Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[Franko]

Megan mentioning Kim Zimmer's I'm Just Sayin' as a book similar to hers makes me wonder if she was hoping Kim would give a dust jacket endorsement.

 

[DRW50]

It's interesting she doesn't mention Kim (beyond the book) or almost anyone at GL, even though she got her daytime start there. 

Beyond what @Mitch64 mentioned (I wasn't surprised about Maureen being a lesbian, after she returned and was put in some of the Otalia scenes, but the Mimi Torchin stuff did surprise [and reminded me of how messy the latter's SPW run increasingly seemed]), all she says with GL is the somewhat offputting story of how she merrily murdered Nadine because Jean Carol went to SOD to ask her for storyline. I read that blurb back in the day and it never came across as arrogant to me - at most it was a little foolhardy. Her response came across as borderline sadistic. And she talked about Frank Beaty, just sharing more about his breakdown. She did praise his work highly. 

She also mentioned that she only felt safe in her headwriting job at GL for the first three months. 

[Khan]

I can just imagine the blurb: "Megan's new book is a rip-roarin' read!  It'll make you laugh, it'll make you cry, it'll make you go Amish!"

Which is about how long it took for P&G and Michael Laibson to realize they'd been sold a bill of goods.

[DRW50]

Either that or, "Megan didn't say anything about MY facelift, so go read her damn book!"

(not saying Kim had a facelift, just thought it was a funny line...)

That's also around the peak of her success at GL, probably. 

Her brief mention of how poorly Laibson handled talent does make me wonder if that's why he never worked in soaps again, AFAIK. I hadn't heard anything along those lines about him at AW, but he mishandled so much at GL.

Edited March 17 by DRW50

[Khan]

He did work briefly at AMC, as Senior Producer, but I can't recall whether he was still there when Megan McTavish returned in late 1997.

And I don't know about anyone else, but I, for one, did not need to read the intimate details of Frank Beaty's heartbreaking nervous breakdown.

Edited March 17 by Khan

[DRW50]

Thanks. I didn't remember he was at AMC. Looks like he was there at the same time as McTavish, if IMDB is accurate.

[Mitch64]

I didn't read that part? Carol went to SOD to ask Megan for a storyline (in all fairness, Nadine's tenure was over, but I wouldnt have killed her, and been happy about it...?)

[DRW50]

From what someone in the AMC thread said, she also went to McTavish and they had a good conversation as far as Jean knew...I guess McTavish must have felt Jean was going to SOD to try to pressure her. Or maybe she was looking for any excuse to justify such an ugly killing. It helps explain more why she went out of her way to have Brent being so callous and making digs against Nadine. It's a very bad way to write. 

I am trying to remember if any GL cast have ever said much about their time working with Megan.

[TEdgeofNight]

I’m not so sure about the Maureen Garrett/Mimi Torchin thing. Mo had a long term relationship with her partner Janet back then. Also, Megan talked about Frank Beaty and his breakdown and said he freaked out on 26th Street. GL was on East 44th Street then. I do question a couple of her recollections. 

[P.J.]

Yeah....I need a shower after reading that. If that ever got published, I think I'd hope ever actor mentioned sued. Funny how she's never to blame for what makes it on air. Maybe that's why she can't talk about GL much...

 

[chrisml]

Thank you to the people in this thread and the AMC one who summarized McTavish's book because I'm not reading hateful stuff. The Carol stuff as that is just catty and expected, but to put Frank Beaty's personal health stuff into her memoirs is cruel and unnecessary. It confirms for me everything I ever thought about her work. There's no need for that kind of bile.

[kalbir]

I know the EP switch from JFP to Michael Laibson was May 1995 but when did Megan McTavish become HW? Laibson/McTavish were both gone in 1996.

[Mitch64]

I would LOVE to hear what Megan thought of Kimmer. If she got pissed that poor little Jean Carol went public asking for story, what the hell did she think of Zimmer constantly bitching to the press she wasn't on enough and getting her band of house fraus to write in DEMANDING more Reva. Not to mention she disses poor MG for getting older (and she says less popular, well, it could be the albatross called Fletcher they wrote her with) when Kimmer, as attractive as she is, was not the hot young thing that jumped in the fountain ten years before...

 

It's so telling that the Brent/Marion storyline was one of her faves of all her storylines and she couldn't wait to see it onscreen (as it was so dark.) I do say that the storyline was really good (despite the fact the Lucy was the center of it but what were you going to do with the actress or the character..) and you can tell that everything else on GL was an afterthought for her..even Reva's return was second string and sloppily done..and after Brent was caught, the show lost all energy and McTavish was spinning her wheels after she shot her load. She did have respect for the Brent actor as she did not dish the whole story of his breakdown as she was outing people right and left. 

 

I think her material started in July or August of 95. I know Laibson announced Kimmer's return when they were filming the Bauer BBQ so McTavish was onsite at that time. Whatever happened to Douglas Anderson, who you know JFP picked so she could walk over him.

[Vee]

I think Megan recognizes other alphas and was probably either intimidated by Zimmer or knew she could only cross certain people. Ironically they're not that dissimilar in approach, though Kim for all her brass is not the kind of gorgon that Megan clearly is.

Edited March 18 by Vee

[Soaplovers]

Megan did have a good rep from her first stint as head writer at AMC so I could under P & G and Laibson thinking they scored a coup in landing her as a head writer.

What P & G and Laibson didn't realize was that one of the reasons her AMC was good in her first stint was because Agnes was still there behind the scenes to sort of reign her in.  As we saw, a reigned in Megan wrote some great stuff in that first stint at AMC.

Also, Guiding Light and All my Children were vastly different shows with different audiences and expectations.  What she didn't do was adjust her style/approach to Guiding Light.

Her confusion over Roger/Holly being a couple was a valid one because even though Roger had sort of been redeemed.. he still raped her and kidnapped her all those years ago.  So I supported her breaking up Roger/Holly... but what I didn't support was making Roger a one dimensional villain and pairing Holly up with Fletcher.  It was as if she was trying to recreate Maeve/Fletcher with Holly and Fletcher.. and it didn't work at all.

And the Marion Crane story could have worked if it lead Brent to realize what he had done to Lucy was truly heinous and led to him turning himself into the police. 

The only thing I did seem to like during her brief stint was that she definitely wrote Annie with more depth/layers then the one note psycho route