Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[Mitch]

If only Peapack looked like that!!! And only could RealReva (as opposed to post resurrection Reva) be dumped on her wedding day to wonder around dressed up like Scarlett, to be run over by a car, only to wake up in the arms on hottie Josh...(only to dramatically faint again!!!)

Love the over the top Babs song playing in the background as if we needed that!

[DRW50]

Yeah - it's so OTT, although it does work here. I believe this was the Reva/Kyla "theme", and also may have played when Reva tried to kill herself, which wasn't really suitable.

I've probably already asked you this before, but did you think that Maureen lost a lot of personality when Ellen Dolan left? I read a Digest from early 1987 that criticized GL for having Maureen decide being a hospital administrator was too much for her/bad for her marriage, and that she instead wanted to be a full time homemaker.

[Mitch]

I think that Parker was an interesting choice as she was so different then Dolan. It took a while to get used to her but looking back on it now I see its a wise move. Maureen would never have become the "Bert Bauer," of the show with Dolan in the lead (and Long writing her.) Watching Dolan on ATWT she just lacks the warmth to be the core maternal character of the show.

I think it was also an interesting choice to have Maureen decide to be a stay at home mom. Not only was it stupid that she was able to be the CEO of a hospital (after never going to school ) but it made sense that Maureen, who had to help Bea raise the kids because Bea was single mom trying to get by, would find herself financially able to stay at home, and choose to do that. It was refreshing for a soap, who always had to have women in "power positions," show a "real," looking and acting woman, make a "real," choice.

I just wish that Long in her desire not to have more Bauers, would have allowed Mo to be fertile, or they reversed that and let Mo and Ed have more kids, to fill the Bauer void (always thought that it would have been more interesting to keep Mo alive, have her leave Ed, return to the Boardinghouse, run it, and she would be the one to adopt Peter. Eventually she would reunite with Ed and imagine him finding out his son is Roger's kid, much more interesting then Faux Billy.

[Khan]

It might've, if GUIDING LIGHT had had an EP who knew what they were doing.

Kyle and Reva were my couple, so it grieved me terribly to witness their destruction. Then again, perhaps that was part of their magic? Two star-crossed lovers, never afforded a chance for lasting happiness, no matter how hard they tried.

[DRW50]

Leslie Denniston was very attractive but I never really understood why men like Fletcher or Kyle, who seemed to prefer livelier women, would want her. Maeve seemed very wan.

So Kyle just left town alone?

It never made sense to me that he didn't return when Ben was back, especially since the show never killed Kyle off, and Malloy was on ATWT around that time, hamming it up as a mad scientist.

I wonder if there was more of a believability with Simon and Dolan than Parker and Simon. I liked Maureen and Ed together but mostly I just loved Maureen. I wonder if that hurt the character in the eyes of the JFPs of the world, or random focus groups - if people who casually watched just said, "Why does he have that dumpy wife." I wish JFP had tried more to move Maureen in her own right as a character instead of just discarding her.

[Mitch]

That probably was Wheeler's inspiration for her "vision," "Hey guys this is rooted in history! We will have people wandering around town, uh, except there will be an apparent reason for that, and uh, it will be anytime of the year, not on a nice fall day, and uh, we will be shooting up Reva's nostrils, and if we are lucky, maybe get more then a third of her head in the shot, and uh, here is the kicker, instead of that boring old soap music, we will have our own "House Band," uh which actually is a bunch of musicians who cant get hire anywhere else doing bad knock offs of songs over ten years old!"

I hated Kyle..I think it was Larkin Malloys flaring nostrils that threatened to engulf anyone he had a scene with. And the fact that he had no other purpose then to be Reva's boyfriend du jour and be an uninteresting amoral bastard.

[rcsnj]

After looking at the scenes of Reva leaving the church, I believe those scenes were filmed at the same church that was used for the culmination of One Life to Live's homophobia storyline in August 1992. (Those scenes featured the AIDS Quilt.) The churches and grounds like remarkably alike. Interestingly, if that's the case, that means that the scenes were filmed in New Vernon, New Jersey, just a few towns away from Peapack!

