Last year we featured the post 5 Soap Character Recasts That Worked. While there are many people out there who don't like change, sometimes the recasting of a soap character can be one of the best things ever to happen to a particular role not to mention the show, as the late Barbara Windsor so brilliantly demonstrated when she took of the role of Peggy Mitchell in EastEnders, turning the character into a soap legend.
The changing faces of the Mitchell mum and daughter
But Peggy wasn't the only member of the Mitchell family to be played by another actress. As we wrote in the same post, Peggy's daughter Sam also underwent a face transplant! After having been played by Danniella Westbrook for years, the role eventually went to Kim Medcalf. At the time, EastEnders' fans were expecting the return of Sam Mitchell to be a complete flop. Westbrook was synonymous with the soap character. How were viewers supposed to get used to a relative unknown playing such a well-known character? Well as it happens, we got used to is very quickly indeed as Kim absolutely nailed it, and viewers loved her portrayal of the Mitchell minx. And seventeen years after Kim quit the soap, fans were delighted when she rather unexpectedly reprised the role of Sam last week. It's great to have her back on the Square.
But unfortunately not all soap recasts have been as successful. Character recasts are all part of the nature of TV shows. From time to time, a role needs to be recast, and as surprising as this may sound, they generally seem to work. But you're skating on very thin ice when you try to recast an iconic character that is closely associated with a particular actor/actress - it's almost always doomed to failure (with with the Mitchell ladies being two exceptions!) Neighbours' Charlene Robinson can only ever be played by Kylie Minogue, and as actor Leslie Grantham passed away four years ago, there's no chance of Den Watts ever finding his way back to Walford (even if wife Chrissie hadn't killed him with a door stop!) Can you ever imagine a Dirty Den propped up behind the bar of the Vic played by someone who isn't Leslie Grantham? Exactly!
Before we take a look at less-than-brilliant recasts, please remember we are NOT at all having a go at the actors who had taken over the respective roles, and we're certainly not criticizing their talent and acting abilities. In fact had they been cast as completely different characters, it may well have been a success. But die-hard soap fans are not the easiest to please and are skeptical whenever there's a character recast; we're used to seeing certain faces in our living room several times a week and we feel we know them better than we know know most of our extended family! Following in the footsteps of another actor and winning over an audience, is a pretty tough gig, and sometimes for whatever reason, it just doesn't work out as well as hoped.
We take a look at recasts where viewers just couldn't get their heads around the fact that an old character had a new head!
1. Michelle Fowler (EastEnders)
Susan Tully (1985-1995) Jenna Russell (2017-2018)
Oh dear - what can we say here that hasn't already been said about a million times before! The recasting of EastEnders' Michelle Fowler has got to be the worst decision in the history of recasts. EastEnders' fans were delighted when they first heard that mouthy Michelle Fowler - a character from the early days - was heading back to the Square after twenty years but they were more than a little dubious when they discovered that the role would now be played by actress Jenna Russell. Could this character be played by anyone other than the original actress, Susan Tully, who had made Michelle Fowler so iconic in the first place?
Well we soon got our answer! Despite Jenna acting her socks off for the part, fans didn't take to the new Michelle, and while part of the reason was because the character wasn't played by Susan Tully, but Michelle Fowler #2 seemed to have undergone a complete personality transplant. This isn't so shocking as people do change over the years but these changes just didn't ring true of the Michelle Fowler viewers knew and remembered.
Gone was the feisty, gobby lady who thought nothing of taking on the likes of Grant Mitchell (mind you, there are some who'd say she underwent a personality transplant by getting it on with Mr. Mitchell before she left Walford all those years ago!) and in her place was a woman who had the personality of a dishcloth! Despite the old Michelle having a tongue every bit as acerbic as her mother Pauline's, and the two women regularly sporting the sucked-on-an-entire-lemon-grove look, Michelle had always wanted to be as far removed from her mum as possible. And here was the new Michelle trying to do everything 'like Mum did' from boiling shirts to making a beef and onion pie. Furthermore the bond that Michelle had with her best friend Sharon didn't seem to be as strong as it had been back in the old days which was quite disappointing, as the two women were more like sisters and their friendship was lovely to watch.
It's believed that Susan Tully was approached to reprise the role of Michelle Fowler, but as she retired from acting a long time ago and has no desire to return to the soap that made her a household name, the character had to be recast. Incidentally Susan is much happier on the other side of the camera as she is now a director and producer, and has even directed episodes of EastEnders. As it's now been proved that Susan Tully is the only actress who can successfully play Michelle Fowler, we think it's safe to say that we will not be seeing Chelle in Walford any time soon!
2. Fallon Carrington (Dynasty)
Pamela Sue Martin (1981-84) Emma Samms (1985-89, 1991)
When Dynasty first began back in 1981, the role of Blake Carrington's spoilt, self-centred daughter was played by Pamela Sue Martin. But after three years of starring in the glitzy American soap opera, Pamela Sue - who admitted that she had struggled with the whole fame phenomenon - decided to bow out in a move that shocked cast and crew. Joan Collins had publicly admitted that she thought Pamela Sue was crazy!
This meant that the hunt was on for a new actress to take over the role. The part eventually went to actress Emma Samms, who was known to American audiences due to her role in General Hospital as Holly Sutton but was relatively unfamiliar to British viewers - despite being a fellow Brit! Samms made her first appearance as Fallon Carrington during the Dynasty spin-off, The Colbys.
