Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[P.J.]

Yes. Something about Charlotte and Alicia being sisters and a childhood with an abusive drunk father. I couldn't watch the explanation, which seems to be an orchestrated "gotcha" moment by Fletch sort of "haunting" Alicia at the tv station. (I hadn't quite realized WSPR was around before Holly.)

I think the radio thing was to make Fletch relevant. Long learned that globe-trotting peeps like Quint and Helena needed something to do in Springfield. Can't count on murder trials to keep the newspaper a-hoppin'. 

I swear the actress playing Alicia also had a role on ATWT---maybe she was Olivia Wycroft. I keep meaning to look that up.

As much as I've criticized Simon, at least you can see there's something going on within him. VanVleet just feels like an aging playboy trying desperately to play a serious person.

Yes, Leslie Dennison's Carolyn Crawford was a parapalegic on ATWT. LD's a lovely person, but a boring actress, imo.

I was surprised to realize they really did show Billy having nightmares due to his brainwashing. It's mostly the same thing over and over, but I had only heard Vanessa telling Ross after Billy had been arrested before.

[DeeVee]

I must have been on a sabbatical from watching GL during much of 1985 because most of the episodes that have been uploaded recently were completely unknown to me, so I have a few thoughts:

FINALLY got to see Locke Walls! I had heard of the character from story synopses and discussion on GL MBs, but I had never seen him before. I really liked Jeremy Slate as Locke. I know this was the height of the "Just Say No" 80s, but the hysteria over the "evils" of the music industry made me laugh out loud. Alex having a meltdown over the music industry destroying her baby boy, when he should be "safe" working at Spaulding was particularly funny. At this point in the story she thought her brother was dead in the jungles of San Rios because of his overreaching ambitions as the head of Spaulding. Also, she was a music groupie, falling for two musicians!

The scenes with Locke's death were very poignant, and made me think how badly they shafted Beverlee. She was on the show for something like five years before they gave her a real romantic story. Every character close to her leaves or dies on her. No wonder they stuck her in the stupid Simon storyline, just so she would have someone to care about.

I missed almost everything to do with the Claire pregnancy storyline. I think I started watching again after Michelle was born and she wanted to kill her baby. First thought: Good God, Maureen, you had the perfect chance to yeet Ed out of your life, why didn't you take it? Also, it seems strange how close Ed, Mo, Fletch, and Claire remained after the first shock of discovery. Especially since I mostly remember Claire turning into pratically a psycho later on. I'm not surprised now by some of the things Susan Pratt has said about what they did to the character. Were there different writers by then? 

My thoughts exactly...but it was nice to see Babara Garrick as Charlotte. She was really good at playing this kind of character.

YES, and WHY? Fletcher at least was a journalist, but why would anyone want Mo to host a radio show?

The Reva/Kyle stuff: wasn't a fan of the latter part of their storyline and now not a fan of the earlier part of their storyline. And, ugh, Maeve. So boring. So dull. But I guess she had to be because no one could outshine you know who.

David/Suzette/Jackson: WTF is it with that David character? Is he in love with Kyle? His whole schtick is Kyle, Kyle, Kyle, Kyle, I hate Springfield, I want to go back to New York, Kyle, Kyle, Kyle, Kyle, why are we still in Springfield, Kyle, Kyle, Kyle, Kyle.

And poor Frances Fisher as Suzette! First she's begging David to pay attention to her and make love to her, but (his) thoughts of Kyle keep getting in the way of that. Then she becomes obsessed with Lujack, who is, what, 19 years old? Ew.

I kind of like Michael Wilding Jr. (he comes across as a little raw in the beginning though he improves a bit over time) but the character existed for one reason: to be in love with Beth, who was also too young for him. But I guess that's because he and Suzette are Big Bad Music Industry People.

So much time and investment in Lujack and Beth as a romantic couple. That music video storyline must have cost them a pretty penny to produce...still can't believe they killed him off just because the EP was mad VI wanted to try his luck in Hollywood. 

Finally, the Rick/Roxy/Kurt/Mindy stuff: watching Rick and Mindy pretending to be a couple so they can stay at the boarding house and keep tabs on Kurt and Roxy's faux marriage made me think one thing: please dump Kurt and Roxy, they are boring AF. Rick and Mindy were adorable and funny together and should have been a long-term love story. I will die on this hill.

[P.J.]

I watched that cow Reva tell Trish she was dumping HB in utter disbelief. When even Trish is staring at you like you are an ungrateful bitch, all because of a guy you met six months (or so) ago, you are a 'ho. How Reva and Zimmer survived this clunker remains a mystery to me. Were she and Kyle really that well received? Or did the writers realize they'd gone too far and write Reva's suicide attempt to softly reboot the character?

Nowadays, David definitely would've been crushing on Kyle and jealousy over being rejected by him after Kyle found the Lewises would've driven him to try and kill him.

Rick/Mindy FTW. I think Michael and Krista really were sparkly.  I understand what they were trying to do with Kurt, but BLECH.

[soapfan770]

A few days late but this made me holler so bad and immediately took.me back 29 years when I first saw this. I still remember thinking Rick and Phillip were going hold each other and dance together LOL.

Rick being there at least makes some sense as he was A-M’s second cousin and the show still at least recognized he was half Bauer, at least until Hearst left. 

The whole Universal Studios wedding was over the top. I think someone wanted A-M and Lucy to be the next GL super couple but once Hearst left the A-M recast flopped and both were gone by early ‘97 with Lucy never appearing ever again. 
 

Love the rest of your post, summer 1996 was the first time GL left me feeing…greatly underwhelmed until it inspired righteous indignation on my behalf once we get to the Gilly twist.