— Sarah Brown announced last week that she’d be departing General Hospital this November. This news isn’t much of a surprise to most of her fans who follow her on Facebook and Twitter as the actress has been pretty vocal with her displeasure in certain storylines; especially those having Claudia seeking vengeance on a couple of children. Brown first joined GH in April 1996 as the original Carly and stayed until 2001. In late 2007, it was announced that the soap star would be returning to the show but as a new character – Claudia Zacchara – since Carly was now being played by Laura Wright. Claudia made her debut on January 31, 2008. Sarah Brown’s final tape date has been set for October 9th and should air through November.
The character of Claudia has been plagued from the start as the character was introduced during the writer’s strike. Fans never really embraced the character but did embrace the actress’ portrayal. Honestly, without Brown, I doubt any other actress could have pulled this role off. It’s a bittersweet exit…I enjoyed Brown’s portrayal but she deserves a much material…as do most of her castmates. Brown’s chemistry with on-screen brother Brandon Barash (Johnny) was a definite highlight, as was the teased pairing between Claudia and Nikolas (Tyler Christopher). It’s a shame the character was only used for the horrific mob stories.
— Will Simon and Katie reunite? Paul Leyden will be returning to As the World Turns this December as Simon Frasier. Unfortunately, it looks like Leyden’s return is short term as Terri Colombino (Katie) told Sara Bibel at Fancast’s Deep Soap that Leyden would begin filming next month and his scenes would air around Christmas time.
— Looks like Katie will have her hands busy with former husbands after her current husband Brad dies…Mark Collier is also returning to ATWT as Mike Kasnoff. Collier played Mike from 2002 until 2007. John Prescott assumed the role in 2008 and was quickly written out. Current DAYS star Shawn Christian originated the role of Mike in 1994.
— Also returning to ATWT this November are Peter Parros (Ben) and Lesli Kay (Molly). Kay will also continue to appear on B&B as Felicia and is expected to stay until January, while there is no news on how long Ben will stick around Oakdale.
— Congratulations are in order for The Young and the Restless star Michelle Stafford (Phyllis) who is expecting her first daughter this December, via a surrogate.
— Soap Opera Digest is reporting that Gina Tognoni will be returning to One Life to Live next year as Kelly Cramer. This ends the six month speculation as to where the Emmy winner would land after the GL finale.
— Guiding Light airs its final episode last Friday (September 18th). I decided to check out the finale…seems like they wrapped up all the stories in a neat little bow. They paired off single residents with each other and even brought back some favourites like Danny, Michelle and Mindy. The opener was night; they place small clips of all the opening credits. Of course, Josh and Reva reunited. It was sad they couldn’t give the Otalia fans a kiss they wanted badly. All of the mainstream media outlets covered the Guiding Light’s finale…such a shame they never celebrated its 72-year accomplishment when it mattered.
Here’s the first clip of the finale:
[View:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prVhZODtJ5E]
