Jump to content

Guiding Light Discussion Thread


Paul Raven

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 17.3k
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

Posted Images

  • Members

Hello, SON Community Members!

 

I am a new member here.

 

This is my first post.

 

My favorite period of CBS’s Guiding Light was during the 1991–92 and 1992–93 television seasons. (It’s my personal favorite period of any daytime soap.)

 

I have been enjoying the YouTube-published episodes of The Locher Room, with publicist Alan Locher, which are livestream discussions with past members of not only this series but also CBS’s As the World Turns. (That this was created and launched by Mr. Locher for entertaining and insightful purposes given this terrible period of COVID–19.) And Mr. Locher has also covered other daytime dramas, no longer on the air, like ABC’s All My Children and One Life to Live and NBC’s Another World. (I have experience having followed all the daytime soaps since the 1980s. I have not watched much of what remains lately.)


Given this board is for Guiding Light, which was on NBC Radio first, in 1937, and which transitioned to CBS Television in 1952, on which it ran for an additional 57 years, until its cancellation in 2009, I look forward to reading more comments. And I would like to continue to participate as well.


—Stitches0210

Edited by Stitches0210
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Hi,

 

I am new here, too.  
 

It was actually Alan Locher who got me interested in watching old episodes of GL when I saw he had Frank Dicopolous on with the 2000’s crew.  Lo and behold I discovered YouTube had full episodes of the 90’s.  
 

I am just about to finish the Harley and Mallet era (93) on YouTube and it has been so much fun revisiting these characters and this show especially during the COVID lockdown.  I was a teenager in 93 so rewatching my favorite couple (Harley and Mallet) with adult eyes has been great. I’d say I love them just as much nearly 30 years later as I did back then.
 

I also cannot help but notice how much better soaps were back then. The writing, the investment, the character development, the music, the acting (date I say?).  Soaps today are a shadow of GL from the early 90’s.

 

I am appreciative of Alan and anyone else who is letting us catch up with the actors any time but especially during these times.

 

I’m stalling the end of the Harley Mallet era (bc I don’t want it to end as I’ve forgotten so much) but they’re about to get married and after that I think I’ll go back to the 1990 playlist and start from there this time.

 

Always up to discuss this era!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I wonder if Hearst had stayed if they would have gotten to Hope in person eventually?  I’m not sure they would have ever really used her beyond stuff with AM, but we

might have seen her if he had stayed an important character.  
 

I think the loss of CB as Alan Spaulding also hurt her chances of returning later.

 

While I enjoy the first AM, Hearst really makes Alan-Michael take off.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

How funny! I'd never heard that. I wonder if the show was thinking about bringing Mike back (as they did for so many of the characters who came back for the reunion, like Phillip and Harley). They definitely did seem to be reinvesting in the Bauer family around that time, giving Rick and Abby a lot of story, as well as Rebecca Budig's Michelle, then bringing on Mary Stuart as the long-absent Meta and bringing back Robert Gentry, who'd last played Ed about 30 years earlier. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

This was a very risk taking story...I wish that the scene with Marion almost being attacked had been explored more...to have him understand on some level that what he did to Lucy was wrong.

 

Good idea of a story that went on shock instead of being a character study.  So I'd love to hear from all 3 actors about this story 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.




  • Recent Posts

    • GM is adorable, charming and fun onscreen despite months of nothing to do until recently, and has a bodacious bod. I'm not cosigning the show or this story - I haven't watched a full episode in over a month - but I think we're all taking the small victories in 2025 at this point. I'm open to testing this theory!
    • I think Jason might've posted some numbers for the syndication a while ago and the numbers for Falcon Crest was horrible. Like 1.5 rating or something, which was terrible.    ETA: it was actually Paul Raven:   New to syndication 60 min Fall Guy 67 markets 3.1/8 Falcon Crest 110 markets 1.1/5 To get into the top 40, you needed a 4.6/9 rating for reference - and Falcon Crest managed to get into a lot of markets to begin with. In the fall of 1985 Dynasty, Dallas and Knots were syndicated (show / rating / share / coverage % / markets): Dallas 3.4 10 51.7 92 Dynasty 3.4 10 48.7 47  Knots Landing 3.3 10 12.5 20  So, Knots as an example trippled Falcon Crest's rating with 20 markets - I'm sure those were major ones but it just goes to show you how much Falcon Crest bombed in syndication. 
    • It's not bad but the stories move too slow. It's the same problem when Dan O'Connor was CO-HW with Van Etten, they have a million stories and they all drag on endlessly with no resolution. I'd argue the majority of the stories airing now are good but you get sick of waiting months for something to happen.
    • Thanks. I must have missed that period entirely for Lifetime. 
    • Thanks. I know Marland did that type of thing sometimes but it's less likely with these characters. I don't even remember Alex ever mentioning him.
    • French fan summary Rusty took over Simon's job at Lewis Trucking after Simon transferred to Lewis Oil's North Carolina office to live near Jessie and Calla. I doubt they would bother following up a story for offscreen characters eg marriage and a baby.
    • I suspected that the performance with the reveal was the reason why the Ted actor got the axe and it looks like I was right. He wasn't really good at conveying what needed to be conveyed in those scenes. Claybon is at least slowly improving (but I agree that he still needs to work on his line delivery), but I do wonder what will happen when his big reveal is coming up. 
    • I've already asked this before, recently, but can anyone who watched those years more closely tell me if anything said about Jessie and Simon at the end of their profiles is accurate (about them marrying, naming a baby after Brandon/Lujack, etc.)?
    • Nicole is way too smart to not know she was carrying twins - she's a doctor! My guess is that Leslie did abort her baby out of fear, and as payback, stole Ted and Nicole's child (Eva), and stole Kat from another family to replace her in the hospital.
    • Those Soap Central profiles have a lot of incorrect info. According to SOD summaries and the Daytime Newsletter of the time,Tim left town for a new job and Pam reunited with the father of her baby and also departed Springfield.They did not marry.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy