If ‘General Hospital’ is good enough for James Franco… Are daytime soaps finally getting respect in Hollywood?
Ask any aspiring actor or actress where he or she would like to be in five or 10 years, and chances are, they won’t respond, “On a daytime soap opera.” Once upon a time, ambitious thespians — including Julianne Moore, Meg Ryan, Demi Moore, Tommy Lee Jones, and, um, David Hasselhoff — used soaps as a launching pad to (hopefully) bigger and better things, like prime time or the movies. Lately, though, Hollywood traffic has been flowing smoothly in the opposite direction, with more prime-time and film stars hitching a ride to daytime. The timing, however, is ironic, considering that the ratings for the soaps are at an all-time low, and since last year, two long-running shows — Guiding Light and As The World Turns — have been cancelled.
Big-name stars always have done occasional daytime drive-bys. Elizabeth Taylor appeared on three episodes of General Hospital in 1981, and Carol Burnett has done All My Children. For a period in the mid-’00s former prime-time soap stars (Dallas’s Patrick Duffy, Knot’s Landing’s Joan Van Ark, Dynasty’s John James) popped up regularly in daytime. Julianne Moore even recently did an As the World Turns walk-on to celebrate the wedding anniversary of her former character’s mom and dad.
But the current trend of daylighting stars seems to have been kicked off by — who else? — Betty White, whose recurring 2006-2009 turn as Ann Douglas on The Bold and the Beautiful just helped win the show a Daytime Emmy for Best Drama Series. Then late last year, James Franco, either inspired by White or by the stellar acting regularly displayed on General Hospital (I’m betting on the latter), contacted the GH producers to offer his thespian services. In November, he debuted as artist/serial killer Franco. Apparently, much of the daytime audience isn’t aware of Franco’s acclaimed work in movies like Milk and Pineapple Express: On GH online message boards, many viewers claimed not to know who he was. The storyline was panned in the soap press, and his 23 appearances between November and February failed to boost the show’s sagging ratings.
Not that it seems to matter to Franco (the actor and the character) — or GH’s suits. On June 30, they brought Franco back to GH for an encore, and this time Oscar nominee Bruce Davison (Longtime Companion) is along for the ride in a three-episode stint as Franco’s art dealer. (Davison debuted on July 9.) Meanwhile, four-time Emmy winner and former The Waltons star Michael Learned has been appearing on GH since April in the recurring role of terminal cancer patient Shirley Smith. (Poor Learned. She played a similar bed-ridden recurring role on Scrubs. It would be nice to see 71-year-old Olivia Walton up and about in a guest-starring stint for a change.)
Over at Days of Our Lives, Learned’s former Waltons husband and two-time Emmy nominee Ralph Waite has been appearing on and off as Father Matt since February of last year. In a possibly unintended coincidence, on one of last week’s GH episodes, Shirley was detailing her romantic history, and the name of one of her exes happend to be… Ralph.
Also crossing over to daytime is Sean Young (on The Young and the Restless) and Flashdance star Michael Nouri, who recently appeared on the FX cable series Damages and in the 2009 Sandra Bullock hit The Proposal. He’s currently on contract on All My Children as Erica Kane’s soon-to-be love interest Caleb Cooney.
I’m not sure how I feel about all of this stunt casting. Most of daytime’s crossover stars still work regularly on prime time and in film, so in a sense, they are taking jobs from out-of-work actors all over New York and L.A., where the six remaining soaps are based. (After 54 years on TV, As the World Turns will air for the final time on September 17.) Plus the ratings of the daytime dramas continue to drop, so there has been no discernible positive affect from a business stand point. As for the characters themselves, most of them haven’t been fan favorites and are expendable.
I was over Nouri, in particular, about two minutes into his first scene with Susan Lucci. Weeks later, he’s still not growing on me. Every time I see him, I keep wishing Jennifer Beals would show up wearing leg warmers, wielding a welder, and dancing like a maniac. Now that would be stunt casting at its kitschiest/most entertaining — and Erica Kane could use the competition.
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Washed-up actors have *always* done daytime … you were just too young 20 years ago to know that they *were* washed up.
