Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[amybrickwallace]

I only saw NA as feminist lawyer Jillian Coleridge Beaulac Ryan on RH, and I would have loved to see her play Kit - a role that seems miles away from Jill. This was an actress who always did phenomenal work but always seemed underrated.

[zanereed]

I've always wondered by Stewart and Fee were unpopular with their castmates. I think from this very thread I've gleamed that Stewart came not knowing his lines very well, and from Fee it was basically personality. @Nicholas Blair, does that seem right?

[amybrickwallace]

I don't know all the ins and outs, but Elissa Leeds once said on FB that those were the only two castmates she didn't care for on GL.

[Nicholas Blair]

That's all I know about it, too. Don Stewart and Melinda Fee were both popular with fans. Mart Hulswit said in his recent Locher Room interview, which was great, that he and Don Stewart differed politically (Stewart, a former Navy pilot, was conservative) but they became good friends.

I think Nancy Addison did good work as Kit on GL, though the resolution of her storyline was dragged out and she had to play more or less the same kind of scene over and over again, and then the role of Gillian on RH gave her the chance to use much more of her own personality and she truly blossomed as an actress. I agree that she never quite got the credit she deserved. A character like Kit shows the range she had. She also got some attention for playing a drug addict in the mini-series THE DAIN CURSE, and RH subsequently wrote that into the story for Gillian.

[Soaplovers]

I saw Nancy Addison as Deborah on Loving...the mother we were thankful never to have.  She had a comedic spin on the character.  So seeing her as Jillian was a treat...and sad no scenes exist of her as Kit.

With Charlotte...how was she as a character when played by Vicki Wyndham vs Melinda Fee?

[Nicholas Blair]

Unfortunately, I never saw Victoria Wyndham as Tracy Delmar/Charlotte Waring.

[zanereed]

You could always tell Hulswit and Stewart were close from their shared scenes, some of which are available to see on YT - they acted like the brothers they were playing! For me, Mike was always the piece that was missing for Ed during the late 1980's and 1990's (when Ed was on the canvas), as Ed had no sounding board like he had with Mike. I suppose they made Ross essentially Mike for those years. I always thought that if they continued to do that, the show should have organically bonded both Ed and Ross as having brothers (Mike and Justin, respectively) that they both were once close with who were now off doing their own things. Well, I'm not sure Ross and Justin were ever super-close, I guess.

Edited October 27, 2021 by zanereed

[wonderwoman1951]

this goes back to the earliest days of television soaps. the radio serials were all out of chicago. but when the move to tv began in the late 1940s, production moved to nyc and cast from the stage actors there.

i think this is also part of why it was easy to tell the new york soaps from the west coast shows. because back in the day, aspiring actors who wanted to be in movies went to the west coast; those who wanted to be on stage went to nyc. hard to articulate exactly why, but the difference was apparent.

eta:

can’t remember exactly where, but since we’re discussion actors’ looks, someone commented that when MADD took over at PGP, she began replacing actors with models on ‘world turns. that actually began when john valente took over as ep in 1995, i suspect with some ‘encouragement’ from cbs. 

Edited October 27, 2021 by wonderwoman1951

[Mitch]

I do think they moved Ross into the Mike Bauer role...(I can even remember scenes with Alex..though Mike was on the canvas, which seemed to be written for Mike...like Alex pulling Ross in for a kiss when they were searching for Lujack.) and I am okay with that, but I was okay with them moving Ross into the Ed patriarch role (especially over PS.) I think JVD actually had good easy chemistry with Simon (and everyone on canvas)and that had to be hard to light a fire under that cold fish.

 

True, but I just remember they double down with MADD and Springfield, which looked like a "real" town with people of all ages as extras....suddenly was full of models for extras and day players.

[wonderwoman1951]

agreed, but valente really started the ball rolling when he cast model, john howard (not much more than hair and cheekbones), as paul ryan. 

MADD kicked off the ABCification of ‘world turns when she replaced valente with felicia mini behr, who immediately replaced alyson taylor rice as connor with susan battan. d

don’t recall the same influx of abc soap actors on gl.

Edited October 27, 2021 by wonderwoman1951

[amybrickwallace]

The only one from ABC that I recall joining GL at that time was Laura Wright. 

[victoria foxton]

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Edited November 2, 2021 by victoria foxton

[victoria foxton]

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[Forever8]

Next Locher interview 

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[Soapsuds]

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