It just hit me that on Dark Shadows, Dr Woodard's first name was Dave. And of course during the same period, we had David Collins. So this is one of very few examples of a soap opera having two characters with the same first name during the same time. The only other examples of this of which I am aware were: Y&R in the early-1990s had both John Abbott and John Cena, and ATWT in the early-1990s had both John Dixon and John Eldridge. Can anyone think of any other examples of this?

You mean John Silva, not Cena. Maybe Cena was there too since U Can't See Him.

On GL, we had Ed Bauer and Prince Edmund in the 2000s. In the final years, there was Remy Bordreaux's girlfriend Christine on GL and Christina Thorpe who went by Blake.

Edited Sunday at 01:22 AM3 days by Spoon

2 minutes ago, Spoon said:

You mean John Silva, not Cena. Maybe Cena was there too since U Can't See Him.

Now I wish John Cena's fine self WOULD make a guest appearance on Y&R (because, even I have my weak moments, lol).

2 hours ago, Tisy-Lish said:

It just hit me that on Dark Shadows, Dr Woodard's first name was Dave. And of course during the same period, we had David Collins. So this is one of very few examples of a soap opera having two characters with the same first name during the same time. The only other examples of this of which I am aware were: Y&R in the early-1990s had both John Abbott and John Cena, and ATWT in the early-1990s had both John Dixon and John Eldridge. Can anyone think of any other examples of this?

As Ellen Dolan or Scott Holmes once complained about (as it began to confuse them), in the early '90s ATWT had supporting characters with variations of Bill and Billy.

10 minutes ago, Spoon said:

You mean John Silva, not Cena. Maybe Cena was there too since U Can't See Him.

Duh, yes it was John Silva. Sorry...

On ATWT, there was Ellie Snyder and Ellen Stewart. Oh, and a weird one---when Royce and Emily were dating, he had a butler whose name was Graham, and Emily always called Ellen "Gram", which sounded the same when KMH talked.

On 4/25/2026 at 9:15 PM, DRW50 said:

As Ellen Dolan or Scott Holmes once complained about (as it began to confuse them), in the early '90s ATWT had supporting characters with variations of Bill and Billy.

Hmm. I wonder which characters they were referring to. At the moment, I don't recall who Bill and/or Billy may have been.

23 minutes ago, Tisy-Lish said:

Hmm. I wonder which characters they were referring to. At the moment, I don't recall who Bill and/or Billy may have been.

I can't either. The only character "Billy" I recall was Billy Ross, who wasn't there long. I think Gwen called her baby Billy (aka Rory and ultimately Johnny), but while Casey was later played by Billy Magnussen, at that time, it was Zach Roerig.

It couldn't have been as confusing as the glut of Scotts ATWT had at one time---Scott Defrietas, Scott Bryce and Scott Eldredge.

10 minutes ago, P.J. said:

I can't either. The only character "Billy" I recall was Billy Ross, who wasn't there long. I think Gwen called her baby Billy (aka Rory and ultimately Johnny), but while Casey was later played by Billy Magnussen, at that time, it was Zach Roerig.

It couldn't have been as confusing as the glut of Scotts ATWT had at one time---Scott Defrietas, Scott Bryce and Scott Eldredge.

Well, DRW50 indicated that these comments were made in the early 1990s, so that was still during the Marland era. Both Gwen and adult Casey were many years later. And I don't recall Billy Ross at all, so no idea in which decade he appeared. Perhaps the Bills and the Billys were very minor characters -- perhaps even under-fives. Who knows?

Edited 9 hours ago9 hr by Tisy-Lish

18 minutes ago, Tisy-Lish said:

Well, DRW50 indicated that these comments were made in the early 1990s, so that was still during the Marland era. Both Gwen and adult Casey were many years later. And I don't recall Billy Ross at all, so no idea in which decade he appeared. Perhaps the Bills and the Billys were very minor characters -- perhaps even under-fives. Who knows?

Billy Ross was Cricket's son. I think he appeared in either the late 90s or the early 2000s.

14 minutes ago, Reverend Ruthledge said:

Billy Ross was Cricket's son. I think he appeared in either the late 90s or the early 2000s.

Thank you for the response.

1 hour ago, Tisy-Lish said:

Hmm. I wonder which characters they were referring to. At the moment, I don't recall who Bill and/or Billy may have been.

Billy Lambert, Julie's ex-husband, who was working for the Harpers, I think. I think there were other minor characters in the story named Bill or William.