Y&R

The strong female characters were a big strong suit for GL, and most importantly, these were women who were complex, sometimes nasty, sometimes evil, but also often very empathetic. You felt a connection with them.

I started watching GL around the time Reva "died" and although I had a big soft spot for Ross and Billy, it was Nadine, Vanessa, Maureen, Alex, Harley, Holly, Blake, Mindy, who drew me in.

JFP's decision to center GL around unpleasant male characters was a big mistake.

GL was the show I had the most complex emotional reaction towards - as the years went by it would often infuriate me, outrage me, yet I would still come back, hoping for better and more. I often wonder whether I would have been better off if I hadn't started watching when the show was so good, if my expectations were too high.

I still miss the show a lot, yet I can't go back and watch as easily as I can with other soaps. In some ways it's too painful. GL is the show I always had the most connection with, it always had such a jagged edge and was so unique. I miss it a lot.

I know but the alternatives for me are GH or OLTL, and HELL NO to both. At least Y&R has Katherine & Nina lol.

GL was the show I had the most complex emotional reaction towards - as the years went by it would often infuriate me, outrage me, yet I would still come back, hoping for better and more. I often wonder whether I would have been better off if I hadn't started watching when the show was so good, if my expectations were too high.

I still miss the show a lot, yet I can't go back and watch as easily as I can with other soaps. In some ways it's too painful. GL is the show I always had the most connection with, it always had such a jagged edge and was so unique. I miss it a lot.

I know how that is, and I don't know that I realized just how much I'd miss Guiding Light until it was gone and I returned to watching other soaps. Even with the crappy production value at the end of its run, I think I would rather watch Reva, Dinah, and Olivia than 75% of the other female characters on the remaining soaps.

My fondest soap memories are, and probably always will be, from Guiding Light

I know soaps have an unfair and bad reputation for acting but again, in addition to it being incredibly unique, I just feel like the acting on the show (for the most part) was so honest, natural and real. I built connections with the characters on GL that I haven't been able to build with characters on any other soaps. I mean every soap has their ups and downs, but I always felt like GL made an effort to just dig deeper - to ensure that every character's complexities, insecurities, nuances, and layers were understood and displayed to the audience. I always felt like the GL actors understood their characters so incredibly well. Each character was so unique: Phillip, Alan-Michael, Alex, LuJack, Vanessa, Reva, Dinah, Roger, Holly, Ed, Maureen, India, Harley, Billy, the list goes on and on.

Oh and I watched this today. While the show had MANY problems during this period, I was completely glued to the screen and mesmerized by everything Cynthia Watros did, just absolutely amazed (I both loved and hated this story, loved it because it gave me the opportunity to see CW be incredible, hated it because it introduced that soul-sucking blackhole of a character "Cassie Layne")

I can't find the clip where she has to have a hysterectomy and she is sobbing as says to Alan "I can never ever have children. This is my punishment, I've been damned" but I cried so hard. I knew CW wasn't going to stay on the show, and her send-off was pretty awful IMO, but man was she something to watch.

I never really had a problem with Cassie - I sort of lost interest around 2003 or so but before then I usually liked her. There was a certain warmth in Laura Wright I think she carried in all her soap work until around then, and she's been much harder ever since.

Something that I loved about GL was they mixed the everyday and the crazy. I had my sister shows, ATWT and GL, and ATWT generally was best at more down-to-earth moments, while GL had more of a bite. And yes they did have such a naturalistic acting style, which continued even with sometimes crazy material. Just look at the work Maeve Kinkead did early in her run and how she was as fabulous at that as she was at the more solemn Vanessa.

I might have some of what you mentioned with Annie on tape, if I ever figure out how to upload to Youtube.

