For years, I was a big fan of "As The World Turns", because even when the plots were ho-hum, I knew I could watch some dynamite acting. Many of the cast had stage training, and could deliver the goods even in the most mundane scene. So I assumed that most soaps had a similar situation. Then one day I turned on All My Children and saw a few scenes that were so badly acted as to be embarrassing. I realized that I was watching some young newbies (and one VERY over-rated scene-chewer), and that AMC had some good actors as well (David Canary, Julia Barr, etc), but it got me to thinking about what soaps you consider to have the least-talented cast.

All soaps have actors you like and ones you dislike. For me, the one with the most characters I disliked was OLTL.

Others to mention:

Best actors: DAYS
Another soap with bad acting: AMC
Soaps that were so bad they were awesome: Passions & Sunset Beach

Most soaps had good, quality actors, particularly in the early days of the medium. Many of the actors on the soaps based in New York also worked on the stage, often at the same time. This helped create some amazing actors, and the long list of superstars that started their careers on the soaps is well documented. (Which makes me sad now, to think no soaps are filmed in New York City anymore...) :(

As the years went on, the soaps had to bring in the ratings and often pandered to the teen market, and many hired less-than-stellar performers, based more on their looks than their talent.

That being said, I would say most of the soaps had the longtime cast members with the acting chops to make up the difference. I would have to select Passions as the soap with the worst acting, however. Of course, it probably didn't help that the show had horrible writers churning out ever-more-ridiculous story lines that wouldn't make it into a comic book! :lol: Sunset Beach went along the same lines, and was also targeted at a younger audience, who wouldn't necessarily appreciate actors with Shakespearean training! ;)

As for Dark Shadows, many of the earlier episodes were done live, and so things went wrong, cameras crept into view, actors would trip on stage or forget their lines from time to time. Still, at least it had quality writing and was a truly innovative show for its time. I don't imagine shows like True Blood or the Vampire Diaries would be popular if it weren't for the original Gothic soap opera and the eternal Barnabas Collins!

As the soaps continue to diminish, I imagine the quality will also keep going downward. Many of the truly talented soap actors still alive have gone into early retirement, or work predominantly on the stage or do episodic television. I imagine in another few years, they won't even be handing out Emmy Awards for Outstanding Acting in a Daytime Drama, and that will be the end of an era...

Most soaps had good, quality actors, particularly in the early days of the medium.

I started watching soaps in the early/mid 70s with my grandmother. We pretty much stuck to ABC--pre-cable, good reception shaped our viewing habits more than anything. My biggest take away from those days was the fact that some of the best actors and actresses would not be "pretty" enough by industry standards these days. Think about it. How many central characters--who are between 16 and 35 are *not* model-pretty? Not many. With bigger production budgets and more mainstream looking actors, the audiences lost a lot of *normal* looking performers in more plausible storylines. Don't get me wrong, I loved the glory days of Luke & Laura, and all the over the top plot lines. However, some days I miss seeing some dingy looking people hanging out at Ryan's Bar.

Just my .02.

From what I've seen on other sites, the worst actors on soaps are considered to be Drake Hogestyn from DAYS and Ronn Moss from B&B. I don't know who is considered the worst actresses. I know Charity Rahmer, but she really wasn't on long enough.

Most soaps had good, quality actors, particularly in the early days of the medium. Many of the actors on the soaps based in New York also worked on the stage, often at the same time. This helped create some amazing actors, and the long list of superstars that started their careers on the soaps is well documented. (Which makes me sad now, to think no soaps are filmed in New York City anymore...) :(

As the years went on, the soaps had to bring in the ratings and often pandered to the teen market, and many hired less-than-stellar performers, based more on their looks than their talent.

That being said, I would say most of the soaps had the longtime cast members with the acting chops to make up the difference. I would have to select Passions as the soap with the worst acting, however. Of course, it probably didn't help that the show had horrible writers churning out ever-more-ridiculous story lines that wouldn't make it into a comic book! :lol: Sunset Beach went along the same lines, and was also targeted at a younger audience, who wouldn't necessarily appreciate actors with Shakespearean training! ;)

As for Dark Shadows, many of the earlier episodes were done live, and so things went wrong, cameras crept into view, actors would trip on stage or forget their lines from time to time. Still, at least it had quality writing and was a truly innovative show for its time. I don't imagine shows like True Blood or the Vampire Diaries would be popular if it weren't for the original Gothic soap opera and the eternal Barnabas Collins!

As the soaps continue to diminish, I imagine the quality will also keep going downward. Many of the truly talented soap actors still alive have gone into early retirement, or work predominantly on the stage or do episodic television. I imagine in another few years, they won't even be handing out Emmy Awards for Outstanding Acting in a Daytime Drama, and that will be the end of an era...


I think that the cast of Dark Shadows was absolutely wonderful!

Among the bad actors on the show were Craig Slocum and, maybe, Jane Draper.

Ryan's Hope had some really bad actors every once and a while.

Yet, Ryan's Hope also had very talented performers in its cast.

I agree that Craig Slocum was one of the worst actors on Dark Shadows. Most of the actors were great on Dark Shadows.

Every soap has had its share of bad acting but I think the worst I've seen in recent years had to be Charity Rahmer and Annie Burgstrede from DAYS, who played Belle and Willow respectively. Charity looked like it physically hurt her to talk and Annie was so lousy at playing an obsessed bad girl I cheered when her character was killed off. It didn't help that DAYS revolved a major story around her and she was on just about every day. It's not a coincidence those two also starred in two awful horror movies from the 2000's either.

