Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[DeeVee]

So Sonni would have somebody to talk to who she wasn't conspiring with (Will or Alan)? Alex kept telling Sonni how important her friends were...when she had virtually no friends. Instead they created loyal servants like Jane and Vera to give Alex people to play off of. They did that with Iris on AW, but Vivien was mostly there for comic relief

Alex keeping Marah's paternity a secret was absurd. But I still love the scene between Alex and Alan where he convinces her by reminding her how they protected each other from their abusive father. Chris and Bev ATE that scene.

Unfortunately, that took place only a few months before he exited the show...always thought they could have built on that, explored more how being Brandon's children screwed them both up. Maybe even used it as an explanation for the way their relationship could constantly swing from hatred to love. Instead of it being merely dictated by the plot.

[P.J.]

Right? GOD FORBID Vanessa be allowed to cut her own mother-in-law down to size, when REVA REVA REVA needs a rival to sharpen her claws on. RME

I mean, they could have, but Long and Curlee (like most HW) seemed to forget about characters once they left town. If they mentioned Trish five times in the ten years she was gone, I'd be surprised. 

Yeah, Alex didn't really do friendship, other than Lillian. And most of the time, Henry. 

And somehow, by the time she leaves, Sonni is some friend of Mo's? Mo is just everyone's default "friend". SMH.

[alwaysAMC]

Might be a long shot, because I can't find a thing online about it, but I was Googling the actress that played Nell Cleary (Frank's cop friend that went through academy and then became cops together during the entire Brent Lawrence storyline). To my surprise, she passed away in 2011, at the very young age of 45. I can't find her obituary or anything online about her passing, but I'm curious, does anyone know what happened? Her IMDB only shows a few other acting gigs post-Guiding Light, so she didn't make a career out of it, but I thought she was a great actress in her role as Cleary. Her name was Mary Peterson.

Edited 4 hours ago by alwaysAMC

[Speed Racer]

I very much liked office Cleary and the actress who portrayed her (as you say, Mary Peterson).  A shame her turn didn't evolve into a contract role.

 

BTW, does anyone know the timeframe/years that Betty Rae served as casting director?  If i understand correctly, she not only led the effort for contract roles, but also for shorter 13- and 26-week roles.  IMO, GL had LOTS of very well-casted, limited roles, too.

I'm surprised the actors throughout the soap industry, and especially P&G actors, have not assembled a book or something similar, praising Rae.  Each actor could write a few paragraphs or a page of text describing his or her experience.

[DRW50]

So much on here slips my mind but this is the first I remember hearing of Peterson's passing. Very sad. Nell was a thankless role, clearly set up for a cheating storyline with Frank, but Peterson did her best. 

Betty Rea

Rea was the casting director for the soap opera “Guiding Light” from 1970 to 1996 and simultaneously the casting director for “As the World Turns” from 1979 to 1983.

[chrisml]

If Betty Rea was the casting director, why was so much of GL during JFP's reign cast by her? Walker, Deas, Crampton, Lando, etc. JFP takes credit for Dusay as well. What is the point of having a casting director, if you don't let her do her job? What happened when Rea left? 

[Soaplovers]

I did notice a decline in the quality of the performers being cast once Betty R vacated/retired from her position.

We would have been spared from the nightmares of some of the castings that dominated the show in the last decade or so of the soap.

JFP was an example of someone, no matter the gender, who had no business being in the position they were in.

[Contessa Donatella]

No idea but she won Emmys & she was the Casting Director at the same time for both ATWT & GL. She hired Lisa Brown with no job for her. Then Marland made Brown his muse so he created both Iva & Nola for her.

But, I think we know that Jill does what Jill wants. 

[DRW50]

We see the same with GH, where Mark Teschner, the casting director, reportedly has less say since Frank Valentini took over. Some producers want to take over every aspect of their shows. 

I think Lando may have been a CBS push.

[chrisml]

One of the dumbest situations (Lando) ever. What audience member is going to invest in a storyline with a recast they don't like and a triangle where one character is short-term? It bombed as it should have done. So much of JFP's tenure just reeks of desperation. I don't get how someone could produce SB (which did have flaws but was often brilliant) but make so many terrible mistakes at GL.

 

I still think JFP would have worked better as a director and music supervisor. Her music work at SB was top notch. 

It just seems that Rea was minimized during JFP's tenure because I can't imagine her okaying so many of these casting choices.

[DRW50]

JFP was only as strong as her writers, which is why her output got worse and worse when she decided she was the only writer anyone needed.

They could have easily had a decent short-term story with Lando - maybe cast him as a terminal patient at Cedars, or a long-lost Bauer or Reardon who would leave town after his story is done and possibly return at a later date with a recast. He might become close to Ed and Michelle, similar to how Ed had taken Kelly under his wing years earlier. Maybe he could have been tied to Maureen's death, somehow - maybe we'd learn, after he ingratiated himself to everyone in Springfield, that he accidentally ran Maureen off the road during the storm. And when he realizes this he would, in shame, leave town, maybe leaving some Springfield lady devastated if they were about to get married (this could have worked with a better Mindy recast, or maybe a brand new character).

Edited 2 hours ago by DRW50

[Contessa Donatella]

At Santa Barbara I think she inherited a very strong structure. I also think it's the first time she exhibited the Peter Principle & was promoted just one step above her level of assured competence. If she'd stayed in Music Production I guarantee you she'd have more awards & also a stellar rep. 

Oh, we totally agree then. 

Betty Rea GL 1970-1996 & at 82 she died 12-23-99. Worked for the show for 26 years. Shorter time at ATWT.

GL had no casting director from 1996 till 1999 when 

Rob Decina came on board. (He found Tom Pelphrey at college in NJ.) he was 1999-2009, so bitter ender. 

Jill GL 1989-1994, so I would guess that Betty was pretty tired & Jill just ran over her, which probably made her last years miserable because this lady was legendary!

All years from imdb which CAN be wrong. 

[chrisml]

I've always said that JFP's main problem is that she comes up with some shocking event and she plans around the event but she never thinks much about the emotional fallout for the characters or the fans. That's why so many of her stories don't work and damage her shows. I like your idea about Lando playing the person involved in hitting Maureen. It would have given Peter Simon something to do which is the feeble excuse they gave for killing Maureen off in the first place. Instead, they gave us the dreck they did. 

And they were so obsessed with recreating the blackout week that they kept putting characters in fires and blizzards. None of which I saw, but going through the Logan columns I noticed: every few weeks, someone at GL would give an interview to Logan saying GL was going to get better because they had a great new storyline (A fire! A blizzard! A fire!) . Insanity.

 

[DRW50]

Coronation Street had a very good story where one of the characters befriended a man who she later learned had been involved in her husband's death - when told right it can be very powerful (not like AMC trying to make it a romance).

ATWT almost had a big fire in mid-1994, so this seemed to be a "thing" with P&G at the time. I guess it fits the disaster backstage atmosphere.

[j swift]

Ms. Phelps holds a BFA in directing from Carnegie Mellon University, awarded in 1972. At a time when women were underrepresented in directing programs, she was one of the few women in her graduating class. To suggest that she possessed no further talents than completely changing the style of music used on soaps seems like a vast underestimate when one reads her online biography through an objective lens.

I guess that I should be more clever than to constantly blame misogyny for these misguided interpretations of her management style.  But, I'll never comprehend why fans unquestionably align their opinions even years after fact. Post-modernism, and the ability to reinterpret context through the study of history, seems to elude this conversation.