As a viewer of a lot of soap operas, I’ve seen many actors come and go, and shows for that matter. This entry discusses casting spoilers at Days of Our Lives and General Hospital. If you are spoiler free, and haven’t heard this information wow. If you don’t want to know, don’t read this entry.
The big casting news of the last few days is that two Days of Our Lives performers whose characters are members of core families have chosen to leave (Jay Kenneth Johnson and Shelley Hennig) and one actor who played a member of a core family (Mark Hapka) has been written out of the story. Basically the quadrangle of Melanie, Nathan, Stephanie and Philip is now down to just Melanie. Well doesn’t that just suck or not. It depends on what interests you personally. Nathan is a Horton, Maggie’s grandson, Stephanie is a Brady grandchild, Philip is Kiriakis and Kate’s last on screen child. That’s a lot of ties to the older cast, which is part of what makes this frustrating. Nathan and Stephanie (at least as an adult) are rather new characters as they first appeared in the last 5 years. Philip though has been around for a decade. Love him or hate him, we saw him in high school, and now he’s all grown up taking the reins in the business world. Some viewers are upset by this, and I am too. They make Chloe give birth to Philip’s baby and now we lose Philip. I’ve liked Chloe and Philip since they were in high school. That’s not fair, but soap operas are far from that. Even if they would recast the part, it wouldn’t change things. WAHHHH! And no the WAH wasn’t totally facetious. There are also people who were into other permutations of the pairings and all of us are losing out on seeing.
These changes wipe out much of their 20/30s crowd of characters whose lives do not revolve around children. Yes, Sami and EJ are there, but Sami is the mother of a teenager, so even while young she may not appeal to the same people who are interested in the comings and goings of that age group obviously.
The big casting news in the General Hospital fandom is that Becky Herbst aka Liz Webber is out and it is storyline-dictated, which is per ABC: SID. Of course, I just love the term storyline-dictated, the sarcasm is dripping through the screen right now. A lot of fans aren’t happy about this while others are celebrating. My initial feeling was DAMN, my next was not again. Seriously if she doesn’t “die”, I’d be stunned. Usually characters don’t leave General Hospital with a happy ending; they are killed for maximum impact.
The character of Elizabeth and Becky Herbst, I would define as a young veteran character/actor if that term makes any sense. The character and actress has been on camera except for maternity leaves for more than a ten year period even if she is under the age of 40. Before they were dumping older performers with long tenures and now they are getting rid of the only member of the younger GH cast from the 1990s that didn’t come and go from the show. Liz was the familiar face in a sea of recasts, as she stayed. As a viewer, I appreciate that consistency.
With this change, some may say it is only one character. Well yes Liz Webber is only one character, but she’s related to most of the canvas. People grew up watching her and saw her go from a bad girl to a good girl to a mother and a nurse. This isn’t some person who was on the show for 2 years and dies, but someone who is related to the original core of the program. Whether one prefers one of her pairings over the other or doesn't like the character at all, she does have a long history on GH.
I’ve seen comments made by people throughout the net that these casting changes are the end of the road for them. When their favorites are gone so are they. While I don’t advocate people stopping their soap watching I understand it. It happens; I don’t feel that there is anything wrong with saying goodbye if that is what feels right. To those who are moving on, remember the good, try to forget the bad and hope you find something else in the entertainment realm to enjoy.
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