Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[DAMfan]

Many GL viewers did not sit in front of TV watching GL - many had jobs and were students - many recorded GL on VCR/DVR and watch GL at different times - some even watched GL at midnight - some students watched on-line in computer labs and watched on big screens in student unions and other places like motel/hotels and I don't think lot of viewers are counted and don't think a stupid game show with clam people are going to make me watch or ever record LMAD and interest in CBS daytime - CBS made a big mistake when they thought generations of GL viewers didn't matter.

[DRW50]

I think the show brought them in as a sop. There were no actual plans to give black characters major story, but they were brought in to some fanfare to help stave off criticisms of racism. Then when the actors got sick of it and left, Rauch could just say that this was their choice.

[soapfan770]

I actually did watch a little of LMAD in its last few minutes when I came home early the other day. Let me say if you thought GL was cheap... Pathetic, CBS should have simply turned the hour over to the affiliates to run whatever syndicated junk they want.

I agree with you SFK about GL's diversity in the 90s. Like Dru, Olivia, Nathan etc. Gilly, David, Kat and Hamp were involved in major front burner storylines for quite a few years there. We even had David dating Bridge at one point until Hart came back. The only other show in recent years that got as diverse as Y&R and GL in the 90s was ATWT in the Sheffer years. Seriously. Sheffer put characters like Jessica, Ben, Issac, Bonnie, Marshall, Lien etc. in plots that were just as asinine as the other stories at the time. Nothing says equality like equal suffering. I think in was during the Broderick tenure when we found out Denise's baby Hope's father was...Andy Dixon! Nothing of interest came out of that one, maybe because it wasn't anything new to the show, already having Duncan and Jessica share a child.

[soapfan770]

Ah it makes so much sense now. Rauch really does have a lousy record doesn't he?

[DRW50]

At the time I was in disbelief that the only real airtime Shari Headley got was as a slave in Civil War Springfield.

I do think Lucky Gold genuinely wanted to integrate the cast, and I appreciated his efforts with Remy and Christina in the last year.

I'm not watching LMAD. I'm not really boycotting, I just don't care about seeing it. If I hear good buzz I might give it a try.

[Greg's GL]

Remy's only interesting story - and believable one with LSV in the role - was his fathering Ava's baby and rivalry with Bill. Actually, that was also some of the only good acting MRS ever did in the role of "Ava". Why TPTB ever decided to move on from that rivalry and kill the baby made absolutely no sense whatsoever.

Christina is/was a waste of space and her relationship with Remy was ill-defined at best. The only thing we knew about them was that their marriage was never "real". I didn't see any evidence that any of the writers were trying to do anything with these characters other than cheap, shallow stories.

[DRW50]

I think they were laying some groundwork, the tension with Alan, as he paid for her med school (didn't he?), but then the show was canned. I think she could have been revealed as a Spaulding.

I actually liked that she was a B character. I know it sucks that they didn't do more for black characters but for me she fit in well with the background players and added some sparkle and humor. Soaps used to do that all the time.

I still don't get what they did with Leah. She wasn't even in the last 2 months of the show was she? She might have aged and died, like Dolly the clone, for all we know.

[Greg's GL]

LOL!

Leah being SORASed the way she was was a huge mistake. Part of me thinks that DK/EW didn't realize the mistake until they cast the part (badly, I might add) and started to integrate her into the show. Then they back-pedaled or just pretended like she didn't exist.

As much as I HATED that SORASing of Leah, with a strong actress it could have worked. Yvonna Wright was perfect as Mel - beautiful, compelling to watch, talented. It should have been very easy to build a prominent African-American family around her. But they botched it with Leah. And pairing Mel with Cyrus (of all people) at the finale just didn't work for me. I don't even remember Mel talking about her daughter toward the end of the show.

Mel and Rick were boring, but I always liked them together. It would have been interesting if they would have stayed together and started the next generation of Bauers. However, I can't complain that Rick ended up with Mindy! :-)

[DRW50]

I kept waiting and waiting for some romance and buildup between Rick and Mel. They were in love so quickly, they got together so fast, then he became sick, and suddenly she was pregnant (since they wrote in Yvonna's pregnancy), and they married. I felt like, as often happened in GL's last decade, the show had no real interest in Rick and burned through story for him at a rapid pace. I really wanted to like Mel and Rick. Instead, I ended up agreeing more with her father as to why this wasn't a great idea. And in the end I think Mel agreed with him too -- when I tuned back into GL regularly and they interacted, there seemed to be no warmth at all. I know he cheated on her with Beth (I'm glad I missed that story, it sounds awful), but still, I was surprised at how bitter Mel seemed when she would talk about being near him.

I didn't mind Cyrus and Mel together, mostly because if I were here I'd want to be all over him too, but it was rushed and I don't believe they would ever go beyond sex.

