Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[Vee]

Oddly enough, Jennifer Cooke ended up a cult favorite of horror fans for her turn in Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (I know). She was sort of a spunky, wisecracking camp counselor who won the day against Jason Voorhees. I can see how she'd bomb on a soap, though.

I think Kristen Vigard herself did an interview at WLS or somewhere recently where she freely admitted she was kind of a bohemian kid and not suited to the daily grind of daytime - wouldn't show up, etc.

Edited June 29, 2014 by Vee

[DRW50]

I don't even know if she was unpopular with GL viewers, or if she just left relatively quickly (she was on, what, a year?) to go to Hollywood. The show was in heavy transition at this point. The same happened with John Wesley Shipp...for such a prominent character, he had a very quick and low-key phasing out from GL.

I think she was also involved with Robert Newman (whom she had a story with on GL for a while) wasn't she?

Edited June 29, 2014 by DRW50

[John]

http://www.welovesoaps.net/2012/01/kristenvigard.html

[TimWil]

I think Morgan and Kelly were regarded by incoming executive producer Gail Kobe and headwriter Pam Long as being "yesterday's news" and too closely identified with another production regime. Their love story was one of the central components of Marland's tenure. I wasn't surprised at all that Cooke was let go, she never clicked with the audience. Kelly was paired with Claire for a bit but it didn't work out. How long was it before

Shipp went to work for Marland at ATWT?

I just watched Moonstruck again and wow, wouldn't Anita Gillette have made a terrific Bea Reardon? She would have been strong, funny, even sexy. She was totally wasted as Loretta Shea on AW and the Cleary mother on SFT.

Edited June 30, 2014 by TimWil

[DRW50]

I mostly remember Gillette for her brief work on St. Elsewhere (she was perfect as Westphall's wife...you could see how he was never the same without her), but she could have been good on GL (wasn't she on Another Life too?). I don't dislike Lee Lawson but she seems very perky for a woman who spent 20-30 years raising children near the poverty line.

I think Shipp left GL in early 1984 and began on GL in late 1985.

[TimWil]

I wonder if Marland tried to get him on Loving. He tried to get Geraldine Court on it when it was first called Love Without End but Ann Williams got the role of June Slater. Geri didn't want to play a battered wife, anyway.

Edited June 30, 2014 by TimWil

[robbwolff]

Anita played singer Wilma Holliday on Search for Tomorrow, not Kate McCleary. Maeve McGuire played Kate. Wilma was a love interest for Stu Bergman and was once involved with Jack Betts' David Glenn. From all appearances, the show had story mapped out for Wilma but then the axe came down. And she was wonderful as Loretta Shea on Another World. She lasted all of four or five months when Loretta was suddenly killed off. I believe the show originally had greater plans for the Shea family as there was talk in 1982 of introducing the Shea's two teenage daughters.

[robbwolff]

A few websites report that Douglas Cummings was introduced on ATWT in April 1985 and then killed off in June 1986. They also report that Kelly was last seen in November 1984. I remember him being phased out in early 1984. Anyone know if Shipp returned in late 1984 to wrap up the role? (I had stopped watching GL in favor of Santa Barbara by that time).

[EastMA2]

According to records that I have, Shipp was last seen on GL on January 26, 1984. He did not return after that.

[antmunoz]

Anita Gillette was Stu's last love interest, Wilma Holliday, on SFT, not the "wasted" McCleary mother. That was Maeve McGuire. Both ladies were quite good, as was Ann Flood as Jo's FINAL "held at gunpoint" kidnapper. William Prince. Jack Betts. Damn, SFT had a GREAT cast at the end.

[danfling]

The final months of Search for Tomorrow were a reunion for William Prince and Maeve McGuire, who had played father and daughter on The Edge of Night.

The final weeks of Search for Tomorrow were reunion time for William Prince and Maeve McGuire, who had played father and daughter earlier on The Edge of Night.

[TimWil]

Ah, OK, I stand corrected. Didn't the late Jo Henderson play the first Kate Cleary? She went on fo play Wilma on AMC, to confuse things further.

Back to GL: do any YouTube videos of Lacey Bauer exist? I remember they hired a young girl who was actually a competitve gymnast for the role. She had zero acting experience and boy, did it show. She was meant to be a little vixen after Alan-Michael, right? She and Samantha Marler were to go to battle over him? I think she was supposed to be an Olympic hopeful in gymnastics but they dropped that right away.

Edited July 1, 2014 by TimWil

[robbwolff]

Yes, Jo Henderson originated the role of Kate.

Geri Betzler (who later went by Zoe Trilling) portrayed the role of Lacey. I'm not sure if she was a gymnast in real life. Her credits online say she was a dancer. She was on GL for less than two months. She was part of a love quadrangle with Alan-Michael, Cameron Stewart, and Dinah Marler. Samantha Marler wasn't on the canvas at that point and didn't appear till 1989. She's in this very brief scene where Alan-Michael parachutes into the Bauer BBQ. She's the one looking like a mini Big Bird (dressed in yellow).

Please register in order to view this content

[TimWil]

Thanks, robbwolff! I forgot about Ty Evans' big entrance as Alan-Michael. The mind boggles at how Douglas Marland would have written for that young fellow if he'd still been with the show.

[Mitch]

LOL..I love that he was trailing "pink" smoke. Wow...Ellen Parker was skinny there...in her later years she kind of plumped up..which made her more Charita Bauer-ish...(which is not a bad thing in terms of the matriarch.)

I remember the wretched Lacy Bauer..what a wierd storyline she and A-M were cousins. Her bro was going to be Frank but Pam Long wrote him as a Cooper when she created that wretched family...(Harley was good but the rest not so much..) I never understood why they woudl go to lengths to write him a new character as I never thought he was that hot and he was a terrible actor.

Fletcher annoys the freak out of me everytime he opens his big mouth.