Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[Vizion]

Mitch, I agree with you, I liked Toby Poser's Amanda quite a bit.

[soapfan770]

I agree it was a thrilling storyline and it never became too campy either. I hated that Nadine's death was made worse by the fact no one knew she was dead until her body floated up like months later, they all thought she had simply started a new life somewhere else. Now Cutter's murder that was gruesome, writing MAR with his own blood and all. Poor Cutter he was always smitten with Mindy and Tangie. My only regret about Tangie's exit was it came right as Brent came back to town; if only she had just stayed on a little longer to be offed by Brent. The Nick and Susan story was great but it's a shame they didn't continue it, instead they written off together not long after the story ended.

I agree with you Carl on Raines. Oh I think Raines could deliver sometimes and was very charming, being charming alone never took him far. Nothing against Raines because I liked him, but after seeing old clips of what Bernau and even Pilon could do in the role made me wish we had a stronger actor in the role. I'm also a bit surprised Raines was hired as he was a complete outsider to soaps, something unusual for Jill Farren Phelps isn't it?

[DRW50]

I liked Cutter. I think he suffered from JFP or whoever not seeing him as being an important enough character. I remember SOD asking JFP why they weren't going to go further with the Tangie/Cutter pairing, and she said well you never know. But it was obvious they were more interested in the triangle with Alan-Michael and Alan, and she had no chemistry with either of them. It was also derivative to have a triangle between father and son, especially since Alan had just returned, and Alan-Michael was a very poorly defined character. I think this was mostly just stalling for time because the show did not allow Gilly/Alan-Michael and I think the show's plans for Lucy/Alan-Michael were probably put on hold because I don't believe Lucy was ever as popular as they assumed she would be.

I felt sorry for Marcy Walker. I felt like they finally found a role for her towards the end, working at the Journal with Fletcher, Holly, and Nick, but that was after so much aimlessness, especially the stuff with Josh, which alienated me at the time because I spent most of the 90s wanting Josh to go away.

[Khan]

I believe that if she had given the show six more months, the show would have found something interesting for Marcy Walker to do (provided, of course, the writers commit to finding her a storyline). But, you know, I don't blame her for leaving, since she had been basically neglected for so long.

Edited March 20, 2011 by Khan

[soapfan770]

Thing was though Kim Zimmer was back by the time Walker exited the show; given another six months Walker would have found herself been either in a very secondary role(which is was what Tangie always should have been) or pushed off the show altogether. The whole A-M/Tangie/Alan was boring and a little strange. The August 1995 eps I have that I recorded way back then feature pretty much the break-up of Alan and Tangie as well as Gilly giving back Sid the engagement ring; they had tied Sid/Gilly to Alan/Tangie over the zealous way Sid treated Tangie on the witness stand. Not to mention Sid handled Alan's bribe money to Brent. The Josh and Tangie story always struck me as strange especially the Roger angle. Actually Josh's return was pretty aimless until Reva's return. It's funny a while back I discovered old Usenet posts shortly after Santa Barbara's end on speculation of Zimmer returning to GL by the summer of '93. It was interesting because those users were fully anticipating her return and getting excited, even though a return didn't take place til two years later.

I have read Cutter was intended to be a leading supercop hero and Mallet's replacement. For whatever reason, Cutter ended up remaining a back-burner character and aside from being tested with Mindy and Lucy and his fling with Tangie never had real story other than being a rent-a-cop. The actor Scott Hoxby popped up on Y&R a couple years ago playing that gangster Walter Palin.

Edited March 21, 2011 by soapfan770

[DRW50]

I was just watching some of this sh!tty movie with Rachel McAdams, Harrison Ford, Diane Keaton, about a producer who shakes up a news program. Patti D'Arbanville plays Rachel's mother. In one scene, Rachel is talking to her boss, Jeff Goldblum, and there was a woman standing next to him, his wife or girlfriend, and I could swear it was Liz Keifer. Was that her??? IMDB doesn't credit her for this but it looked like her, it really did.

[Michael]

It was Liz Keifer, yeah! I noticed the same thing, and I remember researching it right after getting home from the theatre.

[DRW50]

Thanks. Has she been interviewed about it?

I wish they'd given her more to do, as most of the other actors got on my last good nerve.

[~bl~]

SOD and SOW talked to LK last fall about the movie Morning Glory. The pictures on Jeff Goldblum's desk were Liz's own photos including ones of her kids.

[Paul Raven]

Did anyone spot Tina Sloan in Black Swan?

[DRW50]

I don't read the new soap magazines very much now so had no idea. All this and IMDB didn't even give her a credit. That's neat that she even got to use her own photos - I guess it was a good way for the movie to save money.

I haven't seen Black Swan yet but will look out for Tina.

So, I was reading an old SOD, and Kathleen Cullen was fired as Amanda? I always assumed she'd left by her own choice. I think that was a stupid decision, as Amanda could have been an interesting contrast to Alex. I guess Long and Kobe just liked the hooting and hollering women or the obvious victim women - Trish was also phased out during their run.

Edited March 22, 2011 by CarlD2

[Vizion]

Question: How did people feel about the special Wednesday episodes that surrounded one character or story? Do you think they were a good idea? Was the idea good, but the execution poor? Do you think it was just a bad idea all around? Was there anyone's you liked - which ones did you hate?

[DRW50]

I think a general consensus was that the idea was good for occasions but not every week. I haven't seen all of them but some of those I saw were strong, like Reva's goodbye party, or when Olivia learned she was dying.

[soapfan770]

In 2006 a lot of them were good, like Reva's goodbye party, Mother's Day celebration etc. I don't think any of them in 2007 were good at all. I think the thing that ticked me off is often the episodes would contain a single event that was interesting and well written for the episode ie. Ross' funeral, the truth about Jeffery, the fire at the Beacon etc. but was only contained ONE episode instead of being written out for several weeks.

I've got synopses for the Aug '95 episodes I have, and I'll start with the first ep I have which is dated to Friday, August 4, 1995. The major highlight of this features Tangie testifying against Alan, and Gilly breaking off her engagement to Sid:

Edited March 24, 2011 by soapfan770

[Vizion]

Thanks! I asked about the ITL's because honestly, I skipped a ton of them. If it was a character I wasn't interested in or a story I wasn't particularly interested in, I just wouldn't pay attention. I want to go back and watch them all though, so I think I'm going to watch one or two a day until I get through as many as I can (I know that Harley the comic book character one is going to be a damn chore to watch).

I just finished this one "Focus":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiLJehvoWGs&feature=fvsr

I don't understand why GT didn't submit that episode for the Emmys.

I think the next one I'm going to watch is Daisy's abortion, "Choices". I saw bits and pieces and I remember thinking BE and KZ did really good work in that one (and honestly Bonnie Dennison too).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ju4VmeMDVo&feature=related

Edited March 24, 2011 by Vizion