Salem International: Casting Notes: Arrivals & Departures

[Chick2Chic]

[Silver Raven]

"Temporarily"

[ByaNose]

Tyler Christopher is great in the role as he was on GH. I’m not sure what the real story is but Brandon Barash is a bear and a half. He’s so different then Tyler. He will totally kill in the role while rocking the designer suits that Chad always wear. That said, with the Marci Miller departure and the Katie Mansi arrival and the Billy Flynn departure my head in spinning. Now, we have TC leaving and BB coming. I need a chart of the timeline with who will work with whom?

Edited September 20, 2018 by ByaNose

[enchantingmonkey]

So Tyler Christopher is off to rehab?  

Curious to see what Brandon Barash will do with the role but that won't happen, for what, 6 months?  It should have been given to an actor with much more charisma to begin with.  

[Silver Raven]

So apparently we're going to be seeing Leo's mother, who will be played by Judith Chapman, who played Greg Rikaart's mother on Y&R.

[boes]

45 minutes ago, Silver Raven said:

So apparently we're going to be seeing Leo's mother, who will be played by Judith Chapman, who played Greg Rikaart's mother on Y&R.

Well, she's pretty wonderful IMO, so finally there may be a reason to give a shit about Leo.....

She played Angelica Deveraux back in early 90's, too bad she wasn't available before and we would have been spared Morgan Fairchild.

[rcc]

Y&R's loss is Days' gain. Judith is a very good actress and I agree too bad she wasn't available before. Morgan was terrible

[howmanywords]

That's a terrific casting coupe! Judith may actually make scenes with Leo more interesting.

[Kitty Redstone]

Is Brian Datillo still on this show?  Hopefully so, because I'm loving him in the Big Bonnie/Baby Bonnie story, but could have sworn that BD said sometime back that Days was letting him go.  It's hard to keep track of the comings and goings since everything is filmed so far in advance. 

[WendyCR72]

Nice to see Judith Chapman will be back on Days. I just wish she was Anjelica and Morgan Fairchild's awful version was a fake. Oh, well.

[peachmangosteen]

7 hours ago, Kitty Redstone said:

Is Brian Datillo still on this show?  Hopefully so, because I'm loving him in the Big Bonnie/Baby Bonnie story, but could have sworn that BD said sometime back that Days was letting him go.  It's hard to keep track of the comings and goings since everything is filmed so far in advance. 

I've been wondering about this, too. I know he definitely said he was done awhile back, so I'm confused. But yea since they film so far in advance it's impossible to keep track of things like this.

Could someone provide a list of who exactly is leaving and coming in the upcoming months?

[buffynut]

Here's a link to a thread where the 1st post keeps being updated as they learn of upcoming casting changes: https://daytimeroyaltyonline.com/casting-news-rumors-t15522.html

[carrier76]

I didn’t know Eve was leaving. Huh.

[Kitty Redstone]

Well, shit.  That link (thank you, buffynut!) says that BD exits in December. 

The shooting schedule for this show is ridiculous.  The casting news goes into April. 

[Jaded]

21 minutes ago, carrier76 said:

I didn’t know Eve was leaving. Huh.

She leaves and then comes back at a later time. Missy said in an interview that Jack is back around New Year's so people were wondering if him returning has anything to do with Eve somehow. 

[peachmangosteen]

3 hours ago, Jaded said:

She leaves and then comes back at a later time. Missy said in an interview that Jack is back around New Year's so people were wondering if him returning has anything to do with Eve somehow. 

It says on that page that @buffynut linked to that Jack is back in November.

[Kitty Redstone]

Was Billy Flynn fired or did he decide not to renew his contract?

[coffee drinker]

On 9/14/2018 at 10:48 PM, prodigalchicken said:

Of call the redemption storylines in soap operas, I think Jack's might have been the best and most thorough. They didn't pretend the character did nothing wrong, they let the character feel the horrific guilt he should have felt, they let the character admit that he had actually done this terrible thing, and they let the character apologize to his victim while never, ever forgetting what he had done to her.  Kayla and Jack's awkwardness around each other feels natural to me. She does know that he is a different person from the man who committed that crime, but she also knows it still happened. And he recognizes that, too.  They will never, ever truly be friends. She has forgiven him, and he has mostly forgiven himself, but it's still a thing that happened. I like that the actors played it that way even if the writers forgot about that event.

It has always irked me the way subsequent writers turned the character in to a clownish buffoon in the later years.  MA excelled at the as the "town pariah" who struggled believing he was good enough for Jennifer Rose.  Jack/MA was my favorite in that pairing.  He and Missy were wonderful, but I quit the show when they fired him back in 1992.  How quickly they moved Jennifer on to that Hawk character, and I love J. Eddie Peck, but not as Jennifer love interest.   

