By the way, the poster who mentioned the show telling them to keep an eye on the official website guidinglight.net (different from the CBS GL site), thank you, it is a great site! They even created fictional questionnaires for the characters.

And don't hold your breath for lots of flashbacks or returns to close the show out ... I'm sorry, but when has that happened on any recently canceled soap? CBS isn't going to spend the money on that ... CBS gives GL a starvation budget. People who want the show to end instead of continuing in a new form because they think it will be given a splashy finale, it's not going to happen that way, lol. I'm sure Ellen Wheeler will try hard to get some people to come back, but they'd probably have to do it for free (but would that even be allowed?).

I will miss GL. I was always hoping for a return of Amanda Spaulding, Vicky Spaulding (mother and daughter), Hope Bauer Spaulding, Trish Lewis, and Andy Norris. I enjoyed this show and had some great stories to tell over the years from Bert's cancer to Holly's kidnapping the kids to Reva's Cloning. GL will be missed by many. I was reading in an above post that some of the characters might migrate over to Oakdale, I would love to see that, but now if they get ruined like the AW characters got ruined. I would love to see Phillip and Beth in Oakdale or Billy Lewis shifting over there as a love interest for Susan or Lisa or Rick Bauer join the hospital staff. I pray that P&G can work something out with another network.

And don't hold your breath for lots of flashbacks or returns to close the show out ... I'm sorry, but when has that happened on any recently canceled soap?

i think we might get some returns, but not a whole bunch though. Somehow I just believe that due to the fact that we got Phillip and Mindy.

As for flashbacks, I hate to say this, but I don't think we'll get any. The best chance of getting one is EW having the actors react some of their most infamous scenes. For me, EW has made it clear that she does not want to use any flashbacks from years ago paired up with this production model.

P&G/Televest/Telenext/Whatever seems to be serious about re-purposing GL/putting it somewhere else. More serious than I thought.

This is intriguing. As I and others have said several times, the new production model isn't that bad (esp. if you're a newbie viewer) and it looks and sounds ESPECIALLY good on a computer. Better and brighter than most other soaps, actually.

Now, this new interview with Michael Logan:

Just hours after CBS canceled Guiding Light last Wednesday, word came from TeleNext Media – which produces the soap for Procter & Gamble – that a campaign had been launched to find the show a new home. Pie-in-the-sky thinking? Maybe not. TeleNext vp Brian Cahill spoke with TV Guide about his hopes for the future.

Hearing that you were determined to keep GL in production made a very bad day for the soap industry just a little more bearable. So a big thanks for that…but, seriously, what are the chances you can move this thing elsewhere?

We are committed to finding a life for GL after CBS. Specific conversations are happening — I can’t tell you the substance of them or with whom we’re talking — but I assure you this is not lip service. We are absolutely committed to finding a landing place, not only for us but for the viewers who have been so loyal all this time, and to whom GL has been so important.

Are you encouraged? Confident?

I am encouraged. I don’t know if I’m confident. What we’re talking about is a long shot, but we’re not going to just fold up our tents. One of the things that has always made us very proud of GL is that it figured out how to move from radio to television at a time when a lot of programs failed at that. Whoever was the steward of that move did an amazing thing and we want to be that same kind of steward now.

So what are the possibilities here? Cable has been mentioned. We saw Passions go to DirectTV for a while after NBC cancelled it. Is that an option? Might the show once again make soap history and move to the internet?

I don’t want to talk about specifics because I don’t want to disrupt any of the conversations that are happening.

If the show does continue, do you expect you’ll need to slash the budget and trim back the cast?

When GL moved to TV there had to be a rethinking of what it was. It had to adapt, and that’s going to have to happen here, too.

What about the creative direction of the show? If you continue, it’ll be without CBS’s creative intervention. Do you see that as a good thing? Might we see a very different kind of show if you no longer have to kowtow to the network? Maybe a better one?

[Long pause] That’s an interesting question. We have very strong creative people at the helm of GL and I have no doubt about their ability to put out a strong creative product. There’d be no reason for it to continue to have life if we couldn’t do that.

Word is, CBS Daytime chief Barbara Bloom told you folks that a renewal was likely. Instead, you got the axe, so it seems the network played dirty here. Do you agree?

Obviously we have had a long-standing relationship with CBS and very robust communication. We are extremely disappointed by the outcome. It’s certainly not what we’d hoped for.

Usually you have at least an inkling — if not downright certainty — when your show is about to be cancelled but that doesn’t seem to be the case here. Were you shocked?

[No response]

Because it sure seems like you folks were thrown for a loop by this…

I would say that we’re extremely disappointed at the outcome.

