Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[P.J.]

Honestly, rewatching the mid-80's, I wonder if Pam Long GAF about anyone other than Reva. Even Alexandra, who isn't getting any great story that I can see, she revolves around her precious Brandon. 

Reva is supposed to be plucky, "tell it like it is" brave for living with no regrets, while she pisses and moans, biting the Lewis hand that clothes and feeds her so she can lust after a virtual stranger because they've both "hungered" to be a Lewis and feel like they've been excluded from the precious Lewis circle of trust. 

Lord love a duck.

Long didn't know how to write for strong women. She's not interested in Annabelle, Nola, Katie (although she hadn't had a story since '81) or Trish, Mo and Claire have babyitis, Roxy's an ex-whore, Mindy's spoiled but occasionally tries to grow up and Beth cries all day everyday.

Yes, Vanessa isn't the mover and shaker she was upon entering Springfield. But at least she was allowed to grow as a character. Unlike Reva, she's not hamstrung in some eternal sexpot role that she can't escape from. 

As much as I dislike some aspects of the Dylan storyline, it's arguably Long's best umbrella story. Yes, it could've been written without Vanessa, but it's undoubtably richer for her being in it.

[Soaplovers]

Actually.. I thought she restored Katie back to her more fun loving/self deprecating spirit after being watered down by Marland.  Even the actress that played Katie puts the blame more on Gail Kobe than Long.  

I think I understood what she was trying to do with Nola.. but it didn't work.  She was trying to write a character that gets her happily ever after with the man she loves... but struggles with the reality of living in real world after getting her happy ending.  However, the way she went about it was all wrong.

Trish, she wisely made the peacemaker of the Lewis family.. though I could understand the actress probably growing restless with being the pragmatic peacemaker by 1985.

Unpopular opinion:  I actually think Beth should have stayed dead.  I think it made his embracing of the dark side of Spaulding more realistic once she was dead.. and as we saw, it did affect his relationship with Chelsea during that period.

[alwaysAMC]

I’m up to May 16, 1996.

Lucy/A-M are getting married and they were holding this big secret for weeks on where the location was… all to find out it’s going to be an ad for Universal Studios haha.  Probably was fun back in the 90s, but a bit cheesy looking back now. Although they were on a boat alone, at night, reminiscing about Brent, and A-M promised a tearful Lucy that “the worst is over, there is nothing to be afraid of anymore”… and right after, freaking JAWS comes out of the water to attack them on the ride. LOL. I’ve actually been on that ride and it was as scary in person as it was watching it, but that scene ended up being very cheesy given how serious it was supposed to be.

Rick being there in Florida with everyone makes zero sense considering he doesn’t hang out with any of these people, but he’s clearly there because Phillip has shown up. Very plot-driven, but at least I’m getting old flashbacks of Rick/Phillip during this. But yeah, outside of the nuptials, this wedding and the Universal Studios trip (ad) turned out to be more about Phillip than anything. Skulking around in the Frankenstein costume, listening to everyone’s conversations about him, was… interesting. Rick dancing in the street by himself, while the other couples danced together, was pretty funny though.

The nuptials were beautiful and I loved seeing A-M/Lucy finally get married. I loved how they mentioned Nadine a few times throughout, but especially during their nuptials. It was a nice touch. I still can’t believe Nick, Susan, Bridget and David weren’t there.

I really love the Amanda/Alex rivalry. The digs they make at each other are so funny to me.

Dinah and Roger have gone off the deep end with their hatred for each other. She’s making him think he’s going crazy by dressing up as Hart’s mother, gaslighting him into thinking untrue things. Now, he’s putting a drug in her drinks that should make her hallucinate and be psychotic. They both want each other dead, and I can’t imagine they’ll ever come back from this.

Blake is now pregnant with twins, and the fear is that Rick is the father, or Rick and Ross are both fathers by split parentage between the twins. I don’t hate this storyline because it’s unique and also possible, which I didn’t realize until I googled it.  The storyline has been on pause for a bit while Rick is in Florida for the wedding, so I’m curious to see where this goes.

Annie/Josh have also been on pause a bit given that Reva/Buzz/Alan are all in Florida. I’m sure when Reva gets back home, Josh will continue to lust after her while Annie grows more uneasy.

