9 minutes ago, DeeVee said:

I would not disagree with that. Possibly the problem was Paul Avila Mayer had left the show. He LOVED Delia, she was one of his favorite characters. There's an interview where he admitted he was much more empathetic towards the character than Labine.

The other possible thing was Delia had...I'm not going to say matured, but she had definitely evolved, and Kristen had left before most of that took place. So she might not have felt as comfortable in the role.

Delia was regressed any time she made progress. This just ended up hurting the show and suggesting Labine and Mayer were out of ideas. It made a good portion of 1980/1981 a slog and sure enough what I've seen of 1983 is the same. No one was asking for Delia to chase after Frank two or three more times.

On 12/1/2025 at 9:39 AM, Soaplovers said:

Ryan's Hope was the recast soap to end all recast soaps.

We could say that about Y&R first decade.

Snapper: William Grey Espy to David Hasselhoff

Greg: James Houghton to Brian Kerwin then Wings Hauser then Howard McGillin

Jill: Brenda Dickson to Bond Gideon then Deborah Adair then back to Brenda Dickson

Leslie: Janice Lynde to Victoria Mallory

Chris: Trish Stewart to Lynn Topping

Peggy: Pamela Peters to Patricia Everly then back to Pamela Peters

Lance: John McCook to Dennis Cole

From this group, the most successful were David Hasselhoff and Deborah Adair.

On 12/2/2025 at 7:45 PM, DeeVee said:

I would not disagree with that. Possibly the problem was Paul Avila Mayer had left the show. He LOVED Delia, she was one of his favorite characters. There's an interview where he admitted he was much more empathetic towards the character than Labine.

The other possible thing was Delia had...I'm not going to say matured, but she had definitely evolved, and Kristen had left before most of that took place. So she might not have felt as comfortable in the role.

I think I had read when she came back to the part in early 1982, Kristen said she had to adjust to all the changes to the Delia character over the past 3 years including the fact that she now had an establishment she'd previously owned and now was just manager of... which was not how Delia was when she left the role in early 1979.

From what I understood, Brenda Dickson felt the same way coming back as Jill after 3.5 years away.... she had left after she'd been tossed out by Stuart Brooks and was still with sleazy Derek and returning as the new lady of the Abbott mansion and not even interacting with Kay anymore (Dina was who Adair's Jill had been feuding with over John).

And I remember Ellen Wheeler saying when she came back as Marley (joking that the show couldn't explain the extra height Marley gained after the fire).. she said she had to make a conscious effort to observe how Heche and Buchanan had played Marley since she was coming back playing a vastly different Marley than the one she'd last played a decade plus ago.

I forgot to mention Mari Morrow, AKA lap dance Rachel on OLTL. The degradation of this character after Ellen Bethea left was shameful, made worse by hiring someone who couldn't act her way out of hot pants. She never really recovered.

How did everyone feel about Julie Pinson in the role of Billie on Days?? I was neutral on her, I do think the show attempted to transform her into Lisa Rinna with he haircut, etc but I don't think she had the same spunk as LR

I can't remember if she was overall accepted or not TBH

I think the only Billie recast accepted by DAYS' audience was Krista Allen, but Billie had changed so much by that point, she might as well have been playing a brand new character.

25 minutes ago, Khan said:

I think the only Billie recast accepted by DAYS' audience was Krista Allen, but Billie had changed so much by that point, she might as well have been playing a brand new character.

I feel like Julie Pinson was received well.

She wasn't accepted once people got over the resemblance to Rinna... she had none of Rinna's spunk and intensity.

9 hours ago, Soaplovers said:

She wasn't accepted once people got over the resemblance to Rinna... she had none of Rinna's spunk and intensity.

I don't think it helped that her return was once again causing problems for Bo and Hope, as JER never wanted to let that story go. The Chelsea story seemed to be despised by the audience. Once that was done, did she have a story beyond bedding various men she shouldn't have? And wasn't she a third wheel to Patch and Kayla? Or am I mixing her up with someone else?

I think Julie Pinson is a fine actress but this was in the era where it seemed like she was popping up everywhere just because (even though I think she'd only done two shows by then lol). Her being Billie was equally extraneous. She was a great lookalike for Lisa, and I never liked or accepted the Krista Allen Billie in any way and JP's version was superficially much closer to the original. But it still wasn't the same. I just didn't see a reason for Billie to be around at that point with another recast, and they never gave Pinson's Billie much of anything worthwhile, she seemed to just mope and whine. But nothing has ever compared to Lisa's original run anyway.

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by Vee