Soap opera rapid aging syndrome

SORAS or Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome (less commonly called simply rapid aging) is a term for when an infant or young child in a soap opera is aged very quickly by the writers. It is nearly always done by recasting the role after the character has been absent for a number of weeks, months or years, with the new actor of the age the character has been SORASed to. This is done to permit an older actor to portray the character and to involve the character in different - usually more adult - storylines.

The term was coined by Soap Opera Weekly founding editor in chief Mimi Torchin in the early 1990s.

History

In the early days of the soap opera it was not uncommon to age a character right into his or her 20s; for example, this happened to the character of Tom Hughes on As the World Turns in the late 1960s. One day he was a preteen, and the next he was shipped off to Vietnam. (This caused the actress playing Tom's mother, Eileen Fulton, who was then only in her late 30s, to have it written into her contract that her character could never become a grandmother; a noteworthy by-product of this is parents of SORASed characters -- often portrayed by actors in their late 30s or early 40s -- becoming grandparents or even great grandparents.)

However, in the past few decades as soap producers have introduced more and more teenagers into soaps in order to attract the lucrative teen audience, it is now common practice to only age a character into the mid teens, with 15 and 16 being the most common ages that a character will be "SORASed" to. Eight-year-old Sami Brady on Days of Our Lives was aged to a 15-year-old when she was reintroduced in early 1993 (played by 16-year-old Alison Sweeney). Her twin brother Eric Brady, (played by Jensen Ackles), who also left the show as an eight year-old, returned in 1997 SORASed to match his now-adult sister. The characters of Shawn-Douglas Brady (born in April 1987), Belle Black (born October 1993) and Philip Kiriakis (originally born 21 February 1995) returned to Salem as 16 year olds in 1999 (changing their birth years to 1983).

Some child characters literally mature faster than others. For example, Billy Abbott on The Young and the Restless was born on the show in 1993, yet was 16 years old by 1999 (played by 21-year-old David Tom), while his niece Colleen Carlton (born 1991) was only 14 years old in 2001 (played by 14-year-old Lyndsy Fonseca), meaning that Billy had changed from being two years younger than his niece to being four years older. Perhaps the character with the biggest impact is Nicholas Newman. He was born at the end of 1988 and was sent off to a "Swiss boarding school" as a preschooler, only to return as a late teens/early 20s grown man a few years later in 1994, and has since been featured as a prominent character. On the other hand, Phillip Chancellor IV, a child born several months prior to Nicholas remained at his real age until he was finally aged in 2000 . Phillip however, was only aged by about two years.

On All My Children, Erica Kane's daughter Kendall Hart was retconned/SORASed at the demand of fans. When Kendall (played by 16-year-old Sarah Michelle Gellar) arrived in Pine Valley in 1993, she was a waifish teen, despite the fact that she was the result of Erica's rape at the age of 14, before the show even began in 1970, 23 years earlier. Fans protested, and so the show's producers immediately aged Kendall to "over 21".

On Guiding Light, Rick Bauer and Mel Boudreau's daughter Leah was born on-screen in 2004 but at the apparent age of 18 months was sent to boarding school in Switzerland and was brought back on screen 6 months later in 2006 having been aged to 14. This posed a serious problem with fans who not only remember Leah being born on screen 28 months earlier but had to suspend disbelief that Leah is now 10 years older than her "older" half-brother Jude, who was born in 2001 and is only 5 years old on the show. Subsequently, the character of Leah was to only be shown on screen 3 times in three months.

On One Life to Live, Rex Balsom was introduced in 2002 as a 17-year-old high school senior. By early 2006, he was aged to 26-years-old for the sake of his character being able to be a potential candidate in the storyline involving Dr. Paige Miller and the search for her long lost son whom she had given up twenty-six years prior.

On Passions Theresa Lopez-Fitzgerald gave birth to Ethan Martin "Little Ethan" Crane on June 21, 2002. Over the next three years, Little Ethan would be aged to approximately 9 years old.

On EastEnders, Ian Beale has been aged by one year, and Ethel Skinner claimed to have various ages and birthdays on different occasions.

On Emmerdale Terence Turner was originally written as the younger brother of Steph Forsythe but was later written to be several years older than her.

Sometimes characters' ages are accelerated to be older than the actor or actress playing the role. An example is on Days of our Lives, when the character of Abby Deveraux was SORASed from eleven to 17-years-old and the role was recast with Ashley Benson. When she took over the role in November 2004, however, she was only one month shy of her 15th birthday. The character of Abby remains to be two years older than Benson is in real life.

