Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[chrisml]

I actually started watching GL again because of Tony and Danny. I stopped watching when Johnathan took over the show. I never got the appeal of the character or the actor.

[Khan]

 

Even worse, they rewrote Jonathan's background to justify his brooding manner as an adult.  Richard and Reva were made to look like fools for leaving their son in the care of abusive creep like Alfred Randall.

[chrisml]

I can put up with a lot if there's at least one story that keeps me going, but the Tom Pelphrey era did it for me. I never watched consistently again and I even liked the nuTony/nuMichelle/Danny triangle so I can be easy to please although it might have had more to do with lusting after nuTony.

[Khan]

 

I can understand, lol.

[Mitch]

 

I have said before it wasnt really the actors or the characters "potential" that was the problem, it was the sloppy writing, making the characters BIG but they just looked silly and the shoving it down our throats. I think the Santos could have worked as less mob and more "fringe" family with connections to crime. Carmen as a widow of a mobster who wanted to move her family away from crime and more into legit territory by using Chele to social climb. That itself would be a dramatic point, the girl Carmen blames for her son's death (I would have had him fake it to escape some trouble) is her ticket out of the sleaze. Danny should have been more disgusted by his families history but not able to write them off etc.  Michelle finding herself slowly falling in love with a sensitive man that is as trapped by his family as she is..

 

I would have tossed San Crud totally and had the Winslows be more gothic, a family living in a moldering mansion in the Keys, who Richard took Reva in and fell in love with would be the same, yet not as silly. Maybe his first wife died and he is hiding behind the walls, ala Jane Eyre...Edmund is perpetually broke and living off his brothers good will and scheming to inherit the fortune so he puts hot to trot Liv to marry Richard to swindle him. Reva would not make a good gothic heroine, but if they had cast as they were thinking of, that guy from AW who played the lawyer, there could be plenty of chemistry and a good triangle as she finds herself.

 

Both storylines could work with the actors and characters but tweaked to bring it down to earth. Well, I would have never cast Brad Cole...I HATE BC...

[Khan]

I just have to say, @Mitch, that I always love your ideas. 

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[KMan101]

 

No lies here. I didn't mind Edmund for a while and even Richard was tolerable in the beginning. But no thanks to any of them. Danny sucked once Bethany Lenz left and we had Pod Michelle. They also failed to capitalize on the chemistry Laura Wright and Paul Anthony Stewart had. Danny/Cassie would have been far better (thank you for trying Millee Taggart!). While most of them were "fine" in the beginning they all ended up helping drive me away as well. Not to mention the awful writing, of course. (Although I'd take Danny Santos anyday over Jesse Blue)

 

Jonathan was the final nail in the coffin for me. I somehow stuck through San Cristobal and The Santos' takeover of Springfield but Jonathan was trash.

 

No lies here. +1

 

A lot of those characters/actors could have worked had the writing/story direction been better.

Edited December 12, 2019 by KMan101

[victoria foxton]

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Bio's on Noah Chase and Tony Reardon

[Dan]

Ugh Noah. Yeah let's put the larger-than-life Reva Shayne with the most boring slab of beef known to man. Great idea. But at least it was better than the Buzzard. 

[Khan]

On the one hand, I hate that no one at GL ever brought back Kyle Sampson.  I always wanted a real, honest-to-God Reva/Josh/Kyle/Kyle's wife quadrangle (with Kyle's wife preferably played by Sharon Gabet).  But, on the OTHER hand, considering how much TPTB interfered in GL's final years, perhaps it was for the better that he stayed dead.

[Franko]

I see your Jane Eyre and raise you a Great Expectations ... would there be room for a Miss Havisham-style older aunt? (Alas, Grayson Hall was already long dead.)

[DramatistDreamer]

 

I wondered why no one ever brought back the Kyle Sampson character either.

 

Question: what happened to Bridget and Hart's son Peter?  What happened to him?  I had fallen away from GL in it's last 15 years but I don't remember hearing or reading about him as a teen or anything.

[DRW50]

 

When Bridget left in 1997, Vanessa was "dead" so she took Peter with her. He visited Vanessa for her welcome back from the dead party, and I think they still were in each other's lives offcamera. When we saw Bridget toward the end of the show she said Peter was in college. Or Dylan said it. One of them. 

[victoria foxton]

Once Bridget left Springfield with Peter. He was seldom mentioned.  Vanessa from time to time would mention visiting Peter off screen. As a surprise for Hart Dinah arranged for Peter to visit Hart for the holidays in 1998.  

Edited December 14, 2019 by victoria foxton

[DramatistDreamer]

Although, I know every new writing regime seems to relish the chance to create their own characters, I can't understand why they couldn't just create characterizations from existing characters, they'd likely be able to do virtually the same thing.

 

I thought about this last weekend while watching vintage episodes from Christmas 1986, New Years 1987 and ended up trying to find out what happened to the kid that Simon Hall and Jessie Matthews had? He could've been an interesting character to develop and bring onto the canvas since he already had extensive ties to Springfield--he'd be tied to Lillian and in a way, the Spauldings.

 

Sadly, P&G soaps seemed overly-fond of wasting their histories.