Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[alwaysAMC]

LOL at that weird carrousel - I'm still trying to figure it out.  They just randomly happen across a deserted home with a carrousel in the living room and they go gaga over it. 

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Also LOL at her running away.  She's done it twice now since I've started watching, the second time she literally took the bus on her own... as a small girl with no cell phone or money...  wtf 

Ahh interesting. Yeah, I started a month after the 5th street fire, and come to think of it, they never really told me who the culprit was.  But, Sid wasn't involved at that point and he was barely seen my first few months except a random date/love scene with Gil here and there.  He was working as Alan's lawyer at the time, found out about Alan getting Gil's LA job nixed, which Gil then found out about and dumped him. Then he defended Alan in the Brent/Spaulding Enterprises 'cook the books' trial.  Alan got released from prison after freaking out and going berserk (stupid) and then he fled to Goshen and got ran over by Reva's horse and carriage   Never saw a scene with Sid and Vanessa/Bridget sadly. Marion attempted to kill David Smith in the 5th Street construction site, but failed and David survived.  While in the hospital, Sid tried to get David to sign papers stating he wouldn't sue Spaulding or Lewis Construction, but before David could sign, Gil caught them and put a stop to that.  Then randomly he came back to tell Gil he was leaving town for a new job, so goodbye forever (which the actor played really well - he cried and felt remorse for losing Gil).  

[chrisml]

I know this is not strictly GL related, but I thought fans would like to see a very young Charita Bauer in a still from when she was in the original Broadway cast of the play, The Women. 

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[P.J.]

LOL...Marah took up where Little Bill left off. He ran away three times in three years. Once he even took little Marah with him (or she tagged along anyway.)

 

 OMG...Charita pre-dates the MOVIE? I didn't have a clue! TY!!!

[alwaysAMC]

Mid-October '95 and Amanda Spaulding has returned to Springfield with all of Alan's voting power at Spaulding Enterprises, which pisses off Alex.  I know nothing about Amanda other than she's Alan's daughter and AM/Phillip's half-sister.  This should be interesting.

LOL - I swear everyone in Springfield has married each other.  Amanda just ran into Ross and Blake at Cedars, where Blake now thinks she may be pregnant, and Amanda starts flirting with Ross and reminiscing about their good days.  Blake immediately is upset and introduces herself to Amanda.  Amanda goes "Oh you look familiar, didn't I see you in a family Christmas card years ago?  Which brother of mine were you married to again?" - and Blake is forced to say "Both of them" 

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[Contessa Donatella]

I have consistently disliked her through at least 4 shows, I think!

Loved both Bundy & Billy Kay!

But, in general, I do like kids on soaps & I also specifically love some of the precocious ones. GH Young Robin, Young Emma & now although he doesn't check off the precocious box but I'm not kidding James is one of my favorites on the show. Now I could not stand Violet! So even I have a line drawn in the sand on overly precocious! 

A Marah I loved that y'all won't is Peldon. I think she may have been overly precocious even younger that GH Kimberly McCullough if that is even possible. 

And, now I offer this as proof

https://www.instagram.com/p/DIhwI8HJGLj/

 

People always want to see things like this, so don't even worry about some strict reckoning over topicality. IOW thanks for sharing.

 

[Mitch64]

I LURVED Poser's Amanda, but others don't. Yes, she was 15 years younger then when she left, and radically different, but wishy washy Kathleen Cullen bored me to tears. Poser looked like she was having fun, which has been in short supply on this show and really,  something needed to break both Bloss and Mattessa up..the problem was, again, the writing and the storyline. If they had explained why  Amanda is this new vamp personality...(I would have said she got screwed over so many times by guys, she said, Im looking out my myself, and in an ode to Marland, I would have her say she went to "Therapy and got in touch with my sexuality!"

Making her the Malibu Madam was dumb and they could have just had she and Matt be lovers and Matt was a kept guy who scammed rich women.

[Matt Powers]

GL really went downhill after Pam Long left in 1986 (not that her collab with Jeff Ryder was spectacular) It seems there were 3 different head writer regimes-Just Jeff Ryder to Ryder/Mary Ryan Munisteri to Joseph Manetta (?) to Sheri Anderson/Jospeh Manetta. Each seemed to denigrate the show more than the last

[Mitch64]

I think Munisteri, or maybe it was Anderson, TRIED to restore some of the elements that needed to work, but just did not have the chops to do so. They bring back another Reardon, but its Chelsea, they bring back Bea (who dispears again as soon as Long is in charge) they try to expand the Bauers...(with a fauxBauer Johnny)They bring back Josh and GA as Phillip..but its good intentions, but done in a weird sloppy way.

