Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[P.J.]

I mean, I know. And at the time the awards were much more geared to honoring established actors with years of experience behind them. I just think it's a shame, when it's such a powerful, iconic moment.

[Contessa Donatella]

Kimberly Simms & Nancy Curlee did a watch party  with Alan Locher that is magnificent. It's another Beverlee/Alex amazing scene with Billy & Roger. You want to see if if you have not already.

[P.J.]

I'm not sure that's unpopular, given how it all shook out. Neither Hamilton or Crampton was a good recast. They could've simply stuck Eve with Nick and played out her nutso behavior until Alexandra came back. I don't think Mindy was really vital to the canvas at that point, although it would've eventually been awkward to send Billy off to jail without some kind of presence from Mindy.

They could've even shifted Nick toward Holly, given that I felt some chem there, but maybe that's just me. Or played Ed/Holly more.

[Soaplovers]

Yes, and it exposed Curlee as a toxic female with her body language and how she choose to answer certain questions.  She seemed to take delight in humiliating Alex as a character while Simms said she tried to really balance how she played Mindy during that whole storyline.

The fact both of them admitted once they hit a certain age and their desirability went down is the only reason both had some sort of regret over how the story was written.

There were a lot of events that happened where Mindy wasn't around so her not being able to be there when Billy got sent off to jail would have been explained away by a phone call of some sort.

I think the Nick/Eve story could have worked without Mindy coming back as the spoiler since Eve's descent into mental illness would have been from PTSD and the show still could have had Eve get help and then move her over to Ed's orbit later on.

Holly and Nick...hmmmm... never thought of those two together.  I kind of thought she had chemistry with Cutter, but the show didn't seem to know what to do with that character.

[chrisml]

re: Locher interview with Coleman.  A shame Signy Coleman didn't have a good time on GL. However, I'm not surprised. It was never going to go well, and it was not well-conceived from what I know of it. Others who watched it may have other opinions. She does not like Kim Zimmer. That's definitely clear from the interview. 

Simms/Curlee: We know McKinsey did not like how Alexandra was written in the last months of her tenure. I think Simms was much more understanding of what was going on during the storyline, and her character was also made much more desperate and pathetic as it went on so I think she got it even at the time. 

 

[Contessa Donatella]

Well, that happened. I am referring to the hour of my life I can never get back when I was watching Signy Coleman on the Locher Room. That dame is crazy. Alan only barely had control of that interview. It was hers the whole time. 

Now about VI. It is totally disconcerting that she says he had anger issues AND THAT she alleges physical abuse that was bad. She goes on to say that he has done the work he needed to do, so there is that. And, it happened when her now grown daughter was an infant, so a long time ago. 

[Khan]

I don't blame her.  On the one hand, it made sense for Alexandra to become vindictive after Roger (and Mindy) betrayed her.  After all, most of the men in Alexandra's life had betrayed her in one form or another, with Fletcher, Henry and Ross being the only three exceptions that I can think of.  But I think they went too far in proving just how much Roger's betrayal had hurt her, to the point where she became monstrous.  And for what?  So that Nick and Mindy - a pairing I was never crazy about - could have an antagonist?  (If Alexandra had been on Marland's ATWT, she definitely would've been a candidate for intensive therapy, lol).

[P.J.]

I know her bitterness started with Roger, but I think it focused on Mindy because of who Mindy was---as Alex said at one point---Mindy had been like family to her through her friendship with Phillip and Beth (as well, perhaps, her brief marriage to Phillip) not to mention Alex's relationship with HB. As well as the fact that people close to Alex (Vanessa and Beth) knew about the affair and didn't tell her.

But I agree re: Mindy&Nick they weren't all that, even though I know P&G promoted the hell out of them.

Edited March 30 by P.J.

[DRW50]

It was worse than that for me because I felt like Mindy also went under the bus and she and Alexandra both just suffered for the sake of Nick. I remember lots and lots of Nick being a sanctimonious ass to them and various others to the point where it was only his final year on the show, when they had clearly given up on the character, that he behaved in a remotely kind or human manner. 

You aren't wrong. Coleman did a good job with the story, but the story was a mistake. It was too soon to bring Annie back, and while I appreciated how cold and sharp Coleman was compared to how OTT Watros could be by the end, there just was no need for her. The whole idea of her using poisoned aftershave to make Josh want Cassie felt like a rejected Dynasty plotline. And then she ends up stuck in a boring relationship with Alan before she skips town - I can't even remember what her exit was...did she go on the run? 

The only positive was her confrontation scenes with Alex in the attic during Marj's brief 98/99 return - some of Marj's best work in the role.

[P.J.]

There was a weird point where they tried to Spaulding-ize him, and it just doesn't work. I caught something where (after he's married to Mindy) he's trying to trap Vanessa into a bad business deal (and/or blackmail her over her sleeping with Matt) for some unknown reason, and it makes him look like a real pig. 

[DRW50]

By that point I was skipping large portions of the show, but I do remember this was when he and Alan Michael were heated rivals. I'm not sure who they thought cared.

[P.J.]

And I'm loathe to dig into late '94 (phooey to MrGigolo) and get the deets. They treat Vanessa's sex life (post Billy) like one long Desperate Housewives level joke.

Edited March 31 by P.J.

[Soaplovers]

People forget this, but Mindy switched the paternity test that proved Nick was Alex's son.  To me, that is unforgivable and her hatred of Mindy was justified... and it probably brought up painful memories of Lujack being taken from her by her father.. and then having the same thing potentially happen again thanks to the slut that broke up her marriage.

[P.J.]

I don't forget that, and I don't excuse it. But Alex had already crossed a line when she told Billy about the affair, long after it was over, out of spite. 

[chrisml]

I doubt McKinsey would have stayed since she loathed JFP (something JFP was dishonest about in the Locher interview), but to reduce Alex to being so desperate and pathetic over Roger and Nick was just ridiculous.  The character of Nick was just not worth the character assassination of Alex and Mindy. Simms's Mindy had matured so much that to resort to the switching of the DNA  to keep this man was just so idiotic. It also made not one bit of sense since the man was a dead ringer for Lujack.