Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[P.J.]

It always amazes me that the Infinity story still kept GL ahead of ATWT.

And how bad was Capitol, which I always recall being sandwiched between ATWT and GL, consistently loses viewers?

[Soaplovers]

Infinity was awesome and it was an umbrella story that involved most of the cast...and Lujack dying with Beth crying was

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It was the mid 80s and that type of story was popular at the time.

@Khan In regards to coincidences with the Philip story.  I believe the only coincidence was Justin joining the Cedars staff where his ex flame Sara was working. 

    Jackie made sure her father came to Cedars for treatment (her entry into the stort) because she knew Justin was there..and when she decided months later that she would remain in Springfield, she talked Elizabeth and Alan into moving to Springfield so she could still remain a part of Philip's life.

     She always knew the Spauldings had her baby so she became a part of their life to remain in Philips life.

      While I enjoyed how Pam Long revealed Philip's paternity and how she wrote the story from his perspective instead of the adults....I do think Marland should have revealed his paternity before Pickett left the show.

      In fact, that could have been how she was written off the show.  She was rejected by Philip and decided to leave to regroup...and then the show could have taken time to either work something out with Pickett or found a suitable recast for Jackie. 

[P.J.]

Well, that's arguably the positives of Infinity. What I see is an entire platoon of temporary useless characters running around Springfield while Billy's hypnotized into forgetting he had a brother Josh for umpteen years.

It does feature (arguably) the most opulent wedding in GL's history. 

WAIT---Jackie ALWAYS KNEW the Spaulding had her child? Srsly?

[Mona Kane Croft]

Does anyone remember the details of how Leslie Jackson went from being Ed Bauer's girlfriend (who eventually bore his child) to being the true love and eventual wife of Ed's brother Mike?  And which head writers wrote most of this storyline?  It seems Agnes Nixon created Leslie and paired her with Ed, while Mike was off the show (appearing on Another World).  Was Leslie/Mike always the end-game?  This plot seems vaguely similar to Bill/Laura/Mickey on DOOL, but all that was written by Bill Bell.   Can someone share some of the chronology of this brother versus brother romance?   Thanks!

Edited February 22 by Mona Kane Croft

[Reverend Ruthledge]

Funny you should ask that question as I just finished reading the genesis of that particular storyline. Mike has just moved back home with Hope and met Leslie. He had never met her before. This is in 1968. When Ed and Leslie were on the show before that, Mike had never even met Leslie or been home for a visit. He was still angry at Bert. Mike and Bert reconciled shortly after he came back. Mike and Leslie took an instant liking to each other but it wasn't anything romantic at first. Although Mike was kind of flirty and paying her lots of compliments. This was the way Mike was with most woman. His weakness was always women where Ed's weakness was always alcohol. Anyway, Leslie, at least at this point, just looks at him as a sympathetic character to unload her frustrations about Ed on to. Leslie at this point was feeling very neglected due to Ed's cold nature, obsession with his career, absence from home a lot because of work and his desire not to have children (Leslie wanted a child desperately). Anyway, Mike is trying to get Ed to treat both Leslie and Bill better and encourage an interest in children (for Leslie's sake) but it's just angering Ed (which wasn't hard to do at this time in Ed's life). Anyway, that's where I've left the story. I haven't read yet where the romance between Mike and Leslie begins. I have read when Bert finds out about it and she was NOT happy. She was always close with Leslie and considered her a daughter and not just a daughter-in-law. However, that all changed when Bert found out about Mike and Leslie. A lot of that had to do with Ed being Bert's favorite (Mike was Bill's favorite) and Bert being fiercely protective of Ed. Bert basically disowns Leslie and forbids her from coming around. Anyway, that's all I know for right now. I will be able to tell you more later. The genesis of the story, I can tell you, was written by Irna Phillips. Although they aren't romantically linked yet, you can see signs of it happening so Irna may have thought up the story. However, Irna has stopped writing at this point (May 24, 1968 was her last episode) and so future writers will flesh out the story. But, by all indications, the story of Mike and Leslie came from Irna and I don't think it was the endgame. After all, Mike hadn't been on GL for several years and was perhaps meant to stay on AW. I think when they brought Mike back in 1968, they knew the character was available and could stir up the pot with Ed and Leslie. I don't really know, though. My guess. I have no idea what all the writers were thinking. There was a revolving door of writers in the 60s so who knows what idea belonged to whom. The significant dates were:

1966: Ed comes back to the show and Leslie joins the show.

