Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[DRW50]

 

Ben's a pretty common name though. 

 

I sometimes wonder how Jerry ver Dorn survived on GL throughout the '80s. I can only assume he was beloved backstage. I remember when he gave the goodbye to Charita Bauer when she passed away. He'd only been on the show 5 years! Yet they had razed through so much of their cast in that time, somehow he actually had become the elder statesman. 

 

I'm not sure any other soap has ever gone through their cast in such a short space of time. 

[JarrodMFiresofLove]

 

And Jerry Ver Dorn also addressed the camera at the end of the episode in 2002 that acknowledged Mary Stuart's passing. So he helped with the send-offs for two of Procter & Gamble's most beloved leading ladies.

Edited August 26, 2018 by JarrodMFiresofLove

[j swift]

I would argue that in a universe where your exes are named Calla, Blake, and India, Ben is a little rarer (ed note, I forgot about Ben Reade)... 

 

It has become my life's work to prove this theory - Soap writers who repeat first names within a character's history rarely care about cannon, and are invariably hacks who failed to entertain long time viewers.  Who would argue that the writers who created Ben Warren or Sarah Shayne were better than those who created Ben McFadden and Sara Mcintyre?  If a writer lacks the creativity not to reuse a common name, they usually lack creativity in plots as well.

Edited August 26, 2018 by j swift

[vetsoapfan]

 

Yes, Alan and Rita had sparks galore. If she had set her sights definitely on Alan, think of the fireworks that a longterm Rita/Alan/Hope triangle would have engendered! Yikes! Shades of AW's Rachel/Steven/Alice!

 

 

Right, we were lucky to have Ross Marler and JvD for as long as we did. Somewhere along the line, he truly was TGLs elder spokesperson, and the actor clearly loved the show. TPTB were idiots for taking him, of all people, off contract. 

Edited August 27, 2018 by vetsoapfan

[Paul Raven]

Alan and Rita were dropped because

a) it was a Dobson story and maybe Marland wasn't as invested

b ) Lenore Kasdorf left for L.A.

[vetsoapfan]

 

More than likely, the principle reason was that LK quit. Marland in general was not adverse to carrying on and improving stories began by previous writers. In any case, Rita was a complex, interesting and viable character who could have provided the show with storyline potential for years. It's a shame we lost her, no matter what the reason was.

[Soaplovers]

I heard that Marland didn't have a good handle on the Rita character and that she lost some of her complexity once Marland took over.. and that the actress quit.  That was a rumor I'd read awhile ago so not sure if accurate or not.  It's a shame she opted not to return in the late 80s when Long/Curlee were interested in bringing her character back... they would have had a field day writing for her like they did for Roger/Holly

[vetsoapfan]

 

 Not all writers "get" all characters, which ends up being unfortunate in a medium such as this, because so many different scribes end up taking over and being responsible for the core characters over the years. I do think Long and Curlee would have  gotten a handle on Rita, if given the chance to write for her. 

[DRW50]

 

As good a writer as Marland was, I feel like his writing for GL characters was (in the episodes I have seen) oddly flat, with a few exceptions (like Nola, Tony [although he got on my nerves] or KV's Morgan). He seemed much more at home on ATWT. 

[vetsoapfan]

 

ITA. Morgan and Kelly on TGL were strikingly similar to Laura and Scotty from GH, a show which Marland had written with great success before moving to Springfield. He certainly understood and wrote better for his own creations like Nola than he did for characters who .existed before his arrival. His work on ATWT was significantly stronger., however.

 

Try as I might, I cannot think of a single legendary writer who was consistently excellent on every single show s/he penned. Even Agnes Nixon stumbled somewhat on Loving, Pat Falken Smith on RsH, Marland on TD, Claire Labine on OLTL and TGL, the Dobsons on ATWT, etc.

[DRW50]

I guess some would say Henry Slesar, although he only really got one long run at a soap.

[vetsoapfan]

 

I think he was great everywhere except at OLTL where he lasted less than a year.

 

But his endless creativity at TEON impressed me big-time.

[JarrodMFiresofLove]

I think the character from the 70s that Long would have done well writing for (if she hadn't been killed off before Long started) would have been Jackie played by Cindy Pickett. It was exactly the kind of self-empowered female Long specialized in writing.

 

By the way I was just looking up the recast Carrie Mowery and found an obituary. Is this the same person?

https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/latimes/obituary.aspx?page=lifestory&pid=173136020

Edited August 27, 2018 by JarrodMFiresofLove

[j swift]

It seems to me that head writing is a lot like chess, in that you have a few players and you have to plan ahead.  I think that the projections on to writers of being bored with certain characters, or even the old chestnut about writers being financially compensated for not writing for a prior writer's characters, are overblown.  Occum's Razor suggests that a writer like Pam Long didn't write for Rita because her story function was already fulfilled by others on canvas. If Long wanted a liberated woman who could go up against Alan she had Reva, so she didn't another character who played the same function.  If Long wanted an alternate mother figure for Phillip she had Alex so she didn't need Jackie.  Similarly, when Bill was killed off, Lesie's father Dr. Jackson was still around to play a mentor toward Ed. 

 

I understand that a well designed character could have returned, or stayed, for any period of time.  However, I don't think that writers have a duty to maintain or retrieve characters if their function is currently being replicated by another character that they created.

[Soaplovers]

 

I think a character like Rita differs from Reva due to the fact that roger and holly were back...and there was unfinished angst with alan/ed and there never was an answer as to what happened to Rita when she vanished in 1981.  Sometimes a character cant just be replaced in a story (meaning Reva wouldn't have fit as going against Alan in that time period since she had no ties with ed/roger/holly.