Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[Spoon]

Holly's final big story was the Sebastian mess in late 2004.  

Vanessa and Matt were promoted to regulars near the end and were heavily recurring prior to that starting around 2007/2008.

[Robluvthebeach]

Maeve Kinkead was on from 1980-1988 (left in January); 1989-2000 (went recurring 1996-97); 2002 -For Josh /Reva's Wedding; 2005 (appearances in May and December) back regularly from Feb 2006-end

Maureen Garrett was on from 1976-80; 1988-2006 (recurring from 2003 on); 2009

Michael Zaslow was on/off from 1971-1980 with breaks in between but usually made an appearance every year then again 1989-1997.

There is a youtube commercial  Guiding Light in 1968

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[DeeVee]

A lot of these episodes are available on YT. The rape storyline starts around February or March of 1979 and Roger's demise is sometime in March 1980. The stuff from before 1979 is close to non exisitent, unfortunately.

[Reverend Ruthledge]

For those interested, that GL scene is from August 30, 1968. 

[kalbir]

I've accepted we'll probably never see any of the Roger/Holly 1976-1978 storyline.

Whenever any of Roger/Holly 1979 and 1980 storylines surface, those are must watch as they set in motion everything we saw a decade later.

[P.J.]

OMG...Robert Mandan! And Donna Mills is a child.

I keep hoping for more of early Ross/Vanessa.

[DRW50]

The most we ever saw was on the "Roger years" tape.

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[kalbir]

Thanks @DRW50 for the video.

I guess that is the closest we will get to pre-1979 Roger/Holly storylines.

[j swift]

Trigger warning for SA, but this popped up on my TikTok algorithm

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[DRW50]

Not to go too off topic but if you ever want to see more of his Search run just look for SFT Summer of 1966 on Youtube.

[P.J.]

I was completely lost. But it is wonderful that it exists. I didn't really know Robert Mandan had done soaps...well, besides SOAP.

[DeeVee]

Thanks so much for posting this.

Since they had retconned Roger/Holly's relationship after his return as being "Roger was always in love with Holly" when it was actually the other way around, they kept up this narrative in this video. Understandable, but it still bugs me. Holly was never his "heart." That's baloney. He only married her to be in Christina's life and was screwing other women like Diane and Hillary the whole time. Peggy was truly the only woman that Roger ever loved, and even that wasn't a very healthy relationship. Holly only really fell out of love with Roger after she realized she loved Ed while they were divorcing.

I'm glad he reminded people that the rape scenes were taped in a day. It's amazing what they accomplished with very little rehearsal. That scene still has great impact after all these years.

And OMG, watching the scenes of Roger's return in comparison...the quality in the writing really nosedived. The stupid mask. (I love the way they joke about the mask at the end). Alan's insanely over-the-top reaction to his return when Roger had no hold against him anymore. Yikes, one of the worst things Long did while she was still writing the show, though I will cut her a break since she absolutely had a tough task bringing back a guy who fell off a cliff.

Edited 11 hours ago by DeeVee

[Speed Racer]

"And OMG, watching the scenes of Roger's return in comparison...the quality in the writing really nosedived. The stupid mask."

Very much agreed.  Having Roger hide behind a mask for weeks/months, with it culminating with him swinging in on a vine at Blake/Phillip's wedding....geez.  So juvenile.

IMO, Guiding Light never did a good job reintroducing major characters, either from the dead or elsewhere.  Masked balls = awful.  Amish = awful.

When Reva was brought back from the dead, she should've just showed up in Springfield as Reva, and informed everyone that she had been gone for years because she felt like it.  She had a four-year fling with some dude who ended up dumping her due to disloyalty.

Josh would be pissed and declare that their love is not *always* but *sometimes* and he'd act accordingly.  Her kids would hate her. 

 

[P.J.]

I do agree it's better to just have people pop back into town. I never understood why Roger needed a mask on an island, when neither Fletcher or Alex would've known who he was. And the vine...sigh. Couldn't he have just been sent crashing through a window or something?

[DRW50]

There probably would have been a good chance they knew of him, especially with his ties to Spaulding and his being involved in so much scandal (meaning there would be plenty of photos and articles around they both would have seen), but I agree the mask was silly, clearly just a TV moment.