Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[Soapsuds]

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

[robbwolff]

January 1993.

[victoria foxton]

January 11, 1993 

Edited May 4, 2020 by victoria foxton

[Soapsuds]

 

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

[Darn]

 

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.

[chrisml]

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.

[BetterForgotten]

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

[Soapsuds]

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

[John]

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, 2020 by John

[Efulton]

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.

[DRW50]

 

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.

[victoria foxton]

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. 

[Paul Raven]

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

[Mitch]

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.

 

 

[VanessaReardon]

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