Reverend Ruthledge

In my opinion. And in the opinion of the few people I've discussed it with and the few commentaries I've read about it.

Well, Irna had already renamed the show "The New Guiding Light" in 1947 when she re-envisioned the show so, technically, it would have been "The New New Guiding Light".

I think it's the general consensus that the 70s was not a strong decade for GL. In particular, the early and mid part of the decade.

Please don't misunderstand me. I hated the Eli Simms storyline because of its revisionist history and, yes, Bill Bauer was in Selby Flats in the 50s. However, Bill Bauer never actually moved to Springfield. Nor did any of the other characters. Selby Flats sort of just morphed into Springfield. It's as if the viewers were just supposed to believe that everything that happened previously on the show had happened in Springfield, not Selby Flats. The absurdist revisionism/dramatic license actually happened way back in the 60s. Historical accuracy had already left the building a long time before the Eli Simms story. Particularly in the realm of geography and setting.

The voodoo Shannon mentioned was probably just a throwaway line not related to any type of storyline. Shannon had traveled extensively with her Uncle Earl and she was constantly dropping random bits of travel stories into conversation. It was just part of her character as being a worldly, well-traveled woman. The shrunken head thing didn't become part of an actual story until Shannon went missing and left the show. Duncan tracked down his first wife, Lilith, in Africa thinking that Lilith had kidnapped Shannon. Lilith showed Duncan a shrunken head that looked like Shannon to show him that she was dead. Later, it was revealed that Shannon had not been killed and that the shrunken head was not her.

I can only offer my opinion (for what it's worth) but I think the 30s-60s were the glory days for GL. However, I would say that the 70s were great and I found a lot to like in the 80s and 90s. While it wasn't GL at its best, I wouldn't classify the whole decades of the 80s and 90s to be garbage, although a lot that went on during those decades I WOULD classify as garbage. The 00s, however, is a different story. I struggle to find any redeeming qualities of that last decade.

I wasn't watching much when Olivia was on but not only was she straight but I also always thought she was man-crazy. Perhaps she went through all the men so she was only left with women?

I just coined it.

Someone probably edited it because they wanted to show that it was As the World Turns so they showed the intro but cut out the Pa and Nancy and just started with the Bob and David scene because that was the scene where Walter Cronkite was seen. Sounds like the "icon edit". LOL.

The scene with Bob and David came later in the episode as I noted above. It was Thanksgiving, not Christmas that Pa and Nancy were talking about Lisa coming for.

They kept going until the end. The scene with Pa and Nancy was interrupted first, there was a brief announcement with just a card saying "news bulletin" or something along those lines. Then, they went back to the show which was in the middle of a scene between Bob and David. Then, they broke in again during that scene, this time with Walter Cronkite, and they never went back to the show. Don Hastings has recalled in interviews that the actors heard a stage hand or somebody say, "What? The president's been shot?" but the actors had to continue with their scenes since it was live.

I think this was under Marland's watch, but I never thought of KMH as Emily Stewart even though she was in the role a lot longer than MS. Different show, but I felt the same about Jill on Y&R. I never thought of Jess Walton as Jill. I just thought of her as a different character. No matter how long she was on the show. Some people just personify a character perfectly and nobody can take their place.

And then there's Meg. Her character was completely different when they recast her. From snarky and manipulative to weak and neurotic. With all of those recasts, I never thought of them as the old characters. I just thought of them as new characters with the same name as the old characters.

I'm not saying ATWT was good towards the end or that Goutman was anything other than an abomination. I'm just saying ATWT was the most salvageable of any other cancelled soap towards the end. It hadn't gone full exterior and held-hand camera, it still had it's original core family around (albeit in a weakened state), and it had a lot of veteran actors still on the show that could have come back to front and center with the right writing. It even had vaguely interesting stories still going on. Not enough to warrant a daily viewing but enough to interest one to check in periodically. I can't really comment on All My Children as I never watched the ABC soaps. Of the soaps I'm familiar with that got cancelled, ATWT was the most recognizable to its roots. But kind of like an 80-year-old is recognizable to their 10-year-old self.

In my opinion, which comes from limited knowledge of most soaps, I would say ATWT managed to most preserve its quality (albeit an extremely weakened quality from its glory days) and AW was the most ruined by it's end. I consider the first ten years of AW to be soap opera at its best and everything after those first ten years to be soap opera at its worst. I think ATWT had enough good left to be saved (in the right hands) even to the very end.

I, for one, don't have a problem with killing off certain characters as a lot of fans do. However, killing off Chuckie Shea was just weird and meaningless to me as his death was very sudden, random and there was no storyline that came out of it. I never saw the purpose story-wise.

I think he would have been more upset about Betsy dating Josh, who had raped someone. Then again, if I remember correctly, maybe not as even Ellen and David seemed to show only mild concern about that situation. Which was strange for David who was so upset about his daughter being involved with John Dixon that it drove him to a nervous breakdown.

Claire was neurotic from the very beginning and Doug was the only stable relationship she had but that relationship WAS stable. He was the best thing that ever happened to her but, unfortunately, he died.

At the risk of being pedantic, Claire had a steady partner with Doug which was only cut short by his death.

Yes, he did. And this WAS great use of history as Jennifer was Rick's mom, he hated Bob and he was in Oakdale during the time of Sabrina's birth. So, his involvement made sense and didn't seem like a plot contrivance.

Yes, Stanley Norris, Holly's father was wealthy. He was murdered.

You're welcome, Paul. As I always say, it's a pleasure to be able to share my knowledge with the other five people in the world who care about the subject of soaps' golden years.

Cool. From my hometown! Where did you get that?

I will say this. Even though Los Angeles was the setting until Nixon left, fewer and fewer references were made to the location towards the end of her run. It became a lot more of a generic location. And it looks like they were trying to perhaps move away from having Los Angeles and the coast be the setting although they hadn't settled on a new location yet. There are just hints of this. For example, when Julie Bauer was put in a sanitarium, it was referred to originally as "Seaview Hospital" and it was scratched out and renamed "Lakeview Hospital". I've read every script of GL from 1966 except the month of December and Springfield was never mentioned. Perhaps it is in December. But Nixon was gone by then. Her last month with GL was November 1966. Per my other post, I think Nixon had started moving away from Los Angeles being the setting but it was a later writer who settled on the new location being Springfield.

Agnes wasn't the one who moved GL to Springfield. I don't know who made that decision, but Agnes didn't. The setting was still Los Angeles when she left.