Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[victoria foxton]

 

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[Soaplovers]

I remember watching Hilary on the Soap Classics DVd's...and she had such a likable tomboy quality.

I asked my mom why Hilary  was killed and she said 'because the show was stupid'.  She and Fletcher would have probably been paired in the long run had she not been killed off.

[Forever8]

 

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Catch up with The Lewis Family live in The Locher Room on Friday, February 11th at 3 p.m. EST / 12 p.m. PST. Joining me for the hour are Rebecca Hollen (Trish), Robert Newman (Josh) and Krista Tesreau Strauss (Melinda Sue)

[Khan]

You know, I appreciate these online soap chats and reunions, but I feel like the well is soon gonna run dry, and we're gonna end up with "exclusive interviews" with some dude who was once an under-five in a scene on LOVE IS A MANY SPLENDORED THING.

[Vee]

Until Locher can dig up Ellen Bethea for OLTL, the wheels don't come off this train!

[Forever8]

Imagine him doing a Rachel reunion with all of the Rachel. 

Ellen, that's crazy! 

Mari, that's crazy!

Sandra, that's crazy! 

Daphne, that's crazy! 

[vetsoapfan]

Technically, I agree with you that 1983 had its good moments. Some bits were quite well written, like Phillip's paternity reveal, but I could see the writing on the wall, as storylines which could have had long-lasting ramifications were casually dismissed, vets like Amanda and Hope were being axed, and even the longer-running characters still on canvas were being shoved onto the back burner.

I loathed that story and the introduction of idiotic fantasy elements during the next year or so: the ghost in the attic, the Dreaming Death, Jonathan Brooks (ugh) and his talking computer, Nick/Santa Claus who could disappear into thin air at will. Cretinous low-brow camp might have been a staple of Passions, but it went against the very core and grain of TGL. And resurrecting Bill Bauer only to kill him off again (and in such a heartless, cruel manner) was a slap in the face to veteran viewers who cared about him and the Bauers.

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Yuck. No thank you. Since the show was being mutulated so quickly and thoroughly, having Bert and Bill reunite would have provided stability and continuity in Springfield. I'd even have accepted Bert with Steve Jackson. But Bert Bauer saddled with a Lewis (the equivalent of the dreaded Dingles of Emmerdale Farm)? Take me now, Lord.

Yep. No one ever accepted "Fake Ed", and Katie was being treated like an irrelevant dayplayer. Thank God for Jerry ver Dorn, but by the end of 1984, the real TGL was no more. We had Texas Light Meets Scooby Doo in its place.

Same here. I was finally excited about the show again after being unable to stomach it for several years, when Holly and Roger returned in 1989 and their story reignited so well. And what a blessing and relief to have Reva off the canvas! But after Reva returned and the show stupidly killed off its heart Maureen, the matriarch of the Bauer family, it was all down hill from there. TGL was on life support for the last decade and a half of its existence. Its cancellation was a mercy killing.

[Sapounopera]

Would you have accepted Kim Zimmer as nu-Hope in 1983? Not acting all Estelle Kendall of course, but like a more decent version of Nola Aldrich. 

[vetsoapfan]

I felt that Elvera Roussel was the best actress that TGL had ever cast in the role of Hope, and knowing that she was dismissed rather than choosing to leave on her own would have made me very resistant to any recast. That being said, I don't know today (based on everything else I have seen her in) if Kim Zimmer could have effectively played a sweet, kind-hearted ingenue. I suppose I'd rather have had Hope on the canvas than being "disappeared" forever, though, so I would have at least taken a wait-and-see attitude towards Zimmer's take on the role.

[Sapounopera]

Just an idea in order to avoid the unwatchable Lewis-Shayne madness of the 80s 

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[vetsoapfan]

I would have never allowed the Lewis-Shayne brigade to take over the show, that's a given, and I would have kept Roussel as Hope. If ER quit on her own, however, I would have leaned towards replacing her with someone like Jacqueline Courtney once Alan-Michael was SORASED to a young adult. At 40-ish, Courtney was age appropriate as A-M's mother, she was a beloved daytime vet, a fine actress, and exuded a warmth and sweetness that would have been very beneficial to the woefully-depleted and alien Bauer family of the time period. I would have asked Mart Hulswit to return as Ed, and either tried to get Don Stewart to return as Mike, or replace him with Jed Allen. If possible, I'd also see if Ellen Demming wanted to make cameo appearances as Meta Bauer.

The Bauers would return to their place of prominence, and the Lewis-Shaynes would never come to be (except for Josh and Trish).

[Sapounopera]

I love your ideas as always .
GL didn't even need all these changes brought by the TEXAS people. 

[Khan]

Agree.  If I were going to pair Bert with anyone (besides back with Bill), it would've been with Henry Chamberlain.

I really and truly believe there was room enough for ALL the families: the Bauers, the Chamberlains, the Lewises (and Shaynes), the Marlers, the Norrises and Thorpes, the Reardons, the Spauldings.  It would have required the most delicate of balances, but it could have been done.

What can I say?  I loved all of GL.  Even the stuff I wasn't around for.  Even the stuff most people tend to hate.  I just try to pretend everything that happened after '95 or so didn't, lol.

Edited February 5, 2022 by Khan

[Mona Kane Croft]

I would have wanted Bert to remain middle-class.  So marrying her to a millionaire (no matter who) would be a bad idea in my opinion.   

[vetsoapfan]

Agreed. It was doing quite well in the rating, even during the years of GH's tremendous popularity and media blitzing. Why tamper with such a successful formula? I wish someone could or would interview Pamela Long and ask her tough questions about what the reasoning was beyond the mass and qratuitous slaughter of 1983-84. It certainly crippled the show, and precipitated TGL's long, slow, painful audience erosion.