Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[heffer]

But wasn't that also true when CB and Beverlee were playing the roles? I guess you can argue that RR and Marj had a "different" type of dynamic, though.

Everything else you said was spot on.

[MichaelGL]

It still pisses me off how the Hart/Dinah/Roger story played out, how Roger was turned into a blithering fool at the expense of the oh so amazing Hart and Dinah.

Actually when I think of McTavish's entire tenure, I get this bad taste in my mouth because the show centered itself around some disgusting qualities of its female cast. Holly, Dinah, Reva, hell even Gilly and Vanessa "schtumping" around town, their lives going to hell all of a sudden their lives seemingly revolved around the males in their lives.

Edited December 29, 2010 by MichaelGL

[Mitch]

That was kind of the ABC'ing of GL and when you really saw that they were going after a certain "audience," (teen, preteen girls who are at that stage that they are fixated on dating, guys, etc) and using focus groups to push their agenda through. One of the reasons that I first got into both ATWT and GL (besides growing up with them) was that they werent the typical "smaltzy," soaps of sterotype, their characters all had of course "romance," going on, but families, and work, and community obligations, and business fights, family dynamics and fights were always there along with "fighting for your man." That kind of phased out during the last part of JFP and McTrash really brought it home (i.e. Nola didn't have a man, so both she and Bridget were sad sack loosers bitter in life, when Bridget before, after having Peter, was also about her kid, and running the family business, etc.)

But as I said, McTrash really isolated the characters, and took the family feel out of the show. Bridget was always considered a Bauer too, close to Ed and Chele, and then nothing, you never saw her near them. Which is too bad, as I said before, the show could have got back on its feet at that time if they had made use of the tight knit canvas, where really everybody was related somehow in a multigenerational extended family kind of way,)the Bauers were connected to about every family in town in one way or another.) That went away and we eventually had Wheeler's GL, which had a bunch of isolated character wandering around town, sad and lonely. Not a fun show to watch.

[DRW50]

The person who uploaded this was wondering if anyone knew the exact date? I think it's between May and July 1986 but not sure. I was surprised that Richard Van Vleet was credited at the same time as Ellen Parker - Soapcentral had said they left at the same time. I guess that was an error. I think I would have had very mixed feelings about the show at this time - I really like the music, and the scene with Kyle alone in the mansion after HB and Reva went to their rooms; the stuff with Alan is OK (I'd never seen India's father before) but the stuff with Sally, Simon and the forgery is AWFUL.

I'd never heard this version of the closing theme before, had you?

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[heffer]

This clip reminds me how much I wish Alan and Kyle would have interacted more on the show,with two of the long missed acting heavyweights of the 1980s.

In fact Larkin Malloy's tenure on the show was way too brief,sacrificed perhaps for the return of the Josh and Reva show, even though IMO he had just as much chemistry with Kim Zimmer.

[Mitch]

Oh how I hated "KIIEEE-EL," and not because I was a Jeva fan. Larkin Malloy, (who I thought was friggen hawt in his early days on Edge) was such an overenuncing AC-TOR...actually, the only acting he could do is flare those huge ass nostrils. I also thought it weird that Reva would go from one controlling guy to another TOTALLY controlling guy like Kyle. But then their story just sucked...(it started just as GL went from a family soap with over the top elements, to a totaly over the top dynasty ripoff focusing on the Lewises and Reva). From the weird obsession he had with the Lewises (he thought he was one but found out Billy was really his brother) having Mindy trying to screw her own uncle, and having her shoot him, to Kyle and Reva being forced out of a plane by a spear gun, (Reva if full fur no less) and landing through the roof of an Amish barn,to the really, really stupid Infinity Ring, Billy is programmed to shoot Kyle(just shoot him already) with LM's chewing up the courtroom scenery "Just LOVE me brother,") to the stupid " Maeve tells Kyle the baby is dead but he aint," storyline, it was over the top, unpleasant, and just plain dumb.

As you can see I think that was a particularly bad period of GL, maybe because it came off such a really good one, and I associate him (and Roxie, and Simon ugghhh) with that.

[DRW50]

So you got to see the clip, Mitch? Do you rememebr when that would be from? Or do you remember that different theme at the end?

I wish they'd kept the extra scene at the end. It was nice to see that little bit more (and to see that there was a black person in Springfield at that time...for a long time I thought Gilly was the first black person in Springfield since 1968 or so).

I think Larkin did a decent job as Kyle and I like his chemistry with Kim Zimmer. For me it's Miss Sally and Maeve who get in the way. Miss Sally just annoys the hell out of me and Maeve seems so dull. Was she dull?

Was the stuff where Kyle made Roxy have sex with him or whatever before everything with Reva?

