ALL: Temporary Replacements

[DRW50]

I thought he was a temp mostly because they had to recast in a hurry and wrote him out in a hurry.

Fitzpatrick was fired right after some sort of controversy and accusations involving a waitress at Planet Hollywood, I think.

[JackPeyton]

I just heard about someone coming onto a soap for like three weeks as a replacement to wrap a story up but ended up staying, however i can not for the life of me remember who, what role, or what show.

[DRW50]

Is the show still on the air?

[JackPeyton]

I have no idea, and it is frustrating because I made a mental note to come into this thread and share it and then... well, mental notes vanish at 25. Let me a make a mental note of that...

I want to say it was General Hospital and I read it in the SOD special, or seen it as trivia during the marathon.

[Vee]

Tamara Braun was originally a temp, but I'm sure that's been mentioned.

[JackPeyton]

YES! Thank you.

Did Sarah leave under that bad of conditions, that they needed a three week recast?

Edited April 10, 2013 by JackPeyton

[Vee]

Yes, very. Or so I heard at the time. The story at the time was there was a screaming match with JFP.

TB's Carly was destined to die. I don't know if it was only three weeks though - I got the impression it would be at least a few months to play her "final" story, which I was told was to involve rape by Sorel and slow death. Sonny/Angel was the pairing of JFP/MMT's vision. Then the fans (and Benard) rebelled.

Edited April 10, 2013 by Vee

[JackPeyton]

Yes, i do remember hearing about the screaming match now. Didnt Brown say something about running into her at a gas station years later? I dont know why that just popped into my head.

Perhaps it was three months, not weeks. Or she was just pulling a random, short term number out. How odd though that they would kill of SBs Carly, bring in TB as a alive Carly only to rape and kill her off.

Carly and the castings, stories, behind the scenes dramas is one of the most interesting aspects of GH to me. From all the talks of SB not getting along with JFP and others, this weird short term recast to TB staying, to the rumors of TB being unhappy after awhile and MB not wanting to work with her anymore until she and TK took off and that saga, the awful recast after TB to that one lady who was an OK actress but miscast and all the other actress' who read for the role (Galen Gearings wife! Sarah Buxton!) to LW leaving GL for GH and the bts drama when SB came on as Claudia and rumors of she and VM not getting along. It just seems that behind the scenes of Carly's character may be more dramatic than on the screen.

[Vee]

My recollection, and this is when I was a teenager, was that Sarah disagreed vehemently with the story where Carly would dime Sonny out to the FBI. She and JFP fought it out, and she walked. Jill planned to use Tamara to exit the character by death as Sonny moved on to Angel Sorel.

The S&C fanbase, which at that time included me and I think a lot of the general audience, as well as MB helped make Tamara Braun. It was a sort of grassroots revolt, unusual at that time, and I think the failure of the Angel story as well as Endgame is what broke Jill and Megan. They were done after that. They had used the same playbook they'd had at OLTL, but you couldn't pull that [!@#$%^&*] at General Hospital at that time, as the flagship. And TB really worked it and made the role work for her, as best she could. But within about two years the show was a whole different kind of disaster, the characters you once loved had become a nightmare to deal with and I don't blame her at all for wanting out with TK. Their pairing was the hottest thing on GH at that time, and so it was destroyed.

Jill did try to get Gina Tognoni to come in and do Carly at one point. But I know Jennifer Bransford was her idea. Bransford had played Georgie Phillips on OLTL. That was a mess. That poor woman. She actually did have the rough, raw sort of quality of Sarah Brown, but she was just so out of place on GH, period. I laughed when Kelly Monaco told the story last weekend on 20/20 about Bransford literally battering her with a pool cue during their epic bar brawl and her being like 'what are you doing?'

Edited April 10, 2013 by Vee

[JackPeyton]

Ugh, Angel. Endgame. Such bad stuff. Like, so, so mind blowingly bad.

I loved Tamra as Carly. I had seen SB's Carly as I started around Liz's rape but i was a kid and only cared about Liz and Lucky, when I really started watching GH in the summer of 01 Tams was Carly and she was my favorite character. I really do think she grew leaps and bounds in that role, from her start to the scene where finds out Michael died was just huge. Too bad her days roles didnt work out.

