Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[chrisml]

Maybe I have the timeline wrong, but was 1993 around the time there were a lot of the crazy DOOL stories that got DOOL higher ratings? (Carly buried alive for ex.). I remember AMC especially was trying to mimic those outlandish plots. I can't see Curlee fitting into any of that. It feels in retrospect that the quest to copy those stories really harmed daytime as a whole. I think Curlee would have been a much better fit at OLTL working with Michael Malone during his first tenure.

[MichaelGL]

I think it was more the 94/95 season, but once DAYS and the possession dominated headlines and attracted eyeballs, there were a variety of soaps that tried to create their own kind of success from that type of storytelling. 

[danfling]

This is a picture of singer Judy Gold, actress Brooke Adams, Lynn Adams (Leslie on The Guiding Light; Amy #4 on The Secret Storm) and actor Tony  Shaloub.

 

[BetterForgotten]

In a weird way, AMC/McTavish having Natalie stuck in that damn well felt like a precursor to Reilly’s Buried Alive story. 

[Darn]

Didn't Days try to copy Natalie in the well with one of Marlena's patients keeping her in a basement or something?

Edit:

Natalie in the well - 1991

Stella Lombard traps Marlena in a warehouse - 1992

Carly buried alive - 1993 

Edited April 18, 2023 by Darn

[Bright Eyes]

Stella kept Marlena in a pit, copying Silence of the Lambs.

[Darn]

Someone update Marlena's wikipedia!

[soapfave06]

Man, what could have been. I have no interest in OLTL from Fall 1995 on, I wonder what Curlee could have done with Marty, Viki, Dorian, etc. 

I think they lost sight of a lot of characters after those big trial arcs and the DID story. Actually, almost the whole canvas seemed lost: Bo, Nora, the Gannons, RJ

[BetterForgotten]

Oddly, GH was the ABC soap Curlee almost landed on as HW next (she was reportedly on tap to replace the Labine’s), but she backed out when she got pregnant again. 

Edited April 19, 2023 by BetterForgotten

[DeliaIrisFan]

Wow....I never would have imagined ~ 30 years ago Nancy Curlee and Kimberley Simms watching those scenes in real time on video would even be possible let alone so meaningful.

I know Jordan Clarke's exit in the '90s was a sensitive subject and Kimberley wasn't even there for it, but I do wish someone had asked Nancy how much of the Who Shot Roger story was already in her mind at this point.  Every time I rewatch these 1991 scenes, I'm reminded that Billy being the one who tried to kill Roger a couple of years later shouldn't have been much of a mystery (and that guns really do make bad situations worse).  It's a testament to Curlee and Demorest's storytelling that there was still a plausible whodunit when Roger disappeared and it turned out he'd been shot, especially with an obviously temporary actor playing Billy at that point.  Roger switching the bullets intending to frame Billy was an ingenious red herring.

@BetterForgotten I actually believe GH would have made sense for Curlee's next chapter at that time.  The Quartermaines were still intact and front and center, and I imagine Curlee would have kept Monica Q vital a la Beverlee's Alexandra.  The rest of this is controversial, but I'll put it out there: The way GL made the Coopers into an atypical core family in the early '90s and gave Justin Deas lots of Emmy fodder—as controversial and problematic as it was—could have been a useful template for GH's Spencers and working with Tony Geary.  And it wouldn't have been at the expense of the Bauers because there was no family at all like that on GH.  Also, the types of stories Curlee, et al, gave to Roger could have informed an approach to the Sonny Corinthos character that might have kept him complex and engaging longer at that point.

That is all with the major caveat that The Mouse (or any other network at that point) would have had to let the writers the breathing room to do really good work.  By that point, I'm sad to say I doubt Curlee would have had much better luck at GH than Labine had at GL a few years later.

[Soaplovers]

Labine wasn't the right fit at GL.. she seemed to do better with more urban soaps..while GL was more mid size mid western town.

The one thing I did appreciate about Curlee and Simms watching those 1991 scenes was how both now understood what Alexandra was going through and why she had a vendetta against Roger/Mindy.  She was hurt, humiliated and felt like she was treated like a fool/idiot by both of them.

Curlee and Co really slanted the writing to Alexandra the antagonist when she was the one hurt and was the victim....that played out all the way until she quit in mid 1992.

[althea-davis]

A little flashback from this day in 1992.

Please register in order to view this content

[DramatistDreamer]

Not sure where else to place this but see if you can spot the “blink and you’ll miss it” moment with Jerry verDorn in this ABC News piece with Stephanie Mills, where she talks about how the buzz around The Wiz escalated once the promotion began in earnest as a result of the church groups attending performances in large numbers.

Please register in order to view this content

 

[DRW50]

Thanks. I'd never seen this. Jerry was earning that paycheck!

I have a lot of respect for Stephanie Mills too.

[Vee]

Oh, Jerry! He never failed to sell it.

I've had Stephanie Mills' Fletch theme song in my head for months since revisiting that movie not long ago. They would just throw bangers like that away on forgotten soundtracks back in the '80s, that's how many great tracks they put out in that era.