Jump to content

Guiding Light Discussion Thread


Paul Raven

Recommended Posts

  • Members

You're right in that respect---GL's family dynamics are certainly more true to real life. It's one of the reasons Maureen was important to the canvas. She gave a lot of characters without family (or a weak family unit like Blake or even Vanessa at the end) someone to lean on and let you know it was okay to be messed up. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 17.4k
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

Posted Images

  • Members

I agree they may not have felt like established Bauers, especially Trudy, but I think bringing one or both in could have eventually established some balance, and Meta had such a rich past while Trudy was a blank canvas. A foster care story given to one of them instead of India with Dorie might have made sense and provided a young female voice to the Bauers they wouldn't have again until Michelle, by which point they were fully depleted. The show wouldn't have been in a place where Maureen was relied on as a matriarch when she wasn't even 40 years old.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

They should've brought someone in when they knew Charita's health was failing. And I'll never understand why they didn't keep Lee Lawson. Mo was still there, and Chelsea (rme...that girl..) They'd even established that Bea had other kids who hadn't been shown. Or even bring in a grandkid for her to raise before Bridget.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Was he dropped along with Barbara and Adam in 81?

The trouble with those characters is they only had past ties to the canvas.

Leslie had died 5 years earlier but it seemed longer. They really should have let her and Mike have a son before she died to keep the Bauer name and legacy.

That would have bonded Steve and Bert-maybe leading to marriage? Or at least a close courtship.

All of Barbara's kids were gone and Adam's only link was 'dead' Roger.

So I can understand from that viewpoint why they were dropped.

Edited by Paul Raven
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I would never burn Company down...it was the one consistent "location" (which was changed constantly, remember when McLaiby turned it into a "hip" nightclub looking place and Rauch ( in one good decision) turned it back into a restraunt/bar without any comment from any character?  Company, the Bauer House, Cedars and the Spauling Mansion were the corner stone locations of GL (though the sets changed through the years, except for the Bauer house) 

I do love Nola as the nosy Bauer aunt...(GL's Liz Matthews/Lisa Grimaldi combo) and I do like Reva running a roadhouse..burn that freaking diner down (which they finally did for good) and have Reva/Buzz as friends running a dive on the outskirts of town ..though I always wanted Reva/Nola to run up against each other..they should have had Bridget/Dylan marry on screen and have some scene with the "moms" trying to arrange things and getting on each other's nerves. 

 

I remember that scene and it was written more of this skeevy old closet case coming on to sweet young Luke...but it was freaking LL who looked great and I watched it and thought "Luke you, dumb ass I would jump on THAT and forget the boring boyfriend." 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

What little I have seen of Lynn Adams as Leslie I was not too impressed. I remember that hilarious clip of her constantly flubbing her lines like she was on something. Charita (Bert) was a pro and kept going. I was more impressed with Barbara Rodell as Leslie in the 1973 episode surrounding Papa Bauer's funeral.

Was Kathryn Hays as Leslie just a temp recast ?

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I have a feeling that Kathryn Hays was a replacement for Lynne Adams but it didn't work out for some reason and she was dropped. I say this because Kathryn had done primetime  and it seems unlikely she would just temp.

Barbara Rodell went straight from Secret Storm to GL. Maybe once Barbara became available they thought she would be a better fit. 

Maybe some of our posters have more knowledge/info.

Kathryn never spoke of GL in interviews and I've never seen reports from that time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

It would be interesting to find out why Kathryn didn't stay in the role. She may have been pulled because Irna wanted her for Kim. I don't know how long it was between her stint on GL to ATWT.  KH was always a delight. My Mom says she remembers when arrived on ATWT and how beautiful she was. 

I think I remember reading Geraldine Court was the first Jennifer Ryan briefly before GS took over the role. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I think I remember Alan Locher asking Kathryn Hays about playing Leslie Bauer and she didn't remember it. Since her daughter announced she had dementia towards the end, that's more understandable. Then again, maybe I am the one misremembering and she didn't say she didn't remember during the interview. Memory's a tricky thing. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.



  • Recent Posts

    • I know some of y'all really like Brooke Kerr, and so I've tried to give her a shot, despite her frequent flat line readings and distracted "did I leave the front door unlocked?" facial expressions. But lord, she is so bad at playing a tough-talking badass that I was actually rooting for Brad today to spill the beans to Drew. 
    • Googling does tend to ruin it.  For those of us who were teens in the late 1970s and early 1980s, you can't imagine how much fun it was to watch the show in the afternoons.  (It came on right after school.)  There weren't any "spoilers" at the time.  We would always try to anticipate how each crime and each mystery would be resolved, and we were ALWAYS wrong, because the stories are filled with so many weird twists and turns.   The head writer (Henry Slesar) and his dialogue writer (Steve Lehrman) invariably toss genuine clues directly into your face in the most unlikely ways, but then they provide a host of "red herrings" to completely confuse you and send you off on the wrong path.  Once the story reaches its conclusion, all you can think is Why didn't I figure that out weeks ago?  lol
    • Does the vault have the original scene and not the short flashback?
    • I appreciate that you are using AI with the knowledge of it's limitations. Some posters take everything it produces as fact.
    • And of course Mama Ru herself appeared on All My Children.
    • The Saturday 8pm slot usually had the lowest rating of the NBC 4 sitcom lineup for some reason. NBC let Saturday night fizzle, They used 9.30 pm to launch 227 and Amen, both of which moved to earlier in the evening but they  kept Empty Nest following GG for several seasons.  Empty Nest should have moved to 8pm with their strongest new sitcom at 9.30, anticipating that GG would eventually falter. Instead they left them there and stretching the sitcom pool too thinly on other nights. When Grand talk over at 9.30 Thurs maybe Night Court and Wings could have been used on Saturday.
    • @Maxim Great to see your mini-reviews again. There are a number of clips on Youtube of Janice's slow mental breakdown, especially as we go into January 1980. Christine Jones is just superb. She played the hell out of that role. Something which isn't referenced as much later on is how Mitch pushed Janice's doubts and mental instability for his own ends...until suddenly he didn't want to anymore (I guess he caught on with the audience and the show became wary). I don't want to post a bunch of clips, but this one has a very good confrontation between Rachel and Janice.

      Please register in order to view this content

      This has a good scene around 7 minutes in where you can see Janice struggling internally with her need to identify herself so much by the men around her, all of which helps lead to her crackup.  
    • It really made Oscar the Doorman seem like an imbecile.   I think the show's unusual format & subject manner is what makes EON often seem less "dated" and "old-fashioned" than other shows from that time period.  It never attempted to be especially "trendy" or "modern" -- and its film noir style is pretty timeless.  
    • Dallas, Dynasty, Knots and Falcon Crest all had good runs but by 85 they had seen better days. I think they were a victim of the format. After several seasons seeing the same characters front and center viewers were bored. What was once fascinating grew predictable. JR, Alexis etc had to be front and center and after a while their schemes and shtick grew repetitive. JR remarrying Sue Ellen, Alexis constantly trying to get he better of Blake etc Unlike daytime, there wasn't the flexibility to bring in other stories and characters and maybe let the likes JR go backburner. That same mentality also invaded daytime with characters like  Sonny and Victor still peddling the same stuff after decades. I guess the same could be said for MSW eg every week Jessica encounters a crime and solves it,but I think viewers come to that format with a different mindset.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy