Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[j swift]

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Edited September 24, 2023 by j swift

[Contessa Donatella]

Yes, that is exactly what I quoted, one paragraph out of an SOD article. Is there some reason you saw requiring a duplication of it? If you think something is lacking, I have all of the paragraphs with the date as well. 

I want to clear something up. I'm amazed that it needs clarification but so be it. When I said I could just imagine Maureen's reaction to putting part of the blame on her character for her being raped, I was using a figure of speech, colorful language, possibly evocative of a cartoon scene. So, enough is enough. 

Edited September 26, 2023 by Donna L. Bridges

[GLATWT88]

Are any of the episodes from 1967-1969 available online? Curious about early Peggy, but some of the other characters of that time. 

[TEdgeofNight]

To be very clear, Maureen Garrett has been asked about her head exploding recently and she denies that. Don't believe everything the blogger says. Maureen is very accessible on social media.

[Contessa Donatella]

As if! Maureen Garrett is a very private person & is hardly accessible on Social Media. Don't believe odd persons who make stuff up. 

[TEdgeofNight]

True, Maureen Garrett is a private person, but she is not invisible. And she is on some social media and is accessible. #facts

[Contessa Donatella]

Oh, she absolutely drops into my forum every once in awhile. Yes, a fact. 

[chrisml]

TPTB on soaps had such icky views on women and sexual assault. In the eighties and nineties, it seemed like rape was happening on all the soaps. I wonder if the writing of Laura's rape on GH was the catalyst for all these rape stories/glorification of the rapist idiocy. I would like to think attitudes have changed, but I'm not sure they have on the soaps, but I don't watch any of the current ones so I'm not sure.

[Contessa Donatella]

Well, Bill Bell wrote Bill Horton loves Laura Spencer but hates that she married his brother & got drunk & morose & went & raped her & later she married him & had a child by him in the 70s. There was a belief in a sensitive, highly strung rapist who believed he loved the woman he raped. Luke was that type, too. NBC forced Donna Swajeski to write that Jake raped Marley. The 80s now. He was proving to her that she didn't want to divorce him. And that's 3 - DAYS, GH, AW. I guess it was all shows, all nets. It is surely a sorry part of soap history. 

[TEdgeofNight]

I'm gonna blog about Maureen Garrett. I have audio where she says that her head never exploded over the Roger stuff and yes, she is available on social media. 

[Mitch64]

They did...I hate when it's used as a sweeps stunt. I even hated Margo's rape as well done as it was..it took a strong funny character, and she became a morose shell of herself after that. I know the point was strong woman are raped, but old people are abused in real life and I didn't want to see Nancy Hughes being batted around.  The worst is when JFP threw away a promising character like Brent Lawrence, to try to make the audience like Lucy Cooper, by having him raper her. Cynical bullshit. 

However, I think the producer is as inept as his statement is, was trying to say that Roger and Holly were totally dysfunctional and it was both their fault...which is why I loved them over other dysfunctional "super couples" like Jeva that TPTB could never call them out  as.   I don't think he was trying to blame the rape on Holly but that she brought as much crazy as Roger did. 

[Contessa Donatella]

Given his overall reputation & given that it seems to me that he was a sensitive gay man who was out when very few people were & part of a committed couple I figure he was much more enlightened than his statement might lead us to believe & that he simply misspoke. Sometimes our words are not our friends. 

[DRW50]

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These are a little over a year apart, yet the show feels very different. I notice when watching back that GL feels more different from one regime to another than many soaps - maybe because of so much cast turnover. Probably the only interesting thing in the first, beyond the attempt at class warfare and the lovely Janet Jackson montage, is seeing Josh and Reva in an old movie fantasy. I didn't know they gave those to other characters beyond Quint and Nola. 

I had to laugh at Reva and Johnny, in the second episode, having to exclaim surprise at a piano being set up at the rundown bar just so that Reva could pad out a strike episode with a musical performance. I appreciate how in her original run Reva had close relationships with men that were platonic. Other than some of her interaction with Billy, and once or twice with Philip, they didn't bother with those nuances in her second stint. 

The amount of music playing in these episodes remind you why these can't be repeated.

Edited September 30, 2023 by DRW50

[kalbir]

When watching episodes from the main 1980s/1990s eras, GL feels like a different show each time.

Potter/Marland held its own against General Hospital when that show was at it's peak as a pop culture phenomenon. Storylines from that era that impacted GL until the end were Roger's fall off the cliff in Santo Domingo; Alan/Hope marriage; intros of Chamberlain, Lewis, Reardon families.

Kobe/Long Spring 1983-Summer 1984 set in motion characters and storylines that would carry GL through its final 25 years (Lewis family expanded and elevated to a main family, Phillip/Beth, Josh/Reva, Alexandra) but it was too much chasing 1980s trends.

Willmore/Long had the task of cleaning up the mess from the writer turnover of 1986 through first half of 1987, plus that era was also affected by the 1988 writer's strike. Storylines from that era that impacted GL until the end were intro of the Cooper family and returns of Holly and Roger.

Calhoun/Long/Curlee GL thrived despite the ratings not reflecting that.

JFP/Curlee July 1991-August 1992 coasted off the groundwork laid in the Calhoun era and the ratings increased that first year but the momentum didn't last. Then came the events of 1993 that changed the show forever and we know the rest.

[Soapsuds]

Thanks for posting!

GL had become too fluff for me. It was too campy for me and that's why I believe it was one reason the show tanked. Mindy and Frank? Ewwww ....I guess they were copying Lily and Holden from ATWT.

Dinah Marler and friends were cringe worthy 90210 ripoff.... Lol...and Ian played the part awfully twice.

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Edited October 1, 2023 by Soapsuds