Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[j swift]

@vetsoapfan What was Lacey's story and why didn't she respond to Johnny in the clips shown?

[vetsoapfan]

 

Lacey Bauer came and went very quickly. The actress was dreadful and the character, who was not developed well or fleshed out,  never really had too much of a story. The writing back then was an inconsistent mess. If I recall correctly, Lacey was a gymnast who briefly became infatuated with Alan-Michael Spaulding, but that did not go anywhere and the character was dumped, never to be seen or heard of again. I don't remember if Lacey and Johnny had had problems in their relationship, or why she would not have responded to him. 

[Paul Raven]

And frank Dicopolous was originally cast as Todd Bauer  but became Frank Cooper.

[victoria foxton]

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[robbwolff]

Sheri Anderson was head writer when Lacey was introduced. Lacey was around for less than two months. I believe she seduced Cameron Stewart. She then left Springfield.

[Soaplovers]

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Fascinating scenes between Lillian and her sister Calla... I believe this was right before Pam Long left.  It seems like Calla also was manipulating Lillian during these scenes, but she was correct that Beth needed to get a backbone and not depend on a man.  Potentially interesting character that went nowhere fairly fast if I recall correctly.

[vetsoapfan]

 

As always, John Kelly Genovese hit the nail right on its head.

[Soaplovers]

From watching the 1984/85 episodes posted again... I was surprised at some of the little scenes that showed that Long had the ability to write human emotion and family scenes.. but with the 80s being about over the top stunts, etc.. it gets overshadowed.

 

The only thing I could say about the Largo story that is positive is that it involved a large amount of the canvas and did have lasting fall out (Lujack's death)... but other than that, it didn't fit with what Guiding Light was known for.  And I thought the start of the Susan Piper Story was promising with her interacting with a large number of the canvas.. and the only fall out that lasted was the death of Hilary Bauer.  I will say this about Pam Long, when she killed a character.. she meant it.

 

When Fletcher shows up, I noticed the show chemistry testing him with the women.. yet oddly flirted with a Hilary/Fletcher pairing before moving him onto Claire... when there was a scene during the summer of 1984 where he and Katie were flirting.. and there was a lot of chemistry.  Hilary kept trying to talk him down to Katie, but I thought that the two life long friends having friction due to Fletcher would have been interesting.   

 

And I've heard different rumors about why Trish was written out in mid 1985 (health issues with the actress, etc).. but Long had a great handle on the character and I liked her being the voice of reason (Vanessa could never fill that void) while still being an interesting character in her own right.  She had ties to Ross and Alan, was old friends with Vanessa, was the peacemaker in the family fights, etc.  I do often think the show shouldn't have created the Calla character, and just had the actress playing her be Trish since she had some of the same mannerisms/essence of what Trish had been written to have.

 

And people complain the show in 84/85 was Reva centric.. but I see a whole lot of focus on Beth, India, and Roxie moreso than Reva..imho.  

[robbwolff]

 

The original plan as announced in 1983 was that Hillary and Katie would both fall in love with Jim Reardon, leading to friction between the two friends. However, that storyline was shelved for some reason.

[JarrodMFiresofLove]

 

My understanding is that Lacey was one of the first characters Long axed when she returned to the show. If I'm in error about this, please correct me. I do remember Long switched Todd Bauer at the last minute to become Frank Cooper. Jack and Lanie were never really featured again and Long gave Johnny cancer, meaning she was probably going to kill him off but then he ended up staying on as a love interest for Chelsea saddled with romantic B plots.

 

I think Long could see the "fake Bauers" were a mistake and she wasted no time dismantling them. If they had proven popular, then they could have replaced Ed's family. Thankfully that never happened. The actress who played Lacy was only on the show for 13 weeks, one contract cycle. I don't remember any other contract player in the 80s who only lasted one cycle. Usually if they were designed to be short term, like Frances Fisher as Suzette Saxon, they lasted two cycles, so the storyline had a good six months to be told. But Lacey Bauer was quickly put on the scrap heap.

