Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[Mitch64]

According to someone on Datalounge, Marland had a foot fetish..which cracks me up to think uptight, waspy Marland fondling Kelly and Holden's feet. I am sure total fabrication but funny just the same!

[Tisy-Lish]

LOL.

That scene between Bert and Kelly was truly bizarre. Eye candy, yes.  But still strange as hell. I realize the pool was right outside the kitchen door, but still -- couldn't Kelly have come in while pulling on a t-shirt?  Had Kelly been Bert's grandson, it might have been a bit more natural and appropriate.  But a young man shirtless in a speedo sitting down across the breakfast table from a 60 year-old unrelated woman is something my brothers never would have done -- and neither of them were ever particularly modest around the house. They are only a year or two younger than JW Shipp, so they would have been Kelly's contemporaries.

[Contessa Donatella]

LOL!!!! 

[Tisy-Lish]

I think I remember Kelly being barefoot a lot on GL.  But don't really remember seeing Holden barefoot, except possibly around the Snyder Pond on occasion.  

[DeeVee]

Thank you so much for posting this! Love interviews with writers.

Hmmmm...I HATED Kelly and still do all these decades later. 

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 (Nothing against JWS, who is an excellent actor. It's no surprise he's had a very strong post-soap career).

While I would rank Marland as number 2 on a list of GL headwriters (after the Dobsons), there are some things he did that still drive me right up the wall. One is how he made his so-called "heroic" characters a bunch of sanctimonious, preachy hypocrites, and that includes Kelly. He was always lecturing Morgan about her behavior, treating her like she was his little sister or child. Even after they had sex, he was lecturing her because she wanted to keep on having sex and he was like, no it's wrong. He seduced a minor and still acted like he had possession of the high moral ground. Which makes their romance creepy, in my opinion. (He did something similar with the Scotty/Laura relationship on GH, IIRC). I felt this way back then, and I was in the demographic they were targeting.

Then there's what he did to Mike Bauer. I liked Mike when the Dobsons wrote him. Totally understood where the guy was coming from. He hated Alan because he wrecked his romance with Elizabeth and was afraid he would hurt Hope. But once Marland got his mits on the character, it wasn't about a personal grievance anymore. He was going after Alan for truth, justice, and the American way! He'd make speeches about Alan's terrible values when just a few months earlier he was banging Elizabeth in a hotel room while she was married to Justin.

One of the most insane scenes was between Elizabeth and Mike while she was in therapy in Switzerland. She goes on and on about how good she feels with Mike because he's so honest and she totally trusts him. Then in the very next breath she tells him she knows he lied to her about Philip being her son.

But that was O.K. because Mike had the right values, or whatever.

This is a VERY interesting comment. As far as I know, there were at least two times Pam Long was vetoed about a casting choice. She didn't want Kim Zimmer as Reva, or at least she was not her first choice. TV Guide did an article about the casting for teenager Samantha Marler. I don't recall the name of the actress she did want, but she was overruled and Suzy Cote was cast instead. So sounds like he had an unusual amount of power for a head writer. Sheds light on why he could walk when Jane Elliot was fired without suffering career consequenses.

I don't get what he meant here, either. Didn't Maureen Garrett want to leave? Then the rest in her orbit kind of had to go, too. I've heard he either had something against Lezlie Dalton or just really didn't like the character of Elizabeth. Mowery was obviously not working out as Jackie, but killing her off before the resolution of the Philip story was crazy. I believe his original plan was to have one of Carrie's alternate personalities murder her, which is even wilder. How he thought that wouldn't naturally put an end to the Carrie story is extremely puzzing.

I think Lainie was slated for a romance with Ed (or possibly a problematic crush). That's what the Dobsons seemed to be setting up at the end of their run. Instead, Marland stuck her in Mike's law office answering phones until he sent her out of town. And it's strange how Evie stuck around for as long as she did, doing close to nothing. My theory is he kept her because he was planning to bring back Rita at some point.

[Contessa Donatella]

Well, Pam Long's first choice for Reva turned her down, flat, and I believe it was even before the casting process began. Now, we have no reason to think  ... Okay, what I'm trying to say is my impression is that she was talked into KZ. If your impression that they just stuck her with KZ while she continued to be resistant? Just a very tiny point of curiosity on my part. 

