Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[DeeVee]

Brandy was an odd mish-mash of a character. A radical during her college days, then a journalist/romance writer, I believe? But not so much of a radical that she had a problem chasing millionaire Alan, LOL.

The actress, JoBeth Williams, went on to have a pretty good movie and prime time career.

[DRW50]

I think even if Marland had wanted to write more for Sara/Adam, his hands would have been tied as Robert Milli was one of the actors dumped by P&G due to his age. 

From the bits and pieces I've seen of that period, Sara does have a key role in the Carrie plot, and Marland briefly gave her son Tim a more important part. I'm not sure if they just gave up on Tim once Kevin Bacon left or if they never really cared. I did not even know for many years that there was an actor in the part after Kevin...and then not one, but two. The Spauldingfield video on Tim doesn't even show the last actor (Nigel Reed), which kind of says it all.

Anyway, I do get the sense Marland has some use for Sara, or for Millette. It's only after he goes that she is dumped. Of course he didn't ever hire her for his other shows, so maybe I'm wrong. (then again he never hired Geraldine Court either and he seemed very fond of her)

Ann is an odd character to me as she is a proto-Lillian in being defined by pining for a Bauer brother and being involved in the death of one of their wives. I do wonder what else they could have done with her. She was friends with Diane, wasn't she? They could have had Diane manipulate her against Mike, I suppose.

Edited 5 hours ago by DRW50

[P.J.]

Assuming that Marland had been allowed to write the Carrie story the way he'd envisioned, Millette would've been involved in the story. And she might've played a role in Andy Norris' return (if the speculation on that had ever materialized, and Marland loved bringing back bad boys) But he doesn't seem interested in Sara's personal life. And the women of Springfield could only be analyzed so much.

[DRW50]

That's true. He may have ended up keeping her on a recurring basis, like Dr. Michaels on ATWT.

I'm trying to remember if GL had a similar long-running therapist.

[Paul Raven]

More Guiding Light 1976

At dinner the next evening, Grainger tells Rita he still can’t understand why she inherited from his father and he’s hired a lawyer to help him discover what her role was in his father’s death. Telling her he knows she lied to him, he again warns that he will destroy her reputation in this town. As Rita insists she’s done nothing wrong, Grainger, growing even more angry, lashes out, “Ill see you charged with m—”. Suddenly he clutches his head and collapses to the floor. As people rush to help him, Rita quickly slips out of the restaurant.

Grainger is rushed to Cedars and treated for stroke. Rita is even more frightened and upset when it appears that he’s going to recover under the excellent treatment and care of Ed, who is assigned as his attending physician, and Peggy, who is a fine specialty nurse. Rita, drawn by an unseen force to his door, is further shaken when Peggy, seeing her, presses her into
temporarily spelling her so she can take a short break. Ed is determined to come to Rita’s aid, as she did his, and brings a big steak for dinner to her apartment. But Rita is too unnerved and shaky to even be with Ed, and disappoints him by asking him to leave before dinner, explaining that she’s extremely tired.
Ed knows it’s more than that, and is doubly determined to help her out of this depression, but when she starts to cry, he leaves her, as she wishes.
Roger, remembering how Grainger fired him from the oil fields for- being a friend of Rita’s, is disappointed to learn that Grainger has come out of his coma and that Ed feels Grainger’s paralysis and inability to talk may just be temporary. Rita is pressed to assist Tim with a spinal tap on Grainger, and is frightened when her presence causes Malcolm’s pulse rate to rise rapidly. His doctors are unable to understand his rapid pulse changes.

