1 hour ago, Maxim said:

Horny looking older Thorne - there was this actor that came (forgot the name), kissed Brooke, declared he would be taking charge of everything... and was gone in a hot minute. LOL

Was that Ingo?

1 hour ago, DRW50 said:

The writing for Jeremy was insane...trying to drown Stephanie in the hot tub, being a pilot who was in human trafficking (?), but wait, he was neglected by Mike so don't judge him. That was all Hogan Sheffer to a tee.

To this day, I'm pissed that DAYS (and Hogan Sheffer) would even attempt to make a Horton a villain. They're Hortons! They can be...conflicted, but they can't have an out-and-out villain in their clan. It'd be like turning a Hughes on ATWT into a villain (which, oops, Hoagy tried that one, too).

Believe it or not, I thought Camille's storyline was one of Megan McTavish's more inspired ideas on AMC (although, given her history, that's probably not saying much, lol). True, the story was convoluted and unpleasant, but I'd seen MMT do worse. Nevertheless, I agree that the casting sunk any chance of that story working at all.

51 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

While I'm here, do any of you remember if Vicki Platt's character Corinne from that Jamaica remote was ever meant to be more, or brought to Pine Valley? For some reason I thought that was planned but didn't happen.

Corinne was supposed to become a new, regular character for AMC - Lorraine Broderick reportedly created her and that whole Jamaica storyline in order to compete with DAYS - but someone must've realized a voodoo priestess living in Pine Valley was just a bridge too far.

5 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

I definitely remember a buzz when she first started. At that time in the soap press GH was seen as just about flawless and that character tanking was the first sign for them that the show was going off track again.

I don't even think the idea of Miranda was terrible. It's not my favorite because I do think Jax would have been more honest with Brenda since he thought Miranda was dead anyway. Leslie Horan was just not a good choice. She had no chemistry with Ingo and looked vaguely nauseated or bored in every scene. She walked so KT/Britt could run with "nausea face" acting.

The show was pretty flawless back then but I do recall them flopping with an actress that played a recast Gina Cates as well.

7 minutes ago, Khan said:

Corinne was supposed to become a new, regular character for AMC - Lorraine Broderick reportedly created her and that whole Jamaica storyline in order to compete with DAYS - but someone must've realized a voodoo priestess living in Pine Valley was just a bridge too far.

Thanks. I have mixed feelings about Lorraine's AMC stint, but I do blame ABC for some of that type of nonsense (this was also when we nearly got Julia Barr as Janet...).

7 minutes ago, carolineg said:

I don't even think the idea of Miranda was terrible. It's not my favorite because I do think Jax would have been more honest with Brenda since he thought Miranda was dead anyway. Leslie Horan was just not a good choice. She had no chemistry with Ingo and looked vaguely nauseated or bored in every scene. She walked so KT/Britt could run with "nausea face" acting.

The show was pretty flawless back then but I do recall them flopping with an actress that played a recast Gina Cates as well.

Horan was too low-energy for a central role. She reminds me more of some of Sonny's later failed love interests.

I do remember that Gina. She barely seemed to appear. I am not even sure why Gina would have returned with Jagger and Stone long gone.

1 hour ago, carolineg said:

For Days I would say Sarah Brown's Madison. She came in with fanfare, was fairly well received, then entered a weird story with Ian Buchannan's character and dumped. Actually, most of SJB's post-Carly roles could fall into this category.

I was admittedly presold for SJB, but I really liked Madison when I came back to DAYS with that umpteenth reboot. I thought the writing in that business story/romance early on there was unusually adult for the modern show and you're right, she did have real chemistry with Eric. Of course it fell apart and Dena Higley and co. announced their triumphant return the following summer by slaughtering her, hurling Jack down the elevator shaft, etc. Ho hum.

I have no idea what the Ian Buchanan story was about. I have defended McPherson/Thomas a lot on the early stuff (and re: the former's work on AMC 2.0) but if they really thought that character was going to work as a successor to Stefano they were dreaming.

I've revisited some of it on occasion since, but all I remember about the Camille Hawkins mess on AMC is tuning back in to the show around the holidays as a teen and she made her debut floating above the trees like a ghost or something. I had grown up watching Dark Shadows in syndication but that was a new one on me for this show. I think this was the same holiday season where a tree or a mausoleum fell on crazy Dimitri. I had no clue WTF was going on. The next time I checked in on the show with any real regularity Camille was about to die, and then there was Dixie standing in the wreckage of Holidays moments after they wheeled her charred corpse out. The circle of life!

