Guiding Light discussion thread

[Fevuh]

I just started following this GL Instagram - they post some good clips! https://instagram.com/guidinglightcbs?igshid=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA==

[Mitch64]

Agreed...that is why I would have had Fletcher get killed by Brent/Marion(and not just because I dislike Hammer and Fletcher so much) He is on to the story of Alan working with Brent to steal from Spaulding...Alex frames Roger for it...Fletcher, being dumb annoying self righteous Fletcher is loudly pursuing Roger for it (in no small part out of jealousy) and Roger gets pissed and beats the tar of out Fletch just as they actually had him due in a scene. Holly sees the violence in Roger...Brent kills Fletch as he trips over the truth, and then frames Roger, and Holly( and all of SF ) go full on to get Roger convicted. After the truth comes out Holly realizes there will always be violence lurking under Rogers skinny and that she can never truly trust him and they go their separate ways though colliding into each other very often. 

I always wondered about Holly and Ed together as a tentpole..she would be no Maureen in the kitchen, but they are two damaged people who "get" each other and have an understanding of life.

[GL Oldtimer]

@Donna L. Bridges, the only exposure I've had to the rape scenes is what I saw via Roger Thorpe: The Scandal Years. I'm assuming there's a few places on YouTube where I might be able to find more from that time period. Even though I didn't watch the show in the 70s when Roger Thorpe was first on, he seemed like such a different character when he returned to the show in the late 80s.

@Fevuh, thank you so much for the link to the Instagram page. What fascinating posts!

@Soaplovers and @Mitch64, I think your ideas for ending the Roger and Holly pairing make so much more sense than what actually happened on the show. Using the couple's past as the catalyst for the relationship ending would have really played well with the couple's long and rich history on the show, a history that writers used very well at times, although not in this case. I knew Roger and Holly would never last, but to this day I still don't understand Holly's motivation for leaving Roger in favor of Fletcher. I think I'm still in shock that they got married and had a child! If someone has a reason for the character's motivation, I would love to hear it!

I've really enjoyed reading your thoughts about the Roger and Holly pairing. They were certainly a dynamic duo, and some of my favorite scenes were those when you could sense the yearning for each other underneath all that hate. I just found them fascinating to watch. I still do. 

Annette

[Contessa Donatella]

Watch this, Certain Rights, part 1 & then part 2 & you'll be set, unless you want to read about it. The actors talked about it, wonderfully! Michael talked about the shoot that day & that they used hand-held cameras to better get a feel for how much he menaced her. Maureen talked about how afraid Holly was & also about how she heard from so many women who had experienced it, etc. 

I found this: 

On one page there is a clip of the Roger/Holly/Marital Rape scene & after the clip, each actor speaks.

Zaslow: When people ask me what scene, what story I was the most proud of, it's this, it's the rape. For that we used hand-held cameras for the first time, to give people the sense, the feeling of Holly being menaced by Roger. And, well, it's like this, we did it in one day.

Garrett: No soap had previously done this, dealt with marital rape and it was just beginning to come out in the real public view, as well. To this day I get letters from women who are victims of danger in their own homes, telling me what the show meant to them, and means to them, still. Holly took Roger to court and they twisted it all around and tried to make it seem that she had done something to cause it, something wrong. Well, that part of the story went on for days and I would walk home, and Holly was afraid and I was afraid. And, I would say over and over and over again, "It's not my life. It's Holly's life. It's not my life. It's Holly's life. It's not my life. It's Holly's life."

Edited November 13, 2023 by Donna L. Bridges

[GL Oldtimer]

@Donna L. Bridges, thank you so much for posting these clips here so I could see them. The scenes are certainly very intense.

Thank you.

Annette

[Contessa Donatella]

Oh, you are very welcome. I did not see them live when it happened & so later I allowed myself to put off watching it. And, I just said to myself that I have seen Luke rape Laura. I have seen Bill rape Laura. I have seen Eden Capwell's stranger intruder rape but I have not watched this when I probably have more respect for the storytellers & the tale they told & I just needed to buck up & watch it. So I did & after I was glad I'd gotten with it. 

[Paul Raven]

Guiding Light’ writer looks for fresh ideas  Desert Sun 22 December 1983

By TOM JORY Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK (AP) - “Guiding Light” has been a daytime companion for millions since 1937, starting on radio and switching to TV after 15 years. Can anything new, really new, ever happen to the Bauers or the Reardons or any of the other folks in Springfield? “I get really upset,” says Pamela Long Hammer, principal writer for the CBS soap opera since March, “because I’ll come up with this neat scenario and someone will say, ‘That’s like “Strangers on a Train.’” “I think, ‘They keep stealing my material.’ “The way I figure it,” she says, “there are only so many stories in the world.

