GL; TVguide Interviews with 2 stars

[PAsoapfan]

Here are two amazing interviews that need to be shared.

George De Sota/JPI Studios

Guiding Light Goodbye: Lisa Brown

by Michael Logan September 14, 2009 12:03 PM EST

Not only is Lisa Brown one of the greatest stars in Guiding Light history, she was also muse to the show’s greatest head writer, the late Douglas Marland. The duo’s first magnificent teaming came in 1980 when Brown joined GL as social-climbing, movie-mad Nola Reardon who’d go on to make supercouple magic with the dashing Quint (Michael Tylo). When Marland moved to As the World Turns five years later, he brought along Brown to play the long-lost Iva Snyder, whose secret past would electrify Oakdale. I spoke with Brown when she returned to GL for the September 14-15 wedding of Billy and Vanessa. Don’t get too worked up, Nola fans! The cameo GL gave Brown is the equivalent of chump change. Still, it’s good to have her back under any circumstances. And, boy, does she have a thing or two to say about the “new” Springfield!

GL was never better than during the famous Marland-Brown years.

We do represent a time that doesn’t exist anymore, a time where we had a freedom to create, and the work was all-important. It was a time when we really had fun, and that came across to the audience. There was a great sense of innovation on the set. The directors, the set people, the costume people, everyone felt it.

What do you think when you watch GL today?

It just seems so… thin. One of the great shocks is that there’s no more rehearsal, and it shows. I understand the need to save money, but you can save it in many other ways—it shouldn’t be by cutting out rehearsal. Soaps need to find that time again. It needn’t cost anything. The actors can set time aside to work on their scenes with each other. Maybe they can get some time with the director. Do something! Even if it’s short shrift compared to the preparation we used to have, it would still give the material something of a soul. Michael Tylo and I stay I touch and we talk about how the soul is missing these days.

It would have been nice to see Nola return with Quint.

Certainly what they gave me to do was unfulfilling. I do know that Michael wanted to be there and was not asked. He and I are still recognized to this day when we go places. How is that possible?

Because you guys mattered. You touched people deeply.

My point exactly. What we did affected people. The wonderful Bill Roerick [the late actor who played GL’s Henry] used to say to me: “We are in people’s living rooms five days a week and that is a very different relationship than when you’re a movie star. It’s an intimate relationship that is incomparable and must be cherished.” And that’s why familiar faces have always been so important in daytime.

Imagine if Doug Marland was still around and working in the soap business today. How would he handle all this insanity?

By staying on top of what audiences want! Doug had young nieces and nephews and he constantly asked them what they thought about Kelly and Morgan and Nola. He wanted to know what young people cared about. He got great ideas from them. Doug knew soaps were important and influential because they mirrored society. When he did the gay storyline at ATWT he was so ahead of his time. People don’t really acknowledge that anymore, but it’s true.

And he was able to tell that story because he trusted the audience could handle it, unlike the current folks who’ve tippy-toed their way around “Nuke” and “Otalia.”

Doug built the audience’s trust, and he did that by telling his stories carefully, with the proper time and depth. It’s not brain surgery. It’s common sense. I mean, look at the breast cancer story they did on ATWT a while back with Liz Hubbard [Lucinda]. It had such potential, and they gave it so little time.

I can’t help but think that GL’s cancellation would have been avoided—or at least postponed—had Mickey Dwyer-Dobbin still been P&G’s programming chief. Say what you will about her, she always fought the good fight. She would have been on CBS’s ass big time.

And nobody’s fighting that fight anymore! Everybody’s afraid. And that’s too bad. I still believe there’s a market for soaps. I still believe they can make money. GL [in the 1980s] was up against General Hospital and still getting a 34 share, and those people are still out there. They didn’t all die. They’re the ones who still recognize me in the grocery store. What happened to all those former viewers? Just bringing back some of that audience could have meant something. It might have saved the show, or at least bought it more time. [Long period of silence, followed by a deep sigh.] Nobody should be shocked at the current state of soaps, but they are shocked. They’ve had their heads in the sand.

