Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[amybrickwallace]

Does anyone think Ellen Wheeler could have worked better at the helm of a different soap? Obviously GL was not a happy environment in its past decade or so.

[~bl~]

Gina stopped taping at GL weeks before the end as her contract ran out, so she chose to leave early. Mallet had nothing to do. I think that's part of why Dinah and Mallet only reunited in the last episode as it was a pre-tape. (What was funny is later when OLTL ended on ABC, she said she wished she had been able to stay to the end...)

I never liked Shayne and Marina and how they got back together sucked...Oh we're together let's kiss thing. It was ludicrous, just because Shayne was the biological dad of a child Marina loved as her own doesn't mean they had to be a couple.

I do agree that it felt like the program had a weirdly annoying moral base, which made no sense. I think EW wasn't equipped to be an executive producer for a show like GL. She had good intentions, but she didn't get "it".

[amybrickwallace]

She might have been better off as an associate producer on a different soap, maybe on OLTL or AMC when the latter was still made in NYC. Of course, I think her kids were grown by that point so she could have relocated to LA if she wanted to.

Has she done any TV work since GL ended or has she faded into obscurity? I haven't heard anything about what she might be up to these days.

Even though her marriage to Tom Eplin was short-lived, I know they stayed good friends and were able to work together again later both on-screen in the final months of AW and she was working offscreen as a director on ATWT when he reprised Jake McKinnon on that show. I wonder if they still keep in touch now.

[Mitch]

That discribed Wheeler's GL in a nutsell. It was like this weird theater group out in the woods filming stuff that only they liked. Wheeler wouldn't know chemistry if it hit her, she saw the Mallet actor with Bruno and thought they had great chemistry so she destorys' Harley (who was a bitch at that time anyway) by making her sleep with her sister's Chipendale dancer boyfriend. Not to mention the whole backstage shenanigans with the Mallet actor who screwed Ehlers dumped his wife, went back to her and then hooked up with Bruno and all their characters were invovled...weird.

Believe it or not, and I thought I read it here, Wheeler was back in Peapack of all places with some GL actors saying she has a new "project," and getting the band back together! So they took a picture at that damn park pavillian where everyone went during the last year..talk about clueless.

[robbwolff]

Here's the We Love Soaps story that discusses Wheeler's project. She is so vague about what they were trying to do there. They definitely filmed something though it doesn't seem to have materialized at all.

http://www.welovesoaps.net/2013/12/ellen-wheeler-interview-2.html

[~bl~]

And there was also the earlier situation where Pelphrey and Tognoni were dating and he allegedly cheated on her with Gaschet, which led to insane things happening behind the scenes (trashed dressing room and the like). And that certain people wouldn't be able to act together anymore, which again with such a small cast caused problems.

All that was taped were sample scenes, and they were trying to get a buyer. Of course, other than the photos, this interview and another in a soap magazine, nothing came of it.

[Vee]

The truly insane thing was Wheeler refusing to name the show and all but assuring everyone that it would be "Guiding Light by another name" and she kept calling it "a gathering of friends" or something. Who the hell would go near that kind of potential litigious nightmare, even if it wasn't shot in Peapack on handycams with a bunch of truly desperate ex-soap stars in their rumpled clothes with no hair and makeup? You look at what became of that rich tapestry of old, old history and it's very sad to me. I would love to hear more details about the plans for "The New Guiding Light," Wheeler's failed reboot of the show from the beginning, which Zimmer only talks about in very general terms in her book.

As for backstage shenanigans, according to Zimmer at least I think there's nothing that can beat Beth Ehlers, who seemed to bed or want to bed most of her leading men in the last ten or fifteen years. I think she implies that Ehlers took a run at the (gay?) dude playing Cyrus as well - the one now on Looking.

Edited July 24, 2014 by Vee

[Mitch]

I said it before...for being such a sometimes plain jane, and later turing into a sharp faced shrill actress (but with great abs...) Ehlers sure did score a lot of a** backstage. She must have been great at what she did..the first Mallet (HAAWT) second Mallet(hot but not AS hot as first) etc. The Cyrus dude looked like an exotic dancer but even if he wasnt gay was out of her league, but I have a feeling she was a gal that would somehow prevail. Gotta hand it to her.

Concerning the backstage stuff, I don't get why Wheeler didn't put her foot down and say, "Sorry you crap where you eat, so now you have to deal with it, be a professional and film the scenes as written or you void your contract." I am assuming your talking about Ehler's alleged attempts at getting Bogue fired after he dumped her.

[cassadine1991]

I do wonder why she exited GL that final time to go to AMC?

Must have been concerning RPG

[amybrickwallace]

I think she was also offered a considerable pay raise if she defected to AMC. Lo and behold, it was her screen partner and a relative unknown, who completely outshone her (JD Martinez).

[cassadine1991]

Yeah.the story surrounding her AMC exit, though I did wish they gave her something better to do in that role

[Vee]

I can't remember the details and I'm too lazy to go check my Kindle and Zimmer's book for any more. IIRC she didn't want to take a pay cut or work in Peapack (like a lot of people) and she was upset that RPG, who she was close with, was leaving, so she split. That's the story I vaguely remember, it could be wrong. And the headache Beth Ehlers had become went with her, but I still thought they did Harley wrong the way she exited, as messy as the character had become thanks to both show and actress.

[~bl~]

AMC was given actors a lot more than GL by then...there was a regime change at AMC within the time frame Ehlers was to begin. She thought that she would be a recast Liza, not some new character and that she'd have story with RPG too. (That said Jake and Amanda became popular so that didn't happen.) When Ehlers left she shared some about working in NJ and also that before the show was more of a family...the whole crew at the bar in NYC and how that didn't happen anymore. (Obviously not once they moved away from east 44th street, a lot of the crew was lost.) When Ehlers stopped taping at GL, they didn't know if it was going to be her last day hence the non-write off at first as they hoped she would change her mind. CBS even went as far as trying to keep her at the network, by saying Y&R would give her a job, but she wanted to stay on the east coast due to her kids (probably had to do with custody issues, but who knows).

[soapfan770]

The more I know of Ehlers' personal life and of course her personal attacks on co-stars on other soaps(I didn't watch AMC but I heard the story) the less I have liked her, and the writing for Harley 2006-2008 completely ruined the character for me all time. A bad ending for GL's no. 2 lead actress and heroine.

Wheeler apparently had some severe emotional issues judging from her interviews 2007-2009 and really should have not been in any leadership capacity whatsoever.

Going back to the Weston/Conboy era I thought before 2008 that was the show's very lowest point. The plethora of new, strange characters, rewriting and warping the entire history of GL, and the dull pointless mysteries was terrible. Kriezman's first two years were watchable until he hit the crackpipe or something (it started with Leah Bauer's SOARSing or Josh/Cassie).

[cassadine1991]

I would've preferred Ethers as Liza