Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[j swift]

I was thinking about how Ed's entire character and motivation changed as he aged.  Feel free to correct, but Ed always struck me as the most ambitious Bauer.  He looked up to Dr Jackson and wanted to ascend at Ceder's.  He bought the house next to the Spaulding's (I know Rita wanted it, but Ed gave in quickly) and looked down upon Bill as a loser.  Obviously he was humbled by his fight with alcoholism, and he let jealousy ruin his relationships, but not until the last week when he ran away with Holly did he seem like the guys striving for more; as he had been in the 70's.  Its funny how on soaps, unlike real life, people mature simply because they age not because of lessons learned.  

[Soaplovers]

 

I recall in seeing episodes from 1984 when maureen became hospital administrator that Ed had trouble with it because he didnt want his wife to be his boss and because it kept him in check (checks and balances).  I think in the last week that he decided to enjoy his life and came to Holly for once (it was a nice switch).  Ed/holly were supposed to be the end game during the Dobson/Marland era...so it made sense they ended up together at the end.

 

@vetsoapfan in regards to the finale being about things from the late 70s till 09...I do agree with that to an extent.  It is fascinating that most of pam long's creations and couplings ended up being featured a lot.  At the same time, when Alan passed away...why didnt rhe show think to get someone to come back as Alan Michael and Amanda as well (maybe undo the retcon establishing her as Alan's daughter agajn)..and maybe having Hope return cause of Alan's upcoming death and returning to face her demons (she never came back to Springfield after leaving in late 1983..and had bottled the bottle into the 90s.

 

With that said, I liked that blake and frank ended up together (been watching old episodes from 1991 where the two were friends that flirted..and frank was hot back than too

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[vetsoapfan]

 

I think Ed initially fought to make a success of himself in order to differentiate himself from his father, whom Ed always regarded as a loser.

 

Then he turned into a mean drunk and lost the full use of his hand after being shot, which seemed to give him some perspective on life.

 

I wish the final weeks of TGL has focused more on Ed and Holly's relationship so that we could have seen them  working their way back to a place where would consider running off together. It seemed kind of sudden, almost thrown in as an afterthought, but as a veteran fan, I was happy to see the show's two longest-running characters finding some possible closure, together.

 

If only Mart Hulswit had been playing Ed! I would have been sooooooo happy.

 

I miss my Bauers. Bauer Power forever!

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[j swift]

There's a topic on the other board about families that look alike.  The Bauer's look like German/Irish-mom Bert, with her Irish-looking son Ed, and his Italian brother Mike.  Are we sure that Bert didn't have an affair with a local Sicilian while Bill was drunk?

 

Also, to go back a few posts, didn't Holly have a title like Lady Lindsay or something when she lived in Europe after leaving Springfield?  I giggle at the detail that Holly was a stewardess; that's a thread that was dropped over the years.

Edited August 26, 2018 by j swift

[vetsoapfan]

 

To me, with Hulswit playing Ed, Ed and Holly were the end-game and I longed for them to get back together and raise Chrissy and Freddie as a family. The show let that slide for many years, but I was pleased to see them come together as the light dimmed in 2009.

 

The stupid retcon about Amanda being Alan's sister rather than he daughter drove me insane. Of all the idiotic, history-trashing mistakes TGL made in its final decades, this was the one I most wanted to be fixed. Having Elvera Roussel return at the very end of the show as Alan's life was ending would gave been a wonderful move. Hope had become, by default, the new matriarch of the Bauer family.

 

Frank Cooper was sexy as hell back in the day. As an experiment once, I wrote to several actors from the show to see if I would get a response (polite, short notes, telling them I enjoyed their work and would like to havean autograph). Frank was the only one who replied. He laughed about one of my comments: that he looked hot in the tight blue T-shirt he used to wear. Apparently, it was a running theme in his fan letters, LOL.

 

LOL! Various other actors chosen to play Mike did not look so Sicilian.  I am sure that if our Bert had been carousing and cheating on Bill, we would have heard about it. The truth would have been revealed decades ago.

 

Are you referring to Holly's brief, off-screen marriage to Dietrich Lindsey in the 1980s? We never saw him. I don't recall is he had a title, himself, or bestowed one upon Holly. Maybe other members will remember. 

[j swift]

It didn't even make sense within the plot at the time.  Amanda didn't need to be SORAS'ed or De-SORAS'ed in order to be involved with Roger because he had been with Rita who was supposed to be a similar age to Amanda.  There was no advantage to making her Alexandra's niece, rather than her sister.  It was like a posthumous slap to Jennifer that she slept with both father and son, then didn't know the father of her own kid (although if she didn't know, how did anyone else find out?).  And don't get me started on a woman who played with dolls until she was 20 suddenly becoming a Malibu madame.