I have heard that she was approached to return, i think about two summers ago now, but declined. I dont blame her, and I was surprised that SB returned. Actually, its too bad SBs role didnt work on Days either.

[Vee]

I was told she was approached. I still would've preferred Sarah. Then I heard some nonsense that they asked Tamara to come back as Kate, which would've been so [!@#$%^&*] ridiculous, but after Claudia Zacchara I rule nothing out.

Tamara's first scene on GH was barging into Sonny's place, stick-thin, with reddish hair, in a hot pink leather jacket, which was loud even by 2001 standards, just a nightmare to look at. She was a mess and totally the opposite of Sarah Brown. But she ended up making it work, through fan support, MB's support and sheer talent and gumption, and eventually all of that turned against her, except her talent. I do miss her on soaps. I thought her AMC role was a great idea, except for the fact that the endgame there was just to pair her with Thorsten Kaye.

ETA: My mistake, it was a silver leather coat. They put her in the hot pink [!@#$%^&*] a few days later; either way, both were shocking messes.

Edited April 10, 2013 by Vee

[JackPeyton]

Yeah, I heard about the Kate recast and then again about that character who was Traceys mob mans daughter, from The City i think. The character was supposed to be a teenager but I guess they were willing to age her up to an adult if Tamara would do it. Id kill to see TB and JE together but am glad she said no.

2001 fashion is seriously awful looking back at it. I remember at one point the soaps had a few of the girls in those weird butterflyesq halter tops with no backs or sides. The horror.

Lets just cont to fanboy over TB for a moment, because I was just thinking about that scene of her and the baseball bat. That [!@#$%^&*] was great. I also loved all her almost/minor romances, Zander, Jax, Jason. While it wasnt a huge stretch of her talent The image of her dropping the wine glass as Sonny is shot seeing Brenda and amazing grace playing was great too. Of course, the panic room saga was amazing. Then there was her and Lorenzo. The scene of him washing her hair as she dyes it brown after moving on from Sonny is one of the sexiest and realist moments between a soap couple imo. Ok, ill stop now...

Oh, and as for AMC i really loved the idea too. I get why she left Days to go to AMC in that role, esp after Days messed her character, story, and pairings up with all their issues of supercouples forever! I didnt mind that she was a lesbian marrying Bianca but being drawn to Zach, i would love to see a story like that - or reversed with a straight person falling for someone of the same sex - but thats not a story American soaps are able to take the time to craft and tell it seems.

[Vee]

It was particularly resonant with the hair because she had dyed her hair to fully become Carly.

I don't adore her, but I do like TB. I still prefer Sarah Brown by a country mile, but I thought she did a very solid job, especially later on, even in wretched years like 2003 - she sold the [!@#$%^&*] they were doing with all mob all the time. Even if I hated it, and I did, I liked her as an actress.

Romantically I only really dug her with MB (very early on) and then Ted King. I thought she was also very hot with Rick Hearst early on, but they killed that with the panic room. I thought the Zander and Jax pairings didn't make sense for the Carly of that era. With Laura Wright, Carly again became something very different, just as TB's had become very different from Sarah's. I think Sarah could've sold sleeping with Zander, but not TB.

Edited April 10, 2013 by Vee

[DRW50]

There's a ton of dramatic potential in a story about someone who says they're gay realizing they're bi, but it's something that I don't believe any soap - US or otherwise - has managed to tell believably.

I think they built Reese up too much as Bianca's ideal love, and then the baby Bianca had with Zach, and it was overkill. I also thought it was tacky to get press about the first gay wedding on a soap when one of the brides was falling for a man.

I think Tamara probably was a better fit for what Carly was becoming, but generally I think she's never really had a soap role that fit her. The first one on DAYS might be the closest.

[JackPeyton]

There was a scene on Days where she was coming off being drugged or something, and I believe in the hospital, where she played like 9 different types of emotion and it was so well done.

The differences in Carly is why I dont find it that fair to compare the actress who played her. I think Sarah's was very tough, a fighter. Tamras was more a heroine, a love interest, Lauras is... well, a disaster. A plot point. I think LW has played many versions of Carly very well, when she came off the train she was a very good mix of that tough carly but still had a lot of Tamras carly.