A cute day with Tamara and William deVry (Julian Jerome). I think their chemistry is cute, but gosh I miss Tamara’s scenes with Steve Burton (Jason Morgan) and Maurice Benard (Sonny Corinthos). I watch the show and I somehow feel something is radically missing in the show. While I might possibly warm to Kim, I’m not really sure I will given that she’s on a show that so far has grossly underused her and belittled her fanbase with not bringing her back as Carly. Yeah, I know……

 

Apologies for the extreme lateness of this post. I had a couple of appointments yesterday plus some quality time with my partner. I’m going to ask this one question that so far has remained unanswered: When does Tamara get her own story and drive it? Seems her primary job is to forever be the cheerleader for Julian (William De Vry). She’s also very much a hypocrite. Her first episode back had Kim chastising Sonny (Maurice Benard), openly, for his being a mobster, yet here she is wanting to get together with Julian even though he’s committed crimes of his own. They are:

– Committed various crimes while working for and running the Jerome organization [1988-1990]
– Kidnapped and murdered his sister Olivia [1990]
– Killed Johnathon Paget during a gunfight [1990]
– Operated an online gambling ring and knowingly lured Morgan Corinthos into gambling debt [revealed Aug 2, 2013]
– Shot Vince, a henchman within his organization, and left him to die in the harbor [Sept 16, 2013]
– Ordered Carlos Rivera to destroy a shipment that belonged to Sonny Corinthos [Sep 18, 2013]
– Ordered his henchmen to ransack the Corinthos coffee warehouse [revealed Oct 23, 2013]
– Ordered Carlos Rivera to kill Morgan Corinthos [Oct 28, 2013]
– Imported and distributed illegal drugs [Apr-May 2014]
– Arrested for drug trafficking [May 21, 2014]
– Shot Mickey Diamond [Jul 29, 2014]
– Arrested on charges of fraud and conspiracy to aid in the wrongful imprisonment of Luke Spencer [Dec 3, 2014]
– Ordered Carlos Rivera to kidnap Ric Lansing and hold him in the trunk of a car [Dec 18, 2014]
– Falsely confessed to the murder of Anthony Zacchara and sentenced to Pentonville [Jan 8, 2015; charges dropped Feb 18, 2015]
– Escaped from prison [Jan 29, 2015]
– Shot Johnny Zacchara in the shoulder [Feb 3, 2015]

While Kim may believe in second chances, I’d say she needs to be a little more even in her condemnation of criminality. But then given we see her so little, my feeling is no one cares. Right now Tamara is averaging about seven episodes per month despite the fact she is a proven talent. I could care less about he “chem” test with De Vry, they need to cut their losses and make her Carly again because right now most of the boards I’m on are tired of “you know who” and her yelling, snarling, grimacing…. You get the drift. They’re also saying they want Tamara as Carly. That call is clear. Now whether the powers that be or the ubiquitous TPTB listen is another matter altogether. So here we still sit waiting for the storyline we were promised. (or the Prince that was promised….. Game of Thrones reference).

 

GENERAL HOSPITAL is about to celebrate it’s 55th anniversary on April 1, 2018. It’s been on the airwaves for longer than any of its other competitors on the other networks. Even its two ABC sister soaps One Life To Live and ALL MY CHILDREN don’t have the same bonafides. So in light of that astounding accomplishment, one would think the impetus of the current powers that be would be to beef up the show’s future by borrowing from the past. Last year saw an amazing fete from executive producer Frank Valentini in his ability to lure back two of the show’s high power players. Those being our Tamara Braun and Steve Burton (Jason Morgan). The other was to bring back Genie Francis and push her toward becoming the grand dame of the show in giving her a larger role in her capacity as the iconic Laura Vining Webber Baldwin Spencer. Even having her find love again and marrying her to long time VIP Kevin Collins played by long-time vet Jon Lindstrom. It looked like they were positioning this show to become something more in terms of making it viable past it’s 55th Anniversary. So what mistakes have they, or rather Frank Valentini made that makes the viability of this show in question? Let’s examine.

