Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[DRW50]

I remember how much talk that got at the time, even ending in rumors about her and the guy who played Cyrus.

Did she say anything about the supposed conflicts between Gina Tognoni/Stephanie Gaschet over Pelphrey, or the rumors of discord between Grant Aleksander and his leading ladies that the actresses denied in the soap press?

I wonder if Kim and Beth ever got into it over being the only ones to have an opening credits sequence for a while in 2005 or 2006 or whenever.

[Khan]

Nope, and nope. :-)

For the most part, KZ's book was entertaining, but I think she held back in terms of the BTS stuff, reserving most of the scuttlebutt for Ellen Wheeler (who, apparently, cried as often as, well, KZ). Whenever she spoke about certain GL actors, such as Larry Gates or Beverlee McKinsey, she did so in a kind fashion.

Also, as was typical w/ the other soap-related book Laura Morton co-authored, Susan Lucci's "All My Life," KZ's book made several factual errors. For instance, Nurse Lillian Raines was NOT the first character on daytime to battle breast cancer (I could be wrong, but I think that distinction goes to Y&R's Jennifer Brooks) and it did NOT happen in 1980. :-(

Edited August 7, 2011 by Khan

[DRW50]

Those kinds of errors are shocking in the age of Google and Wikipedia.

I love Beverlee McKinsey but I wouldn't mind hearing a bit more blunt talk about her. I'm sure she must have been a very tough lady.

I am glad you're posting more often. And thanks (thanks to Vee too) about the book. I don't know why but I always feel some need to defend Ellen Wheeler when she is bashed too much, but I'm going to refrain, since now I'm getting those flashbacks of Jonathan yelling all his lines.

I also wanted to say I hope all the old stuff I posted isn't deterring anyone from commenting on more recent things. I've been watching some 50's episodes lately and was posting the 50's stuff I had available.

[Khan]

Oh, did I forget to mention Ellen Wheeler's insane plans for GL's last anniversary, lol? Again, according to KZ and her book, Wheeler basically wanted to rename the show "The New Guiding Light," w/ the big anniversary episode being "Episode One," meaning, all the decades of history that had come before would get tossed out, and the old clock would be reset, so to speak. For once, though, P&G did the right thing and said no. But they DID allow her to revamp the show's opening, which KZ described as (and maybe I'm paraphrasing, I don't have the book w/ me) "a bunch of hairy-ass arms reaching out for other hairy-ass arms."

Look, on the one hand, I might've cut Wheeler some slack had GL been a brand-new show. But, you know, even under THOSE conditions, I just think (and KZ probably would agree here) that the poor girl simply had no idea how to run a daytime drama.

Edited August 7, 2011 by Khan

[DRW50]

It sounds like Ellen is working at DC Comics now.

[Khan]

Wait, where did you get that information, lol?

[Khan]

Never mind, I got the joke. LOL!

[Vee]

When Wheeler was hired, I, like Zimmer, thought she was a good choice, and Zimmer outlines all those reasons in the book - former actress, made her bones as director and line producer, etc. But she turned out to be a disaster. Zimmer is actually much kinder and more diplomatic about Wheeler and the show overall than I would have been; she acknowledges that Wheeler had an impossible task and she was a demanding lead actress, but the bottom line I think is that Ellen Wheeler was incompetent, out of touch and perhaps unstable. She says that any time Wheeler was challenged, the woman would burst into tears.

I think she pulled a number of punches in the book, it's a little disappointing for me but pretty classy for her. There's no discussion of any issues with Cynthia Watros (Watros is only mentioned to compliment her performance), JFP, etc. Nothing in-depth on Peter Simon and Ellen Parker or some stuff like that. She deals in her character's stuff and praises Tom Pelphrey to the high heavens, and the diatribe about the episode of Jeffrey declaring his love to Reva as the Peapack cameras focus on an American flag over his dialogue is pretty funny - they had that in there because they had (as they often did) unusable footage of the actors and so they intercut the poor audio with footage of something else entirely. She says it was bottom of the barrel in Peapack and that she wished the show had ended two years earlier. I cannot disagree.

