Paul Raven

Time to get BOE back on the first page!

Seeing Jane Cameron there reminds me that Nancy was another viable character completely forgotten. And Cory Ewing should have turned up in the late 80's as a new teen.

Had Rachel/Mitch/Mac been played against other strong stories with familiar characters,maybe things might have been different.Maybe Pat gets involved with Taylor Holloway,thus integrating a new family with known characters.

Mike returns (recast) saying he and Karen decided against marriage. He can become embroiled in things.Sam Lucas' daughter turns up to stay with Aunt Ada and proves to be a handful etc etc

Instead we got a whole bunch of newbies without any ties to the past.

25th Anniversary photos

Stanley Norris and Leslie Jackson Norris

Papa and Bert Bauer

Alan and Hope's wedding

Earlier,we discussed Alma,Lisa's mother.After Ethel Remey passed away,Dorothy Blackburn took over,but for how long remains a mystery.Anyway,in Sept 78,ssummaries state that Ama was going on a world cruise (never to be heard of again)

Very interesting article re the 'relevance' stories on Search, Edwards seemed to be interested in doing new things to keep the show up to date.Although the ratings were high,I wonder if there was any backlash? P&G are always accused of being conservative but they went ahead with Kathy having an abortion.

Edwards never worked on another soap-I wonder whether that was his choice ?

Some more nostalgia

The gangs all here - Steve, Rachel,Russ and Alice enjoying a night out.

<

Could we identify everyone in that photo?

I remember Ellen Weston as Dr Steele on Get Smart,who was the scientist whose cover was that of a show girl.

I thought Patricia Everly was a daughter of Phil Everly,not his wife!

There seemed to be a lot of goodwill towards Janice Lynde but she ended up returning to soaps in roles that weren't that memorable (Tracey AW,Laurel OLTL). In both cases she married veteran leading men (Russ,Larry) then was killed off.

Rachel & Mac;s 1st wedding.Victoria Wyndham's father Ralph Camargo played the minister.

Rachel & SteveRachel and husband # 2 Ted Clark

Maureen Garrett speaks upon her return for the final GL episodes

SPEAKING HER MIND

Exclusive interview: Mimi Torchin catches up with GL’s Maureen Garrett (Holly)

The fabulous Maureen Garrett, Holly to legions of Guiding Light fans, recently taped her farewell performances as her part in GL’s endgame. I spoke to my friend after she taped a few final scenes with Elizabeth Kiefer (Blake) and Crystal Chappell (Olivia), but hadn’t yet taped the scenes that will wrap up her 30 something-year storyline forever. This is happening Monday (tomorrow as I write, today as you read). It’s an ending she hopes the fans will find satisfying. I think you will. Garrett has been largely absent from Springfield for the last six years (she did make an appearance at Ross’s funeral in 2005), but spent the better part of her professional life (1976-1981; 1989-2003) playing the iconic Holly Norris, a woman who suffered through a battery of soap opera-heroine traumas, tragedies and life experiences including marital rape, alcoholism, the birth of a child with Down syndrome and mental illness — but ultimately triumphed and came out whole and sound in the end.

Holly, perhaps more than any other female character on the show, experienced many things that the women in her audience had also lived through, if you don’t count (among other “adventures”) fleeing for her life from her lover through the jungles of South America; and kidnapping, Pied Piper-like, all the children in town during a psychotic break of epic proportions! Her long-running, on-again/off-again romance with Roger Thorpe, played by the late and extraordinary Michael Zaslow, was one of soapdom’s most dramatic and popular. 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.

Maureen (I’m dropping this journalistic convention of last names and since she has been one of my nearest and dearest for two decades!) had quite a bit to say after shooting in GL’s new cost-cutting atmosphere. And she didn’t mince words.

“Oh my God,” she exclaimed. “It was astounding, the working situation at Guiding Light. The actors are reduced to something like automatons. There’s no connection between the citizens of Springfield [when they’re not in scenes together].” She goes on to clarify her observations, words flying like birds let out of a cage. “You do not see the other actors. There are no rehearsals, no monitors on which to watch the action. Actors are led from hair and makeup to a kind of holding pen. Then they’re guided through the maze of pieces of sets to their spot. That ‘leading me from one place to the other’ was the only direction I received! Then, when you get to your mark, there’s no room to move, so there’s no blocking. The cameramen with their handhelds squeeze past you. You stand there and say your words, which immediately go onto tape. And that's it. You are led out of the maze. Complete isolation. Scenes are only one page long to make up for lack of movement within the scene.” She stops to draw breath, and then says sadly, “If this is the wave of the future, I am so glad I spent my time in the ‘classical era.’ It’s amazing what the actors manage to produce under these conditions. My hat is off to any actors who can build story, a genuine connection in this new media. It bears no resemblance to what was before. And that’s the way it goes.”

I ask her how she felt when she heard that Guiding Light had been cancelled? “Well, of course I felt terrible,” she says. “I’m sad that it’s over. But we knew it was coming; the threat has been hanging over everyone’s heads for so many years that I guess it was time.” But even though she feels the loss of the soap that for so long was her home, the death of the process grieves her more. She simply can’t stop talking about it.

“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. You can’t really create connections or foster ‘chemistry’ without the work. I know some actors manage to somehow still do that, but not everyone has that skill, or even that natural, undeniable chemistry.” She reminds me about the theatre company she created within GL for actors who wanted to do stage work, even including some actors from other shows. “I went the complete other way when I was here the last time. I created an affiliate theater company because I just feel the process, for lack of any other word, is invaluable. As actors, we need that.” She sighs, “We’re losing the genre, the narratives. I guess we have them at night now in shows like Nurse Jackie.”

Of course when she thinks of her own character’s “narratives,” she thinks one in particular was the apex. None of us would be surprised to hear what it is. “The whole Roger/Holly saga was so richly layered with love and hate. It was just so much fun to play, so full of challenges and emotion. Michael [Zaslow, Roger] was the ultimate acting partner. He always pushed me to be better, to give more. The connection between the characters was palpable, electric.”

If Roger and Holly were the zenith, what was the nadir, her lowest point on the show? She doesn’t hesitate, “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.” She goes on to explain what she found so ultimately offensive. “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.” And for many of us, as well. I hated that story with a vengeance. It disgusted me.

As her final thought about the dimming of the light, fans of the Olivia and Natalia romance will be happy to hear what Maureen says about the story, completely unsolicited, by the way. “I have to say that it’s owing to the long-overdue lesbian storyline and the incredible work of Crystal (Olivia) and Jessica (Leccia, Natalia) and [due to the fact that the] story has been able to catch fire. There’s so much buzz about it. It’s the only story I ever hear anyone talking about.”

The story of Kim and her heart problems was proposed by Felicia Minei Behr when she took over as EP.I think it was based on a real life friend of hers.

Kathryn Hays 25th Anniversary. Jennifer visits Kim

<li>