3 minutes ago, CrazySexyQ said:

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.

I think Sarah did well with what she was given as Claudia, which fluctuated wildly. One week Claudia would be an irredeemable villain, the next she would be having goofy chemistry test comic follies with Jason and Spinelli, or sexing it up with Nikolas, Ric, etc. Then she'd be trying to make her marriage to Sonny real. It was all over the map and annoying. But had they locked in (and had she not allegedly clashed with the creative team) I think she could've lasted longer. She worked hard and made a real impression as the character; Claudia is still remembered, unlike most latter-day rivals to Sonny and Jason.

Still, I would've always disposed of Claudia in short order to bring Sarah back as Carly. I still would. I had no idea until recently they allegedly tried to get her back in the role for at least a short period when Tamara quit in '05.

Tom Pelphrey's ATWT character is definitely in the Hall of Fame, but Rae may be the queen. Both mortifying. And poor Melissa Archer.

5 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

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.

Trying to stretch one lousy retcon over three separate shows was madness and made the story itself more convoluted than it needed to be. At this point, I'm not even sure that Skye is actually Rae's daughter. That's how confused I am about the whole damn thing, lol.

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by Khan

1 minute ago, Khan said:

Trying to stretch one lousy retcon over three separate shows was madness and made the story itself more convoluted than it needed to be. At this point, I'm not even sure that Skye is actually Rae's daughter. That's how confused I am about the whole damn thing, lol.

I think if they brought Skye back with another retcon people wouldn't even care (although I doubt we will see her again).

I do love Linda Dano, but it never made a great deal of sense to have her doing a year-long tour of four different soaps. She was not important to most ABC soap fans. Her time on ABC soaps had amounted to a few years in a part no one remembered. It would have been like having Victoria Wyndham terrifying the CBS lineup for a year because of her turn as Charlotte Bauer (admittedly I would have enjoyed that).

3 minutes ago, Khan said:

Trying to stretch one lousy retcon over three separate shows was madness and made the story itself more convoluted than it needed to be. At this point, I'm not even sure that Skye is actually Rae's daughter. That's how confused I am about the whole damn thing, lol.

I refuse to acknowledge that Skye Chandler is her daughter. It became a convoluted mess and then roped in the Quartermaines. She was a legacy character whose backstory was retconned to the pits just to prop up Rae. Good to know that this story was actually panned in real time.

Michael Easton and all his non-John McBain characters were flops on GH. And yet we were stuck with one version after another. An honorable mention to Violet. Little Robin Scorpio, you were not.

Roger Howarth as the long lost Quartermaine that went nowhere.

3 minutes ago, CrazySexyQ said:

I refuse to acknowledge that Skye Chandler is her daughter. It became a convoluted mess and then roped in the Quartermaines. She was a legacy character whose backstory was retconned to the pits just to prop up Rae. Good to know that this story was actually panned in real time.

I still make jokes about her just popping up all over the network. ("Tonight, on a very special 'Dharma & Greg'....").

23 minutes ago, Khan said:

Trying to stretch one lousy retcon over three separate shows was madness and made the story itself more convoluted than it needed to be. At this point, I'm not even sure that Skye is actually Rae's daughter. That's how confused I am about the whole damn thing, lol.

ICAM! Didn't like it.

I would re-Chandler Skye if she ever appeared again. No explanation. I wouldn't go into it. I don't care.

An underdiscussed insult re: Rae was how when she was 'killed off' in early 2004 (in a harrowing, well-done series of scenes where Matt Ashford's Music Box Killer tormented and terrorized her in his secret dungeon for a week before dressing her up like his flower child mother to finish her off) they later teased in the soap press that one of the MBK's victims would make a triumphant return at the conclusion of the story.

