Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[dc11786]

For the life of me, I don't remember what horrible thing Beth did the night of Phillip's murder. In my defense, January 2005 was pretty much the end of 'Guiding Light' for me. I think I stopped taping in April because it was clear the show had no clue who killed Phillip and after teasing Jammy they went all out. Jammy devoured my affection for 'Guiding Light.'

Does anyone remember what Beth did? Didn't they reveal Phillip asked her to run off with him and the kids? Or something equally 'horrible.' All I remember of Beth from this time was the non-climax to her non-affair with Rick. Mel called Beth out on her feelings for Rick at the kids' preschool event and then the whole thing was dropped. I think Beth started flirting with motorcycle riding Sebastian next.

[DRW50]

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[DRW50]

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[DRW50]

If you get a chance you should watch those fall 1985 clips - everything surrounding the video shoot is insane, especially the costumes, and the long stretches of time devoted to montages with music that sounds like it came from the Sunshine Factory. The hilarious parody of a choreographer, who is then thrown into a wheelie bin and rolled down the street for no good reason. Beth as a spy, falling out of her top. I have no idea what GL was doing at this time.

They should have made Mindy/Roxie a couple.

[rlj]

Ugh, I hated that rip off of Fame (the TV show) story

[Mitch]

The music video is just so stupid, and not in a campy way, just really, really bad. GL tanked during this storyline, what with the Infinity storyline, Elizabeth Taylor's son the record producer, this Suzette person, Lujack a singing sensation, the evil Infinity gang (have no ideal what they wanted and why we cared) and Kyle Sampson's flaming nostrils! I just remember the funniest thing during the "shoot out," at the Country Club is Bev's Alex grabbing Lujack and saying, "Let's get out of here we might be next!!!" which is the only sane comment that came out of that whole thing.

But the "climax." of this crap was during Billy's trial and they pulled out the video to show it to everyone and Billy once again, became hypnotized (Billy went from being a funny quirky character with flaws and brains to the silly, guy we ended up with for most of his run) and pulled an imaginary gun (I think, or he might have grabbed a guards) to shoot Kyle. The Kyle actor went into totally flaming nostril's mode screaming "Love ME brother, Love ME!!" After that day GL went off the dorm television at 2 and it went back to GH.

[DRW50]

I'm surprised they lasted that long on the dorm TV, although GH wasn't in great shape at this time either. It's too bad they didn't pull themselves back together for several more years.

What did you think of this Ed? I think RvV is a good actor, but these stories are just so absurd. I guess at least he got to play a lot of material...I think when Peter Simon returned Ed was backburnered for 2-3 years.

[DRW50]

I was also going to ask what that symbol is Beth was pasting on the walls?

[Mitch]

Actually, GL was going great guns the year before and became a staple of the dorm TV over GH ( I think mirroring the ratings at the time.) It wasnt until someone insisted that GL change to be more competitive with GH, ironically to attract a younger audiene, that the show got turned off.

I didn't like this Ed, he always seemed so weak, and while Ed was a man with his demon's he wasnt "weak, " and pathetic. He also came around at a bad time, Charita Bauer died, they wrote off Mike, killed Hillary, and to recast Ed at that time, when Dolan was still fairly new (and her Mo is NOT the Mo that would take over as the new Bert Bauer.)

That goofy symbol is the ring symbols of Infinity that they used to give Billy the cue to kill.

[DRW50]

I meant that I thought they may have tuned out a little earlier, as the general idea is the show peaked around summer or fall of 1984.

At first I thought it was some version of a cult tattoo or something.

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[Gray Bunny]

I always wondered why Jerry ver Dorn was chosen to do the tribute to Charita Bauer. At the time in 1985, he had only been on the show for 6 years. Was all of GL's cast from the 70's and beforehand gone by 1985 that ver Dorn was already the most senior castmember?

[DRW50]

Incredibly, yes. I think it was Jerry and 99% gone Denise Pence.

[Paul Raven]

That says something about the reasons for the decline of the shows.The constant cast changes that began in the 80's ultimately weakened the structure of the shows and gave them no solid base to fall back on.

[bboy875]

I believe she agreed to run off with Philip as he planned to kidnap all his kids plus the son Rick had with Harley, which I think caused Rick to be angry with her. That put an end to their bonding after Philip's death. Their affair came much later and out of no where as I think they were barely seen together until the reveal at the end of a Wednesday episode. I'm almost sure of this-2005 seems many years ago now as bad as the show became later.