It’s the characters who keep the show new and exciting. All of our stories come from them: I don’t come up with a plot, and then work a character into it.” Continuity is important. Someone out there surely knows all that’s happened, to everyone on the show, in 46 years. How about Miss Long Hammer? "Nope. I care about what our core families have been doing,” she says. “I’m always interested in what happened to Bert Bauer (played since 1950 by Charita Bauer) 20 years ago, but as far as going back and reading scripts, no. “Others on the show keep track,” she says. “I’ll suggest something, and be told, ‘You don’t remember, but five years ago, they had this terrible fight. They would never speak to one another now.”’

Miss Long Hammer, a former Miss Alabama who came to New York as an aspiring actress in 1980, began writing for daytime television while playing Ashley on NBC’s “Texas.” She eventually wrote herself out of the story. Her staff for “Guiding Light” includes nine writers, among them her husband, Charles Jay Hammer, whom she met while both worked on “Texas.” NBC dropped “Texas” after two seasons, and episodes from the serial currently are being rerun on the Turner Broadcasting System’s cable-TV SuperStation, WTBS.

Gail Kobe, who was executive producer of “Texas,” now has the same job on “Guiding Light.” And Beverlee McKinsey, who played Iris Carrington in “Another World” on NBC, and later in "Texas,” will join the Light” cast of the CBS soap in February. Miss Long Hammer is reponsible for the long-term story, which can mean looking ahead 18 months or more. Staff writers deal with specifics, including the scripts for individual episodes. She says she draws on “imagination and instinct” for the “Guiding Light” story. Often, that involves inventing new characters. “‘I look at Vanessa (Maeve Kinkead), one of our leading ladies,” Miss Long Hammer says. "What could make the audience care more about her? “Then I think, ‘Why can’t she find a man she can love, who will also love her?’ Voila, here comes Billy Lewis (Jordan Clarke). “Another example,” she says, “is Alan Spaulding (Christopher Bernau). All of a sudden, he’s got a sister no one ever knew about. “They come complete,” says Miss Long Hammer of the serial’s characters, including the new ones. “We know who they are and where they came from long before the viewer gets all that information. That’s one of the most interesting things about daytime, the complexities of the characters.”

The writers make a big effort to keep the show contemporary, and four of the leading players are in their late teens or early 20s Judi Evans, who plays Beth Raines, Kristi Tasreau (Mindy Lewis), Grant Alcksander (Philip Spaulding) and Michael O’Leary (Rick Bauer). “Guiding Light,” longevity notwithstanding, is a moderate success by that ultimate yardstick of the industry; ratings. The show is behind only “General Hospital,” “All My Children” and “One Life to Live,” all on ABC, and CBS’ “The Young and the Restless,” among soaps. And Miss Long Hammer says she’s convinced writing is the key to even greater achievement. “When I say I love the characters, it’s not a light thing,” she says. “I think what the audience senses is an enthusiasm and an energy among the people who do the show.”

[SoapDope]

Lenore Kasdorf and her husband Phil Peters on Tattletales in 1976. Phil played Steven Farrell (Barbara's ex flame) on ATWT in 1978. 

 

[TEdgeofNight]

Alan Locher had Vincent Irizarry on The Locher Room earlier this week. Vincent spoke of an actor he had difficulty with early on. Greg Beecroft comes to mind.

[danfling]

At the time when Tracy Delmar (who was later revealed to be Charlotte Waring) was introduced and played by Victoria Wyndham, which actress was playing her "Aunt" Sara.

[wonderwoman1951]

a freebie from today’s ny times: 

i survived guiding light

[Paul Raven]

I believe Victoria/Tracey came on in November 67 which means that Patricia Roe was Sara. As we have discovered through research, dates recorded in reference books can be off, but from what we know this seems the most likely.

[Faulkner]

Watching now. Wow at this. He said the actor physically assaulted him twice. 

[Mona Kane Croft]

Did Irizarry and Beecroft have many scenes together?  I'm surprised they'd have much conflict otherwise.

[kalbir]

Wasn't it rumored that GA and VI had beef BITD? Look at the timelines. Both depart in 1985. GA returns 1987 to February 1991. VI returns July 1991 to February 1996. GA returns April 1996.