Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[Bright Eyes]

Damn it! I was watching and really enjoying those Peyton Place episodes.

[DRW50]

September 1990 Weekly

[DRW50]

[Mitch]

LOL on Hillard, I forgot about him..yea he looks good but he has that middle aged manorexic thing like the country singer going on...I know Jealous much? Its looks weird on someone over 40.

Anyway, I looked him up to see what happened to him and he is sometimes on GH but the interesting thing is he posted a picture on GL of him and Bridge and Peter and the Peter actor's mom posted a pic of him now in college. Funny, still has the Peter face. I didnt think Hillard was bad as Hart, much better then Grrillo and he had the class to post Leonard's pic on his 50th birthday. Damn, Hart is 50 and Peter is in college, I am OLD!

I remember back in the 90s on the old GL dis list and someone spotted the Hearst and Hillard checking into a hotel (not saying its true) but the posters wasnt making any accusations and the rest of the posters were so thrilled that they were in New York and maybe they were BOTH coming back to GL since they were together...ah, the 90's were a naive time werent they?

Edited February 5, 2015 by Mitch

[YRBB]

NO, DAMMIT, NOOOOO! I never got around to watching/saving those episodes. DAMMIT.

Yes. Those things on his feet, though, are a whole other matter!

[slick jones]

I'm pissed, too. I was going to download them last weekend and I got sidetracked

[DRW50]

November 1983 Daytime Digest

[DRW50]

[NothinButAttitude]

Quint & Nola!!!!

Oh how I miss Guiding Light. How I seethe at the fact that these two characters weren't brought back in later years along with their kids. My dream job was to be head writer of GL & ATWT, and I would've had so many stories to tell with these two.

[katie_9918]

Quinton and Nola could have headlined part of that San Cristobel mess with a dig there and Nola could have provided a play-by-play snark about how of course all roads lead back to REVA Shayne. And that's just for starters.

I continue to think that the snarky, sarcastic Hope of 1983 was being placed in a position to remain in Alan's life as a constant thorn in his side. One moment she plays the adoring, supportive wife when she had to and the next she was telling Alan off, reminding him that she could blow his good public image out of the water any time she wanted. I think Elvera played that even better than the more naive Hope earlier. Whoever cut her loose deserves a special place in soap hell, because it could have been fun to watch, especially if Alan sulked while being forced to watch her move on (even though he'd seemed to have moved on first).

I also think Hope could have joined forces with Alexandra and would have also provided some continuity regarding how both Alan and Alex were shaped by the abuse they suffered at their father's hands. Alex's original story made it seem like she was victimized by both Brandon and Alan, when the past had already confirmed that Alan was also victimized.

And then in spite of all that had passed between Alan and Hope, she could share her own goodbye with Alan similar to the one Alan and Alex shared. They share a son and Hope would still be close with Phillip and the off-screen Amanda and the exes have a bond that can't be severed no matter how much they both want to sever it.

And because Alexandra tended to watch over Alan's children more than she didn't, she and Hope would remain close after Alan's exile and they would also bond over the fact that they don't regret taking Alan down, but they do feel a measure of guilt and sadness over it.

I always thought had Justin been kept around, it could have been rather easy to put Justin and Hope together, whether short-term or long-term. Justin had a young daughter he desperately needed a mother figure for and Phillip had mostly liked Hope so he probably wouldn't object. And Hope had always had a healthy amount of respect for Justin and Mike would probably jump for joy at Hope getting involved with someone who wasn't Alan.

Hell, Hope and Justin could become engaged just in time for Alan's 1986 return!

Refresh my memory, exactly what did we get instead of something like that?

[Khan]

I've always loved how GL inspires the budding soap scribe in so many people. To me, GL was the most writer-ly of soaps, if that makes sense to anyone.

[NothinButAttitude]

It was! I'm just pissed that the show was canceled too soon because there was still so much life in it.