Holly delivered Meg, their child with down syndrome, and she and Fletcher have had a rollercoaster of emotions about it, but overall pretty ‘slow’ and boring here. If I liked Fletcher more, I might care more. I found it really weird that Ben randomly decided to move away and go to boarding school because he felt like he’d be in the way, and Fletcher didn’t really seem to have a big problem with it. Seems more like the writers just didn’t want to deal with him and Meg together.

Viviane just confided in Holly that Griffin is Gilly’s father, just as Griffin and Gilly held hands/locked eyes at the diner. Viviane is now trying to seduce Griffin, in hopes that it will make them stay apart. This whole storyline is gross. They’re really going to let a father/daughter get romantic before they know their true relations? And instead of just telling Gilly the truth, Viviane would rather try to cheat on her husband again with Griffin and ‘compete’ with her? This is awful.

I’m also losing interest in Dahlia and Marcus. He just told her the truth about her mother, which upset Frank and got Marcus in deeper trouble. But yeah, I’m not really that invested in their budding relationship, especially since she’s still in high school.

Oh and they just introduced cell phones on the show and it’s hilarious.  Blake pulls out her cell phone and answers with “Hi, I’m on my CELL phone”. “Yeah, I have a CELL phone” - it’s so funny.

They finally updated the opening on May 2, 1996!  Which only covers half the cast, which tells me they will hopefully/finally have two separate openings. It was always weird to me that they could remove someone from the opening quickly, but never add someone new at the same time. The opening was getting so old that half of it was stock images that replaced people that left the show (Nadine, Eleni, Eve, Nick, Mindy, David, Tangie and then some shirtless guy I never could tell who it was). Reva has been on the show for over a year now and she was never in the opening until just now with the update. I can’t believe they let it go that long! Oh same with Annie and Dinah - both were on the show for like 16-17 months before they finally got in the opening.

[j swift]

Nope, we had taste, even in the 90s, and the richest family in town throwing a wedding at an amusement park was never cool.

But, isn't funny that they're all back in Florida, but nobody mentions this is where Reva went nuts and drove off a bridge.  It seems like it might trigger some memories.

Edited yesterday at 03:34 AM by j swift

[kalbir]

Probably not.

Then again, if any character defined the final 25 years of GL it was Reva.

[DRW50]

Thanks as always @alwaysAMC

The remote was panned in the soap press at the time, especially Philip wandering around in the costume as well as some of the comedy. 

I have to admit it didn't bother me, even though I knew how ludicrous the idea was of the Spauldings having a wedding at a theme park. I thought there were some fun moments and I did like the scene where Lucy got to cry and grieve over what Brent had done to her. 

I think I was just glad to get away from the stories in Springfield, which were bad and getting worse. 

There are a number of attempts at revamping the opening music in 1996. I'll be interested in what you think of them. I remember being glad they updated the photos but also noticing how cheap they looked. The show did need a new opening. Sadly, Rauch would instead just not even have an opening for over 5 years.

[Speed Racer]

Swift said:  "But, isn't funny that they're all back in Florida, but nobody mentions this is where Reva went nuts and drove off a bridge.  It seems like it might trigger some memories."

Hilarious!!   'Tis a shame it didn't retrigger the same behavior as well.  In a gray Volvo.

[Spoon]

Lynda Hirsch on Pittsburgh 2Day, 1987

Discussing the end of Capitol, Guiding Light and the writing turmoil is talked about near the end.  6:00: "Alan Spaulding was supposed to have a daughter return, they got rid of that."

Edited yesterday at 04:22 PM by Spoon

[alwaysAMC]

LOL - well ironically, on their last night in Florida, Reva and Buzz got into a car wreck while tailing Alan and his business associate. They were trying to prove that Alan was in charge of that Avnet company that was creating issues with the 5th Street rebuild (which of course Alan was, and of course Alan lied to Alan-Michael about it on his wedding day, etc). But yeah, Reva was trapped in the car for a bit, but they were able to get her out before it caught on fire and exploded.  It became sort of a non-event after a couple episodes, but Reva needs to avoid cars in Florida

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You’re welcome!  

You have such a great memory, which I love. I guess I’m not surprised it was panned by the press, but I do think there were some gems within (the nuptials, Alex/Amanda sharing a room, Nadine shoutouts, etc).

