Kayey Cuoco: Charmed Vs 8 Simple Rules- The acting

[iamthesun]

The actress is better with comedy roles but I loved her character Billie in Charmed.

[Esmeralda]

Feb 24, 2008 19:03:34 GMT -5 ~B@MeLiSsA30@B~ said:

For some reason I can't picture J.L.H as Paige. Although she played in that series "Ghost Whisperer." I do like her though. I wonder how she do if she played that part.

Since they wrote Paige to be like Rose, I'm sure had JLH gotten the role, Paige would've been more like her, probably more like her role in Ghost Whisperer. I would've liked to see Paige played that way rather than a klutzy ditz. Unfortunately JLH (one of the first to be asked to play Paige) turned the role down.

Can anyone think of someone they would've preferred playing Billie rather than Kayley? I would've loved to have seen Danielle Harris come back to play Aviva from "The Fourth Sister", especially if we found out that Elise was another one of her aunts...

ETA: Granted, using Aviva, they wouldn't have been able to use titles like "Kill Billie, Vol 1" and "Kill Billie, Vol 2" and probably not use the whole Christy (The Last Temptation of Christy) storyline, but that would be a bad thing?

[Chrisaholic]

Feb 13, 2013 13:49:13 GMT -5 iamthesun said:

The actress is better with comedy roles but I loved her character Billie in Charmed.

Totally agree with you here. Saw her in "8SR", "Charmed" and "Big Bang Theory" and for me, it goes that the actor should stay in the field they best started, meaning here comedy. Or as a saying here goes: A cobbler should stick to his last. This goes for Kayley especially.

[Astral Vision]

If I had never seen her in 8 Simple Rules or TBBT, I would have thought Kaley Cuoco was a terrible actor when I eventually saw her in Charmed. I think it can definitely be said that she's best in situation comedies.

[priscillahalliwell]

Well I think Kaley has proven herself as a great actress. But I agree with Astral Vision that she must feel most comfortable in comedies. That's where her talents lies. Although perhaps she envolves and becomes more experienced at other genres. I do like her in 8sr and TBBT.

[Darkhorse Christian]

Jul 12, 2013 9:51:38 GMT -5 Esmeralda said:

I would've loved to have seen Danielle Harris come back to play Aviva from "The Fourth Sister", especially if we found out that Elise was another one of her aunts...

And this reminds me of something I wrote in the Wild Mass Guessing section for Charmed at TVTropes:

WMG: Phoebe's boss/friend Elise and Aviva's aunt Jackie from "The Fourth Sister" are one and the same.

First off, they're both played by the same actress, Rebecca Balding. That's where the theory starts. Secondly, the only Halliwell that ever saw and talked to Aunt Jackie in "The Fourth Sister" is Prue. Elise and the Bay Mirror first appear in Season 4. After Prue got on the bus called "Dead". This in turn means any retcon to this effect would not breach continuity.

Now for the evidence that makes this actually plausible. Look at Elise. She's the typical example of a woman who sacrifices her personal life for the sake of her career and goes on to regret it years later—and this is established canon, as she openly tells Phoebe this at one point imploring her not to repeat her own mistake. In fact, no family is ever mentioned when it comes to Elise aside from her ex-husband who was apparently a schmuck—not even in the Charmed Comics. Now look back at "The Fourth Sister". Jackie is completely alone. The only person there to keep her company is Aviva, and it's clear that this is only because she's taking care of the girl until her mother gets better, and that Aviva hates her guts, and that she doesn't even understand why. She also refuses to call her mother when Aviva gets upset. From that, one can only assume she's more used to keeping distance in her relationship with her family than Aviva is at the time of the episode, and Aviva does not like this—which only makes the sorceress Kali's attempts to influence Aviva that much easier.

If, by the unlikely chance, an all-grown-up Aviva ever resurfaces in the comics, expect at least some allusion to this if not a full confirmation. If this is fully confirmed, expect to learn that one of the two names, Jackie or Elise, is probably her middle name. Most likely Elise, as it's more common for family to use first names with someone who goes by middle name in public than the other way around. If Aviva's mother aka Jackie/Elise's sister appears as well, she may look similar to Alberta Watson, the Canadian actress who plays a character named Madeline in both Nikita television remakes.

[ljones]

I would've liked to see Paige played that way rather than a klutzy ditz.

I blame Kern and the writers for transforming Paige into a ditz. Rose was great as Paige during Season 4 and part of Season 5. After that, the writers nearly destroyed the character. No wonder Rose had a hard time maintaining any enthusiasm during the series' remaining run.

[lilchi7212]

A comedy is basically a witty drama.

[Deleted]

Is this really a fair comparison.  Kaley was only on Charmed for one year.  She's done Big Bang Theory for seven, going on eight.  Her character of Penny is much more developed than Billie ever was.

[Deleted]

Oct 30, 2014 11:08:49 GMT -5 ljones said:

I blame Kern and the writers for transforming Paige into a ditz. Rose was great as Paige during Season 4 and part of Season 5. After that, the writers nearly destroyed the character. No wonder Rose had a hard time maintaining any enthusiasm during the series' remaining run.

I agree.  Rose actually isn't a bad actor.  She was just stuck on a show that went on WAY past its expiration date and hardly gave her any good material to work with.  Luckily, though, Rose seems to have learned her lesson about long term TV roles, because she hasn't done another one since Charmed.

Aug 21, 2015 18:14:15 GMT -5 @tim66 said:

Is this really a fair comparison.  Kaley was only on Charmed for one year.  She's done Big Bang Theory for seven, going on eight.  Her character of Penny is much more developed than Billie ever was.

Reading the title, they're actually comparing Kaley's work on Charmed to her previous sitcom, 8 Simple Rules, rather than BBT.  However, even that isn't a fair comparison, since even Bridget Hennessy was a more developed character than Billie.  Penny, of course, blows both out of the water.

Comedy and drama are two very different genres that take different skills, so it's possible to be good at one and bad at the other.  Kaley falls solidly in the "comedy" camp, and she knows it.  Charmed was a bad fit for her.

[Deleted]

Yeah, comedy is where Kaley belongs.  Charmed is probably an old shame for her.  She's never looked back since BBT started.

[Melinda Halliwell]

Yeah but everyone has to start something though even if it's not all that good but gets you noticed then you can move onto bigger and better things.

[Deleted]

Aug 22, 2015 4:32:40 GMT -5 Melinda Halliwell said:

Yeah but everyone has to start something though even if it's not all that good but gets you noticed then you can move onto bigger and better things.

Well, in Kaley's case, I think Charmed was just something she did to buy time until the next good role.  8 Simple Rules had just ended, so Kaley in 2005 was a 19 year old in need of a paycheck, while Kern, at the same time, was a producer in need of a young blonde female actor and fast.  Kaley was only cast because she was available, not because she was the best for the role.

[Deleted]

And the big irony is that, of all those that starred on Charmed, Kaley has had the most success post Charmed, thanks to BBT.