Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[DRW50]

They are hypocrites. They never liked much of anything about her or GL, while they heaped praise on "Cartini" for production values that weren't much different in the end. And they trashed PP up and down for production values and writing that was far better. They're cons.

[Mitch]

It doesnt seem to be a Guiding Light project...I have a bad feeling this is going to be a soap about actors whose show was cancelled or some nonsense. And would Peapack be a good place to have this little reunion...everyone hated it and it just seems that this wasnt the wisest place to do this.

Newman and Wheeler look great. They don't ever seem to age. Billy looks like a real guy who aged normally and so does Frank D..the rest I shall keep my mouth shut about. ..(okay I wont, is this going to be a show about bad plastic surgery???)

[InLoveWithSoaps]

I have a question about the Reva clone storyline. I watched it for the first time back in '08/'09 when an Icelandic fan posted the '98 episodes on YouTube. Anyway, I don't remember such detail being brought up so I'll ask it here. Was it explained how the clone came to be, how it was born, was the mention of a surrogate mother ever made? It's irked me for a while.

As for the "reboot", I'm sorry but the likes of Frank Dicopoulos or Caitlin Van Zandt won't exactly entice me to watch. Seems like a poor man's GL more than anything. Actually a poor man's Peapack GL. Always had a soft spot for Michelle Ray Smith I must say so I'm happy about her, and yay for Liz Keifer and Beth Chamberlin but this cast doesn't look particularly exciting. And Ellen Wheeler as if she's still convinced her vision of GL was so right. I wish them well that being said.

[DRW50]

I think Reva had some eggs or something and they made it from that, in Michael's lab. I can't remember.

[Vee]

I just have no time for this thing.

The idea of anyone making "Guiding Light with the serial numbers filed off" is low-rent and ridiculous enough to me - some of the cast and crew of Doctor Who barely got away with that in its wilderness years in the 1990s, and it was a British science-fiction program, a genre with a long history of fringe projects like those, and honestly they weren't very good IMO; a bunch of super-cheap direct-to-VHS stories with random characters played by actors giving knowing winks to the cameras. I just didn't like them.

The idea of doing it with a soap opera, though - and one as venerated as GL - I think it only further pollutes the GL brand, which I thought was horribly damaged by everything Ellen Wheeler did, particularly after the move to Peapack. I have talked before about thinking GL could benefit from an AMC-style revamp, but that would require distancing the show from as much of the Peapack era as possible.

I mean, it's Peapack! The idea of anyone from GL actually, voluntarily going back there - and bringing along Ellen who, while a wonderful actress years ago, seemed to genuinely believe herself to be some sort of self-styled soap messiah/dippy life coach, wherein her very Mormon-esque, cloistered vision of GL would somehow influence the world at large - is, I feel, horribly embarrassing. And of course most of the cast that's shown up is entirely unnecessary IMO, except for some of the vets. Were any of us dying to see Ava or Mel or Ashlee or Frank Cooper again? No, but Ellen Wheeler was. She's once again affixing her personal seal and vision to Guiding Light at large, shackling herself to it, and I think that's very detrimental for any future options for the show - putting aside the fact that they're somehow attempting to produce some sort of bootleg version of the show, which is radioactive in and of itself. And she's clearly learned nothing, because her interview has her still talking like a cult leader and meandering around about her world-shaking vision for a soap where every single member of the company is sharing the same bathroom and changing in the backseat of an SUV.

I'm sorry to be so brutal because I know Carl cares about this, but I honestly just detested what became of GL. It offended me. I thought there was, at times, some very naturalistic dialogue and performances, but that's the most I can say about that time on the show. The more I watched, the more there was nothing else there. No whole, just one woman's personal odyssey. I would love to see GL return, I believe that it can, but to me this is not it. And I'd say the same if this was OLTL, AMC or GH.

Edited November 21, 2013 by Vee

[antmunoz]

Clone Reva aged every few days and Michael would being the latest version out if what seemed to be a closet to meet Josh. CR was always dressed age-appropriately. Apparently, Michael spent a lot of time at Aeropostale and Justice. Maybe Josh was donating Marah's outgrowns. Who knows?

