Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[DAMfan]

Oh yes I liked DAM (Edmund). 

 

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[DRW50]

 

I agree, but I don't think katie meant he was the new Roger. Just the closest. The character actually did reach some levels of complexity at times, like during his relationship with Cassie. His feelings for Richard were also complex. Even with much better writing he wouldn't have been what Roger was, but he could have been a rich character if the show had tried. 

[Paul Raven]

Doug Marland kept the Bauers going during his stint and introduced the Reardons as the newer core family to provide a counter balance and fresh story possibilities for the 80s.

 

Once he left both families were lost in the shuffle.By 85 Tony,Nola,Jim etc had already gone and Im sure Chelsea was not a Marland creation in his original family outline.

 

Pam Longs initial revamp brought ratings and interest but the problem was there was little story to sustain the characters long term.Things like Susan Piper and Dreaming Death could have happened to any characters on the canvas.

[robbwolff]

There was a soap article with Marland during this stint on "The Doctors" where he was less than gracious about Elizabeth Hubbard (who constantly changed the dialogue and the other writers had written) and Julia Duffy (who quit the show when he had major plans for her character). He came across a bit whiny during that interview.

[Mitch]

Bert's death and funeral were the perfect time to turn the ship around and reintroduce some Bauers. I would have recast both Mike and Hope (sorry, ER never did it for me..) especially with Alan headed back to town. Mike could have gotten with Alex and Hope with Ross..both enough to bug Alan. I would also have brought back Meta, and all this could have been handled as they came back for the funeral and decided to stay (I would have had Bert leave Hope her house in her will, a house which Hope always thought of us "home" and Mike would decide to represent Ed and Mo in the custody of Michelle.) Meta would have taken over the Boarding House so she could dispense advice to all the newbies who would invariably live there.

 

I am one of the few that like the Nursery Stalker Story Line..sure it was a stretch but I liked it and Holly didn't do anything unredeemable...( I think Days got the Salem Stalker idea from this.) But it just ended...(with her brother no less wandering around the woods never to be heard from again.) and we were thrust into San Crud. Some people wanted Ed to be the one who talked Holly off the cliff, er bridge, but I thought that it made sense for once for Reva to be the hero..she was there before, she knew what it was like.

 

People keep forgetting, Bill Bauer had an boy with Simone..so a new side of the family would have made sense that way...( I think a hot guy, maybe a cop, could have been involved with Reva at the time she was involved with that goofy doctor/spy guy.)

[zanereed]

 

You mean Paul Kincaid? I thought Paul really was the son of Victor and Simone Kincaid (unlike Hillary).

[Mitch]

Oh, did not know that...was a kid when that was going on..but yea, I did mean the Paul character.

[zanereed]

 

I was just a kid when that was happening as well, so I was wondering if I might not have remembered the storyline correctly and Bill fathered both of the kids.

 

Great ideas, especially Bert leaving her house to Hope. Just curious - who would you have wanted to play Mike and Hope?

[victoria foxton]

Sadly instead of Hope, Mike, Meta and Paul GL created the Bauer cousins

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[vetsoapfan]

 

I never saw that particular interview. I know writers are human like everybody else, but it's always better to be restrained when talking to the press, I believe.

[Mitch]

 

Thanks! Good question. I see Hope as a more conflicted woman then the Hope we saw...not bad...more sophisticated and not so sugary sweet. A woman who wants to live up to her grandmother's legacy but can't seem to do so and is frustrated by that.  She would be an overachiever...(having a dad like Mike would make you that way and could explain the alcholic thing..) and I would have her created a successful design company in NY, and she returns home to follow a romantic notion of recapturing her youth as the Bauer Princess, and to raise her son as she was raised in a small town surrounded by family and friends, and with Alan "Dead" or missing, she feels safe coming home.   But then life...and Alan gets in the way, and Alex uses her in her ongoing struggle with Alan, with Mike getting involved....Again, thinking she was going to become the heart of the family and community but pulled into a different direction because that is just not who she is. Ironically, I think Rick, when played and written well, was really the one who could become like his grandmother, he was always a big mensch!

 

For Mike, I don't know. I do know that I would have screen tested and gotten the approval of Bev as I would make him the real love of her life eventually, they just can't seem to agree on anything.  I actually think Raines would have made a better Mike but I don't know if he would have had chemistry with Bev.. Maybe Jed Allen???

Edited December 15, 2016 by Mitch

[robbwolff]

According to the GL anniversary book, Paul was the son of Bill and Simone, though the information in the book may have been wrong.

 

I saw the interview on one of The Doctors message boards sometime in the past year. It was very insightful because it showed Marland was clueless about The Doctors. He said that soaps are about families and that he was restructuring the show around the Powers, Aldrich, and Dancy families. Having watched the reruns on Retro, it's clear families were secondary to the staff of Hope Memorial Hospital. I'll see if I can find that article. It was quite interesting.

[zanereed]

 

Thanks. I still recall Victor being the father of Paul during that whole storyline. Simone married Victor Kincaid while being pregnant with Hillary, and Paul was born during their marriage (before Bill arrived in Vancouver).

[DRW50]

Marland definitely had a more abrasive side that he generally didn't seem to show in interviews. Wasn't there some anecdote about a toilet seat at his house...

[vetsoapfan]

 

 

As far as I know, Falken Smith did not comment publicly about her dismissal from TGL; she had been a lot more vocal about getting fired from DAYS and GH! I wonder if TPTB just thought she was not going to be a good fit. She was writing the show as it should have been written, but considering the sweeping and crippling changes soon to come, perhaps the higher-ups wanted to bring in less stong-willed writers, who would not balk at dismantling the show. PFS knew what worked and what did not work on daytime TV; I doubt she would have willingly gone the dumbed-down sci-fi route. She railed against the stupid writing on GH (i.e. the Ice Princess garbage).

 

Pamela Long did have a lot of heart, but she needed a strong story editor to keep her dumber material in check, and a producer to reign her in. The Four Musketeers proved popular, but I will never believe that nonsense like Jonathan Brooks and his talking computer, the ghost in the attic, the Dreaming Death, etc., were what ardent fans of this particular show wanted to see. Years later, Long admitted that fantasy was not the best way to go, that if in doubt, on the soaps it was better to get real.

 

I never cared for Beth Raines in the first place, but once she went to San Cristobel and inexplicably turned into an intolerable shrew, without any motivation, I wanted them to kill of the character. I knew she would never be redeemable.

 

The ONLY possible justification for bringing back that icky Bradley Cole would be...to kill him off a second time, LOL.

 

As for DAM's ass...I had not noticed, but I will take your word for it.

 

My memory is hazy now. I don't remember for sure if they said or implied on-screen that Paul Kinkaid was Bill's biological son. Did you read that he was a Bauer in Christopher Schemering's book? That one struck me as quite accurate. Some of the other soap-related books made a lot of boo-boos.

 

Technically, soaps may indeed be about families, but on THE DOCTORS, the family was the staff at Hope Memorial. Marland did not seem to have trouble understanding the importance of the hospital staff as a family unit when he wrote for GH, at least.