28 minutes ago, Vee said:

She was a disastrous flop. Barely lasted a year.

I remember even Thorsten commented on the recast. Basically SH didn't like what they wrote for Marty's return

On 11/30/2025 at 4:09 AM, 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 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.

Damn I even forgot Ingo played Thorne LOL That’s how memorable he was.

From what I gathered back then KT as Tina Lord on OLTL wasn’t really accepted :(

7 minutes ago, dragonflies said:

I remember even Thorsten commented on the recast. Basically SH didn't like what they wrote for Marty's return

Both Susan and Sarah Brown(! - FV tried her next) turned down the job in '06 for a few reasons including Susan's pregnancy, though IIRC neither liked Dena Higley's pitch. I liked Christina Chambers on SuBe but she was never anywhere near Susan's caliber of talent and it was insulting that they even put her onscreen as Marty.

Once Higley was gone they approached Susan again and she returned, though her second stint ended badly onscreen and BTS.

On 11/30/2025 at 3:52 AM, Soapsuds said:

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

But tbf was Connor ever popular with the audience ? No shade here but an honest question?

16 minutes ago, AMCOLTLLover said:

But tbf was Connor ever popular with the audience ? No shade here but an honest question?

Connor was never an iconic character, but she did have fans. I was one of them. I think it was easy to take her for granted, which is why FMB and MADD felt so comfortable firing Allyson Rice Taylor to give a friend a job. Taylor was a very thoughtful, intelligent actress who did a lot with what she was given (although even then I couldn't sit through her last year of stories).

30 minutes ago, AMCOLTLLover said:

From what I gathered back then KT as Tina Lord on OLTL wasn’t really accepted :(

She wasn't. The material was bad, and she struggled to play it. Malone's disdain for Tina was also very clear, as it was through his whole run. Inexplicably SOD named her best recast of 1994.

6 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

Connor was never an iconic character, but she did have fans. I was one of them. I think it was easy to take her for granted, which is why FMB and MADD felt so comfortable firing Allyson Rice Taylor to give a friend a job. Taylor was a very thoughtful, intelligent actress who did a lot with what she was given (although even then I couldn't sit through her last year of stories).

She wasn't. The material was bad, and she struggled to play it. Malone's disdain for Tina was also very clear, as it was through his whole run. Inexplicably SOD named her best recast of 1994.

I was surprised cause Tina is a character actually made for KT. I remember people saying they turned Tina into a Mindy from GL rip off. KT is not a bad actress but it seems like she was letdown by the scripts :(

I don't think Malone had disdain for Karen Witter's Tina at all - I think he actually really enjoyed writing for her, even if his concept of Tina was different from the '80s version and more limited in scope. But I think Tina was an afterthought without Karen in that era, and it showed with Krista.

I don't think it was all KT's fault, as I've watched some of that stuff again recently and she actually is working hard (she mostly drove me nuts as a kid, but that was down to the obvious disinterest in the character by then). She was there to play a role according to the type she'd played in the past. I think also the audience was unprepared for a Tina who was now in opposition to Viki again, in on a con against her, a role that Tina had not filled on the show in almost a decade. She was supposed to have grown out of that. But to me that was one of the few elements that worked, the idea that Tina could betray her family again after all these years and what that would mean.

Part of the issue was that they played up Tina's worst aspects rearing their head with Krista, especially her becoming openly money-hungry re: Todd again. (Possibly a reaction to being heartbroken again by Cain, but still.) Andrea Evans could play that stuff with a wink and a smile and some heart, and Karen's Tina really was only in on her schemes with Cain for the love of the game at that point while devoted to her kids and family. But when Krista's Tina did it she was shrill, whiny and treated as a joke by the other characters, which she was, really. The nuance and heart had left with Karen Witter. I think they were just over Tina by then, and should've retired the character for awhile when Karen and Christopher Cousins left. But I don't blame Krista for a bad situation.

Edited 40 minutes ago40 min by Vee

28 minutes ago, AMCOLTLLover said:

I was surprised cause Tina is a character actually made for KT. I remember people saying they turned Tina into a Mindy from GL rip off. KT is not a bad actress but it seems like she was letdown by the scripts :(

I can see some of the worst sides of her Mindy in her Tina, but none of the best. And she was also a decade older, which hurts when you are trying to play a dumb character. The whole thing is just sad.

I think someone once said she didn't even audition. If that is true, then it shows they weren't taking Tina seriously.

24 minutes ago, Vee said:

I don't think Malone had disdain for Karen Witter's Tina at all - I think he actually really enjoyed writing for her, even if his concept of Tina was different from the '80s version and more limited in scope. But I think Tina was an afterthought without Karen in that era, and it showed with Krista.

I'd give most of the credit to Karen - on paper I don't think most of her material is up to much.

Edited 9 minutes ago9 min by DRW50

10 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

I think someone once said she didn't even audition. If that is true, then it shows they weren't taking Tina seriously.

I suspect that likely had to do with her being famous for Mindy, who was a superficially similar character to Tina in certain ways. And being seen as a bit of a get from CBS. But I agree they should've cast a wider net if they had to keep going with Tina, who already seemed extraneous to the canvas by mid-late '94. I do wonder if Barbara Crampton (who flopped as Mindy but could play more than light comedy) could've worked.

I do think Krista still sold some of the same sort of classic bubbly, rambling Tina material they often gave to Karen in the '90s. But it was too rare vs. her being duped or whining about money, and often pitched differently from how Karen or Andrea were presented onscreen.