Alexandra Spaulding: The Post-McKinsey Era

[Cashton]

I am wrting this because I just saw this amazing clip of Marj Dusay when she first debuted on Guiding Light. She was very different than BevMac, more haughty more arch more camp but she did it with a gigantic amount of sexiness and sensuality. Sure her snob routine wasn't earthshattering, but in this role it was damn fun to watch. Watching her go toe-to-toe with the woefully miscast Signy Coleman playing Annie Dutton, you almost have to turn away rather than watch Large Marj wipe up the floor with her.

I don't know what turned the character of alex from this formidiable, dangerous woman to the poor, dithering house mouse Alex has become now. It's one of soap's great mysteries to me. This character was once the grand dame of Springfield (admitedly with McKinsey) but still the character was sensational and now she's not even full-time? She's recurring right? I think this is one of the worst things to happen to GL and that's saying alot, Ellen!

If anyone wants to see the clip that inspired this whiny, crazy rant go here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMO8UmX-HDM

"IT MAKES ME WANT TO VOMIT IN YOUR FACE!" - Alexandra Spaulding, Guiding Light

[Y&RWorldTurner]

For me, the character might as well have been a new character all together when Beverlee McKinsey left. Not only did McKinsey have better writing, but her performances were more layered than any actress that's had this role since.

Also, I just can't buy Dusay as the type of character that was "born rich." She's more, "I married into a rich family." Beverlee Mckinsey was born to play American aristocracy.

[Mitch]

At the time Bev Mck left GL a lot of soap opera divas were fighting for the role...as one insider had said, "It is the best female character in daytime ever." (take that Zimmer and Reva.)

Marj came in and well, what can I say, I love Marj but I cant stand Marj's Alex. The immediate turn in the role is due to Phelps and her desired direction of the character (which McKinsey fought) so Alex became more camp, meaner and at the same time, less fromniable..she became Myran Cleg Sprinfield style. The role as written made Alex more mock fierce then anything else. The clip you saw of Alex and Annie was good, and showed Marj can do a soap "dont [!@#$%^&*] with me," line and say it like no one else...but there was the problem. Alex huffed and puffed and the writers took in no where and Alex diappeared. Its funny, as Chris Bernau would have eaten her alive...but the problem is also with Alan. RR's Alan is just as blustering and loud and ineffectual as Marj's Alex. Its almost like the took Bernau's Alan and McKinsey's Alex and morphed them into cartoon version for Saturday.

Its weird, as Joan Collins had Alex closer to Mckinsey then Dusay does. Her Alex was lethal, calm, smart sophisticated, lethal, but also vunerable and motherly. (McKinsey doenst have the rapport with the young actors that Mckinsey and Collins did.) However, even Dusy's Alex has never been this weak and ineffectual, and that I blame on Weston and Kreizman, who have written her that way.

I do agree that both Alan and Alex should never have been recast. Well, maybe Alan (not with RR though) but McKinsey's Alex is as uncastable as Zimmer's Reva. I also agree that Dusy is more "married into rich," then to the manor born. She would have made a great Lewis (imagine when HB was off screen he married this broad from Oklahoma...and she and Reva going at it. ) Or as someone who married into the Spauldings ala a cousin, who was poor before, but inherited huge amount of stock and is a continued thorn in Alan's side. McKinsey was more, having tea (and blackmail) in the parlor, where Dusay would be more out in the fields with her dogs and comes back for a bourbon and to slap someone down.

Come to think of it, if they had introduced Dusay while McKinsey was on, it would have been gold. I could imagine Alex' reaction to her cousin by marriage, who is loud and brash but good hearted. They eventually could be friends and Alex could return to Europe and give Dusay's character her proxy. So when Alan returned Dusay could have fought him tooth and nail.

Anyway, Alex is just not Dusay's "type."

[DaytimeFan]

Although it's likely soap sacrilege to say...I don't think Beverlee McKinsey was the greatest actress in daytime. A great actress, certainly, but I think there are others who are just as good.

I do think McKinsey's Alex was very much 'born rich', she'd had years on AW to get that right and she did. She played Alex quietly with a wide range of emotions.

Dusay played it quite differently. Her Alex was very much 'I married rich and to hell with everyone else!' and she was overblown...very faux grand. Very much like a woman out of her league. Like a woman who was born poor, married rich and then treated her daughter in law like she'd been queen of the manor since before dinosaurs walked the earth. Dusay got her shot and creating her signature role, that of Vanessa Bennett Courtland on AMC and she was fabulous.

Collins played...well...herself. In saying that I mean that her Alex had the 'born rich' believability and confidence of McKinsey with a cheeky sense of humor that is her own. On the spectrum between McKinsey and Dusay, Collins lands center left, favoring McKinsey. Collins, of course, has been playing her signature role since birth and her roles in 'The Stud,' 'The Bitch,' and 'Dynasty' only cemented her status.

[Mitch]

I LOVED JC as Alex, and you are right...both she and McKinnsey gave Alex a streak of ironic humor that Dusay misses. Plus, you can't ignore the vunerability both JC and Bev brought to the role and the chemisty they had with the younger actors....Alex, especially with Bev, could be your best friend or your worst nightmare, you choose!

However, in support for Dusay when she returned both times, first taking over for Bev, and then taking over for JC, the writers were still writing for the previoius actresses and her Alex was indeed stronger..for some reason they just write Alex more cartoony for Marj.

The clip of her confrontation is kind of sad as it shows what Dusay could have done with a role outside of Alex that could be her own. H.B.'s widow or a Spaulding cousin who was kind of Molly Brownish...hearty, midwestern and not suffering any fools.

Having said that, I would watch Marj read an insurance claim form over a Grady, a Remy or a Marina.

[DaytimeFan]

I LOVED JC as Alex too. I don't care that's she's not the definitive Alex...for those 3 months she was on...she was FANTASTIC. Her turn on the show was wasted. MADD did not promote JC as she should have. JC, of course, should be on prime time in the USA...but it's a tough market, especially at 75(!!!)...she still works in England. I think though, she would be terrific on a show like 'Lipstick Jungle'...Candace Bushnell, PLEASE do it!