Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[~bl~]

Sherry Stringfield's departure in 1992 was announced in SOD, before the Blake and Ross story really started. They just felt it was going so swimmingly that they kept her on longer and delayed her leaving town. Totally agree that Maureen Garrett is underrated or at least someone that isn't as known to people who didn't watch GL. 

 

What everyone has said about Bert's death being a year after Charita passed. It did feel like they had to do it, and that episode felt strange. Rick being all I'm going to kick drugs because of Grandma, or whatever, what? That said at least MOL had a legitimate on screen relationship with Charita. 

[DRW50]

 

It's still amazing to me, especially since 1985 was when soaps were still supposed to be more family-oriented and less contemptuous. It really shows how far off the rails GL was in these years. Watching ATWT and then GL an hour later must have felt like whiplash. 

[vetsoapfan]

 

According to the daytime press at the time, the viewers had been clamoring for some closer for Bert Bauer, so I think the show had little choice but to finally acknowledge her passing. The problem is, there was no emotional resonance. Characters like Warren Andrews (!!!) attended her funeral and were seen reminiscing about her, even though Bert loathed Warren, and would not have wanted him in her house at all, let alone at her funeral. I doubt the show even approached Don Stewart, Ellen Demming, Fran Myers, Elvera Roussel, etc., to reprise their roles at the time, but with atrocious writing and newbie faces mourning Bert, how were we supposed to care? Mike, Hope, Meta, Peggy, Steve Jackson, and several other key characters should have been there, and even though I understand why the producers could not bring ALL these characters back, having at least Mike and Hope there should have been essential. Richard Van Fleet had never even worked that much with Charita Bauer, so it meant nothing watching his version of Ed grieve.

 

TGL was unwatchable between 1984 and 1989, IMHO.

Edited December 7, 2016 by vetsoapfan

[DRW50]

What was the overlap with van Vleet and Charita? I remember them both at Hilary's funeral but that's it.

[zanereed]

 

It was especially jarring in 1986, when Marland had ATWT celebrate 30 years on TV by focusing on the 50th anniversary of Chris and Nancy. Not only did that anniversary focus on the core couple of the core family, they brought back Penny and Don.

 

Compare that to GL's 50th anniversary celebration the next year. Yes, they did do a week of tributes (just a few minutes though) spotlighting events from 1979 to 1987 (because that's all they had available in the archive), but nothing that truly spotlighted either the core family (the Bauers) or the history of the show. No fan favorites returned at all.

 

Even Another World, who basically was in a situation similar to GL (not many characters still around from before the 1980's) brought back several characters in 1989 for the 25th Anniversary, including George Reinholt (which was the biggest shock to me)!

[vetsoapfan]

 

 

RvF arrived in 1984, Charita's last year on the program.

 

 

 

 

 

The 50th anniversary tribute to TGL really was pathetic. Ed Bryce, the final Bill Bauer, actually did return to host a brief set of video clips, but to me  it was not enough. The show had decades of excellence behind it which the supposed tribute failed to celebrate fully. And don't even get me started on the atrocious "tribute" paid to Mary Stuart after she died. The show couldn't even spell her name correctly. It appeared on-screen as "Mary Stewart." Epic cringe!

 

 

Nothing else has ever outdone the glorious 30th anniversary week which Marland wrote for ATWT, but the 25th anniversary material for AW made a valiant effort, and bringing back core characters like Alice, Steven, Pat, etc., really meant a lot to longtime fans. They used a brief clip of Courtney and Wyndham from 1984, in Alice's flashback, but since we know material exists of the actresses from 1974 (the famous scene in which Rachel taunts Alice about taking away the house), I wish they had used that.

 

Still, it outshone TGL's awful 50th anniversary week, by far.

[zanereed]

 

I think the funeral might have been one of the only times that van Vleet's Ed and Charita were on screen together. Speaking of which, Hillary's funeral was another atrocity. There was no need to kill her off, but when they did - no Mike at the funeral (which would make sense. I suppose, since they recently fired Stewart). I can't even recall if they even mentioned Hillary's mother, Simone, at all.

 

To vetsoapfan or anyone else who can remember - did Charita have any further scenes at all on the show? I can't recall anything after Hillary's funeral, although Soap Central states her last episode was December 10th (not that SC is reliable concerning air dates).