Wasn't it Judith Chapman playing Angelica during this time?  I seem to remember she and MA had some great scenes during that initial storyline.  

[boes]

On 10/5/2018 at 8:49 PM, Kitty Redstone said:

Was Billy Flynn fired or did he decide not to renew his contract?

He's the one who stepped away, as I understand it.

[Kitty Redstone]

Thank you, Boes.  That's what I thought, but I was reading another board that someone here linked for spoilers and a poster mentioned in passing that he was fired two months after renewing his contract.  It was late, so maybe I read it wrong and it was a different actor.

[Silver Raven]

I read a rumor that Stephen Nichols is back filming but I can't find anything that supports that rumor.

[JBC344]

I think he is back. An article popped up on my feed but I didn't read it. Just the headline announcing his return. 

[Black Knight]

On 10/7/2018 at 11:57 AM, coffee drinker said:

He and Missy were wonderful, but I quit the show when they fired him back in 1992.  How quickly they moved Jennifer on to that Hawk character, and I love J. Eddie Peck, but not as Jennifer love interest.  

Hawk was introduced at the very start of Jack and Jen's marriage, and never was any threat. He came on as a con man targeting Jack, and he developed some feelings for Jen, but she never was remotely interested in him and the show never played it as a real possibility. Hawk was a villain from day one without much in the way of anything redeeming presented about him - not just because of his con of Jack but because of the danger he posed to his half-sister Molly - and he was exposed fairly quickly by Jack and sent to prison. Matt Ashford was on the show all through this; he hadn't been fired. You might be thinking of when Jack briefly left town due to Hawk's trickery, but that wasn't Ashford being fired; it was a vacation. Ashford wasn't dumped until the following year, 1993, and that's when Jen was actually paired with someone else, Peter Blake.

[Kitty Redstone]

Hopefully it's true that SN is back filming!  This show isn't the same with Steve, and having him and Jack and Adrienne together at the same time would be so awesome.

[DisneyBoy]

Just read that there might be a new EJ currently filming. Search it someone - I lost the link and gotta go.

...he looks much younger than JS though. Maybe they're undoing the SORAS?

[Silver Raven]

I have a feeling it's just a guy in a wheelchair whose face we never see.

[JBC344]

2 hours ago, Silver Raven said:

I have a feeling it's just a guy in a wheelchair whose face we never see.

That is what I'm thinking. It will be a heavily bandaged EJ. I'm totally ok with this. Sami taking a bandaged EJ back to where her and the kids are living to recuperate. 

Totally fine with me. Sami can still come back periodically while EJ is at home with the kids. 

[DisneyBoy]

Here's the link:

 

https://soapdirt.com/days-of-our-lives-spoilers-ej-dimera-alive-trey-baxter-replaces-james-scott/

[WendyCR72]

On 10/8/2018 at 7:24 PM, Tasha Brand said:

I read a rumor that Stephen Nichols is back filming

Please let this be true!

[Apprentice79]

7 hours ago, WendyCR72 said:

Please let this be true!

Steve, Jack and Adrienne having scenes together will be divine. If only they would have found a decent Jo recast to complete the Johnson family.   It has been years since the whole family was together on the show. 

[tribeca]

12 hours ago, JBC344 said:

That is what I'm thinking. It will be a heavily bandaged EJ. I'm totally ok with this. Sami taking a bandaged EJ back to where her and the kids are living to recuperate. 

Totally fine with me. Sami can still come back periodically while EJ is at home with the kids. 

How old are Sami’s kids?

arent Johnny and Allie the same age as Ciara?  They should be in college.  Not sure about Sidney’s age.  

[Jaded]

That supposed EJ is 25 yrs old. He has blonde hair and kind of looks like Kristen and Peter. I don't think it's EJ and all the speculation about it possibly being him seems to be centered around that picture from the mag.

Edited October 11, 2018 by Jaded

[JBC344]

51 minutes ago, tribeca said:

How old are Sami’s kids?

arent Johnny and Allie the same age as Ciara?  They should be in college.  Not sure about Sidney’s age.  

Ciara was SORASED, but not Allie, Johnny, and Sydney. The twins are about 11/12, Sydney is about 9. 

[Black Knight]

Yeah, there's no way this dude is EJ. The only reason to recast that character is to reunite him and send him off-canvas with Sami when AS's current guest stint is over, and why would they recast him with a 25-year-old for that? It's way too visually jarring, especially with Chandler around as Sami's son. If they ever do recast EJ to give EJami a happily-ever-after they will cast someone in AS's age range.

I think Jaded is on to something and this guy will be a biological relative of Kristen and Peter.

[JBC344]

2 hours ago, Black Knight said:

Yeah, there's no way this dude is EJ. The only reason to recast that character is to reunite him and send him off-canvas with Sami when AS's current guest stint is over, and why would they recast him with a 25-year-old for that? It's way too visually jarring, especially with Chandler around as Sami's son. If they ever do recast EJ to give EJami a happily-ever-after they will cast someone in AS's age range.