Talk about your time on GL as an acting coach.

[After ATWT] I came back to GL for a brief period of time while Michael Laibson was executive producer. Then Paul Rauch took over and fired me—then he hired me as a coach for the young ones. I coached Tammy Blanchard [who played Drew Jacobs] and what a great talent she was! Crazy as can be, but brilliant. Quite honestly, she was hair-pulling to work with. I stayed up with her many nights just talking and talking about the scenes, but it was worth every minute.

Each generation learns from the next.

When I started on GL I couldn’t take my eyes off of Rita Lloyd who played Lucille Wexler. I learned so much from that woman! Robert Newman [Josh] says he learned from me. And I’m sure so many of today’s young ones learned from Robert. And we all learned our stuff from Charita Bauer [bert]. Now it’s all so thin. Thin, very thin. And I’m not talking about the quality of the writers, I’m talking about what the writers are writing about. What happened to the human stories? Who in Springfield or Oakdale is losing their jobs because of the economy? Is anybody becoming homeless? Where are soaps mirroring people’s real lives and their problems anymore? That’s where they’re missing the mark today. Soaps have become too separated from recognizable life.

You showed up at the wedding looking old-time movie-star glam—like Lana Turner in a 1950s Douglas Sirk picture.

They make you bring your own clothes now. They called and told me the wedding was not glamorous but I ignored it.

That’s our Nola! And I couldn’t help but notice that you were the only one in the cast who would hunt down the makeup people to recheck your lipstick between scenes. Or you’d go find the costumer and have him re-adjust your hat. Everybody else had long ago given up on that stuff. It was, like, “Oh, screw it, nobody cares what we look like.” But you still cared.

[Laughs] Well, some things never die, I guess! That great actress Kathleen Widdoes [ATWT’s Emma] always used to say to me: “You want to act good, Lisa, but you always want to look pretty, too.” It’s all about escape. When the actors escape, so does the audience. Our attitude, our passion, our love for what we did—it’s all gone. I want to kick somebody I get so mad thinking about it. I was not sad when I came back to shoot my scenes for the final week of GL. I was angry. I don’t want these shows to go away.

[PAsoapfan]

Guiding Light Goodbye: Tina Sloan

by Michael Logan September 10, 2009 01:09 PM EST

This has gotta be a soap-opera record! Tina Sloan’s character Lillian Raines has been alone and unmarried for most of her 26 years on Guiding Light, and that’s hard to do on a daytime drama—especially when you’re the hot blond nurse in town! But at least she’s going out with a wedding. I visited with the beloved actress on the set of GL in Sparta, New Jersey, just before Lillian and Buzz (Justin Deas) said “I do” in a double ceremony with Billy (Jordan Clarke) and Vanessa (Maeve Kinkead) that’ll air during next week’s final episodes (the show signs off for good on Friday, September 18). I’ve covered GL for the better part of three decades now—going back to the great Douglas Marland years—and there are a lot of stars I’m going to miss. But Tina Sloan is my scarecrow, the one I think I’ll miss most of all.

It’s so odd that Guiding Light is the oldest soap yet the show’s old guard—which you are certainly a part of—only arrived in the 1980s. The turnover has been intense. Much younger soaps, like All My Children and The Young and the Restless still have castmembers from the ’70s. Don Hastings and Eileen Fulton hit As the World Turns in 1960!

It is odd, isn’t it? So many of our great people died, like Chris Bernau [the original Alan], and Charita Bauer [bert] and Michael Zaslow [Roger] or chose to leave the show, like Beverlee McKinsey [the original Alexandra]. And so many of the young ones went off to try things in Hollywood…[laughs] and some came back! This has been a wonderful home to return to.

Looking back, what’s the period on GL you cherish most?

Right this moment! I used to walk down the halls at the studio and take everything for granted. Now, we all look at each other and think, “This is the last time you and I will do a scene together.” “This is the last time you’ll do my hair.” “This is the last time I’ll sit down in your makeup chair.” I’m no longer taking anything for granted.