[Mitch]

 

She did get rid of Lacey..who realized her dream of bagging A-M and was promptly shipped off.  Lacey was going to be a schemer and Long replaced her with Harley...switching Todd into Frank..Long said there was "enough Bauers," which was dumb but I think that this branch could have worked if they went back to the Bauer's working class roots and this was the "poor" relatives. Lacey didnt because of the casting and really, even though it was distant...AM and she were related.

 

Long was not going to kill Johnny, the cancer storyline was going to be a big storyline where he was a "faith healer" (there was a scene where he touched Michele and brought down her fever...) It was going to be a storyline about faith healing and crackpots trying to take advantage and someone wisely canned it. There were bits of that left as Johnny tried natural remedies and basically the faith of his family and the community brought him back from dying.  Long actually brought his parents in as non contract and then gave them a contract..though they didnt do anything...besides taking over the Boarding House so I think she saw Laney Bauer as a Bea Reardon type character.  The actor was popular but I never liked him or the character.  And actually, Chelsea had a big storyline with the Ray Rooney stalker thing.

 

Again, I think the blue collar Bauers could have worked...if Ehlers were cast as "Lacey" or Harley Bauer...it could have worked. 

[vetsoapfan]

 

There are some times when you know IMMEDIATELY that a new character or actor is not going to work out, and I think most folks in the audience and in the studio felt that way about Lacey. She was just awful; uncharismatic, a terrible actress, devoid of chemistry with anyone. Long was right to axe her. Long was also right to see that the so-called "fake Bauers" had been a mistake, and so eliminating Johnny's parents and Lacey from the canvas did not have any negative impact on the show. 

 

Unfortunately, the 1980s were rife with characters who did not work out, and who came and went very quickly, although you are right: Lacey's disappearance was probably one of the fastest on record, LOL.

[j swift]

I agree.  It seems like post-Mindy and Beth, GL had a hard time finding an ingenue to contrast Harley.  We got Lacey, Jessie, OG-Dinah, Samantha Marler, and a slew of other young female characters that never took hold.

[Soaplovers]

 

I think the closest the show came to finding that perfect combination post Mindy/Beth was Julie/Bridget with Kat as the buffer in the early 80s.

 

I did see that Long kept Johnny and his parents on for awhile, but by 1989 all three were gone.  I noticed that the show kept Chelsea on longer than I thought they would have up till January 1991.. and I wasn't sure if she left due to the change of writers.. or if the actress opted to leave.  She went from being with Phillip to being with Johnny.. to spending the last six months of her stint being tested with Fletcher (didn't get the logic there) and Frank (they worked better as friends than as a couple).  I did like the Chelsea being stalked story with the culprit being Chelsea's old college friend Rae.

[JarrodMFiresofLove]

 

Interesting comments. Johnny's cancer story had an interesting premise. I do remember it coincided with Roxy having some sort of breakdown and leaving. Johnny & Roxy were together when Long took over, then Long ended up putting Johnny with Chelsea.

I always felt Johnny's cancer story was an allegory for HIV/AIDS. At the time only women were allowed to have the disease on soaps. It was still taboo for a male character to have HIV, probably because there was a stigma the audience would think the guy was gay. Johnny's illness started with him having a sore throat and a cough. Then he had some lesions or growths on his skin. It all seemed like symptoms a man would have with Kaposi's sarcoma. I think Long, who was an atheist, was going to use the faith healing stuff to poke at organized religions who felt that AIDS was a punishment on gay men who had broken faith with God. That's where I think she was going with all that, but she was probably forced to make compromises and water it all down. So it just became a story just about cancer and natural remedies. That's my take on it. Feel free to disagree.

 

I don't feel Jack and Lanie were ever going to work on the show, unless they were given some seriously gritty material to play. They needed to struggle, have hardships that Ed and his wealthier branch didn't have to face. Of course we saw some of that with the Coopers, especially later when Buzz was introduced in the 90s.

Edited November 8, 2018 by JarrodMFiresofLove