I would rather see less attractive people with some experience then models trying to break into the acting business. I know some do have talent, like Shemar Moore and it didn't hurt that he was on Young and the Restless, one of the classier soaps at the time and he had good material to work with (sometimes bad writing can cause bad performances). But there's something more honest and "real" at seeing people who could be your friends and neighbors acting out all this drama. That's probably why I love British shows, not everyone on there looks like they stepped out of GQ or Vogue.

I thought I knew Dark Shadows like the back of my hand, but I have no idea who Craig Slocum is. What character did he play, and why was he so bad?

He played Harry Johnson, the son of Mrs. Johnson the housekeeper of Collinwood. He was in the Adam story quite a bit. He would read his lines in a monotone voice and look constantly at the cue cards. He was also in scenes with Nicholas Blair. Nicholas would help him with his lines during their scenes together. I was surprised they did not get rid of him since he did not have a pivotal role. He tried to play a bad/tough guy in the 1795 period and was pathetic. I love Dark Shadows but I could have done without him.

OLTL had a character named guiliana and the whole story line made no sense.

I really like Dark Shadows but Lara Parker had such a limited ranged, it showed quite often, and she was considered one of the favorites. Go figure.

Worst Soap Actress: Faith Catlin, the original Faith Coleridge, on Ryan's Hope.

Dark Shadows is so near and dear to my heart that I can't bring myself to criticize it.

I always thought that for an actor/actress being on a soap while just starting out was ok for their career but if you stayed on soaps for too long you could end up forever acting in just soaps with no further development.

I always found the acting on the now defunct "Passions" to be rather questionable. :p

I always found the acting on the now defunct "Passions" to be rather questionable. :p
Why does everyone always pick on "Passions"? I always thought they did a great job. The whole point of this soap was to be a parody of soap operas...over dramatized, over acted scenes...they accomplished what they set out to do.

Most soaps had good, quality actors, particularly in the early days of the medium. Many of the actors on the soaps based in New York also worked on the stage, often at the same time. This helped create some amazing actors, and the long list of superstars that started their careers on the soaps is well documented. (Which makes me sad now, to think no soaps are filmed in New York City anymore...) :(

As the years went on, the soaps had to bring in the ratings and often pandered to the teen market, and many hired less-than-stellar performers, based more on their looks than their talent.

That being said, I would say most of the soaps had the longtime cast members with the acting chops to make up the difference. I would have to select Passions as the soap with the worst acting, however. Of course, it probably didn't help that the show had horrible writers churning out ever-more-ridiculous story lines that wouldn't make it into a comic book! :lol: Sunset Beach went along the same lines, and was also targeted at a younger audience, who wouldn't necessarily appreciate actors with Shakespearean training! ;)

As for Dark Shadows, many of the earlier episodes were done live, and so things went wrong, cameras crept into view, actors would trip on stage or forget their lines from time to time. Still, at least it had quality writing and was a truly innovative show for its time. I don't imagine shows like True Blood or the Vampire Diaries would be popular if it weren't for the original Gothic soap opera and the eternal Barnabas Collins!

As the soaps continue to diminish, I imagine the quality will also keep going downward. Many of the truly talented soap actors still alive have gone into early retirement, or work predominantly on the stage or do episodic television. I imagine in another few years, they won't even be handing out Emmy Awards for Outstanding Acting in a Daytime Drama, and that will be the end of an era...

I heard that the problem with soap opera actors is that because of the quick production turn around, actors develop bad habits. And the longer you have a bad habit such as playing over the top emotions 250 episodes a year, the harder it is to break. Soaps really do have their own approach, rhythms, etc. And actors from soaps can often learn a style of acting that doesn't always translate well to other mediums like nighttime TV or film.

To be more specific, since they probably don't have the time, soap actors wouldn't be able to break down the beats of a scene and make strong, at times surprising or interesting choices. So they tend to make cliched, easy (anger is an easy choice for most) choices and run through a lot of beats. There's also not much time to do interior work to make authentic (meaning realistic) emotional/psychological choices and thus soap actors instead, tend to come across as phony/over the top.

Simply put, there's an assumption that a daytime soap opera actor would be too hammy/over the top or too formulaic and not being in the moment since they are machines that grind out a lot of story.

From what I've seen on other sites, the worst actors on soaps are considered to be Drake Hogestyn from DAYS and Ronn Moss from B&B. I don't know who is considered the worst actresses. I know Charity Rahmer, but she really wasn't on long enough.

One argument that I read though is that Drake Hogestyn and Ronn Moss are when you get right down to it, two examples (https://boards.soapoperanetwork.com/topic/26419-all-in-your-opinion-who-are-the-most-over-the-top-actors-on-each-soap/) of actors who aren't the best (https://www.google.com/search?q=Drake+Hogestyn+Ronn+Moss+acting+site:boards.soapoperanetwork.com&sca_esv=580046813&sxsrf=AM9HkKlMsvgcQ6EoDmleYr-5i7ozH1XTiA:1699339662893&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwijjNbHpbGCAxX3lGoFHYpVBngQrQIoA3oECDEQBA&biw=1600&bih=773&dpr=1#ip=1) at the work (https://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/archive/index.php/t-319157.html), but who do/did an amazing job of embodying the character in such as way that everything they did was just believable and worked.

Drake Hogestyn has that macho acting (https://whathappensinsalem.wordpress.com/2013/07/27/the-spy-who-came-in-from-the-cold-and-then-went-back-out/) style that you could say, is so over the top that it manages to be both comical and sexy. In the case of Ronn Moss (https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/15006-retro-bb-when-the-beautiful-were-also-bold/page/5/), you can argue that as laughable his stilted and wooden delivery could be, it kind of went along with his character's cocky and egotistical persona.