Claudette Beaulieu from GH should be on this list. A much-hyped stunt casting of another of Frank Valentini's OLTL favorites, Bree Williamson. Claudette came on the show as a conspicuously French Canadian old flame of both Nathan West and Griffin Munro, two of the most inert and uninteresting characters on the show. (I'm pretty sure the French Canadian thing was only there because Frank, Ron Carlivati and co. got very horny over Ryan Paevey's flawless ability to speak French when he was first hired and used to make him do it all the time onscreen, though RC was gone by then.) Claudette was embroiled in a triangle with both deeply boring men and was also yet another unwelcome OLTL interloper. She of course brought with her the mutant hellspawn that still darkens our lives: Charlotte Cassadine.

Charlotte was believed to be Claudette's child with either Nathan or Griffin at the time. Who cares? Not me. She was gone in I think less than six months, abducted by Valentin who it turned out was the real father of Charlotte, along with Lulu as her unwilling mother; Claudette was merely a surrogate. After all that hype the story was a huge dud, they kept claiming Claudette could come back, the door was open, etc. and repeatedly hinted at her return, was she dead or alive, etc. Eventually they had Jessica Tuck or someone tell us she was alive and had escaped Valentin a couple years later. No one cared.

I'm surprised FV never tried to bring Claudette back again. Maybe Bree just kept saying no.

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by Vee

It also didn't help that Miranda, whom Bob Guza had created (?), was introduced either after he left the first time or was about to leave (I can't remember which). IIRC, that was one of the many balls that Richard Culliton dropped when he took over as HW.

22 minutes ago, carolineg said:

I'd probably add Leslie Horan's Miranda on GH. I am not sure about coming in with fanfare lol, but the show definitely had bigger plans for the character (the Cassadine angle, Mac) and dumped the character after she was universally reviled. Miranda may have lasted slightly over a year though.

Leslie Horan never clicked in the role (which wasn't needed), and Alexis was a much better fit as the long-lost Cassadine sister.

SJB seemed to flop in every role that wasn't Carly. Claudia came off too hard, and the nuance was lost with the writer's changes.

Tom Pelphrey as Mick/James Stenbeck on ATWT was a huge flop to me. I'm not sure how it was received at the time but YouTube recommended a video recently. I couldn't click out fast enough. It felt like a retread of Jonathan. Maybe I should've given the scenes more of a chance, but I passed.

I know Rae Cummings isn't regarded as a flop in the soap press, but she was ham-fisted across all the ABC shows.

Melissa Archer as Serena on DAYS was another dud.

7 minutes ago, Vee said:

Claudette Beaulieu from GH should be on this list. A much-hyped stunt casting of another of Frank Valentini's OLTL favorites, Bree Williamson. Claudette came on the show as a conspicuously French Canadian old flame of both Nathan West and Griffin Munro, two of the most inert and uninteresting characters on the show. (I'm pretty sure the French Canadian thing was only there because Frank, Ron Carlivati and co. got very horny over Ryan Paevey's flawless ability to speak French when he was first hired and used to make him do it all the time onscreen, though RC was gone by then.) Claudette was embroiled in a triangle with both deeply boring men and was also yet another unwelcome OLTL interloper. She of course brought with her the mutant hellspawn that still darkens our lives: Charlotte Cassadine.

Charlotte was believed to be Claudette's child with either Nathan or Griffin at the time. Who cares? Not me. She was gone in I think less than six months, abducted by Valentin who it turned out was the real father of Charlotte, along with Lulu as her unwilling mother; Claudette was merely a surrogate. After all that hype the story was a huge dud, they kept claiming Claudette could come back, the door was open, etc. and repeatedly hinted at her return, was she dead or alive, etc. Eventually they had Jessica Tuck or someone tell us she was alive and had escaped Valentin a couple years later. No one cared.

I'm surprised FV never tried to bring Claudette back again. Maybe Bree just kept saying no.

It is exhausting even to read. I still see some fans asking for her return.

7 minutes ago, Khan said:

It also didn't help that Miranda, whom Bob Guza had created (?), was introduced either after he left the first time or was about to leave (I can't remember which). IIRC, that was one of the many balls that Richard Culliton dropped when he took over as HW.

IIRC, it was a month or two after he left, although the idea was his.

Going back to AMC, I can't believe I forgot about Gabriel/Dogboy. I'm surprised GH has never brought him in.

Just now, DRW50 said:

It is exhausting even to read. I still see some fans asking for her return.