There was a bit of a mixed reaction to Emma Samms playing the role of Fallon. People magazine thought that she had successfully picked up where Pamela Sue had left off. But David Hofstede, author of What Were They Thinking? The 100 Dumbest Events in TV History believes that the recast was a flop, although he lay the blame at the producers and not at the actress. And the British thing did cause a bit of a problem for viewers because they couldn't get over the fact that Fallon now spoke with a completely different accent. And that she was a few inches shorter. And had a completely different physique! Another problem was that the character just didn't seem the same. Samms is believed to have said that she didn't watch hours of Pamela Sue playing Fallon because she wanted to interpret the character in her own way as actors naturally do.
Reviews might be mixed but as far as recasts go, the recasting of Fallon Carrington was not exactly disastrous. And Emma Samms did actually stay in the role a lot longer than the original actress and she did do a great job of playing Fallon but there's still a lot of people who are fans of Pamela Sue's version of the character.
3. Miss Ellie Ewing (Dallas)
Barbara Bel Geddes (1978-84, 1985-1990) Donna Reed (1984-85)
When Barbara Bel Geddes stepped down from her role as the Ewing matriarch and Donna Reed was cast as the new Miss Ellie, viewers (in Britain at least) were led to believe that the recast was only meant to be temporary as Bel Geddes had been suffering from ill health and was taking time out to recuperate. But it would appear that someone forgot to give Reed the memo...
When Donna Reed, an established actress who had starred in classics such as It's a Wonderful Life and From Here to Eternity, as well as starring in her own show The Donna Reed Show, took over the role, she was under the impression that it was on a permanent basis. And indeed there are insiders who claim that Bel Geddes had actually quit the role and wasn't just taking a break. But when Bel Geddes agreed to reprise the role that made her a household name, Reed was abruptly fired. The furious actress sued the production company for breach of contract, and tried unsuccessfully to prevent her season as Miss Ellie from being broadcast, but she later settled out of court. There were rumours of tensions behind the scenes between Reed and other cast members which might explain why Bel Geddes was very much in demand.
Nostalgia Pie liked Reed's portrayal of Miss Ellie and felt it was every bit as good as Bel Geddes version. But that doesn't seem to be a popular opinion as many viewers felt that Reed's Miss Ellie was way too glam and coiffed to be the homely, grandmotherly Miss Ellie that we all knew and loved. And we get that. We look at Reed's version of Miss Ellie and think that she resembles a Texan Peggy Mitchell! And incidentally, when Barbara Windsor took over the role of Peggy, she also insisted that her character glammed up a bit and looked more upmarket. But while it worked for Windsor, it didn't turn out well for Reed.
4. Lucy Beale (EastEnders)
Melissa Suffield (2004-10) Hettie Bywater (2012-2015)
Even though Melissa Suffield was the third actress to play Ian Beale's wayward daughter, Lucy, it is Suffield's incarnation of the character that is best remembered. When Lucy was played by Suffield, she was very much her mother's daughter and something of a mini Cindy: scheming, unrepentant... but there were flashes of kindness and she really loved her family, especially her brothers. Perhaps she should have been given the name Cindy instead of her half-sister! But despite acting her socks off for the part of Lucy Beale, Suffield was supposedly fired due to unruly behaviour, and Hetti Bywater was brought in to continue the role.
It's not known if it was at this stage that bosses decided to axe the character but Bywater's 'Lucy' was very different to Suffield's. This Lucy came across as older and less teen rebel (ironic as Bywater is actually younger than Suffield!) but she was more of a watered-down version of what Lucy used to be: less tough, and always speaking as though she were about to start crying. And even though the decision for Lucy to have an affair with resident chick-magnet, Max Branning, was obviously due to the writers and not the actress, fans really couldn't envisage the previous Lucy getting romantically involved with Max - not even to get back at her dad. Laugh in Max's face maybe bit not jump into bed with him!
By the time Lucy was killed-off in a classic EastEnders' whodunnit, viewers stopped caring about the character. It's just a pity the irritating Cindy jnr. wasn't written out at the same time too!
5. Cody Willis (Neighbours)
Amelia Frid (1989-91) Peta Brady (1993-96)
When Ramsay Street's Cody Willis left Erinsborough to go on a student exchange program in America, she looked about eleven years old and had a high pitched voice. When she returned from America nearly three years later, she'd morphed into an grunger, had corkscrew curls, and sounded as though she was smoking forty a day.
Peta Brady did a great job and played the role well - the problem was that in most people's minds it felt as though they were watching two different characters.
Out of all the soap recasts you've ever seen, which did you think just didn't work and why?
Photos: YouTube
Word cloud: Angel Noire
I also wasn't a fan of Emma Samms in the roll of Fallon. But she's a good actress. I think alot of us were just used to seeing Pamela Sue playing Fallon.
I've found that a lot of them time when a character gets recast, it's not just because the previous actor wants to leave/gets fired. Sometimes it's because the writers want to take the character into a new direction either darker/nicer/edgier/cooler or whatever. Sometimes it's more believable when the character is played by a new person. The new Michelle Fowler was such a drip. That was unbelievable enough but it would have been even more unbelievable if the character was played by the first actress.
I actually liked the more grown up version of Cody Willis. The younger version was irritating beyond belief. I could never understand why Todd preferred her to Melissa. But it's true they did seem like two different characters but then Peta Brady's version of Cody was older and had life changing experiences during her time away so she was never going to come back exactly the same person.
I never knew that Peggy was played by another actress. I watched Eastenders from way back when so I don't know why I can't remember the first actress who played her. And as for Sam, I'm glad that they didn't bring back Daniella Westbrook. I know that she was the first one but I think the new one is so much better.
I don't know about British and other shows but in America, recasting a character in a TV show is pretty much standard practice and we kind of get used to seeing alot of changes! But I admit it can be difficult for viewers when you have a regular character that's been in a show for years and is played by the same actor and then suddenly they're played by someone else. Adam Carrington and Ridge Forrester are two that come to mind.