Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[Contessa Donatella]

Actually, in a way, several people employ her method. Agnes did, by saying it all out loud & it being taped on her dictaphone. Bill Bell said he did it, also, but after he'd said all of it out loud, he did type it up on his trusty IBM Selectric. Jamey Giddens claims to also say everying out loud. he has not said how it gets typed or written down

[DRW50]

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[wonderwoman1951]

many playwrights and screenwriters read their dialogue aloud, but irna’s method was unique. don’t remember where i read this, but she once said that like scheherazade, she required a live audience, which is why she dictated directly to her secretaries rather than use a dictaphone.

Edited January 18 by wonderwoman1951

[Maxim]

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[Contessa Donatella]

Who is this laughig? Is it Kamala?

[Contessa Donatella]

Very amusing & also, yes, you're very correct that he does not belong. 

[Contessa Donatella]

Again, from this collectors edition Weekly, the final page:

THANK YOU, GUIDING LIGHT
A Tribute
GUIDING LIGHT ... 
For the hundreds of love stories and the thousands of smiles, laughs and surprises ... For teaching us how to care for and help each other, like Bert and her Bauers, Bea and her Reardons, Buzz and his Coopers, H. B. and his Lewises, Henry and his Chamberlains and (sometimes) Alan and his Spauldings ... For giving us strength and faith through the most trying times ... for telling us to live life to the fullest, whether you're in Illinois, Barbados, Bosnia or New Jersey ... For showing us that love knows no bounds of age (Matt and Vanessa) of time (Josh and Reva) or of gender (Olivia and Natalia) ... For more than 72 years of true romance, pure escapism and complete joy ... THANK YOU -- Marc Wikofsky
 

[P.J.]

When did GL really embrace that they were located in Illinois? I was rewatching the end of the Eli Simms story, and Bert has a curious line. They're talking about Bill having received a speeding ticket on the way home, and Bert says "it was a small town in Illinois". 

I guess it could've been a slip by Charita, but it just seems curious.

 

 

[Mona Kane Croft]

I can't answer your question directly.  But I do remember a strange explanation in the soap-press maybe in the mid to late-1990s.  There was some conversation about Springfield being in Illinois, and a representative from the show, or from P&G said something like the following (I'm paraphrasing), "Guiding Light's Springfield is in Illinois, but it is not the capital of Illinois. Yes, the capital of Illinois is Springfield, but Guiding Light's Springfield Illinois is a different Springfield. It is not the capital." And that seemed like a ridiculous explanation to me.  How could there be two fairly large cities in Illinois, both named Springfield?? Especially when the real Springfield Illinois is the state capital??  It was really rather an offensive comment.  It was as if the P&G representative was saying -- "Oh, this is just a soap opera, and we all know it's all pretend anyway. And nobody cares about the reality of the situation."  What a way to belittle your audience.  

[P.J.]

LOL....Well....actually I kind of get that. They wanted to represent Springfield as a smaller town (as small as a town could be with multiple conglomerate HQ's, an international airport and the former queen of an island nation in residence). They never wanted it to be the capital city.

 

 

[Mitch64]

It shouldn't have been in Illinois then (though states do have cities with this same name...) the show's logo is the lighthouse...there are very few lighthouses in Illinois, so if they wanted the town to be midwestern, just make it Michigan, Springfield is on Lake Michigan, and that would explain how people could have "yahts" ..as Illinois is pretty landlocked if your not Chicago, or the northern burbs. 

[Khan]

Or, they could've located it in Missouri, since it seemed to be so easy for characters like Josh and Reva to travel to Tulsa and Cross Creek (which does not exist, by the way).

[P.J.]

In looking it up, Springfield is a fairly common name. According to wiki, Father Knows Best and Leave it to Beaver also took place in a Springfield (not to mention, The Simpsons). I'm guessing whenever Guiding Light moved from Selby Flats to Springfield, somewhere USA, didn't ever really think we'd care where in the USA it was. 

 

Second question...please tell me they didn't fire Chris Bernau in 1984. They just couldn't have been that stupid.

[Khan]

I've long suspected (without evidence) that Bernau left in '84 due to AIDS.  He returned two years later, of course, and attempted to keep working, even as he fought the disease privately.  By 1988, however, the disease was too far gone, and Bernau was forced to quit the second time.

[Mona Kane Croft]

You are right, Mitch64.  If your soap opera town is named Springfield, DO NOT say it is in Illinois, unless you intend it to be the state capital. Put it in Michigan or northern Ohio.  But Hell, Agnes Nixon was the head-writer who moved GL's location from Selby Flats California to Springfield -- and knowing her tendencies, she probably wanted it to be in Pennsylvania.  Sadly, I'm not sure there are any lighthouses in Pennsylvania.  

There was really no logical reason most of the P&G soaps were suddenly said to be in Illinois beginning in the 1980s.  Previous to that silly decision, the fans of various soaps just made their own assumptions about which state any soap opera took place in.  For example, I think most fans assumed Edge of Night took place in Ohio, Another World took place in Michigan, ATWT took place in Illinois. And I really haven't a clue in which state fans of Guiding Light or Search for Tomorrow assumed those to shows took place.  But to arbitrarily cram them all into Illinois in the 1980s was ridiculous, and spread suspension of disbelief a little too thin, in my opinion.