The MBK's first really prominent victim had been, of course, Fiona Hutchison's beloved Gabrielle Medina. She was found murdered on New Year's 2004, her body lying by a ladies' room toilet. This was widely reviled among fans and everyone hoped and prayed we'd see Gabrielle return as the surviving victim. Cut to the conclusion of the story: It's Rae! Good news everyone, Rae is alive! Rescued from the MBK's prison just in time to hammily harangue him in his final standoff with the police. The audience was beyond infuriated. And then she went off to a HEA with John Bolger. Until turning up briefly on GH (I think?) to confirm Tracy's news about her being the biggest lying whore on the Port Charles waterfront, and de-Qing Skye. Good riddance.

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by Vee

3 minutes ago, Vee said:

Until turning up briefly on GH (I think?) to confirm Tracy's news about her being the biggest lying whore on the Port Charles waterfront, and de-Qing Skye.

Skye: "How could you lie to me like that, Mother? If Grandfather were here -- "

Tracy: "He is not. Your. Grandfather. So you can stop calling him that and talking about him like you've known him your whole life, which you have not!"

(At least, that's how it always plays in my mind.)

Edited 56 minutes ago56 min by Khan

All My Children

• Beth Ehlers as Taylor Thompson (2008–2009)
  This character just did not pick up the steam; I believe that Julie Hanan Carruthers and James Harmon Brown and Barbara Esensten just did not do fair justice to the role, although, with the switch from Harmon Brown and Esensten to Charles Pratt, Jnr likely played a part in the shifting of the character; Taylor just did not click or properly integrate into the Pine Valley canvas. Perhaps her feelings towards JR Martinez (Brot) did not fare well with TPTB and audiences, but this casting/character was a combined dud.

The Bold and the Beautiful

• Dax Griffin as Shane McGrath (2006–2007)
  My only assumption is that Bradley Bell felt he could recreate the spark he got when he hired Adrienne Frantz (ex-Amber) and Sarah Buxton (ex-Morgan) from Sunset Beach, but Griffin, both in terms of his talent and character, fizzled and never caught on.

• Courtney Grosbeck as Coco Spectra (2017–2018)
  Ill-conceived and poorly cast, and yet this character fell into the same known Bell trope of using the character, getting bored, and tossing it to the wayside to never speak of them again.

Days of Our Lives

• Genie Francis and Judith Baldwin as Diana Colville (1987–1989, 2019, 2024)
  Casting a heavyweight like Francis should have been a golden landmine; however, she kept having to turn absolute dogshït into gold. Per Francis' own words, there was never a character in Diana (and I would agree), so when "the writer" returned the role in 2019 with Baldwin, it was even more apparent how the lack of character Diana had been.

• Hunter Tylo as Marina Toscano (1989–1990)
  Visually, Tylo should have worked on Days of Our Lives, but the lack of character for Marina, combined with the one-lane story direction they attempted with the character, just did not work out in the long run.

• Schuyler Yancey and Nathan Owens as Cameron Davis (2010–2013)
  Yancey was poorly cast, as was Owens (and yet, I am surprised at how decent Owens is doing at Y&R), and the character of Cameron ultimately lasted three years longer than it should have. On top of that, a failed romance with Abigail (then Kate Mansi) just did not do the character any kind of favours.

• Vincent Irizarry as Deimos Kiriakis (2016–2017, 2021)
  On paper, casting Irizarry as a Kiriakis works, but making it a retconned role that was never known prior just did not work out in the long run. It was a casting choice that went awry and was ultimately wasted. He had chemistry with everyone he worked with, but paired with unfortunate writing (Josh Griffith and Dena Higley), this role was never going to work beyond the run it had.

• Marie Wilson as Summer Townsend (2016, 2020)
  Do I need to explain this one? From the casting choice to the storyline, this character was never going to amount to anything. At all. Even Wilson's previous like (Bree Tjaden) was a dud. It was like trying to watch TPTB at Days of Our Lives trying to make "fetch" happen.

• Paige Searcy and Gabrielle Haugh as Jade Michaels (2016–2017)
  Another character introduced that just did not work. And in the case of a recast, it made the role even worse.

