Khan

I know the actor that played Johnny talked about how horribly confusing the Valere story was...which seemed to be a theme for this era of GL (Robert Newman said the same about the mammoth Sonni/Solita saga).

I blame the WGA strike for the confusion with Sonni/Solita. The Valere story, though -- that was just bad writing.

I'm not sure if Johnny ever had any stories that were worth watching.

He didn't.

Say what you will about Pam Long, but if not for her '87 return, there's no telling what would have happened to GL.

Never heard about the trucking story so I'll don't know but I've seen some clips from early 1987 with Alan running some art scam and then being accused of murdering Paul Valere. It was ok material I thought, but I've heard that particular story as well as a few others on the show at that time were considered some pretty low points for the show.

When Peapack has you looking back at Diamondhead and the Paul Valere murder mystery with fond memories, you know something's wrong.

It depresses me to see Doug Marland's writing picked apart so much, lol. (Seriously, was I wrong for loving his ATWT as much as I did?)

AFAIK, Linda Hamner (who worked as a production assistant on "Soap" at one point) worked with Gary at ANOTHER WORLD and TEXAS, and worked alone at GH and SANTA BARBARA.

I think dc's referring to Gary and Linda Hamner, not Earl and Scott.

I really have to wonder how much of "Eden" was influenced more by the network's and producers' vision than by Marland's. Granted, Marland never shied away from pushing the envelope, but the synopses posted above seems a little much even for him!

I also would've enjoyed reading a bit more about KZ's stint on THE DOCTORS. It seems all anyone can say about that show's final years is, "They sucked."

For a hot second there, I thought you said, "Obama Fever," lol.

but the bottom line I think is that Ellen Wheeler was incompetent, out of touch and perhaps unstable. She says that any time Wheeler was challenged, the woman would burst into tears.

Believe me, I'm the last one ever to accuse anyone of deliberately making a bad show. (Seriously, when it often takes herculean strength to put a regular series on air, on time and on budget, why go out of your way to chase viewers off "on purpose"?) Yet, the more I think about GL's final days, the more I think P&G's final and ultimate agenda was just that. They hired Wheeler because she was cheap and because they knew she didn't have what it took to save GL.

I love Beverlee McKinsey but I wouldn't mind hearing a bit more blunt talk about her. I'm sure she must have been a very tough lady.

Was she tough? Probably. (No, make that "definitely," lol.) OTOH, most actors in the industry, especially those who, like KZ, had the privilege to work with her, admired her for her professionalism and her unwillingness to suffer fools at all. As KZ remarked in her book, BM always had a wearied look in her eye, but only b/c she had worked long enough in daytime to know how it's really run, something KZ herself never fully appreciated until she had to suffer through GL's horrifying final years.

Never mind, I got the joke. LOL!

Wait, where did you get that information, lol?

I don't know why but I always feel some need to defend Ellen Wheeler when she is bashed too much

Oh, did I forget to mention Ellen Wheeler's insane plans for GL's last anniversary, lol? Again, according to KZ and her book, Wheeler basically wanted to rename the show "The New Guiding Light," w/ the big anniversary episode being "Episode One," meaning, all the decades of history that had come before would get tossed out, and the old clock would be reset, so to speak. For once, though, P&G did the right thing and said no. But they DID allow her to revamp the show's opening, which KZ described as (and maybe I'm paraphrasing, I don't have the book w/ me) "a bunch of hairy-ass arms reaching out for other hairy-ass arms."

Look, on the one hand, I might've cut Wheeler some slack had GL been a brand-new show. But, you know, even under THOSE conditions, I just think (and KZ probably would agree here) that the poor girl simply had no idea how to run a daytime drama.

Did she say anything about the supposed conflicts between Gina Tognoni/Stephanie Gaschet over Pelphrey, or the rumors of discord between Grant Aleksander and his leading ladies that the actresses denied in the soap press?

Nope, and nope. :-)

For the most part, KZ's book was entertaining, but I think she held back in terms of the BTS stuff, reserving most of the scuttlebutt for Ellen Wheeler (who, apparently, cried as often as, well, KZ). Whenever she spoke about certain GL actors, such as Larry Gates or Beverlee McKinsey, she did so in a kind fashion.

Also, as was typical w/ the other soap-related book Laura Morton co-authored, Susan Lucci's "All My Life," KZ's book made several factual errors. For instance, Nurse Lillian Raines was NOT the first character on daytime to battle breast cancer (I could be wrong, but I think that distinction goes to Y&R's Jennifer Brooks) and it did NOT happen in 1980. :-(

I've read the book. Basically, KZ says BE (or her "co-star") had a habit of falling in love w/ her love interests off-screen as well as on, ending both her marriages in the process. Depending on how you read into things, she and Rob Bogue (Mallet #2) were supposed to leave their respective spouses for each other, except Bogue got cold feet and stayed w/ his wife (that is, until he fell for Mandy Bruno, who was the last actor to portray Marina). That created a sort of dark cloud which hovered over the entire production until BE's eventual departure.

What really got me, though, was KZ's mention of the female co-star who was found one morning duct-taped to the door of one of the production offices. ;-)

In the original storyline, Lisa left Tom to go to Chicago to start a new life didnt she? It was entirely possible for the Lisa of that time to abandon a child.

I thought so, too.