[heffer]

I agree about Maeve, how anyone would think someone would choose plain old her over saucy Reva is ridiculous.

Actually , I look at the Kyle era as the last of GL's glory years.Right around his departure we had the quick extermination of the Reardon clan (for me, Chelsea never felt like a "true" Reardon), deaths of Lujack and original Beth,and the start of "the Josh and Reva show" backburning a lot of characters/situations. Also, Coopermania would be right around the corner, sucking up a lot oxygen from the show. For sure, there would be times I enjoyed the show afterwords, but it never was truly the same.

[EastMA2]

Carl -

Here comes the geek part of me. I actually kept a list from the early 1980's on of GL episodes and characters that appeared in each episode. This clip was from Friday, 5/23/1986. At the very end of the credits they announce that GL would not be on Monday (5/26) and according to my records the show was not on that day and there were no other preemptions during that time frame. I remember that closing theme. Also - this was a transition time at GL because according to my records, Joe Willmore was first credited as EP on May 13, 1986 and then on June 16th is when Ellen Barrett was first listed as co-headwriter with Mary Ryan Munisteri, replacing Jeff Ryder.

[EastMA2]

Oops - I meant to address one other thing. According to my trusty records, Ellen Dolan last aired as Maureen on March 21, 86, Ellen Parker started on April 2, Richard Van Vleet last aired on August 8 and Peter Simon was back on August 18.

[Mitch]

One of us must have our memories wrong. The Reardons were banished and the Bauers backburnered just as Kyle appeared on the scene. The show was going great guns the year and especially the summer before, where you had the Bauers )Berts amputation story was front burner and featured almost everyone.) the Spaudldins, the Reardons, the Lewises and Three Musketeers all having equal footing and intertwined. The show actually hit number one that summer. And I think it was the fall that Kyle appeared along with everything going to hell..(actually it was the REVA show while Jarsh was gone.) Around the time of the clip they tried to get things back on track, finally putting Bert to rest (even if it was a pathetic attempt) bringing Simon back, bringing Alan back, and trying to center it as a less cynical amoral show (remember Kyle and that damn record company that would come to SF of all places and it was all about making a record for dopey Lujack.) It was sloppily done and things stayed a bit weird until Long came back (and yes, the Coopers hit town, and while Frank and Harley were rip offs of Tony and Nola, Coopermania didnt start in earnest until the intro of the dreaded Buzzard Cooper.)

Kyle choose Maeve as an appropriate society spouse, and wanted to keep Reva as his "back door," whore as Reva put it (and I hope to God she didn't mean literally.) For that alone I never thought Reva would ever return to him. Of course, they repeated that in a better storyline with Alan obsessing over Reva but wanting to marry Vanessa as his appropriate spouse. I really wish Maeve hadn't left at that time, a storyline with them at odds was always good (never bought them as friends, did love whoever wrote the scene near the end where Lizzie says Vanessa kind of scares her and Reva agrees, "I've alwasy been afraid of her!" )

Hated Miss Sally but she was supposed to be annoying and trashy. Loved the scenes of her and BevAlex, "Please use the servants entrance to exit the mansion, thank you!" Though the scenes where Alex let Sally die to protect Alan were a bit harsh, and reminds you that they always wrote Alex with more then a bit of an edge if crossed.

[Mitch]

I remember Parker starting and I thought, who is this ugly wimpy broad??? I like Dolan's Mo, but Parker made Mo her own, a nice normal person the rest of the nuts in town circled around. JFP and the rest of the hacks could never understand that a show needed someone like that. And Dolan, as her years as Margo proved, could not be a comforting warm actress to play that type of character.

[DRW50]

Thanks GLNo1 for the dates - I wish I had been as quick to save things and remember dates when I started watching GL.

Mitch, how did Alex let Sally die? I always thought Sally had some heart condition or something and she died when she was going to let everyone know that Marah was Josh's daughter.

What did you both think of Sonni/Solita?

[shadow]

I would say the last of GL's glory days ended in 1995 right before he showed up. When he arrived the show became the Reva Hour

[Mitch]

Sally was arguing with Alex, who was trying to bribe her to keep quiet about Marah, both to protect Alan and to have that info to save for when she needed it (remember the good old days when characters had conflicting motivations that made sense.) Sally conveniently started having a heart attack right in the Lewis spa, I think during Josh and Sonni's wedding, and Alex let her die without going for help( and Bev thought JFP made Alex too mean.)

I freakin LURVED Sonni/Solita. It got off to a rough start, as Sonni was boring when Josh first married her. But when Will came in the picture, and the Sonni/Solita ("Isolated one!!" ) came in, it was great. Dark, exciting, and included almost everyone on the canvas in realistic ways! The only time I really, really loved Jeva.