[DRW50]

That's fascinating.

[Khan]

Pretty much. Although he did remarry...to an unknown woman...off-screen. (Seriously.) Then, Maeve got a call one day and learned Kyle, his wife and (I think) their child had been killed in a plane crash in the Himalayas.

[Mitch]

Actually, he and his family did go down in the plane crash, though Kyle survived. At this time Reva and Josh thought that Marah was Kyles (and to help reinforce that Alan switched the paternity tests at Cedars to make it look that way though he told Reva that he had switched the tests to make it look like Josh was the father.) Reva was afraid that the loss of his son would make Kyle come after Marah..Josh was with Sonni (and Solita!!!) at this point so she sidled up to Alan so she would have some protection from Kyle. Ms. Sally found out the truth at Sonni and Josh's wedding and had a heart attack during a confrontation with Alex over it. In a weird scene we watched Alex let Ms. Sally die, without getting help..to keep Alan's secret (and Bev thought Alex was bad later on???) I loved the show at that time.

Edited September 8, 2011 by Mitch

[DRW50]

I didn't know Kyle was such a heavy part - offcamera - in the Alan/Reva story. I wonder if they should have brought him back, with a recast, when Chris Bernau had to leave.

She never really said specific reasons but I always thought she was annoyed at Alex being reduced to obsessing over Nick and being a shrew.

Is that Sally scene online? She gets on my nerves in every clip I see of her but that's an awful way to die.

[Mitch]

No I have never seen it but yes, that was an awful thing for them to have Alex do, I can't believe that Pam Long did that, she usually kept her characters in check, or if not they had to pay. Sally was annoying as hell so I suppose the audience didnt car..I know I didnt. And actually, it wasnt as if Alex kept her heart medicine from her , she just did nothing.

They actually should have brought Kyle back right after J and R were remarried before San Crud, and had it come out that in the mix up the real father of Marah WAS Kyle. Alan could be shipped to prison for forgery and Kyle could be the big bad in town.

[DRW50]

I was going to ask if you remember Leslie Bauer? I've only seen her in some clips from the mid-60s, and I like her, she has a lot of energy and strength which offsets the typical ingenue role. The Dobsons seemed to kill her off and Mike never really looked back. I wonder if she'd lost a lot of her appeal as a character. I know the actress said she wasn't happy with the writing for the character and was considering leaving, but was still surprised and sad when she was let go.

[MichaelGL]

It's so interesting seeing Reva in friendships like those, like with Phillip and Fletcher. I tend to find Reva quite enjoyable and at her best.

[soapfan770]

Thank you so much Carl for finding/sharing that link to Reva being mowed down, I had always understood it to be a second suicide attempt but clearly it is not, more of Reva wandering around disoriented with Josh in the area(for the wedding perhaps?) with that chance of fate meeting. That is a gorgeous setting, made even better by yes the music and Reva's gorgeous over the top dress.

Regarding Kyle I understand he didn't die but was shown to be in a coma, one from which I don't believe he ever woke up from. It would have been very interesting if someone in the 90s had written Kyle back into town, seeing he was Ben's bio father as well. Actually 1995 would have been perfect, imagine an amnesiac Reva living happily by a recovered Kyle who was keeping her a secret.

I'm confused over a storyline involving Alex's knowledge of Marah's true paternity. Apparently Alex told H.B. the truth about Marah's paternity and he stood by her but broke off their engagement due to being appalled at her power plays at Spaulding. This happened in the spring of '88, a year before Reva learned the truth in the spring of '89. Why didn't H.B. tell anyone else about Marah being Josh's daughter, and thus his granddaughter? Or did she even tell him? Apparently after he broke things off he immediately left town. Writers strike inconsistency perhaps?

Even though it was bad of Alex, if anyone seen the 1989 episode where Alex is on her death's door and is shown whatt life were to be like if she dies Alex is quite visibly upset over Alan's abusing Reva and the fact Josh still doesn't know and is forbidden from even seeing Marah and Reva.