When it was announced that Tamara was on her way back to GH I had hoped, as did many others, she would be reclaiming her role of Carly Corinthos. I know for me I had all my fingers, toes and eyes crossed. When ABC Soaps in Depth said it would be featuring an article in its November 2017 edition with Laura Wright it seemed from all appearances it would be an exit interview. When it came closer to Tamara’s airdate, we received news that her “character” would have something to do with Patient6 (Jason) and she would have news on him. This baited us more with the possibility of a switcheroo that she would indeed be replacing Wright, but then we found out her character’s name would be Kim Nero thus dashing all our hopes she would be playing Carly once again. A role all of her fans was praying she’d one day come “home” to play. Frank Valentini said in an interview he’d talked to her back in 2009 at the Daytime Emmy awards where she won for Best Supporting Actress in a Daytime Drama for her role of Ava Vitali on DAYS OF OUR LIVES. If I’d be a betting woman, I’d deduce Valentini was perhaps positioning Tamara to come back to play Carly. That was until 2011 when Laura Wright won for Best Actress in a Daytime Drama for playing largely a faux Carly. Given the field that year The Bold & Beautiful veteran Susan Flannery was the front-runner given her decision to retire from the soap. However, Wright won in effect scuttling any chance of Tamara’s return to come back to play Carly.

We come to 2017 and Steve Burton’s triumphant return as Jason, Genie finally being elevated to contract and Tamara returning as Kim. So what’s wrong with that picture? Plenty. Apparently Genie was given her walking papers before Christmas. Yeah she was demoted to non-contract status and in Frank Valentini’s words to appear in count ’em TWELVE episodes a year. That is so demeaning to this actress who single-highhandedly saved this show from cancellation back in 1977. Until the David Hamilton Murder Case GENERAL HOSPITAL was on the cancellation block. With the creation of that storyline the show was saved from cancellation, with Genie and her onscreen mother Lesley played by Denise Alexander being the stars who not only saved the show, but brought it to prominence for Gloria Monty to be able to come in to revamp the show with the espionage and intrigue of the Left-Handed Boy story, but also bringing in Tony Geary as Luke Spencer. But again remember it was Genie and Denise who saved this show. Not Geary. Geary if not for Monty would have been a short-term character, gone in perhaps the customary thirteen week cycle and never to be remembered again. Instead Luke was saved and it was Roy DiLuca (Asher Bruner) who was sacrificed in order to set up the beginning of the Laura and Luke phenomenon. Notice what I did? I said LAURA and Luke. Not the other way around as is the custom for most articles to give Geary more credit than Francis.

We’re more than two months away from the April 1st 55th anniversary. Yet we have Frank Valentini making ridiculous if not insane decisions such as not bringing Tamara back to play Carly and letting Genie Francis go. He hired Laura Wright’s boyfriend in a parking lot for a contract character no one cares about, but he reduced the iconic Genie Francis to twelve appearances a year? If Valentini had any balls, which I don’t believe he does, he’d have cut his losses with Wright…and face it in most of the message boards and comment sections I visit daily, no one likes Wright’s interpretation of Carly. They don’t like her selfishness, her hubris, her grandiosity and her loudness. I’ve counted at least a dozen nicknames. They want the Carly back who had learned lessons, grown, become a woman and had vulnerability, something Wright is totally incapable of playing due to her lack of understanding of subtext. Oh sure she can cry on cue, but little else in terms of subtlety. However, Valentini did something we GH and most specifically we Carly fans never thought would happen: Tamara Braun would come back to GENERAL HOSPITAL. Given the re-hiring of Steve Burton and the re-signing of Maurice Benard (Sonny Corinthos) to another three years, and the 55th Anniversary of the show coming up, what a time to have reunited the real CarSaSon (for the uninitiated that is Carly/Jason/Sonny) and begin to carve out a path to keep the show on for the foreseeable future. Imagine what that would look like to bring about a renaissance for this show and give us back our grown up Carly, original Jason and Sonny, plus giving us Laura Vining Webber Baldwin Spencer now Collins in a storyline worthy of Genie’s ample talent, and allow this show to get back to what it used to do: Entertain.

