Characters Changed By Re-writes/Revisions/Recasting

[GuidingLite]

On the ATWT thread there was a question about what characters you think were really changed with re-writes or revisions to how the character had been portrayed prior.

Would love to hear about that based on GL characters.

For me, one would be Amanda Spaulding - when she was brought back to town in 1995 after many years in California.

Amanda was, when introduced, a shy and 'fragile' woman living with her adoptive mother, Lucille Wexler. She had no idea she was the daughter of Brandon Spaulding (in fact she first thought she was Alan Spaulding's daughter, but then learned later her father was actually Alan and Alexandra's father, Brandon). Her two marriages failed, but Amanda remained a relatively good person. Then she had an affair with her biological mother's second husband, prior to leaving the show.

Upon return, Amanda (recast by then) was a bitter, angry, devious woman who had, while in California, run an escort service and was known as The Malibu Madam....she'd also evaded paying taxes (which came back to haunt her later on).....

When back in Sprinfield; Amanda tried (unsuccessfully) to seduce Ross Marler away from his wife Blaker....she tried to frame Blake for locking her in a storage shed (Blake did, but Amanda got out, had drinks with Dinah Marler, then locked herself back in and blamed Blake when she collapsed from hypothermia). Amanda plotted and schemed against her family and anyone else who 'stood in her way', eventually marrying Spaulding family nemesis Roger Thorpe and leaving town, never to be seen again.

To me, the character would have been better off (even when recast) being a Spaulding with a conscience - and at the worst an 'anti-heroine' rather than the complete and utter turnaround she did....it really wrecked the character for me....

[Emerald Greens]

I agree that was the biggest head scratcher to me.I don't know but I would suspect different writers and a different head writer.I don't always keep track of that kind of thing especially back then but they wanted to do something different with the character but I don't think it was a good idea.I didn't even find Amanda instersting with the changes.

Changes I didn't like were making good guys Floyd Parker and Ben Reade killers. I never accepted that. Floyd was onscreen the whole time when they did that to him. Ben they brought back after being offscreen and had grown up and made him a serial killer. I just hated what they were doing.Those are not about recast except Ben casted asn a young adult but it's a change in character thrown in there for shock value.

I had a lot of trouble getting used to the last Michelle recast. I don't think she changes drastically but I struggled to see her as Michelle but eventually went with it. But to be fair I don't think it was a big change in the character herslf

Ed Bauer was a more likable verion than the first one I saw (Mart Hewitt? not sure if that's hos name) but Peter Simon played a less abrassive Ed Baurer.

[GuidingLite]

I agree that Peter Simon was my favorite Ed - he was just less 'intense' than the others that I saw over the years.

The Floyd is the killer thing didn't set right with me either....like making Holly the Nursery Rhyme stalker....WHY??? We were supposed to like these characters!!!! I understood the 'motive' of Holly being upset that Fletcher took Meg away from her, but kidnapping the children of the town???? And with Floyd - they should have made the killer one of the Galahads, trying to frame Lujack for the crimes.....not Floyd because he was in love with Beth secretly....that was dumb.

Poor Ben Reade...that definitely was another disappointment. The entire story was just sad.

[Emerald Greens]

Yes Holly as the stalker was strange. I don’t mind major characters having a breakdown of sorts and getting better but it’s hard for viewers to get past a kidnapping. I think it mainly helped that she was a longtime character and viewers new there was much more to her. Sadly I think Meg was forgotten at the end Holly left with Ed and Fletcher returned to take Alex away from too many memories . All fine but what about Meg ?
Floyd’s stronger ties were being written off if I remember correctly but come on he wasn’t a killer.

Ben hadn’t been around for years so I think he was sacrificed for a story. I never could accept it .

[Friz4ever]

Krista tesareu was the true mindy. The other two mindys never sparkled the way she did.

[Emerald Greens]

Agreed. I was happy she returned at the end and she and Rick were finally together.

[supersage]

Unfortunately, there were too many mis-writes on GL. While there were many through the years, one of the biggest was Alan Michael during the last years. He was made younger and many if the relationships forgotten. Didn’t care for Michelle after the last recast, Roger either. Amanda was a disappointment.

[ABeth]

Beth was never the same after the recast. Agree on the last recast for Michelle.

[GuidingLite]

I watched the introduction of the Four Musketeers in the early 80s....I loved Judi Evans as Beth....she had such a vulnerable quality about her......

When Beth Chamberlain took on the role I had to warm up to her....not because she's not talented....but because Beth was much 'changed' as a character. The vulnerability was gone....maybe others accepted that as just character growth...maturing.....and perhaps it could be argued that after Bradley raping her, being blinded, Lujack's death, being presumed dead, after being held an amnesiac, her abusive post-Philip boyfriend in California, having your young daughter shoot and kill him, getting swept away in a flash-flood, being amnesiac again, and everything else Beth endured over the years, it might harden a person....but when the writers had her marry Alan...and get pregnant by him...and hold Gus captive in a cabin...Beth having a sexual relationship with Coop after her daughter had, Beth being with Bill Lewis, who then married her daughter.....the writers REALLY sullied Beth over the years......and at the end, I didn't like the character at all any longer....the writers took an amazing 'survivor' and turned her into a psychotic shrew....

[ABeth]

GuidingLite Beth became a completely different character.

[GuidingLite]

Yes, she certainly did....and not a likeable one. I realize being presumed dead twice by drowning (once in a lake, once in a flash flood) losing your husband in a house fire, and being under the thumb of Alan Spaulding for years would take a toll on a girl, but.....Beth was just not 'Beth' any longer after she came back from Arizona....until the end. She just got worse and worse over time.

[Emerald Greens]

Beth was never the same after the recast. Agree on the last recast for Michelle.

I have a hard time seeing the orginal Beth married to Alan and having his child.I think somehting was really lost with the recast but it's not against Beth Chamberlin but she was a very different Beth.

[msan1025]

I'm not old enough to remember the original Amanda, but I do remember reading the character's history and not being able to reconcile the 2 very different characters they seemed to be. I would have preferred that they left her as Alan's daughter because there was literally no payoff for changing her paternity to Brandon. It was supposed to be a big shock that was going to shake up the dynamic of the Spaulding family, but then she was gone again about a year later. Then she's mentioned in passing when Roger died, but did anyone say if they called her when Alan died?

Ben Reade was such a disappointing turn. They basically turned him in to a short-term character who just happened to have a history with current, relevant characters. He should have been best friends with Bill and Michelle and instead, he was written to be some college douche bag who ended up murdering women because he had trauma from being controlled by them. It was stupid and disappointing. And for him to die and then we don't even know if Fletcher even knows he's gone until the last episode when Fletcher shows up for Alexandra.

Alan-Michael seemed weird to me when he was brought back the last time. The best description I had ever heard of Alan-Michael was that he "had the heart of a Bauer, but the morals of a Spaulding." He seemed to be related to neither when he came back to town. And the way we were expected to forget that, for a hot minute, there was a possibility that Alan-Michael might have been Marina's dad before they were sleeping together?

[GuidingLite]

Amanda 2.0 was NOTHING like Amanda Original Recipe...certainly O.R. Amanda had troubles....and yes, she did have an affair with her mother's husband....but the woman that cruised back into Springfield in the 90s was just SOOOOOOOO different from the one that left.