1967: Ed and Leslie get married.

1968: Mike comes back to the show and meets Leslie. They start an affair either in late 1968 or early 1969.

1969: Bert and Ed find out about the affair. 

1970: Leslie gives birth to Ed's son. Ed and Leslie divorce.

1973: Mike and Leslie get married. 

1976: Leslie dies while still married to Mike. 

[P.J.]

asking out of ignorance---why was Mike mad at Bert? @Reverend Ruthledge

[Reverend Ruthledge]

Well, Mike and Bert never got along but Mike really resented her meddling with his and Julie's relationship and Bert became obsessed with Hope after Julie was committed, basically stealing Mike's role as parent. Mike actually moved to Bay City to get away from Bert. Bert was very overbearing in those days. 

Edited February 22 by Reverend Ruthledge

[Mona Kane Croft]

I think at some point while married to Leslie (either before or after Freddie was born), Ed disappeared from Springfield.  Not sure if Ed had amnesia, or if he just ran away.  But he ended up in a nearby city for a few months where he met Janet.  Can't remember why Ed returned to Springfield, but when he did, Janet followed him.  So I'm assuming something likely happened between Leslie and Mike while Ed was out of town.  

Edited February 23 by Mona Kane Croft

[Reverend Ruthledge]

It was before Freddie was born. Ed didn't have amnesia. He just ran away. He came back when he learned Bill had been killed. While he was in Tarrywood could possibly have been with things got more serious with Mike and Leslie. I don't know. I haven't gotten to that part of the story yet. 

[SoapDope]

I assume the Mike & Leslie affair took place with Don Stewart took over the role of Mike in 1968 ? 

[Reverend Ruthledge]

Your assumption is correct. 

[Paul Raven]

The late 60's era of TGL is a bit confusing in terms of story and writers.

A lot of stuff printed is simply not true, Wikipedia has storylines out of sequence and events which seem suspect. Even things like Schemering's book have misinformation.

We know Agnes wrote the show through early 67 and that the Ferro's wrote in 67 but there is confusion as to whether there were other headwriters in that period. Other names are listed but they may have been associate/subwriters.

Irna returns late 67. So it apppears she did not kill off Robin although this is commonly stated.

Not sure who took over from Irna. Seems to be a gap before the Soderbergs.

It is stated that Don Stewart took over in late 68. Do we have any confirmation of that?

As for Ed/Leslie I think the writing lent towards Leslie being unhappy that her father was mentoring Ed and like him, put medicine above everything else including family. This had been a bugbear of Leslie under Nixon that her dad, whilst loving in his own way was not particularly warm and affectionate and had high standards for himself and everyone around him.

I am sure there were various events over the year that lead to pressures in the Bauer marriage and made her susceptible to Mike.

The two brothers involved with the same woman was a bit of  a trend with Bill/Mickey on Days and Paul/Dan on ATWT.

 Interestingly 1968 was the first time the two adult brothers had shared screentime. When Mike had all the Robin and the Julie drama, Ed(then Billy) was offscreen. Once Mike left town Billy was back wanting to be known as Ed.

[DRW50]

The late '60s are such a time of upheaval for GL, with only Bert and Papa Bauer as long-term actors/characters (and I'm not sure how much Papa was still appearing). They were fortunate that the recasts of Mike and Ed worked out and that viewers accepted Peggy, Leslie and Sara enough for the show to propel those characters to the heart of the canvas.

[Vee]

Do we know why Bill was killed at the end of the '60s? It is such a waste, both times it happened.

I wonder what made them dump Johnny - the recast looked a lot like Don Scardino, at least.

Bernard Grant is great as Paul (and I have liked what I've seen of him as Steve Burke on OLTL). I know he was popular when he moved to OLTL, presumably from his time here. I wonder if Agnes brought him over hoping to re-pair him and Gillian Spencer - I think she was still playing Viki a bit longer when he first arrived, I may be wrong.

Edited February 23 by Vee

[Mona Kane Croft]

Do you mean 1966 here?  Because in 1966 episodes, Ed is being called Ed and he is already a doctor.  And didn't the Mike and Robin/Julie drama occur before Mike left for Bay City in 1966?  Maybe I am misunderstanding your statement here.