[P.J.]

While I love the Carrie story, it's hard envisioning the mercurial Jane Elliot sticking around GL for long. It's sad his leaving started a writing instability that lasted until GL's finale.

Lainie, Evie and Katie are all sort of the same character. I honestly don't think Lainie ever did much on the show. Evie (who I remember liking) didn't do much after being stalked by Chet. In fact, I was surprised to realize she was still around as late as Nola and Quint's engagement ball. (she must leave sometime in the fall after Justin leaves.) Katie just seems to drift after the Andy Norris story. I mean, she never even gets to go to the parties. Hillary manages to, but Katie's the Cinderella who never goes to the ball.

[DeeVee]

No, not at all. Marland seemed to be saying that the final decision always rested with him. If Long had to be talked into Zimmer, then it would seem she didn't have the same level of power as he did. Or perhaps she was more inclined to compromise than he was.

[Mitch64]

Kelly and Morgan were as bland and sexless as two characters could be, and luckily Marland saw JWS as something more then a speedo model when he cast him as Doug Cummings (Marland had a penchant for weird names..Cummings, "Rod" the rapist..) and a nice move..everyone expects his character to be a boring good guy and he is a crazed murderer and Ship did great.

 

Oh yes...Marland's characters tend to be sanctimonious..even doing things they berate others for. Everyone's favorite crumudgeon John Dixon is giving Lucinda lectures on "honesty" and for manipulating people..that John deserved to be stuck with dull ass Iva!

[DeeVee]

I think you can add Hillary to that list. Outside of the Roger story, she didn't do much except work at Cedars. They never made it feel like she was a part of the Bauers, even taking into account how she became a Bauer. That goes for all the writers, she always seemed apart from them. Which is too bad, because they could have used her to bulk up the Bauer family as other core families took over more.

OMG, wasn't John the guy who took advantage of Kim having amnesia and that's how Andy was conceived? Yikes.

[kalbir]

I had no idea Kim Zimmer was not the first choice for Reva, as I can't imagine anyone else in that role. If there was any character that defined the final 25 years of GL, it was Reva.

[Contessa Donatella]

It was a shock to me, too!!! Her first choice was Carla Borelli who played Reena on TEXAS & that's why she declined playing Reva. She said she hoped to do something very different in her next role. So, to her way of thinking Reva was a 2.0 of Reena. Now, while it is absolutely true that KZ was not anyone Pam wanted in the role, still, they pretty quickly reached a point where they fought bitterly about Reva but then after verbally going at it they'd settle down to a point where they both thought everything was just peachy keen. Remember when an EP was eating supper with the two of them & they were going at it, disagreeing to beat the band & he excused himself, left the table, went outside the restaurant & puked up his guts in the gutter. 

[Soaplovers]

I hate to say it, but sometimes toxicity makes a soap opera more engaging and interesting to watch.   Marland's obsession with therapy was evident in his content, especially by 1982.  That obsession sometimes made watching a soap episode kind of difficult without any sort of balance to that.

He also seemed unable to infuse his stories and scenes with any sort of passion or oomph.   For example, Kelly was shirtless/in a speedo all the time.. but he was just so devoid of any sensuality/personality.. same with Josh, Tony, etc.  They all seemed one note.. and his ability to write female characters that he didn't create was also a struggle for him.  Amanda, Rita, Holly, Evie, Hilary, Katie, etc.. all became more one note with the layers/complexities of the Dobsons.

The one thing I can say about Pam Long was that she knew how to write men and how to write male friendships.  That kind of writer is so lacking on soaps and most television shows nowadays.    She also was able to restore some of the spirit/strength/personality to such characters as Amanda, Hilary, Katie, and she seemed to wisely write Trish as the peace-maker within the Lewis Family (and it explained why she was estranged from them for so many years.. because she was tired of being the peacemaker).

 

 

[Contessa Donatella]

If Marland is not exaggerating, yeah, he had an unusual deal! 

[P.J.]

Hillary is always supposed to have some spunk to her, so much so that sometimes I really just roll my eyes at her spunk. She always seemed to lust after the guy who thought she was a "great friend".

I do kind of side-eye how "close" the Bauers of that period are, but I just assume there's not enough out there to really judge.