Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[Contessa Donatella]

I wondered if you were really saying DK! 

David Forsyth is a great suggestion. I know he could play it. Personally I was not fond of Gentry. If only we could tweak the past. 

There was a meme that went around that said that the Bennifer wedding reset the timeline to 2004. With that set of circumstances what would you change? 

On GL I would fire Bradley & Frank & keep Jerry on contract. Also when everyone but Kim took the pay cut I would've fired Kim. (Unfair to the others not to.) I would've done away with both the island principality & the mob. (Gotta fire David, too, no need for Edmund.) Danny Santos would be discovered to be a long lost grandson of Mike Bauer. I would've recast Rachel Miner & Bryan Buffington. There would never have been a Grady or a Cyrus. I would have never hired Marty West. There would have been no baseball diamond set. Ellen Weston would have never been propped by co-HWs. I don't care how much fun Carrie Nye was BTS, there would have been no Maryanne Carruthers story. It goes without saying the words "sock puppet" would never be uttered. I would still tell the stories of Otalia & Jami. OH! Ben Reade, not a sex worker & no suicide. Find a way to keep Aubrey Dollar. 

 

So, 2004, what would you change? 

[Mona Kane Croft]

I remember a couple of the soap magazines suggested Gil Gerard was being considered as an Ed recast.  But I have no idea what his physical condition (and appearance) was at that time. It may have been a rumor or someone's wishful casting, but I did see it in print.  David Forsyth had the acting chops, but he seemed to young to play Ed, in my opinion.   

[TEdgeofNight]

Ellen Wheeler was the most inept producer. Kim Zimmer said that Ellen cried all the time. Ellen, we cry because you killed GL!  Peapack!! Worst idea ever!!

[Contessa Donatella]

People who were there said Kim cried all the time, too. 

[China Jones]

I agree! While I'm glad that the actors and crew got to work for another year-and-a-half or so, I have to wonder if the end result was worth it. Maybe it would have been better to be unemployed than have your name attached to the inferior product that Guiding Light became during the Peapack era.

[DRW50]

I think most actors would rather have the job. I don't really believe there was a huge industry stigma attached to Peapack. To most people, GL was a show their mother or grandmother watched, and not something still on the air in 2009. I don't hear Murray Bartlett going around saying that filming on the cheap for a year hurt his career.

[Contessa Donatella]

And, it's not just the actors. Also crew, staff, etc. I agree that they didn't suffer from some stigma. Yes, they did suffer because they worked under hardship conditions. And, I believe working with the threat of cancellation carries a serious level of stress, too. But, when push comes to shove, obviously people would choose to continue working. In fact, they actually did choose to. And there was an article, either 2007 or 2008, that indicated that GL was the only soap making money. Clearly, that's a double-edged sword. They were working on such a hardship budget, on the cheap, that that is what it took to be profitable. Yikes. 

[China Jones]

Yes, I guess you're right, considering the fact that even I wasn't watching in 2009: I recently viewed the Peapack era on YouTube. The thing is, I used to watch GL (and the whole CBS daytime line-up) with my grandmother, so it was kind of tough to see one of the shows we looked at together go out like that.  

 

[Khan]

I agree.  Peapack was an embarrassment for everyone concerned.  Nevertheless, a lot of people were depending on its' success in order to maintain their livelihoods. 

In the end, you can't fault anyone responsible for trying to do whatever they could to keep GL going and keep everyone employed.  They just needed more competent leaders at the helm.

Gil Gerard would have made for a better Clint Buchanan recast on OLTL.

I, myself, would have reached out to Mart Hulswit to see whether he were interested in returning to the show.  He might not have been a hunk, but I think Ed was past being a romantic lead anyway.  Plus, having him there with Maureen Garrett as Holly might have made the Sebastian storyline less absurd.

[kalbir]

Yet Ellen Wheeler was EP for some 5 1/2 years. Of all the EPs GL had in its final 25 years, Ellen Wheeler had the second longest run after Paul Rauch (6 years).

[DRW50]

I can respect that. To be honest, any shame that I think my family would have felt with what GL had become had already happened. For me, anything after the decision to claim Ben was sexually abused and being sexually abused made him a serial killer was just not going to reach such a low...although goodness knows they tried with that incest-loving hambone Jonathan, Cassie's kid who electrified his father and got lots of closeups looking pouty to make sure we knew he was evil, and so on.

[Spoon]

You remember the speculation that Stuart Damon was being considered as an Ed Bauer recast?  I would've liked to see Mart return in the role as that tied into GL's past.

Absolutely.  If they couldn't have gotten GA back, they should've made a call to John Bolger.

 

[Spoon]

It's silly to have an "off-screen" Phillip being an elusive boogey-man.  It's bad storytelling.  Let other players share the spotlight, but that story was weak.  They never should've revealed Phillip was alive until they were able to show him on-screen- it was so stupid. Show, don't tell.

[Contessa Donatella]

I may just have to call this another Minority Rapport. I actually liked Phillip's return. 

[Vee]

I never understood why they made Phillip into the Big Bad both in his exit and then offscreen, had him invisibly stalking his family and friends for several years as they struggled to get GA back, etc. and then when he does show up he is mostly fine! Very little is mentioned of his psychotic break or all the crazy stuff he's pulled both before and after his 'death!' Except for one thing, when he literally throws that creep Grady off a cliff and no one ever finds out! They just go back to more folk-rock scenes of Phillip strolllng the dilapidated streets and bonding with people! WTF?!

Edited December 27, 2023 by Vee