Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[Khan]

Frankly, @kalbir, I don't believe either actor would've worked.  Born would've been too young, and Davies wouldn't have had enough gravitas, for lack of a better word.  Then again, my memories and impressions of Christopher Bernau are so strong, I'm at a loss over who WOULD have made a good replacement for him as Alan.  (Personally, I think the only actor who could've come closest was Jeremy Brett, and he passed away in '95!)

[Tisy-Lish]

Interesting.  So is Kouperakis a real Greek name?  

And I'm still interested to know -- Was the Coopers' Greek heritage part of the family from the beginning, or was it a later retcon??

Edited April 7 by Tisy-Lish

[Khan]

I highly doubt it, lol.

[Tisy-Lish]

Yeah, I Googled it.  Literally all the links are about Guiding Light.  No links to any authentic Greek people or families.    

Wow, making up a fake ethnic name.  Rather cringy, I think.  I doubt that would be done on any television show today.   

[P.J.]

Both had a good acting rep, although I never watched either of them in significant roles. Born did have a reputation for being problematic though.

[Contessa Donatella]

So love hearing this! And, yes, the stories about Ruth Warrick, both anecdotal accounts just make me laugh so loud & long plus that Charita Bauer was so outraged that she wanted to leave with only one 15 minute segment left!!!

JFP of course and one good one of Wheeler. It's on the We Love Soaps dot net Roger Newcomb site. You have to play around to get that site to load now but it is still there & accessible. That site also has a great 5 part interview with Pete Lemay & another with Claire Labine. 

[Maxim]

I have to search for these. Thanks for the information, darl.

[Contessa Donatella]

Roscoe Born talented, nuanced, brilliant, bi-polar, probably bad rep undeserved. He walked off a set, kept walking BUT it  was the EP's fault. He found out right before it was going to be revealed in the next scene his character was a child pornographer & a pedophile. They had not told him in advance. That was at AMC. Angela Shapiro tried to blackball him. "Never work in this town again." Both ATWT & GL hired him.

My pleasure.

[NothinButAttitude]

Never said he wasn't a hack. You'll never hear me say he was Aristotle. My point was putting new blood in the mix is a good thing. The current bunch (minus BTG) should let someone new blood run these shows. 

And I know that recycling HWs and EPs has occurred from the dawn of the genre; however, soaps up until the 80s would remove a bad HW in a heartbeat and we'd rarely ever see them get awarded another show. 

Thank you! I always wondered when it occurred. 

[kalbir]

Thank you for the reply @Khan

Roscoe Born was 44 in 1994 and Lane Davies was 43 in 1994 so I don't think age would be an issue, considering Ron Raines was 45 in 1994.

If we go by CB birth year 1940, how many big name soap actors of that age (give or take a couple years) were available in 1994? I can't think of any off the top of my head.

[alwaysAMC]

Well, I got to McTavish's first episode - July 17, 1995.  While her time is short with GL, I'm interested in seeing what she does over the next year, good or bad (beyond the Brent/Marian thing, which I've known).  I know most people aren't fans of McTavish, but I have to say, her early 90s work on AMC got me hooked as a kid, so I don't hate her.  But boy, that memoir she wrote, wow.  She lives in her own soap opera head.

So on her first day, Brent Lawrence is pronounced dead in the arms of his sister, on the docks, in front of Alan-Michael.  Shoutout to the actress playing his sister - she was good!  I do wonder if his death was the original endgame, or if he was on contract and he was supposed to still continue on, regardless of McTavish.

I think this entire storyline has been great, with the exception of Alan getting involved.  His hatred over his own son allows him to be blind of or rationalize rape as being ok, so in my mind, he's a rape-enabler and it's icky.  I do like how they brought Tangie into this storyline.  After 5 months of seeming like a monotone floating traveler, Tangie finally got some meaty material here and I'm enjoying her character.

McTavish also didn't seem to have a hand in Ghost Reva, which has been the most ridiculous storyline ever, only because I know and have now seen that she's really alive.  Having Reva act like a complete shrew, visible to multiple people who are talking to her in public, is stupid.  It doesn't make a new viewer like me want to like Reva.  

What I am truly enjoying about GL is the community feel of this soap, aside from annoying Buzz and Fletcher.  But seeing the poor and rich come together, whether it be Alan-Michael getting lunch at the 5th Street cafe, or Gilly interviewing Lucy on the news, or Alex coming into the Journal offices to shoot the sh!t... it sees to be a family that I love watching.  The pacing of this show, and generally in the 90s, was always so good.  It's hard to get bored because storylines advance, there are cliffhangers almost every day, and they rotate storylines day to day.  

I'm loving Roger and his antics.  He reminds me of a mix of Adam Chandler and David Hayward on AMC.  He loves Blake unconditionally and I love seeing their father/daughter relationship.

I do think the Alex/Alan sibling relationship has weird flirty vibes to it.  Alex seems to care too much about his sex life and seems to get jealous at times.  They bicker like an old married couple, so it toes the line.  She also has a weird obsession over Fletcher and I have no idea why she was even at Fletcher/Holly's wedding since she clearly doesn't support it. 

So I'm 5+ months in from my original GL watch and I'm still very much enjoying this show.  It'll be interesting to see what McTavish brings, good or bad.  I know most here don't love this era of GL (

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), but having never seen the good stuff pre-95, I'm just really enjoying a 'new soap' to watch, which honestly beats the hell out of anything they're airing today (no offense, I watch BTG too, but you really can't beat how good 90s soaps were, sadly).

[DRW50]

That's mostly down to Marj and Ron (well, mostly Marj) - it was never the Alex/Alan relationship with Beverlee and her Alans. 

I could go on and have gone on about GL's many problems by this point, but I do miss a great deal of the '90s on soaps - even when the stories weren't there (and they often weren't), you still had decades of history, a sense of community, actors you knew or who felt real to you, and a sense of community. Those were saving graces for GL around this time. 

There's nothing wrong with missing those days, especially if the period is new to you and you don't have the baggage. And you're being very polite about BtG compared to some in the show's thread who have had a lot of concerns about it, so no offense taken.

[Paul Raven]

Wouldn't he have received scripts at least a week in advance, so would be taping with full knowledge of that reveal?

The next scene comment makes it sound as though he was suddenly given the reveal scene on taping day. Could you clarify?

[alwaysAMC]

100% agree - and thank you 

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Good question - I can't remember all of the details, but he just doesn't show up to work after feuding with the writers due to his storyline.  I think he was disgusted by the pornography-style pictures he took of Brooke's daughter, but then also being responsible for Maria's plane crash, IIRC.  This was on AMC back in 1997.  Here is a clip of the sudden recast, mid-scene:

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[Mitch64]

Parker wasnt in on the budget discussions (I have no doubt she wasnt, but as with every work place, people talk and know things...) but you were?

I agree that the Coopers were Greek by name only, because of FD. It was like Marland making the Reardon's Irish but they were protestant...(Long thankfully changed that.)  I think that Long made her blue collar family Greek in answer to the Irish Readons of which the blueprint of siblings she stole (Frank-Tony-Harley-Nola.)  In typical soap fashion they were as generic ethnic the toss in of Baklava, the Parathon picture in that ugly ass diner set, and Melina's..not great Greek accent