vetsoapfan

Hillary Bauer's brother, Paul, could have ended up being Bill's biological son, but the show seemed to completely forget he ever existed.

There were so many potentially-great ideas/relationships/stories that could have played out...and yet we ended up getting The Ghost in the Attic, the Dreaming Death, and Susan Piper. 🙄🤮

Actors should never have the power to dictate storylines, IMHO, no matter how popular they are. If everyone tried to do that, it would be anarchy behind the scenes. After TGL killed off Leslie Bauer, the show never really found a suitable love interest for Stewart's Mike Bauer again. Various characters were tested or rumored to be in the running (Anne Jeffers, Ivy Pierce, Jennifer Richards, Trish Lewis, Lillian Raines, Alexandra Spaulding), but none of those potential or proposed matches panned out. If a triangle had developed, I would have gone with Jennifer/Mike/Alex. The mileage from Mike and Alex alone could have run for years, fueled by Mike's contentious relationship with Alan. In the long-run, however, I would have had Mike end up with Jennifer, tying Amanda to the Bauer family. This could have caused more friction between Mike and Alan, with Amanda being both Mike's stepdaughter and Alan's daughter. (Yes, I know TIIC tried to rewrite history and claim that Amanda was Brandon's child rather than Alan's, but that was all total BS and impossible in accordance to what we had already seen play out on screen. Amanda was Alan's daughter, period. I will die on this hill, LOL!)

After Hope Bauer gave birth to Alan Michael, Don Stewart gave an interview in which he said it was a major mistake to "make the show's number-one leading man a grandfather." He felt it aged Mike unnecessarily. Stewart claimed that the writers had originally intended for Hope to lose the baby, but changed their minds after the audience reacted so negatively to Amanda's miscarriage. TPTB did not want to incur the audience's wrath again. Then Stewart opined about Mike's romantic life. The show was flirting putting him together with Trish Lewis, and he said that he didn't understand the reasoning behind that, considering her youth made Trish age inappropriate for Mike. He said that he and the more-age-appropriate Deborah May (Ivy Pierce/Renee Dubois) had had good rapport and chemistry, and he was sorry to see Mike's blossoming relationship with her suddenly dropped. (These comments surprised me, because the general theory among fans had always been that Stewart had actively campaigned to have Mike paired exclusively with much-younger female co-stars.) Very possibly, particularly when TPTB knew they were losing Charita, they might have wanted Stewart to remain in order to provide a glimmer of continuity, but it's hard to say. P&G/Kobe/Long/whomever, gutted almost all of the pre-existing cast in 1983 and '84, so I doubt they cared too much for continuity or the desires of long-time viewers. The show might have fired Stewart even though Mike had years' worth of storyline potential left, the way it axed Hope, Hillary, Amanda, Justin, etc. Right. Marland (in an uncharacteristically mean interview) said that the show preferred going with a "younger, sexier" Ed. He called Hulswit a "dodo," and threw Lenore Kasdorf under the bus by announcing that SHE supposedly loathed working with Hulswit and found him icky. I hate to be blunt, but Hulswit was a lot cuter and sexier than Peter Simon--or even Marland, himself, LOL--so who was DM to snipe? Nobody among TPTB at the time seemed to understand or care about TGL, its core and its audience. This is was why it was allowed to be decimated so quickly and so completely.

The extraordinary aspect of Slesar's writing was his versatility. Mystery/suspense stories were his claim to fame, but he was also wonderfully adept at romance, family drama and characterization. He could do it all. (And his scripts had characters speaking like intelligent, real-life people actually speak!)

I had not even thought about trying to find soaps on dailymotion, which is probably strange because I've searched (and found) rare movies and bootlegs of Broadway shows and concerts there. I'll check it out. Thanks. I'd love to see the Jingles story again, for sure, but my number one choice would be Slesar's absolutely terrifying Jonah Lockwood storyline from The Edge of Night. It was a masterpiece; filled with endless twists and turns, involving most of the cast, and acted extremely well. That and the Stephanie Martin saga, also from TEON, were probably Slesar's best stories, IMHO. I more often write about TGL and AW, but I sure do miss the glory days of TEON too! And even though Somerset had its ups and down, it was still better than any of the soaps being produced today, and I miss that soap too.

I'd love to be able to sample this show--and so many others--but alas, foreign soaps are geo-blocked, and I can't even get Emmerdale any more. This was indeed a creepy scene. On American soaps, Henrey Slesar was the only writer who knew how to scare the living daylights out of the audience. His best suspense tales were truly terrifying, not unrealistic and ridiculous, low-brow camp nonsense like so many other "writers" dished out. I miss the days of when the mysteries on soaps were well-written and well-produced enough to make viewers cringe in terror, LOL.

Back when morality existed on soaps, and everyone in town did not glorify and bow down to degenerate mobsters, rapists and murderers. We need Audrey back on GH. (Yes, yes, I know that will never happen.)

