CBS cancels Guiding Light

[Cat]

Peter Simon as Ed Bauer might be a good place to start.

[Dan]

I'd say that's a brilliant place to start. And I think Valentini should loan JvD to GL even if it's just the finale. It just would not be the same not to have Ross come back on the final day and speak the final words on the show. He is GL's Rachel.

[Toups]

4 soaps gone in the last 10 years now: AW, SuBe, PC, Passions.

4 more in the next 10?

[Vee]

Because Wheeler had such success with Peter Simon the last time.

[brimike]

Assuming they've already written through mid/late May, then they have four months to wrap it up. A LOT longer than AW had (they only had two weeks from what they had already written to their last air show).

I really hope they do it justice.

[Adam]

Sad day for daytime. My heart goes out to all the GL fans out there.... I wonder how long it will take now for Frons to pull the trigger and cancel one too....

This is really depressing. As others have said however, its even sadder that an institution like GL had to go out like this. Can't a soap die with any integrity? I hope a proper sendoff is created.

Unfortunately I think perhaps 5 years..... its getting real dire.

By 2012.... I don't expect DAYS, AMC, ATWT and OLTL to be on the air..... unless something miraculously happens.

[Vee]

I don't really count PC/Passions/SuBe. All of them were new, all of them had weak foundations. Also, when AW went, we knew at the time that SuBe was probably done shortly after. AW and GL are different.

OLTL will be around in 2012. AMC, maybe. The other two, doubt it.

[Sylph]

I actually think Frons will hold onto his soaps for as long as he can. He will totally stretch it. Until somewhere up there says... Cancel it.

[bellcurve]

In fairness(and maybe my own foolishness) I loved GL after the massive budget cuts of 2005. I thought it was well scripted and beautifully acted for the first...maybe...year and a quarter. GL has spurts of growth where the show even bested AMC/OLTL a few weeks. Regardless of if it was a fluke, there was SOME interest there. Otherwise the numbers wouldn't have spiked the way they did. They should have built on that by making a commitment to their ensemble cast and narrative storytelling THEN. But instead, they let the poor show rot after Jonathan and Tammy get killed off and allowed these lame characters and stories to swallow the show whole.

Ellen Wheeler is great at managing a budget and uplifting her cast and crew members. The problem with her is that post-MADD, she had no one to reign in her bad ideas and without proper supervision(like other semi-competent artists), she falters. Not to mention, for someone who claims to be a Mormon and love God and all that crap, she sure holds one hell of a grudge. I mean, if the stories are true, why the hell would she need to take out notes from that longterm producer telling everyone he was leaving? Is that how you treat a longterm veteran producer that you fired? What about having the security guards follow Beth Ehlers around her old stomping grounds while she collects her things? As IF she would do anything to sabotage GL or their craptacular stories.

BTW, is Wheeler on suicide watch yet?

[Y&RWorldTurner]

We all knew this day was coming, and as much as I've wanted this show put out of its misery for years, it's still shocking.

GL, I love you, you might have been irritating as hell over the past 10 years, but I love what you were when you were great and everything you stood for at your core. To me, you were always the most human-like of the big soaps, and when you told stories about hope, community, and unity, you put all other soaps to shame.

I have my memories which will always make me see this show in a good way. Thanks for making me a soap fan all those years ago GL, I know that had I not tuned into GL during one of my school breaks during the winter of 1991, I would have never gotten into the CBS soaps, or soaps at all. Thanks for everything, rest in peace finally, my love.

[Adam]

Oh my, this is just soooo bad...... but so hilarious at the same time.

So..... I wonder what La Zimmer will have to say about all of this? Amelia Heinle, watch your back.... someone with fire and sass is about to be unemployed..... and would make a FABULOUS Victoria Newman....

Gina as others have been talking about in recent days.

[Kubla Khan]

My heart goes out to GL fans. What a sad day for daytime.

I'm calling it now: PGP/Telenext/whatever will replace Goutman with EW.

[Vee]

I felt Wheeler's dialogue staff could be very, very good. The problem is the stories often sucked, and the writers would put all their eggs in one basket and fail to do anything else. Hey, let's build a story around Ed Bauer and Roger's son, and fail to secure Peter Simon. Let's destroy our relationship with Grant Aleksander and then spend years teasing Phillip's return. Failing all that, let's just put the entire show on Jonathan. That'll never get old! I was sick of him long before his last appearance.

[Adam]

Ellen Wheeler has ties to AMC.... she better stay far, far, FAR away!

[MarkH]

We all played a role in this demise. Creative types, changing audiences, non-compliant affiliates, changing economy, advertiser mandates... The list is endless, and all those factors came together to bring us to this point.

Moreover, we have known we were coming here, relentlessly, for some time. To be clear...Nancy Curlee could have been writing the show continuously, they might never have fired Maureen Bauer...the show could have stayed continuously excellent since the 80s, and we'd still more or less be at this point. Maybe GL wouldn't be the next one to go...but they're all going. That's because most of the causal factors listed above have nothing to do with GL.

That is why GL is nothing but the "next" to go. Which is why -- for those of us who still love a soap or two, or the genre as a whole -- Schadenfreude is very dangerous. Truly, truly "but for the grace of god, there go I". There is an inevitability to this. The world has changed, and in the US, daytime soaps are not part of that new world.

I wrote over on Usenet (in response to someone doing a Frons-like 'where can the good actors go now?' thread), "I'm going to propose that we don't do this today -- but that's just my opinion. Some long-time viewers are hurting. Eventually, talk of new gigs and post-mortems may be helpful, because they give a sense of purpose to this. But right now, the oldest show on TV, the oldest soap...has been shuttered. For all of us, I think, that deserves ... I don't know ... a bit of love and a bit of 'godspeed'. Again, obviously, just my opinion. "

PS: Actually, if any network wanted a 'better value' soap, ABC would cancel GH and replace it with time-slot competitor GL. But it won't happen. Soaps don't translate well, ever, period.