Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[P.J.]

The first show I found had Maeve dressed horribly, and I just shook my head and thought she must've been thrilled to be portraying someone much more sophisticated and rich. Vanessa's hats and gloves probably cost more than her AW character's entire wardrobe.

Edited Monday at 03:56 AM by P.J.

[alwaysAMC]

I watch many episodes from the Vault, a secret source here on SON, because the quality is much better than YouTube. But, it has commercials that I have to skip through, although even these commercials give me serious nostalgia vibes. All that said, there is a consistent 1996 commercial for Excedrin with Frank Beatty!  He talks right into the camera about his feelings, and it's like Brent Lawrence never left. I wonder if GL fans back in the day ever saw this and had feelings about it. 

[DRW50]

I have to admit Annie exhausted me somewhat before she went nuts. So much anxiety. She and Robert were OK I guess. Didn't ever stick out much one way or the other.

[alwaysAMC]

I just found the commercial on YouTube, with several other GL'ers doing the same commercial - how fun!

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She did the same for me once Ghost Reva arrived (the anxiety and paranoia) - which is when the storyline for Rick/Annie started, with their Chicago past and her alcoholism. But before all that, when she was new and tending to Josh's broken leg, she was just normal, sweet and very cute/flirty. 

[TheyStartedOnSoaps]

Actually Kim Zimmer got six weeks off to test the waters for pilot season in L.A. - she said later she went on many auditions and got one offer for a sitcom, but she would one of many in an ensemble. She turned it down, because it wasn't worth leaving Guiding Light for a supporting role on a sitcom. 

[Robluvthebeach]

Interesting tidbit- Robert Newman (Josh) dated Jennifer Cooke (Morgan) when they first started on Guidling Light (it was reported in the press and I think they talked about it in interviews).

I did see (as a young kid) Rita having a flashback about Roger's rape of her --and it was confusing as a kid because she was on the floor leaning against her bed and she looked like she was seduced by force and her dress was in disarray, her hair was mussed, make up was a bit messy, but she looked at him with fear, disgust and confusion but the camera was in soft focus (so I get why people may say it was romanticized)--and I remember asking what happened to her and told well she is having nightmares/flashbacks of Roger not being nice to her 

[alwaysAMC]

I’m up to August 5, 1996.

Another change to the opening music. The hollow whooshing sound is gone and they’ve add a soft rock, synthesizer-style sound to this more upbeat version.

Ugh - they let Gilly and Griffin kiss before she found out the truth. So gross, what’s the point? And now once the truth has come out, Charles is like “oh yeah, I’ve always known he was your father, no big deal”?  What was all of this for? If he really always knew, he should have had a reaction when Griffin came to town last year, just like Vivian did.  I will say, the acting in the reveal scene was amazing, both actresses killed it. Now Vivian lost her husband, who is leaving her, and her daughter… and she already lost her son. The writers really trashed this entire family for nothing, how sad. She’s now running around town blaming everything on Griffin and trashing his name, but lady, no, it’s all your fault!

I think I now just got to Gilly’s last episode (Aug 1). She just announced to the family at dinner that she’s leaving town for good and will not reach back out to her mother. What a terrible ending to this character and the family.

Finally found a time I liked Alan. Marah (of course) and Shayne sneak away and go wandering on 5th street alone, but Shayne stays back in the abandoned building, just as they’re about to blow it up. Alan is sweet to Marah and realizes Shayne might still be there, so he runs to the building and tries to stop them from detonating the explosives, but he’s too late… he finally has a heart here haha. Although I guess this is still all his fault.  Watching Josh and Reva react to Shayne’s voice from within the rubble was really moving, great acting across the board here (Annie too).

Ok, so Zachary shows up while everyone runs away from the rubble that’s falling, and he steps into it and finds Shayne. So is he like an angel or something supernatural? Because I don’t love supernatural stuff on my soaps unless that’s ‘normal’ for the show.  But Alan does eventually go in with Josh, so he’s risking his life to save Shayne, and that’s great.

I was a huge Lucy/A-M fan and loved watching their relationship, but most couples work well when the actors have good chemistry. For me, now that Rick Hearst is gone, the relationship just isn’t working for me, sadly. I feel like Lucy and Zachary have better chemistry now haha.

Abby’s mom has returned and she’s just highly frustrating and awful - that’s all.

J just mentioned he has a sister - who is that? Unless she’s older and an adult, it’s a bit odd that she’s not around since now both Nola and Quint are in Springfield. She didn’t show at Henry’s funeral either, nor was mentioned.

So Roger is now in the loony bin, after losing his court case. I’m side-eyeing Blake on this one. She was completely torn, which was nice to see, but she ultimately sided with Dinah/Hart which annoyed me. But, Bridget continues to win for me - she’s one of my favorites - and she just called out Dinah/Hart on their BS, and I’m here for it. If there were ever a moment for a slap, Dinah deserves one from Bridget. Speaking of slaps, I haven’t seen a single slap in the 18 months I’ve been watching this show!  Does GL just not traditionally do slaps? It’s a soap staple that I enjoy haha.

Alex continues to be one of my favorites, likely because I’m such a fan of Dusay, her theatrics and heavy breathing. She keeps referring to Amanda as “Little Miss Madame” and it cracks me up.  Speaking of Amanda, she now just overheard nurses gossiping that Blake is having twins with two different fathers, so she knows the secret! This should get good now that she’s re-entered Ross/Blake’s orbit.

