Billy Miller has passed. This was such a shock to see this on Twitter/X this morning. I grew to admire Billy’s acting when he was a recast for the character of Billy Abbott on The Young and the Restless. His charisma and engaging personality made me an immediate fan and his chemistry with Amelia Henlie (Victoria Newman) was amazing. For the role Billy won himself two Daytime Emmy Awards, and a further nomination for the role. Later he would come to GENERAL HOSPITAL as initially a recast Jason Morgan, however, when Steve Burton made his comeback in 2017, Billy was created the role Drew Cain. When Tamara came back to the show as the newly minted Dr. Kim Nero, she was paired with Billy’s character, Drew having fathered her son, Oscar (Garren Stitt). From there as Oscar battled a fatal brain tumor, Billy and Tamara portrayed grieving parents dealing with the lingering death, and finally death of their beloved son. The scene where Drew carried Oscar down the stairs at the Quartermain mansion was just gutting. Billy decided to leave the show and it was paler for it, as he garnered anther Daytime Emmy nomination for the role. Tamara would win as Best Supporting Actress. But for Billy, it’s so sad to think he was suffering. It is truly gut wrenching to think of his light fading. At 43, he had so much more to give us. He just didn’t feel he could. Be at rest now Billy. On behalf of TAMARA BRAUN ONLINE, we send his family, friends, and co-workers our condolences and wish them peace.
Category: Kim Nero
I said in the previous post that I had something to say. This is going to be a small, though needed rant-ish sort of post. Tamara has been killing it as Ava. She doesn’t know anything else in everything she puts her mind to. She’s an incredible actress and what I have to say has nothing whatsoever to do with her craft or acting. It has to do with the state of her current storyline. As a viewer of Ava’s since her debut way back in February 2008, I’ve seen her character go through a spectrum of severe rewriting and reconning. I know Tamara has said she hasn’t liked certain returns, and the same issue I have in the inconsistent writing, my issue here is that it’s all the same retread of the last time around. It’s getting tedious and to the point of satire. Let’s see all the ways to make Ava crazy and the villainess with no chance of changing or moving forward. There is no real reason for Ava’s current condition other than the writing being so, well, dumb.
Here’s my main issue: Unless the drugs Martino (Joe Penny) were ordering the doctor to give Ava has had long-term effects, there is no reason for this behaviour to continue. When Ava left Salem in 2008, Ava was sane. She was cured. There was no reason in 2015 when she came back to be back to crazy or the way she was other than plot driven drivel. The whole Ava/Steve “rape” I’ve covered in a blog post When Is It Rape?, was calculated to make Ava hated, as if she already wasn’t for coming in between Steve (Stephen Nichols) and Kayla (Mary Beth Evans), and the sabotaging of the plane that caused the death of Papa Shawn Brady (Frank Parker), whoever created this storyline should be forced into a walk of shame a la Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey) on Game of Thrones. Did I want Steve and Ava involved and Kayla out of the picture? Sure thing. The chemistry between Tamara and Stephen Nichols was off the charts. However, Ava/Tamara was designed to fail just like Reese Williams from ALL MY CHILDREN, and Kim Nero on GENERAL HOSPITAL due in large part to the failure of the writing for each character. I hate that so much. I don’t expect Tamara to play angels all the time. She’s that good that her bad roles make her sympathetic, with the exception of Claire Dunning in THE PRETENDER. However, the constant and consistent failure of the writing is bothersome. What can be done to fix this mess that Dena Higley, Ron Carlivati, and Jamey Giddens have created? How to fix Ava Vitali? Simple.
My idea would be to go back to 2008 and Tamara’s original run. Bring back the character of Martino and have Ava under Marlena’s care, never mind her severe conflict of interest considering she was on the plane with Shawn Brady, find out something buried deep in Ava’s conscious that has created this repetitive mental relapse. What could that be? There is more than one way to solve this issue and bring about a change in Ava’s character and allow her to be a mother to her beautiful son, Tripp (Lucas Adams). That is Charlie’s (Mike Manning) father is Martino Vitali, not this guy that suddenly came into the story, Jimmy. Having Charlie be Martino’s from this betrayal from Martino would explain a lot of the reason Ava couldn’t love him. How could she when it was actual rape from her father? Her love of Tripp is because of her love for Steve, which is the reason the whole Indonesia storyline was really bad writing and just making the fans hate Ava more than they already did. When we look back on DAYS OF OUR LIVES history, there have been characters who have done worse than Ava, but who are beloved such as Stefano DiMera (the late Joe Mascolo), and Victor Kiriakis (the late John Aniston). I don’t expect them to completely redeem Ava, but how about allow her some modicum of peace and move on with her story of forging a tighter bond with Tripp? I really love the scenes Tamara and Lucas have had as Ava and Tripp. I want them to have a meaningful relationship. The fact that Tripp has in any way called Kayla “Mom,” or that he changed his name to Johnson instead of Vitali, makes me feel they are actively trying to remove Ava from the picture completely. Sort of like those old Soviet Union photos that would suddenly change if someone fell out of favour with the current big boss. Is it too much to ask the current writers to actually look at the character bible to look into how to make Ava less a pariah? Other women in Salem like Kristin (Stacy Haiduk), and Nicole (Adrienne Zuker) have done worse and have been blessed with being able to be mothers to their children, yet Ava has been constantly denied that right.
