Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[NothinButAttitude]

OK. Glad to know that I'm not the only one that goes and listen to soap themes occasionally. It just feels refreshing, yet reminds me of all the great institutes that networks have gotten rid of b/c they want to make a quick buck.

[DramatistDreamer]

Watching now.

It’s too bad that the confrontation between Maureen and Lillian was not included. The part where Maureen yelled at Lillian for her and Ed reducing them all to a ridiculous suburban joke and how Maureen resented them for this. I think that was part of Ellen Parker’s Emmy award reel.

[Mitch64]

 

I went back and watched March 2005 and it was quite good..not Curlee/Long good, but good just the same. As usual with GL, all the elements were in place to pull it out of a hole, or at least keep it afloat and entertaining and then an abrupt change of tone dumps it all back.  They had Sebastian and Liv set up to fight at Spaulding, with Josh, Holly, Blake and others getting thrown into the mix (I really can't forget the scene were Sebastian was kind of flirting with Josh and Josh acted like he was kind of liking it..not written in the material but the Sebastian actor played it that way and Newman went along with it) Jonathon was still a little pr*ck and was mixing it up with Dinah, Dinah was all shades of grey, Alan was actually acting manipulative and Harley was not yet dropped into her love goddess perfect woman act and Ehlers wasnt schrieking yet, There were bombs...that actress who played weird china doll Lizzie, the overload of Coopers, the reliance on Prince Eddie past his expiration date and of course Brad Cole front and center and Phillip still "dead." but for what was to come, it was good.

I always wondered what happened to drop all the momentum at this time and at others.

 

I was okay with all of that...anyone who hated Post Resurrection Reva and her shrieking trash sister I want to buy a few rounds for...but I hate that they made them both NUTS to prop those bores up and not just cool "I'm India Spaulding and yes, I am a bitch but you will never catch me getting my hands dirty..I HIRE that OUT!" bad. 

Everyone says oooh Reva was so great but no, in her second go around they needed Annie to keep them afloat and then a clone and every other stupid storyline. I wish they had moved Annie more into other areas...fighting it out with Alex would have been cool, but especially former friend Vanessa. I would love to have seen Van drop boring Matt and the rose garden to go a few rounds with Alan and Annie. But to do that would leave boring Reva and Jarsh to their own devices.

But my fave line of all time...Dinah..."Oh Reva, just SHUT up!"

 

[Noel]

Happy Birthday, Guiding Light! God, I miss you, but the moment I saw a port-o-potty on television, I knew it was time to hang in the towel. But, hey! It doesn't mean I don't love you any less! That's unconditional love right there. You know what I'm sayin'? 

[Liberty City]

Pay cuts. Pay cuts. Pay cuts. Everyone from cast to production were getting their budgets and pay slashed in order to keep the soaps in-production. And, with that, many cast members either went recurring or walked from the gig. From March to December 2005 we had these casting changes happen (via Soapcentral.com):

• Martines Asks Out of GL Contract [March 14]
• GL Brings In Newcomer to Play A.C. Mallet [March 19]
• Zimmer Stays At GL Amid Talk of Pay Cuts [May 31]
• After 26 Years, Light Dims for ver Dorn [June 5]
• Dusay out, bucks recurring trend [June 16]
• Hutchison Opts to Leave GL [July 6]
• Cosgrove Leaving GL for Primetime Gig [August 9]
• GL Ditches Popular Pairing of "Manny" [August 28]
• Wright's Exit Is a GL Stunner [September 9]
• Jerry ver Dorn To Light Up OLTL as Clint [September 19]
• MacDonald latest victim of GL cast cuts [September 26]
• Newcomer Forester to Take Over As GL's Cassie [September 29]
• Crystal Hunt Announces Her Exit [December 11]

So, while Ellen Wheeler and her team re-introduced Dinah (under Gina Tognoni's portrayal), and saw the returns of Matt & Vanessa, there was a lot of casting bloodshed. They lost: Marj Dusay (who later agreed to stay), Nancy St. Alban, Paul Anthony Stewart, Jerry verDorn & Laura Wright all in the 2005 year after pay cuts were discussed, among others. So, they lost a lot of their core cast that had remained staples of Guiding Light that Wheeler inherited and were now lost. Plus, let's not forget Crystal Chappell being asked out of her contract and said-request being denied. They knew if they lost Chappell they'd be in major trouble.