I’m being told by some that they love Laura Wright’s Carly. Most of those are newer fans who just started watching when Wright was playing Carly. They don’t understand who Carly was under Sarah Brown, and who she became under Tamara Braun. What is currently on our screens with Laura Wright is not Carly. That Laura Wright is not trained enough to understand that “playing my Carly closer to the original” means backsliding for a character that had become something more under both Tamara Braun and Jennifer Bransford, she clearly doesn’t understand what playing a long term character on a soap opera means. If we look at the character of Luke Spencer as a model and see that what started out to be a one-note character become a hero, then we see what that means in terms of making the show current. We have to forget what mess Tony Geary made out of Luke in the end in trying to deconstruct the myth. That’s what Laura Wright did. She deconstructed all growth Tamara’s Carly made in understanding why she had the impulses she did, why she lied, why she did the things she did. She learned a lot in light of the Kristina reveal and became a heroine in her own right, not Wright. And that is what we all do when we watch these shows. We grow along with the characters because that’s the nature of the show. For any of Wright’s fans who believe she’s playing the grown version of Sarah Brown’s Carly, think again. She’s not. She claims she’s playing her Carly, “closer to the original”. Again she’s not. She’s playing as some have said to me in private emails and as that poster to IMDB said, more of Princess Cassie Winslow from Guiding Light. She’s not playing Caroline Leigh “Carly” Benson Corinthos. She’s playing a transplanted Cassie. That’s all. When you look at Tamara’s three other soap characters of Ava Vitali (DAYS OF OUR LIVES), Taylor Walker (DAYS OF OUR LIVES) and Reese Williams (ALL MY CHILDREN) not to mention Kim Nero, none of these other characters Tamara has played is anything like the other. Carly is not like Ava, is not like Taylor, is not like Reese is not like Kim. This shows how well Tamara is able to craft her characters into individual beings, not carbon copies of another one she’s played. We could see in 2014 with the “Carlypalooza” episode of GENERAL HOSPITAL aired on the 51st anniversary of GENERAL HOSPITAL on April 1st, we saw Tamara work her magic. Bring Carly back to her evolved self. That alone told us that Laura Wright is all wrong for playing Carly. One thing I know about running this website since 2006 is the proclivity of my visitors in terms of the gallery views. Most of the time they’re viewing the most recent uploads, however, most of the current views have been in the section dedicated to Tamara’s time as Carly for the years 2001 and 2002, the years I have up in the gallery. (I’m still working on editing 2003-2005). But people are interested in her time as Carly. I’m not getting as many hits on the Kim Nero section of gallery as I am on the Carly Corinthos section. That says something. I’m going to let you interpret that in whatever way you will dear reader. But to me it’s clear.

So what would my short-term fixes be? Fire Laura Wright. Get rid of her or find another character for her to play. It’s been done before via the One Life to Live three. Reinstate Tamara as Carly. Perhaps have Carly suddenly a doctor. This show has done weirder things. That would give Tamara that meat she loves to play and fulfill for her what she wanted for Carly way back in 2005 when she made her decision to leave due to the lack of wanting Carly to have a career. Heck it’s been done before. Do a do-over of the Mayoral race and have Laura win. Allow her to become what Laura was always meant to become, a champion of Port Charles. That’s who she was back in the 70s and 80s. Make that happen for her and for her fans. Get rid of the flotsam in Valentin, Nina, Ava. Those characters wouldn’t be missed. Pervy Franco, get rid of him. No one likes him either. Make Roger Howarth Todd Manning again. With the settlement of the Prospect Park suit in ABC’s favour, they now are able to use the ALL MY CHILDREN and One Life to Live characters. Do it! Perhaps the pairing of Howarth and Rebecca Herbst as Elizabeth wouldn’t be as skeevy considering “Franco’s” past. Todd Manning though flawed, became a better man after what he did to Marty Saybrooke (Susan Haskell). But those are just some of my short-term solutions to correct those mistakes Frank Valentini has made with this show. If there are others please post them in the comments section. If you like this post and by and large agree with it, share it on your social media accounts. Tag Valentini, ABC and GENERAL HOSPITAL if you like. We have to become proactive to correct the very bad decisions that have been made. And bringing back Tamara Braun as someone else other than Carly, and firing Genie Francis is bad logic.

