Y&R: Actress leaving

[Errol]

Well, there you go. Didn't sound interesting to begin with.

[Liberty City]

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 No, it really did not. And I'm honestly surprised the main series lasted as long as it did. 

[1974mdp]

I thought she really good and one of the better actors on the show, but they didn't seem to know what to do with her. I think one of the problems is how many times can an Abbott and a Newman hook up. They're basically the same family at this point. The show needs some new life and characters brought in. Some underdogs who are struggling. Right now, basically everyone is supposed to be "rich" and well-off. The class struggle is completely absent. Don't get me started on all the random companies the characters talk about in every episode.

[Taoboi]

In my Nicole Walker voice...

 

...WHHHHHHHHHHHHHHATTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I didn't even cotton to Summer being recast, but Allison Lanier won me over. Great actress and I loved her energy in scenes where she felt like she told a story throughout an episode in her scenes and took her character through an emotional arc. Even when the writing turned against her, Allison found a way to show strength. She did...for a while...have the ability to turn lemons into lemonade for me. And it goes without saying that I loved her Summer with Chance. And one of the few actresses in the Y&R opening that gave fierce with that mane of hair of hers. 

 

So irked. 

 

THIS. Because once AL and ZS got comfortable in their roles, when they had scenes together, they were fire.

[ranger1rg]

I don't blame Allison Lanier for leaving. Josh Griffith absolutely wasted her, and the last year have been especially bad. She was good in the role.

Also good as Summer? Hunter King. I'm sorry, but I don't understand criticism of her. Regardless, she's busy, and she's not returning to Y&R.

[BoldRestless]

There's really no point for Y&R to recast anyone for anything at this point. There is no long term story plan, or any storyline really at all. So if you have a good/popular actor, you can just rest them since it won't affect anything. It is not like you need to recast Summer so you can have her sit at the bar and talk about Kyle. I liked both King and Lanier, so I'm good to wait until one is ready to come back. They can just have Phyllis sit at a bar and talk about Summer and how Summer loves Harrison. It's really a shame how they wasted Lanier. She gave a great performance when she confronted Diane after Phyllis' death.

[Paul Raven]

Glad in a way that Alison forced their hand to write Summer off. 

It opens up the canvas for other characters/stories and prevents Summer from going on the musical partners roundabout that Josh likes to do, although apart from Kyle and Chance, who else could Summer get involved with?

And bonus, it gives Phyllis one less character to be involved with.

[janea4old]

AL was excellent in the entire "Phyllis faked her own death" storyline, a storyline that went on for months. AL always excelling.

[Antoyne]

This is shocking. AL definitely gave new life to Summer, a character I never cared about.

[dio]

this is sad. I bet GH is already eying her as a Nelle recast. lol I'm, pretty sure the show is setting up her return. There have been too may mementos of her in these past few weeks for it to be throwaway. 

[Paul Raven]

It's quite unusual for this type of announcement to come out the day before a last appearance. We usually hear weeks before.

eg Billy Flynn's impending arrival was announced weeks ago and he's yet to air.

Will Nick get to farewell Summer.? Are he and Sharon still off air visiting Noah?

Edited May 1 by Paul Raven

[janea4old]

Friday May 2 US (Thurs May 1 Canada) - I read the Canadian recap and saw some clips.

At a restaurant, Chelsea and Sally both/each tell Summer they want to leave Marchetti -- (Chelsea to work with Adam, and Summer to work with Billy).  Summer comments that fashion is both women's primary interest -- and she wonders why they'd give up their dreams in order to work with their boyfriends.
Then Summer says they should do what they really want, and releases them.  The three women toast to "Marchetti women".

Nick and Sharon return to Genoa City. Summer explains to Nick and Phyllis, that she has to fly to Milan immediately, in order to find replacements for Chelsea and Sally to work at Marchetti.  Nick and Phyllis hug her.
Summer mentions that she will next say goodbye to Daniel and Harrison.
After Summer exits, Nick & Phyllis comment to one another that Summer is off to conquer the world.

If there was a Summer/Daniel goodbye scene, it wasn't shown onscreen.

At the Abbott mansion, Diane shows Summer the new decor. Summer tells Kyle and Harrison she's flying to Italy on a last-minute work thing.  Harrison replies that he and Kyle should go with her. Summer replies that she'll be so busy that he'd hardly see her, so she won't be bringing Kyle and Harrison on her trip.  She says she'll go on a trip with Harrison later.  Harrison says he will give her a Euro coin that he had saved, to give to her, for them to spend together some day.  Big hug. 

When Harrison is out of the room, Kyle tells Summer that he and Claire intend to live together.  Summer asks Kyle to not tell Harrison yet, and to please wait until she returns from Italy to tell Harrison, in case he has feelings about it.  Kyle agrees.  They hug.

And that's Summer's exit.  From the clips, it seemed that when each of the characters was saying goodbye, I could tell it was the actors saying goodbye, too (but I would have had no idea if I hadn't seen the actress exit news). 

The dialogue indicated that Summer would return soon.  No indication of a long trip.  But there was Phick's "conquer the world" comment which was (perhaps) referring to the actress and not the character?

EDIT - a couple of very minor corrections to the above.  In my next post.

Edited May 2 by janea4old

[Taoboi]

I agree. This last year for her has been horrible and the sad thing was the potential was there. She will be missed.

 

I liked Hunter King, too. But if Summer does come back, I would rather AL come back someday.

 

 

[Errol]

That is such a stupid way to exit the character, even if temporarily, IMO.

Why would you have Summer fly to Italy to find replacements for Chelsea and Sally, both of whom live in Genoa City? Couldn't she find someone else in Genoa City? I mean, Claire could always infiltrate yet another part of Summer's life.

Lazy.

[Vee]

The fact that that's apparently the rushed exit and she suddenly announced it out of the blue feels very abrupt and makes one wonder what happened BTS. Though I'd typically assume she just high-tailed it out at the end of her contract as appears to be the case.