Alrighty then. What’s your philosophy about wrapping it up on CBS? If the show moves elsewhere, it would seem you’d want to have cliffhangers galore and not tie up the stories with nice little bows. At the same time, you have viewers who’ve been watching it on the network since Day 1, 57 years ago.

We will treat this situation with the utmost respect, yet at the same time we’re not going to treat it like a museum piece. This is a living, breathing program that continues to have great and exciting possibilities.

Case in point, Otalia! [The female romance involving Olivia and Natalia]. I’m hearing from viewers — a lot of them — who say they started watching the show because of all the buzz surrounding this story. Isn’t that supposed to be the goal of every soap — luring new viewers?

Yes, and that’s one of the many reasons we believe GL has a future. It tells us that there’s life in the old girl yet!

We will treat this situation with the utmost respect, yet at the same time we’re not going to treat it like a museum piece. This is a living, breathing program that continues to have great and exciting possibilities.

I don't like these two sentences. Call me crazy, but I WANT a big splashy finale. ER just got a wonderful sendoff and I want something similar. Returns, cameos, flashbacks, reunions, and heart-breaking writing. I want this for several reasons:

1) This will probably be the last time the entire audience will have exposure to GL. If it goes cable or to the internet, a chunk of the audience will not be able to see the show continue.

2) Should the show find a new home and get cancelled, a big splashy finale will be impossible. Let's face it, they will not have the budget. Let's do it now when it is more doable. I'm not saying the budget is THAT big now, but I can't imagine them affording even a cake for the cast wrapup party, let alone a finale suitable for GL should the show move.

3) Some fans are further along on the stages of grief and are willing to move on from the show. Let us have a good sob and then continue it for the fans who wish to follow it to another channel or medium.

4) Let's be honest: the show will be revamped in the process. Let us have a tribute for the show that it is and the show that it was before that happens.

5) It's a great possibility that this campaign will fail. So if they prepare for a finale thinking they are finding a new home and they do not, we will ALL be cheated.

Edited April 6, 200916 yr by Dan

I don't like these two sentences. Call me crazy, but I WANT a big splashy finale. ER just got a wonderful sendoff and I want something similar. Returns, cameos, flashbacks, reunions, and heart-breaking writing. I want this for several reasons:

1) This will probably be the last time the entire audience will have exposure to GL. If it goes cable or to the internet, a chunk of the audience will not be able to see the show continue.

2) Should the show find a new home and get cancelled, a big splashy finale will be impossible. Let's face it, they will not have the budget. Let's do it now when it is more doable. I'm not saying the budget is THAT big now, but I can't imagine them affording even a cake for the cast wrapup party, let alone a finale suitable for GL should the show move.

3) Some fans are further along on the stages of grief and are willing to move on from the show. Let us have a good sob and then continue it for the fans who wish to follow it to another channel or medium.

4) Let's be honest: the show will be revamped in the process. Let us have a tribute for the show that it is and the show that it was before that happens.

5) It's a great possibility that this campaign will fail. So if they prepare for a finale thinking they are finding a new home and they do not, we will ALL be cheated.

ITA. Especially numbers 1, 4 and 5. Especccccciiiiiiallllllly #5. If they want to go full steam ahead, they had better be 100% sure that they're going to be somewhere after 9/18/09. If it ends on a cliffhanger, I will be pissed.

I'm okay with a new network, just as long as it's not on Direct TV.

Edited April 6, 200916 yr by MichaelGL

I think this desperation to cling on is somewhat having a negative impact... We all agree this show has been dead for a few years now.... why not just give it a nice huge sendoff, like Dan says and remember for what it was.....

I think this desperation to cling on is somewhat having a negative impact... We all agree this show has been dead for a few years now.... why not just give it a nice huge sendoff, like Dan says and remember for what it was.....

I'm totally content with that and I believe that is the way it should be handled. Dedicating the last few months of the show to placing together a wonderful send off that is tasteful and pays homage to the shows rich history. Let it end with a smile on the faces of it's remaining viewers.

I know this isn't gonna be a popular suggestion, but since the GL on the air is so separate from historical GL, the finale should focus on simply tying up the current stories for the currently featured characters. It would be awesome if they did a separate montage/remembrance that celebrates the shows long, rich history as well but that shouldn't be blended in with the final episode because there's so little relation between the two GLs at this point. I've seen people suggesting bringing a virtual laundry list of characters back for the finale but I don't see the point in bringing back a bunch of characters that a lot of people currently watching have never seen before and don't care about and who the writers have no time to give any kind of context or story. There's just no point in bringing back Fletcher, Mike, or Hope and there's simply no time now to bring somebody like Ross back and explain his absence and repair his relationships with Blake, Phillip, and his children. There just isn't any time for that. If GL had been given a year, maybe they'd have time to do stuff like that with a few characters, but they've got five months, only four of which they have yet to tape. Most of it they've already outlined in script form already.

