Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[~bl~]

MichaelGL I'm guessing the Harley/Blake fight was the one at the Country Club, where Harley ended up giving Josh a black eye?

[MichaelGL]

Yes it was the one at the country club. The episode doesn't include Josh getting a black eye, as the start of the fight is at the end of the episode.

[saynotoursoap]

The Dreaming Death storyline.

Thanks for this, Carl. I had not seen it before. Richard Hankins, the art director, was Kassie Wesley's first husband. I had forgotten about David Dangle, the costume designer. He went over to design for Joan Rivers. I wonder if he and Sam Byrd are still together. What a blast from the past. Do you think he would feel that LaZimmer looks good in anything now?

[jam6242]

Quint & Nola are my second favorite soap couple ever and I agree that it took away something when Quint's air of mystery was removed. Didn't like it when they moved out of the quirky mansion on Thornway Road and into a house with Henry, Vanessa, & Billy. Nolaerobics was terrible, as was Quint becoming a professor and Quint & Nola taking in that obnoxious boy (I think his name was Jonathan).

[P.J.]

Someone remind me...did Gina Tognoni's Dinah return before or after Jerry verDorn left for OLTL? They have a nice (nonromantic) vibe as Clint and Kelly on OLTL.

[~bl~]

GT started at GL over a year before JvD left, and most of her early scenes were with him.

[P.J.]

Thanks. I thought they had, but sometimes my memory plays tricks on me.

[DRW50]

Those clips are starting to go up on Youtube (the Jonathan story) and they write Nola as so OTT with a crowbar, trying to open boxes, she seems to be channeling Janet Green. The scenes are so strange. I think they just saw Nola as "wacky" when generally I'd say Lisa Brown does better with dryer comedy. Having Quint and Nola stand in front of a huge fake computer isn't the way to go.

I do like the brief scene where he's showing her how to use a computer. Ahead of its time I guess.

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[DRW50]

I didn't realize that was Kassie's husband - I remember seeing them in some photos but didn't make the connection there and in this behind the scenes video.

I guess some of the garish outfits on GL at this time would be a good fit for the Joan Rivers of this era.

It was nice to get a backstage look at GL here, since this was right around the time the show started going nuts.

I still can't believe Kristi Ferrell auditioned for India. I wish there was a video of that.

[jam6242]

I agree, previously Nola had been quirky and did have a few off-the-wall moments (especially with her friend Gracie)but she had not been slapstick like this. It definitely didn't fit Quint's persona. Still, I think I would have continued to watch them if they had stayed. I gradually started losing interest in the show after they left.

[Mitch]

I think Lisa Brown was good with comedy and yea, the only thing that Long and Co could see them doing was Lucy with the stiff professor. I do think that Quint had a short shelf life after the gothic stuff went away. It was good to have Nola happy for a little while but then they should have killed him off and had Nola grow up a bit. A less bitter, but still more grown up Nola would have been cool to see on her return under McTrash but that didnt happen.

I think they were trying to do a spin on Q & N's old mystery stuff with the Jonathon thing, and to put what they thought was a "funny," spin. I don't know why they didnt have Nola and Quint involved with the cabin mystery which was going strong at this time. They should have had Nola get pissed off at Vanessa, find the cottage, move into it and then the spooky stuff starting happening, (with the added twist that no one would believe her but the house would have really been haunted.) They could have brought Tony and Annabell in with Annabell being psychic etc.

[DRW50]

I wonder if Long was just intimidated by Quint/Nola, especially Nola. The writing for Nola in this clip is frankly bizarre and I'm not even sure if it fits anything the character had been. Would she really be upset about a kid not swimming and going on picnics?

This is just a strange story in general although better casting of the child actor would have helped.

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[Soaplovers]

At least Long tried to write for Nola/Quint... and she got Nola better then Mctavish and the other writing team. I noticed that within several months of Long's arrival that Amanda/Morgan/Jennifer/Kelly/Hope/Justin/Helena were all written off the show. It was like if they didn't fit into her idea of a Texas based show then they wouldn't kept on. That's the impression I got from the characters chosen to be written off... granted the argument could have been made that the character's ran their course but I disagree. There was lots of fall out with Amanda/Morgan/Jennifer after that one con artist dude was killed... plus Justin just left somewhat after the paternity secret was revealed.. not understanding why when years of story could have been generated.

[DRW50]

I think Morgan left by the choice of the actress, but most of the others were let go. It has never made sense to me why they fired Tom O'Rourke, a good actor and a very handsome man who had ties to everyone. I think Long and Kobe just felt ashamed of Springfield's makeup.

They also put poor Trish down to a minor role after using her to bring in the Lewises, then when she was gone, Vanessa had to replace her as the "normal" (ie, barely existent) Lewis, which caused Maeve Kinkead to quit.

[Khan]

It all comes down to this: GL's ratings fell after Douglas Marland left, and either CBS or P&G (or both) blamed that on the actors and characters who'd been front-burner during that time rather than the fact that the stories were just too confusing for audiences to follow.

Even after Quint and Nola's stories had begun to get a little...silly, I still loved the duo. Lisa Brown and Michael Tylo's chemistry was just that magical to me. In fact, the only couple who comes close to rivaling them for my affections are AMC's Greg and Jenny. Having said that, though, if GL had chosen to do right by the characters and kill off Quint before they had had the chance to "ruin" either him or Nola...? Well, I won't lie. I would've hated it, probably. But, then again, at least the beauty and purity of their early romance would have remained intact.