MLH

Yes! I messed up her name and the character she played! I would have casted her as Hope or as Amanda in the 90s. Obviously, she went to the better done soap, IMO. To me GL has been all over the place since Bev and Sherry left in 92. @DeeVee Thank you so much for the pictures! She would have made the perfect Amanda in 1995-1998. General question. I am trying to find out about a movie Michael Zaslow put in a 1985 Play Bill for a play called "D.". It mentions the screenplay he wrote with his wife called "Allison" (he mentioned that screenplay in the 1983 Soap Opera Digest interview). It also mentioned he was 'featured' a movie called Surprises that was to come out that summer. However, I can't find anything. Does featured mean a small part or what? How does one find what happened to that movie?

@alwaysAMC I noticed Robin Stratter was on that AMC tornado clip I saw. She played Amanda for a short time on GL. I really think she would have been perfect for GLin the 90s. However, it seems like GL was focused on younger characters, who I found boring.

Maureen didn't show up until 1976. That's where I get confused. Did they age up Christina? That's why it should have been Bill to return and not create Hart out of thin air. I guess there were too many guys named Bill though. In 1977, he did You Light Up My Life. He was begged by Guiding Light to come back to play Roger. That Roger was going to be killed off in a spectacular way. I read up and he went back to Cali 1981. He almost got a major role on Falcon Crest as Richard Channing. He ended up playing in one episode where he played a villain, of course! I agree that the main actress there was horrible. On Spenser for Hire, he played a dad to a teen girl mixed in drugs/porn and that was cool to see him not be the bad guy for once! LOL IMO, Michael stood out in You Light Up My Life. He played a smooth talker really well. I think they got the wrong actress for the lead. The plot was blah to me as well. The director also wrote it and it basically says that Michael's character did what the director was accused of. The casting couch. He also played a Jennifer Connley's dad in 7 Seconds In Heaven.

Ugh. That's true that Maureen could never fake being dead. I know how I could make it work! Maureen knows that Ed would eventually go to the cabin. She doesn't even tell Vanessa and goes to Roger and tells him she just needs a few days alone. He helps her hide out in the mansion (like he did when he was Adam Malik). Everyone is freaking out and thinks she is dead when they hear about a car wreck near the cabin! @DeeVee Yeah! That would be cool if she were pregnant. The whole being jealous of Ed raising Christina, I would have a situation where Roger had to take care of Meg for a short time. I would have also closed out Roger's storyline differently if they wanted to use Lame Roger/Amanda going to Cali. In 2004, I would have had a knock at the Spaulding mansion door with news that Roger & Amanda were declared dead in a private jet crash with a 5/6 year old girl survivor! Amanda nor Roger didn't want their child involved with the drama and never told anyone about the girl...I guess her name would be Jennifer (Roger's mom's name wouldn't work). I just saw an old All My Children 1992 episode on another forum where they had a tornado! No wonder GL didn't do as well. The blackout was good (although full of plot holes), but they never came close to that natural disaster episode on AMC!

I need to find these scenes again. It's always interesting to read about how Michael was like to work with. DONNA HANOVER ALL BUBBLY AFTER HER SOAP OPERA STINT – New York Daily News @Mitch64 I really wish Sonni/Roger's storyline was longer. I wonder where they were planning to go with them. I wouldn't have had Maureen be true friends until after she finds out about the affair with Lillian. Roger hides her out & people think she is dead. So many ramifications from that!

Looking back at the timeline, now I know why we never got flashback scenes when Roger and Holly were dating in 1971. There was another actress playing Holly until 1976! That sucks. Are there any pictures or vid of The Metro? @Mitch64 I wish that is how it went. Maureen being friends with Roger would be why Holly blames Roger and rely on Ed. That way the Bauer family is interacting with Roger and Holly like the Spaulding family did. Forgot to mention how Samantha sure has a thing for older men!

