CBS cancels Guiding Light

[jfung79]

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?).

[Dr Neil Curtis]

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.

[MichaelGL]

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.

[MarkH]

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:

[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.

[All My Shadows]

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.

[MichaelGL]

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

[Adam]

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.....

[CSF]

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.

[RoseVioletDaisy]

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.

[Rakesh]

Agreed!

[MarkH]

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.

[Sylph]

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

[DeeeDee]

Amen.

[CSF]

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.