If you’ve been a soap fan as long as I have – 1980 respectively, not to date myself – then you inevitably get used to recasts.

Like pretty much everything else in this world – they’re a mixed bag.

Some work.

Laura Wright (Carly, General Hospital), Bree Williamson (Jessica, One Life to Live), Billy Warlock (A.J., General Hospital) and Kassie DePaiva (Blair, One Life to Live) would be examples of this.

I’m not saying they’re better than the originals – but they succeed in the roles to a degree that makes you accept them as the characters.

The are other recasts that are so different from the originals that they essentially created new characters. This is rare, but it happens.

Examples of this would include Jerry verDorn (Clint, One Life to Live), Greg Vaughn (Lucky, General Hospital), Trevor St. John (Todd, One Life to Live) and Alicia Minshew (Kendall, All My Children).

Some of the recasts were necessary.

VerDorn, for example, took over the role after the original actor Clint Ritchie died. Clint underwent a massive personality change under verDorn – yet I still liked the character (even though I loved Ritchie).

John Ingle on General Hospital would be another example of this. I loved David Lewis – but John Ingle was a wonderful Edward recast – even though the character was never truly the same under Ingle.

Vaughn’s Lucky never got the writing Jonathan Jackson’s Lucky did – but I thought Vaughn worked with what he was given.

And, ultimately, we found out St. John’s character was so different from the original Todd because he was really a different character – but that will take forever to explain.

All of the above mentioned recasts I can take.

The final category of recasts is the ones that just plain fall flat.

I’m dealing with three of those right now on ‘General Hospital.’

Which three am I talking about?

Kelly Sullivan as Kate, Jen Lilley as Maxie and Lindsey Morgan as Kristina.

I just want to start by saying I have nothing personal against these actresses. I just don’t happen to think they fit the parts they’re been cast to play.

First up is Sullivan.

The character of Kate is a hard one to stomach no matter who is playing her. At least original Kate (Megan Ward) had a little chutzpah – for lack of a better word.

Sullivan has been saddled with one of the most ridiculous stories in recent soap history. She can’t do anything about that. It’s not her fault. Multiple personality storylines are always ridiculous.

Sullivan, however, has other strikes against her.

First of all, the actress is 34 years old and we’re supposed to believe she was in high school with Maurice Benard’s Sonny. For his part, Benard is almost 50. The difference in their looks is hilarious.

Now we’re supposed to believe that Kate has a grown 20-something son running around named Trey. Sure, she was raped as a teenager, but this is just ridiculous.

I could have maybe warmed to Sullivan if they had cast her as a different character and not forced this ridiculous age issue. As it is, I fast forward through Sullivan 75 percent of the time.

Next up is Jen Lilley – also a wonderful girl in a real life.

Personally, I didn’t like all the Lilley hate when she first took over the role of Maxie from the talented Kirsten Storms.

The truth is, Storms was having health issues. It’s been reported she had endometriosis. She’s been sidelined a long time if that’s the only thing that’s wrong with her.

I think something else is going on – and that’s none of my business. It looks like Storms is ready to return to work, though, and it’s time to let her.

Lilley did an admirable job. She just wasn’t Maxie, though.

A lot of the time, it felt like I was watching an actress pretend to be Storms pretending to be Maxie.

Under Lilley, Maxie just stopped being likeable for me. The character was always self-centered and self-serving. I still managed to like her, though. That’s not the case with Lilley’s Maxie. I fast forward through her a solid 85 percent of the time.

That brings us to Morgan.

She is a lovely girl. The problem is, a lot of fans, myself included, haven’t gotten over how the previous Kristina (Lexi Ainsworth) was fired. For those that don’t know – it was for lack of sex appeal.

Morgan certainly doesn’t have that problem.

However, Ainsworth was still much more endearing as Kristina.

Kristina is a character that has a lot of issues. Ainsworth managed to portray those issues and still make Kristina likeable.

Morgan’s Kristina is a holy terror – and not a fun one like Heather.

Also, and I know this shouldn’t matter, but Morgan doesn’t look like Alexis, Sam and Molly anymore. I don’t know why, but I believed the family dynamic so much more when all the Davis girls looked alike.

Kristina? Yeah, I fast forward through her 100 percent of the time.

Now, I don’t like to advocate for people to lose their jobs, but I’m ready for Storms to come home. If Ainsworth can’t be wooed back, send Kristina back to Yale. As for Kate? She’s become the character that ate GH anyway. Maybe it’s time she was back burnered?

What do you think? How is GH’s current crop of recasts doing?