Here finally is Thursday’s episode of GENERAL HOSPITAL. Sorry it took me so long to get it up but my on demand service was giving me hassles when I was trying to record and I didn’t get a good rendering when I clipped it up so I had to go back and re-clip and render. So I’m going to say it again, if anything Thursday’s episode again showed why Tamara’s return is wrong. Why? All during that scene with Elizabeth (Rebecca Herbst) when they were introducing themselves, I was yelling at the screen, “PANIC ROOM PANIC ROOM PANIC ROOM!” I’m so tired of seeing on message boards that Laura Wright is somehow some sacred cow. When Frank Valentini knew he had Tamara, he should have done the political chess game it would have taken to bring her back as Carly. To me Tamara has seniority because she came before Wright. Wright is not playing Carly, she’s playing some other character and it’s ridiculous to even think she’s not. I’ve tried to be as conciliatory as I can to Wright’s fans, but I can’t anymore and I’m tired of having to keep “the peace” and being politically correct. There just comes a time when common sense has to prevail and logic rule. Soap operas are solidly trying to keep relevant. Part of that relevancy is unless there is a really good reason to bring a former actor back, then have a good reason for it. So far I’ve not seen any reason for Tamara to be back as this Kim. Don’t get me wrong I love the name. That is my partner’s name and I love her dearly, however, “Kim” hasn’t done anything that remotely looks promising. Or as Joel said in one of his comments here, “Loving how incredible Tamara has been in the role of Kim Nero; it’s a new role for her, being a doctor, so it’s refreshing to see her in a role such as Kim! Hoping to see her developed more as the weeks and months go on!” I mean all he has to say is that “she’s a doctor” and “it’s an incredible role”. I love my girl hence this site, but it’s been four episodes and there’s nothing awesome about this character or even a hint of where this story is going. Again having her interact with people she acted with before is only compounding the issue of using that history of Tamara as Carly especially with the reveal that Steve Burton is indeed Jason Morgan, I’m thinking of the flashback they could have used when Jason came back to Port Charles back in 2002 to compound that history between Carly, Sonny (Maurice Benard) and Jason. I’m thinking of that scene where Carly sees Jason at the Penthouse and jumps into his arms. I’m also still having the feeling this character is short-term. Sarah Brown lasted for almost two years as Claudia Zacharra and from the looks of “Kim’s” squirrelly behaviour, I don’t see the character lasting long. We as Tamara’s fans who would love to see her return to being Carly, let your voice be heard. In the poll I ran here on the site 66% of the respondents said they wanted her as Carly. Most of the message boards and comment sections I’ve read want Wright gone. That should mean something. It used to.

 

Tamara has just confirmed via her Instagram and Twitter accounts that she is indeed coming back to GENERAL HOSPITAL. Entertainment Weekly Online is saying it’ll be as a new character, but my Spidey Senses are telling me it’s as Carly. There’s a candid interview coming up in ABC Soaps in Depth with Laura Wright and I’m feeling that it is an exit interview, and with news that Vanessa Marcil (Brenda Barrett) is on her way back could GENERAL HOSPITAL be gearing up for another Carly/Sonny/Brenda triangle? Could be. Again this is all my speculation.

