Reverend Ruthledge

Great idea, FrenchFan. Thank you. Next best thing to being alive and in front of a television set on May 11th, 1965. 

4 hours ago, DRW50 said:

This reminds me - did your photo stop appearing in the closing credits when you were taken off contract but were still used? I thought I remembered still seeing them (or Roerick at least) in the closing credits for a while. Roerick still appeared fairly often until his death (he died very suddenly - a car crash). Gates rarely appeared those last few years.

Looking at his Wiki I see that Roerick was good friends with EM Forster. I never knew that.

I didn't realize Roerick died in a car crash. Interesting to learn. I always thought it was an age-related ailment that caused him to die.

13 hours ago, Khan said:

See, that's why I can't stand to watch any of Alan Locher's interviews.  He won't go with the flow of the conversation, and he won't allow anyone to speak even somewhat negatively about these shows, even though most are long off the air with absolutely no chance of repercussions.

100% correct. I get so mad because he interviews a lot of people I'm interested in and couldn't see interviewed anywhere else but I have to endure him in order to see the interview. He's a horrible interviewer and strikes me as someone who believes his own PR. Someone who really cares about him needs to stage an intervention. Having good connections does not make one a good interviewer. He should be behind the scenes organizing things and let a more skilled interviewer do the interviewing. Although he's in good company with some big name interviewers. Larry King comes to mind. He was the king of missed opportunities and not listening to his guests. 

9 hours ago, NothinButAttitude said:

 

I will never get how writers don't dig into the annals of the show and dig up these blank canvas characters that are tied to the canvas. 

Most writers, with a few great exceptions such as Marland and Nixon, don't want to play off another writer's material and want to create their own stuff. However, most of them are also deluded to think that they are just as good, if not superior, a writer than the previous writers. That's the mistake. It would help them to ride the coattails a bit. Very few later soap writers seemed to get the concept of the specific genre that long-running serials are and the CONTINUING (which means incorporating the past)  aspect of it. They treated it like it was a new show that they were starting. Trying, and mostly failing, to make their mark as a writer and ignoring that the show was bigger than they are. 

To Leslie Denniston's defense, I think the character of Maeve was supposed to be boring. I don't know why but I remember Reva, upon meeting her, cattily remarked, "She's kind of quiet, isn't she?" It may have been good acting instead of bad acting on  Leslie's part. I think Maeve was supposed to be the anti-Reva. The opposite of loud and over the top. 

6 hours ago, vetsoapfan said:

I don't recall him fumbling his lines very much on ATWT, either, but it had much more of a problem when he appeared on OLTL.

I do remember him fumbling his lines quite often although it wasn't so much him fumbling his lines as him always pausing too long before delivering his lines. I've noticed other actors doing this. Eileen Fulton did it. So did Helen Wagner. You can tell the pause is them trying to remember the lines. He would mix things up too from time to time but he was good at saving it. As was Fulton. I would imagine they edited out the big fumbles. I can't imagine how any of them memorize all those lines. I, personally, couldn't do it. 

28 minutes ago, vetsoapfan said:

In 1972, Mike was married to Charlotte Waring while he was defending Leslie on charges of murdering Stanley Norris.  Their union ended bitterly, however, because of Charlotte's insecurity and treachery (she was jealous of Leslie and even tried to sabotage Mike's defense strategy by leaking his legal plans to the D.A.)

A low-life former associate of Charlotte's named Flip Malone kidnapped her and ultimately tried to kill her. Mike, forever the hero, had come to rescue her. He jumped between Charlotte and the gun and got shot in the chest. Trying to escape, Flip sped off and died in a car crash. Although she wanted to reconcile with Mike, Charlotte could not win him back. Their marriage was permanently over. Mike recovered from being shot and subsequently married Leslie.

Thanks for the history lesson. I was at least partially right with it being Leslie he was defending and the year being 1972. I didn't remember about Flip Malone. I guess the butterfly collar was a 1972 thing. I didn't think they came along until the late 70s. My fashion knowledge isn't as extensive as my TGL knowledge. To say the least. 

30 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

The references to Mike being shot after winning a big court case seemed fairly recent, so I guess around then (was that 72?).

Could be. My 70s historical knowledge is spotty but he could be referring to winning Leslie's court case when she was tried for murdering Stanley Norris which would have been 1972, I believe. I didn't know he was shot right after that, though. I wonder who shot him. 

2 hours ago, DRW50 said:

 

Thanks for sharing! I wonder what year this was? By the fashions, I would say late 70s but he said TGL had only been on 20 years. Even if he was only counting the radio years, that would put this at 1972. 

20 hours ago, P.J. said:

BTW, does anyone remember what the five fan favorite moments were (for the 50th anniversary)? One was Nola getting busted, one was Roger's death. And I assume one was Reva's "slut of Springfield" moment (because...of course...RME) What were the other two?