I think Jaded is on to something and this guy will be a biological relative of Kristen and Peter.

Biological relative of Peter and Kristen? Seems like a strange time to introduce a blood relative of theirs. Last I remember they were the last of the Blake's which is why they went to live with Stefano and Celeste. 

Unless Celeste hid this person as a favor to Rachel.  

[QueenSerena]

On 10/5/2018 at 10:49 PM, Kitty Redstone said:

Was Billy Flynn fired or did he decide not to renew his contract?

From what I read, it seemed that he decided to renew but was then written out at the end of his first 13-week cycle (under the new deal). Seemingly because Kate Mansi didn't want to extend her brief run.

[Kitty Redstone]

Thank you, Queen Serena.  In a way that's surprising, as BF is so talented and Chad could do just fine without Abigail.  Oh well.  I'm hoping that with both Chad and Abby gone maybe poor JJ will get a story.  Dude's been floating aimlessly for far too long.

[Black Knight]

22 hours ago, JBC344 said:

Biological relative of Peter and Kristen? Seems like a strange time to introduce a blood relative of theirs. Last I remember they were the last of the Blake's which is why they went to live with Stefano and Celeste. 

Unless Celeste hid this person as a favor to Rachel.  

Or he's Peter's son. Stacy Haiduk is 50, OriginalRecipeKristen Eileen Davidson is 59, and Jason Brooks is 52, after all. I know we're not seeing JB again - just pointing out it'd hardly raise eyebrows to learn that Kristen has a 25-year-old biological nephew via her brother. Jennifer had JJ after she and Peter broke up, and Casey Moss is 24, so it's only fudging with the timeline slightly for Peter to have impregnated another woman post-breakup. Chad will be gone soon, so Stefan will need a new rival within the family (and they will never have EJ there without Sami, so he's out). With Kristen around, adding her nephew as that rival makes a lot of sense.

[JBC344]

1 hour ago, Black Knight said:

Or he's Peter's son. Stacy Haiduk is 50, OriginalRecipeKristen Eileen Davidson is 59, and Jason Brooks is 52, after all. I know we're not seeing JB again - just pointing out it'd hardly raise eyebrows to learn that Kristen has a 25-year-old biological nephew via her brother. Jennifer had JJ after she and Peter broke up, and Casey Moss is 24, so it's only fudging with the timeline slightly for Peter to have impregnated another woman post-breakup. Chad will be gone soon, so Stefan will need a new rival within the family (and they will never have EJ there without Sami, so he's out). With Kristen around, adding her nephew as that rival makes a lot of sense.

Good point.  All the more reason to bring Benjy's son to the show.  He could want to destroy the Dimeras for Benjy's death.  It would also give Steve and Kayla a "grandchild" to interact with, especially with Joey gone. 

Bonus points if they bring back Cameron.  He and Benjy can vow revenge for not only their life circumstances but for Benjy and Lexi's deaths, and Theo's paralysis.

[Apprentice79]

10 hours ago, JBC344 said:

Good point.  All the more reason to bring Benjy's son to the show.  He could want to destroy the Dimeras for Benjy's death.  It would also give Steve and Kayla a "grandchild" to interact with, especially with Joey gone. 

Bonus points if they bring back Cameron.  He and Benjy can vow revenge for not only their life circumstances but for Benjy and Lexi's deaths, and Theo's paralysis.

I want Benjy back from the dead.  He should never have been killed  off for plot-driven reasons. Plus, Benjy was such an important part of Stayla's history.  The deaf storyline is my favorite Stayla story.

Edited October 13, 2018 by Apprentice79

[JBC344]

3 hours ago, Apprentice79 said:

I want Benjy back from the dead.  He should never have been killed  off for plot-driven reasons. Plus, Benjy was such an important part of Stayla's history.  The deaf storyline is my favorite Stayla story.

Amen.  It was incredibly short sighted to kill off Benjy, especially after just bringing him back as a grown adult.  I would of loved to see Steve and Kayla interact more with him, their "first child".  Would of also been great to get Carrie back for scenes with Benjy.  They were always great as cousins or more aptly uncle and niece.

[Apprentice79]

7 hours ago, JBC344 said:

Amen.  It was incredibly short sighted to kill off Benjy, especially after just bringing him back as a grown adult.  I would of loved to see Steve and Kayla interact more with him, their "first child".  Would of also been great to get Carrie back for scenes with Benjy.  They were always great as cousins or more aptly uncle and niece.

Carrie and Benjy being kidnapped by Stefano was also a good story. 

