Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[Mona Kane Croft]

When James Riley was writing Guiding Light, were there any hints of the campy garbage he would unleash on Days of Our Lives just a few years later?   Surely there must have been hints of his campy madness.   Somebody, spill the GL tea...

Edited January 25 by Mona Kane Croft

[Maxim]

I'm also interested to know! Good question! 

[Contessa Donatella]

I'm not an expert but I am under the impression that he went along more or less with Nancy Curlee & her husband Stephen Demorest. You know the story, right? If not, say so & I will relate it. Anyway, he wrote going by rules, respecting time, staying in bounds. I don't think him in this kind of Triumvirate is at all the same as him by himself & on his own. That's when he gets into trouble. 

[Mona Kane Croft]

No, I don't know the story.  Can you share a bit of it?  Thanks

[Contessa Donatella]

When Nancy Curlee & her husband heard that the suits were putting them together with Jimmy (she calls Reilly Jimmy) they were suspicious. They thought because they had such different writing styles from him that TPTB were up to something, even perhaps planning this to sabotage them. So, they decided they would "show them" by uniting as a single front working together so the suits could not "get them." Most people think this worked brilliantly.

When I think about this kind of shenanigans going on in the power levels of BTS at a soap, frankly it makes me go UGH. I mean how awful to have to have concerns like that when you are trying to create a soap.

Edited January 25 by Contessa Donatella
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[Mona Kane Croft]

Thanks for the information.  I hadn't been aware of any of this.  I'd be curious to know what Riley's "writing style" was, and how it differed from Curlee's.  But I doubt that kind of information is available from so long ago.  I was completely unfamiliar with Riley until he was writing DOOL in the 1990s.  I don't think I had even heard his name previous to DOOL.  

[Contessa Donatella]

As you might know, I am not a fan. But, I think I can be fair. And, I tend to have curiosity even about those I do not like. To begin near the beginning. He graduated from Brigham Young with a triple major: psychology, biology & social anthropology (whatever that last one even is).

When he began his career writing soaps this is where he wrote, in order: RH, GH, Y&R, GL, BEACH, DAYS, PSSN. (Actually he wrote at DAYS both before & after Sunset Beach.) The writing style he is famous for can be seen at DAY & BEACH & PSSN of course. 

I explained to AI chat about the dilemma Curlee faced & I asked AI chat what Reilly's style was in 1991. Keep in mind AI can be wrong. This was the reply:

So then I said that it seemed his style never changed. He replied that it evolved over time but that certain markers were always present. It was a question of degrees.

The way I explain it to myself is that before DAYS, at more traditional soaps, Reilly followed rules & then, on his own, he either threw out all rules or made up his own rules. This time is also where IMO he gets into big trouble.

Edited January 25 by Contessa Donatella
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[Mona Kane Croft]

It sounds as if AI was describing Riley's writing style at DOOL and Passions, not his earlier work.  Because even though I hadn't heard of him, I did watch most of those soaps you listed him working on earlier, and I don't remember anything supernatural or even particularly over the top, aside from GH, which did some over the top stunts -- but still never as bad or campy as DOOL or Passions.    

I don't have much faith in AI to get the history of anything right.  I see posts written by AI on Facebook every day, and they are always riddled with errors that even I can detect.  I'm afraid AI is making the internet even less accurate than is already was -- especially when it comes to historical details.   But I could be wrong.  

By the way, I'm not criticizing you for using AI for research.  Just stating that my limited experience with it has not been positive.

[Contessa Donatella]

I tend to agree, completely.

Edit to add: I meant to say didn't RH do a way OTT story about Delia & a gorilla? Makes me wonder if Reilly wrote that. I think I'll ask Tom Lisanti if he knows.

I don't think you are wrong here. 

I like using it as long as I am in possession of a whole lot of grains of salt, which I always am. But, I also like catching it in errors & schooling it. And, I do that a lot! LOL, possibly perverse but I do not care.

And, to bend over in trying to be fair, I only find it a bit worse, in terms of errors, than imdb & wikipedia, not a lot worse. Basically Internet sources are suspect.

In the past it was a whole lot worse, which tells me that the people who feed info into their AI systems are including more soap history which I find encouraging but odd. 

Still, my very most favorite soap/AI error was very early on. I asked it what soap & character did Susan Lucci's daughter play. It replied that Liza was being played by Jamie Luner. I was going for Liza on PSSN. It got the wrong Liza on the wrong show but it got A Liza. I told it what its error was & it told me it was so upset that it couldn't talk to me any more & shut down. 

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Edited January 25 by Contessa Donatella
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[kalbir]

James Reilly work as part of that great GL early 1990s writing team is such a contrast to his work at Days.

James Reilly worked fine as part of the GL writing team but AFAIK he was left to his own devices at Days, and we saw what happened from 1993-1997. Yes Days recovered in the ratings, but daytime was shaken at a level not seen since ABC's huge rise and domination some 15 years earlier.

[Sapounopera]

Bridget Reardon was in some ways the Sami prototype. 

[Mona Kane Croft]

Did Riley create Sami?  Or at least the adult Sami?

Yes, I remember it really shook daytime. And a few other soaps tried to copy his style.  I don't believe any took it as far as he did, but they swayed in the direction.  

[Maxim]

Do you think it shook it in a good way... or a bad way? 

[Liberty City]

I see it less of interviews and more of "conversations" with his guests/old pals.

It's the PR side of him, erring on the side of caution/protection, etc. That'd be my guess.

[Contessa Donatella]

No, I do not think so. Ally Sweeney began playing Sami in 1987 & James E. REILLY wrote "Buried Alive" in 1993. But, I'm not sure what an impact he may have had on Sami because her rape & subsequent shooting Alan Harris, her rapist, in the genital area was also in 1993, I believe. Unsure. You may be onto something. 

I'm not sure who was writing Sunset Beach for, just one example, the turkey baster story, but there were some pretty OTT stories on that show, I think. 

But, it's no surprise that there would be copy catting on the general theme of "outrageous" stories & that is because Reilly maintained ratings at a time when almost everyone else had  decline & he got new viewers during that same timeframe. Even though he lost veteran fans. 

I mean someone at CBS insisted that GL do the clone story. Don't you think that was likely in reaction to Reilly's success at DAYS?

IMO bad.