I don't disagree, but I don't necessarily agree either.... A lot of GL fans have trouble separating budget cuts from Ellen Wheeler (for example, GL Fan, the solutions you suggest are great but impossible under the current budget... that's not EW, it's the budget). We would've gotten massive budget cuts no matter what (unless we had instead had a producer who couldn't/wouldn't make the cuts, then the show would've been canceled.) That the show is even on in spite of such cuts amazes me. But could another producer have done it without sacrificing the show's identity? As awful as Conboy/Weston were, the show was at least still just a horrible version of itself. GL today is completely different vs. 4 years ago. But was that Wheeler or the cuts?

IMO it's unclear and a bit unfair to blame all of it on her.

I do disagree with whoever said GL was savable. IMO it's the only one of the remaining 8 soaps that is so far from itself that it is beyond salvation.

I agree. GL is not savable. I think EW should have told the budget people to [!@#$%^&*] off. And ended GL with some dignity. Instead we have a show which is NOT GL.

A smart idea would've been to refocus the show back to its roots after the 70th anniversary when they focused on the creation of the Bauer family. Instead, they continued on with Ava, nuMarina, nuCassie, and Reverend Bud.

Gimme "soap classic" episodes anyday over The Guiding Light Christian Home Video.

If P&G made a subscription-only cable network they'd make a [!@#$%^&*]-ton of money. IMO SoapNet's downfall is that it has always been intended to be basic cable. Make a fee-per-month station and soap nerds everywhere would get it and it would cost P&G almost nothing.

GL's budget would've gotten cut over the last few years no matter what but has only gotten slashed as deeply as it has BECAUSE of Wheeler and her incompetence which has alienated the vast majority of GL's core, and once, extremely loyal audience. Her decisions caused ratings, and thus advertising revenues, to fall so far that the budget has gotten cut so deeply that they are not even able to produce a TV show fit for airing on national television anymore so now they're producing a show that would receive a D- from any 10th grade media class teacher. This will lower ratings even furthur, causing more cuts, causing even lower production values, and the cycle will keep going until CBS cries uncle and puts everyone out of their misery.

Wheeler began chipping away at the core audience of this show when she let Peter Simon get away and insulted the Roger and Holly fans with the Sebastian mess. She lost an enormous amount of the fanbase when she fired Grant Aleksander and thoroughly butchered the entire Spaulding family merely to pimp Gus and Harley, who are no longer even on the show thanks to her mismanagement. She pushed Jerry VerDorn and Maureen Garrett out the door with nothing but minimally talented newbies that nobody cared about to take up all the airtime. Now Ehlers and Goldin are gone, likely to be followed by Zimmer and others. That doesn't paint a very pretty picture.

The show's writing is pitiful and that falls on her head as well. She hired Kreizman personally and has stood by him ever since even though it was obvious from very early on that he was in way over his head. She is making the bulk of the creative decisions anyway and she was the main scab writer during the strike.

GL's rotting corpse might limp along on life support for another year or two or until CBS can find a cost effective replacement but The Real Guiding Light is dead and has been for a while. There were alot of people over the course of many years who set GL on the road to her destruction but Wheeler smothered her with a pillow and drove the hearse to the funeral home.

GL's budget would've gotten cut over the last few years no matter what but has only gotten slashed as deeply as it has BECAUSE of Wheeler and her incompetence which has alienated the vast majority of GL's core, and once, extremely loyal audience. Her decisions caused ratings, and thus advertising revenues, to fall so far that the budget has gotten cut so deeply that they are not even able to produce a TV show fit for airing on national television anymore so now they're producing a show that would receive a D- from any 10th grade media class teacher. This will lower ratings even furthur, causing more cuts, causing even lower production values, and the cycle will keep going until CBS cries uncle and puts everyone out of their misery.

Wheeler began chipping away at the core audience of this show when she let Peter Simon get away and insulted the Roger and Holly fans with the Sebastian mess. She lost an enormous amount of the fanbase when she fired Grant Aleksander and thoroughly butchered the entire Spaulding family merely to pimp Gus and Harley, who are no longer even on the show thanks to her mismanagement. She pushed Jerry VerDorn and Maureen Garrett out the door with nothing but minimally talented newbies that nobody cared about to take up all the airtime. Now Ehlers and Goldin are gone, likely to be followed by Zimmer and others. That doesn't paint a very pretty picture.

The show's writing is pitiful and that falls on her head as well. She hired Kreizman personally and has stood by him ever since even though it was obvious from very early on that he was in way over his head. She is making the bulk of the creative decisions anyway and she was the main scab writer during the strike.

GL's rotting corpse might limp along on life support for another year or two or until CBS can find a cost effective replacement but The Real Guiding Light is dead and has been for a while. There were alot of people over the course of many years who set GL on the road to her destruction but Wheeler smothered her with a pillow and drove the hearse to the funeral home.

Great post, but to me it's missing two huge nostrils.

I would like to THINK that GL is salvageable, but I think RoseVioletDaisy and others are right. If there were a way to bring on a competent EP, an experienced HW and his/her staff AND refocusing the show on Bauers/Spauldings/Lewises, I would be all for it. But in truth, the money simply isn't there. And P&G has shown many times - this idiotic HW sceme being the latest - that they will not give the show any more money. If they would have been open to spending a little extra on the production of my beloved GL, I would hope that they would have shown EW/DK the door a long time ago.

IA that I don't understand how these two hacks have been allowed, nee encouraged, to continue their destruction of this show. How ANYONE can watch this show and think "Wow, this is so much better than canceling it 4 years ago" is beyond me. I would have rather the show ended with a little grace and dignity than have it limp on like it has the last few years. And this latest change means nothing to me. These 4 writers have been writing [!@#$%^&*] the last 4 years, why would a change in their title make them any better? It won't.

They should invest in getting an EP/HW that love the show to start writing it's epitaph. If they allow this 4 HW Hack team to write the finale of 70+ years of broadcasting, I have no confidence in their product. Damn it - P&G, CBS, Babs - do something now to save that from happening.

LOL! I was looking at this somewhere else (can't remember where it was though) and it was titled: GL Hires Headwriting something and when I'm reading it, I'm looking at all of the names and it's the same freakin' writing staff! And can you imagine my disappointment? It's like opening up this Christmas present wrapped in shiny glittery wrapping paper with all the trimmings galore! And you're so anxious to open it because that person went through all the trouble to wrap this for you. Then, you open it and it's some crapass gift you know that was purchased at the dollar store!

Ugh ... I'm so disappointed. What a let down. It's like an April Fool's prank but it's real.

^^^ My sentiments exactly, Noel.

If P&G made a subscription-only cable network they'd make a [!@#$%^&*]-ton of money. IMO SoapNet's downfall is that it has always been intended to be basic cable. Make a fee-per-month station and soap nerds everywhere would get it and it would cost P&G almost nothing.

To get '80s and '90s GL with my Lujack and Nick in crystal-clear digital clarity, I'd pay whatever P&G asked!

All GL needs is a good writer, a good ep, and some support and prmotion.

With ONE good writer the show could be turned around. Many think it's unsalvageable because of the look, the departed stars, etc. I think that if a talented writer took the show and refocused it working with the resources of the good actors it could be saved. Stranger things have happened. Like Passions lasting 9 years.

GL in its present form is so bad it should be on NBC

Edited June 13, 200817 yr by ian

All GL needs is a good writer, a good ep, and some support and prmotion.

It wouldn't matter.

It wouldn't matter.

I think it would.