Board Thread:Off-Topic Fun/@comment-25355646-20150131195303/@comment-24950802-20150203021900

The main cast of Once Upon a Time has ALWAYS puzzled me for a variety of reasons.


 * In season 1, Raphael Sbarge was billed as a series regular despite only featuring in 9/22 episodes. That's an insanely low episode count for a regular actor. His ratio of appearances throughout the season was awful. Consider that he was in all of the last four episodes: that means he was in 5 of the first 18 episodes. Whoa. Not to mention he was entirely absent after episode 8 and before episode 16 (7 continued absences). I know he filmed material for episodes 12 and 13 that was cut out, in accordance with the promotional pictures released, but still... I don't know why on earth he was a series regular to begin with, maybe the show was a big bet by ABC and they had the budget to feature a large cast. Maybe the ABC heads thought that the core cast of just six people (Snow, Emma, Regina, David, Henry, Rumple) was too small for a 1-hour primetime drama. And since the writers knew they wanted to do an early backstory episode for Jiminy Cricket (episode 5), they decided on making him the additional star. I don't know. He was demoted since season 1 and has been appearing less and less with each passing season, which is a real shame, because I love that character and am always hoping to see more of him.
 * Then there's Jamie Dornan. Here's the thing: Jamie Dornan was a GUEST STAR. Not a series regular. He was never hired as a series regular because the creators knew they were gonna kill him off soon. And the reason why I say this is because, if you check out the original press releases for the first 7 episodes, they all list Jamie Dornan as a guest star, not amongst the main actors. His star billing was a glorified credit, a phony-balony (if you will) title to fool the audience into thinking he'd be around for long, so that his death would be all the more shocking. Given that Adam and Eddy both worked on Lost, a show notorious for killing off series regulars at odd times (usually before season finales), I'm not surprised that they did this with Graham.
 * Eion Bailey was added to the main cast for the back 9 episodes of season 1, which also leads me to believe it was mostly an ABC decision, since the character proved to be popular enough to entice a lot of guessing on the fans' part, and he was important enough for the story in that season. Thing is, we didn't know his fairytale alter-ego till the season was almost over, he was absent from the first episode that billed him as a regular (1.14), featured only in 7 of those last 9 eps (11 overall in the season) and in a lot of those episodes, I think, he only had ONE scene (1.15, 1.16, 1.21 and 1.22, if I'm not mistaken, all featured him in only one scene each). He was yet another odd series regular, not to mention that they demoted him for season 2, so, they never intended to keep him around for long. Therefore, again, why make him a series regular?
 * Meghan Ory is a clear case of a breakout star. Lots of shows have those, a character who isn't originally meant to be big, but proves to be popular enough to warrant more and more appearances and focus. She made it to most episodes in season 1 (beating season-long regular Sbarge by being in twice the number of eps he was in), and was therefore promoted to the main cast. AGAIN, my best guess is that this was probably a decision of The Powers That Be at ABC - I say this because, as we could all gather during season 2, the writers clearly didn't know what to do with Ruby. She basically had no story, and barely factored into the main ongoing stories. She just tagged along, until she didn't anymore, because the actress realized she was being wasted and jumped ship, without even being formally written off. So now what happens is we barely get any Red whatsoever despite her prevailing popularity. Behind the scenes, we know why she doesn't appear anymore, she's busy with other projects. Story-wise, however, it doesn't make a lick of a sense that Ruby stopped appearing altogether. Like I said, she might not have had a story, but she was ALWAYS there. Now she isn't. Why? It's never been explained. She just isn't, deal with it, viewers.
 * In all fairness, Michael Raymond-James should have been promoted right away in episode 2.14, but since that was the episode in which he was revealed as Baelfire, I guess his promotion taking place then would have only spoiled the hardcore fans further. He was important enough in early season 3 to deserve star billing, and the character is actually VERY important series-wise - being Rumple's long-lost son, Henry's father and Emma's first true love. What puzzles me is that he died in episode 3.15, 7 episodes before the season ended and only four episodes into its second arc. His death seems so oddly placed. Considering, however, that he was in 2 more episodes after he died, including the finale, I actually think the actor was used quite well.
 * John Lithgow received star billing in the spin-off (with character credit, no less - "and John Lithgow as The White Rabbit") for some reason. Probably because it's John Lithgow, bona fide television star. Since the Rabbit was gonna appear a lot anyway, might as well make his superstar voice actor a regular. Then I guess he didn't actually voice the character in every episode (being the only member of that show's main cast not to be in all of the eps) because Lithgow is probably too costly. The fifteen minutes he would take in a studio recording his lines for an episode would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, I'm guessing. Sigh.
 * Here's the thing, Michael Socha made the move from the spin-off, where he was one of the leads, to the mother show. He absolutely HAD to be a regular to justify said transition. He just would not work as a recurring guest star. Not to mention that, with Will, this season, just like with Belle for the whole series, he appears BECAUSE he is main - it's not that he's main BECAUSE he appears. Let me explain myself: Socha has been featured in 9 episodes in the first half (counting 408 as 2 episodes); that means he only missed 3. That is not a bad ratio for a series regular. Quite good even. Thing is, he doesn't ever do much, just provide occasional comic relief, because they haven't gotten the ball rolling on his actual story yet. But he has appeared in that many episodes BECAUSE he is a main actor and they have to get him to appear - if he was a recurring star, he wouldn't be in that many episodes. Heck, he probably would have been in 4 or 5 so far, if that. I'm curious, excited and a bit wary to see what they do with him in the second half.

Anyway, that's my breakdown of the odd series regulars on Once. Sorry for the long read. In all fairness, given the show's misusage of most actors, the series should really only have eight series regulars for its whole run so far: Snow, Emma, Regina, David, Henry, Rumple, Hook (since season 3), and Belle (probably since season 4, or season 3B, given her many absences before that). In the spin-off, all except the White Rabbit. But that's a restrictive interpretation of what the main cast should be. If I were to do an extensive interpretation, I'd include all of those (cos the more, the merrier), and add mainies according to their prominence in season halves: Pan in S3A, Zelena in S3B, Elsa, Anna and maybe Ingrid in S4A and Robin Hood probably since S3B as well. I can't see a single period in the show's history in which Cora merited receiving star billing though.

Sorry for the long read!! :P