What a missed opportunity to not have Benjy interacting with Lexie, Tony, Peter, Kristen and  Chad over the years.  Benjy's son Steven Hawke and Theo could have been best friends in addition to being cousins. Benjy interacting with Stefanie and Joey, Stayla's kids, even Tripp could have bonded with him. 

Cameron should have been Stefano's son with Celeste and Lexie's only full sibling.  I thought that the show was going to reveal that, but, they did not do it. The story wrote itself.  I am still perplexed that they did not do it. The Stefano/Celeste dynamic was so fascinating. Celeste's bond with Caroline was awesome as well. 

I miss Tanya Boyd. Does anybody know how she is doing?  I know that she had some health issues. I hope that she is fine and doing well wherever she is..

Edited October 14, 2018 by Apprentice79

[howmanywords]

7 hours ago, JBC344 said:

Amen.  It was incredibly short sighted to kill off Benjy, especially after just bringing him back as a grown adult.  I would of loved to see Steve and Kayla interact more with him, their "first child".  Would of also been great to get Carrie back for scenes with Benjy.  They were always great as cousins or more aptly uncle and niece.

Not just that but i absolutely hated HOW he was killed and the stuff leading up to it. Some things over the years I can remember so clearly. Steve and Bo finding Benjy's body will always be one of the saddest death scenes for me. There was so much potential there.

Edited October 14, 2018 by howmanywords

[nilyank]

22 minutes ago, Apprentice79 said:

Cameron should have been Stefano's son with Celeste and Lexie's only full sibling.  I thought that the show was going to reveal that, but, they did not do it. The story wrote itself.  I am still perplexed that they did not do it. The Stefano/Celeste dynamic was so fascinating. Celeste's bond with Caroline was awesome as well. 

I miss Tanya Boyd. Does anybody know how she is doing?  I know that she had some health issues. I hope that she is fine and doing well wherever she is..

I think if Tanya Boyd was able to come back to play Celeste at that time, they would have eventually revealed that Cameron was his son. Then they could have used ton of history and flashbacks for that to happen.

[JBC344]

Originally I was ok with Cameron not being Stefano's because I thought it would of been a little too much to have Celeste hide and give up two children that she had with Stefano.  But since Cameron and his history as a storyline essentially went nowhere I actually now wouldn't of minded him being Stefano's son.  I did appreciate that they matched his conception with the established history of Celeste and the Dimeras.  Cameron was conceived in the intervening years of Kristen and Peter going off to college but before Hope came to live with Celeste at Maison Blanche.

I happened to go on a fishing expedition on google to see if I could find any updates on Tanya Boyd, unfortunately I didn't get anywhere.  I know there was the report that the reason she didn't reprise her role as Celeste during the Lexie death storyline was because she had a stroke.  But then we got that follow up report saying that it wasn't true and Tanya was scheduled on another project.  Who knows what the real truth is, I just hope Tanya is doing ok, wherever she is.

I wouldn't mind Beverly Todd coming back as Celeste, she is a fine talented actress who unfortunately wasn't given much to do when she last played Celeste.  If the writers bring her back for a possible Caroline death storyline I just hope they give the character something great to work with no matter what actress is playing her.

[Silver Raven]

Tyler Christopher won't be returning.  No word on if Brandon Barash is a permanent recast.

Edited October 21, 2018 by Silver Raven

[MsTree]

^^^...and is rehab why he won't be returning??

[Kitty Redstone]

Huh,  I wonder if it was a mutual decision or if one or the other ended things.  Whatever happened, I hope TC has found comfort in the decision and that it helps in his recovery.

That said, the character is a mess.  They should have never made him obsessed with Abigail.  Brandon Barash is the one person who might just be able to rehabilitate Stefan.  He made Johnny sympathetic on GH, anyway. even when he had shitty writing.

[DisneyBoy]

They keep trying to redo Stefano's fixation on Marlena. Deimos was the same way with Nicole, you'll recall. At least Stefan didn't also bed three other women - they've kept his focus singular, which I appreciate.

But yeah. Huge waste. It's kinda like, now that I think about it, his entire Abby storyline could have been done by a ressurected EJ.

 

 

Anyhow, if they were smart they'd permanently ditch the character and bring back Clyde while starting fresh with a new villain type. Clyde was a nasty piece of work, but his actor did a great job.

Edited October 21, 2018 by DisneyBoy

[SueB]

If they kill off Nicole, and he's burned his bridges with Jen -- what is going to become of Eric?  

Man, that first conversation w/ Jen is going to be AWKWARD.  She KNEW in her heart but Eric so vociferously denied he still loved Nicole.  And then it was like a dog hearing "Squirrel"! when he found out Nicole still loved him and only left to protect Holly.  Man, Eric left skidmarks blasting out of town so quickly.  As someone who loves Ericole, that makes me happy.  But with her dead, what is Eric's storyline?  And somebody needs to lock up the liquor cabinet.