Here finally are the screencaps and clip from Tamara’s brief return to GENERAL HOSPITAL as her iconic role of Carly Corinthos. I’ve included the flashback scenes from the episode in the screencaps for you. Didn’t she look luminous? I thought she was just so good in how she slipped effortlessly back into the Carly we’d all come to know and love. This makes me miss her all the more and really would love to see her back on either daytime or primetime in a more permanent capacity. I’ll likely draw some fire from a certain faction but I felt Tamara’s bit was the reason the current portrayer of Carly still has her job. I’m not mentioning names, but you guys know what I’m talking about. And again I’ll register my contempt for the powers that be at GENERAL HOSPITAL for the travesty at not including Jennifer Bransford to this supposed “Carly-Palooza”. Too often I’ve seen on message boards about this episode that Jennifer wasn’t Carly and nor should she have been included because she wasn’t attractive enough. I feel that is so disgusting and demeaning to say to any woman let alone Jennifer who I feel did as much with the part as she was allowed under Guza’s craptastical writing. I feel Jennifer more than Laura Wright embodied all the elements both Sarah Brown and Tamara infused Carly with for a continuation of the character. Those aforementioned powers that be failed to utilize Jennifer’s abilities to the fullest, instead pulled the same tired trick of having a woman go nuts over loving Sonny Corinthos (Maurice Benard). Shame on Bob Guza for reducing Carly to such a stereotype as well to Frank Valentini and Ron Carlivati for their disgusting tactics regarding Jennifer Bransford.

Now I’m including the clip of the episode from a Youtube link Tamara provided in a tweet. Why? Every single time I upload anything that is copyrighted no matter all the disclaimers I put on it, my account always seems to get yanked from Youtube and I have to sign back up. I’m not willing to have to put myself through that headache again. I’ve had two accounts pulled and I like the one I have. So due to that I’m going to include the full episode here. Tamara’s parts start at the 18:30 mark.

• [794] SCREENCAPS: 04/01/2014 – GENERAL HOSPITAL

Hi guys. My apologies for not having been around, but I’ve had some health issues and my mom hasn’t been well. I wanted to let you know that I have Tamara’s episode of GENERAL HOSPITAL from April Fool’s Day for the GENERAL HOSPITAL 51st Anniversary. I’ll try to get that capped up and up sometime later today. I know I still haven’t gotten the media site or the soap site back up, but I’m working on it. I’ll try to have an alternative for viewing the clip here. Stay tuned.

Onto a shallow note, didn’t Tamara look amazing? It seems like she’s drawn some elixir or something. She positively glowed. Dare I say Maurice Benard (Sonny Corinthos) looked happy to have her back? I have to still my heart though. Seeing her was both heartwarming and heartwrenching to know it was only a one off. Though during the live tweeting session, Tamara did say she had to “get back to the set.” Could that mean our girl is working on something? Here’s hoping it’s something a little more permanent. It is pilot season after all. Anyway good to see her back. Below is a preview pic. My only gripe about the episode was its shunning of the lovely Jennifer Bransford’s contribution to the character of Carly. I found that just a little insulting.

I should have had this up earlier, but alas I didn’t realize what the day was. This is an anniversary of sorts for us Tamara fans. It was on this day eleven years ago we first discovered the talent we know as Tamara Braun. This is the anniversary of her first airdate as our favourite mob moll, Carly Corinthos. I can still remember that episode, “The role of Carly Corinthos will now be played by Tamara Braun.” And that began four years of one of the best characters on GENERAL HOSPITAL and one of the most successful recasts on the show. In the subsequent years we were treated to a myriad of emotions and highs and lows as Tamara took us through Carly’s life both apart and with and apart and with and apart from Sonny (Maurice Benard). Together we experienced Carly’s disappointment at the thought she might not be able to conceive a child with Sonny and her desperation throughout the Panic Room storyline with the psychopathic Ric Lansing (Rick Hearst) and the South American run with Lorenzo Alcazar (Ted King). We were gripped when she gave birth to Morgan and dealing with the aftermath of Sonny’s shooting his wife in the head. The poignant alternate storyline where we went through the life Carly and Lorenzo had up until his death as the elderly Carly looked on and comforted him. Then the horror of a mother dealing with the death of her beloved Michael (Dylan Cash). All in all Tamara made Carly her own and no actress has really been able to capture that vulnerability and fieriness quite the way Tamara did. Carly’s maturity was never more evident as when Tamara played her, and her humanity was never more present as Tamara gave Carly that growth one has to expect if a long-term soap opera character is to survive. Thank you Mark Teschner for your good eye at realizing what Tamara could and did bring to the show. So Happy Anniversary Tamara.