A few American soap children have managed to grow to adulthood in real time. One was Patti Barron Tate on Search for Tomorrow, first played from 1951 to 1961 by Lynn Loring. Her character did not have any jumps in age from the first episode until the last (in 1986). Another was Amy Ames Brittain on The Secret Storm, played from 1954 to 1974 by Jada Rowland (although she was off the show from 1971 to 1973). Her character was eleven years old when the show debuted and thirty-one when the show ended. On General Hospital, Robin Scorpio has been played since 1985 by Kimberly McCullough; Robin was introduced as a six-year-old girl and as of 2007 was a 28-year-old doctor.

SORAS on other U.S. series

The phenomenon of SORASing can also apply to other television series, usually sitcoms, usually the rapid aging of babies to kindergarten age. However, since presumably the time-space continuum of television sitcoms and possibly dramas are close to that of the timeline in real life although not often acknowledged, the rapid aging of young characters causes discrepancies in character histories.

In certain television series, pregnancy and the birth of children become part of plotlines because the pregnancy was written into the script either to use for creative interest or rarely, because an actress was pregnant in real life. After a while, however, babies are of minor comedic interest or little dramatic interest and often re-integrated into the plot the next season with someone a few years older than when the character was originally born. However, rapid aging can also occur with older children.

The following are a list of television series whose characters have aged rapidly:

• Boy Meets World:
  • In the first season, Cory (Ben Savage), Shawn (Rider Strong), Topanga (Danielle Fishel) and the rest of their classmates are in 6th grade, around 11 to 12-years-old (though Shawn was a year and a half older) at Jefferson Elementary School while Eric (Will Friedle) was four years older at age 15 in 10th grade at John Adams High School. By the third season, however, Eric is a senior but no grade is given for Cory, Shawn or Topanga, but Cory and Topanga claim to be 14 and Shawn says he is 15. Cory and Eric's age difference decreased to three years. In the fourth season, they've skipped to 11th grade at age 16 and the Cory/Eric age difference gets reduced to two years. The ages stayed consistent for the rest of the series, but they spend four years in what should be a six year high school. After Eric leaves high school, he stays at his parents' house as a layman. However, when Cory finishes high school and enters Pennbrook University, Eric is suddenly an upperclassman at Penbrook.
  • At the beginning of the series, Morgan is five years old and is played by Lily Nicksay. By the middle of the second season, however, Morgan suddenly disappears and doesn't return until near the end of the third season, now age 10 and played by Lindsay Ridgeway. For the rest of the series, Morgan's age stays consistent.
• Family Matters: Richie, Rachel's (Telma Hopkins) son was an infant when the series began in 1989 and was played by twins Joseph and Julius Wright. By the show's second season, however, Richie wound up going from being an infant to being 5 years old (played by Bryton). The character's age stayed consistent until the show's seventh season when Richie was noticeably absent from the series.
• The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air:
  • Nicky Banks was born in early 1993 in an episode titled "The Baby Comes Out". The character was aged a few months by the fourth season and by the fifth season, the unknown child/children who played Nicky were soon replaced with Ross Bagley and Nicky was aged to five years old, as mentioned (and knowingly joked about by Will Smith) in a few season six episodes.
  • Ashley Banks (Tatyana Ali) was nine years old in the early part of the first season. By the end of the third season, the writers sped up Ashley's age as Tatyana grew up during the season. In the second-to-last episode of season one "Just Infatuation", Ashley turned 12. In the second season premiere "Did The Earth Move For You?", however, Ashley aged one year over between the end of season one and the beginning of season two. Ashley's age remained the same until season four when it was revealed that she was 14. In the season four episode "Stop Will! In the Name of Love", things are further complicated as Ashley retcons herself by insisting to Will that she's "not the same 11-year-old girl he met when he moved to Bel-Air", when she was originally supposed to be 9 at the beginning of the series. In season five's "It's A Wonderful Lie", Ashley was 15, but in season six's "I, Stank Horse", it is implied that Ashley is 17. So in the six years that the show was on, Ashley aged eight years.
• Growing Pains: Chrissy Seaver was born on the show in early 1989. Much like Nicky on The Fresh Prince, Chrissy remained a toddler for the remainder of the season when she was born and the season after. However, in 1991, Chrissy was rapidly aged to five and the twins who played her (Kirsten and Kelsey Dohring) were replaced with Ashley Johnson.
• The OC: Marissa had a 10-year-old sister in the first season, but with few lines and a very minor role. After having disappeared in the second season, although referenced, the younger sister returned in the third season and aged to fifteen with Willa Holland taking over the role.
• Family Ties: The character of Andrew Keaton underwent rapid aging. Born on-screen in January 1985, he remained a baby until the fall of 1986, when Brian Bonsall took the role and he suddenly became four years old.
• Star Trek: Voyager: the character of Naomi Wildman rapidly ages from infancy to preadolescence, however in this case the rapid aging is explained as a genetic trait from interspecies parents. On the other hand, no explanation is given for the rapid aging of Molly O'Brien between her birth in the fifth season of Star Trek: The Next Generation and her in the following year of that show and on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine where the character (played by Hana Hatae) is already several years old. Further, Worf's son Alexander was born on Next Generation in 2366, yet he appears as a young adult/late teenager in 2374 on Deep Space Nine, as a young recruit serving in the Klingon military (he'd be only 8 years old, although Klingons develop faster[1]).
• In the weekly TV series sequel to the TV miniseries V, the character of Sean Donovan was inexplicably four to five years older than he had been at the end of the miniseries, despite the fact that only a few months have passed between the events of the miniseries and weekly series.
• On My Two Dads, Nicole Bradford turned 14 towards the end of the second season. But at the start of the third season, she was now 15, and turned 16 toward the end of the season.