You were front and center and acting your ass off in the scandalous Lillian-Ed affair back in 1993. Except for the fact that it led to the death of Ed’s wife Maureen—–probably the worst creative decision in GL history—it was one of the greatest love triangles ever.

And the writers haven’t forgotten it! Before Lillian gets married, she goes to Maureen’s gravesite to get her permission. She says, “I don’t come here often because I hate to remember what happened. You gave your life for my mistake. I’m so sorry, Maureen! I put aside my life. I put it on hold for the last 20 years but I’m taking it back today. Buzz asked me to marry him. I hope you’ll understand. You were my best friend, and what happened when you died affected this town to this day.” I get goosebumps just thinking about it. I think it’s so lovely that the story is still out there, that people still remember it and care.

All that’s missing is the ghost of Maureen Bauer standing at the back of the wedding. The fans would have plotzed.

Oh, I would so like the ghost of Maureen to forgive me! But Vanessa sort of does that. We have a scene where we take each other’s hands and she says “Get married with me.” It’s almost like the spirit of Maureen. We walk down the aisle and say our vows separately, but we’re really all getting married together. Buzz has lines to Lillian like “I’ve been really dark and you’ve been my light.” I just love that Justin Deas! The other day, out of the blue, he said to me: “I am so grateful to have known you.” [she starts to cry.] I love that man! This whole show has been like one long, wonderful love affair.

Tell me about “Changing Shoes.” [sloan’s one-woman play, which she co-wrote and performs, plays September 25–October 9 at the 14th Street Playhouse in Atlanta. Go to changingshoes.com for info.]

It’s about the diminishment of an actress—me!—as she gets older. It’s about how I went from wearing skimpy dresses to having the skimpy role. How one day I was walking down the street with my GL daughter Beth Chamberlin [beth] in an Oscar de la Renta gown and I suddenly realized that no one on the street was looking at me—they were all looking at her! That moment was a dawning for me. It’s what the French call coup de vieux—the blow of age. I mean, you have to laugh to keep from crying. I used to walk into an elevator and people looked at me. They don’t anymore. There was a time when I’d pull into a parking garage and the men would jump out to check my oil and wash my windows. Now I’m washing my own windows.

It’s true in show business, and true in life.

Everyone is diminished as they get older in our society—not just women but men, too—and it’s time we acknowledged it and did something about it. It really got to me for a while. There was a time when I was taking care of my elderly parents and I got very heavy. I got very grumpy. I wrote this play as I was feeling diminished. I wrote it over nine months—it was like the birth of a baby—and I performed it for the first time right after GL was cancelled. It was so emotional, and so cathartic. My whole life is in this play. Being told by [modeling agent] Eileen Ford that I needed to get a nose job—which I didn’t do! Having my son go to Iraq. Climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro. How we care for the aging and how we prepare for our own aging. And lots of funny soap anecdotes. It’s going to be a book, too.

It sounds extraordinary, Tina.

I went through the desert and found the oases, and I want to share that. If I didn’t have this play, I don’t know what I’d do, because playing Lillian has been my identity. I’m really going to miss her. I’m just so sad about the cancellation. But to end things in such a strong way—with a wedding!—is wonderful. I’m so grateful for the years we’ve had and how we’ve reflected society right to the very end. We have Ponzi schemes on our show! We have lesbians! People do their PHD dissertations on GL! This show is a big part of American culture. It’s like we’re burying a dear, close friend.

[DRW50]

Thanks. Great work. Very candid from Lisa. Bring her back ATWT.

[Vee]

Lisa Brown is of course right. Knowing ATWT, as incompetent as GL's management, they'll turn around and do the same thing with her at the last minute - bring her back to cameo as Iva before the axe falls. There was something tragic about seeing Nola and Bridget back where they belonged on a pathetic skeleton of what GL once was, knowing that they could've been there all along, on a quality version of the show that need not die so soon.