Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[titan1978]

GL and GH aired in the same time slot when I was a younger, and GH was my show.  So back then I didn’t watch GL.  As a fan of the genre though I bought the GL coffee table book back then, and knew by reputation about characters like Roger, Holly, and Alexandra before I had seen the book.

 

After all my watching this summer, the Curlee HW era up to the Blackout is some pretty amazing soap opera.  And while there are some bright spots and certainly some well produced material after that, it’s just not the same.  I am biased, Sherry Stringfield played one of my absolute favorite characters on ER, so I already love her Blake.  But without Bev as Alex and also KS as Mindy, that whole corner of the show is not as interesting for me with the recasts.

Edited March 31, 2021 by titan1978

[victoria foxton]

@titan1978Totally agree with with you.

[DRW50]

@Mitch I do think Lara Parker could have been a good choice for the role, if the writing had been there. 

[FrenchBug82]

We are indeed missing a point when criticizing Marj's Alex is that while Bev gave the kind of performance only she could give, Alex during the whole blackmailing Mindy saga was already verging on the over-the-top huffy-puffy shrieky bitch that Marj played. Bev had a better handle on what she wanted to play so it was less in-your-face on-screen than it became but the character was already written differently - less cold and in control - in that whole saga.

[soapfan770]

That reminds me, at the time I was thinking after Mindy had gotten pregnant that the Alex/Mindy rivalry was going to go way of Katherine & Jill especially after Mindy would have the baby. Alas that never occurred and while I don’t think Alex would ever go off the rails like Kay did I could see her entertaining a man younger than her to make her feel better about Roger & Mindy’s affair and then again battle Mindy again for affection instead of what we got on screen with Alex, Mindy, Eve, and Nick. 

[Forever8]

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[KMan101]

 

Completely agreed with you.

 

Absolutely. You could see the 'writing on the wall'. Bev sure did. LOL.

[FrenchBug82]

It is funny because for the longest of times I never understood why Bev didn't like this story. I enjoyed it tremendously; it was great soap and it gave me one of my top GL moments of all time: the scene where Alex tells Billy about Mindy and Roger.

That eyeroll Alex gives Fletcher when he tries to lecture her at the end is one of my favorite gifs to use. 

BUT thinking back about it I realize she had been in the business long enough to know that the way that once they started writing Alex that way, the cat would be out of the box for good. That was too easy for writers to create story with an hysterical vindictive matriach rather than the more complex character she had been so far. They had played with the DNA of the character and there would be no going back.

[Soaplovers]

Had they framed the story where Alex would trade insults with Mindy but had other stories not involving Mindy...would have made it better.

 

Her last scenes in 1992 read as a good bye more than a 8 week vacation.  Not only how she played the scenes..but the scenes themselves. 

[Mitch]

They should have just let Alex leave for good, handing her stock over to Henry and Vanessa, who the writers had a place cards in the Jenna vs. Spaulding story...(and I like Van's dynamic with Jenna more then Alex's...how she didn't like her but came to be protective of her...) The Alex/Nick/Mindy thing had reached its expiration point by then..

 

I love the Character Profile of Van...I like how in that Peapack era scene with Mel, MK looked like someone's stylish mom who could still rip your throat out. I know Van/Billy and Ed/Holly were the end game but I wonder what it would have been like to have Van/Ed (they were sleeping together briefly when Van was a vixen..) too weird that she was his dead wifes best friend and had married his nephew? I think gradually it could have been a Bob/Kim thing of past lovers, turned friends getting togther.

[applcin]

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On April 8.

First time I saw John Bolger he was playing Phillip when I started watching the show. 

 

Edited April 1, 2021 by applcin

[Soapsuds]

Ill it be nice to hear from John Bolger. 

[FrenchBug82]

Based on how everyone involved tells the story, that's an after-the-fact interpretation based on what we know because no one but her knew at the time these were her last scenes - and the writers certainly didn't know it when they wrote them.

[Asb23]

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April 9

[KMan101]

 

This. You summed it up well. 

 

I did really enjoy the story as well, what I was able to see of it.

 

Alexandra suffered a bit as you noted. There was a shift happening to her character. Which is such a shame.

 

I mean, by the time Marj Dusay came on and she and Vincent Irizarry took turns screaming Mindy and Melinda constantly I don't blame Mindy for fleeing Springfield

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Edited April 3, 2021 by KMan101