Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[DRW50]

For people who had never left, Tina Sloan.

[Broderick]

What made Jackie Marler interesting (to me) were the acting quirks of Cindy Pickett.  Once Cindy left (in 1980?) there really wasn't much point in keeping the character around.   

[DRW50]

I would agree Cindy was the main strength  of the character, but I think a proper recast could have still had a lot of value, especially for Philip's story. Philip would have no maternal figure on the show, aside from Alex, sometimes, and Alex was not a strong enough character by the '90s for that to matter.

[Vee]

I knew Cindy Pickett from a few other things, and when I saw her as Jackie I always thought killing her and wiping the slate of several of the characters connected to that huge story was such a waste. In the mid-2000s I used to think it would've done a lot to restore Phillip's humanity after his 'death' exit and subsequent offscreen Wheeler/Kreizman stories terrorizing people from afar if they'd managed to bring back not only Pickett as Jackie, who he'd unearthed somewhere alive while grappling with his mental illness (an issue almost completely dismissed when he returned), but Elizabeth, who I always found to be a strange, spooky and elegant presence. And that's to say nothing of Tom O'Rourke who I loved as Justin. The original Dobsons Phillip saga used to fascinate me, and the brilliant denouement years later at that big party. I haven't seen any of that in years.

Edited June 26, 2022 by Vee

[Paul Raven]

It seems the Wired for Sound guest musicians thing was for Summer of 82 to capture the young folk while they were on vacation. 

Bit once Marland and Potter left, so did the concept,

How long did Wired for Sound stay in business?

[DRW50]

I found this on an old disc and couldn't find it on Youtube at present (I might have missed it, I don't know), so I reuploaded. 

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[victoria foxton]

 

  

Edited July 1, 2022 by victoria foxton

[Paul Raven]

John Conboy interview

Four-time Emmy winner John Conboy was named Executive Producer of Guiding Light in December of 2002. Previously, he produced Love is a Many Splendored Thing, The Young and the Restless and Santa Barbara, as well as created the Washington D.C.-based Capitol. Six months into his latest stint, Mr. Conboy sat down with SoapCity for his first ever exclusive chat outlining this award-winning visionary's plans for daytime's longest running drama.

SoapCityAlina: After all that you've achieved in your career -- you are widely credited with changing the entire look of daytime drama -- the logical, first question is: Why GL? Why now?
John Conboy: I watched the show for about five months, and the cast blew me away. (New head writer) Ellen Weston and I talked back and forth for a long time before I made the decision (to take the job). It was a fairly large decision for me to make because I live in California now. But when I got here, I was so astonished by the welcome that I got that I know I made the right choice. I love it. This was a lovely chance for me to, one, get back to New York, two, get back to CBS and three, work with Procter & Gamble for the first time.

SCA: Fans seem to know what a writer does, what a director does, what a set designer does. But I think a lot of them wonder: what exactly does a producer do? What does it mean, your title, Executive Producer?
JC: It means very little, as long as everybody else is doing what he or she needs to be doing. I'm their tour guide. I'm their leader. One of my jobs is to keep people working with me five days a week, 52 weeks a year and to keep them wanting to do it.

SCA: I mentioned your changing the look of daytime. Y&R was the first show to feature a more youthful cast, not to mention brighter lighting, hipper clothes, flashier sets. Everything that we take for granted on daytime now, you pioneered. Do you have a vision for GL as well?
JC: I don't think that my vision has changed. I do think that my taste has changed over the years, as far as coming into the 21st century and by my exposure to other things. But, at the end of the day, no matter how sharp you get the show to look, you're still talking about a love story. If you watch it carefully, most of what our people do on my shows, they do because they love someone. I'm not doing anything different on Guiding Light than I've done before. This is the style that I choose to do, and so I did come in and say (technically), "Let's do this." I have a lighting designer who is a genius. I have directors who were just waiting to get some stuff to do. And I have a brilliant cast. I said to all of them, "I am only as good as you are, so don't screw it up." I would love to do a movie a day on this show. I would love to have enough money to do the kind of production that I want on the show. Actually, because of the skill of the people we have on the show now, I'm very happy with the look of the show. I would love to go out to Niagara Falls, or sail to Europe, but if you tell a really good story, you could do it in my office.

SCA: You said that you watched GL for five months before deciding to take the job. What did you see on-screen that you knew you needed to change as soon as you got here?
JC: I think a lot of people who were on the scene needed stories, which they didn't have. That was my major concern. Now they've got them; they've got wonderful stories. The direction we are going in, everybody is going to be involved in one of the big stories coming up. Hopefully, we are going to involve all the adults and all of the younger people in the same story. I think it is important that you put your core characters with the younger people, so that they intermingle and work together. The baseball story that I'm doing with Shayne, for instance, is a story that so many mothers and fathers go through. I think it is going well. We're really going to play baseball and have some fun with it. And I think the Reva story is going to be huge. We have a big surprise on that story coming up. I'm also introducing another young character, a Latino boy. I'm looking forward to that introduction. And we are very excited about Bradley Cole being back. I think he's a terrific actor. He was enormously popular, we did a lot of research on him, and so we created another character that's working wonderfully on the show.

SCA: How important is fan input to you?
JC: Thank God we've got fans that have watched the show for a long time. There is an enormous history here, and the fans are the first ones who will tell us if we've got it right. Lots of fans write two or four times a week. One particular person will write several times, and they are very articulate. They know the show. They tell me what they like and they tell me what they don't like. Of course, I try not to give them what they like!

SCA: That's certainly a very provocative statement! What does it mean?
JC: It means that if you want it, and if I give it to you, then that story is over. When I was doing Y&R, we could keep stories going for years. Of course, the audience now is a different audience. We used to say it was the MTV audience. Now, God knows what kind of audience it is! But whatever it is, we need to keep them alive, bright and entertained. I want our audience to watch us five days a week. I want them to enjoy watching our stories as much we enjoy telling them!

[Contessa Donatella]

Boy, he can talk a good game! What an utter disappointment he was actually in the job. It's interesting that Ellen Weston had secured her job first. Other material had made it seem that he brought her on board.

[Contessa Donatella]

Kimberly J. Brown Announces Engagement

She was one of our Maura's. Now she's marrying one of her movie co-stars.

[ghfan89]

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[Contessa Donatella]

Ohhhhhghh I wanna be having a Bauer Barbecue!

[victoria foxton]

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Edited July 4, 2022 by victoria foxton

[MichaelGL]

This holiday always makes me miss Guiding Light even more! 

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[DRW50]

Me too. I always wonder where the Bauers would be now. I miss the P&G soaps and the generations comforted and supported by them. We need them more than ever these days. If only P&G had had the patience or care to see how valuable they were.