I agree that Charita Bauer was an essential component of the show, representing its core and heart, but there was literally nothing the show could do to keep the character of Bert on canvas after Charita became ill and passed away. That being said, TPTB could have, and should have, tried to minimize the damage of losing Charita/Bert by doing everything they could to keep continuity alive and strong. Hiring Richard Van Fleet as Ed Bauer was a major gaffe; he was miscast and unlikable. Mart Hulswit should have been asked back. Or even Robert Gentry. Killing off Bill Bauer, a legacy character who could have been rehabilitated and function in a role similar to Papa Bauer was gratuitous, cruel and foolish. Eliminating other, essential legacy characters like Mike and Hope Bauer was damaging and unfathomable. Eliminating Hillary Bauer served no purpose and further weakended the show's core family for no discernible reason. In 1983 and 1984, we lost all these characters as well as Kelly Nelson, Jennifer and Morgan Richards, Amanda Spaulding, Eve Stapleton, Justin Marler, Nola and Quint McCord, etc., etc., etc. Since TGL was being completely gutted anyway, why not just cancel it altogether, and replace it with a brand new show: Texas Meets Scooby Doo? 🙄

Along with being consistently well produced throughout its first several decades, storyline and character continuity were first rate. I think this is why many viewers became so attached to the show: they felt like they were watching family, friends and neighbors (same with ATWT). Of course, many great actors paraded through Springfield over the years. Actors were hired for talent and charisma, not because they were hair models. The most important element that helped TGL shine brightly, however, was the writing. Viewers were treated to years of excellence thanks to material penned by the likes of Irna Phillips, Agnes Nixon, Jane and Ira Avery, Robert Soderberg and Edith Sommer, the Dobsons, Douglas Marland, Pat Falken Smith and Nancy Curlee. IMHO, the writing tanked for the last 15 years of the series (and from 1983-1984 to about 1988 or so), but that does not negate the decades of high-quality drama that had come before.

I started to distribute blame among P&G, Kobe, and Long when I read an interview with the writer in which she spoke about working very hard to fix TGL, by "getting rid of all the dead wood" in the cast in the first few years of her original reign. Later, it was proposed that the show re-expand the Bauer family due to continued and voracious complaints from the audience, but (again, as reported in the press) Long vetoed that idea and instead went ahead with creating more newbies of her own creation. I have NO DOUBT that P&G and Kobe encouraged the cast slaughter (or at the very least allowed it to happen), but I believe Long was a contributing factor.

I always love reminiscing about vintage soaps! AMC and OLTL were excellent in their early years!

The fan reaction to Steve Hardy's guest appearance? It's hard to say for sure because there was no social media back then. No Facebook, no Twitter, nothing. The people in my circle of friends loved the crossover, however, and I'm sure most fans of both shows got a kick out of i

Y&R: Jill (I literally don't care about anyone else) B&B: No one DAYS: Julie, Doug, Maggie GH: Scotty, Laura, Bobbie, Monica, Tracy, Mac, Lucy (most of whom rarely appear, alas)

Yes. Steve Hardy appeared as a consultant to Viki's sister Meredith's medical issues.

Of the age-appropriate men on the canvas at the time, I could have tolerated Bert with Henry, but we couldn't see Bert reunited with Bill, I would have preferred her with Steve Jackson, since Bert and Steve were both Frederick's grandparents, and all the Bauers already considered Steve to be a member of their family anyway. Either TPTB didn't have the talent or the wisdom to understand this, or they simply did not care. I doubt Pam Long would have been so ready to slaughter her own pet families, the Lewises and the Shaynes, the way she did the longtime core families whom the audience knew and loved. Join the club, LOL. It still boggles my mind that Peapack was allowed to happen. Good point. Somewhere along the line, most soaps lost touch with lower and middle-class families, with so many people being filthy rich. There's something to be said for preserving "normal," middle-class characters to whom the majority of the audience can relate.

Agreed. It was doing quite well in the rating, even during the years of GH's tremendous popularity and media blitzing. Why tamper with such a successful formula? I wish someone could or would interview Pamela Long and ask her tough questions about what the reasoning was beyond the mass and qratuitous slaughter of 1983-84. It certainly crippled the show, and precipitated TGL's long, slow, painful audience erosion.

To me, the best decade for the soaps was the 1970s, with the 1960s and 1950s also strong contenders. It was a mixed bag in the 1980s, with some soaps (ATWT for one) regaining past glory while others (GH, OLTL, TGL) disintegrated for many years during that decade. IMHO, even fewer soaps exhibited much quality during the 1990s, and by 2000, daytime TV was becoming a wasteland. None of the soaps in the past two decades have impressed me. My own GOAT soap, TGL, was atrocious in the 2000s. If I can take everything into account about the soaps being broadcast since 2000, including their histories from earlier decades, I'd still go with TGL because its total number of quality years is--to me--unsurpassed. Of course, AW was a masterpiece during Agnes Nixon's reign in the 1960s and then again under Harding Lemay from 1971-74-ish, as was Y&R under William J. Bell. We are lucky to have had so many fine nominees tgo choose from!

