The Young and the Restless / Santa Barbara : Two casting coups
By Mary Beth Sammons, Soap Opera Digest, 1989	Home   Cette page en Français

What is the toughest challenge in daytime television ? Replacing a successful actor in a winning role. Because TV is such a personal and persuasive medium, some actors are so convincing, so loved in their roles, that they remain indelibly etched in the viewers' hearts and minds long after their departures.

That's why The Young and the Restless and Santa Barbara faced extremely tough challenges recently when two leading players - Terry Lester and Lane Davies - left. Lester had been The Young and the Restless's Jack Abbott for nine years; Davies had portrayed Mason Capwell since Santa Barbara's 84 premiere.

Both soaps, however, have managed to do some terrific recasting. Peter Bergman, who played All my Children's Cliff for almost a decade, is The Young and the Restless's new Jack; Terry Lester, who surrendered the part of Jack to Bergman, in now on Santa Barbara as the new Mason.

This is not reflexive praise for two very talented daytime performers who are supposed to be terrific no matter what. Rather, this is an acknowledgment of portrayals that are so involving, so truthful to the characters, that you forget you're even witnessing a change. Nevertheless, both Bergman and Lester are reluctant to accept praise.

Saying he's "incredibly grateful it appears to be working out", Bergman explains his new-found success as Jack this way : "One of the reasons it appears to be working, I think, is that my physical appearance doesn't jar people. Also, it's because Jack isn't associated with a woman right now, and that's when the greatest problems occur, when you've got a couple with special chemistry and you try to bring in someone new. All the viewers have to do is accept Jack. A lot of the credit goes to Ed Scott (the show's producer), who could have tried to make me just like Terry Lester. But Ed had the incredible courage to say, "this guy comes with his own stuff. Let him show us what he's got and we'll just see what happens." Luckily, it seems to be working out right. One of my biggest fans is my grand mother and she called the other day (after tuning into The Young and the Restless for the first time) and said, "Peter, what's happened to you? You're not the nicest guy anymore, are you ?" laughs Bergman.

Lester thanks his new Santa Barbara co-workers - especially actress Nancy Grahn, who plays his on-screen wife, Julia - for "their vast input and incredible help" in making his transition go smoothly. Says Lester : "I give enormous credit to Nancy, who has been absolutely wonderful and very helpful to me. We had an instant chemistry. I felt like I've known her forever. I do believe though that I'm still growing into the part and I don't feel that I'm all the way there yet. But Mason is helping me learn a lot of things about myself. In many ways, he's much closer to me personally than Jack. Like him, I'm also an armchair philosopher and have a pretty active mental and intellectual life. Maybe our similarities are what make it so convincing."