Doug Marland was my all-time favorite writer, precisely because he was extremely meticulous whenever it came to history and character. Yes, I could have done without some of the Lily-worshipping (LOL!), but I feel confident in saying he never had any character behaving inappropriately w/o providing a reasonable and accurate motivation first.

Let me get this straight: Al Bundy and some chick whom I've never seen before kidnapped Jamie Frame, who they think is Sandy Alexander, for "a mere $100,000." That's small potatoes even in 1981 dollars!

On the bright side, Paul Rauch produced ANOTHER WORLD so lavishly back then, it's unfathomable to me how his style came to be so overblown on subsequent shows. Either he didn't have the same level of talent supporting him on OLTL, GUIDING LIGHT, etc., or he was overcompensating for poor writing.

What I never understood is why Jo kept the name "Tourner." It's not like she was widowed - she divorced him.

Aside from Liza's son, I think, the Tourneur/Sentell family had disappeared by the end of the show's run.

It's easy to say (and probably true) that refocusing on Jo and Stu would've saved SEARCH. But, OTOH, it wasn't as if Jo and Stu were going to live forever. Bringing back Patti was a step in the right direction, though; it would have kept Jo active and "alive" on the canvas, while simultaneously grooming Patti to be the "Jo" for the next generation.

Frankly, all one needed to do was 1) phase out the McClearys and Kendalls; 2) recast Suzi w/ a stronger actress and bring back Wendy; 3) bring back Tom, Janet, and maybe Gary (was he the one who died, or was it Dan?) to shore up the remaining Bergmans; and SEARCH would've been in almost good shape.

Thom Racina married? To a woman? I don't think so. ;-P

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ii8rD2SSCHo

I think Eunice should've risen from the grave and slapped Suzi for being such a whiny twit.

Word is Grant [show] plans to go to England to continue his acting studies.

Judging from the quality of his performances, those plans fell through.

I've always loved the photo of Meta, Bert, and Meta's "little white wings," as she called them, lol.

Feel free to disagree, but I think Ann Williams' husband, Dan Welch, was a hunk, lol.

First of all, let me just say that if not for the chance to see Lisa Brown (Nola), Maeve Kinkead (Vanessa) and certainly MG again, GUIDING LIGHT's last few days would've been a farce and a complete waste of time. Right up to the very end, Ellen Wheeler and her team had no clue at all how to run any show, let alone one like GL.

Second, it's a testimony to MG's power and skill as an actor that Holly came out as "whole" and "sound" as she did at the end. Let's face it, this show treated Holly (and MG) shabbily for a very long time; and had another, lesser actor been asked to perform that same material, I've no doubt Holly would've ended up a total loon.

It’s an ending she hopes the fans will find satisfying. I think you will.

And I think I did. (Holly ended up w/ Ed, right?) I mean, given the circumstances - Roger was gone (and it would've been scandalous to have them back together anyway); Ross was, too (and no way would fans have accepted that knowing that he "belonged" with Blake) - having Ed and Holly back together was a nice, fitting touch. It showed how the two had come full circle after all the years and drama, but with the knowledge that they were wiser, saner people than before.

Roger was not by any stretch of the imagination “a good man,” but he was a fascinating, complex one and his love affair with the steel butterfly, Holly, struck an enduringly responsive chord with the viewers.

Here's the difference, I think, between Roger/Holly and GH's Luke/Laura: although the idea of a rape victim reconciling with her attacker is never cool (witness OLTL's "rapemance" between Marty and Todd, er, "Todd"), I, for one, would never have balked right away at the suggestion of Roger and Holly reconciling, b/c the road to that reconciliation was far rockier, far more character-driven, and included more realistic twists than running from the mob and saving the world from a supervillain and his "weather machine."

If this is the future (for soaps), as an actor, it really concerns me. There’s no director, no time, no spontaneity. If this is what has to be done to save the form, I think there’s room for debate about trying to preserve the process, too.

Sad words, but probably true. I don't want to disparage the efforts of those trying to keep the genre alive on the web and elsewhere, but unless and until someone figures out how to make this not just profitable again but effective, character-driven entertainment, part of me wonders whether soaps aren't better off going the way of westerns and live anthology shows of the '50's.

Oh, what absolutely did me in was when Holly fell in love with her abuser, Sebastian (Doug Hutchison). I was asked to do a lot of things over the years I was on the show that I didn’t particularly love, but it was my job to play them. But this was too much. I just couldn’t bend any more; I couldn’t fulfill the terms of that story. [...] It was insulting, insulting that this character (Holly) had come no further, that she was made to regress to that point of degradation. That was the end for me.

Words like "nadir" and "degradation" don't begin to describe that particular story. Sebastian/Holly made the "Nursery Rhyme Stalker" story look downright plausible.

It didn't help to have dull Yvonne Perry and Judson Mills as Rosanna and Hutch either.

Ms. Channel's article might've been a hair too long, but it's probably hard, if not impossible, to refute her opinions about why the show ultimately failed. (I say "probably," b/c I've never seen an episode of SOMERSET, so I can't say whether or not she was astute about it.) From everything I've read about the show, however, it does appear that its biggest problem was a general lack of consistency in its storytelling, as well as an inability to set itself apart from its "mother" show, ANOTHER WORLD. Even when Henry Slesar took over as HW, and stories became more focused on crime and mystery, it seemed like it was playing second fiddle to EDGE OF NIGHT.