Alan’s Soap Box: Top 12 Characters That Need To Return

Last month, I talked about the soap characters that should leave, temporarily or permanently. This month, I want to name the characters that I think should return to their respective soaps. They are fan faves, a character we’ve never seen as an adult, and hated characters with dramatic potential.

12. Daisy Carter, The Young and the Restless

If you had told me in 2010 that I would be advocating for the return of Sheila’s least interesting spawn, I would have tried to put a psych hold on your ass for being delusional. The original Daisy storyline was a flaming pile of garbage. It didn’t help that Yvonne Zima’s acting was on par with the infamous Charity Rahmer who will never live down that disastrous one month stint as Belle on Days of Our Lives. Yvonne has been better in projects since she left Y&R, but fans will never forget how bad she was as Daisy. There’s a reason why fans celebrated when she left.

Why would I want a terrible character back? Drama. Daisy is the biological mother of Lucy, who is now a teen. Lucy’s father Daniel is back in town and in a relationship with ex-wife Lily. Lucy’s grandmother Phyllis just skated on faking her own death. Lucy’s aunt Summer is going through a tough time with her marriage ending. If Daisy showed up back in Genoa City, no one would be happy to see her, especially those people.

Y&R needs a storyline that isn’t about a merger or someone being offered a job. This is a soap opera. It isn’t LinkedIn: The Series. No one at home is like “Oh, who is going to run Dipshit Media? I care deeply about this company that has existed for two weeks!” We’d rather see Daisy terrorizing people and turning Lucy against her family. That would be a good story. Not rotating job titles and meaningless companies.

11. Gia Campbell, General Hospital

One of the most requested GH character returns is Gia. It would make so much sense to bring Gia back for a visit. Her brother Taggert found out Trina isn’t his biological daughter. Her niece Trina is dating the son of her first love Nikolas. It would mean so much to fans to see Trina talking to Gia about her relationship with Spencer. It would also be satisfying to see Gia read Nikolas for his actions in recent years, assuming he comes out of the coma soon. The Nikolas that Gia dated was like the hero of a gothic novel. He was not putting hits out on people or knocking up his son’s sociopathic girlfriend.

GH would need to recast Gia. Marisa Ramirez is on that copaganda show that senior citizens eat up. There’s also the fact that Marisa isn’t Black. In 2000, soaps could get away with casting actors whose ethnic identities didn’t match the character they were playing. Lindsay Hartley played a Latina on three different soaps and people just went along with it. In 2023, you can’t do that. They could just hire Karla Mosley to play Gia for a stint and fans would be happy.

10. Diana Carter, The Bold and the Beautiful

While Y&R could use Daisy, B&B could use Sheila’s other daughter Diana. They don’t seem like they are letting Sheila go anytime soon so they might as well let Finn meet one of his biological siblings. They could retcon it so Massimo isn’t Diana’s father and have James Warwick be her father. That way, Diana wouldn’t be related to RJ and they could give that character a purpose beyond butting into his sisters’ relationships. Brooke would hate her son dating the daughter of Sheila even more than she hates Hope sitting on Thomas’s face.

Soaps really should take advantage of existing legacy characters that are blank slates. Diana could be the opposite of Sheila. Or Diana could be a schemer. She could have trauma from not having a mother in her life and that leading her to have abandonment issues. There’s so much they could explore if the show would remember Sheila has other kids and there’s other beats that could be played. If they insist on having Sheila, they need to freshen up the story because fans are tired of hearing the same conversations and story beats for two years.

9. Hayden Barnes, General Hospital

I didn’t like Hayden. I thought she was an unneeded retcon character. What was the point of making her Jeff Webber’s long lost daughter if he wasn’t going to show up when she was on the show? Hayden’s presence didn’t add anything to half sister Elizabeth’s story. Hayden could have choked to death on an almond in the middle of Kelly’s and I would have felt nothing.

Even though I have no attachment to Hayden as a character, it is time to resolve her whereabouts. Nikolas ran Hayden out of town in 2019 and she hasn’t been seen since then. GH has struggled for years with dangling plot threads. They need to resolve this so I won’t have to see Hayden’s daughter Violet trying to play matchmaker with her father Finn and her aunt Elizabeth. Hayden can return and take her family with her. I’m sure Rebecca Budig would come back for a month. They need to resolve this and move onto the other items on the dangling plot thread list.

