Guiding Light discussion thread

[alwaysAMC]

Ah interesting.  So who is Hart's mother and is she around?

So this must be the Bridget I'm seeing pal around with Lucy and David right now.  So if she and Matt are siblings, and she's Peter's mother, does that mean Vanessa is technically his adopted mother and step-aunt?  Or said another way, he's her son and step-nephew.  How soapy haha.  I guess I'm assuming Vanessa/Matt get married in that scenario - it doesn't appear they are right now, just dating.

[Mitch64]

Laura is his mother, and I think she was an agent with Roger? Anyway, she is dead (I can't believe they never "un deaded" her.)  Vanessa is Peter's adopted mother and will be his step aunt in due time, so Matt is his uncle and his stepdad.  So Dinah ends up being Peter's sister with hopes to be his step mom also. Bridget and Dinah are actually cousins by marriage as Bridget's aunt is married to Dinah's uncle (though that connection is never brought up during the McLaiby reign of terror) The whole Bauer/Reardon/Chamberline/Lewis families are interconnected ( I would throw in Marler too as Ed raised Blake though that is hardly ever mentioned, plus Ross is Dinah's mom) so they make a really good, , messy, weird, multi-generational core family, but later writers threw it all away to focus on Reva and Josh and the Spaulding and the Coopers (UGGGHHHH!)

[alwaysAMC]

Wow!  Appreciate the details.

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[alwaysAMC]

Wait, Blake is Holly and Roger's daughter??  Wow, they all seem the same age to me haha.  I just did some research and Holly and Ross were together and Blake went after her mom's man LOL.  They really like the daughter's going after mother's men on this show haha.  

I know this is like a little blip in time at GL, but now that I'm watching and in the weeds, just couldn't help but comment on what I'm seeing.

[Contessa Donatella]

Yes, Blake is their daughter, when she was a child she was called Christina. 

[P.J.]

I will say, while there is a fuzzy quality to her other playlists/years,  it's not quite as bad as that.

I'm not quite sure exactly what the reason stated was for Josh moving in with Vanessa. But Josh hadn't been back in town long before Billy went to jail. And after Billy went to jail, Vanessa and Bridget fought for custody of Peter (who Billy and Vanessa had adopted). Roger, naturally didn't want his grandson raised as a Lewis, and so he backed Bridget in the case. He also threatened Vanessa, and no doubt Josh stepped in to protect Vanessa. There's also the fact that he had two young children, so for a while they sort of group raised all their various children . Vanessa's father Henry is also living there with them.

Peter is Roger's first grandchild. At this point in time, GL's characters don't really have grandchildren. The only ones that do are Reva and Billy. Their son Dylan fathered a child by Harley, but that child isn't really on canvas at this time. Vanessa won't even get a grandchild on screen before the show ends. 

I understand re: time. I've honestly only been rewatching GL for a little over a year. I'm sure there'll be enough exposition to fill in the blanks, but it's not exactly the same as watching Roger reclaim being Public Enemy Number One. LOL.

 

[Contessa Donatella]

Personally I like it when "new watchers" post with their comments - and with their questions. 

This is GL 5-13-1954, the opening & far right, is a lighthouse. 

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[P.J.]

And FYI, the reason Peter was adopted in the first place is that Nadine (who was married to Billy between Billy and Vanessa's marriages) intended to pass off Bridget's baby as her and Billy's child. (Naturally, this was done to save her marriage, because she knew Billy really loved Vanessa...but that's nearly three years of plot in a nutshell. LOL)

[Mitch64]

Don't forget that Bridget was locked in the Lewis attic while pregnant (how no one in the house could hear a pregnant girl walking around above them and I would think using the toilet.) while Nadine ran around with a pillow (and how Billy never saw his wife naked or partially undressed during that time...all I can say is, Nadine sure as hell must have suck a golf ball through a garden hose...) This had to come from Reilly's head, it was stupid and plot orientated and required everyone to be stupid.  Bridget was locked in the attic when her Aunt Maureen died who Bridget really loved.

[P.J.]

Billy and Nadine weren't living together through most of Nadine's "pregnancy". Billy had walked out on her after he found out she had given Vanessa's name to the Inquisitor when Vanessa pressed attempted rape charges against Jack Kiley. When she told Billy she was pregnant, she also told him she didn't want him moving back in right away, until she was sure he was committed to their marriage, not just coming back because of the baby. Billy doesn't move back in until after Maureen's death in January, which is just a few weeks before Peter was born.

Nadine was dumb, but she knew how to play on Billy's guilt over his failures as a father. Yes, the plot dumbs Billy down dangerously, but Vanessa smelled a rat right away. She backs off though because she can't prove anything, and she's reluctant to blow up Billy's life without it. 

