Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[Soaplovers]

 

Do you think that LK being cast caused the show to shift her from business tiger to trainwreck?  I don't think SS's blake would have been threatened by Amanda, slept with Rick, or got mixed up with Ben (maybe as unholy alliance...but not the toxic thing that ended up happening).

 

I think LK could play cunning well, but she had more of a comedic/zany vibe that writers focused on too much down the road.  

 

When ss played blake, she was equal Roger and Holly...cunning like her dad and a dry sarcastic wit like her mom.  LK's blake was neither Roger nor Holly..

 

 

[zanereed]

 

I believe that Doug Marland did not like Hulswit at all. I read in some publication that I can't find any longer (!) that Hulswit used to criticize the writing a lot, post-Dobsons, so I wonder if that was a factor? TPTB certainly didn't go with a much "younger" actor in Peter Simon. Simon was only 3 years younger than Hulswit.

[vetsoapfan]

 

A (surprisingly) rude Marland derided Hulswit in one interview, calling him a "dodo" who needed to be replaced, and claimed that Lenore Kasdorf begged Marland not to work with Hulswit any more, despite their on-screen chemistry.

[NothinButAttitude]

 

OMG. All this tea y'all be spilling about my faves whether it be Marland or Lemay, saddens me. While they did marvelous things to the shows they were part of, they seriously flopped in other areas (i.e. the importance of certain actors/characters to the show). 

[vetsoapfan]

 

To be fair, this was the one and only time I ever saw Marland being ungracious.

 

On the other other, Lemay continued to belittle and/or bitch about certain actors for years after he left AW.

[NothinButAttitude]

 

True (re: Lemay). But I do find his book, Eight Years in Another World, to be one of the most insightful autobiographies I've read. It's become one of my favorite reads too, as I stay rereading it constantly (along with Bill Bell's biography). 

[vetsoapfan]

 

Except that certain things Lemay wrote in his book, to denigrate actors he abhorred, was BS. Only viewers who watched the show at the time could refute his most petulant and untrue attacks.

Edited June 22, 2017 by vetsoapfan

[NothinButAttitude]

 

Well see I didn't know all this history prior to posting here years ago. I read the book beforehand.

[~bl~]

In the early 90s, GL had money, and Sherry was willing (plus they weren't paying Liz K per old info she talked about how she was in NY for weeks without starting and not getting a salary yet.) Actually I wonder if part of the reason they asked Sherry to stay longer was how well the story was going, and due to how Kim Simms left the show, they didn't want someone new to take up that much airtime.

 

I don't think GL understood who Blake was after they made her kid obsessed, and well that was McTavish, compounded by Zaz's illness/departure (putting it nicely) were things that made it harder. Blake due to being legacy made it harder for the writers or at least seemingly so, as there was history to draw upon. McTavish did the paranoia with Amanda (totally miscast due to age, when played in that story) and Rick as well. The whole plot was something that McTavish and her writing partner heard about before getting GL, and they thought it was a good plot, so it was stunt not character based from the start. (Especially due to Rick and Blake being "siblings" as small kids…) 

 

The only other time I saw Marland be a little mean was what he said about Liz Hubbard at "The Doctors", but that got patched up obviously as he did write for her at "As the World Turns". 

[vetsoapfan]

 

Many younger or newbie soap fans take/took his words as gospel. It can be frustrating if they take a one-sided and biased account as fact, without any first-hand viewing experience of their own.

 

Right.

[NothinButAttitude]

 

Well I took his word for gospel but wondered why no one spoke out against him. 

 

Hey, he might be an assh*le but he is a talented assh*le. 

Edited June 22, 2017 by Nothin'ButAttitude

[vetsoapfan]

 

Actually, at the time, people did speak out against him, but then they let it go, and moved on. Viewers who were not around in the 1970s missed those rebuttals and replies to Lemay's attacks. The writer continued to bitch well into the 2000s, however, so that is all newer viewers saw. 

[NothinButAttitude]

 

Very true. 

 

I do think a lot his problems could've been nixed had he confronted them. 

[vetsoapfan]

 

After reading a plethora of interviews with Lemay over the years, as well as accounts from others who worked with him, I think Lemay did not like to be crossed, criticized, or confronted, and would become very petulant and caustic if that ever happened. I doubt he would have accepted any actor's opposite point of view. He always assumed he was in the right.

[NothinButAttitude]

 

Well it didn't help that he didn't have EPs that really challenged him. According to Lemay's book, Rauch seems like an idiot, who is itching to get a come up too.