I’m a huge fan of soap opera openings, mildly obsessed because it’s so nostalgic for me. While I didn’t watch GL back then, I still knew their 90s opening generally and always loved it. The dramatic music and lighthouse effects that start it out always gets me excited, very reminiscent of AMC’s or GH’s dramatic opening music overlaying the scene. I was just so frustrated how infrequently they updated it in 1995 and into 1996, so I’m so happy to see the updated versions. I’m now a few more episodes into May and the second/B opening just debuted and I love it!  It closes with Dinah. I loved, loved the version with Harley and her dancing as it closes out. Tangie replaced her, which wasn’t as great, but then when she left, it was just a fireplace closing out the opening for 9 months. Now we have Reva and Dinah, but still nothing beats Harley’s scene in that spot.

[DeeVee]

My first thought was that Amanda was supposed to come back. Kathleen did come back briefly Christmas 1987, maybe that was supposed to be a permanent return and they changed their minds?

The OTHER possibility: there were a few hints dropped when Alan returned in 1986 that he had some kind of tragic romance while he was away, possibly in San Rios. Maybe they were going to bring in another daughter that way?

Is it possible DORIE was slated to be revealed as his daughter? Yeah, she was too old, but this is a soap. In our perception he was gone 2 years, but maybe it was longer in soap years.

I always wondered why they never took advantage of that two-year gap. Lots of backstory they could have created. They eventually did do that with Roger.

 

Interesting how that commentator had no problem revealing the backstage chaos at the time. Seemed to even piss her off a little. 

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Edited yesterday at 05:38 PM by DeeVee

[Mitch64]

I remember this being in the soap press at the time, they were going to be focused on rebuilding the Bauers, Reardons and Spauldings..and we saw they kind of just created a new Reardon (Chelsea when Nola was always supposed to be the youngest) a new Bauer with an offshoot of the main family,(Johnny) so I am sure they were going to do the same with Alan. New writers may have changed all that..(Long later brought  back Amanda for the Christmas episodes...leading into Alex/Phillip dethroning Alan.)

I thought Poser should play an different character then Amanda...maybe an adopted daughter. We know Alan had a woman who he lived with in San Rios, they could have had her die and to pay her back for saving his life he adopts her daughter and trains her in all the ways to be a Spaulding. He pays a debt and he has a secret weapon to unleash on the family when he needed to so he keeps in his back pocket.

[P.J.]

Or was the character of Blake going to be a new Spaulding? 

Chelsea.....grrrrrrr.

[DeeVee]

I always had the impression that Blake turning out to be Christina was a storyline switcheroo after they decided to bring back Roger. She used to talk to someone on the phone and it sounded like it was a younger sibling. Maybe originally they were going to be Spaulding cousins, like Johnny was a Bauer cousin? I'm pretty sure in the Spaulding backstory Brandon had a brother. 

LOL. Nola was established as the youngest, the name Chelsea doesn't fit in with the other Reardon sibling names, AND she had a very prominent Southern accent. Kassie would have been more believable as a Lewis or a Shayne. Plus, the character was boring as heck. 

[Mitch64]

Blake was a character that was introd right before or during the strike. When Long came back she asked who Blake was talking to on the phone and the producers were like "We don't know!" It was Curlee who pushed to make that character Chrissy...when they were in talks with Zaz to replace Pilon as Alan, (dummies) .

I like the idea of another Reardon but yea, Chelsea? I grew to like her but she just seemed to be a kid that Bea fostered instead of a Reardon. Remember when they had a big scene of the Ed and Maureen talking about the "wildest" Reardon coming home, and Rick says, "Nola's coming back" and Maureen says, "Oh no, Chelsea's MUCH wilder then even Nola!" Okay..riiggghhht. I know they mentioned her "jumping in a fountain in Rome," and since they also had boring Tangie do that, this was apparently the wildest thing the writers could dream up (or they watched the "the Birds" too many times.)

[DeeVee]

I don't remember that scene! OMG, that is TOO funny! 

There were three unseen Reardon siblings at this point. I suppose they wanted this one to be of an age to belong to the current young adult crowd, so that's why they retconned their birth order, but hell, at least bring in someone interesting. Maureen was already the goody-goody, they didn't need another one.