Vicky Brandon (Spaulding) was Michael's lab assistant, remember? Vanessa vowed revenge against her when Michael died in the lab explosion--nothing came of that. Alan had knowledge of Dolly, the clone, and Josh and Reva were concerned up to a year after her death that Alan would expose their secret. But Dolly was then forgotten for all time.

[DRW50]

I actually liked Mel quite a bit, and I liked Frank (although I felt like the character was mostly pointless/wasted his last fifteen years on the show, aside from a little with Blake at the end), but I understand what you're saying. Aside from Jordan Clarke and one or two others, this new project doesn't jump out at me with faces I want to see again.

For me, GL died before Ellen Wheeler ever came around. Bit by bit, piece by piece, over about ten or more years. The nadir was when Ben Reade, a character I watched grow up, was retroactively made a victim of sexual abuse for no other reason than to say he was a serial killer, because serial killers are raped as children. This sickened me and made me feel ashamed of ever watching the show.

Wheeler made a ton of mistakes, like firing Jerry ver Dorn, a tone deaf focus on the wrong characters and couples, some very questionable new characters, a lack of strong storytelling, and yes, the show looked like a Walking Dead cosplay video gone wrong in its last few years.

I give her a pass on some of this because I think she did care, and she did try surprisingly hard to bring back some of GL's identity and past at the end. Was the last year good? Generally, no. But aside from AMC, it was the only soap final year where I felt like the people in charge gave a damn.

I will always, always be bitter about this, because I gave a lot of my love to ATWT for a long time and, frankly, I felt like Chris Goutman spit in the faces of fans, for no other reason than because he could.

Wheeler is, in terms of production and message, delusional, and there was a great deal wrong with her show and her ideas, but I at least felt like she cared. And not just about her ego, the way Goutman did, but about some attempt at remembering what GL was. It could have been so much better, but bringing back people like Nola, Bridget, Dylan, Holly, Fletcher, Ed, some of whom had been roadkill long before she even got to GL, it really gave GL a heart again, and a history. I got to say goodbye. I never got to say goodbye to ATWT. Thanks to Goutman, I never will.

I also think she did get the basic idea of GL, even if it was horribly flawed.

To me that is GL. In a very vague, vacuous way, but it's still GL.

It doesn't even sound like they're bringing GL back, and it's probably going to suck, but I'll still hold out a little hope that it's something worthwhile, because I feel like Wheeler does care about soaps and if she has proper help, then this might help give the idea of soaps some sort of avenue and window, and give New York soap actors more opportunities to, at least, show their talent and range.

If she wants to do this, instead of writing a show where viewers leer and guffaw at a woman raping herself, then I hope it works out.

[Mitch]

I do have to agree..I do think that Wheeler cared. Unfortunately she was clueless. Now if we could have had someone who cared with someone who had one little clue....

I also agree that, besides throwing Buzzard into the Van/Billy wedding, she gave GL a solid send off. I put GL to "rest," so to speak as it got its heart back, I knew what happened to everyone (who woulda thought we would have had a Reardon reunion ever) and as sappy as it all was, everyone was happy.) I miss ATWT more as it just kinda "ended."

I also thought Peapack could have worked, bringing soaps back to what they were in the day, normal people dealing with a hightened reality. People were talking again, etc. I really think if PG had given her a real budget and a real headwriter it would have worked great.

[RoseVioletDaisy]

I never had any doubt that Wheeler was passionate about soaps and GL but her incompetence and overestimation of her ability was just too vast for her good intentions to overcome.

I had a few minor quibbles about the ending too but nothing major. I've put GL to rest for the most part but I do still kinda miss it even at it's worst. If nothing else, bitching about it online could be fun.

I think the new production model could've worked if done well but they relied too much on Peapack itself and that made Springfield look like Hooterville. That was my biggest problem with it. The exteriors should've only been done when it fit what was going on instead of so many senseless scenes of people having random conversations in parking lots next to port-o-potties, on the side of the road, or on a little league baseball diamond just because they could. The four-walled sets they created were also way too small for handheld cameras to navigate properly.

[Khan]

I.C.A.M.

