Best/Worst 'long lost' family members of prime-time soaps

[GuidingLite]

Over the years of the prime-time soaps, they used some of the same staple story lines as daytime shows.....'Who's The Daddy', Back From The Dead, and 'Long-lost family member'.....

Who gets your vote for best and worst long-lost of each of the prime-time soaps of the 1980's? I'll list out the ones I recall - please add any characters that I miss....


Dallas:

Ray Krebbs - a fixture on the show since day one, but not revealed as a Ewing for several seasons
Jamie Ewing - showed up one day with a claim on Ewing Oil via her Daddy, Jason Ewing, the brother of Jock Ewing
Jack Ewing - showed up after his sister Jamie with the real scoop on Jason's claim to Ewing oil...
James Beaumont - turned out to be the first-born son of J.R. via his relationship with Vanessa Beaumont years before he and Sue Ellen married

Dynasty:

Adam Carrington - brought on board after Steven Carrington left town to give Blake another son
Amanda Carrington - brought on board after Fallon disappeared to give Blake another daughter
Dominique Devereaux - brought on in season 4 as a half-sister to Blake via their father Tom Carrington
Leslie Carrington - brought on after her father Ben Carrington returned to Denver to stake a claim on his father's will

The Colbys:

Scott - The son of Monica Colby is the only 'long-lost' I can think of that was introduced in the brief run of The Colbys

Falcon Crest:

Richard Channing - first believed to be Chase's half-brother, turns out he was stolen at birth from his mother Angela by his father Douglas and Douglas' lover Jacqueline (Chase's mother)
Father Tom - Julia's child via Carlo Agretti, making him Melissa's half-brother as well as Lance's.
Michael Channing - Richard's son via Cassandra Wilder, raised by Richard and Maggie after Cassandra's death

[Emerald Greens]

Best

Ray Krebbs there from the start it made sense.You just had to forget he had a fling with Lucy
Amanda Carrington -my favorite Carrington child.
Richard Channing -one of the best characters

Worst

Adam Carrington -I know he had a lot of fans but I never cared for him
Leslie Carrington -I never saw the point to her character

I forget her name I think maybe it was Lorriane but Richard Channing had a daughter but they killed her off. I thought that was a big mistake.

[GuidingLite]

Lorraine was Richard's stepdaughter....we never met her mother as far as I recall, and I don't remember if she was dead or not.....I liked her with Lance....I thought her death was very sad....

I have to agree on Leslie Carrington, especially after the complete about-face with her character between season 7 and season 8....she came on board angry with her father, Ben, but in the long-run was able to reconcile with him...she seemed kind, genuine....playful....but then in season 8 she was written SO differently....ruthless, deceitful, greedy, she went after Jeff Colby despite his being married, she went after Sean despite his being married,....she was rude and cruel to almost everyone....and that just wasn't the way she was initially written....

I loved Richard Channing.....from day one of his appearance until the end.....he was such a complex character.....Ray Krebbs was a logical choice to make Jock's son, but yeah that fling with Lucy was always in the back of my mind....;0)

[Emerald Greens]

I had looked forward to the Leslie character .I liked the actress Terri Garber in a couple of the North and South miniseries,she played the wicked Ashton Main so well and I thought she was beautiful but the way they zigzagged the character it's as if they couldn't make up their mind.

I did also like Dominique .Diahann Carroll .Maybe not my favorite character but I liked her as an answer to Alexis.

I loved it when David Selby joined FC as Richard. Then years later I caught up on Dark Shadows and just adored him as Quentin Collins .I wish that soap had lasted how interesting it would be now!

[GHKissOff]

For me the best who added to the show were"

Ray Krebs: Already in the cast, and made sense he would be revealed to be a Ewing forget the affair with Lucy, the writers did.

Amanda Carrington: Great character from the moment she came on.

Adam Carrington: Love him or hate him he did shake things up in the Carrington family.

Domonique Devereux: Loved her, she was a strong business woman with conviction, she and Blake made a great brother and sister team.

Richard Channing: David Selby added something to the cast of Falcon Crest when he joined the cast great addition.

In Between didn't love and didn't hate

Leslie Carrington: Great actress and the character started out great but did a 180.

Jamie Ewing: She had potential but the character never really took off same with her brother.

Worst Family additions

Jame Beaumont: I think there is a reason why this character wasn't mentioned or brought on the new Dallas. He dominated when he came on and wasn't the least bit interesting.

[Emerald Greens]

Ray already being part of the show made it a natural fit .Jock and Bobby liked him and JR looked down on him(of course)and it made him resent all of them more. The fact that Jock often sided with JR didn't seem to make him any less jealous.I think you can bring on characters ,you almost have to at a certain point but it helped here because there was already a built in relationship with all of them.

I may remember it wrong but I think it was actually Larry Hagman's idea to make Ray Jock's son as they were thinking about writing Ray out before that.

[GuidingLite]

I loved Jack and Jamie Ewing.....I think both characters should have stuck around longer than they did....and I also wish Jamie had had a baby (via cliff) that Jack raised (off-screen) after Jamie died....another Barnes heir.....it could have come to light in the new Dallas series....an ally for Pamela and perhaps a rival for John Ross's affections (rather than Emma, who I never cared for as a character).....having it be a boy would have raised the former issue of the hereditary disease passed to males in the Barnes family (unless they just forgot that issue from the history of the original show)....I also so wish they'd been able to convince Victoria Principal to return as Pam rather than having killed her off the way they did...I realize it allowed for the Barnes Global takeover whereas Christopher now owned 1/3 of the company as did Pamela.....but I still wish Pam had returned....imagine the storyline that could have created for Bobby, Anne, and Pam.....and if Pam had given in to her soft-spot for her brother Cliff and taken back her 1/3 of Barnes Global/Ewing Global from Christopher and sided with Cliff for control of the company.....she also could have had another child (off-screen) whereas when she ran into the tanker she had just called Bobby and told him that the doctor had said she could have a baby now after years of being told she couldn't carry one to term.....the new show, while I enjoyed seeing Dallas return to television, was FULL of missed opportunities.....

