Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[zanereed]

I completely agree. By October of 1984, the longest running cast member on GL was Jerry verDorn, who debuted on GL in 1979. To be fair, GL had cast overhauls previously over its rich history (primarily during the radio years), but nothing like that. I was someone who liked Pam Long's writing in a lot of cases, just not the decision to overhaul so much of the cast in a relatively short time period.

Edited July 13, 2015 by zanereed

[DRW50]

I still get confused by how JvD was ranked over Denise Pence (even Denise said he was). In the episodes where Ross debuts, Katie was already established in Springfield.

[vetsoapfan]

Yes, with the saga of the Four Musketeers, and with Bert's storyline, there were plusses to the 1983/4 season, certainly. But very soon, I'd say after Charita Bauer could no longer appear, the core of the show was lost, and the negative effect of having axed so many pivotal, beloved characters became apparent. Even Gail Kobe later confessed that the audience loathed the cast purge, particularly losing Mike and Hope Bauer, and commented that we should be surprised if the Bauers were written back into the story in the future. Alas, they never were.

[vetsoapfan]

There were soooo many terrible stories being told at the time. Perhaps some of them might have been slightly easier to swallow, if we had had more beloved tentpole characters still around, but to be asked to endure asinine plots centered around actors who were new to the show...who cared?

[vetsoapfan]

Pamela Long could be a very capable writer, but she was still a novice during her initial stint at TGL, and she made many grave errors. Her second term on the show, and her primetime series Second Noah, were much better. If she had stuck to family drama, romance, and interpersonal relationships in 1983 and 84, she would be much more favorably remembered. The problems were not with her human drama, but with the lowbrow fantasy and "adventure" nonsense.

[duchess]

Jonathan Brooks! Talk about something I've blocked from my memory. I have to be honest, anything Nola that happened after her attempt at trapping Kelly just didn't hold my attention. None of it. Remember Nolaerobics? Yeah, me neither.

+1 vote for the theme song. The sweeping, string-heavy theme that was used during that time has always been my favorite.

[NothinButAttitude]

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[DRW50]

April 1969 TV Picture Life

[Mitch]

I loved the Long/Kobe GL up until the fall of 85 when it all fell apart. All the families played off of each other, etc. Reva hadn't taken over and the camp was kind of kept to one storyline at a time...(Susan Piper was fun at first until it just didn't make any sense...) after Charita's death and the axing of the Mike and Hope, the recast of Ed, and this dissolution of the Reardons, it all camp apart..Kyle Sampson and Infinity, Reva jumping out of planes in her fur coat and big hair, Roxie Shayne's badly written and acted split personality, it ALL became camp ALL the time!

When Long returned she did bring the show back to earth so that was a plus. When Long wrote family and friendships she was on fire and really GOT what GL was. I wonderhow she would have written ATWT with its strong core after Marland died???

[zanereed]

Good point, Carl. Now I am embarrassed. Denise was the longest running member at that time, having debuted in 1977. I, too, wondered why she didn't do the on-air dedication to Charita in 1985 (Jerry did it). She was still a cast member at that time, wasn't she?

[DRW50]

You don't have to be embarrassed, as even Denise herself corrected me on that front on Youtube a year or two ago. I guess if even she sees JvD as the longest-running cast member at that point, who am I to disagree?

[KateW]

Looking at the ratings from 1983/84 to 1988/89 and there is a drop from year to year:

1983/84: 8.1 (#5)

1984/85: 7.5 (#4)

1985/86: 6.8 (#6)

1986/87: 6.3 (#7)

1987/88: 6.2 (#7)

1988/89: 6.2 (#7)

Were there ever any cancellation rumors in the mid-1980s?

[amybrickwallace]

Thanks for sharing the clipping about Marsha Clark pre-GL. I also enjoyed the blurb announcing Susan Trustman's marriage. She and Jerry Leider are still married to this day!!!

[Franko]

I don't know if there were cancellation rumors, but it's interesting to speculate what would have happened next had GL, rather than Capitol, been axed during the '86-'87 season. Would we have ended up with a Y&R/B&B/ATWT/Cap lineup? And what would have gone at 3:30? Press Your Luck? Another soap?

[duchess]

Interesting to think about, but John Conboy believed Capitol was axed partly due to Bill Bell holding a bit of a grudge against him. And after that, even at its best, B&B never outscored Capitol in the ratings.

Capitol was a hard show to get into. I watched intermittently and only ever cared about two storylines. But when Grant Aleksander was on they had him with his shirt off a lot, I guess they thought that was more important that story and characters.

I do remember hearing some speculation around 1988 about GL maybe being in danger considering its slow ratings slide. And it may have been just fan chatter.

Edited July 15, 2015 by duchess