You got that right! I felt for those two actors who played Johnny's parents. They were TOTALLY ignored by everyone, even their own son! Everyone raves about the Bauer BBQ, but it seemed boring to me. Ed, Maureen and Holly are horrible hosts. Johnny and Chelsea were making out in front of everyone and people walked by and said nothing. Agreed about Ed/Holly and Maureen. Michelle at least spoke up! LOL I also never got why people wore colors that weren't even half way patriotic.

Thank you! Wish his name was brought up more after he left. They mention Laura and Solomon. Two people made up out of nowhere.

Thanks. I forgot to correct the name to Marler! Duh! I never understood why they didn't just recast the character and bring her back over Julie. I have another question. What is the name of the black guy on the island with Adam Malik/Roger? I am laughing at the July 4, 1989 episode, because the FBI agent gave Maureen an update on Roger and was flirting with her! If I had my way, instead of heading to the cabin, Maureen would have hid at Rogers place...but, he was still with Mindy at that time. Sigh! LOL

Forbes was great! She was only 22 when she started Guiding Light. I wish she stayed, but I guess that is why Roger and Alexandra got together. I agree about Reva. I don't get the hype. That show was obsessed with her!

Seems that all of Holly's family was written out! Such a shame. In fact, instead of Hart, it should have been Bill to return. But, I guess there would have been too many Bill/Billys around! You have to watch July 3 or July 5 in 1989 of Roger and Sonni first meeting and their date on July 4th! Neither were at the Bauer party. It's pure gold! Ewww at them even thinking of Frank kissing Samantha. Poor Dylan ended up having to be the older man. LOL Henry being a hypocrite as usual. Who were the older couple at the BBQ? Seemed like they were just ignored by everyone. Not the best Bauer BBQ to me.

@Contessa Donatella Awesome pictures! It seemed like there aren't any pictures of the year she left. In reading up on Guiding Light I saw Holly had a brother named Andy. He was written out. Anyone remember him? Who is Samantha Marker named after?

LOL Too funny. Seems Rusty's big run was in the late 80s and then he would just show up for funerals or family things and leave ever since. I don't even think that storyline would keep him around. I was looking up about the 1970s and I didn't know the Spaulding family weren't even created until 1977! So Roger Thorpe was around since 1971 and the show in the 1998 acted like his character wasn't a vital part of the show! I read that his romance with Holly was hugely popular (remember that he started in 1971). However, Michael Zaslow would request to leave every now and again. I wish I could find at least articles with summaries of the storyline in 1971.

Cool find! How did you find where it came from? Now to try and find that article! AI says Michael was in July 1980 Daytimers Magazine, but I don't know how accurate that is. The 'Falling' part may be about his fall off the cliff! LOL @DeeVee That would be me! Thanks for the find! While watching 1989, I noticed that Rusty did sign language to a deaf girl while looking for Marah. I saw that Rusty returned in 1998. I don't know for how long though. Why didn't they pair him up with Abby?

I think I may have found something showing why Michael didn't like the press. Looks to be from the 70s, but I can't tell what publication it's from and date. https://pin.it/kw3mKR87B It's a link to an image on Pinterest. Can anyone tell when/where this is from? It says Guiding Light's Michael Zaslow: Is He Just A Falling Star? There are a lot of cool pictures of Michael and co-stars on that site. This one is so cute with Roger and Christina Pin on guiding light I saw a great pic of Michael and Bev too. Is this OG Alan with Hope and Baby Alan Michael? Too cute Alan Spaulding (Christopher Benrau, Hope Bauer Spaulding (Elvera Rousel), and Alan Michael Spaulding- Jessica Zutterman

The Chamberlains sure are snobby!

I have a question. Why did Henry in 1989 forgive Alan so fast about lying about it being Roger that knocked Henry out? Did Henry have any scenes with Roger in the 70s or 1980? @alwaysAMC After you see Amanda/Lame Roger until the end in 1998, I want to ask if you agree with me that there was no chemistry at all between them and the writing had me scratching my head why they even got married. I swear they had less than a handful of 1 on 1 scenes together.