You do recall it correctly that Larry Hagman campaigned for Steve Kanaly's Ray Krebbs to be Jock's fourth son...rather than write him off the show.....I've read that as well.

[Emerald Greens]

Thanks I thought that was the case but I wasn't sure.

It is too bad they didn't do more with Jack and Jamie and keep them around. I don't know why it happens they bring on more family and then don't do more with them as if they are afraid they will eclipse other characters or something along those lines.Not that it would have happened in this case but if they bring on more family they should use them better. It would only make things more interesting.

The more recent Dallas made a mistake with characters like Emma and Elena making them more central at the expense of the legacy characters.They needed to give them time to grow on the viewers before they made them more the focus .I however had the feeling they were not that well liked and that might not have changed.

[bill75]

I have seen a couple people mention Leslie Carrington on Dynasty. There was no point to the character other than to cause angst for Alexis (eventually.) I love Terri Garber who would later go on to one of "my" other dearly departed soaps Santa Barbara. She played the dynamic with Ben quite well but after Ben left the character was just all over the place.


Another Dynasty character - Amanda Carrington. This character was indeed a Fallon replacement when Fallon "died" and thus had no real use. However I must confess that Catherine Oxenberg was quite something to look at. When she was replaced I was like WTF? Then 7 eps later Amanda was gone never to be mentioned again. Not fitting for the daughter of Blake and Alexis.

[GuidingLite]

I liked Leslie at first, when she first appeared in season 7.....but in Season 8....when she became gold-digging corporate tramp trying to 'be' Alexis.....I just lost interest in her completely....and I was not at all sorry to see them write her out before Season 9.

Amanda was another story. I didn't love the second actress, but Amanda was really the 'Lucy Ewing' of Dynasty....the pretty, kind hearted rich girl who had no real purpose in the family. Fallon eventually helped run Denver-Carrington while Blake ran for office, Adam wavered back and forth between D-C and ColbyCo, Steven did the same, but Amanda only ever did some P.R. work for Blake in my recollection. Had the fire at La Mirage not been a way to get rid of the set, storyline, etc. - it's too bad Amanda didn't take over the rebuilding of the hotel as a new 'purpose' for herself in Denver. Jeff Colby should have had his 'one night stand' with Amanda, not Leslie....and that should have impacted the sister relationship between she and Fallon in season 8 (had she stuck around) when Jeff and Fallon returned to Denver.

[shadamlovin]

I like Ray Krebs as a good long lost sibling to the Ewings. It especially made since Gary was going to be gone for the long term w KL. Although it kinda creepy to think about Ray and Lucy in the beginning. I can overlook that much.

I also like the Ewing cousins Jamie and Jack. I'm not sure if this came before or after Dallas the early years, but it would make sense for Jason's children to be around at some point. I also thought they had a nice introduction to the show Jack through April. (She became one of my favorite characters.) Then later Jamie. I also like Jamie with Cliff. I can agree with other posters that they wrote them out way too. Although I'm not sure if they were around during the "dream season or not".

I wasn't a fan of the James Beaumont as JR's long lost son. I believe at that time with a lot of the original cast leaving the show and wanting to infuse new (younger) blood they want to create a young JR type for the family business. If Dallas was a daytime soap they would have just soap aged John Ross to get away with it, but as a nighttime soap they could so they created this long lost love of JR with a child. I just found it hard to be invested in a young long love and long lost son story with JR with it all happening off screen. I believe as long as the audience had known JR, that the shelf life had expired on introducing a long lost love story and son for JR especially out of the blue. I also thought the character just brought nothing to the table no matter how hard they tried. (Just my opinion, but being pretty young myself I will admit to liking James and Shelly at the time.) Running away for that sentence.

Dynasty liked all of Alexis and Blake's long-lost children story. Adam and Amanda were my two favorites. On E Behind Dynasty the actor that played Adam said the wanted a son that could be ruthless and in a way just like his mother. So that is why he was introduced. I can agree on Amanda not having much story other than being Daddy's little girl, but I did like her on the show.

Falcon Crest, I will say it was a strange twist for Richard being Angela's son. Although I was still young didn't quite get the twist, but I liked Richard character away so I loved it. I also liked Richard and Maggie together...I always viewed both Micheal and Kevin as Richard and Maggie's sons.

[Lucky1138]

Richard turning out to be Angela's son was a great twist because they were enemies that hated each other. They wound up loving each other and it solidified the Channing family even more.

[savytabby]

Interesting thread.

ICAM about Ray Krebbs from Dallas (never knew it was LH's idea) and Richard Channing from Falcon Crest.

Loved Jack Ewing and loved him with Priscilla Presley's Jenna after Bobby "died." Liked Ray and Jenna the next season, but it wasn't the same chemistry as Jack and Jenna.

Don't remember the character of Leslie Carrington. Agree about Adam and Amanda, and even Diahann Carroll's character.

This thread certainly brings back the memories!

[soapgirl12]

The absolute best that was ever done was Paige on Knots Landing. Great storyline, and good back history between Greg and Mack.

[Jagger1966]

One sudden family member that bored me to tears was FC's Ben Agretti who showed up in season 8. He was so unnecessary as evidenced by the fact that when season 9 premiered he was nowhere to be found along with Pilar's entire family. I also couldn't stand J.R.'s long lost son James and April's sister Michelle mostly because they seemed to eat up much of the show.