more disgusting to me.

[Contessa Donatella]

I always thought it was circumstances not a personal indictment. Maybe I didn't express that  well.

[Efulton]

DePriest really ended the Sally & Catlin story horribly.  Instead of killing Sally she should have had her find out that Catlin got Brittany pregnant and left town with Kevin. Brittany could then have been written as getting her strength back and leaving Peter and starting a new life outside of Bay City. Sharon Gabet deserved to end her run with her character having some dignity.

Edited February 18 by Efulton

[bongobong]

This might be a cheat because it's primetime, but Rena Sofer as Jack Bauer's sister-in-law on season 6 of 24 was despised by fans. Not that Sofer deserves any blame for the failure. That season also wasted powerhouses Regina King and Powers Boothe.

[dragonflies]

Didn't Rena play quite a few unpopular characters? Wasn't her character on Melrose Place fairly unpopular?