I just found out that Jacklyn Zeman, Bobbie Spencer on GENERAL HOSPITAL, has died. This is so shocking as she was still so young. I remember first seeing her back in the 70s as Lana McLaine on One Life to Live. After she left OLTL, she showed up on GENERAL HOSPITAL as Nurse Bobbie Spencer. Later on her older brother, Luke (Anthony Geary), came to town and caused quite a lot of trouble for Bobbie, or his “Barbara Jean.” Throughout my love-hate-love for GENERAL HOSPITAL due in most part to the storylines happening at the time, Jackie never disappointed with stellar performances. Whether it was the domestic violence story with D. L. Brock (David Grogh), her love for Noah Drake (Rick Springfield), or Bobbie’s brief flirtation with Stefan Cassadine (Stephen Nichols), she was always a joy to watch. I think though where I really fell in love with her was when Tamara came to the show as her daughter, Carly. I loved how Tamara and Jackie formed a beautiful mother/daughter team. The love the two had for each other was palpable. You could actually believe they were what they were playing. During most of Carly’s dramas with Sonny (Maurice Benard), Lorenzo Alcazar (Ted King), or with the discovery of Carly’s father, John Durant (Corben Bersen), Jackie and Tamara were to me, not really acting. They were mother and daughter. Their scenes in 2005 after the “death” of Michael (Dylan Cash) where some of the best scenes. Two mothers dealing with the deaths of children, Bobbie having lost her beloved BJ (Brighton Hertford), and Carly dealing with the kidnapping and subsequent murder of Michael, I was glued to the screen watching these two women play out intimate scenes making me sob like a baby.
When Tamara left GENERAL HOSPITAL in 2005, I missed their scenes together. I quit watching at that time and thought I’d never go back. However, Tamara returned in 2017 to play the part of Dr. Kim Nero. Seeing them in scenes together hurt, because I wanted Carly and Bobbie to have some of their talks together. I wanted to see the real Carly with her “Momma.” After Tamara left again in 2019 to resume her role as Ava Vitali on DAYS OF OUR LIVES, I kept hoping somehow someway Tamara would return and would play Carly again. That we would see Carly and Bobbie together again and Tamara and Jackie doing what they always did: Move me beyond tears with their eloquence and beautiful moments. I always hoped Tamara would resume playing Carly. Now with Jackie gone we, I. won’t have that chance. This saddens me. This hurts.
On behalf of TAMARA BRAUN ONLINE, I want to send my condolences to Jackie’s family, friends, colleagues, and fellow GH fans who I know will be mourning this loss. Goodbye Jackie. You will be missed and loved. Thank you for all you gave us over the years. The soap gods are fuller for taking you into their embrace. xx
Tamara looked stunning in a gown designed by Rita Vinieris. As always Tamara looks beautiful no matter what she wears. I loved the plunging neckline and the peak-a-boo cut-outs. Another set includes some from the Daytime Emmys Press Line. Tamara is seen with GENERAL HOSPITAL and DAYS OF OUR LIVES co-star Wally Kurth (Ned Ashton, GH; Justin Kiriakis, DOOL) and others.
- TAMARA BRAUN – IN PHOTOS > EVENT IMAGES > 2021 > 06/12/2021 – 48th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards – Arrivals
- TAMARA BRAUN – IN PHOTOS > EVENT IMAGES > 2021 > 06/12/2021 – 48th Daytime Emmy Awards Press Line
I’m trying to get Tamara’s episodes for GENERAL HOSPITAL cleaned up from the severe backlog. I’m sorry for them not being up when they aired, but I sort of got a bit demoralized because I so want Tamara playing Carly. While I watch I love seeing Tamara, but I don’t see Kim and never will. I see Carly as a doctor. Something that should have happened since Bobbie (Jackie Zeman) works at the hospital. A progression of Carly’s character should have been for her to go back to get some sort of medical training after he showing up in Port Charles as a physio therapist. I don’t think it would be that hard to take a leap to say that Carly could become a doctor and I know that’s something Tamara would have loved for Carly. So there’s that. Also to let you know while I’m trying to get caught up, I have a lot of personal things going on right now so it might not be as quickly as you like. It took me the better part of the day to get July 2018 done. Also I do have some scans to go up in the gallery. Those will be up as time permits. Right now I’m concentrating on the backlogged episodes and screencaps. You can find everything located at the links below. And by the way I’m post-dating the episodes to the dates they aired to keep the continuity of the storyline.
I’m going to try to start to get Tamara’s work as Kim Nero up in the gallery. I’m sorry for the laxness in getting those done, but I’ve been really busy and still a little down Tamara isn’t playing Carly. Darn it, I want to love Carly again. I’m in the process of editing both the clips and screencaps. Pleasee be patient while I get this done. Hopefully it’ll be soon. Keep checking back.