The Young and the Restless

• Vincent Irizarry as David Chow (2007–2008)
  Again, casting Irizarry was brilliant, but the role of David Chow was simply one that was unforgiving. A plot-driven character is never going to win over your audiences, and this character was one of those. It is unfortunate, as his chemistry with Melody Thomas Scott's Nikki was quite delicious, but the characters themselves did not work well together.

• Laur Allen as Juliet Helton (2017)
  This role was a poorly developed concept as a way of trying to drive a wedge between the insufferable Cane (then Daniel Goddard) and Lily (Christel Khalil), and all that came of it was a child we never see. Hopefully it remains that way.

To hell with the fact that VI is a Trumper who's been on Y&R before. I'd bring him back today, and as a brand new character, too.

And I still love the fact that Taylor Thompson allegedly went to the ladies' room and never returned. I mean, it's probably not true, but if ever an exit was a fitting and proper one for a useless character...!

Edited 51 minutes ago51 min by Khan

5 minutes ago, Liberty City said:

All My Children

• Beth Ehlers as Taylor Thompson (2008–2009)
  This character just did not pick up the steam; I believe that Julie Hanan Carruthers and James Harmon Brown and Barbara Esensten just did not do fair justice to the role, although, with the switch from Harmon Brown and Esensten to Charles Pratt, Jnr likely played a part in the shifting of the character; Taylor just did not click or properly integrate into the Pine Valley canvas. Perhaps her feelings towards JR Martinez (Brot) did not fare well with TPTB and audiences, but this casting/character was a combined dud.

OH yes, this one probably wins the award in this category. Just awful.

I thought Genie and Drake had real chemistry at DAYS from what I've seen. I have no idea how you fumble that.

I thought the idea of Taylor, a right-wing war vet who would clash with people re: Iraq/Afghanistan was right up the Agnes Nixon alley. It's the kind of story she'd tell. It was a solid character sketch and Beth was right for it. The problem, as ever at ABCD in that period, was pushing hard with a star hire from another network and trying to force her and Ricky Paull Goldin together down our throats. No one was here for it and BE sure didn't help herself with her own commentary on JR Martinez. Goldin also had more chemistry with Chrishell Stause's Amanda, a core character people liked. They liked Brot too.

In the end Amanda and Jake lasted, and so did Brot. And of course Khan has noted what happened to Taylor. But by the time they pivoted to try to make Taylor into Tad's latest doomed non-Dixie love interest it was all over but the flushing.

2 minutes ago, Khan said:

To hell with the fact that VI is a Trumper who's been on Y&R before.

As I've said before, if we dump everyone who is quietly right-wing on daytime from the rolls it's gonna be a pretty drafty set of studios, unfortunately. As long as they keep it out of my face I'm good at this point.

Edited 48 minutes ago48 min by Vee

5 minutes ago, Liberty City said:

All My Children

• Beth Ehlers as Taylor Thompson (2008–2009)
  This character just did not pick up the steam; I believe that Julie Hanan Carruthers and James Harmon Brown and Barbara Esensten just did not do fair justice to the role, although, with the switch from Harmon Brown and Esensten to Charles Pratt, Jnr likely played a part in the shifting of the character; Taylor just did not click or properly integrate into the Pine Valley canvas. Perhaps her feelings towards JR Martinez (Brot) did not fare well with TPTB and audiences, but this casting/character was a combined dud.

This has to be one of the biggest flops in all of daytime! Everything about it went completely wrong and ruined her rep. There's an old school thread around here that had me howling. 😂

1 minute ago, CrazySexyQ said:

This has to be one of the biggest flops in all of daytime! Everything about it went completely wrong and ruined her rep. There's an old school thread around here that had me howling. 😂

If it's the one I'm thinking of it is immortalized in my sig (from a post by a Beth Ehlers superfan who raged about our criticism of her).

1 hour ago, DRW50 said:

Was that Ingo?

After a very quick Google search. Yep. I actually thought he had potential, but it never went anywhere. He had chemistry with Brooke thought.