Vizion

I could not stand the character (and I'm about as far from an LW fan as one can be, probably even less so than the folks in the GH thread lol). There was not one story that she was involved in that contributed anything positive or interesting to Guiding Light. In fact, her and Richard, and that whole San Cristohell storyline is what signaled one of the longest breaks I had ever taken from the show. Everything about Cassie was just wrong, from her existence to her constanty overpropped, smug presence on the show. Seriously Cassie brought us what exactly? Alonzo, Edmund, Richard (and then Jeffrey), Tammy, just NO. Listen I love KZ, but I totally agree. By the time Annie went psycho, I was so damn sick of Reva and Cassie that I rooted for Annie and Dinah to make both of their lives a living hell - repeatedly.

I know but the alternatives for me are GH or OLTL, and HELL NO to both. At least Y&R has Katherine & Nina lol. I know how that is, and I don't know that I realized just how much I'd miss Guiding Light until it was gone and I returned to watching other soaps. Even with the crappy production value at the end of its run, I think I would rather watch Reva, Dinah, and Olivia than 75% of the other female characters on the remaining soaps. My fondest soap memories are, and probably always will be, from Guiding Light I know soaps have an unfair and bad reputation for acting but again, in addition to it being incredibly unique, I just feel like the acting on the show (for the most part) was so honest, natural and real. I built connections with the characters on GL that I haven't been able to build with characters on any other soaps. I mean every soap has their ups and downs, but I always felt like GL made an effort to just dig deeper - to ensure that every character's complexities, insecurities, nuances, and layers were understood and displayed to the audience. I always felt like the GL actors understood their characters so incredibly well. Each character was so unique: Phillip, Alan-Michael, Alex, LuJack, Vanessa, Reva, Dinah, Roger, Holly, Ed, Maureen, India, Harley, Billy, the list goes on and on. Oh and I watched this today. While the show had MANY problems during this period, I was completely glued to the screen and mesmerized by everything Cynthia Watros did, just absolutely amazed (I both loved and hated this story, loved it because it gave me the opportunity to see CW be incredible, hated it because it introduced that soul-sucking blackhole of a character "Cassie Layne") I can't find the clip where she has to have a hysterectomy and she is sobbing as says to Alan "I can never ever have children. This is my punishment, I've been damned" but I cried so hard. I knew CW wasn't going to stay on the show, and her send-off was pretty awful IMO, but man was she something to watch.

Sigh, this is actually what I miss the most about the show. For all of the show's faults, and it had many, I felt that they almost always had very strong female characters. The current crop of soaps still on the air, just don't do that very well (I guess Y&R might be the best but eh). Most of my favorite female characters from daytime are from GL, and I don't think that is a coincidence (I have watched at least 7 soaps through the years). I maintain the opinion that GL set the bar for acting in daytime, the show consistently had the best and most talented cast. I also absolutely loved Mary Kay Adams as India, adored her. I realy think India as played by MKA would have had the potential to be one of the most beloved characters in daytime and long remembered. I don't remember when I started watching GL, I just say since birth since I used to spend summers at my grandmother's house and she would make us all sit quiet and pay attention when her "stories" came on.