Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[MichaelGL]

Carl, I do believe this is the scene you're referring to, the one where Roger takes compromising pictures of Reva. It was a miracle I found it, thanks to jenniferec2003 who chronicles much of the Reva postpartum depression storyline. I do kind of get a slight sick feeling watching the scenes, seeing how a manipulative Roger preys on Reva's illness and lets her strip for him. I can see how the photos that were shown to the audience were pretty risqué to some.

The scene between Reva and Roger starts at 2:57 after Reva has tried to seduce Hamp, she goes over to Roger's place to rant about Vanessa.

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[DRW50]

Thanks for going to all the trouble to find that. I wonder what the bare breast closeup photo was - perhaps that was shown only in the blackmail scenes.

I do find these scenes disturbing, if fascinating. I'm surprised at just how far the show went with Roger at this time - this was not long before he drove Henry to attempted suicide - as I thought they brought him back as being somewhat reformed, believing in peace, etc.

Zaslow and Zimmer had a very natural connection. Instead of using Roger in a misguided attempt to make Dinah the show's beloved central heroine I wish they'd paired Reva/Roger when Zimmer returned. That would have had more fireworks than Reva/Alan, as Raines was so asexual in the role.

Didn't they think of pairing Josh/Vanessa in 1994, until they brought Matt back?

[Khan]

Correct.

I believe so, but the union was very strained, btw Alan's devious behavior and Hope's growing dependency on alcohol.

Not really, b/c she also did incredible work (IMO) with Jeff Ryder, and later, Nancy Curlee and Trent Jones.

What I remember most about GUIDING LIGHT during the '88 strike were "Blake Lindsay," the mystery woman who eventually became Roger Thorpe's daughter; and the fact that the Sonni/Solita story, which was already pretty convoluted, suddenly became a total mindf*ck, replete w/ an appearance from John Cunningham as her dad, Welles Carrera.

[DRW50]

When was the Long/Ryder period? Was all that with Roxy the amensiac prostitute or Lujack and Infinity their work or was that Ryder alone?

I can never remember if Hope's drinking story was Kobe or before Kobe. Someone once said that the story was given to her as a punishment and then Kobe fired her to set an example to the rest of the cast, but I don't know if that's true or not.

Do you think they should have recast Amanda after Kathleen Cullen left, instead of writing her out?

[Khan]

No way. To me, Kathleen Cullen was Amanda. Just as Chris Bernau was Alan, and Beverlee McKinsey was Alexandra. I know GH's Nancy Lee Grahn (Alexis) was thisclose to signing on as Amanda when they did decide to bring the character back, but I don't think even she would have "worked."

That's pretty much all Long and Ryder. After Long left for the first time, Ryder was on his own, but only for awhile.

[DRW50]

I never knew that. I knew about Lisa Peluso but not NLG. I would have liked to have seen her. Toby Poser, although I liked her, was such a departure. Of course the material was so wretched - I still don't know who came up with the idea of her being a madam.

[shadow]

Not to mention changing Amanda from being Alan's daughter to Brandon's. It was HORRID IMO>

[DRW50]

I would have been OK with this if they had actually done something with it! They just dropped it entirely. It was ridiculous. The scenes with Amanda/Alex, Alex/Alan, Phillip/Alex, Phillip/Alan were great, and then nothing.

Edited March 14, 2011 by CarlD2

[Khan]

"Malibu Madam" was Megan McTavish's idea; and "Amanda is Brandon's daughter" was James Harmon Brown and Barbara Esensten's.

[DRW50]

I knew about McTavish but can never remember who was responsible for the one with Amanda and Brandon. For some reason I thought that was with the interim writers between McTavish and B&E.

[MichaelGL]

Kind of fits McTavish's forte, she was quite obsessed with making GL as trashy and outrageous as possible. Twins with different fathers, Quint and his mistress. Was it also her that brought back Dinah as this new trashy 20-something?

[soapfan770]

The whole Amanda paternity thing was pretty lame and also confusing to me as well I didn't know much on GL history at that point in time aside from what I would read in the Soap mags or see on the GL Online Community page on Anybrowser. I believe the ones responsible for it was Victor Miller and Michael Conforti although it was right as B&E took over. I liked Toby Poser as Amanda because she could be such a funny, bitchy, and sarcastic antagonist but I always felt the show never used her properly and then her last year under B&E she was barely used at all.

Roger and Reva? That's a pairing that should have happened! What would've Josh and Alan thought?

It's interesting and perhaps a little tragic that GL EP's like Kobe, Willmore, Phelps, Rauch, and Wheeler were all quite welcomed and started off strong only to be hated by all by their exit. I think it was in the ATWT thread I mentioned the anecdote about Willmore's temperament. I've only heard good things about Robert Calhoun and his tenure, while I witnessed the disasters of Laibson and Conboy.