[Contessa Donatella]

About that carousel, I had occasion to ask Nancy Williams Watt for a good picture of herself for ID in a file on various Soap PTB & she sent me this. And, yes, behind her in this photo is one of the horses off of it. 

 

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[DeeVee]

I'm guessing you never saw the Dobsons' version of Amanda, because she was WAY different from Marland's version, and much more interesting.

Yes, she was thoroughly under Lucille's thumb, yes, she was extremely neurotic. Lucille was portrayed as even more of a psycho than under Marland, regardless of her later murder attempts. She had Amanda so freaked out about men and sex that Amanda couldn't go through with her wedding night. (Her husband was a guy named Gordon. You can see him in some of the 1979 episodes as he was Hope's boss).

As Amanda becomes attracted to Ben (still married to Eve), she decides to give that sex thing another whirl. She seduces her husband and realizes, hey, she really likes sex! He is thrilled and thinks they are back together. She's like, "Oh, yeah, this was nice, but I still want a divorce. See ya!"

Her music teacher notices her piano playing suddenly has passion that it had previously lacked. She starts picking up men. Lucille insists Ben look for her while she's having one of these trysts. (By the way, this episode is somewhere on YT). He finds her and realizes she had sex with some rando. He insists on driving her home and gives her a lecture about not living her life like this. They get caught in a storm and end up taking shelter in a barn, stripping off wet clothes. She starts vamping him even though she slept with another guy like an hour before! Ben manages to resist temptation but they do kiss.

So the wishy-washy version of Amanda is entirely a Marland creation. In fact, it's stunning to see the difference in Amanda once Long takes over. Even though it was for a short time, she portrayed Amanda as at least having a spine.

As for the Poser version, did I love Amanda being a madam? Nah, that I thought was dumb. But is it completely out of the question that she would be sexy with that mean girl streak? Not really!

Edited Thursday at 05:26 PM by DeeVee

[Mitch64]

Thanks for that info! So Amanda had a "Zest for life" back in the day! I only remember her being stuck in an attic talking to dolls and then just fading into the woodwork. Agreed, they could have kept everything about Poser's Amanda, including aggressively coming on to Ross, and dump the madam thing. I would have had her be up for sex with Roger,  but not trusting him at all and certainly not in love with him...( he was like the male Reva, every woman was crazy for him.) so much so, Rog is turned on and kinda freaked out by this sexually aggressive woman.

[Contessa Donatella]

What is Poser's first name? 

[DeeVee]

Toby.

[Contessa Donatella]

Thanks! Like her a lot. 

[DRW50]

@DeeVee @Mitch64 I enjoyed all of your comments about Amanda.

It's not my place to say because I have not seen Cullen's full run, but I tend to agree she was more compelling under the Dobsons. Lucille may have been a boo hiss baddie, but Rita Lloyd was riveting to watch (as she was when Marland gave her a recurring part on ATWT a decade later - she stole every scene she was in) and this drove the conflict for Amanda, along with her conflict over her sexuality.

There was not very compelling conflict under Marland, even though on paper there should have been, because everyone involved, even Alan, seemed to be on tranquilizers. 

Someone here once wrote long ago about how much Amanda improved with Pat Falken-Smith, especially a scene where she was caught in a storm and talking about how she was finally going to live her life and her desires. 

We never got to see most of what could have been, but I thought Cullen did a good job in her late '80s returns showing a stronger Amanda.

I liked Toby Poser. She was very charismatic and unlike anyone I'd seen on GL. I tend to wonder if McTavish or someone else did not want her because the writing was extremely negative. Liz Keifer spoke in SOD at the time about how uncomfortable she was with the way they had Blake speak about Amanda, mentioning the scripts where Blake was talking at length about her hair. It feels very coded, whether that was intended or not. 

The whole thing reminds me a little of when Lara Parker played a vampire Angelique on Dark Shadows and they went to great lengths to show that all of the men were not attracted to her. I kept thinking - this woman is so gorgeous and not one man she goes after sees it. (meanwhile every woman in Collinsport but Joan Bennett was horny for Barnabas) 

After the initial stories, they did show softer sides of Amanda, but they also did nothing with her. Clearly the relationship with Roger was never going to generate interest with Zaslow gone, but that became the only reason she existed, beyond the occasional nice scene with Philip, for a year and a half. And then she just...left, never to return (I can't even remember if she was mentioned). Such a waste.