Outside the USA

SORAS was traditionally not widely utilized on British soaps with their purported realist tone. In recent years UK soaps have increasingly begun to age their younger characters to their teenage years for storyline purposes. This occurred with Ian Beale on EastEnders who gained an extra year so that his character would be more mature in a plot involving his discovery that his wife was cheating on him and that his child was not his. His original birth year was 1970 and he celebrated his 18th birthday in 1988, but this was subsequently changed to 1969 and he celebrated his 21st in 1990. Coronation Street has also used SORAS for storyline purposes, with the character of Mark Redman being aged by two years so that he could attend the school where his father Mike Baldwin's enemy Ken Barlow was a teacher. In Hollyoaks in 2006 Kathy Barnes aged a whole seven years in one year, in time for her 40th birthday. The characters of Josh and Carly Hope in Emmerdale were first seen as a baby and young girl, respectively, in 2001, but when they were seen again in 2006, Josh was older than Carly and both were teenagers.

Australian soaps have recently begun the trend of SORASing characters for storyline purposes.

Home and Away

In 1999 the character of Duncan Stewart on Home and Away was aged by three years from 9 to 12 and starting high school. Recently, Duncan's niece Martha (who was a year older than Duncan) returned to the show. She too was aged, having originally been born in 1988, but coming back as an 18 year old in early 2005.

Neighbours

2005 also saw the arrival of Lucinda "Elle" Robinson on Neighbours and later her brothers, identical twins Robert and Cameron. The three siblings, who were triplets, were now 19 years old, even though the characters would really have only been 16 years old in real time (while the birth of the triplets was not an on-screen storyline, their mother Gail left the show pregnant with them sometime in 1989). Most recently Louise "Lolly" Carpenter returned in 2007, a 15 year old, despite being born in the show in 1994. One of the earliest examples of SORAS on Neighbours was when Hannah Martin arrived in 1992 and was old enough to have been born before her parents had even met. A mostly unnoticed jump in age was Oliver Barnes, who is supposedly 25 but was stated to have been conceived during the period in which the man believed to be his father Paul Robinson, was working as an airline steward, a job he took in 1985. This is a probable continuity error, however.

Serena Bishop (Lara Sacher) was 15 when she arrived in 2003 and in Year 9 at Eden Hills Grammar school, but in 2004 she was in Year 11 along with her cousin Sky Mangel at Erinsborough High. Serena was also another instance of a character being old enough to have been born before her parents had even met.

A few other Neighbours characters also had small leaps in age. Summer Hoyland (Marisa Siketa) went from being 10 years old in 2003 to being 14 years old in 2005, whilst Jack Scully's age was moved a few years downwards (and the character revised from a FA Premier League footballer playing for fictional "Barnsford FC" to a talented schoolboy soccer player) when the character was recast from Paul Pantano to Jay Ryan in 2002.

Elsewhere

In the Canadian series Degrassi Junior High, Spike Nelson gave birth to Emma Nelson between the second and third seasons. By Degrassi High, Emma also rapidly aged into a toddler. However, by Degrassi: The Next Generation, the rapid aging seemed not to have happened.

In the Finnish soap opera Salatut elämät four children have grown up in a short period of time. In the year 1999 a boy named Sauli Kiviranta was introduced. He was about 10 years old. Two years later he was an adult replaced with a different actor. Three babies: Sofia Salin, Oona Kiviranta and Niko Vainio, born in 2001-2003 have grown to teenagers in year 2007.

In the Dutch soap Goede Tijden Slechte Tijden (Good Times Bad Times) eight year old Nina Sanders went to a clinic after she survived a kidnapping and a fire. A year later she returned from the clinic as a sixteen year old teenager. This wasn't very usual for the show, but since Nina other kids on the shows were SORASed too.

In the New Zealand soap opera Shortland Street, Tuesday Warner was born onscreen in 1995 but upon her reappearance in 2007 she was aged 14.

