Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[MichaelGL]

I've always felt like it was a missed opportunity to not bring back India and her now adult daughter Dorie (remember her? lol), and explore that relationship. 

[Mitch64]

No Jeff Ryder was still headwriter. Its weird in a podcast, when the host was asking Pam Long about the Bauers..she says she didn't dislike them or write them out and she said she couldn't Jeff Ryder wouldnt let her as he loved GL history. Uh, no.

 

I actually liked her 99 return..she actually made RR look good and while they had no sexual chemistry, I never felt that MKA (or RR for that matter)  had that with anyone. I really thought she could have taken the place of BevAlex in the Spaulding family, an interesting combo of good and Spaulding ruthless, who took care of the ones she loved and ripped the heart out of her enemies with no remorse.  But Rauchie deemed her, "a dog," and that was that.

[kalbir]

We know from the ratings threads that GL started dropping in 1986 and the ratings dropped until JFP first year. Also the turnover in the EP/HW ranks from 1986 until the end of the decade had an impact as well.

Edited August 24, 2024 by kalbir

[Mitch64]

While the Bert funeral was going on, Marland was over at ATWT centering the show around the Hughes and history. In an interview at the time, they asked Ryder if he watched other shows for inspiration..he said, "Everyone tells me to watch ATWT and do what they are doing, but you have to go with what you feel is right for the show." So along with Long's comments that people who are mad about the Bauers need to get over it, show that a lot of this is on the writers and not just P& G.

[SoapDope]

Late 1969 (aired January 14, 1970) episode of Medical Center. Robert Gentry ( ex-Ed) plays the fiancé of Tyne Daly. Tyne plays Jennifer Lochner the daughter of Dr. Lochner (played by Tyne's real life Dad James Daly). This was not too long after Gentry left GL.

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[Sapounopera]

Jeff darling, you have no idea how right those people were. 

[Contessa Donatella]

In general & going by Organizational theory, American businesses are copycats. Soaps, as we  know, take that to the most extreme points that are possible. And, the thing is, it's not good for business. It is clearly not good for soaps. At one point in the rosy  somewhat distant past each soap had its own individual character, scope, fictional socio-political landscape. Your people, places & things, all different. No more. Not hardly. So, what Gloria Monty may have been right for GH at that moment in time, did not mean it was right for each & every soap. Same thing goes for Reilly & what he begat at DAYS. Luke on GH sported a white man's Afro & suddenly Roman on DAYs curly headed, Travis on SFT also curly headed. You get the picture.

[bboy875]

Didn't Dorie have a relationship with Dinah when they were introduced? Another missed opportunity 

[P.J.]

Yes, they considered themselves sisters.

[DRW50]

I have a vague memory of her being mentioned by Dinah in the Moniz era but I may be wrong. I probably am.

And then India mentioned her (didn't she go broke paying for her care or something).

They should have brought her back, even if she probably would have ended up marrying Alan or some other horror story.

[DRW50]

I think he was right, in that I don't believe the path to improving ATWT would have worked for GL, but the problem is he was not a good writer or a good fit for the show either. 

[P.J.]

ATWT had a path that GL didn't. Yes, I'd rather have seen anyone from the late 70's return rather than been inundated by the parade of newbies in '85-86 (I was watching some of the Infinity story today, and I'm shocked that 99% of the characters that had been on the show less than two years)  But other than Mike, Hope and Alan, I'm not sure who would've truly felt "core" to me and they'd have been able to build around.

It had to have been with Moniz, I'm sure by the time GT came on, Dorie was completely forgotten. Maybe India mentions something about paying for her college during the Phillip's ex-wives' club meeting?

[DRW50]

There might have been a few - as others have said, I think there was an opening to bring back Meta much earlier, or Trudy, and I also think Justin (Tom O'Rourke) or Elizabeth or Peggy and her son should have been brought back - but I think there was a certain spirit to GL which was unique to it and so many who ran the show in those years didn't understand. ATWT had a stillness while GL had a certain rawness. Yet for much of 84-87 or so they just try to be as slick as possible.

[soapfan770]

Unfortunately in regards to the Bauer family obviously the writers of the 50’s, 60’s, and early 70’s severely limited them with their choices the show made and later writers made it more convoluted and difficult.

I suppose Bill and Bert could’ve had more children but they just had Mike and Ed. Compare this to David and Ellen over on ATWT who started out with Paul and Dan but then had Annie and Dee or the Brady family on Days. 

Bill of course was later given as the father to Hilary and Paul Kincaid but strangely Paul never appeared on screen.

Trudy and Clyde never had children.

Meta had her son killed, then gained a stepdaughter Kathy and had another son Joey but of course Kathy was killed and Joey just disappeared into the woodwork. 

Mike ended up with Hope and that was it. He almost had another with kid with Charlotte but it didn’t happen.

Hope had no other kids apparently outside of A-M when in reality she should’ve.

Ed I guess could have had good bundle ie Had his son with Rita lived or actually having a couple kids with Maureen in addition to fathering Michelle but the show always gave Maureen the short end of the stick on kids (two miscarriages and adoption misfire WTF) before she died.

People complained about “fake Bauers” but Johnny lasted a few years there. I think a Bauer expansion could’ve worked but the writing and casting were all wrong. I like the idea and later on ATWT’s Jack Snyder proved it could work. I think the proper casting of more dynamic actors and good writing characters like Johnny, Lacey, and the proposed ones of Todd, Don, Doug and Scorr could’ve worked well but the show chose another route that didn’t work at all. 
 

The undoing of Rick being Kevin’s dad, as preposterous as it was, was completely pointless and unnecessary to reverse it. Sheesh. Leah’s strange SOARsing was a disaster. 
 

Finally, the show not following through on the intention of Cassie being Bill Bauer’s daughter. 

[DRW50]

I hadn't heard that. GL certainly had more absurd retcons involving the Bauers. And it might have brought some drama when Danny and Cassie were almost paired.