Going back to AMC, I can't believe I forgot about Gabriel/Dogboy. I'm surprised GH has never brought him in.

tbqh I am convinced any 'fans' she has are just old Tess loyalists from 20 years ago off OLTL. The Claudette story was wildly unpopular. I barely watched in the Passanante/Altman years, and that story is just one reason why.

I have always wanted GH to bring on Gabriel lol. That's a fertile character for the cop shop/WSB, and you can cast a hot British man of color.

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by Vee

Just now, CrazySexyQ said:

I know Rae Cummings isn't regarded as a flop in the soap press, but she was ham-fisted across all the ABC shows.

I feel bad for Linda (although at least she got about 5 years of work out of it) as that character was widely disliked by fans. She got an especially negative response from AMC and GH viewers...and wasn't really that liked by OLTL viewers, beyond some who liked the pairing with John Bolger.

The AMC run and the whole "trying to find my child, of unknown gender and somewhere between 25-50" storyline did get panned in the soap press.

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by DRW50

4 minutes ago, Vee said:

I was admittedly presold for SJB, but I really liked Madison when I came back to DAYS with that umpteenth reboot. I thought the writing in that business story/romance early on there was unusually adult for the modern show and you're right, she did have real chemistry with Eric. Of course it fell apart and Dena Higley and co. announced their triumphant return the following summer by slaughtering her, hurling Jack down the elevator shaft, etc. Ho hum.

At the time, when I heard that SJB was off DAYS, I thought, "God, that poor girl can't catch a break!". IIRC, she had already tried to move past GH and Carly with jobs at ATWT, B&B and even some primetime show (although, I can't remember which one). Each time, however, she and the role didn't seem to work out, and for reasons that were never exactly clear. In light of the #MeToo allegations she made against Les Moonves, though, I have to wonder whether he didn't play some part in tanking her DAYS job as well.

4 minutes ago, CrazySexyQ said:

Melissa Archer as Serena on DAYS was another dud.

I can't remember who was HW'ing DAYS at that point - maybe it was Gary Tomlin and Christopher Whitesell - but whoever it was, they were setting her up to fail with that ridiculous story about the elephant statue.

11 minutes ago, Vee said:

I was admittedly presold for SJB, but I really liked Madison when I came back to DAYS with that umpteenth reboot. I thought the writing in that business story/romance early on there was unusually adult for the modern show and you're right, she did have real chemistry with Eric. Of course it fell apart and Dena Higley and co. announced their triumphant return the following summer by slaughtering her, hurling Jack down the elevator shaft, etc. Ho hum.

The chemistry between Sarah Joy Brown and Eric Martsolf was immediate. They worked exceptionally well together, but between the introduction of Ian Buchanan and the unfortunate writing change from Marlene McPherson and Darrell Ray Thomas, Jnr (a strong writing team that did well to just retool the canvas after years of abuse by Dena Higley) to Gary Tomlin and Christopher Whitesell, it was beyond unfortunate that Brown's Madison fell victim to the regime change.

5 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

Horan was too low-energy for a central role. She reminds me more of some of Sonny's later failed love interests.

I do remember that Gina. She barely seemed to appear. I am not even sure why Gina would have returned with Jagger and Stone long gone.

Gina was on some sort of apology tour over missing Stone's death and then started working at Luke's and kinda flirting with Jason. I feel like it may have been an attempt to keep Stone's memory alive since KMc was only popping in occasionally while she was off at school. And I think they might have been very softly testing her with Jason.

7 minutes ago, Vee said:

I was admittedly presold for SJB, but I really liked Madison when I came back to DAYS with that umpteenth reboot. I thought the writing in that business story/romance early on there was unusually adult for the modern show and you're right, she did have real chemistry with Eric. Of course it fell apart and Dena Higley and co. announced their triumphant return the following summer by slaughtering her, hurling Jack down the elevator shaft, etc. Ho hum.

Yeah, the show dumped Christie, Patrick, SJB, and Matt Ashford all on the same day lol.

9 minutes ago, Khan said:

It also didn't help that Miranda, whom Bob Guza had created (?), was introduced either after he left the first time or was about to leave (I can't remember which). IIRC, that was one of the many balls that Richard Culliton dropped when he took over as HW.

Idk. I think the actress was more of an issue than the writing. The show probably tested her with Ingo when she got hired, but they should have tested her with Vanessa Marcil instead. Brenda would eat Miranda alive in every scene so she never felt like a viable threat. RC dropped a lot of balls, but I don't think there much to save with such a weepy, weak willed character. I wouldn't have been against them recasting Miranda, rebooting the character, and giving her harder edges due to her trauma post-Brenda a few years down the line.