BTG: First-ever role recast!

[YRfan23]

I wouldn't mind Matt Atkinson for Derek! 

[te.]

Yeah, I've said it before, but unless they manage to straighten out the Derek / Ashley / Andre storyline, it'd be just better to write Derek and Ashley off as riding into the sunset. No need for recasts.

With the Duprées I feel like they sort of need to do recasts if someone is not working out. I'm not surprised to hear about a recast (most of us expected it to happen with the 13 week cycle), but surprising that it's Ted. Either Maurice couldn't handle the workload or he didn't fit what MVJ had planned - it wouldn't surprise me if Maurice just made Ted too likeable and he's meant to have been a real ass towards Silkpress Sheila to motivate her behavior. 

[Vanguardian53]

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Hmmmm.

Edited March 22 by Vanguardian53

[DemetriKane]

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I am devastated! Ted/Maurice was my number one. This news really upsets me, especially, for him to be the first to go. So disappointing, ugh!

I'm familiar with Keith's work but I will give him grace until he airs.

If Maurice didn't choose to leave on his own, I will speculate and, say that it was his look. because there must've been a reason for us barely getting any Martin/Ted scenes. Keith doesn't look much older either.

[Rmodelboy]

That speaks volumes about his professionalism.  He definitely made a fan out of me.

 

[Chris B]

I'm still upset by this. I am going to assume this was the show wanting a different take on the character. I wonder what the feelings are when his storyline ended up being such a breakout for the show and him being one of the most popular characters. I don't think they anticipated this when he was originally let go.

[Wendy]

I can think of two very different time lines in terms of recasting one role: Mason Capwell on the aforementioned Santa Barbara!

The first recast, from Lane Davies to Terry Lester, did have a gap. If I recall. Davies left around July of '89, and Terry Lester appeared in...I think, October '89.

But then Terry Lester had some loophole in his contract or someone forgot about renewing it (!) - I recall reading/hearing about both options - and he bolted in a hurry in 1990, so he wasn't around long, leading to the infamous two Masons in one episode. The first half hour with Terry Lester, then the second half with Gordon Thomson. (And even stranger, Europe had a scene where Dash Nichols hit Terry Lester at Julia's, and Gordon Thomson got up! LOL! In the US, Thomson's Mason was first shown outside drinking from a flask, if I recall, with the requisite "The role of Mason Capwell will now be played by..." bit.)

However, if one watched E! before it turned to utter trash, it used to have an hourly soap update thingy - well before Pure Soap. Ken Taylor dropped news of that surprise recast a day or two before it happened, so I was sort of prepared. LOL!

Speaking of Capwells, yeah, the show had a boatload of recasts, but the first recasting of CC - if I recall - was unavoidable. Paul Burke, the first actor, apparently had a heart attack, and that's how Peter Mark Richman got the role, or so I've read.

Edited March 22 by Wendy

[Jdee43]

With Santa Barbara, they had 2 Joes, 2 Sophias, and 3 CCs, along with another CC who never made it to camera due to a heart attack, all in the first 6 months. 

But what really hurt the show was the decision to drop what would have been their two main characters, along with their entire families. Joe was recast, then killed off, his family disappearing. Santana was written off, her family disappeared; she was recast through the years, but it never really worked. The show never quite stabilized after this early 180. It always felt like it was missing characters; there was not enough for an hour show.

 

Edited March 22 by Jdee43

[Vee]

I think Dana/Leslie is the breakout character in the story. While I really liked Johnson's Ted, I also think he's the only one in that story sphere (including Nicole, Eva, Dana, Kat) that you could recast without a major issue. Any of the others I would be concerned unless there was some major issue BTS.

Bizarrely, both DAYS and AMC (and maybe another soap or two I am forgetting) repeated this in later years. IIRC DAYS actually promo'ed doing it with Jack Deveraux in the prison shower, where Mark Valley went in and future sex pest Steve Wilder was revealed in the steam. And in the late 2000s AMC inexplicably opted to have the very popular Alexa Havins (Babe Carey) embrace her mother and withdraw from the embrace as Amanda Baker, in the same scene. Neither weird recast lasted more than a year.

Edited March 22 by Vee

[soapfan770]

Lord I remember that and yes she was horrible… I just remember her screaming lol.

2004 was a such a bad for recasts in daytime all around. In addition to Paquin at GL and of course Rahmer at Days, we also suffered through Peter Vack as Casey and Christina Chambers as Molly on ATWT (Chambers was just as BAD) and Emily Harrison as Bridget on B&B. 

[Vee]

Peter Vack is actually a talented dude/dirtbag leftist who I know best from his voice work on Rockstar's now-classic game Bully (and who inexplicably bared it all at length in some indie about camsex with Julia Fox, but nvm), but I absolutely cannot imagine him on P&G soaps. Of course I suppose you also could say that now about Amanda Seyfried or Joseph Cross, who is now a David Fincher staple.

Edited March 22 by Vee

[soapfan770]

I knew Vack was doing indie stuff. I also remember seeing him on “I Just want my pants back” and personally wasn’t impressed by him (or the show) at all either. I didn’t know Vack was leftist as I might have a misread an interview he gave a while back about him playing Jesus in a Christian flick. 

My memory of Vack at ATWT was saying “Hey dad, Mom and Doc Reese were playing football and rolling in the grass!” or some dumb [!@#$%^&*] lol after what was an obvious make out session 

If there was something good Passanante did it was at least casting Zach Roering  as Casey and finally have Casey act as realistic teenager.

ATWT barely used Cross despite him doing a number of stuff. I don’t even remember Seyfried as Lucy despite my distinct memory of her scenes with Michael B Jordan on AMC. 

Edited March 22 by soapfan770

[Vee]

All I know is he was doing stuff with the Red Scare chicks in recent years, which is a bridge too far for me politically and I am on the left. He's a part of the whole NYC indie scene I am very familiar with though. But if you ever want to see all of Peter Vack and then some, I assure you the movie is out there lol.

I think Seyfried was only on ATWT a few days but was notably scarred by the experience BTS. Joseph Cross OTOH has really come into his own as an adult actor in some excellent work in various things, including Mindhunter, Running with Scissors and Licorice Pizza.

[soapfan770]

Thanks I will check it out! 
 

Ian Boyd as a geeky, closeted gay Casey set my gaydar alert on fire but unfortunately Boyd never worked again.

Cross was already a well known child/teen actor when he joined ATWT which is why it always puzzled me that he was barely used during his time. 
 

I remember reading that about Seyfried and being not surprised at all. The Lochlear interview with Goutman at least revealed not all was well

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Edited March 22 by soapfan770

[NothinButAttitude]

I'd be totally fine with that, too. I so badly want Andre in Dani's orbit full-time anyway. 

But I think MVJ is trying to make the show inclusive and not get pigeonholed by certain people and the media as just "the Black soap opera."