Telenovelas typically avoid SORAS since they usually only contain one story arc. Instead, sometimes the entire show will jump weeks, months, or even years ahead in time. This allows the show to jump foward through pregnancy, a jail sentence or the growth of a child. In a similar vein, several Indian soaps have become known for incorporating 20 year jumps into the storyline, thus allowing entire generations of child characters to be reintroduced as adults.

"de-SORAS"

A similar fan term, de-SORAS, occurs when writers make a character younger. One character that has been "de-SORASed" is Erica Kane on All My Children. When the show debuted in 1970, Erica's date of birth was said to be 1954; in 1993, it was changed to 1956. And in 2002, the year was changed again to 1962. Actress Susan Lucci, who plays Erica, was born in 1946.

The General Hospital character Justus Ward has been de-SORASed as well. The role was originated in 1994 by former Cosby Show actor Joseph C. Phillips, born in 1962. Monti Sharp, born in 1967, assumed the role in 1998. In 2003, the role went to M'fundo Morrison. Morrison was born in 1974. Thus, if it is assumed that the character's age and the actor's age are approximately the same, then Justus has de-aged twelve years since first appearing on GH. Justus was later killed off by a mobster in 2006 .

On One Life to Live; in the early 1990s, Rachel Gannon was said to be the same age as her college peers: Kevin Buchanan, Todd Manning, and Marty Saybrooke--all noted to have been born in 1970. In 1996, however, Rachel (now interacting less with the aforementioned characters) was noted to be twenty-one years old.

In another unusual de-SORAS/re-SORAS occurrence, in 2004, The Bold and the Beautiful's twins Phoebe and Steffy Forrester were aged to fourteen, and now played by Chandler and Jordan Mella. Several months later, Keaton and Kylie Tyndall took over and de-SORASed the twins to pre-teens. However, this was only a temporary de-SORASing. In 2005, Keaton and Kylie Kendall were replaced by Addison and Alex Hoover, and Phoebe and Steffy were aged to approximately fourteen again. Eventually, almost a year and a half later, the Hoovers were let go from the show and only Phoebe was brought back three months later. When Phoebe was brought back however, now played by MacKenzie Mauzy, the character was SORASed once again to 17½ years old (which corresponded to Mauzy's own age at the time).

In 2005 on As the World Turns, the character of Carly Tenney Snyder, then assumed to be in her mid-thirties (portrayed by then 33-year-old actress Maura West) was revealed to be the half-sister of 17-year old Gwen Norbeck (portrayed by then 22-year-old Jennifer Landon). The storyline suggested that Carly was around seven years old when Gwen was born, thus making her 25. This now meant that when Carly's son Parker was born in 1997 (by which time, she'd already been married three times, and had given birth to a stillborn daughter), she was only 16.

In 2007 on the daytime drama Guiding Light, Harley's daughter came back as 17-year-old "Daisy", played by Bonnie Dennison. The last time the character was reintroduced on the show in 1999, then played by actress Brittany Snow, she was 14 years old. She left two years later in 2001 as a 16 year old, suggesting that the character aged only one year between 2001 and 2007. Guiding Light

A minor example of this occurred in the prime-time soaps The O.C. and Beverly Hills 90210 when the characters, who in the first seasons were implied to be juniors in high school, were allowed to spend an additional year in high school.

From the '70s through the '90s, the character Mike Horton on Days of our Lives repeatedly returned to the show as a young man in his twenties. Even though he was born on the show in 1968, and had been rapidly SORASed in the 1970s, he and Carrie Brady (introduced as a child in the '80s) later supposedly grew up together as children.

An unusual de-SORAS occurrence happened when General Hospital's Maxie Jones was SORASed from a 15-year-old played by Robyn Richards to a woman in her early twenties, played by 19-year-old Danica Stewart. The change was so unpopular and criticized by fans and press (partly due to unliking the new actress and partly due to the fact that Richards had portrayed Maxie since childhood and through a very memorable heart transplant storyline) that GH de-SORASed Maxie back to her high school age and re-hired Richards. Eventually, General Hospital SORASED Maxie once again when they fired Richards a second time and hired Kirsten Storms to portray a more grown-up, troubled Maxie.

Prime-time soap Knots Landing halted the clock on one character, Jason Avery, son of Laura and Richard Avery. Originally played by Justin Dana, Jason began as contemporary of Olivia Cunningham (played by Tonya Crowe). Recast with a succession of younger actors, Jason remained a child as Olivia grew into her teens and adulthood.

Curiously enough, none of the young or old characters in The Simpsons seems to have grown older, even though the (uncounted) birthdays of several characters have been portrayed. However, Homer Simpson has aged, albeit extremely slowly, being 35 in Season 1, 39 in Season 10 and 40 as of "Springfield Up".

External links

• SoapCentral.com
• SoapOperaDigest.com