The shortage of name actors coming out of daytime in recent years is simply because there are so few soaps left, and the shows that remain continually recycle — in front of and behind the cameras — the same “talent.”
You’re right! Ruth Warrick, for instance, an original All My Children cast member, had a film career pre-AMC that included an appearance in Citizen Kane. But by the time AMC came around, she wasn’t exactly burning up the big screen.
I think this time it’s different, though. First, there seems to be an actual wave of actors making the short-term transition, and Sean Young aside, they are credible, legit and working. James Franco is far from being washed up. And so is Betty White. Michael Nouri still works a lot, and Michael Learned has four Emmys.
I won’t argue the point of your second paragraph, though. You’re right again. It amazes me how they just shuffle the same actors around from show to show. Leave one, end up on another.
In response to another comment. See in context »Agreed. But one reason that bigger name actors are signing on for soap stints now is that the story arcs are so much shorter. Gone are the days of pregnancies that last two years. (With the exception of “Passions”‘ infamous 40-day dinner party. Of course, “Passions” is gone, so …)
As for Franco, you’re right he is far from washed-up. But also far from conventional!
In response to another comment. See in context »[...] If 'General Hospital' is good enough for James Franco… Are daytime … [...]
I have been watching the soaps for a long time and feel that they have some good actors and bad. Sure , many people got their so call start on a soap, so what! Some Soap Stars have held their jobs for years, while many who have gone on to Hollywood don’t even last.
In todays times, a job is a job. Many people that are in the entertainment field just want a pay check and will take any thing that comes their way.
You know, bettyej, years ago, I read an interview with John Beradino, who played Dr. Steve Hardy on General Hospital. He said that in the early ’80s, after Demi Moore and Genie Francis had both left GH, he would have sworn that Genie would have been the one to go on to a huge career in Hollywood. We all know how that turned out!
You are right that considering the current state of the economy, a job is a job to a lot of actors. And while there have always been daylighting stars from time to time, I find it interesting that there are now so many at once, particularly on General Hospital. And also, what a coincidence that Ma and Pa Walton are doing daytime simultaneously! I read that Adrienne Barbeau, who was Bea Arthur’s daughter on Maude, will soon be coming on to GH for a limited run tied to Vanessa Marcil’s return.
In response to another comment. See in context »[...] a new post from blogger, Jeremy Helligar in his Pump Up The Volume posts on the True/Slant beta version website, he looks at the move of many big-name motion picture and primetime [...]
Well I look at it this way. Sure they bring so called big hitters to the soaps to try and bring their sagging rating up and in some cases, trying to keep their shows from getting the big AXED!
But when you take time to add things up, some of these stars on the soaps have had a study jobs(and pay check} for years, while the big Movie Stars are barely working.
I feel that a lot of people regardless what type of entertainer they are, music/TV/Movie or ect, will soon be trying to find a job period!
Hey there… cool article.. but I wanted to point out.. regardless of the fact that we disagree on Nouri on AMC right now ( I think his rough-hewn-ness is a bit of fresh air on a show so WASP-y) but concerning HIM– while you writers not of a ” certain age” ( heheh, which I reckon makes me OLD — ) don’t remember that long before primetime fame and Flashdfance, Mr. Nouri was a major soap star. He had a long, important storyline on Search for Tomorrow when I was a tyke where he was a guitar-playing folk singer who died of Leukemnia. So his is more of a RETURN to soaps, not a ” lowering” ( ?) venture into them.
Cool article
Thank you, and thank you for reading. I was wondering if anyone would point out Nouri’s soap past. He also did a stint on The Young and the Restless in the ’00s, so I guess it is a sort of homecoming for him. Honestly, I think I’m a little bit resentful of his character on AMC because he is the millionth road block between Erica and Jackson. I say keep Erica and Jackson together, and find a storyline for them that doesn’t rip them apart. Nouri seems to have more chemistry with Krystal anyway. Or put him in a triangle with Krystal and Opal. It would be nice to see an Erica storyline for once that didn’t involve a man.
In response to another comment. See in context »And oops, not enough coffee, I, who remember what happened on soaps 30 some years ago, CAN spell Leukemia, I promise.