Speaking of McTavish, how did you guys feel about Brent/Marion? The initial Brent story with Lucy and Tangie was kind of blah and I have a few eps from August 1995 around Tangie's exit where Brent is suppose to be dead and Tangie blames Alan for letting Brent escape justice after holding her hostage as Alan is going to an indictment hearing for aiding and abetting Brent.

[DRW50]

I thought the material for Toby under McTavish was offensive - Liz Keifer said she was uncomfortable with the comments they made her say about Toby, and I could see why. They repeatedly attacked her appearance, not the character. I hated the madam story. She went around for months vamping Ross, which made her look pathetic, and she would repeatedly remind us that Matt only had sex with women, just in case anyone was confused.

The stuff with Roger could have been more if Zaslow had stayed around but even then I don't know. I don't really blame B&E, as it was clear that Amanda was on the way out, but I do think that more could have been done with her. Unfortunately, even if the Spauldings were relatively intact for most of their run on GL (usually at least three or four of them around - they were never a big family anyway), they served mostly as plot devices and their family relationships were never the same after Beverlee left. Casting Raines as Alan was a huge misstep IMO - he was a perfectly competent actor in a role that demands you be dazzling and fire and magic. I like Marj Dusay but she wasn't ever going to be able to lead a family the way Beverlee did, and even if she could, the show never gave her the chance. She was a plot device and a third wheel from close to the start of her run and she stayed that way throughout. They *did* try to write Alan as a leading character, for a while, and Raines just couldn't deliver.

I hated Nadine's murder. Other than that I thought it was a very solid story, genuinely creepy, brilliantly acted, the only time Sonia Satra ever rose above grindingly mediocre, a way to build a love between Lucy and Alan-Michael that the actors themselves couldn't generate, and a wonderful umbrella story. I can understand why people were offended by the HIV test switching, but I thought this was balanced by Susan, who was one of the strongest and best new characters McTavish has ever created and a refreshing change from the usual short-term character who is brought in to die, and the only woman that Vincent Irizarry worked well with in his run as Nick. I hated to see her go. I'm sorry Nancy Bell never had any other soap work.

[DRW50]

Does anyone know if Marland had any story planned for Chris Marcantel's Tim Werner that never happened? Did Tim just disappear? Was this after Marland, or during? I guess Marcantel was just transferred to AW?

I ask about Marland because I wonder if he helped get Marcantel cast on Loving.

I know Tim had the alcoholism story and the pining for Morgan, but that was mostly with Kevin Bacon.

[Mitch]

I LOVED Toby's Amanda...yea, I know she was deaged, etc, but they finally gave Amanda a personality (hated the first "frigid," Amanda of the Marland era.) Yea, she was over the top but Poser gave her a vunerablity that Amanda was protecting herself by creating this "persona," both to survive in life and in that family. The only thing I remember about them saying about Amanda was her hair (I remember Alex saying she was going to charge Amanda for all the plumbers she had to call in to fix her drains...) and Poser had a great head of hair.

The Amanda is Bradon's kid thing was weird and convoluted over the course of McTavish leaving and the interm writers. It started out that Roger found Vanessa, and asked her why, when push comes to shove, Alan always gave into Alex. Vanessa tells Roger that Alex always bragged that she had an ace in the hole to keep Alan in line (which we never heard her say, but...) So there was definitely something else going on, as, why would Amanda being Alan's daughter keep him in line and by saying that, Alan would have already knew that Amanda was Brandon's daughter, which he didn't. Something else was planned but what it was, no one could tell.

The actual storyline could have worked as that was how Amanda was originally introduced, as Lucille always thought that Amanda was Bradon's. Brandon was such a lier and a snake you could see him screwing everyone's head over with, is she or isnt she. It would make sense that Brandon would have had a new will when Alex found him alive in Barbados (Roger did mention a new Barbados will) and why she would have kept it a secret to not hurt Alan and to not upset the apple cart. They should have brought back Amanda's mother to clear up the loose ends (Brandon, in a rage that Alan was screwing a poor girl, went and raped her himself, etc.) and they did have great scenes between all the Spauldings, and what a great battle that would have been, Alex vs. Amanda and Alex and Alan vs. Roger and Amanda with poor Phillip stuck in the middle. By the time E & B came along they were planning on keeping Poser to replace Alex, Rauch even said it. However, it didnt work and she was gone.

Which is too bad, Poser just had a great way of twisting a funny, sarcastic line...one of the few funny ones E & B wrote..Alan, after Josh attacked him during the Reva clone thing, "Amanda, he tried to kill me!" Amanda, acting as if she could care less "Who hasn't?!?!?"