Guiding Light discussion thread

[kalbir]

Speaking of Wheel of Fortune, the CBS daytime version had a soap special week in the fall of 1989 with stars from all four shows. I know GL actors appeared on Family Feud in 1990-1992 and a few of those episodes are online.

[~bl~]

I'd love to see the CBS Daytime Wheel of Fortune, as I never saw it with soap stars. 

 

I just ordered the "Writing for Soaps" book from the 80s, there is a later version from the 90s called "Writing for Daytime Drama" that I read years back, but never saw the older edition. 

 

 

[BetterForgotten]

Maureen Garrett/Holly looks stunning here.

 

Too bad Robert Calhoun didn't stick around for much longer or work longer with the Curlee/Demorest team. He really deserves credit for re-positioning this show and for grounding Pam Long's material in her second stint (which is far superior to her first, IMO).

 

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Edited April 10, 2017 by BetterForgotten

[NothinButAttitude]

@BetterForgotten, it is episodes like that, which frustrates me when it comes to Holly. I hate how post 1996, they seemed to have no vision for her. Holly was just all over the place. It also reminds me how this show needed her the years she was written off. How this show allowed Maureen Garrett to slip from their fingertips boggles my mind.

[cassadine1991]

Then they gave her that horrid Nursery Rhyme Stalker storyline

[BetterForgotten]

Holly is such a unique soap character (almost un-soap in many ways), there really isn't a prototype of someone I can easily compare her to. She also felt so real to me, and Garrett played the part as realistically as possible. She felt like a lot of people I knew, and I identified strongly with certain aspects of the character. 

 

To me, what's what made GL special for a long time - there were just these wonderfully complicated characters (female characters in particular) that were grounded in reality. That obviously withered away throughout the years, but it was good while it lasted. 

Edited April 10, 2017 by BetterForgotten

[Soaplovers]

 

That could be why Marland had trouble writing for her...and mostly kept her in the background..or stagnant.

 

I liked Pam long/Curlees take on the character...confident yet neurotic...sexual yet could be frigid...sarcastic yet serious. 

 

I do think curlee/Democrats  (sp) focused more on the neurotic part of her then when Pam Long wrote her.

 

Itshe telling that MG was so fascinating that Pam Long insisted on writing her full time instead of the original short term stint I hear the character was suppose to have.

[kalbir]

 

I agree, Calhoun/Curlee/Demorest would have been amazing. He really laid all the ground work but sadly it's Jill Farren Phelps that got all the credit for it and as we all know, eventually undid everything.

 

From what I've seen, Robert Calhoun was EP from June 1989 to sometime in the first half of 1991, so only two years at the most.

 

Had we gotten a Calhoun/Curlee/Demorest dream team so to speak, I think Beverlee McKinsey might not have walked in Summer 1992 and Maureen Bauer wouldn't have been killed off in early 1993.

 

[Soapsuds]

What happened to Calhoun after he left GL in 1991?

[BetterForgotten]

Also, it was Calhoun who installed the Curlee/Demorest team in the first place, and I know Curlee in particular has mentioned he went to bat for her material several times in the beginning.

 

 

I don't understand why Marland has issues writing for her, but thankfully (unlike many from her era), she came back and flourished for a few years. 

[DRW50]

 

I think Marland had trouble writing for quite a few women on GL unless they were his creations (like Morgan, Nola and Carrie and Maureen). Holly was an anti-heroine before she became a victim and I don't think he would have had any idea where to take her. I do think that the decade away was a great boon to Maureen Garrett as she grew into her beauty and her acting had also gotten stronger. 

[amybrickwallace]

 

That was in 1998, right? What were TIIC thinking?

[kalbir]

 

 

Oh OK, I didn't know that. Goes to show I wasn't really paying attention to the credits when I watched live LOL.

 

 

Maureen Garrett was one of the most beautiful women on daytime in the late 1980s/early 1990s. I was surprised to find out that she was 40 when she returned to GL (according to IMDb, her birthdate is August 18, 1948).

[Soaplovers]

I actually liked the Nursery rhyme story... and it was one of the few times all the female characters admitted that maybe they weren't the best mothers in the world  (reva's reaction was interesting when Marah admitted letting the kids go with holly because she was always having to babysit everyone and just wanted some space).

 

What I didn't like was the fact that Reva got involved...and was viewed as the hero.  Sadly...oneven of the more interesting results of the story was Annie and Holly briefly becoming friends before the show opted to deep six that.

[robbwolff]

The story started in the summer of 1998 and ended in February/March 1999. Head writers Barbara Esensten and James Harmon Brown teased the story in 1998 when Holly became obsessed with baby Maureen Reardon and stated that Holly would eventually "take" the infant. Somehow that story morphed into the nursery rhyme stalker -- which they heralded as never being done before on daytime TV.