Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[kalbir]

Re: Alan recasts. We know Chris Bernau 1988 departure was due to unfortunate real-life circumstances and from what I've seen of Daniel Pilon run, his Alan felt like a stop-gap in order to wrap up Alan storylines and write the character off the canvas. Also half of 1988 was writer's strike material so that had an impact on the storylines as well. As for Alan return in 1994, my feeling is JFP wanted to cast one of her friends as Alan but the friend was either not available or not interested.

[vetsoapfan]

Ah, yes, those gray "wings" the show used to stick on Ellen Demming's hair to make Meta look older. Hilarious.

I did not realize Meta's pregnancy only lasted two months. Soaps are notorious for pregnancies lasting...forever! A shortened pregnancy like that would have vexed me at the time, for being absurdly unrealistic. Of course, I am used to kids being SORASed after they're born, although some shows handle the leaps in ages better than others.

Curiously, their peculiar idiosyncrasies end up making our shows all the more charming, LOL!

[P.J.]

I'm so happy! They posted German episodes that fill in gaps in 1990. Vanessa sinks her claws into Nadine. HEAVEN. 

[Paul Raven]

I wonder if they did some sort of time lapse . Maybe on a Monday, Meta mentions that she is now nearing her due date, telling Papa 'these last months have passed so peacefully for all of us.I hope my baby's birth can be as peaceful.'

And /or a narrator intones. 'Six months have passed in the lives of the residents of Selby Flats etc'

They only had one or two stories to deal with so maybe some updates to the listeners through dialogue and away we go. Just a thought...

Edited December 9, 2024 by Paul Raven

[vetsoapfan]

I would have accepted a time lapse like that; one being mentioned and acknowledged.

[Reverend Ruthledge]

There were occasional acknowledgements of the "dramatic-license" time that had passed but it was only occasional and there was no difference in the story being played out. Meaning, the announcer would occasionally say, "It was 2 years ago (or however much time), that such-and-such happened". This was sometimes accurate in real life, sometimes not. However, the story never jumped ahead much (except in the SORASing of children). The story would just continue on at a normal rate with no gaps. Time was just speeded up in regards mostly to children aging. In the instance of Chuckie's superhuman development in and out of the womb, there was no mention of it. The story would just continue at a normal rate and, in the background, Chuckie would just grow fast. There would be occasional comments, like Ray and Charlotte saying they had Chuckie for a couple of years when in reality they only had him less than a year at the same time no other storyline had progressed for two years. Does that make sense? Basically, the timeline was all over the place and Irna didn't seem to think the audience would care. With Meta's pregnancy, she was out of the story for a week or two before she had Chuckie so I supposed that was suppose to confuse listeners to think she had been gone longer. And, Meta was isolated during her pregnancy. She had run off to New York alone, was in a convent and when she returned to Los Angeles she lived alone in an apartment with no contact with anyone other than Mary Leland. So, the time discrepancies with the other storylines going on simultaneously weren't so noticeable. 

Edited December 9, 2024 by Reverend Ruthledge

[P.J.]

Did poor Nadine get a proper funeral? I caught part of the episode where Frank tells Buzz she was murdered, and had to stop watching Deas' yelly-ness.

Edited December 12, 2024 by P.J.

[Mitch64]

LOL..I watched that scene not long ago and can't believe how over the top and cartoonish he was acting. I actually felt sorry for Frank D.  The woman you shat on for years and ignored at best, instead of quiet mourning, he is screaming like his taxes just went up again!

No Nadine did not get a proper funeral. After mouldering away in the lake, when they found her she sat on a slab and Frank's cop partner said a rosary or prayer over her. I forgot about his female cop partner, they were trying to make them a item for a bit but it didn't work, but with the right actress could have been interesting as the Frank/Eleni thing was dead in the water with MK.

[DRW50]

She did get a funeral, I believe, because I remember being genuinely mad at a scene where Frank lays a rose on her coffin and says, "This is from Harley."

I assume the show got a lot of fan complaints over this because when Beth Ehlers returned for the anniversary and had those good scenes where she locked herself and Reva in the bathroom at the country club, she admitted she did not attend the funeral because she just couldn't face it.

I think the partner's name was Nell (McTavish must have loved that Jodie Foster movie). She was a decent actress, but they never gave her much of a chance.

I did like that we didn't actually hear the news (I think we just saw them through the window of the diner), although then didn't Buzz start throwing objects around...

Edited December 12, 2024 by DRW50

[Mitch64]

No there is a scene out there in the diner, where Frank tells Buzz and the scenery chewing commences...and I am sure the mags, and some fans, thought Deas was once again, hitting out of the ballpark ..(I am sure the fans at Yankee Stadium could hear Deas drowning then all out...)It was equal only to when Reva tells Buzz she is dumping him and he is racing back and forth on the set, flapping and screaming that even Zimmer is standing there at a loss (which was good, as the set could not take both of them chewing it up!)

I really don't remember a funeral but I could be wrong, maybe Frank laid a rose on her in the station.  I never liked Deeney but even I thought that was a crappy way to treat her...(first murdering her...then dumping her body in the diner garbarge..then making a joke out of it, "Have a little dinner food Deeney" ...the letting her rot away while everyone thought they skipped town...) GL still bruised from killing one Mom, goes and kills another?

Edited December 12, 2024 by Mitch64

[DRW50]

I would have to go try to track down 1996 episodes and I don't think I have the strength right now...

You're right - Nadine deserved better. Her death moment was strong but the whole thing was definitely very crash.

[Sapounopera]

Ron Hale (ex-Roger, RYAN'S HOPE) would have made an interesting Alan Spaulding.

[MichaelGL]

Add her having premonitions of her own murder. 
 

I might have been young watching this play out but Nadine was a favorite quirky little character that I liked very much and hoped one day she’d get a guy that truly valued her, which she’d get a chance to rub Buzz and Billy’s face in it and then she’d ride off happily into the sunset. 

But no, we got this gruesome mess, and it was around the same time as Frankie’s murder on AW. The P&G soaps were working overtime to turn me off as a viewer (and no addition of flashy new sets such as Bay City Hospital or the new Reardron kitchen could salvage the writing on these soaps).

[Mitch64]

Ha..I loved the Reardon kitchen..the little touches like the fading rose wallpaper and the wooden hutch made it look like an old victorian house..too bad Rauchie didnt care for the set or the Reardons...(I remember a bad kitchennette he gave Nola in her "Stalking Buzz" days in her room. Rauchie, its not a flop house...)

Nadine also had the trucker guy who wanted to be with her but she was hung up on Buzzard. So McTrash forgot he existed (or he left town) but they could have had her just marry him and leave town happy.

[bboy875]

Nadine did get a small funeral, or maybe at the burial, I think it was outdoors. There was a flashback or two. I remember SOD called the show out, saying that Nadine was connected to others in Springfield, but the Coopers were the only one's there. I hated that they killed off Nadine, as much as I hated them having her and Jenna attached to Buzz's hip. I also hated watching Brent kick her body in the river, knowing her body would be decomposed once resurfaced. I will say having her predict her murder was inventive, and knowing there is usually a cast purge when a new EP/HW comes in, raised the stakes in the Brent story, wondering/worrying about who might be next. Crazy thing though, I wondered if the show would pair her with Cutter, and Brent killed him right after her