Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[bboy875]

I read years ago that both Zaslow and Lenore both complained that it came off as a seduction because of CBS censors, so Lenore asked if she could say, "you raped me" to leave no doubt with the audience, and that Zaslow insisted that Holly's rape played realistically 

[P.J.]

I thought about saying how I resented the fact that those two newbies were tripping up the Puppetmaster of all Puppetmasters, when the best others could do was a stalemate (or less...). But, well...*sigh*

[alwaysAMC]

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  Blasphemy! 

(Haha, I get it.  But, you should try watching AMC! 80s-90s was so good.)

[DeeVee]

Yes it was! My mom and I convinced my dad to get one. He was--how shall I put this?--on the thrifty side, but one day he came home with one as a surprise.

To this day, I'm convinced it fell off a truck. (He knew people with "connections."

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) BUT, we had our VCR and we could watch our soaps. That thing lasted forever! It was built like a tank. Even when we got new ones with more features, we kept that one.

[P.J.]

On the way to her own engagement party? I've read that the show had trouble getting the audience to sympathize with Rita, but...that seems bizarre. Maybe I can understand the issue with the censors, given that at the time, rape wasn't depicted the way it is now, and marital rape was even less acknowledged. 

Wasn't Chris Brooks' rape one of the first honest stories on the subject?

I just don't think I could get into a show I didn't have a working knowledge of. I know it's a different era, but I really tried to get into GH once Maura West joined, but it just never jelled.

Edited Sunday at 04:26 PM by P.J.

[alwaysAMC]

I just did with GL and its made me very happy!

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Oh yes, trying to get into any soap from scratch starting post-2010 would be hard. I prefer to go back to the good ol' days, before the decline. 

[DeeVee]

I really wish we could see that episode...absolutely, my memory could be faulty, it was a very long time ago. I'm not going to contradict what the actors said--there has to be a reason it made them so uncomfortable that they talked about it in the press and complained to TPTB.

I think that was the first one where they made the point that they wanted to educate the audience about the subject.

[alwaysAMC]

Was Blake the product of Roger raping Holly, or did that come after when they were a couple?

[DeeVee]

No. Ed and Holly were married and having problems. She had an affair with Roger and that's when Christina--Blake--was conceived. The rape happened much later, after Holly and Roger were married.

[bboy875]

The rape was in 1979 after they were married. Blake was the result of Holly cheating with him while she was married to Ed. I believe she was born in 1975. 

[alwaysAMC]

Ahh good, thank you both!

[bboy875]

Rita's rape is an episode i constantly search on YouTube hoping one day that it will show up. I always feel like I may have seen it, but I was only 6 at the time and can never figure any of the things I have vague recollection of 

[alwaysAMC]

Hahaha - I do. I've always been the type, though, that can't miss anything. I get FOMO, so I'll not skip episodes or fast forward anything. There are only a few TV shows I've dropped because they got so bad vs. sticking it out to the end.  The promise that GL 1997 is better is what keeps me going. I especially want to see the fallout of Blake's lie about her twins and then Annie's descent which I believe won Watros's Emmy.

[chrisml]

The horrific comments execs and writers make when they justify rape storylines or keeping rapists as love interests is just so icky. I remember Ron Carlivati's comments about the reraping of Marty storyline on OLTL. Made my skin crawl. 

No matter what you think of her, Susan Lucci could have demanded front burner storylines but she never did. She was happy to be part of an ensemble. I never got that vibe from Zimmer.  For me, Reva was just not a character I cared that much about after a certain point no matter how talented Zimmer is/was. I think Zimmer had a keener eye for what made a good storyline, but she was less willing to take a backseat if it meant someone else got to shine. I'm trying to recall if she ever mentions Michelle Forbes in her book--one of the few times the viewers did not care about Reva in a storyline. My sense is if she did, it was probably some backhanded remark about how she had to show Forbes the ropes.

 

 

[DeeVee]

I found an interview with Joseph Breen (Will Jeffries) where he mentions that Reva was put in a coma so Zimmer could go to Hollywood to do a pilot (OMG, if ONLY it had been picked up, LOL) and that Sonni and Josh and Will became a popular with the audience while she was out of commission. 

If you want to read the whole thing:

https://www.authorsden.com/visit/viewarticle.asp?id=47394

Breen was known for being very candid in interviews, I wish I could find more of them. I seem to recall he made a couple of snarky comments about Zimmer, implying she was not above acting like a diva. Sounded to me like he had a lot of respect for Forbes (who went on to have a very strong and varied career after GL). 

Edited Sunday at 07:22 PM by DeeVee