The flipside of @DRW50 thread.

Let's talk about the actors that had big shoes to fill by taking over from actors who made their characters popular and failed to make the grade.

They either were dropped fairly quickly or hung around, always playing second fiddle to the previous actor in the role.

Y&R

Darius Mc Cary taking over for Shemar Moore as Malcolm. This was ??? Shemar made such an impression. The role called for a cool sexy actor with a certain physicality which Darius lacked. There was no lack of suitable actors around but for whatever reason the went with an unlikely choice.

GL

Nicole Forrester as Cassie replacing Laura Wright.

ATWT

Pamela King as Lisa. She spent her first few episodes in shadow but once King was shown, there seemed to be a general outcry of "That's not Lisa!!' Within a few months Eileen Fulton was back.

Pheobe Dorin as Penny. A few years after Rosemary Prinz left, Dorin was cast as Penny. But again there was negative reaction and Dorin was dropped, pretty much relegating that iconic character to history. Prinz returned for a few brief appearances over a decade later.

The patron saint of bad recasts.

Susan Batten taking over the popular role of Connor Walsh on As the World Turns.

GL

John Bolger as Phillip Spaulding. Bolger wasn't a bad actor, but he never won over a majority of the viewers. He's stuck in some "Phil now wants to write" story with horrible black and white vignettes among other less inspired drama. It left such a sour taste, TPTB never tried recasting Phillip again--it was Grant Aleksander or nothing.

Michael Dietz as Alan-Michael

Barbara Crampton as Mindy

ATWT

Christina Chambers as Molly. Just completely wrong for the part. It was so bad, she was quickly written off in spite of being in the middle of a hot story, Jack's disappearance/amnesia, and wasn't heard from for nearly five years.

Y&R - Shari Shattuck as Ashley. I think the only reason she stayed as long as she did (3 years!) is because of the huge malaise Y&R was under for much of that time and because they were waiting to get Eileen back.

Y&R - Sarah Aldrich as Victoria. I don't know if she could have made the part work if they hadn't gotten Heather Tom back.

ATWT - As @P.J. mentioned in the other thread, Glynnis O'Connor as Margo. This may be another case where Ellen Dolan being available made the choice easier, but she's the only Margo viewers didn't support.

ATWT - Jason Kincaid as Tom Hughes. From the little available of him, he's not awful, but he's an odd choice for a leading man.

AMC - Gwyn Gillis as Ann Tyler. She did play the part for 3-4 years, but they also chose to kill the character off...

B&B - Ingo Rademacher as Thorne Forrester.

GL - Michael Dietz and Michael Dempsey as Alan-Michael Spaulding. Bryan Gaskill as Dylan Lewis. Geoffrey Scott as Billy Lewis, Ann Hamilton and Barbara Crampton as Mindy Lewis (I thought Scott in particular was horribly wrong).

Search for Tomorrow - Louan Gideon as Liza Sentell.

3 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

Y&R - Shari Shattuck as Ashley. I think the only reason she stayed as long as she did (3 years!) is because of the huge malaise Y&R was under for much of that time and because they were waiting to

GL - Michael Dietz and Michael Dempsey as Alan-Michael Spaulding. Bryan Gaskill as Dylan Lewis. Geoffrey Scott as Billy Lewis, Ann Hamilton and Barbara Crampton as Mindy Lewis (I thought Scott in particular was horribly wrong).

Ugh...Gaskill as Dylan was just terrible. I'm not even sure what the point of Dylan being in town was. He doesn't interact much with his family.

I can't even bear to watch Scott as Billy. The circumstances were out of his control, but it left such a huge gap in Springfield. Billy was written off in six months. I had seriously even forgotten there was a recast.

Saundra Quarterman as Angie on AMC. - Bless her heart, but she just wasn't Angie and the story she was given (fighting with her mom over a man) was just not a story that fit the character of Angie nor her mother Pat.

Brian Lane Green as Brian on AMC - This was a horrible recast for a number of reasons.. 1 of which was that he came in during the start of the older woman/younger man connection that was brewing between Dixie and Brian.. but he not only looked older than Dixie, but he was older in real life.

Amanda Baker as Babe on AMC - I remember my mom saying it best 'She looks and acts as though she went to an Ivy league school'... when OG Babe looked like the beauty queen contestant trying to win a title in order to escape the trailer park.

Edited 26 minutes ago26 min by Soaplovers

14 minutes ago, P.J. said:

Ugh...Gaskill as Dylan was just terrible. I'm not even sure what the point of Dylan being in town was. He doesn't interact much with his family.

I can't even bear to watch Scott as Billy. The circumstances were out of his control, but it left such a huge gap in Springfield. Billy was written off in six months. I had seriously even forgotten there was a recast.

The only reason seemed to be playing out drama with Daisy and Harley (with Daisy frozen in time). I am not sure why '00s soaps tried so hard with Gaskill.

I just found Scott agonizing at the time. Something actively repulsed me in his scenes. I'm not speaking of him as a person, but he was so unsuited, if anyone but Jordan could ever play Billy.

7 minutes ago, Soaplovers said:

Brian Lane Green as Brian on AMC - This was a horrible recast for a number of reasons.. 1 of which was that he came in during the start of the older woman/younger man connection that was brewing between Dixie and Brian.. but he not only looked older than Dixie, but he was older in real life.

I can only assume someone at AMC was a big fan of his on AW as they seemed to just redo the exact same storyline.