Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[DRW50]

I think there was a disconnect between how Marland saw the show and what was onscreen - for me, anyway. For instance, he talks about how funny Floyd is. Anything I've seen of Floyd in Marland's run is very serious. The other comedy character on the show at the time, Katie, also became very serious. He seemed allergic to lighthearted characters. Admittedly, GL did not ever seem to be a show with comedy elements in the fragments available, but Floyd and Katie were the exceptions until his arrival. 

Kelly is a character who probably should have been interesting, what with his obsession over the purity of marriage and life compared to his inappropriate behavior toward Morgan, but the execution isn't really there for me. It doesn't help that we have characters like Hilary endlessly telling us how awesome he is. 

There's generally a lack of trust in viewers in most of his GL run (that I have seen - again I know most of it is not available), which is true for most soaps, but for me did not mesh well with a show as emotionally complex and messy as GL often was. 

My favorite part of the interview is how openly negative he is about GH. That wouldn't happen with soap press in later years.

I think he meant the older actors, rather than just long-term characters, because the firings got a lot of soap press at the time. Barbara Berjer's did anyway as it was part of a pattern across P&G soaps.

[chrisml]

Why exactly did Marland leave the show? I know that he had major disagreements with Potter. Was that the reason? Was he fired or did he quit?

[P.J.]

Allen Potter fired Jane Elliot, in the middle of the Carrie story. My understanding was that Doug had created Carrie especially for Jane. Doug quit.  

[DRW50]

I think there were also claims of an ugly argument between them but I'm not sure if that is true.

[Tisy-Lish]

What was Potter's reason for firing Elliot?  Seems like a strange thing to do in the middle of a major storyline. If he disliked her, why not wait until the plot was over and then fire her??  Even contract actors can be fired after every 13-weeks.  

Edited April 19 by Tisy-Lish

[Khan]

Basically, Allen Potter didn't believe the ratings justified so much airtime being given to Carrie and her situation.

[Contessa Donatella]

Back when Twitter was good, I had the privilege of discussing soap things in private DMs with Patrick Mulcahey, who was Douglas's protege, and this is what he said about what happened: (from my notes which were copious)

Allen Potter fired Jane Elliot & he & Douglas had this huge falling out over it.

And, PJ, I'm not sure whether anyone would have even desired to have Jane Elliot remain after the 3 Carries storyline was taken to its dramatic/logical conclusion. So the idea - which is sheer speculation - that she would not want to stay with the show, isn't it a moot point? 

[DRW50]

I love Jane and her work as Carrie is compelling, but for all the airtime they gave Carrie and that she killed two people (three if you count Jackie), she still felt isolated enough to where they could easily write her out. Shades of what happened with Tangie a decade later (although they barely bothered to write for Tangie).

[robbwolff]

As I recollect, Jane Elliot had an 18-month contract at Guiding Light. There were still about six months of story planned when Allen Potter fired Jane.

[P.J.]

I don't know. The only tidbit I've ever even heard about Jane's time on GL was when JvD said something like "you never knew which Jane you were getting from day to day". I guess the fact no one really ever seems to bring up her time on GL speaks volumes. 

I do recall an interview Jane gave to SOD after getting fired where she insisted she was going to sign another contract.

I tried looking up the '82 ratings in the '80's ratings thread. It does seem that Y&R reclaimed it's position as the number one CBS soap mid-year. Maybe that's what prompted Potter to axe Elliot.

[Contessa Donatella]

Well, she of course, has spoken quite a bit about it. She considers it her most remarkable work. And, I don't see a problem with that line from Jerry. Jane was playing 3 alters so not being able to tell who she was any given work day means she was doing her job. Right?

 

If I understand correctly in the story they had not yet introduced the 3rd Carrie. Supposedly Potter cited the ratings. So the creative types may have felt they didn't have the chance to get to a fair point & definitely not conclusion. Like you, I was under the impression it was mid-contract. 

[DeeVee]

This is fascinating! My assumption back then was that Zimmer was Long's muse the same way Elliot and Brown were Marland's muses.

I've been watching Reva's intro episodes. After they get past the "trashy ex-wife blows into town to cause trouble" bit and it becomes about Reva and Josh, I have to say it's very compelling. The scenes between KZ and RN seem real and sincere. Long was very good at writing stories about the past impacting the present.

If there was ever any of that during his tenure, it was down to the actors. Jerry and Maeve were great in their scenes and it's a shame that he didn't give Ross and Vanessa a long-term love story. Instead, he paired her with Ed (sad trombone noise) or had her bouncing around from one affair to the next. It took Long to give her a real love story. Ross was paired with Carrie, and I don't see how that was ever going to be anything but a fairly short-term story.

Too bad the Alan/Rita affair scenes aren't anywhere on YT that I know of, they had great chemistry. One of the things that I thought was a missed opportunity was how Marland built up Alan and Jennifer's youthful affair as this big deal and when they see each other again...nothing. They were always very cool towards each other.

This is so true. The only female characters that seemed to interest him were Carrie and Nola. The Dobsons wrote beautifully nuanced women. If you wrote down on a piece of paper all the things Jackie, Rita, Holly, and Amanda did, you might think, "Wow, what a bunch of selfish bitches." But somehow they managed to get you to feel empathy for them. 

Then when Long came in, all the women became far stronger. It's too bad she had to write out Hope, who was doomed to stay entirely in Alan's sphere under Marland. Even though her exit story was rushed and poorly motivated (Alan went from loving Hope one day to acting like she broke into his house the next) it was nice to see her evolve into a stronger person. Even though I was a fan of them as a couple, her last scenes where she tore Alan a new one for the way he treated her were very gratifying.

[P.J.]

Well...that's one way to interpret it. The other might be that Jane was volatile and not exactly the friendliest person from one day to the next. While I don't have a catalog of Jane's interviews over the years, she's never seemed overly chummy with former GL castmates. I believe she said something nice about Jerry after his passing though.

[Paul Raven]

As i understand it, Jane signed a 1 year contract. I imagine she negotiated a good salary as she had made a big impression on GH and would be considered a 'get' especially with the thinking that seemed to believe she might lure GH viewers.

The deal was that if all parties were happy, she would sign on for another year.

At the end of that first year Doug and Jane were happy to continue. Carrie would receive treatment and integrate her alters. I guess the conclusion would be bittersweet as Carrie would decide to leave Ross after causing him so much heartache etc

But Allen Potter (and possibly CBS and or P&G)felt that the Carrie story had not boosted the ratings and I'm sure continuing would have meant a pay rise for Jane (as is the norm).

So  Potter exercised his option not to negotiate a new contract.

Doug was pissed and this may have been the culmination of other disagreements with Potter so he quit also. He had already been through this with Gloria Monty.

[robbwolff]

Thanks for the details, Paul. I started watching Guiding Light in April 1982 when Texas moved to its morning timeslot. I was quickly entranced by Jane's performance and was so disappointed when Carrie was written out in July 1982. And, Donna, all three alters were shown.