[victoria foxton]

What little i've seen of Hillary i like. Hillary was very down to earth and blunt. It's strange in her last 10 months she's sucessfully paired with Jim. She's a major player in both the Dreaming Death and Susan Piper stories. Hillary also had great chemistry with Fletcher  It boggles the mind why Hillary was killed off when she was finally thriving. The Bauer's were never a huge family. Writing off Hope and Mike and killing off Hillary were major blows to GL.

Edited December 13, 2016 by victoria foxton

[vetsoapfan]

 

Charita's final scene was a brief one.  She was alone on a set, talking on the telephone...about Christmas, I believe, so the December 10th reference would work. I have a jittery copy of this somewhere, on VHS, and if I find it I'll confirm the details for sure.

 

Gail Kobe, the producer at the time, claimed certain actors were fired from he show because they did not agree with TPTB about the direction of their characters. Considering how atrocious a producer Kobe was, how she completely gutted and crippled the show, I imagine her tenure was a nightmare for people backstage. In an interview, Peter Simon spoke about how so many of the old-guard vets were being axed, and furious about it, and that Tom O'Rourke left on his last day ranting and raving down the hall. Under Kobe we lost half the regular cast, and had a bunch of uninteresting and/or annoying newbies suddenly rammed down our throats, along with a dumbing-down on the storytelling and some heinous sci-fi/fantasy crap.

[victoria foxton]

Roxie, Meave, Kurt, Jesse, Calla, Jackson just to name a few were all awful.

[vetsoapfan]

 

Just to name a FEW, yes. Longtime fans bitterly resented losing the Bauer family, anyway, and the weak parade of newbies inflicted upon the audience only made it worse. UGH.

[zanereed]

 

Is Kobe why Peter Simon left the show in 1984? I wasn't sure if she had something to do with it. As far as the poor Bauer family goes:

 

1. Bill Bauer (Ed Bryce) - killed off in 1983 for the purposes of the Eli/Annie Simms storyline.

2. Hope Bauer (Elvera Roussel) - fired/let go in late 1983 due to Elvera not wanting Hope to be an alcoholic. I admit, I did like Hope during her last few months. Pam Long wrote a much more fiery Hope than in years past. I'm not sure why Elvera didn't agree with this. I could certainly see Hope depending on alcohol due the pressures of being a Spaulding.

3. Mike Bauer (Don Stewart) - fired by Kobe in 1984 for apparently not wanting to have Mike involved in a love triangle with Alexandra and Lillian. Supposedly Stewart and Beverlee McKinsey did not get along, which might have impacted Stewart's unwillingness (not sure if this is accurate, though). Mike's love triangle with Alexandra and Lillian would have likely brought on further complications for Lujack and Beth.

4. Ed Bauer (Peter Simon) - Simon left the role after 3 years in 1984 and the character was recast with Richard van Vleet.

5. Hillary Bauer (Marsha Clark) - killed off in 1984 for the purposes of the Susan Piper/Brandon Spaulding storyline.

[vetsoapfan]

 

I don't recall reading about why Simon decided to leave TGL at that period, although it was well known he was not thrilled with soaps in general. 

 

Journalist Mimi Torchin has quoted Kobe as proclaiming that story is more important than characters, so it doesn't surprise me that she would cavalierly butcher the show's cast to tell her atrocious, lead-nowhere stories, but...UGH. Losing Charita Bauer around this same time meant nearly the entire Bauer clan, except for Frederick, was hacked away in a relatively short period. I think it's fair to say that the audience never really warmed up to RvF as Ed.  Everyone I know kept saying, "There's Chuck Tyler playing a fake Ed Bauer on TGL!" 

 

The show never recovered from this gutting of its core, IMHO, but then killing off Maureen Bauer too, for NO reason (I don't consider paying for Justin Deas to be a valid excuse) was the final nail in the coffin. I think the old-guard, die-hard veteran viewers gave up on the show for good, after that.

[DAMfan]

Some viewers have never forgiven GL producer and writer at that time when we lost characters we loved. 

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[robbwolff]

 

As I recollect. one fan favorite did return around the 50th anniversary week: Rick Bauer. Rick had left Springfield earlier that year and then returned in late June/early July. Around that time, the soap press made a big deal about GL beefing up the Bauer family by reintroducing Rick, introducing a SORAsed Alan-Michael, and adding Johnny's sister Lacey. Plus, Johnny and Lacey's brother Todd was supposedly going to show up.