As per BE, she also says that "the actress" was a dark, miserable energy on the set from the time her lead (Bogue) turned her down to the end of her tenure. Despite that, Zimmer was sad to see her go.

Edited August 7, 2011 by Vee

[DRW50]

Did she say anything about her reasons for not wanting Josh/Reva to be together in the show's last years?

I hadn't heard anything about Peter Simon and Ellen Parker. I wonder what that was..

[soapfan770]

Wheeler always struck me as highly unstable there in 2007/2008/2009 when she mentioned herself how she would cry of every little thing about the show. Seem every interview she had to say something about she cried every day because she was so thankful the show was still on the air. I've heard of that restarting GL rumor many times before. Infact it was rumored that would happen back in late '05 but it turned out be the Inside the Light episodes instead thankfully.

As much as I liked Harley and Ehlers in the 90s and early 00s, it seems Harley became very tired fast and Ehlers

became very strange. Had no idea about the Mark Bogue and Mandy Bruno stuff. I hated Mallet and Marina as a couple anyways.

I so want to read Zimmer's book now at least for the entertainment and Zimmer's perspective.

As for Watros and Zimmer I've heard they've both made up. It was explained to me before Zimmer and Watros had to work under some tight, confined conditions on both GL and that stage play the did together in which tempers flared as their big egos created friction. I guess time heals.

I don't about Peter Simon aside from his great displeasure being on the show which he abruptly quit twice ('96 and '04). Simon remarked in an SOD interview in the Maryanne Carrathuers story Ed was the only one who hadn't married Reva but wish he had.

I hated the show got rid of those sleek '05 opening credits for that crappy 70th there is a destiny anniversary opening. God damn terrible.

Edited August 7, 2011 by soapfan770

[Khan]

Was she tough? Probably. (No, make that "definitely," lol.) OTOH, most actors in the industry, especially those who, like KZ, had the privilege to work with her, admired her for her professionalism and her unwillingness to suffer fools at all. As KZ remarked in her book, BM always had a wearied look in her eye, but only b/c she had worked long enough in daytime to know how it's really run, something KZ herself never fully appreciated until she had to suffer through GL's horrifying final years.

[Khan]

Believe me, I'm the last one ever to accuse anyone of deliberately making a bad show. (Seriously, when it often takes herculean strength to put a regular series on air, on time and on budget, why go out of your way to chase viewers off "on purpose"?) Yet, the more I think about GL's final days, the more I think P&G's final and ultimate agenda was just that. They hired Wheeler because she was cheap and because they knew she didn't have what it took to save GL.

[saynotoursoap]

What I found even more bizarre was Zimmer's comment that Lillian' story was based on producer Kathlyn Chambers, who died from the disease. While that bit is true, according to the book, Kathlyn was on the series before KZ joined, and KZ did not know her. Huh? Chambers worked on GL from approximately 1986-89, and died in 1991. Zimmer should have known her. One would think she would not forget something such as that.

If one is looking for factual information, I do not know that I would make Wikipedia or Google my first stop, as they are notoriously unreliable. Glaring errors appear to be sine qua non for soap publications these days. After all, Zimmer is just an actress. Carolyn Hinsey's book contains glaring errors as well, and she purports to be a soap "journalist", whatever the hell that means these days.

[saynotoursoap]

Her and Murray Bartlett? You and I would have been more likely to do Murray than she would.

[rcsnj]

I haven't read the book in its entirety yet but saw numerous factual errors. She said that it was in 2008 that Wheeler wanted to rename the show "The New Guiding Light" and set back the clock. More details on what that meant would have been nice. She said that Wheeler introduced a new show opening to replace the anniversary open. And then goes on to say that Wheeler succeeded in keeping the new open, which was the hairy arms. The hairy arms was the anniversary open. The open that replaced it in 2008 was the one with the Kati Mac theme song.

She also says that Marj Dusay chose to leave the show when she was placed on recurring. Huh? That is hardly true.