Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[Vee]

I don't even remember hearing what happened to Kyle Sampson.

[DRW50]

This seemed to happen quite a bit with GL in the mid/late '80s. 

[AMCOLTLLover]

I’m really trying to get back into this show and can’t decide which year I want to start.

My favorite storylines were Jammy, Bizzie, Eli Simms from 1983 (my very first year and my first episodes I’ve ever watched of GL).. Reva vs Annie, Gus and Harley adventures..

 

[Mitch64]

Yes, he was supposed to be a replacement for both Josh and Alan..but it was weird, after his initial intro as a threat to the Lewises, all he did was lust after Reva, obsess over Maeve and...flare his nostrils as he threatened Hawk of all people..(I mean Jessie could have threatened Hawk and he would have been intimidated...) He was never really thrown into the Spaulding mix, as he would have been interesting fighting Alex and also Phillip. But that whole time they wasted everyone, Reva was with Cain, Alex was obsessed with Simon (dumbly obsessed) Phillip was writing his 1920s book and it was so boring and bad, Rick was addicted to pills, Faux Ed and Mo were fighting with Claire around and around, Van was wafting from being a housefrau to be a "working girl" and taking Billy's crap, Beth was working on that dumb Sampson girl campaign and I guess Liz Taylors kid was supposed to be a new romance, and Mindy was married to cute, but boring Kurt, too soon and being the Sampson Girl.

I think Kyle and Cain's storyline really suffered from Long leaving..Jeff Ryder was terrible, and at the time Kobe was trying to make GL Dynasty the Daytime Edition. When CB came back and they got RN, there was no use for Kyle (and Malloy may have worn out his welcome..the GL set seemed pretty, not putting up with egos at that time. )

Kyle had a couple of confrontation with Josh, calling him the Lewis runt, and then just disappeared. His fate after that was up in the air, his new offscreen wife and baby were killed in a plane crash so that was why Reva was worried about Marah being his kid.

I never knew why during Reva 2.0 they didnt bring him back. It would have been much more interesting then Prince Dickie. But, he should have been the one to find Reva and bring her back to SF and have confrontations with Josh and the Alan's storyline with Annie could have been Kyle just the same...and RR' Alan could have been written off.

Sonni/Solita is the best..gothic, twisted, kinky, Reva was Real Reva, and it involved all the cast practically and was the intro to Roger's return. A golden time.

 

[Matt Powers]

I was watching Tony and Annabelle’s wedding from May 84 and there was this short, dark man with a mustache who attended with Claire. It seems he was a doctor at Cedars—does anyone know what the characters name was? They never mentioned it in the episode

[Mitch64]

Had to be Louie.

[Soaplovers]

Lakin was dating Marcia Cross when he started GL in 1985.  Kristi F (Roxie) said she recalled when Lakin dumped Marcia because it happened at a party/gathering she was hosting.

I think Kyle started off well, but I think once Pam Long left...his character got lost in the shuffle.

When Long was leaving, she had set up a potential Spauding/Lewis war because Alexandra blamed Billy and Kyle for Lujack's death...but it looks to have not progressed beyond that.

[Khan]

Basically, Kyle left Springfield and (I think) returned to Tulsa after he almost killed Josh during an argument over Reva.  Months later, Reva received word that Kyle had met and married a woman named Amy and that the two were expecting a child.  However, Amy and their baby were later killed in a plane crash (in the Himalayas?); and Kyle was left comatose, which was the last we heard anything about him.

As convoluted as the storyline became during the 1988 WGA strike, it also was gripping, due mostly to Michelle Forbes' performance as Sonni/Solita.

Kyle's actions during the whole Ben/Maeve storyline was just deplorable and amounted (IMO) to character assassination, similar to how AMC would later destroy Travis and his relationship with Erica with the bizarre Steven Andrews story.

[Khan]

I agree.  Kyle should have been the one to find Reva and bring her back to Springfield.  But I guess they didn't want to raise the possibility of needing to bring back Larkin Malloy, lol?  Although, as much as I enjoyed watching Malloy, it's not as if he was irreplaceable.  In fact, I would've much rather seen Roscoe Born join GL as a Kyle recast and have him work with Kim Zimmer and Robert Newman than to see him in the nothing role he did have on the show.

[Contessa Donatella]

LOVE Forbes! Began here, ended up with Battlestar Galactica & a thing about a shrink & some other domestic situation. In the sci-fi she is terrifying, an Admiral who abuses her power. 

 

[DRW50]

They then kill him off in order to give Ben his money, which I thought was short-sighted, not that it mattered as we soon had Ben as an escort and a murderer via retconned sexual abuse (I will never forgive that storyline).

I wish they'd considered it so Mitch wouldn't have been flogged again and again on OLTL. It seemed like they mainly gave him the job as a kindness as he had been all but blackballed after abruptly quitting AMC.

[Vee]

They wouldn't have, as ABC was the network that blackballed him for awhile.

[Contessa Donatella]

He really got a lot of work after the AMC walk-off, didn't he?

 

[Mitch64]

Larkin and Marcia were..."dating"....with an agenda.

 

And this could have been so good...have Van back at Spaulding with her stuck in the middle..while begining to tire of Billy's borish behavior and the whole Lewis clan (Ryder wrote them all so annoying..practically everytime H.B would enter a room he would go "YEW-HA"!  But yes, Pam left and it just went to Alex being conned by that dumb Simon guy.

 

I think the writers strike may have actually helped that it went off the rails and Pam had to fix it so she went with the split..maybe? Say what you want about Long, I have never seen a show course correct a storyline as fast as she did when the strike ended and it was totally not a storyline that yo would expect from her. That storyline would never air after the dumbed down 90s...way too complicated for people to follow and even the "good" people Jeva, were not perfect. Compare that to the cartoon of Annie vs. Reva. I know Forbes says she joined a soap and thought she would stand around with big hair and shoulder pads and she was thrown into this psychosexual gothic storyline and was not expecting it.  And who could resist Reva/Sonni having a catfight on Christmas Eve in a convent?

 

He would be my idea recast for Kyle..I could imagine the chemistry he and Zimmer would have had...and just get rid of RR's Alan.

Edited February 6 by Mitch64

[AMCOLTLLover]

@Mitch64 I’ve heard a lot about that but never watched those episodes. Maybe I should give it a try. 
Maybe it’s a generational thing but I don’t get the hate for the last Alan Spaulding. I mean I did saw the original one for more than hundreds of episodes and loved him as much as everyone else but the latest Alan actor wasn’t that bad. He did great with the material given and was fitting for the 90’s and 00’s.

I mean I’m in the minority but I did enjoy the GL 00’s. 2008-09 was rough filming wise but when it came down to storytelling it was actually pretty decent. 
Maybe I’m too young to see the hate torwards the 00’s coz the others are used to the better golden age and I’m not coz I wasn’t born. But they will always have special place in my heart! 2004-2008 was another peak for GL. I enjoyed 1997-98 so much with Annie, Alan and them all but when Reva and the clone story happened like 1999-ish I was losing faith in this show. But I do think they redeemed themselves. People are way too harsh on the 90’s/00’s GL