I doubt that they even have time to reunite Josh & Reva and/or Phillip & Beth in a way that isn't lame, rushed, and as half-assed as the Four Muskateers reunion was. They certainly don't have the time or resources to bring back every Bauer, Reardon, Lewis, Shayne, Spaulding, and Ruthledge who ever lived. We need to be realistic about what they can afford and what they have time to put together and that probably isn't much. Given their enormous limitations, I think we'll be lucky if we get the two aformentioned reunions, a few more scenes with Rick, Billy, Vanessa, Hawk, Alex, a decent Bauer BBQ, and that's about it.

I'm okay with a new network, just as long as it's not on Direct TV.

Agreed!

I know this isn't gonna be a popular suggestion, but since the GL on the air is so separate from historical GL, the finale should focus on simply tying up the current stories for the currently featured characters. It would be awesome if they did a separate montage/remembrance that celebrates the shows long, rich history as well but that shouldn't be blended in with the final episode because there's so little relation between the two GLs at this point. I've seen people suggesting bringing a virtual laundry list of characters back for the finale but I don't see the point in bringing back a bunch of characters that a lot of people currently watching have never seen before and don't care about and who the writers have no time to give any kind of context or story. There's just no point in bringing back Fletcher, Mike, or Hope and there's simply no time now to bring somebody like Ross back and explain his absence and repair his relationships with Blake, Phillip, and his children. There just isn't any time for that. If GL had been given a year, maybe they'd have time to do stuff like that with a few characters, but they've got five months, only four of which they have yet to tape. Most of it they've already outlined in script form already.

I doubt that they even have time to reunite Josh & Reva and/or Phillip & Beth in a way that isn't lame, rushed, and as half-assed as the Four Muskateers reunion was. They certainly don't have the time or resources to bring back every Bauer, Reardon, Lewis, Shayne, Spaulding, and Ruthledge who ever lived. We need to be realistic about what they can afford and what they have time to put together and that probably isn't much. Given their enormous limitations, I think we'll be lucky if we get the two aformentioned reunions, a few more scenes with Rick, Billy, Vanessa, Hawk, Alex, a decent Bauer BBQ, and that's about it.

ER did two finales:

A one-hour retrospective, and then a two hour "set in the present" wrap-up story (that, in their case, simply let us know that life would go on as always...we just wouldn't be there to see it any more).

I thought that was a brilliant structure, and if it were me, during the final week of GL, that is what I'd do.

For 1-2 days, I'd air retrospective specials with all the returning favorites "looking back" (documentary style) that I could. Then, for the final episodes, I'd wrap up the stories in a satisfying way...while leaving the door open.

This final week, then, could EASILY be marketed as a DVD (on the strength of that retrospective). With 72 years of history, the DVDs could great outsell the number of current viewers.

John Wells (usually) gives good (populist) endings.

I think this desperation to cling on is somewhat having a negative impact... We all agree this show has been dead for a few years now.... why not just give it a nice huge sendoff, like Dan says and remember for what it was.....

Amen.

I know this isn't gonna be a popular suggestion, but since the GL on the air is so separate from historical GL, the finale should focus on simply tying up the current stories for the currently featured characters. It would be awesome if they did a separate montage/remembrance that celebrates the shows long, rich history as well but that shouldn't be blended in with the final episode because there's so little relation between the two GLs at this point. I've seen people suggesting bringing a virtual laundry list of characters back for the finale but I don't see the point in bringing back a bunch of characters that a lot of people currently watching have never seen before and don't care about and who the writers have no time to give any kind of context or story. There's just no point in bringing back Fletcher, Mike, or Hope and there's simply no time now to bring somebody like Ross back and explain his absence and repair his relationships with Blake, Phillip, and his children. There just isn't any time for that. If GL had been given a year, maybe they'd have time to do stuff like that with a few characters, but they've got five months, only four of which they have yet to tape. Most of it they've already outlined in script form already.

I doubt that they even have time to reunite Josh & Reva and/or Phillip & Beth in a way that isn't lame, rushed, and as half-assed as the Four Muskateers reunion was. They certainly don't have the time or resources to bring back every Bauer, Reardon, Lewis, Shayne, Spaulding, and Ruthledge who ever lived. We need to be realistic about what they can afford and what they have time to put together and that probably isn't much. Given their enormous limitations, I think we'll be lucky if we get the two aformentioned reunions, a few more scenes with Rick, Billy, Vanessa, Hawk, Alex, a decent Bauer BBQ, and that's about it.

I think they should definitely end with tying up all of the current storylines in a positive way, but at the same time, I really think that the show should do something that pays respect to their rich history. Even if it is a montage of clips from the past 50 years with the My Guiding Light or Hold onto Love themes playing over them.