There are some 1997 episodes here, although they might be after what you mentioned.

http://www.youtube.com/user/IIheartbreakerII

AW and DOOL were "my soaps," but I was lucky to see a lot of special GL moments through the years, as I'd often stray from whatever NBC was programming in the 3:00 hour over to CBS. I can remember the first time I saw it -- it was the episode with Roger dressed as a clown chasing Rita through the house of mirrors to "Enough is Enough." I have such fond memories of Nola -- one of my favorite soap characters ever -- as well as Vanessa, Roger & Holly, Chris Bernau's Alan Spaulding, Diane Ballard, Reva, the Reardons, the blackout episodes and of course the divine Beverlee McKinsey as Alex. I think GL was consistently good longer than any other soap in the 30-some years I've been watching.

I LOVED Cynthis Watros and Michelle Forbes. I always found it strange that to me, these two actresses outshined KZ in the storylines, and I always found myself rooting for them and not Reva or Reva and Josh

One of my biggest issues with GL in the last few years was they ruined the strong female characters by making them unintelligent. The stories became about nothing and it was frustrating.

I never really had a problem with Cassie - I sort of lost interest around 2003 or so but before then I usually liked her. There was a certain warmth in Laura Wright I think she carried in all her soap work until around then, and she's been much harder ever since.

I could not stand the character (and I'm about as far from an LW fan as one can be, probably even less so than the folks in the GH thread lol). There was not one story that she was involved in that contributed anything positive or interesting to Guiding Light. In fact, her and Richard, and that whole San Cristohell storyline is what signaled one of the longest breaks I had ever taken from the show. Everything about Cassie was just wrong, from her existence to her constanty overpropped, smug presence on the show. Seriously Cassie brought us what exactly? Alonzo, Edmund, Richard (and then Jeffrey), Tammy, just NO.

I LOVED Cynthis Watros and Michelle Forbes. I always found it strange that to me, these two actresses outshined KZ in the storylines, and I always found myself rooting for them and not Reva or Reva and Josh

Listen I love KZ, but I totally agree. By the time Annie went psycho, I was so damn sick of Reva and Cassie that I rooted for Annie and Dinah to make both of their lives a living hell - repeatedly.

I was always indifferent towards the character of Cassie Layne. I hated how the show made her some heroine, and at the expense of Dinah Marler. Funny considering that just years before Cassie entered the picture, the character of Bridget Reardon was sacrificed for Dinah.

However, if the show had simply written Cassie as a vixen, like a Carly Spencer/GH, Carly Tenney/ATWT, or a Sami Brady/DAYS, I probably would have liked the character more(For a long time the show was lacking a 30s something vixen until Dinah returned in the form of GT). Instead they tried to make her Reva-lite. Imagine Reva having to deal with a half sister who goes around town stirring up trouble, rather than a sister who just happened to find herself in peril every nine months?

I did like Cassie's pairing with Danny though, and for me it was the only pairing the character had been in that made sense. How so much potential was squandered on this show after the Taggart/Culliton era is baffling.

Towards the end of her run, Nicole Forester wasn't that bad as a slightly unbalanced Cassie. In some ways she was leaps and bounds over Laura Wright.

I was always indifferent towards the character of Cassie Layne. I hated how the show made her some heroine, and at the expense of Dinah Marler. Funny considering that just years before Cassie entered the picture, the character of Bridget Reardon was sacrificed for Dinah.

However, if the show had simply written Cassie as a vixen, like a Carly Spencer/GH, Carly Tenney/ATWT, or a Sami Brady/DAYS, I probably would have liked the character more(For a long time the show was lacking a 30s something vixen until Dinah returned in the form of GT). Instead they tried to make her Reva-lite. Imagine Reva having to deal with a half sister who goes around town stirring up trouble, rather than a sister who just happened to find herself in peril every nine months?

I did like Cassie's pairing with Danny though, and for me it was the only pairing the character had been in that made sense. How so much potential was squandered on this show after the Taggart/Culliton era is baffling.

Towards the end of her run, Nicole Forester wasn't that bad as a slightly unbalanced Cassie. In some ways she was leaps and bounds over Laura Wright.

