Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[alwaysAMC]

I’m up to Jan. 8, 1996 and into a new year!

This NYE masquerade ball has been outstanding soap opera! The jig is up with Marian. Brent stages a dummy in a wig at his apartment, making Cleary think Marian is alone at home all night, but Brent is really dressed up at the ball and stalking Lucy and AM. Meanwhile, Frank is at the docks and finds a wrapped floating body (Nadine) and calls it in.  At the same time, unlucky for Brent, Susan just woke up from her coma and remembers Marian attacking her and tells Nick everything! Nick immediately calls Frank to tell him the news. Back at the party, Brent calls AM, pretending to be Marian, and lures him to her apartment just as Frank and Clearly storm in and they all find the dummy in a wig. Brent, now dressed as Zoro like AM was at the party, grabs Lucy, kisses her, she realizes it isn’t AM, and Brent attacks and drugs her unconscious!  I can’t wait to see how this turns out… except for…

In this moment, in the middle of the ball, a new actor takes over for Brent. So the episode starts with Brent attacking Lucy, but you have the voiceover man say “Today, the role of Brent Lawrence will be played by…” - taking you out of the scene, wondering what in the world happened. I know what happened, but I’m sure if I were watching live in the 90s without internet, I would be gasping. I had no idea the switchover happened mid-ball where you have the entire cast dressed up, working long hours. I have to imagine the stress of it all made Frank Beaty have his mental break, but I wonder how the rest of the cast/crew dealt with it given it happened right in the middle of this ball that everyone was at for multiple episodes. Did they have to delay the filming schedule to find a new actor? The actor must have had zero time to prep for the role, although I’m assuming we won’t see Marian anymore now that she’s been known to be a fake. I want to know all the juicy BTS details haha. But now, Rick caught wind that the police are trying to find Marian at the party and he starts to put the pieces together, given that he’s the only one that knows Marian is really a man. He walks outside and tells AM, Buzz, Frank and the police that Marian is a man and chaos ensues.

Also, Nick finally proposes to Susan in the hospital in a very sweet scene. I didn’t enjoy Susan or this pairing in the beginning, but they’ve really grown on me and I really like how tough Susan is. She was the only one who really caught onto Marian and stood up to her.

Meanwhile, Amanda locks Blake in a bathroom and ends up pulling Roger into a kiss after midnight, which Blake sees after she finally escapes. The girls fight, slap each other, throw food and pies… what a fun time haha.

Reva the diva is in full force and her sweet milkmaid Goshen personality went out the door for good. She makes Alan go to the ball with her, dressed in a sexy red dress, and makes quite a scene. She kisses Josh, they fight in front of the whole party, she breaks down, they scream at each other, poor Annie runs off crying and Reva leaves the party and tries to seduce Alan to make herself feel better. Reva’s performance in front of everyone was pure Reva and honestly the Reva I prefer.  I was so tired of Amish Reva for 7 months, so this is a breath of fresh air. I don’t think it all came together perfectly, and I don’t think Reva nor Josh have made good decisions, but at least the story is now moving forward and I have the old Reva back, for better or worse haha.

I’m a little disappointed in Bridget. She’s very quick to crush on Hart again and she’s almost pining after him at this ball. Vanessa of course isn’t that happy with what she’s seeing. Matt tries to reassure her. Speaking of, Matt is looking really good at this ball - the mustache and hat really works for him (sorry, PJ haha).  Another point about Bridget that bothers me, which is the writers’ fault, but she’s been totally dropped from the Lucy/Brent storyline. They were basically best friends and she was involved in the beginning, but they completely replaced her friend role with Susan/Nick, which I get because she has HIV/AIDs and Bridget may not have worked as well when the story continued along that path.  But still, I wish we could see Bridget checking in on her or be worried for her (same with David).

Finally, a little story is brewing with Griffin and Gilly’s mom, Vivian. She just confronted him and asks if he’s planning to do to her daughter what he did to her long ago.  Interesting…

[DRW50]

@alwaysAMC Great mini-review as always. 

That Gilly story is...certainly one I could not forget...

I imagine a number of viewers were shocked with the temporary recast. It was revealed in the soap magazines, as was the news about Frank Beaty's breakdown, I think. I think Wolf had some statements or an interview at the time but very little. I wish someone could interview him. He did a good job under extremely tough circumstances. 

For some reason I have a vague memory of him in the Marian getup but that's probably not right. 

I'm glad you have appreciated the material with Susan after a shaky start. I always enjoyed her, and she was the only love interest I liked Nick with.