We love the Back from the Dead moments in soaps. One of our favorite things about soaps is that nobody ever really dies. Soap characters are like cats, each born complete with nine lives -- sometimes more!
We love the Back from the Dead storyline because in soapland, if there is no dead body, there is a good probability that the character will come back from the dead. And when there is a body? There is that small, rather seductive chance that the character will find some way to return, or at least that the actor will continue on the show as a look-alike.
Here are my top five top Back From The Dead picks.
1. Most of the 'Days of Our Lives' Cast
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There's not a soap out there that hasn't yanked a character back from the great beyond, often to the astonishment and sometimes horror of their fellow soap citizens, but in all of soap opera history quite possibly the biggest back from the dead plot in soap opera history was when Days of Our Lives killed off a large portion of its cast, only to bring them all back to life again on a remote island.
2. Jessie Hubbard on 'All My Children'
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Although the ploy of having returned from the dead is almost always hokey, once the character is reestablished, we tend to forget about how silly the explanation for the return was. For example, on All My Children, the return of Jessie Hubbard, who after a 20-year absence, returned to Pine Valley and wife Angela. Hubbard, who claimed to be in hiding from thugs who wanted him and his family dead, wasn't so scared while on the run that he didn't have another family, including a wife and daughter. And, to be truthful, a few short weeks into the reunion of Angie and Jessie, we just reveled in the return of this PV super couple.
3. Victor Newman on 'The Young and the Restless'
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Often viewers know that the supposedly dead character is, in fact, alive. Several years ago on The Young and the Restless, Victor Newman was in a plane crash, and everyone on the show thought him to be dead when in fact he was in Kansas living on Hope's farm. Everyone loved seeing the softer side of Victor but we also eagerly awaited the priceless looks we knew we’d see on Jack's and Brad's faces when Victor returned to take back his company.
4. Patch Johnson on 'Days of Our Lives'
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Characters that come back from the dead can also be a means of spicing up the story line. We love when soaps dig up the dearly departed to try and recreate some of that old magic. Such was the case when Days Of Our Lives resurrected Steve 'Patch' Johnson, perhaps to remind longtime fans why they still love the show.
5. Taylor Hayes on 'The Bold and the Beautiful'
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And sometimes characters come back from the dead and back from the dead, yet again. On The Bold and the Beautiful, Taylor Hayes has returned twice from the underworld. After she traveled to Egypt, her airplane crashed, and she was presumed dead. The second time, she was shot to "death" by the insane Sheila Carter. Both times, Prince Omar from Morocco rescued Taylor and kept her for years as part of his harem. In the second case, Taylor returned after a few years and invalidated the marriage between Brooke and Ridge just like in 1994. On her second return, she actually reunited with her three children who lost their mother when they were still infants and got their mother back towards the end of their adolescence (due to SORAS).