8. Claire Brady, Days of Our Lives

Why is the granddaughter of supercouples John & Marlena and Bo & Hope a character the show doesn’t care about? Claire should be a young lead on Days. Instead they are spending time on trying to make Harris and Ava happen in a desperate attempt to get GH fans sign up for Peacock. I can confidently say that most Days fans would rather see the legacy characters we know than middle-aged people who were popular on other soaps.

There’s so much they could do with Claire. She could get into the mental health field because of her own mental health struggles and in honor of her grandmother Marlena. If Rick Bauer on Guiding Light can become a doctor after two months, Claire can become a therapist from her time offscreen. Claire being a therapist would also be a nice change of pace because the jobs in Salem are usually doctor, useless cop and pencil pusher at one of the former mob fronts.

Another reason to bring back Claire is her parents Shawn and Belle are about to be off the show. It is idiotic that Days hasn’t valued Shawn and Belle since they returned in 2015. They were leads in the 2000’s and remain popular despite how they’ve been neglected. If I can’t have Shawn and Belle on Days, I should at least have their daughter on the canvas.

7. Patty Williams, The Young and the Restless

Jack and Diane are married now. Long time fans remember that Jack first slept with Diane when he was engaged to Patty and that incident is what caused Patty’s mental breakdown. Patty would be furious at hearing about Jack and Diane’s wedded bliss. It is just leaving story on the table to not play the history of the characters. Instead of endless rants about Diane from multiple characters as she does nothing, we could have Patty enacting her revenge against them.

Getting Stacy Haiduk back as Patty might not be feasible. Her status at Days fluctuates a lot. Sometimes Stacy is recurring, sometimes they have her on contract. It might be possible for her to do double duty, but if not, there’s a lot of actresses in that age range that could play Patty. There’s Rena Sofer, Susan Haskell and Sherry Stringfield. Sherry auditioned to play Quinn on B&B, so it does seem like she’s open to returning to her soap roots.

They could also use Patty to permanently address the Paul situation. Y&R isn’t ever going to use Doug Davidson again. They could have Paul die from a heart attack offscreen and use that to add to Patty’s anguish. Her brother Paul is one of the few people who loves Patty, so if they killed him it would not be pretty. Killing Paul off would also give Emmy reel material for Melody Thomas Scott and Lauralee Bell, so it would be a win-win.

6. Bridget Forrester, The Bold and the Beautiful

If B&B really wants Steffy to reunite with fickle clown Liam, they are going to need a love interest for Finn. I don’t want to see Finn moping and watching from a distance as Steffy and Liam discuss how much they love Bob Hope. Finn is a sexy thirtysomething doctor. If he became single, women trying to get him would look like the stampede in The Lion King. This is why they should bring back Bridget. She’s a doctor and it would make sense for her to be working with Finn and catching his eye.

Finn dating Bridget would also piss Steffy off. Bridget is both her aunt and also a Logan woman. I’m picturing Steffy seething with jealousy seeing Finn and Bridget together as Liam natters on about his top ten favorite knock-knock jokes. It is now canon that Liam isn’t great in bed. Hope had to think about Thomas during sex with Liam to have an orgasm. Meanwhile, Steffy’s home birth with Finn was more sensual than most soap opera love scenes. They were in the pool like something was going in her and not coming out of her. Steffy knows the dick is good and it would drive her up the wall that Bridget was getting it.

It is time for Bridget to become a real character on B&B again. She’s the daughter of Brooke Logan and Eric Forrester. Bridget was Brad Bell’s muse when Jennifer Finnigan was in the role. We could have that again with the right recast. They always treated Ashley Jones as a placeholder so for Bridget to ascend back to relevancy, they’d need a new actress. Someone like Bree Williamson who could inspire Brad Bell to give story to more than the same six characters.

5. Olivia Barber Winters, The Young and the Restless

Nate has been back in Genoa City since 2018 when Mal Young was writing him like a 60 year old white woman with a beach themed bathroom and Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman DVDs. Yet he hasn’t been visited by his mother Olivia once. Nate injured his hand, changed careers from doctor to corporate executive and started banging Victoria Newman. Any of those events I think would cause Olivia to hop on a plane and visit her son.

