Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[~bl~]

Originally when Marj was told she would not longer be on contract she said she was done in 2005. She went away on an already planned vacation and came back.

Why would Zimmer write about Parker and Simon? She barely worked with them...

[Khan]

I also would've enjoyed reading a bit more about KZ's stint on THE DOCTORS. It seems all anyone can say about that show's final years is, "They sucked."

[DRW50]

I was hoping to hear more about that too. I'm sure it was a bad time but I wish we had more knowledge, as more and more of the actors from those years are passing away.

[rcsnj]

Zimmer also says that Wheeler dropped Maureen Garrett from contract to recurring and Garrett left. Didn't John Conboy drop Garrett to recurring, along with Beth Chamberlain and Liz Keifer? I remember folks on the message boards were concerned that Blake was going to be killed off during that horrible serial killer storyline.

[DRW50]

Yeah I thought people were initially excited under Wheeler because Holly had the Sebastian story (before it turned into a disaster).

[soapfan770]

It was Conboy who abruptly bumped Keifer, Garrett, Chamberlin, and Yvonna Wright to recurring status there in 2003, all four in the middle of storylines too. Holly was involved with Ed, Beth getting it on with Jeffery( ) Blake starting her own private investigation with Harley's Angels, Mel going to law school etc. All the stories got dumped or pushed aside for pointless excessive newbie junk like Eden, Darci(ok I liked her later on), Nico, Lori/Brad/Marie triangle mystery(DON'T ASK!) etc.

Wheeler and Kriezman's first order of business was getting rid of all the newbies that were devouring the show. Then after Weston had sent GL history to hell, one of the first things was bringing back Dinah. It felt like GL existed again before 2002. Dinah's return was so great and Roger's death and the initial aftermath was amazing. Making the annoying Sandy NOT Jonathan was an excellent move and seeing Jonathan be a real scum was fun initially. I never thought the show would actually pair Jonathan and Tammy, and if they did they would undo them being cousins. Unfortunately by early 2005 they really started to blow it, and in the aftermath of those major cuts in the summer of '05 they never could keep a solid footing again.

Edited August 7, 2011 by soapfan770

[Mitch]

Bev was "prickly," to say the least but that is because she demanded perfection (would love to see what she would have done with the material Conboy and Weston and then Wheeler would present her!!) The young actors were particularly fond of her as she was softer with them as they needed training. You can see that in any scene that her Alex has with a younger person, even if at odds with them a maternal side comes out, one that strangley Joan Collins brought out in Alex but Marj Dusay never did.

She and Zimmer had a bumpy relationship in that Bev had the experience and name but at the time Zimmer was getting so much air time and attention. To her credit Zimmer has said she understands now why Bev was that way as she felt that when Watros came on board. I would have loved to see how Zimmer and Ehlers got along in real life. Near the end of her run you could tell that Ehlers was gave off a bitter unhappy feel. I guess the weight loss didnt help (Ehlers face is so sharp that when she lost weight she just seemed to be all points..though those abs were kick ass.) Supposedly Ehlers wanted Bogue fired when he went back to his wife, but they refused. Later, when the Marina/Cyrus relationship was being broken up, despite being well received, to make way for Cyrus and Harley...a report came out that Wheeler saw how good this real life couples chemistry was, that she insisted the storyline be changed to pair them. Everyone thought Ehlers was at it again but even she couldn't make the Cyrus actor switch teams, and it was really Marina/Mallet, as Bruno and Bogue were going at it. Showing how dumb Wheeler was, that she ruined two couples who were working, Marina/Cyrus and Mallet and Dinah, for this mess of the switch couples, which she refused to change around.

[DRW50]

Do we know why it took so long for GL to go from 15 to 30 minutes? Surely this wasn't an Irna issue, since she pioneered 30 minute soaps in the first place.

[soapfan770]

I've always been amazed that both SFT and GL lasted at 15 mins for so long and could still tell some compelling stores in those fifteen minutes than later sixty minute shows. Maybe it was those hour expansions that contributed to the genre's problems.

I wish I could have seen how the 15-min soaps worked day to day though.

Edited August 14, 2011 by soapfan770

[DRW50]

Sometimes I think the 15 minute format was the ideal for soaps, as it meant a lot of different shows on the air and the ability to pack the most drama in a limited time. A lot of the 15 minute GL episodes I've seen are just about perfect, aside from some weak acting.

I always wonder what it was like to be watching when Kathy was killed off. In the early 50s episodes I've seen, she was annoying, but she'd calmed down by her last years. By the end she had even decided to stop hating Meta. There was a moving, understated scene where her husband offered to carry her, as he often did, and instead, she told him she wanted to be in her wheelchair - finally accepting her fate (even if she still didn't know she could be paralyzed for life).

I've been watching some of the trucking story of late 1986 or early 1987 that a Reva fan has been putting up. Have you ever seen that story? Who was writing GL then? I can't remember. It's odd seeing so much activity at the trucking company. I guess this was they heyday of the Lewis/Shayne domination. The story itself doesn't do a lot for me, although I like seeing spunky Mindy. For all the "Four Musketeers" stuff, Mindy seemed to spend a lot of time away from most of them.

[DRW50]

I love the Alex one-liners in this clip. They are fast and furious. I think my favorite is "Is Reva marrying another Lewis again?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCADNwYjzUU

[~bl~]

There were more than five writing teams at GL in 1986, so it is anyone's guess what you are seeing as it was muddled for the actors. This is discussed during the MT&R (now Paley Center) panel that was done in 1987.

[teplin]

Thanks for that "trucker" clip, Carl. One of my greatest soap regrets is that I didn't watch more of Beverlee on GL after loving every minute of her on AW. I don't know what I was watching/taping instead of GL at that point -- maybe Santa Barbara? I'm so glad that so much of Bev's GL stint continues to surface on YouTube.

On the subject of Zimmer's book, I was surprised at how lightly she tread after much of the pre-launch hype centered on how open and honest she is an actress and a person. I suspect, as so often happens, she started the book with designs to settle some scores -- but passing time, her writing partner and her management team dissuaded her from actually doing so. Too bad, just once I'd like to read a real no-holds-barred account from a soap insider. I was really hoping that James Reilly would tell his story, but that was not to be.

I remember reading in the soap press that Zimmer didn't want Josh and Reva back together again in those later years, but that's not the impression she leaves in the book.

[rcsnj]

The trucker storyline, I believe, started after Josh returned in November 1986. Sheri Anderson and Joseph Manetta were head writers at that point.

[DRW50]

I wonder if they had a very different idea of Rusty than later writers. He seems to be much more fiery here. Later on I remember him being very solemn all the time.