Guiding Light Discussion Thread

3 hours ago, DRW50 said:

Thanks again for these recaps @alwaysAMC there are still so many random moments I had forgotten, some hilarious (the show could be bonkers as hell in the late '90s). I loved Uncle Ken beating the hell out of Mick with his cane (offcamera). Roger Newman seemed to be having the time of his life in these appearances, all the more admirable because he'd been writing, not acting, for a long time.

I did remember this as being a very unexpected appearance by Meta, who hadn't been on in a while and would not be on again for a while. Mary Stuart was battling cancer at this time. I'd like to say the obscene amounts of money she printed for P&G led them to stand by her, but shame/backlash over how they treated Michael Zaslow may have been another issue. I remember thinking that Meta was probably wondering why she was involved in this batshit woman rolling all around Springfield amidst her crime coverups, but then Blake was an honorary Bauer (and so was one of her sons, until the show forgot all about that storyline).

I'd forgotten Dahlia was even on after Marcus left Springfield.

I think Laura Wright was pregnant at this time.

B&E tried to give storylines to black characters at all of their soaps. You could see the effort here too, with bringing in Vicky, bringing the Grants back, having a bit for Griffin. Sadly, I was not surprised that P&G or Paul Rauch shut that possibility down. (I also think Terrell Tilford, while likeable, was not the right choice for David - and it was a mistake to never bring Gilly back [by the time Amelia Marshall was written out of AMC in mid-1999 the story for the black characters was already pretty much knocked out anyway]).

I remember there was a casting call to recast Gilly, but I remember the show putting it on hold because they wanted the audience to get used to the new David before re-introducing Gilly.. and obviously things changed because viewers didn't accept this David at all.

I remember the original Vicky started out as Michael's assistant who was somewhat kept in the dark about his cloning plans and eventually it was revealed that she was a Spaulding wanting to get a piece of the pie that her mother had denied back in the 80s.

Just after that, her character vanished and then came back as a recast that always grinned and smiled all the time and didn't have the coldness of the original Vicky. I remember people thought the original Vicky was stiff and couldn't act.. but once the recast happened, people were wanting the original back on.