GL now joins some illustrious company in the cancelled soap thread.

Let's share memories and ask questions here.

3 minutes ago, Soapsuds said:

What month did Maureen die? I don't recall.

January 1993.

8 minutes ago, Soapsuds said:

What month did Maureen die? I don't recall.

January 11, 1993 

Edited May 4, 20205 yr by victoria foxton

28 minutes ago, robbwolff said:

January 1993.

 

24 minutes ago, victoria foxton said:

January 11, 1993 

Thanks! GL ranked 4th for the week. Maureen death is on YouTube. 1993 was such an awful year for GL minus the Maureen story..

4 hours ago, VanessaReardon said:

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. 

 

It's really on JFP and the writers for giving her such a fantastic, heartbreaking exit. I've only ever seen Mauren's last 5 or so episodes and she's someone I want to see more of, a journey I want to follow to see how she comes out on the other side. But instead she's just dead.

I never found Maureen boring. As a kid, I was drawn to her character, and I remember liking her friendships with Vanessa and Roger. I was devastated when she was killed off. I was young and I didn't know why they would do such a stupid thing. I stopped watching GL for years until the Annie years, but I never felt the same about the show.

It's the only thing JFP has ever publicly apologized for, to my knowledge. 

39 minutes ago, chrisml said:

I never found Maureen boring. As a kid, I was drawn to her character, and I remember liking her friendships with Vanessa and Roger. I was devastated when she was killed off. I was young and I didn't know why they would do such a stupid thing. I stopped watching GL for years until the Annie years, but I never felt the same about the show.

Maureen wasn't boring. It was JFP version of GL that was boring.

Yes The Children's hour idea with Holly & Olivia was claire Labine's idea

 

As for the Tim Werner recasts

 

Did Bacon quit? He came to GL and finishing filming Friday The 13th

 

 After Chris Marcantel left GL, he did AW for 9 months and then LOVING from 1983-85 & 1993-95. I think he was underrated and should have done more soaps. Did GL fire him?

 

Was Nigel Reed that disliked at GL? I dont think his Wally McFadden was that liked at AMC either

Edited May 4, 20205 yr by John

43 minutes ago, John said:

Yes The Children's hour idea with Holly & Olivia was claire Labine's idea

 

As for the Tim Werner recasts

 

Did Bacon quit? He came to GL and finishing filming Friday The 13th

 

 After Chris Marcantel left GL, he did AW for 9 months and then LOVING from 1983-85 & 1993-95. I think he was underrated and should have done more soaps. Did GL fire him?

 

Was Nigel Reed that disliked at GL? I dont think his Wally McFadden was that liked at AMC either

I read a Doug Marland interview years ago where he said GL let Kevin Bacon out of his contract so he could do Animal House.

1 hour ago, robbwolff said:

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.

 

Thanks for the rundown. Giancarlo Esposito played Clay, right? The lack of black cast on GL in the '80s, compared to what ATWT and AW were attempting, is striking (even though they were far from perfect). The most viewers got was IQ, or whatever his name was, who was mostly there to support Lujack and Beth. I don't think I've heard much about Matt. 

1 hour ago, chrisml said:

I never found Maureen boring. As a kid, I was drawn to her character, and I remember liking her friendships with Vanessa and Roger. I was devastated when she was killed off. I was young and I didn't know why they would do such a stupid thing. I stopped watching GL for years until the Annie years, but I never felt the same about the show.

 

JFP, I believe, once tried to take credit for why people were upset over Maureen's death, saying that they had built her up in the last six months and trying to treat it as an, "oops, lol" type situation. I had been a fan of Maureen from the time I started watching, pre-JFP. Ellen Parker always brought a lot to the part, even in lean times, and successfully replaced a well-liked actress. She made Maureen mean something to viewers. Not Phelps. The failure of many of JFP's new characters makes that very clear.

2 hours ago, Soapsuds said:

 

Thanks! GL ranked 4th for the week. Maureen death is on YouTube. 1993 was such an awful year for GL minus the Maureen story..

While there were still good elements in place. All the awful moves done in 93-94. Would hurt GL in the long run. Which it totally did. I've been watching GL from that time. And it's the Buzzard show. His on 4-5 days a week. Hogging tons of airtime. 

On 12/16/2016 at 2:07 PM, robbwolff said:

Christopher Schemering wrote a book called the "Soap Opera Encyclopedia" and, in it, he says that I took over Guiding Light and it then went into a "slump." I was pretty darned surprised as, within four months of becoming head writer, I had raised the ratings by two full points and our position from 8th to 3rd. In fact, the folks at P&G filled my office with flowers to congratulate me. Ken Fitts (a P&G exec) said he hoped we'd be working together for years. The VERY NEXT DAY, Allen Potter, the executive producer, announced he was leaving to be replaced by Gail Kobe and she fired me -- the very next day after receiving all those flowers and wishes for years and years of working together. And then they continued to use my bible for 9 more months and kept my name on the credits as headwriter for that long.

Her name didn't stay on the credits for that long so there seems to be some confusion about the whole period.

30 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

 

Thanks for the rundown. Giancarlo Esposito played Clay, right? The lack of black cast on GL in the '80s, compared to what ATWT and AW were attempting, is striking (even though they were far from perfect). The most viewers got was IQ, or whatever his name was, who was mostly there to support Lujack and Beth. I don't think I've heard much about Matt. 

 

JFP, I believe, once tried to take credit for why people were upset over Maureen's death, saying that they had built her up in the last six months and trying to treat it as an, "oops, lol" type situation. I had been a fan of Maureen from the time I started watching, pre-JFP. Ellen Parker always brought a lot to the part, even in lean times, and successfully replaced a well-liked actress. She made Maureen mean something to viewers. Not Phelps. The failure of many of JFP's new characters makes that very clear.

She gave an interview, in typical Jilly fashion, where the mistake was not to kill off Maureen, but to make people love her too much! What an idiot.

 

 

I never missed Maureen. She really WAS boring, thus the focus group that lead to her killing. 

I have been watching a ton of 1990 to 1994ish GL.  I haven’t once found Maureen boring.  I love her with Michelle, and Vanessa, and Bridget. I could watch an entire episode of just her and Vanessa and be happy.  I love her friendship with Roger, and her complicated relationship with Holly.  Focus groups should not be dictating story.

 

If anyone is boring to me it’s Ed.  I have just spent all night watching the YouTube compilation of her death, and he’s close to awful in a lot of it.  Stoic and broken is absolutely a normal way to grieve for a lot of people.  I don’t need him wailing.  But he is just sour all the time.  Way before this in the stuff I have seen he has the same look on his face and demeanor.  

 

I think JFP has produced a lot of excellent work over the years.  But the carnage in her wake of fired or killed off fan favorites and her forcing bland characters down people’s throats has done more damage than any of the good she has done.  Shockingly OLTL is the only show she didn’t decimate.  Plenty of forced characters though.

Edited May 4, 20205 yr by titan1978