Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[P.J.]

That's the story Simon wouldn't come back for? All I can say is good for Peter. The Sebastian story never should've been greenlighted. ICK.

[Contessa Donatella]

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 I don't know how Maureen Garrett stood it when, locked in a cell, Sebastian forced a kiss on her.  What was Wheeler thinking?!!

[P.J.]

Well, one of my favorite eras is Billy (pre "Reva is my bestest friend) spending a chunk of '84 basically calling her a gold-digging whore. Even if they whitewashed Reva completely and claimed she "loved" HB. 

[DRW50]

I wasn't watching by then but there was so much involving Jonathan and Reva that people were seemingly supposed to handwave just because of who they were. 

You're right. It didn't come out until after they had gotten married. IIRC, they tried to make sure we knew he didn't actually have sex with any women and instead just gave them drinks by the pool while wearing a Speedo, or whatever, which I always thought was an odd choice, presumably someone chickening out behind the scenes. Either way, I think Vanessa would have had more of a problem just because it would be a reminder of what different worlds they were from.

@chrisml Thanks for the articles. I could swear that was Grant, not O'Leary, bare-chested in the photo. The MADD interview from 2002 is interesting, like her saying she wanted to establish a teen set similar to what she believed was a hit on ATWT - did she mean Aaron and Alison and whoever else? I can't say I was bothering to sit through the show by that point, although I know Jessica Dunphy's Alison had some fans. GL had already been trying the same for several years with Marah. Then Marina. 

The journalist's mother being upset over Bradley Cole's exit is a great example of why they brought him back (although I wonder if any of those fans actually liked Jeffrey).

[P.J.]

Yeah....GAG. You would think as a woman, Wheeler would've seen the optics of having a rape survivor kiss her rapists son was BAD. I was never a fan of the icky '94ish Roger/Holly relationship either.

[DRW50]

She also got called out a fair amount during the first few years of her return, sometimes to an offputting degree, like when she went to a New Year's Ball with Alan and Josh decided to shame her for selling herself to boys for "a piece of pie," or something along those lines. I was horrified. I don't want to go back and rewatch the scenes to remember them better.

[P.J.]

Trust me....that is Grant. A blind woman could see that. BLIND.

Re Matt: so basically being a topless waitress was his great shame? HA. I smell a rewrite in the wake of rabid Matt stans.

That was throwing Josh under the bus to sell the latest "poor little Reva just couldn't help but do something stupid" plot. I believe that's also the costume ball where they felt the need to insult Billy/Vanessa fans by dressing Matt as a knockoff version of Rhett to Vanessa's Scarlett. 

[Contessa Donatella]

Well, I was watching till the bitter end & I do mean bitter. I had done it before with AW. We just had the anniversary of the announcing of the cancellation on April Fools Day. They couldn't even get that right. 

[DRW50]

That was just kind of typical Josh to me, but you are right.

I'd forgotten they did that with Matt. I don't think I remember any of the ball aside from that one moment. Looking back, they had so many balls and parties in those few years - amazing when you think of the budget by the last years.

Speaking of the end, it reminds me of the mention in the article chrisml posted of Santa Barbara having an ending involving friendship and family at a wedding. Didn't that ending also involve Kirsta Tesreau (there's our GL connection) about to gun one of them down? Odd choice to include for a happy ending. Or maybe she was stopped at the last minute. I don't remember.

Edited April 6 by DRW50

[chrisml]

I never thought someone would confuse Michael O'Leary with Grant Aleksander, but apparently the writer did. The writer also misspelled Judi Evans's name wrong. 

From what I remember of the SB ending, people hated it. Krista Tesreau's Andie was trying to kill someone and then Paul Rauch was smoking a cigar. 

[P.J.]

There were a lot of times Josh was got self-righteous when it came to Reva, but that was a shockingly low blow.

GL had a real thing for parties. I seem to recall Nancy Curlee praising her husband for finding excuses for people to be in a gathering.  

I'm not sure that's Judi Evans at bat either, but at least that's possible.

I wish Grammy had kicked that author's butt for mixing up Larry Gates with his character, HB. She managed to get the other actresses names correct, even though this is an article about GL.

[cassadine1991]

I always wondered why GL never talked to Vincent Irizarry in 2006 to return as Nick. Same in 2009 with Rick Hearst as Alan-Michael. Guess they had NO money for them. 

[DRW50]

They didn't. I do wonder if they could have considered asking them for brief returns, but there wasn't much story or purpose - Nick was never very popular with viewers, so the most you could have gotten was him checking up on Alex. Alan-Michael's return with the too-young recast had been a flop.

A shame how so many of these errors get through.

[P.J.]

Were they on AMC and GH at those times? It would've been nice to at least see Rick Hearst return as AM for the finale. VI---I'm not really a fan.

[Contessa Donatella]

Well, having the couples dancing was a good finale element. But, the final moment was Paul Rauch putting his cigar out on the floor, which was really awful. 

Well, no, they didn't have money in general. When you know they had to move so many from contract to recurring & you know that they had almost everyone take an across the board pay cut ... And, you consider the caliber of actor they did bring on, a clear picture is painted, if you see what I mean.