With Quint and Nola, I always wanted them to return home and either reopen the boarding house or move back to Thornway Road. Quint would be brought back to town by the Spaulding to help survey a piece of land which they wanna gentrify and urbanize. This piece is of land is one that the Lewises want to acquire too, thus putting the two at odds and Bill in the middle.

I wanted J to come home first after Alan acquired his and his cousin's, Tom [Tony/Annabelle son], services as security for Lizzie, who was currently running Spaulding alongside Alex, Bill, and Phillip. Alan would create a false sense of danger for Lizzie, who fears her life was in danger from the controversial business deal. Alan hates the idea as he has had his own men investigate the land and realizes it is toxic and would cost Spaulding too much [potentially bankrupt the company] to clean up the landmass. Alan would also use J and Tom as spies, getting info from them on the ongoings on at Spaulding.

However, J would fall for Lizzie, who also happens to be his cousin's [bill] wife. Lizzie and J would have an affair b/c Lizzie was growing insecure with Bill and Michelle's history and recent closeness [bill would be secretly helping Michelle get over her alcoholism, a Bauer curse, which she falls victim of when she learns that Meta, Trudy, Mike, and Hope were killed in a deliberate plane accident, which was caused by a criminal who Mike had put away.] Lizzie would be conflicted about her feelings for J and fight them off for the longest. It doesn't also help that Vanessa and Dinah, who know about the affair, scold her for her acts. But Lizzie would find an ally in Nola, who actually thinks she's a suitable mate for her son. Hell, she knows what it is like to be the third wheel thanks to the Kelly/Morgan situation. In this instance, Nola is all about making sure he son emerges victorious unlike she did in the past. This will also put Vanessa and Nola at odds for a period, with both Billy and Quint trying to figure out the tension between the two.

Overall, the affair would come out after Bill overhears Lizzie admits she loves J. Bill would turn dark for a period and bust up Michelle and Danny's marriage. He'd also cut off Dinah and Vanessa for hiding the truth. Quint and Billy would be mad at Vanessa and Nola for hiding the affair and both trying to push their agendas. Lizzie would move on with J but find Bill as an obstacle both personally and professionally as he's given tips on the Spaulding's pending acquisition [of the land] to Billy and Josh. It would just be a mess.

I wanted Hope to come back and be revealed much alive from the plane crash; however, she'd be under an alias and have a new face b/c she had to have reconstructive surgery from the crash. She'd also work as the Spaulding maid named Caroline to try and fix relations between Alan and Alan Michael. AM [along with Holly] would find out about Caroline being Hope first, and AM would be pissed his mom hid her identity for awhile. Alan will eventually learn the truth and hurt, he'd fall into bed with Rita, who is back in town, which unnerves Hope and nearly causes her to turn back to the bottle.

I just have so many stories I'd love tell that I'll never get to share.

[cassadine1991]

Would like to hear more of your stories

[Paul Raven]

Me too!

[NothinButAttitude]

Well I would've wanted for Reva and Olivia's rivalry to reignite. How so? Marah.

Marah, who was vacating with some friends in Switzerland [sam Spencer included], would've been involved in an accident--an avalanche. Sam would be killed trying to save Marah, and Olivia would be devastated and blame Marah for her brother's death. Hell, she blames Josh and Reva for trying to cover up for Marah too.

It also does not help that Olivia is still co-running The Beacon with Cassie and allowing Lewis Construction [with Josh and Dylan] to redesign and add a new wing to the hotel.

Marah, meanwhile, becomes depressed over Sam's death. She truly does feel guilty about his demise, so much that she secludes herself to her room. It isn't until Reva suggests to Cassie that Marah redesign The Beacon to get her mind over the tragedy that Marah decides to live her life and get back to work.

But not if it's up to Liv!

Olivia would want to make Marah's life hell and does so by blocking Cassie from hiring Marah, now a designer, from redesigning the Beacon Hotel. Olivia would eventually bend only to torture and guilt Marah at every turn. This would create tension between Cassie, who now wants to buy Olivia out altogether as she's becoming too toxic.

