It's Halloween, so you may be primed for pranks of all kinds. But what you've heard this week is no trick -- B&B's infamous "Doc," one Taylor Hamilton Hayes Forrester Marone Jones, will soon be played by DAYS vet Krista Allen. Allen takes over from fan favorite Hunter Tylo, beginning December 10.
Whether or not this will be a treat remains to be seen, as Taylor has a lot of baggage collected from her more recent years in Los Angeles. Is the recast a chance to redeem Taylor, who some fans feel was written into a corner? Will Taylor's likely reunion with her living children, Steffy and Thomas, result in an ultimate reunion with Ridge? Will the soap take Taylor in a completely different direction? And will fans accept such a high-profile recast after Hunter Tylo walked in Taylor's shoes for the better part of three decades?
We won't even get a hint about any of that until Krista Allen makes her first appearance about six weeks from now, leaving us lots of time to reflect on the highs and lows of B&B's stable-to-unstable shrink. Adding to your food for thought, here are the Top 5 most Taylor-made moments that have flashed across our screens since Ms. Hayes made her debut in 1990!
Trying to move on from Ridge, Taylor married his half-brother, Nick Marone, and worked to start a family with him. But there were conception issues, so the couple opted for in vitro fertilization via an anonymous donor. Taylor successfully carried baby Jack to term but got the shock of her life when she found out that the egg had come from none other than Brooke! Considering that Taylor held a perpetual grudge against Brooke for ruining her relationship with Ridge, this news was more painful for Taylor than the delivery.
The year 2000 was craptastic for Taylor. First, she nearly split from Ridge because he had impregnated his old flame Morgan DeWitt, thinking he'd had Taylor's permission. Then Taylor's baby daughter, Steffy, was eaten by a shark. But Taylor's year went from crap to "nap" when Taylor discovered a very-much-alive Steffy at Morgan's house and ended up being kidnapped. At first falling into the perils-of-Pauline role, Taylor soon channeled her inner mama bear and literally fought for her family. Well, until Ridge rescued Taylor by crashing an SUV through the front window. Taylor going up against an enemy that wasn't Brooke was as fresh as the new millennium.
In 2002, news of Hunter Tylo's departure was all over soap media. But no one knew just how devastating that goodbye was going to be. Taylor had been helping young Amber, who was being framed by the evil Sheila -- Sheila wanted to have her daughter Erica replace Amber as Rick's wife. When Sheila's plan fell apart, she headed to Eric's to reclaim him, only for Taylor to walk in on a gun-toting spectacle. Psychiatrist Taylor tried to talk Sheila down and almost succeeded until Brooke arrived to snag a baby bottle for Hope. Taylor grabbed for the gun that Sheila had aimed at Brooke, and in the struggle, the weapon discharged, and Taylor received a bullet in her heart. People think Sheila shot Taylor on purpose, but watch the scene -- Sheila was as horrified as Eric and Brooke were. Taylor died soon after -- or so we thought at the time -- and it was like a shot in the heart to B&B fans, as well.
After Taylor returned from the dead a second time in 2005 -- because she's good at that -- she seemed to have a darker edge, sleeping with Brooke's father and becoming a full-blown alcoholic. Taylor tried to do better, so when daughter Phoebe called reporting a flat tire, Taylor hopped in the car and sped to her daughter's aid. What Taylor didn't know was that Phoebe had also called friend Darla Einstein, who was helping Phoebe change the tire when Taylor came racing down the foggy road. Darla fell into Taylor's path, dying instantly and leading Taylor to hide the truth from Darla's husband, Thorne, for months. An accident, for sure, but the true beginning of Taylor's long fall from grace.
When it rains for Taylor, it pours. Taylor was mugged in an airport bathroom in Cairo, and the assault was so bad, it left her comatose. When she woke up, she had amnesia, but there was this prince, Omar, who nursed her back to health and crushed on her super hard. Taylor eventually got her memory back, though when her best pal, James Warwick, showed up at Omar's palace, Taylor did a Moroccan snake dance to prove that she was happy with Omar, despite only marrying the sovereign because she didn't want to disrupt Ridge's new life with Brooke. When Taylor comes back from the grave, she doesn't fool around!
That's a quick round-up of the life and times of Taylor Hayes! The last we heard, Taylor was overseas, supposedly doing missionary work, but we never really got any clear sense that she had recovered from the mental health issues that had led her to shoot Bill in cold blood in 2018 -- which one could presume also inspired Taylor to basically buy a baby for Steffy in 2019, shortly before her last appearance. Has Taylor had a chance to work on herself and restore her sanity since then? Or does Taylor having a new face give the show tacit permission to make the once-sensible Taylor even crazier? For even more details on the life and times of Taylor Hayes, be sure to check out her Who's Who in Los Angeles profile right here on Soap Central.
What are some of your favorite Taylor moments? We want to hear from you -- so drop your comments in the Comments section below, tweet about it on Twitter, share it on Facebook, or chat about it on our Message Boards.
