Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[Chris 2]

“Chelsea” was one of those trendy names in the late 80s/early 90s. Girls weren’t being named “Chelsea” in the early 1960s.

[Soapsuds]

Cynthia Watros with Alan

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[victoria foxton]

I can hear Alan now. "" Cynthia how was the clone story?"'. 

[Forever8]

Cynthia gives her response. 

Alan: "That's Crazy!" 

[Keri]

I never watched GL when it aired but I've been watching it online. I'm on 1990. I guess Inhave some unpopular opinions.

I kept reading people talk about how good the Roger/Mindy/Alex triangle is but honestly Roger just seems like slime to me and watching Mindy with him just makes my skin crawl. Like I ff the scenes.

And yes she's unhappy but she should know enough to known he's scum.

I also just find him super boring- it's boring watching Roger the super villain get away with everything again and again. Like I'm at the part when he fighting with the Lewis's and the stuff with the towers etc. On top of the stuff with Henry and on and on. 

I like Phillip although poor guy- he's the only sane one bw Alex and Alan Michael. He should just say [!@#$%^&*] it.

It's a shame Holly came back and they don't seem to give her any good stories.

[Forever8]

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[Khan]

God bless Nancy Curlee, but she was TERRIBLE at naming new characters.

[j swift]

I just saw on Facebook that it is the 31st anniversary of the "Hold on to Love" opening of GL (Debuted 1/2/91). 

I re-watched it and it struck me that it is a remarkable piece of editing.  This was before digital logging and editing, so in order to get that iconic image of Harley dancing across the screen someone had to recall that moment from an episode, and splice it in so that it perfectly fit within the semicircle and  moved in the correct direction.  Bravo!

Just for contrast, there's an earlier disco opening of GL where the cast were specifically mugging straight to camera (Ed blocks a journalist camera, Josh oogles a woman's ankle, and Hillary spins to the disco beat) and it looked so corny.  It is no wonder that Hold on to Love became the standard bearer for soap openings.

[SFK]

It really is a stunning opening. I started watching GL when Marcy Walker held that final spot. It was such a pleasant surprise the first time I saw Harley bopping along the screen thanks to tape trade. There was an article about the opening which discussed how they had fewer cast members in it at first and more generic images like roses and pearls. It was an expensive and complicated bit of editing so they started simple in the beginning. There were eventually two versions of the opening as every contract cast member eventually made it in with A. day and B. day. It suffered in quality with some clunky editing. This happened with AMC’s falling pictures opening as well.

[Soapsuds]

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[BetterForgotten]

That opening is probably Robert Calhoun's biggest contribution to the show. 31 years later and it still feels relatively fresh and not dated. 

[j swift]

Although one imagines that everyone on this thread has seen all of these openings, I clipped it at the disco intro for contrast with how brilliant Hold on to Love had been (btw - mildly unpopular opinion - I also like the 2007 poem opening, but I will never abide by Only Love can Save the World with the awful lyric "everybody clings to sex like soap on a rope")

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[BetterForgotten]

Though, had it been up to me, I would have never gotten rid of the 'Ritournelle' theme, lol. I know Bridget Dobson hated that opening ("That thing with the dead leaves!"), but the music is so timeless and soothing. It's so simple and cost effective, too. 

[soapfan770]

Hold on To love was definitely my favorite GL theme. I use to enjoy listening to the end credits music because it was so calm and peaceful, even when the show got to rough to watch.

I didn’t care much for the Laibson era variations, especially the island one and the 80s electric guitar riff ones. The more jazzy version was decent though.

Here’s the background information I have for Hold On to Love:

 

 

[SFK]

The only good thing about the OLCSTW opening sequence is the final G in Guiding and the L in Light creating that GL.

The original My Guiding Light is a beautiful theme. They had the pop version after that but also did an updated slow version which I liked. MGL and HOTL are my favorites.