Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome

SORAS or Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome (less commonly called simply rapid aging) is a fan term for when an infant or young child in a soap opera is aged very quickly by the writers. This is done to permit an older actor to portray the character, and to involve the character in different - usually more "adult" - storylines.

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In the early days of the soap opera, it was not uncommon to age a character right into his or her twenties; 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. 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 fifteen-year-old when she was reintroduced in early 1993 (played by 17-year-old Alison Sweeney).

Related Topics:
As the World Turns - 1960s - Preteen - Vietnam - Sami Brady - Days of Our Lives - 1993 - Alison Sweeney

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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.

Related Topics:
The Young and the Restless - 1993 - 1999 - David Tom - 1991 - 2001 - Lyndsy Fonseca

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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 Kendall was rapidly aged to "over 21" (played by 27-year-old Alicia Minshew).

Related Topics:
All My Children - Retcon - Sarah Michelle Gellar - Alicia Minshew

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Of course, this process can also be applied to other media such as situation comedy.

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