I wish they'd built up more with Rick and Mindy but I took what I could get. It always upset me that Mindy was essentially MIA for 15 years, so many newer fans probably barely knew who she was. Mindy was one of the people who got me hooked on GL. It was Kim Simms, but still, I like Krista too. Just don't get that boring Barbara Crampton anywhere near me. She was so dull that I rooted for Eve to destroy her.

[jfung79]

They had a fair amount of scenes about self-image (Remy's relationship to his family / whether Christina was "fun"), and about their personal goals or how to figure out what those goals were. Remy talked about loving helping people as an EMT and not wanting to be a doctor, whereas Christina always wanted to be a doctor. Christina encouraged Remy to see that it's better to do what you love, than what other people expect that you should love to do. Christina affirmed to Remy that staying an EMT was not a waste of his potential - kind of like an argument I've had before with my own family about my job. The whole "give my space at Johns Hopkins to Christina" angle was neither cheap nor shallow to me, albeit not something that could actually happen in that way in real life. Even staying fake married at first was meant to help Christina pursue her dream - money for med school. It wasn't some random humor. Later Remy kept the diamonds to try to help Christina's goal of having a day care center when she realized she couldn't afford medical school yet because she lost her job (but ended up using them to help Clayton after Clayton lost all his money because of James's Ponzi scheme, a great reversal of the "failed son, judgmental father" relationship they had had to that point). Remy and Christina losing their jobs also had the show reflecting the economy, and I liked that. I have lost a job before but not told someone for weeks, so that was a real, relatable issue when Remy hid it from Christina. Seeing Remy talk to Christina's grandmother at the hospital was an eary golden moment of their storyline to me. Beyond this, Christina was simply full of life and well-integrated in Springfield with her friendship with Daisy/Ashlee/James and being a physical therapist for Shayne and Olivia at times. Remy's scenes with Shayne were also good.

In one sentence, I would say that being an often fun, lively couple with nevertheless relatable, identifiable issues doesn't make the treatment of those issues cheap or shallow. There was enough depressing drama from other couples.

Edited October 14, 2009 by jfung79

[tanyia2]

You could have cast a three time Oscar winner in the role of Leah and the character would still fail. Leah's rapid aging destroyed or changed so much history it wasn't funny.

Mel and Rick never had any chemistry together and I was glad that Rick was finally freed from that shrew. It was really painful watching these two together.

[Greg's GL]

This is why I love these SON discussions, jfung. It's great that you related so much to Remy/Christina and their story. I've had my own couples - mostly on GL - that I loved and was thoroughly invested in their sotry as you were with RemTina. So I understand where you're coming from with your post.

However, for this viewer, these two were directionless and yes, shallow. JMO.

ICAM that they never should have aged Leah the way that they did. I was simply saying that since they did it, they should have cast the role alot better than what they did so it wasn't a complete and utter disaster. But you're probably right - it would have still failed because of the destruction done to the history of the show.

DK/EW never did pay much attention to character aging/de-aging anyway. Look what they did to Susan/Daisy.

Shrew? I take it you weren't a fan of Mel's!

[Michael]

The Susan/Daisy one still drives me insane. At best, the girl didn't age for seven years.

As for Leah -- I think the only way they could've salvaged that one was to age her siblings/contemporaries, too. I didn't particularly want a new crop of teens running around, but if Jude and Zach had been made 15 or so, with James having been aged anyway, I think I'd have had an easier time swallowing it. It was still egregious, but at least I wouldn't have had to pretend she didn't exist.

Why did they age her, anyway? Was there ever any indication of what they were going to do with her as a teen?

[Greg's GL]

Good question, Michael. As I recall, around the time DK/EW came up with this story, Rick and Mel were having problems and he was secretly boinking Beth at the Beacon. Once they Mel discovered the affair, I think they brought Leah in to help reconcile her parents? Who knows. There were some scenes in the Bauer backyard with the three of them tossing the football and all. Then a period of time that she didn't speak to Rick much and blamed him for the problems in their family....

That's the only "story" I've ever thought they used Leah for. If anyone has anything else, please let me know.

BTW, I think your suggestion that they should have aged Kevin, Jason, etc. was a good one. And IA it would have done some good in "covering up" the damage done by aging Leah.

[Michael]

Speaking of... I feel like they spent 15-20 years just throwing Rick at random crap that never really "stuck."

I'm aware of the 80s and early 90s history, but as I wasn't old enough to pay attention until the mid-late 90s, I was wondering if you guys had any greater insight into the character of Rick. I always found MOL to be a likable actor, but it seemed the show -- regardless of regime -- was never able to commit to him as a lead actor. That might not have been such a big deal if he hadn't wound up the last Bauer standing. His most concrete relationship seems to have been his friendship with Phillip, but he never seems to have had a relationship that really defined him. Why do you guys think that was? Was there a relationship that should've lasted longer than it did, and after they lost that, the character never got back on track?