After weeks of rumors and gossip, As The World Turns finally revealed that actor Jon Prescott will no longer remain with the show. While Prescott (who took over the role of Mike Kasnoff) never really made an impression in his few months on As The World Turns, I believe this may be the fault of the writers. In my opinion, Prescott was an appealing presence with a lot of untapped potential; however, As The World Turns never gave him enough material or airtime to make an impression on viewers.
A Man in Search of a Storyline
I've been watching As The World Turns for years now, and I believe that the best actor to fill the role of Mike Kasnoff was Mark Collier. Collier made an immediate impact playing Kasnoff on As The World Turns, and he truly made the role his own. When Collier left As The World Turns a few years ago to pursue primetime work, the character also left the show.
Suddenly this spring, As The World Turns made the decision to bring back Mike Kasnoff. When I heard this news, I thought of all the delicious possibilities for As The World Turns. Perhaps Mike, as Katie's long lost love, could stir up some excitement with a Brad, Katie, Jack, Mike storyline.
Since he had once been romantically involved with Carly on As The World Turns, perhaps Mike would share some sparks with her when he got back to Oakdale. There were other lovelorn ladies on As The World Turns, like lovely Meg Snyder, that could have provided a possible romantic storyline for Mike Kasnoff.
But As The World Turns hired daytime newcomer Jon Prescott as Mike Kasnoff, then proceeded to waste him as they focused all their efforts on the dumb, pointless Sophie Duran storyline. Mike came back to As The World Turns and wandered around in search of a meaningful storyline. Then days would go by when Prescott didn't appear on As The World Turns at all.
I felt that Jon Prescott made an engaging debut on As The World Turns. He certainly radiated the decency of the Mike Kasnoff character. Plus he was funny and warm and fun to watch in his early scenes with Meg.
Maybe the character has just run its course on As The World Turns, and the show should have hired Prescott to play a new lead character. Perhaps then he might have had a future on As The World Turns. It looks like the Mike Kasnoff character, in his return to As The World Turns, never stood much of a chance to succeed with the way he was written and the amount of air time devoted to the character.
What Were They Thinking?
So As The World Turns lets Jon Prescott go, and brings back the Sophie Duran character as a ghost! Prescott is rumored to be leaving the show in October for cost cutting reasons. If As The World Turns is going to cut the dead weight, shouldn't they be thinking about killing the Sophie Duran supernatural storyline? Or maybe they should consider letting some other As The World Turns characters go, like Chris Hughes? (In my opinion, Chris is a poorly written character who contributes nothing to the show.)
This latest firing of actor Jon Prescott, combined with Sophie Duran returning to Oakdale to haunt and possess its residents, is a rather strange turn of events on As The World Turns. I can only wonder what might happen next on this soap. As The World Turns, what were you thinking? Let's hope the show can get back on track as summer turns to fall.