Natalia and Olivia would begin to drift apart over Olivia's obsession for revenge.

In the meantime, Josh, who is working on the hotel's construction, starts to receive notes with just a diamond on them. It isn't until Josh and Dylan find a diamondback rattlesnake in their trailer that he realizes it's the Diamondhead Organization, who was after him in the 80s. Josh becomes fearful of his family's security and opts to leave town but Reva is totally against it. They'll fight this battle together. But Jeffery, now back in Springfield, is not about to have his son put in danger. Reva assures Jeffery that nothing else will occur, and he leaves Reva with a grave threat--he'll file for sole custody if something else occurs.

But of course something else occurs.

An agent of Diamondhead plants a bomb in Olivia's office [upon hearing she was having a meeting with Josh over the designs]. As Olivia heads up the stairs to her office, the bomb goes off, and Olivia is sent tumbling down the stairs. No one is gravely harmed but Olivia does become paralyzed from the waist down.

Having had enough, Jeffery pursues for custody but will drop the suit on one condition: Reva must move out of Josh's house and in with him. Josh pushes Reva to move in with Jeffery until he fixes the situation. But Josh has his hands full in another situation--Olivia. Josh feels guilty about inadvertently causing Olivia to be paralyzed that he asks her to move in with him to care for her until the Beacon is repaired.

Natalia refuses to move in with Josh knowing it'll only create drama. With the rift being so big between Olivia and Natalia, Natalia leaves Springfield. Pissed that she has lost Natalia, Olivia turns her attention on Josh. She's going to punish all the Lewises. Marah for causing Sam's death. Josh for causing her to be paralyzed. And Reva for just being Reva. She plots to stick her claws back into Josh, which Shayne, Marah, and Reva quickly pick up on.

Olivia becomes a pain while living with Josh, Shayne, and Marah. They wait on her every call and it becomes too much. For Marah the most. So much that one day she even demands that Marah wipe her a** after using the restroom, and Marah shoves her down the stairs, wheelchair and all.

Marah moves out and finds board at the Reardon boarding house with J and Tom. Tom and Marah hit it off and begin a budding friendship that becomes more when Marah becomes a target Diamondhead.

Marah would be kidnapped. Tom, Josh, Rusty, and Dylan would venture to Venezuela to save her, killing the head of the organization. Tom would be gravely injured, Marah would become distraught that she's losing someone else she loves. Tom eventually heals and he and Marah begin their new romance, but it is short-lived when Alan discovers that J snitched to Lizzie about Alan hiring them as spies in Spaulding.

Other stories:

Holly reclaims her producer position at WSPR. She hires Blake and Dinah as co-anchors on the news, sparking a feud between the two. Things get more complex when Holly hires a hot male co-anchor named Reginald. Dinah and Reggie join forces to get rid of Blake, who they both hate. Meanwhile, Dinah becomes a breakout star and gets mysterious notes from a crazed fan. He also starts to kill women that resemble Dinah. Mallet and Dinah would later figure out it was Holly's intern behind.

Reginald becomes obsessed with bringing down Alan and continuously does scandalous exposes on him. Blake digs into Reginald's past and learns his mother is Rita and Alan is his father. Wanting her hands on his potential fortune and knowing he came to Springfield to screw over Alan, Blake would blackmail him into eloping. This would be a comedic story.

Michelle would be driven to the bottle [as aforementioned] and it does not help that Danny is running for the DA's office against Jeffery. Her drinking spirals out of control and she lands into bed with Bill. Jeffery would use this to try and get Michelle to persuade Danny to drop out but to no avail. Once Danny won the election, Jeffery would splatter photos of Michelle and Bill in bed all over the tabloid, thus causing grief in the Santos home.

Ed & Holly would reunite but with Rita's return, Holly fears that Ed might want to rekindle things. Especially when Ed [at one point] suspects that Reginald is his son. Holly and Hope would bond over their hatred of Rita--both women wanting her gone.