Rita tells Roger why Grainger is so hateful toward her. While she was his father’s special nurse, Malcolm made physical advances toward her and she fought him off. His father noticed her bruises~and instantly guessed his son had manhandled her. The old man then swore to her he’d never forgive Malcolm for this cruelty. Roger again warns Rita that nobody is to know about his connection with her and with the Graingers. He fears that if Peggy learns about it, she will leave him. 
Ed continues to press his concern and support on Rita, and while it helps to a certain degree and she’s grateful, Rita can’t bring herself to tell him what the source of her worry is. Each day, as Grainger rallies a bit more, her fear and tension increase.
Finally, Grainger is able to barely murmur, “Lie... father ... Rita,” to Peggy and manages to crudely letter “RITA S” on a pad of paper. Peggy, assuming that Rita has somehow managed to get Grainger to respond, summons her to the hospital in the hope that she can further stimulate him and thus hasten his recovery. But a major catastrophe, a train derailment,
- has immobilized the entire area, and Cedars, as well as all local hospitals, is being overrun with patients.
Even though she’s off duty, having served her full shift, Rita is pressed into distributing the patients’ medication. Peggy, explaining that Grainger has already had an accidental delay of medication, which could have caused a major setback, must receive his dosage exactly on schedule. The sight of Rita again agitates Grainger, but she finishes her extra duty and returns home, drained and oversensitive as well as exhausted.
When the regular nurse does her usual check, she finds Grainger lying over the side of his bed, unconscious.
She issues a “Code Blue” call for the emergency team, and Steve, there almost immediately,
starts resuscitation and then gives adrenalin, right into the heart, but Grainger is dead.
As soon as he hears, Ed rushes to Cedars in amazement. This is all impossible to him, as he saw Grainger’s recovery as a certainty. He immediately institutes an investigation to determine the cause of death. Roger, told by Peggy what has happened, notifies a stunned Rita just before Ed arrives to question her about everything she can remember about the
last time she was in Grainger’s room. Rita, unable to understand what’s happening around her, breaks down in tears, crying that she could be responsible for his death. Ed comforts her, assuring her that he’s not blaming her, just trying to find out what happened.
 

 

[DRW50]

Thanks @Paul Raven 

That Grainger story always reads like hog-wild melodrama, not very similar to the more subtle stories for Rita in her last few years. I wonder how Lenore played the material.

[P.J.]

Dr Linden. She treated Vanessa's drug addiction (although Vanessa seemed to forget that by Henry's suicide attempt) , and she's mentioned during Reva's PPD. Although I can't recall if she's actually shown right off the top of my head. She probably was temporarily shelved when Sonni was a therapist (between her crazy times)

And I think Billy sees her after he falls off the wagon after Reva's death.

Edited 2 hours ago by P.J.

[DRW50]

Thanks. 

 

[Soaplovers]

I know that Sara did eventually become Carrie's therapist, but I was curious if the show had her make comments regarding Carrie's stunts of making it seem as though Justin was cheating on Jackie.  Given that Justin cheated on Sara with both Jackie and Brandy, I wondered if it was wise of her to counsel Carrie given the conflict of interest involved.

@DRW50I think once Adam/Sara end up married.. Marland didn't see any reason to explore Sara's personal life after the actor playing Adam was released.  I know that Sara lasts until at least Christmas 1982 on the show.. but I don't think she ended up staying on for very long into 1983.

The period between Marland quitting and Pam Long starting was the perfect time to clean house on characters that had outgrown their usefulness  (i.e. Ben, Evie, Sara, Jennifer, Morgan).. and tying up stories started by Marland that were too complex (Mona Enright, Mark/Jennifer/Amanda triangle).

[DRW50]

I think Ben had already left while under Marland and only returned briefly to reconcile with Eve. The whole thing confuses me as I thought for a long time that Eve left the show to go be with him and that was when they reconciled, but it seems like he returned, they got back together, then he left and maybe they were still together until she left to join him? I have no idea. 

It does seem like the interim writers were using some characters like Justin and Helena who were quickly dumped under Kobe/Long, which is a shame. Helena is one of those characters who likely always had a shelf life but Rose Alaio was such a vibrant screen presence, if Kobe/Long had just been patient, she likely would have fit in well in the Reva era.