Okay, when was the last time one saw a whole day devoted to the return of a non-legacy member of a soap opera? Not! It’s not surprising that with the return of Vanessa Marcil to her much vaunted role of Brenda Barrett (remember the ‘Luminous Brenda’ comment Carly made while stuck in the quicksand?) ABC decided it was going to pre-empt ALL MY CHILDREN and ONE LIFE TO LIVE and give that airtime over to three ‘special’ episodes dedicated to three significant parts of Brenda’s life. For Brenda fans, I’m sure it was a joy to see them. For others of other legacy characters like Lucky played originally by Jonathan Jackson, I’m sure it was a major league pain in the …… Given that other shows have had original actresses/actors return to the parts they created like Andrea Evans, the original Tina Lord on OLTL, this came as a major letdown. However, the one upside to it all is that fans of some of the other characters who have either been reduced to occasional appearances like Monica (Leslie Charleson) or even those who have disappeared altogether like STEPHEN NICHOLS who played the part of the Dark Prince Stefan Cassadine or we, Tamara Braun fans, we were able to see those we loved and lost. So thanks to this, I have one episode of GH from October 2002. Tamara was beautiful as Carly and I truly loved the essence of humility and sensuality she brought to the part. I truly do miss her, though I don’t miss the crap they gave her. Thanks to our friend Hurley for the excellent screencaps and to me for the clip. [ 079 ] SCREENCAPS: 10/29/2002 – GENERAL HOSPITAL [ 001 ] MEDIA CLIP: 10/29/2002 – GENERAL HOSPITAL
Category: General Hospital
I just got through reading a thread on the SOAPCENTRAL board where they took a poll as to who was the respondents favouriate Carly. Well, out of 114 posters, the numbers broke down like this:
- TAMARA BRAUN ……….. 45
- SARAH BROWN …………. 33
- LAURA WRIGHT ………… 32
- JENNIFER BRANSFORD ……. 4
My interpretation of it is as I have always thought, Tamara made the most impact as Carly. She was THE one to bring Carly into adulthood. While yes, Sarah Brown was the originator, she didn’t have the ability to make Carly truly a character in her own right or one capable of showing the deep humanity and humility Tamara did. To me, I think it’s very wrong that Jennifer Bransford got such a low number. Like Tamara, she was given a Herculean task of following a popular actress. Most of the comments about Tamara’s version is that she had chemistry with everyone she was paired with and more. The other comments were that Tamara was just simply the best Carly. I actually had expected a higher number for Laura Wright’s version considering that she’s the one currently on, but the majority wants Tamara back. I know it’ll never happen due to how they’ve recreated Carly the way Bob Guza wants her. Also, there are so few members of the cast left for Tamara to come back add to that one, the fact they’ve SORASed Michael and Morgan. Tamara simply doesn’t look old enough to be the mother to someone as old as Michael now is. On another GH note, I’m still retagging all the screencaps Hurley sent my way. I’d like to get them all done and up, but I thought I’d take a slower go at it. So just keep track on the gallery and I’ll let you know when they’re all up. Be safe and take care.Dianne
