How about Ellen Wheeler appears in the final episodes of GL?

[JONNYSBRO]

I have a really fun fabulous idea and since Elles is such a good actress. I think Elles should appear in the final episodes of GL as the ghost from Springfield past named Irna Phillips LOL. This is the scenario that the lighthouse and the town of Springfield are about to be demolished for a new town/new beginning. Elles is the ghost of Springfield past who lived there a 100 years ago and was there when Springfield became a town and knew all the people aka Bert Bauer and the historic GL episodes. She died years ago but her spirt lives on. Her goal is to reunite everyone to save Springfield from being turned into something else. Her goal is to do that by having everyone remembering the past of Springfield and what made it an amazing place. Then by the end the town of Springfield is saved because Elles/Irna made everyone believe in it's magic. The final episode is all the cast and crew are at the lighthouse at evening as they prepare to shine the light on the lighthouse. Elles at the end as Irna says, " This is the GUIDING LIGHT and the the last scene is the light shines in all of Springfield. LOL. Isn't this an amazing ending idea and Elles is such a great actress it will make it all work.

[Rakesh]

Ellen is no Irna.

[dm.]

She can't do that. After what she did to the show (okay, it wasn't her fault only; she did try, just a little too late) she should not play Irna. No way.

[Mitch]

Now I know you are being sarcastic..... I would hate to see the last person on GL to be one of the people who had a hand in killing it. A better role would be as an axe murderess who goes around town killing off the vets....or disfiguring them so we dont recognize them. Or how about a Spaudling relative put in charge of SE who doesnt know how to run things, but by gosh, she is really nice and means well, so she cry at board meetings and the last scene we see them boarding up Spaulding.

Or she can play her character on AMC...she can lay in bed and act as if she is dying again, and they can slap on a sign, "I am GL," as someone comes in and pulls the plug on her.....

But if she were to play Irma I would be frightened that a reanimated zombie of Irma would get out of her grave and personally come to Peapack and mangle her!

[Dan]

As who, the grim reaper?

If so, she has just the right bone structure...

[MarkH]

Honestly, if they hadn't gone there for the 70th anniversary, I'd have made her Rev. Rutledge. Seriously. It connects with her faith, and I do believe she could have walked us out to an inspirational and beautiful ending.

She's not the grim reaper. She bought the show its 72nd year. And, in the end, she even stewarded it back to something a little closer to greatness. Even if she'd done that earlier, it would NOT have mattered. GL, and the genre, is on this trajectory for reasons that have nothing to do with Ellen Wheeler, David Kreizman of anything else. Or, let's express it differently...maybe EW/DK affect 0.2 of the HH rating. But that little variance is irrelevant for the long-term trajectory of the soaps.

The grim reaper, beyond the demographic factors, was a series of affiliates that abandoned and mishandled the show long before September 2009.

[Dan]

Sigh. Mark, Mark, Mark. I pitch a perfectly good joke right down the middle and you ruin it, lmao.

Edited to add: BTW, I didn't mean the joke as if Wheeler was the official cause of death for the show. There were hundreds of different reasons conspiring against the show. But I mean, look at her. Ellen Wheeler would be perfect for the role.

[Khan]

Yeah, no.

[MarkH]

Ok. I'm probably reacting to those millions of "Ellen Wheeler killed the show" opinions. But you're right...EW's got the bone structure. Strangely, both of the P&G EPs do....

[Dan]

Very true.

But yeah, as much as I hate Wheeler for some of the decisions that have been made on her watch, it is unfair to give her all the blame for the show's demise.

[bellcurve]

I'm still banking on the Peapack Town Square idea.

[RoseVioletDaisy]

Wouldn't that be kind of a ripoff of when Santa Barbara got cancelled and it's EP at the time, Paul Rauch, who ripped that once great show limb from limb, was in the last shot putting out his cigar under his foot and walking off? Needless to say, it was incredibly tacky and classless.

To try and sell Wheeler to the audience as some grand sage of GL wisdom and history after all she's contributed to it's demise might be even more offensive than Rauch's appearance, which was simply a logical extension of the contempt the audience already knew he had for them.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

"Innovative" hanging!

[Bright Eyes]

I'll cross my fingers for you LOL

[EastMA2]

Gosh NO! I don't want to see her face. Her 'brilliant' idea of 2/29/08 forward was the last nail in GL's coffin. Hundreds of thousands tuned out of a show that couldn't afford to lose that many viewers. The shakey camera and filiming Blair Witch Project style was the worst move ever in daytime! She has admitted that while on one of the 'find your light' locations in 2007, the idea came to her that this was how GL would be shot in 2008. Bad move. Stupid idea. I'd rather the show went off the air earlier rather than become what it did.

Yes, there are alot of reasons why GL had a slow death, but Ms. Wheeler did very little in her tenure worthwhile. She tried to reinvent a wheel that didn't need it. From her lamebrain "Into The Light" Wednesday episodes in 2005 (Harley the comic book character!!) to trying to become Extreme Makeover: Home edition in 2007. The concept was admirable, but GL didn't have the budget to do that. Leave that to nighttime shows. She should have focused on story.

Ellen Wheeler also took way too long to listen to the fans and critics who immediately trashed and tuned out of GL from 2/29/08 onward. There was no coming back from her dumb ideas of shaky cameras and cutting 50 pages of dialogue and story in favor of music montages.