[MichaelGL]

Out of all those exits, I wish JvD had stayed (Wheeler should've sacrificed Bradley Cole's salary to have Jerry stay). The rest I could've cared less about. But looking back, it was a slow but steady exodus.

Edited January 26, 2023 by MichaelGL

[Gray Bunny]

I loved those wicked women

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Cynthia Watros was of course outstanding and phenomenal, but man did I love Wendy Moniz's ability to make Dinah soft and vulnerable one minute (when she was still sorta good with Hart) to bitter and calculated another. They were both so delicious to watch, but I really appreciated the layers Moniz gave to Dinah as she vacillated between good and bad between 1995-1999. 

[Liberty City]

Had they re-upped verDorn to series regular, I am pretty sure he would have stayed and not considered leaving.

[vetsoapfan]

I was thinking of TGL yesterday, because of its anniversary, and I realized that there were some of its beautiful theme songs that I still remembered and enjoyed, so I checked them out on youtube. Of course, this led me down a rabbit hole of tons of my favorite themes and musical cues from all my favorite series. Great memories!

(Of course, along with the lovely themes of the past, there were some real stinkers too. TGL and ATWT foisted some dreadful ones on us!)

[NothinButAttitude]

Are you referring to GL's Disco theme and ATWT's toilet flush theme?

If so, I actually liked both of them...

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[Forever8]

I didn't mind the toilet flush opening either.

[MichaelGL]

Neither did I? lol

[NothinButAttitude]

 

Goody! It wasn't just me. Only thing I hated about the intro was how cheap the shots were behind the white background. But I actually liked the theme and felt they should've swapped the toilet sound for the 80s intro sound (the starry sound) instead. 

[Soaplovers]

I liked the disco theme...it actually made GL look like it had some life to it..and it had to compete with GH at the time.

And I liked this version of the theme.

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[dc11786]

Regarding 2005, the paycuts hurt, but the show was already running on fumes by January. When the show failed to secure Peter Simon, and refused to recast Ed, the Santa Domingo revisit immediately collapsed with a very unsatsifying conclusion (didn't Tony give Sebastian the serum provided to him offscreen by Ed). This, in turn, also took some of the wind out of the sail of having Beth and Rick have an affair which also was aborted around the same time when Mel confronted Rick and Beth about their feelings and then all three faded into obscurity for a bit. Bill and Olivia didn't have much story. Harley was slowly start to eat the show. Lizzie and Coop had no energy. Sandy, Tammy, and Jonathan had potential, but it was all so poorly executed that nothing could have saved it. If the show really wanted Driscoll, they should have just fired Bailey  and put Driscoll in the role and I say this as someone who enjoyed Bailey, and who is appearing in an Infiniti ad on this page as I type, but acknowledged his range was limited. 

By January, there was no more arguing that David Kriezman was going to go full steam ahead with Tammy and Jonathan without ever really redeeming Jonathan and making sure that everyone looked like trash along the way. The original seduction/deflowering revenge story was twisted and had potential, but going the route of starcrossed lovers wasn't going to work given the backstory.

Danny and Marina were boring, but I thought Danny and Blake had potential. Tony and Michelle were fine as a distraction, but Tony never had overstayed his welcome even before the recast. It was frustrating to see Danny and Michelle replaced by Harley and Gus not because I was a Manny fan, but because I found Harley and Gus equally annoying. Linda Dano should have been a back from the dead Elizabeth Spaulding who was protecting Phillip while he recovered from a psychotic break. 

There were still glimpses of what could be (the Spaulding/Lewis business feud that was building was interesting), but Wheeler and Kriezman couldn't figure out how to successfully produce a show on the budget they had. I often wonder if the show could have survived if it had adopted a "Days of our Lives" 2008-2010 model where they just focused on telling long term stories with beats, emotions, and payoff instead of trying to recreate Doug Marland's "As the World Turns" with the budget of "Valiant Lady."