LOL Yeah. I totally forgot there would be another Ben on the show.

They were younger than collage age bound. More like 12 and 16ish. They were going to private school; Susan basically didn't work and Michael's speech treatment and later finding about his ALS wasn't cheap. Adding to note that Helena died in 2004 at 19 years old. Doesn't surprise me about Marika. Helena was way more the emotional one out of the two (diagnosed with bipolar depression). I guess the guy doing the interview is associated with Procter and Gamble. I wish the interview was done by an ALS advocate/soap fan.

@alwaysAMC I thought Zaslow's last episode was earlier. Thanks for reminding me what was the true last episode. In the book he was just coming back from vacation. He was to film 4 scenes and then be off another week. He knew in his gut he was going to be fired. He thought his last one went well. Remember that he had been asking for his speech issue to be used in the storyline (like stroke, etc. and they said no). He was brought into an office and fired with a 'holding fee' and told to keep quiet. At the time Michael kept quiet and was pretty much in shock & blamed himself for failing everyone. He then knew he had to fight, because he had a family to take care of. His wife was in shock with his initial reaction, because Michael never was one to just keep quiet & not fight for what he is due. Whew, it's hard to read what happened and see it on screen. Makes me heartbroken all over again. I agree with those saying that Reva's best storyline was from 1990. Both with Dylan and the post-partum depression.

Yes. I mean the Ben from 1981. That episode actually got me to like the actress playing Hope. I didn't care for the private island stuff, but I get why she was so popular. I don't get why they didn't bring Hope back for a storyline between her, Alan, and Roger! Talk about a no brainer to me! I even saw an episode with baby Alan Michael. Makes me mad that they aged him to an 18 year old and then in the late 80s. @Contessa Donatella I pretty much stopped watching anything beyond 1998. The stories were not interesting and when the writing was so bad. The whole Alan/Annie wedding...Dinah pretending she runs WSPR (with a lame version of Gilly there)...Cassie & Reva dragging this random dude to the wedding who is married to Annie. Blake running to Lame Roger (MZ was gone) to go to Ben and tell him to leave all the Marlers alone and then Lame Roger never does anything and disappears for weeks on end. DUMB! I did read about Ben Reade and how his character was made into a serial killer. It didn't surprise me, because they always needed over the top stuff to top the Brent/Marian, Clone Reva stuff. I saw a YouTube character bio about him.

I tried Springfield Story YouTube and there are only 50 something episodes. I Googled and it stated that the last time Ben was shown was October 1981, but I don't know how accurate that is.

It's not the best but try the German dubbed Springfield Story on YouTube (you have to physically change it to English closed captioning though). It basically has every episode. Just beware about the translation that can be downright crude. My favorite Blake (who is still not my fav character) Sherry Stringfield, shows up in July 1989. Shows spoilers for Blake's storyline in 1989 (Sherry Stringfield). Great writing and acting. https://rumble.com/v56yvoj-guiding-light-best-of-1989.html If I were to pick my favorite character it would be a tie between little Marah and Roger. LOL My fav 'couple' are little Marah and Harley. Look for Y&R/B&B/GL Vault Updates on this site. Sorry for the double post!

I have only seen a few episodes from the 70s to 88. I just know that 1990 is my fav out of the 89-98 that I have seen. In the end, GL's writing got so bad that they couldn't even write interesting stories for Roger nor Holly in 94 and 95 and I don't even want to think about 1996. I don't even want to think what it would have been like for the rest of 1997 and 1998 for Michael Zaslow. In the end, how things happened was for the best. Even for the actress who played Chelsea ended up with a better role and met her husband on One Life To Life.

I look forward to it too. I actually thought Toby got better, but it was a totally different Roger in every sense and their storyline got boring really quick. Roger and Amanda became so in the background so fast, they were barely on after being in the major storyline with the whole Annie/Reva thing.