Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[BetterForgotten]

Why was P&G so enamored by Gail Kobe’s work on Texas (a failed soap, which did seem to get better by the end granted, but still a failed soap)? Look at the massacre she went on to inflict at GL.

 

It’s amazing that the show lived on for so long after this and even had brief renaissances. 

[NothinButAttitude]

 

That is something I never got with this genre. People who tanked shows were always rewarded with another show to kill. 

 

Kreizman finished off GL and them was rewarded ATWT and then AMC. 

 

Guza, Pratt, and JFP's resume are LONG in this category. 

 

Jean was horrid at AW and AMC. She was then rewarded ATWT, OLTL (again), GH (twice), and Y&R. 

 

Josh Griffith has flopped all over daytime.

 

We'd be here all day long going over the flops being rewarded show after show.

 

This really has to be because they either want to kill this genre off or are too scared to invest in new writers. 

[Soaplovers]

 

I think it's a fear of investing in new writers and wanting to kill the other genre slowly..so both.

 

And only reason Texas improved at the end was due to Pam Long.. not Kobe.   Long worked well with Calhoun as EP... and also when she had a good co handwrite (Cullitons in 83 to 84, and Curlee on 88 to 90).  

[vetsoapfan]

 

Nigel Reed (the final and by far the weakest TJ) aired into 1982, but I think he was gone by the end of the year.

 

 

ITA. The show was totally hacked to pieces by incompetent and clueless PTB, and after 1984 did not even feel like TGL anymore. It was devastating to see the destruction, because for decades it had been a very consistent and consistently well-done soap. Suddenly we had irrelevant and often annoying newbies hogging all the airtime while our favorites were gone. And the painfully-stupid,low-brow camp storylines made it even worse.

 

 

I loved JvD and Ross, and was glad he did the tribute from the available cast members, but it should have been done by Don Stewart. Mike should have appeared on screen for the funeral service. What a slap in the face it was to Charita Bauer, Bert Bauer, and longtime fans that the show threw together such a pathetic funeral for the character. No Mike. No Hope. No Meta. No Steve Jackson. No Peggy Scott. No Sara. But Warren Andrews, whom Bert LOATHED, was there mourning for her in the Bauer living room, looking grief-stricken? WTF? Hell NO! It was a mess.

 

 

Yes, they were still on the show in 1982, but most would leave either in 1983 or 84.

 

 

Many actors were dropped before the credits finally changed.

 

 

Sara announced that she was going out of town to attend an extended medical conference/study and would be gone for three months. She never returned and was never mentioned again as far as I know.

 

Gail Kobe acknowledged that writing out the Bauers had been so widely unpopular that viewers should expect to see Mike and Hope back on the show, but Kobe was replaced and the Bauers never came back.

Edited May 3, 2020 by vetsoapfan

[watson71]

 

P&G constantly did that with producers.  In 1984, Edge of Night is cancelled, so P&G hires Erwin Nicholson as executive producer of Search for Tomorrow.  In 1999, Another World is cancelled, so P&G hires Christopher Goutman as executive producer of As the World Turns and leaves him in the job for 11 years.  He has the distinction of being the executive producer of two of daytime's longest running soaps at the time of their cancellation.

[Aback]

 

They did want to get out of the business after all...

[VanessaReardon]

killing boring Maureen Bauer (and she WAS boring) is controversial. She was killed because of a focus group who thought she was boring and JFP agreed. 

[DRW50]

 

That's a shame. I do wonder if they would have recast them both...

 

Not to go off topic but if Maureen Garrett ever does another of those chats I hope someone will ask her about the "Children's Hour" type lesbian story that someone (was it Labine?) supposedly wanted her to do. 

[Faulkner]

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[robbwolff]

L. Virginia Browne and Gene Palumbo were at Guiding Light from around December 1982 to March 1983. They aged Phillip and Rick, and wrote out Sara, Gracie, Jennifer, Tim, and Ivy. They introduced a number of new characters: Matt Davenport, a doctor who was involved with Maureen in New York; nurse Helen Tynan and her son Clay; and ballerina Susannah who was a romantic interest for Tony. I think Clay was friends with Rick and Phillip. At some point, Rick and Phillip became friends with Morgan.

 

According to an interview with Browne on the Another World Home Page, she said that Scherming said GL went into a slump when she took over as head writer but that she took the show from 8th to 3rd in the ratings while she was there. She claims she was fired after Gail Kobe replaced Allen Potter. She claims that GL continued to use her bible and kept her credited as head writer for another 9 months. Not true at all. As the credits from the March episodes on YouTube show, she was out of the credits by March 1983. She makes similar false claims about Another World crediting her as head writer after she had departed.

[BetterForgotten]

 

Best Emmy reel in the supporting category of the 90's, IMO. Even Kimberlin Brown and her overhyped story on Y&R couldn't compare to this in the end. 

[Faulkner]

She’s wonderful. And the writing is sensational. I watched just to recall Ellen’s great Emmy speech (“I’m dead! I’m dead!”), but I wound up watching the reel to the end. There’s not a false moment. Even the scene with her dropping the cups, which could have looked silly, is perfect.

[All My Shadows]

 

Easily one of the greatest set of soap scenes of all time, so representative of everything that this genre can do correctly. My personal favorite part is the slamming of the phone with no regard as to who was on the other end. The hurt, frustration, betrayal, etc. EP played it all pitch perfect, and Tina and Peter were no slouches either.

I know it's well established that Maureen carried on a torch from Bert, but these scenes are such an evolution. This is the type of stuff Bert would have said to Bill had they gone through their marriage woes during a different time.

Edited May 4, 2020 by All My Shadows

[titan1978]

Talk about a deserved win, and bittersweet.

 

It is so clear to me watching the show after the fact what a huge mistake that was.  I started watching as it was airing during the Annie storyline, then dropped in and out over the years.  When you watch the stuff from before 1994, it has so many good elements.

 

I watch soaps for both the exciting characters and the ones that are more normal and relatable.  I love Maureen, and Parker is fantastic.

[BetterForgotten]

Fun fact - Peter's real wife, Courtney Simon, wrote the dialogue for Ellen Parker's Emmy reel and regularly cites it as the best work she ever wrote in daytime on her Twitter feed. And Nancy Curlee herself wrote many of the breakdowns for the episodes leading up to Maureen's demise. 

Edited May 4, 2020 by BetterForgotten