HATED Laura Wright's smug, annoying Cassie, gritting her teeth and snarling at people, but EVERYONE loved her! Even Reva got told off and yelled at by other characters, hell, even St. Harley got told off during the Wheeler/Kreizman era and she was like, their patron saint! Vanessa was able to have a few short exchanges where MK was able to spin it that Van really didn't like Cassie, but was too well bred to make a point of it.

When they first brought her on I really thought they were going to make her a hellion, and what fun could that have been? Giving Reva a sister that was not only a vixen, but sometimes outright nasty (which Reva never was.) But LW's Cassie outlook and the way she acted never matched her backstory!. The chick grew up in foster homes and had a kid with a drug dealer, but she ran around acting like she was an entitled cheerleader. I blame that on LW's ego...and the fact that she was friends with the headwriters and that Rauch had them on site, so that LW had easy access to them (and could take them to the bar across the street.) Its too bad, as I think she has the talent and the hard edge to bring an edgy character to life.

When they first brought her on I really thought they were going to make her a hellion, and what fun could that have been? Giving Reva a sister that was not only a vixen, but sometimes outright nasty (which Reva never was.) But LW's Cassie outlook and the way she acted never matched her backstory!. The chick grew up in foster homes and had a kid with a drug dealer, but she ran around acting like she was an entitled cheerleader. I blame that on LW's ego...and the fact that she was friends with the headwriters and that Rauch had them on site, so that LW had easy access to them (and could take them to the bar across the street.) Its too bad, as I think she has the talent and the hard edge to bring an edgy character to life.

Exactly, the character of Cassie, on paper had the background of someone who was raw, gritty, had street smarts. LW played her as some entitled valley girl, who could often be holier thou.

Exactly, the character of Cassie, on paper had the background of someone who was raw, gritty, had street smarts. LW played her as some entitled valley girl, who could often be holier thou.

Now Maura West could have done something with her (and I have never liked Carly or Carjack that much.) Plus, she looks like she could be related to Zimmer. Sigh...I think the worst thing about the Rauch/E& B era is that it had potential. Through most of it, right up until San Crud took over, it had really entertaining parts to it, I would say it was a lot more entertaining then the last year or two of JFP. But there was so much wasted potential which was coated in a sheen of bland or safeness. Having Reva deal with her white trash yard dog of a sister would have been way more fun then watching the two of them buddy up all over town and be selr righteous shrews (self righteous and Reva should never have gone together. )

I hated the San Christobal crap, reminded me of the dreaded Mendora stuff from OLTL Not sure but was Rauch EP of OLTL then ?

I hated the San Christobal crap, reminded me of the dreaded Mendora stuff from OLTL Not sure but was Rauch EP of OLTL then ?

He was ineed the EP of OLTL at the time.

Didn't Rauch work at Santa Barbara with Pamela K. Long in the early 90s? I wonder if he even contemplated the idea of possibly bringing her back to the show. Under him the show saw an eclectic mix of Head Writers, mostly a bunch of writers that didn't mesh well with the show.

I didn't mind San Cristobel for the first year or two - I think where I started to get tired of it was when they wasted Tim Adams as Rob Layne, and for whatever reason, I really loathed the stuff the Labines did with Beth as Edmund's thrall (which wasted the genuine chemistry BC and DAM shared), Cassie losing her late term baby, etc.

I sort of felt like, at the time at least, that Wright did manage to play a slightly trashy character, in how she was styled (mainly her hair) and in how other people treated her. For instance there was always the sense that Josh saw her as unworthy. I imagine they did plan for a trashier character, what with the initial plan to have Zimmer play dual roles, and all the stripping, but as others mentioned I'm not sure how trashy anything would get on the bright white GL of the Rauch era.

I think at the time I was still so annoyed by the damage Dinah had inflicted on many of my favorite characters that I was happy to see her move into the bitch role, and I thought Moniz, who was such an unsympathetic and affected actress, suited the crazy bitch role very well.

Does anyone know who's playing Beth's doctor in this episode from 1989 starting at the 5:30 mark? She seems familiar.

Is that Nancy Pinkerton?

I never knew they redid flashbacks of Beth hitting Bradley. Did they bring the actor back for that?