Ah, so the A.Spaulding in question that paid Neil Everest off to frame Phillip was Alan-Michael!  Well, Lucy found a check he wrote to Neil, so I’m assuming so… this isn’t that interesting of a storyline though, so hopefully this doesn’t drag on too much longer. Now I just found out that Neil and Alan were cellmates in prison…it keeps going.

And finally, Annie just faked a prescription for more pills and she just saw a ‘bad Annie’ image of herself who is encouraging her addiction.  Annie is officially talking to herself and since I know Jeva won’t allow a Josh/Annie relationship to survive, I’m all here for crazy Annie!

Whoa! Griffin just got shot while giving a speech on 5th Street.  Curious to see what happens here, even though I’m not a Griffin fan.

[DeeVee]

That would be his older sister Stacey. She was the center of a big story back in the day. Nola was out to snag medical student Kelly Nelson, who she thought would provide her with the life she craved. He was in love with a girl named Morgan.

Nola plotted to get pregnant by him, but couldn't manage to get him in bed. So she seduced Floyd, who thought she was in love with him. When she knew she was pregnant, she got Kelly drunk and made sure he woke up next to her in bed.

Kelly believed her when she told him he made her pregnant. They were about to elope to Las Vegas, but her mother ratted her out and Kelly abandoned her.

She almost married Floyd, but jilted him at the altar. She went to work for Quint. When the baby came prematurely, Kelly saved both of them. She named the baby Kelly Louise to irk Morgan, who was now married to Kelly.

When she fell in love with Quint, she had a change of heart over all the trouble she had caused, so she changed the baby's name to Anastasia Louise, shortened to Stacey. Quint was a devoted stepfather and Henry treated her like his own granddaughter. 

After Quint and Nola leave SF, I believe Stacey is never seen again. Which is odd, you would think they would have brought her back with Nola and J, but they never did.

[TheyStartedOnSoaps]

I'm watching an episode of Another World from 1990, and Rachel Cory is in San Cristobal searching for the truth about Mac past

While in San Cristobal, wonder if Prince Richard will invite the esteemed Mrs. Mackenzie Cory to dinner at the palace. Or maybe Rachel might stumble onto a wet Reva Lewis washed up on the San Cristobal beaches.

[Khan]

LOL!!

[Mitch64]

To be honest...I don't think it is her physical appearance that gives her a toothy look..I think its her  "Hello everyone...I'm a child STAR!!!! Aint I precious" and that smile she has plastered on her face during...every scene....I really think its more the directors fault...(I didnt notice any toothy smiles when she came back as an adult for that one day...) But it also could be the writing...any LOWHAD scenes should have been off limits to diabetic viewers. I think it really goes to show how lucky we were to have RM and BB as kid actors...they really went against that whole "Cutie pie" child actor thing and seemed real.

What was with PG and the stupid island fetish they had? Though seeing Zimmer and Wyndham one upping each other would have been great.

[P.J.]

Probably less than a NBC or ABC soap. There were occasionally slaps. Women slapped men. And parents occasionally slapped their children. There was a period when Mindy and Roxie would fight. But slaps between women were few and far between. The only one between women I can really recall is Vanessa slapping Nadine. There was once where Bea Reardon almost slapped Vanessa, but she didn't.

There are probably more, but in general, I always thought CBS soaps (aside from B&B, which used to love Stephanie slapping Brooke) shied away slapping, sort of the way they limited "hell"s and "damn"s to so many per week.

 

[DRW50]

@alwaysAMC Glad you made it to the soft rock theme.

I share your disgust for the Gilly story, as many viewers did. Gilly was never a big character, but she was a part of why the early '90s feel real and different for GL, and she deserved a much better exit. This was also the last worthwhile role Amelia Marshall had on daytime (I don't even know if Passions fans would disagree). This was also Petronia Paley's only major chance at story and as someone who always appreciated her work, I'm sorry it did not go better for her. And I liked Charles Ewing a great deal on Loving, so I was even more unhappy with how they treated Griffin. It's a deeply offensive role, in many ways. 

As for slapping, you may enjoy this, if you are able to find anything onscreen underneath all the ham. It really goes into hysteria in the second clip.

As a bonus, you also get a quick glimpse of why the Billy and Mindy recasts were not accepted by viewers.

One positive I will say about this clip is that it's one of the few times I remember the show making clear that Roger was able to defend himself if he had to do so.

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Edited yesterday at 12:55 AM by DRW50

[Speed Racer]

AlwaysAMC - Your posts are a crack up; they make me laugh.  Thanks.  I especially like how detailed you get enthused about something, and how you curtly and flippantly you reject that which you find subpar.  LOL.  

What's great about Annie is her increasing rooting value as time goes on.   I often wanted Annie to be victorious.  Watros infuses her with an energy and a vulnerability that really works, even at times when neither should.

Soap viewers often remember and talk about the Big Moments, which is fine, but what I also find really interesting is the 1-2 week time frame that follows the Big Moment.  Later, there are scenes between Annie and Rick involving a trip to the hospital (no way am I telling you why and what happens - hopefully no one does) that I think are as well done as the Big Moment.  Astonishing stuff.

Oh..and to reiterate...I ain't telling you sh*t.  You'll just have to suffer!  Ain't anticipation grand?  LOL.

[chrisml]

Disgusting how Gilly was written out. I'm glad I was not watching that travesty. Petronia Paley deserved better as well. 

 Interesting to me how so many viewers wanted Annie to succeed--the same way they were so invested in Marian/Brett.