One was definitely a tribute to Charita Bauer and it was introduced by Ed Bryce. The other one, I BELIEVE, was Phillip learning out who his real parents were. I'm not 100% sure on that one but I know it was Grant Alexander and Michael O'Leary introducing it. I'm pretty sure that was the scene shown. 

58 minutes ago, Contessa Donatella said:

Yes,

How did you find that Pat Collins, Robert Gentry, Mart Hulswit and Richard van Fleet failed to capture the essence of Ed Bauer as well as Peter Simon did? 

6 hours ago, Contessa Donatella said:

Well, I will enter in. Peter Simon was my favorite Ed! 

He was your favorite but did you think he was the actor who most definitively captured the essence of the character of Ed? 

9 hours ago, vetsoapfan said:

 And while I loved Robert Gentry as Ed Bauer, Mart Hulswit ended up being the perfect and definitive Ed for me.

Oh no! We finally have a difference of opinion! LOL. While I definitely think Hulswit was much more likable than Gentry, I never thought of the character of Ed as being likable so Gentry was more the definitive Ed for me. 

1 hour ago, P.J. said:

Thanks, everyone. I have the ATWT 40th anniversary book, and found it very useful. I wouldn't be expecting complete accuracy.

I thought Harley was great---until the Gus Aitoro years. Ugh.

I found the GL books better for me than the ATWT book only because they did offer specific years for events, even if it was wrong a lot of the time, which made it easier to locate specific episodes I wanted. But, other than that, the ATWT book and the GL books are of similar quality and good. 

12 hours ago, slick jones said:

Scott Bryce and Anne Sward in the final episode of TATTLETALES.  With   Marj Dusay and Todd Curtis of CAPITOL and Marla Adams with Franc M. Benard of Y&R

 

I wonder whatever happened with Todd and Frank.

1 hour ago, P.J. said:

They talk about how slow soaps are. Both Tony & Annabelle and Billy and Vanessa were fast-track romances in the summer of 83.

Does anyone have the Guiding Light history books? Are they any good? 

They are good but have a lot of inaccuracies. In particular, when it comes to dates. 

11 hours ago, BetterForgotten said:

Slightly off topic -  but when PFS came back to DAYS in 1981, NBC ran a commercial promo about “having the writer from GH now!” I wish that was still up, and why did no one bother to tell NBC PFS started at DAYS? 

Oh, here it is. How tacky:

 

That commercial is cringe-worthy. Everybody has different perspectives but that would make me NOT want to watch Days. 

7 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

Young marrieds Bob and Lisa with Chris and Nancy in the background

Cool photo! Lisa busy texting and not listening to Bob.  

7 hours ago, NothinButAttitude said:

LOL. Surely Ellen had lived long enough to know you should never tell a woman she looks pregnant. 

18 minutes ago, Mitch64 said:

A really good interview and Caso is on top of his game with his memory of things. I don't agree with Caso that the depressing stories of Margo's rape and the incest thing and the pulling the plug was stuff women could "relate to," but it was good drama if a bit much all at once. Interesting that Ann Sward suggested the Casey plug thing and wonder how she felt about Dolan getting it instead. 

 

I didn't listen very closely but I don't think that's what he was referring to. He was talking about women entering the work force. I think he was talking about having the female characters do the same. He was talking about the socially-relevant storylines just being something that Doug enjoyed doing. 

9 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

 

Thinking about Sara, she was GL's first woman doctor-a sign of the times.

 

I don't mean to be pedantic, but Dr. Mary Leland was actually GL's first woman doctor. Back in the late 40s. It was a major part of her storyline to struggle with sexism in that field. In fact, she could only get one patient, Mama Bauer. That was when Mama was sick with cancer. Mama loved her but the rest of the Bauers were against a woman treating Mama. They only went along with Mary treating Mama because Mama insisted. Surprisingly, even Trudy was against Mama having a female doctor. 

30 minutes ago, Paul Raven said:

I'd always assumed that killing off Robin was Irna's doing when she came back, but this was all before her return.

 

Yes. Robin's death was erroneously attributed to Irna in Christopher Schmering's book and in, possibly, also Julie Poll's book. However, Irna did not write Robin's death. 

@FrenchFan I've said it before and I'll say it again. Your command of the English language is incredible! That, on top of the fact that you have excellent taste in soaps. You are right in that the late 60s were a great time for soaps, in general, and Guiding Light, in particular. Also As the World Turns, Days of Our Lives and Another World. 

3 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

@FrenchFan thank you so much for continuing to share these gems.

The Paul/Sara engagement from the 50's was a retcon by the Ferro's I think. Pretty sure Paul was established as a loner who never had time for women when he was introduced. That changed when he met Anne.

You are correct.

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