I understand that Tonya Williams is busy, but Y&R could just recast Olivia. It isn’t ideal to recast a popular character, but we’ve reached the point of absurdity with Olivia’s absence. Olivia is not the kind of mother that would be absent from her son’s life for five years. I also think Olivia would want to check up on Lily and Devon. That family needs a matriarch. Have Amelia Marshall and Vanessa Estelle Williams audition and let the best woman win.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgsYE6QbhxQ

4. Morgan Corinthos, General Hospital

I can’t believe I’m going to advocate for Sonny and Carly to have another child on the canvas, but it is time to bring Morgan back from the dead. I don’t think GH intended for his 2016 explosion death to last this long. They probably assumed they’d get Bryan Craig back a year or two later. But the death has stuck for a long time.

There’s many avenues you could take with Morgan returning. He could have amnesia and be working for a rival mob boss and despise Sonny and Carly. That would be interesting since it would give Sonny and Carly a taste of what the Quartermaines felt when Jason lost his memories and they encouraged him to separate himself from them. Morgan could have been held captive. He could be like Lulu and Nikolas in the comatose legacy child category. Morgan could have just decided he was tired of the bullshit in Port Charles and played dead.

One of the reasons they need to bring Morgan back is Michael is a dud as a leading man. The only time Michael had a lead potential was in 2015 when he hated Sonny and Carly. They recently tried to replicate that by having Michael hate Sonny for schtupping Nina, but it didn’t have the same impact because if you can forgive your dad for killing your biological father in cold blood, infidelity is nothing. Michael can move to Europe to wear little sailor hats and Morgan can take his spot on the canvas.

3. Abigail DiMera, Days of Our Lives

Just resurrect Abigail already. Chad is a flop with Stephanie and fans are tired of it. Marci Miller might be willing to return since Albert Alarr was fired. They could bring Abigail back on contract or just have her return for a stint to usher her and Chad off the show. I’d be happy either way. I know they were serious about Abigail’s death when they wrote it, but it is time to admit it was a huge mistake and walk that shit back. Days fans are used to the show resurrecting popular characters so it isn’t like we’ll complain.

2. Amber Moore, The Bold and the Beautiful

I can not take watching Deacon and Sheila fuck for another episode. Sheila calling Deacon daddy was repulsive and I don’t get the intent behind this pairing. Are we supposed to find this hot? Do they want us to be unsettled? It isn’t clear. I just know if Deacon is going to stick around, he needs a better pairing. They could bring Amber back and put her with Deacon. Maybe Little Deacon and Rosie could return with Amber.

B&B really is the soap that should be hiring new people. The canvas needs a refresh. Amber returning could do that since she has history with so many characters. Brooke hates her and the Forrester family isn’t fond of her either. Amber was involved with Hope’s pill popping phase, so there’s history there. She tried to pass Rosie off as Liam’s baby, but Rosie being biracial foiled that. Bill tried to kill Amber by pushing her off a cliff. Sheila hates Amber and if Amber got involved with Deacon, it could actually give this horrid pairing an actual purpose.

1. Sami Brady, Days of Our Lives

I know there are people who think it is impossible to recast Sami. She’s arguably the second character people think of when they think of Days of Our Lives. Sami has had some of the most iconic moments in the show’s history, from shooting her rapist’s dick off to getting punched at weddings. Recasting Sami would be a tall order, but there are great actresses in that age range that could pull it off. There’s Gina Tognoni and Jessica Collins, both who I could picture in the role.

Alison Sweeney is never returning permanently. She has her muffin murder movies that shoot in Canada. But Days could really use the chaotic energy Sami brings to the show. Not to mention the history with all the other characters. EJ and Johnny both could use Sami around. Marlena reacting to Sami’s antics is always great. Sami would certainly have something to say about this pregnancy mess her twin brother Eric got himself into via drugged biscuits.

Recasting Sami would be a big swing, but the show should take the risk. We don’t know how long Days has left. It is on a struggling streaming service and the behind the scenes have been a mess. I’d rather the show have one of the most important characters on the canvas than her just being offscreen when it would make sense for her to be there.

Dispatches From Soap Land

*I’m not mad at GH for having Blair from One Life to Live show up for a few episodes. Though the general reaction would be less heated if the show were actually good right now. Unfortunately the show is bad so people aren’t inclined to be happy about this.

*Jason Gerhardt is playing temp Eric Brady like he’s hungry for another soap gig. Someone needs to hire him because he’s acting his ass off.

*Bad CGI rollercoasters is what you get when one man is writing the long story and outlines. Seeing Summer on Y&R on that rollercoaster was laughably bad.