[Mitch]

Agreed...They could do some good shots, like the Christmas episode where Reva and Josh are supposed to be on the balcony of the Towers and its filmed in New York so SF looked glamarous, larger like a town not a little burg. IIf they had just found a way to build permanent sets that looked good and were big. I always thought Wheeler went for too many sets, where she should have stuck with a couple "community" sets like Company, the Towers, and Cedars and couple all purpose homes like of course the Spaulding Mansion, the Bauer house, etc,(there was no reason why they needed the police station or the Courtroom...have the cops talking by a cop car and rent a courtroom when you need one) and do it the old soap way, people coming in and out to talk about things...(yea, I knew it wasnt real during Marland's ATWT that everyone would hang out at Bob and Kims and just walk in but it worked. )

I always remember the scene of Alan of all people on his cell phone walking across the baseball diamond in a suit???? No explanation for why he was wandering around Springfield.

Agreed...They could do some good shots, like the Christmas episode where Reva and Josh are supposed to be on the balcony of the Towers and its filmed in New York so SF looked glamarous, larger like a town not a little burg. IIf they had just found a way to build permanent sets that looked good and were big. I always thought Wheeler went for too many sets, where she should have stuck with a couple "community" sets like Company, the Towers, and Cedars and couple all purpose homes like of course the Spaulding Mansion, the Bauer house, etc,(there was no reason why they needed the police station or the Courtroom...have the cops talking by a cop car and rent a courtroom when you need one) and do it the old soap way, people coming in and out to talk about things...(yea, I knew it wasnt real during Marland's ATWT that everyone would hang out at Bob and Kims and just walk in but it worked. )

I always remember the scene of Alan of all people on his cell phone walking across the baseball diamond in a suit???? No explanation for why he was wandering around Springfield.

[robbwolff]

I still remember the episode where Cassie ran into Cyrus at Towers, which was at the start of their affair. They left Towers and headed to Cassie's car, which was parked on a country road. I remember rolling my eyes. Towers had been established as being in a city and with a parking garage and yet Cassie was parked on a country road. It made no sense whatsoever.

I live in New Jersey and work fairly close to Peapack. What would have made sense is if Wheeler had used more towns in New Jersey to capture the long-established feeling of Springfield being a city. For instance, New Brunswick is just south of Peapack and has tall buildings that fit Springfield's image. It would have made sense to have some location shooting there. New Brunswick also has Rutgers University, which would have been a great backdrop for Springfield University.

[Soaplovers]

While I think Wheeler had passion and wanted to make GL a great product, she didn't have the right instincts to make it happen. It was as if they saw Springfield as some small little town in the mid-west, when it was always established as a decent sized small city. What's funny is that there are some decent suburbs in the Chicago land area with tall buildings, malls, and businesses that could have been used as a model for Springfield (such as Oakbrook/Oakbrook Terrace, Schaumburg, etc).

I know on UK soaps that the EP has story power/vision and that the writers have to utilize that vision, but I always figured up till the late 90s that US soaps had the writers determine the overall story with the EP making sure that the story/ideas fit within budget plus running the financial aspect of the shows.

It seems like ATWT and GL, in the last years of their show, put more of the power for story in the EP's hands instead of the writers. From what I understand, Jill Lorie Hurst was pretty decent but it seemed like Wheeler had final say on all stories.. true? false?

[InLoveWithSoaps]

A thing that's always bugged me about the cancellation of GL was that they had an easy, relatively cheap way for the show to go on. They should have continued as an audio podcast as it used to be, on the radio before going to TV. They wouldn't have had the hassle of sets/etc. and actors would be paid a lot less and could just record their lines from home while pursuing other acting opportunities. They would have rented studio space for a few days every month to record and could literally do a month's worth of episodes in a few days. That way the show would have gone on, the focus would be back on the story, and maybe once in a while they'd have done a full-on "TV" episode to show online. I think there'd have been interest in experiencing the show this way, GL was the first soap to do podcasts in 2005 and it was successful. You don't always need the visuals. The sound is strong and compelling enough. This would have been easy to make happen in 2009 but it'd have been better with a new regime, now it's probably too late. What do you think, would this have been feasible and would you have been down for an audio-only GL?

[Vee]

No.