 

I think the biggest travesty was pitting Alan against Phillip.  Alan was always protective of Phillip growing up, he fought for custody (even thought it mostly motivated by spite for his ex-wife), and even A-M was jealous of their relationship.  However, all of the BS of Alan shooting Phillip, competing for women together, and what I consider to be Alan's failing to take care of Phillip during his mental health issues betrayed all of that early stuff.  If all of those yucky years hadn't happened, I would have liked Hope, or ghost Elizabeth, or even Beth to verbally acknowledge Alan for being so loyal to Phillip before he died.

Yes, as I recall there was a mystery over who was the European lady who bought the TV station (WSPR?) and it turned out to be Holly.

Edited August 26, 2018 by j swift

[vetsoapfan]

 

Yes, from what we had already seen ON-SCREEN, it was literally impossible (and painfully STOOPID) to make Amanda Alan's sister. 

 

On his deathbed in 1979, Brandon ACKNOWLEDGED that Amanda was Alan's daughter. So did Jennifer Richards a few years later. So you think that if Brandon and Jennifer had had a sexual relationship, AT LEAST ONE OF THEM WOULD HAVE KNOWN ABOUT IT.

 

Apparently, Amanda was the world's second case of immaculate conception!!!

 

I hated Paul Rauch for that story. (Actually, I hated him for many reasons, but THAT could be an entirely new thread of its own.) 

[rlj]

I want to cosign all of those who said that Bill Bauer's death had no effect on the late 83 canvas afterwards. I didn't know who he was, I don't care when he came back, and I didn't care that he died, when I was watching the show at the time

 

I remember reading back in 1983 an article about the new openings that were airing, and Pamela Long said that she wanted the focus of the show to center around the five core families, the dynamics within those families, and the connections to the other families. Within a year almost each family was gutted, with the exception of the Lewises (a Long fav), I still think it was a mistake to get rid of Trish LOL

[vetsoapfan]

 

 Right. Without any build up, without allowing newer/current viewers to get to know Bill Bauer and who he was, his death was irrelevant. It was upsetting and a waste to veteran viewers, but it meant nothing to anyone else. Actually, even the Bauer family got over and forgot about him in a heartbeat. For those of us who had known and watched the character struggle for three decades prior to his demise, his brutal death was sickening. 

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Many of the core families got gutted within a few years, which made the show feel unfamiliar and alienating. This was probably not all Long's fault, for she seemed willing to write for some of the vets, like Mike Bauer. Gail Kobe and P&G suits probably helped cripple the show too. My favorite Lewis was Trish, and as you point out, SHE was the one to get the axe, LOL.

[Soaplovers]

So Ben didn't join GL till 1977.. interesting.. so what did Evie Stapleton do for the year or so she was on before he joined as her primary love interest thus kicking off the Amanda/Eve/Ben triangle?

[vetsoapfan]

 

Initially, she fell in love with Dr. Tim Ryan (played by Jordan Clarke, who later returned to the show as another character, Billy Lewis), not knowing that the scoundrel Tim was also pursuing Rita. When she found out about Tim and Rita, Evie was furious, but she needed to be in Springfield when her mother became ill, so after discovering what a piece of work Tim was, Evie eventually reconciled with her sister. She started to become interested in Ben McFarren, but worried that he was not over his feelings for Hope Bauer. Tim Ryan veered off into a relationship with Pam Chandler and Hope got involved in Alan Spaulding's orbit, so Ben and Evie were free to pursue each other, much to Amanda's chagrin.

 

It was a disappointment with Evie disappeared from the show, with an off-hand remark by Justin Marler, "Oh, Eve has left Springfield to be with Ben."

 

After seven years, the character deserved an actual send-off and goodbye scene.

Edited August 26, 2018 by vetsoapfan

[BetterForgotten]

I’m curious, outside of their relationships/history with Roger and Ed, what did Holly and Rita really think of one another?

 

Rita obviously later got involved with Alan, so was her marriage to Ed always supposed to be short-term and make way to Holly/Ed again?

[vetsoapfan]

 

Holly and Rita were somewhat prickly, which made sense because at the time, Holly was still in love with Ed. Eventually, however, even Holly admitted that Ed was in love with Rita.

 

To me, it looked like Ed and Holly would be the end-game in the writers' plans, but after a long, multi-year story of many complications first. Back then, soaps actually tried to layer and extend stories, keeping popular couples separated for many years.

[BetterForgotten]

To me it seemed that Alan and Rita made for a more interesting match.

 

Would have loved to see Rita later return and interact with Bev’s Alexandra as well.

[j swift]

When you think about Ross's immediate family, Jackie & Justin exiting, and Marland's Carrie story getting cut short, it is a wonder that he lasted as long as he did within the story. 

 

BTW another proffer of my theory that when a writer repeats a first name within character's story they don't care about cannon - Ben McFarren, who Ross competed with romantically during the story of his sister Lanie being injured & Ben Warren his retconned half-brother who never knew Lanie existed. 

 

Also, while I agree with the comments about none of the ladies of Springfield being frumpy (until later), don't you miss off-beat looking actresses like Sofia Geier who played Diane?