Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[Mitch]

Hilary was good with Jim and with Fletcher...and I never thought Fletch had chemistry with anyone.  Wonder why they didn't go there.

 

Of course I heard the spy thing on Datalounge so take it for what its worth..I wont even go into the claim of what JWS, the Holden actor and Marland's penchant for feet...

 

[Soaplovers]

It seems like the more tea being spilled about Marland.. the less likable he is.  Why would he have spies amongst the actors?

[Adam]

Among GL fans, is Megan McTaviah as despised as she is among AMC fans? 

 

When i I think of Marian Crane/Brent, it was offensive in 1995, let alone today.

[j swift]

I'm of two minds on the Marion/Brent story.  At the time I recall being on the proverbial edge of my seat during the story.  The youtuber who covers Springfield history has a brilliant edit of the story with all of the tension and drama.  However, in retrospect, the transphobia and HIV scare tactics are heavy-handed and inappropriate.  

 

Marion/Brent on GL and Michael Baldwin on Y&R reflected an offensive sensibility about rape.  It was as if there wasn't any faith that justice would be served by the legal system.  There is dialogue in both stories about how both rapists would be freed because of their race and financial positions.  So, rather than going to prison for their original crime the writers had to up the ante in order for the threat to be validated by the other male characters.  It sent a bad message that women aren't going to be believed if they report sexual assault unless they've been stalked, beaten, or their was mother killed.  The exploitation of female victimhood is one of the things that has turned me off of soaps.

[Khan]

 

I don't think so.  Most AMC fans whom I've encountered online have been willing to defend some, if not all, of her storyline choices.  GL fans, OTOH, pretty much agree that her HW'ing stint there was a disaster from start to finish.

[juppiter]

 

I just watched the video, and yeah, I have never seen this storyline but the video is like.... this is crazy, but in a way it’s crazy enough that it kind of works? Ridiculous and over the top, but, like the famous Sonni/Solita story, so ridiculous and over the top that it circles back to good. 

[Mitch]

Very true, but the storyline was ahead of its time for actually talking about some of the things we are talking about today...white professional affluent males can escape justice...(well okay, every regular character can escape justice if the plot calls for it and he says he is sorry. I hated that GL, after Alex is revealed to be involved with the drug ring (I wont even go into the stupidity of that...) didnt use the storyline to have the feds investigate Spaulding, and unseat ALL of them from the business and disbar Gus. Interesting storylines..)  I also think the transphobia thing doesnt hold...Brent was not trans, he was evil using a disguise...and the HIV thing I thought was a good twist on the old baby switch storyline, and it did use it to talk about HIV/AIDS at that time. The rest of McTavish stuff was crap!

 

[Soaplovers]

Only downside of the story was killing off Nadine....the same effect could have been achieved if she'd been put in a coma, etc so she could return later.

 

At the same time, killing her off raised the stakes especially at a time when Nadine had become a better person and was taking control of her life..while putting others ahead of herself on occasion.

[DramatistDreamer]

During the 90s, GL became a bit too ready to kill of women of a certain age, for my comfort. 

Wasn't there an episode where all the dead mothers of some of the characters appeared to them in dream sequences? 

GL seemingly proceeded to kill off an entire group of would be matriarchs.  Okay, Jenna and Nadine were probably never going to be your typical soap matriarch but between Maureen to Nadine, it just seemed like a pattern had emerged and these characters had really established themselves on the Springfield canvas.  I found it unsettling for the future health of the show.

[Soaplovers]

 

The Coopers would have been easier to stomach going into the 2000s had Nadine remained....imho.

[zanereed]

 

@WhiteDressGhost: Bernau was incredible as Alan. He gave what could have been a one dimensional character so much range. Unfortunately, that's what ended up happening with Raines in the role. I never figured out who could ever take over adequately in the role. Zaslow was definitely correct - it would have been way too awkward for him to portray Alan. Someone mentioned to me almost two years ago that they wondered how George Reinholt would have fared as Alan Spaulding. At first I dismissed it, but then I thought about how Steve Frame definitely had some similar characteristics to Alan. Maybe it could have worked. I wonder if TPTB would have even considered Reinholt...

 

If you are referring to the Alan/Roger scenes when Roger comes back to Springfield in December of 1979 and stays at the Spaulding mansion while spying on the Bauer house,  Zaslow and Bernau knock it right out of the park. My favorite moment is when Roger first sneaks into Alan's house, grabs some spare cash from a desk drawer, then casually offers that SAME money to Alan when Alan comes in and finds Roger in his home ("Alan, do you need some money?")

 

As for the Bauers, I honestly think Gail Kobe had some sort of directive from P&G to do away with the Bauer family. Apparently Marland had been given the same directive when he assumed writing in 1980, but he managed to keep that directive at bay. Roussel (Hope) either quit or was fired, depending on who you ask, Stewart was out and out fired by Kobe, and Marsha Clark was killed off to bulk up the Susan Piper/Brandon Spaulding storyline. I think Kobe felt as long as she had Charita around, things would be fine. That didn't work out too well...

 

I wonder if that would have worked. Elizabeth (at least how Dalton portrayed her), was meek. I suppose in the almost-20 years since she was away from Springfield, she could have gotten a backbone. With Collins in the role, that would have been a SERIOUS backbone!

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[Mitch]

True, they could have done it like Marland did on ATWT..and Doug Cumming (or was it Marsha) attacking Heather and putting her in a coma...so the whole thing was...will Heather wake up in time to warn Kim, etc. I felt that Nadine's story was over..and I was sick of her pining over that troll Buzz, so I liked it when they put her together with that Trucker who liked her...but he disappeared when McTavish started writing..I would rather Deeney be written out wiht a happy ending.  Of course, I wanted Buzz to be the one to get murdered..I can imagine how long his death scene would be..."GAAK....you STABBED me...spit, spit, AAGGGH I'm dying...windmill arms..." and the soap "press" raving about Deas acting in his exit scene....

[MichaelGL]

Ugh just the thought of that death scene gives me nausea. 

 

I'm glad I'm not the only one who was truly turned off by Nadine' s death. Her death had the same affect on me as Frankies murder on AW.

[~bl~]

I couldn't take McT and after she was out at GL, I was glad, though when she ended up back at ABCD, I ended up changing the channel on whatever soap she ended up in the headwriting position. There are very few people in that role that ever made me glad when characters I liked to watch weren't on screen. 

 

The Brent/Marion thing disgusted me as in those days the long term drug regimes weren't known to be long term yet (they were just starting to come about), and they had Lucy who wasn't HIV positive start a drug protocol or something of that nature. GL became about shock/awe which the show wasn't about.

[Mitch]

Especially when there was a perfectly good Cooper to kill instead!!!!