Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[TEdgeofNight]

Where is the evidence that Beverlee loathed JFP? Beverlee loathed working. She expressed the same overworked issues at AW and Texas long before having the same overworked issues at GL. Scott McKinsey is a good friend of JFP to this day. I doubt he’d be a friend of someone his mother loathed. 

[Soaplovers]

Unpopular opinion, but I supported Billy being told about Mindy's affair with Roger.  Maybe Alex shouldn't have been the person to tell him, but it needed to be revealed because Mindy took delight in sleeping with Roger and being disrespectful to Alex during the early months of the affair.

Had Mindy did the logical thing and kept her distance from Nick.. then none of that would have happen.  She only had herself to blame.

 

[Contessa Donatella]

I happen to agree. Some people do not know the first thing about the way people live their lives. Scott McKinsey would & I'm sure does pick his friends on his own values & different circumstances. A grown man would not decide who not to be friends with based on his deceased mother's opinions. Even if said mother is the much beloved Beverlee McKinsey.

 

[P.J.]

I understand---but (for lack of a better word) Alex could be extremely "hard" when it came to family. Alex really had no love for Billy, but even if she had, she would've still done anything she deemed necessary to protect a Spaulding (or the Spaulding business). I didn't feel that changed. Her actions were simply more extreme because she had found Lujack's twin. (sometimes I don't think she even saw Nick as his own person.)

Edited April 1 by P.J.

[P.J.]

1*13*81

There's a substitute Morgan? Any idea who the actress was?

[Mona Kane Croft]

I think the writers were morphing Alex into BM's previous character, Iris.  By making Alex more neurotic toward the men in her life -- sons, husbands, love interests, etc., and using those neurosis as her main motivations.  BM may have felt that Alex was becoming as difficult to play as Iris had been on Another World. And this would have been more challenging to sustain for the actress.    Just my opinion.  

[Contessa Donatella]

Personally I've seen nothing to suggest a confusion between Alexandra & Iris. Do you have anything to back up this idea? Unless there was a situation where writers from AW were then writing for GL but without knowing that happened I fail to see anything going on besides what Beverlee herself said was. Do you? I guess that's my bottom line. We know what she said, why are we looking for something else? What she said explains and it does so quite clearly. Also there's no reason to doubt her word.

[Mona Kane Croft]

I'm not doubting her word. I'm just expressing my personal opinion about the writing at the time.  The only "evidence" I have to back it up is the writing, which I do believe was pushing Alex in the direction of being a neurotically motivated woman -- which Alex had not been in the past -- even during her most morally ambiguous moments.  Jeeze-Louise, must you misunderstand everything??  Even when I openly say, it is "just my opinion", that's not good enough. An opinion is just an opinion.  Nothing says you are obligated to accept or agree with it. I feel as if I have to walk on egg shells, carefully monitoring every word I type to avoid setting you off.  I don't mind if people disagree with me or my opinions, but I don't state everything as fact -- I state it as my personal opinion.   Please don't attack people just because you don't share (or perhaps understand) their opinions.  My opinion only.   

[Contessa Donatella]

I definitely do not misunderstand everything. There was no doubt in my mind that you were expressing your opinion, an opinion I more often than not admire. I made no attack of you. I disagreed with you & tried to inquire if you knew something about the writers that would shed light on this. I'm very sorry you felt misunderstood, which is exactly the way I feel right now. At any rate, since you took what I said totally differently than what I was thinking, just try to ignore this & move on & I will do the same.

[Mitch64]

I get what your saying, JFP and the writers did move Alex to be more neurotic...but it always has been there since Lujack's death..she took Flock of Seagulls guy into her home and business on his word he was Brandon's kid to replace Alan and her son. I do think that this was also evident in her marrying Roger...(which was a plot point, Long's original creation of Alex would have shown him to the door..) But again, JFP double down on that...and then when Marj came...hoo-boy, Alex became a neurotic screaming shrew.

[Contessa Donatella]

IMO, you can make the case that Alexandra was always pretty much a "hard" person, sure with family where she clearly had certain expectations (often not met), but also with other non-family members sometimes, too. She is one where I would say definitely she did not suffer fools AT ALL!! I know the expression is about not suffering fools gladly which does not represent her well enough. LOL. But, I would also say that this was a trait in her that I liked, as opposed to holding it against her.

[alwaysAMC]

Random question - why does Fletcher's son, Ben, have a thick accent?  I can't tell yet if it's Boston or New York, but it's thick.  Is that from his mother's side?

ETA - this is the 1995 version of Ben, he's a young teenager.

Edited April 1 by alwaysAMC

[Contessa Donatella]

I have no idea.

But, interesting point: last Ben Reade actor was Matt Bomer. 

[Vee]

Beverlee McKinsey has been dead for ages. None of us know her mind. What we do know is on the record, most notably her historic dragging of JFP which has lived in infamy for decades. I highly doubt McKinsey regretted a word of what she said about JFP or how it was taken.

As for people's opinions of Alex v. Iris, those subjective takes are valid and don't need to be cleared with anyone else.

Edited April 1 by Vee

[Khan]

Beverlee McKinsey was an Okie, like I am an Okie.  Okies say what they mean and mean what they say.