Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[Gatecrashers]

Thanks for your thoughts!

Edited April 22 by Gatecrashers
Spelling

[Mitch64]

Yes, there is a difference between being "sexy" (the Dobson's GL) and being pervy and this was pervy.  First, we are led to believe that super dooper clean cut Kurt, is going to prostitutes...(I know he is on an oil rig, but have him talk about why he is doing that and how he may feel guilty about the women having to use their bodies for money..) then we have Kyle coming in and flairing his nostrils and black mailing Roxie, who was a sweet character, into sex, then she belives she is a prostitute (did she screw people for money with amnesia...) the Phillip tells Rick that HE goes to prostitutes in the past (uh, NuPhillip, we pretty much saw what Phillp has been up to since he came back older...and prostitutes werent really part of it...)it was so weird compared to the sunny GL that Long wrote up to that. And yes, having Roxie not even say anything to Reva (cause you can't rain on Reva's love parade) or have Kyle apologize for what he did was weird.

But I always hated Kyle..I think Malloy past his time on Edge came off...way too stylized, and stiff and unpleasant, and bringing this group of people with him as posted above, while the cast was being gutted, was bizarre..especially since they worked for a record company (as soon as you see a "record company" on a soap you KNOW its going to suck big time with its faux hipness..or as Alex said to the dreaded Jackson Freemont when he told her he was "an artiste"  .."Who told you that, the clerk who sold you that ring in your ear???)

[DeeVee]

Seems like Kobe tended to cut her nose off to spite her face. Yes, we invested all this time in this character, but now you've ticked me off, so I'll kill the character off! So you think playing a Bauer makes you safe. HA! I'll show you! You are out of here!

Didn't Alex have in her backstory a romance with a guy like Jackson? He had a strange name--Locke Walls, I think? He may have even made appearances on the show. Anyone remember this?

Anyway, I wish they had done more about Alex's Bohemian past because it's one of the most intriguing things about her.

[Mitch64]

Oh God..Locke Walls..yes, I remember him, was he supposed to be a Bruce Springsteen "rocker" who Alex had an earlier affair with. He came to town to warn Lujack of the rigors of being a rock star...oddly Phillip and India of all people were fans of Locke's (India rocking out in Andoran castle..) I think the guy dies on stage..like this storyline!!!

[DeeVee]

Thanks! I thought he was a talent manager like Jackson or maybe a record company executive. This is SOOOO much worse.

Please register in order to view this content

 

[robbwolff]

Locke Walls was featured for about six months in 1985. The role was played by Jeremy Slate, who had played Chuck Wilson on One Life to Live. I vaguely recall the storyline somehow featuring the song "Aubrey" by Bread.

[Speed Racer]

Wow..that's some revolting memories!  Glad I ate dinner a few hours ago.

Locke must have been on hand to helm the Lujack Makes An MTV Video Prancing Around The Streets Of New York City dreck.  Did that video include IQ or Gina of the Gallahads?  Darcy was gone, but I think those two outlasted her.

[Contessa Donatella]

I've just edited the 1985 Daytime Emmys. Good Lord, it's the year Kim won but her hair lost. My reaction at the time was much the same. 

 

Please register in order to view this content

[Speed Racer]

Question:  At one point in time, Evie Stapleton was blind.  How did that occur?  Who was the MD that worked on her eyes?  Justin or Peter maybe?

One of my first memories of GL was a scene with Ben trying to convince Evie to skinny dip off of some yacht.  On their honeymoon perhaps?  Must have been before Evie lost her eyesight.

 

[DRW50]

IQ was there at least to Lujack's memorial. Not sure after that. 

For however reliable Soapcentral is, they say she fell when running away after seeing Ben embrace Hope.

This all tied into the Georgene Granger story which reads as kind of hilarious. I wonder how those watching at the time felt about it.

[P.J.]

Yes, Evie fell and knocked herself unconscious after seeing Ben and Hope saying goodbye (Hope returned to CA to college, which I assume was Robin Mattson's exit). But per the SOD recaps, her deteriorating eyesight (and loss of some motor skills) was "due to a fungus related to meningitis" and had an 80 percent chance of going blind  ...which sounds... strange.  She was Ed's patient, a Dr. Lathrop diagnosed her. 

Justin was a cardiologist (among his patients are Jackie's father Emmett and Henry Chamberlain), at least until his '90 return when they turned him into an infectious disease specialist.

[chrisml]

Please register in order to view this content

[DRW50]

Thanks @chrisml . I appreciate seeing some of the behind-the-scenes aspects. For some reason I thought Amelia Marshall started in 1989.

Please register in order to view this content

Any time I try to watch Hilary's funeral, I am stuck on how alienating and cold the tone is - not helped by giving so much focus to new actors not giving their best work - but Charita Bauer is tremendously moving, even with trite dialogue. I can't imagine how difficult it must have been for her to be saying some of what Bert has to say when she knew how seriously ill she was. 

Bert was always more emotional than a number of soap matriarchs, but Charita, in the available '70s or early '80s footage, still plays her with a certain reserve. By this point, she had let go, and every moment she has feels like she is reaching through the screen and taking us by the hand. It's heartbreaking but heartwarming.

[Mitch64]

Yes...she was..the show really lost its heart when she passed (Kobe always thought she could write anyone off, and recast the Bauers to hell if Charita was there) Of course, they regained partially with Maureen but GL didnt know anything unless it was how to shoot itself in the foot. Bea was in place and could have partially taken Bert's place for a bit..again, GL shooting itself in the foot.

This was full of the "Dead person used to always say.." (They always gave Vanessa trite little things that Vanessa would never say when she was fake dead...)

Brown is really good here..its nice to see Nola not be just an eccentric wacko...also nice to hear siblings tell each other they love each other. I know that they originally wanted to put Ed and Nola together when she came back but Simon raised a stink..but I think a warm Nola like this could have worked..but how to get around Ed being a serial adulterer which led to her sister's death.

 

Are you sure it wasnt Ben who lost his eyesight? Poor Evie had the sex appeal of a wet rag.

 

I wish they had brought Darcy back to shoot up the whole video gang. She did return years later as a reformed drug counselor and the actress was quite good (and the reaction of Mindy seeing her walk into Company was hilarious.)  I wish they had kept her on staff at Cedars...a kind of Margaret Sedwick, with all of the alcholism going around SF she would be kept busy.

 

Seeing India rock out to Bread would have been hilarious.

[Reverend Ruthledge]

That whole time period was alienating and cold. I'm actually surprised they gave Hilary a funeral. Didn't she die at the hands of the same dumb storyline that killed her father Bill? The writers seemed determined to get rid of the Bauers at this time. And it wasn't like there were any Bauers to spare at this time either. Which makes it seem even more obvious. Trying to get rid of what few there were instead of trying to replenish them.