I would have never allowed the Lewis-Shayne brigade to take over the show, that's a given, and I would have kept Roussel as Hope. If ER quit on her own, however, I would have leaned towards replacing her with someone like Jacqueline Courtney once Alan-Michael was SORASED to a young adult. At 40-ish, Courtney was age appropriate as A-M's mother, she was a beloved daytime vet, a fine actress, and exuded a warmth and sweetness that would have been very beneficial to the woefully-depleted and alien Bauer family of the time period. I would have asked Mart Hulswit to return as Ed, and either tried to get Don Stewart to return as Mike, or replace him with Jed Allen. If possible, I'd also see if Ellen Demming wanted to make cameo appearances as Meta Bauer. The Bauers would return to their place of prominence, and the Lewis-Shaynes would never come to be (except for Josh and Trish).

I felt that Elvera Roussel was the best actress that TGL had ever cast in the role of Hope, and knowing that she was dismissed rather than choosing to leave on her own would have made me very resistant to any recast. That being said, I don't know today (based on everything else I have seen her in) if Kim Zimmer could have effectively played a sweet, kind-hearted ingenue. I suppose I'd rather have had Hope on the canvas than being "disappeared" forever, though, so I would have at least taken a wait-and-see attitude towards Zimmer's take on the role.

Technically, I agree with you that 1983 had its good moments. Some bits were quite well written, like Phillip's paternity reveal, but I could see the writing on the wall, as storylines which could have had long-lasting ramifications were casually dismissed, vets like Amanda and Hope were being axed, and even the longer-running characters still on canvas were being shoved onto the back burner. I loathed that story and the introduction of idiotic fantasy elements during the next year or so: the ghost in the attic, the Dreaming Death, Jonathan Brooks (ugh) and his talking computer, Nick/Santa Claus who could disappear into thin air at will. Cretinous low-brow camp might have been a staple of Passions, but it went against the very core and grain of TGL. And resurrecting Bill Bauer only to kill him off again (and in such a heartless, cruel manner) was a slap in the face to veteran viewers who cared about him and the Bauers. 🤮💩 Yuck. No thank you. Since the show was being mutulated so quickly and thoroughly, having Bert and Bill reunite would have provided stability and continuity in Springfield. I'd even have accepted Bert with Steve Jackson. But Bert Bauer saddled with a Lewis (the equivalent of the dreaded Dingles of Emmerdale Farm)? Take me now, Lord.👿 Yep. No one ever accepted "Fake Ed", and Katie was being treated like an irrelevant dayplayer. Thank God for Jerry ver Dorn, but by the end of 1984, the real TGL was no more. We had Texas Light Meets Scooby Doo in its place. Same here. I was finally excited about the show again after being unable to stomach it for several years, when Holly and Roger returned in 1989 and their story reignited so well. And what a blessing and relief to have Reva off the canvas! But after Reva returned and the show stupidly killed off its heart Maureen, the matriarch of the Bauer family, it was all down hill from there. TGL was on life support for the last decade and a half of its existence. Its cancellation was a mercy killing.

I always find this sort of question interesting and fun, but also difficult to answer for two reasons. 1. All the soaps have tremendous variances in quality during their lifetimes, with both excellent and atrocious years to consider. 2. Since many of the vintage soaps ran/have run for decades, many people responding to the question (myself included) have not seen the entire runs of the series first-hand, and I am always leery about critiques based on incomplete experience with any form of entertainment. Can we really give thumbs up or thumbs down to material we have not seen? In my mind, I tend to rephrase the question as, "What do you consider to be the greatest soap of all time from your viewing history?" With that being said, I would vote for The Guiding Light. It had an unparalleled run of quality from 1950 to 1982 (maybe pushing that to 1983, before the massacre of the vets), and then again from about 1989 to 1993-ish. So more than 35 years. Granted, I felt the writing slipped in quality during James Lipton's runs (circa 1967 and 1974; I forget exactly, after all these decades), but stalwart producer Lucy Rittenberg was always there to keep the light shining bright and on course. So even when the writing was somewhat weaker, the series continued to be a good soap. For the rest of the 1950-to-1982 time period, the writing was quite good-to-excellent. Knowing that Irna Phillips was guiding the show from 1937 to 1949, I'm tempted to opine that it was undoubtedly great then as well, but since my history with TGL only began in 1950, I won't try to critique the first dozen years which I did not experience first hand. If I did go with my gut and assume the years 1937-1949 were as good as all Irna's other work during her heyday, then TGL's run of quality would be...half a century!

People often ask me to specify my personal favorite soap opera of all time, or the single best daytime drama of all time, but those are tricky questions to answer. Daytime serials routinely have major ups and downs throughout their lifetimes, and all the long-running shows have had both stellar years and painfully-subpar years. My own favorites are whatever soaps are beautifully done at any given time. My favorite soap in, say, 1976 is not necessarily still my best-loved program in 1980. It all depends on the writing, producing, and actors/characters involved at the moment.

Right. By 1984, the venerable, stable and classy The Guiding Light was no more. Overrun with often-irrelevant and/or abrasive newbies, and featuring low-brow, far-fetched fantasy and "camp" plots, the next several years saw the light dim significantly.

Jon-Michael Reed's obvious vexation at TPTB's destructive decimation of a once-fine show permeates his critique. All the gratuitous changes infuriated longtime fans, and ended up crippling The Guiding Light in the long run.