[Contessa Donatella]

When you describe it, of course, it sounds both gothic & as you said, stupid, but watching it live in real time, especially if you love Bridget as I did, it felt very different & not stupid at all. Also I never thought about it being Reilly & that is good! Melissa Hayden to me was a goddess. However, it offended me that she was in love with that lout, Hart. Or maybe a callow youth.

[alwaysAMC]

Thank you PJ and Mitch for the backstory details - very helpful.  PJ - when did you start your rewatch and where are you now?  

I will say, the exposition in the dialogue has actually been helpful.  I know we always roll our eyes and have a hard time as live daily viewers when the writers lay that on thick, but now going back to watch years ago, it's helpful.

I love to hear it

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[P.J.]

It was a little over a year ago. While I grew up on Guiding Light (ATWT and the CBS soaps), I really considered myself more of an ATWT fan. By the end of GL I was barely watching, and I really kind of distanced myself after it was cancelled. 

Anyway--FF to '21-'22, and Michael Tylo, Lisa Brown and Jerry verDorn died within months of each other. They were three key characters in Springfield when I really got hooked on the show as a teen. Arguably, one of the most iconic scenes in GL's history is the catfight between Nola (Brown) and Vanessa (Maeve Kinkead) at Nola's engagement ball. Someone was posting clips on Twitter, and I ended up falling down the youtube rabbit hole. Watching the ball lead to watching Quint and Nola's wedding, which led to Billy and Vanessa's romance. I had forgotten how catty Vanessa had been, and found myself laughing as she rained cynicism over love and the "happy couple" at every opportunity. The more I saw, the more I looked for clips, the more I watched things I had never seen, or hadn't seen in years.

I flit around. My favorite eras are '80-'82 (the Marland years, with Nola and early Ross/Vanessa who are old lovers manipulating each other in a twisted way), '83-'85 (Pam Long's first run, with Vanessa and Billy falling in love, the Four Musketeers (Phillip/Beth/Rick/Mindy) and OGAlexandra (the incomparable Bev McKinsey). Then '89-'93, when favorites Roger, Holly, Billy and Vanessa all return to town within months of each other and Long and Curlee/Demorest/Reilly write character driven, compelling drama that doesn't treat viewers like total idiots.

I can also appreciate what I've seen of the Dobson era ('75-'80). There are plenty of characters I remember, but there's not a lot of that available to watch.

[alwaysAMC]

I'm now on March 3, 1995 (15 episodes in), and I'm still really enjoying it.  Soaps in the 90s just really had good pacing, interesting storylines, great actors, good sets... really makes it easy to get hooked.

During the media awards ceremony, Holly and Roger just broke up because Fletcher admitted he was the man that Holly slept with.  From what you all have said, and what I've read online, I know Roger has done lots of terrible things, but in this moment and only seeing him for 3 weeks of story, I feel bad for the guy haha.  His jealousy and obsession with knowing the truth did in him.  I'm getting Adam Chandler (AMC) vibes from Roger - would that be accurate or am I off?  Fletcher annoys me - he is always loud - and he's coming across as the bad guy to me (in how he spilled the beans, gloated and is just generally moody).  Is Fletcher related to anyone on the scene right now?  He seems to be an island outside of having co-worker friends (Tanjie/Nick) and being paired with Holly.

They just had a random man named Carrol pop up at the diner and flirt with Nadine.  Who is this guy and what is his connection to Springfield?  I'm on the fence with him so far, but he got Buzz angered and this seems to drive Buzz/Nadine to finalize their divorce.

Starting to get to know Sid and Gilly now - she won her media award and is being pressured to move to LA, which is straining their relationship.  I recognize Gilly from her AMC days!  Watching Vincent, Marcy, Marj and Amelia together on another soap is so fun!

The Greece storyline seems to have wrapped - Christo let Eleni and Frank go after Frank came in to save the day, but of course they left it open with Christo saying one day he'll have Eleni again...  Frank is another one that's really handsome!  

I'm really into the Josh/Annie pairing - its slow right now, but they have great chemistry.

It is pretty weird listening to Bridget/Mark talk about his relationship with Vanessa when she's sharing custody of her son with Vanessa, but I know I didn't get to see that backstory of that adoption.

They keep referencing the 5th Street fire, and I'm getting an itch to go back a couple months to watch that unfold, but I'll refrain haha.   

OMG - Allison Janney is on GL playing the house maid!  How funny, I never knew that.  Was she a GL fan, or had she not become a big celebrity by then?

[Contessa Donatella]

Allison Janney's Ginger, so iconic & such a testament to servants on soaps. She was nobody back then. Fame was in her future.