Guiding Light discussion thread

[cassadine1991]

It’s the 16 of July 1991

[Mitch64]

And Elizabeth..whatever happened to her..did they ever say she died? I always wish she came back, more confident and ready to take on Alan (she had money of her own, right?) I would have loved Collins as Elizabeth, but her hyper confident self would make it a stretch.

Speaking of stretches, I wish they had left wiggle room for the real Spaulding heir to be alive....(some cockamany storyline where a crazed nurse took him and brought him back and then raised him as her own...and of course ole Rog would have found him)and comes back. He would be Alan on steroids and then watch Phillip squirm...(I love GA/Phillip but he ALWAYS was so entitled, even crying about that entitlement. )

 

[P.J.]

I don't think they ever said Elizabeth died. I have a very vague recollection of her name popping up randomly (maybe around the time Phillip faked his death?), but much like Lanie Marler, she just faded from everyone's memory. 

LOL...I guess that was one line the soap couldn't cross. Although, with some of the bad regimes, thank GOD someone like McTrash didn't try.

[tonymidnight]

It was a huge mistake never to bring Elizabeth back on canvas - it would have helped the character of Phillip so much in those later years.  I always pictured her still living in Switzerland, perhaps struggling with mental illness on and off, trying to protect Phillip from her bouts with instability.  Mike may have even found his way back to her.  At some point, Mike could have reached out to Phillip to let him know Elizabeth needed him, and Phillip's reunion with his stepmother would have taken Alan and Phillip back a thousand years in their own troubled trajectory.  However they did it, something should have been done with this missing link in Phillip's adult story: Elizabeth having nothing to do with her beloved "son" made zero sense, especially after Jackie's death.   

I actually entertained the whole real Spaulding heir twist as well - especially when Ben Warren came to town.  I thought he should have claimed to be the real son.  Maybe this could prompted Elizabeth's return.  Hated the whole Ross half-brother thing, although it was good casting: Hunt Block looked like he could be ver Dorn and O'Rourke's brother, as well as Aleksander's uncle.  

 

Wasn't there rumours that Gregory Beecroft was a difficult actor to work with?  Vincent Irizzary revealed in an interview (was it a Locher interview?) about an actor on the show when he began who was very jealous of him and things became physical, the other actor assaulted him.  Online speculation grew that it was Beecroft.    

[tonymidnight]

MacGregor looked and sounded like he could be Peter Simon's son.  It was very good casting.  Likewise, Aleksander looked like he could have been Tom O'Rourke's son and Jerry ver Dorn's nephew.  The Marler men had good "matinee idol" genes.   

[Khan]

Not necessarily.  You could argue that, in the years away from Springfield (and from Alan), Elizabeth regained her self-confidence and self-respect, becoming a much-sought-after celebrity photographer like Annie Leibovitz and Herb Ritts.

[alwaysAMC]

Question - who is this amazing sax player that plays the GL theme song at the end of this July 4th episode?  I've seen him in maybe 2 scene between Feb-June '95, working at the Towers, but curious if he has a backstory and was a main character at some point?  Btw, I LOVE the Towers set, so glamorous for the time and I love how everyone dresses up.

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[Kane]

That's Hamp, played by Vince Williams. He was introduced as an old friend of Billy's and was married to Gilly for a while. I believe he was still contract at this point, though he didn't appear often after he and Gilly divorced and his daughter, Kat, left town. Williams passed away in 1997.

[P.J.]

Sadly, Vince was only 39 when he passed. I didn't realize until recently that he had also briefly played Lamar Griffin on ATWT prior to becoming Hamp in '89. He first appeared during Josh and Reva's Cross Creek wedding.

GL was blessed with some really fine musicians over the years. Millette Alexander was a concert pianist. Kathleen Cullen, Krista Teserau and Vincent Irizzary (as Lujack) also played piano on the show. Tom Nielson also played sax.

Edited 4 hours ago by P.J.

[Contessa Donatella]

Isn't he wonderful?!!! The actor, Vince Williams, the character Hampton Speakes, usually called Hamp. Died way too young. I'm a sucker for sax solos & I liked the character other times, too. One of my favorite songs from way back when is  "Yakety Sax", a playful and high-energy saxophone melody. The song was originally composed by Boots Randolph and James Q. "Spider" Rich, with Boots Randolph himself playing that iconic sax solo. The latter has zero to do with GL, sorry. 

BTW have you ever in your whole life seen anyone sexier that Maureen Garrett, Holly I mean, of course.?!!

 

Edited 2 hours ago by Contessa Donatella

[Reverend Ruthledge]

Yes. She died in a plane crash. 

[Efulton]

Wasn’t it Jackie Marler who died in the plane crash?

[P.J.]

Jackie definitely died in a plane crash.