Just now, DeeVee said:

Hi, popping in to introduce myself. I have been lurking as a guest for a little while. I LOVE the discussion here! Was stunned to find out people are still talking about even the vintage era of soaps. I guess YT is keeping them alive.

I started watching soaps as early as the 1960s, mainly because my mom watched them. (Except for Dark Shadows, that was totally a me thing). Over the decades I've probably watched almost every soap at one time or another, even oldies that have been gone for a while, like The Secret Storm, Somerset, and Love of Life.

My mom's soap viewing was very much dictated by whichever male actor she had a crush on at any given moment. We started watching GL during the early part of the Dobsons era because she had a huge crush on Michael Zaslow. I was a fairly consistent viewer during the late 1970s and the 1980s. Somewhere during the 1990s I became a less regular viewer, but still checked in occassionally until the end of the show's run.

It's been amazing rewatching episodes on YT. It's nice to confirm the good stuff is a good as I remembered (and the not so good stuff is, well, you know...)

Anyway, looking forward to taking part in the conversation!

Welcome, welcome! ❤️

38 minutes ago, DeeVee said:

Hi, popping in to introduce myself. I have been lurking as a guest for a little while. I LOVE the discussion here! Was stunned to find out people are still talking about even the vintage era of soaps. I guess YT is keeping them alive.

I started watching soaps as early as the 1960s, mainly because my mom watched them. (Except for Dark Shadows, that was totally a me thing). Over the decades I've probably watched almost every soap at one time or another, even oldies that have been gone for a while, like The Secret Storm, Somerset, and Love of Life.

My mom's soap viewing was very much dictated by whichever male actor she had a crush on at any given moment. We started watching GL during the early part of the Dobsons era because she had a huge crush on Michael Zaslow. I was a fairly consistent viewer during the late 1970s and the 1980s. Somewhere during the 1990s I became a less regular viewer, but still checked in occassionally until the end of the show's run.

It's been amazing rewatching episodes on YT. It's nice to confirm the good stuff is a good as I remembered (and the not so good stuff is, well, you know...)

Anyway, looking forward to taking part in the conversation!

Welcome. Nice to have new people here, especially those who enjoy the vintage soaps. We have a good group of GL posters here, which helps. Beyond that I do credit Youtube. I don't think I would have gone back to GL for its last year if not for Youtube, where I got to see a lot of stuff I'd never seen via the ClassicGL channel and was reminded of the show I'd loved.

1 hour ago, Maxim said:

Let me say that... every time I open and see your posts here... I read them with such joy. I don't always comment, because I don't know a lot of the stuff that is being discussed and don't want to sound like I'm posting empty praise. But I just LOVE your takes. It makes me want to continue watching my 1993 binge in the future. Trouble is - first I have AMC that is waiting for me - hot and fresh. 

And one thing I have found to be true for myself and it may be true for you too - even when sometimes I've been warned by vet fans who know a lot more than me and whose opinion I cherish and respect... about a certain storylines or bad writers... or told that a certain period is bad or boring and etc... It's always 50/50 experience in the end. Meaning - half the time the advice is spot on and soon I'm finding myself thinking why am I losing my time with this junk... but I've also had situations where I've been told how bad something will be or stupid or irrelevant and I'VE LOVED IT. I've then had to argue with my friends that they are wrong. Hehe. Soap operas are very subjective experiences. So I'm really happy that you are finding pearls and great stuff in this period. That's amazing. 

Aww, this is very sweet to hear, thank you!  I'm happy you enjoy reading my thoughts, just like I enjoy yours over on the AMC thread!  And you're so right, I find that I like many things that others didn't and vice versa - that's what makes the world go round  

1 hour ago, DeeVee said:

Hi, popping in to introduce myself. I have been lurking as a guest for a little while. I LOVE the discussion here! Was stunned to find out people are still talking about even the vintage era of soaps. I guess YT is keeping them alive.

I started watching soaps as early as the 1960s, mainly because my mom watched them. (Except for Dark Shadows, that was totally a me thing). Over the decades I've probably watched almost every soap at one time or another, even oldies that have been gone for a while, like The Secret Storm, Somerset, and Love of Life.

My mom's soap viewing was very much dictated by whichever male actor she had a crush on at any given moment. We started watching GL during the early part of the Dobsons era because she had a huge crush on Michael Zaslow. I was a fairly consistent viewer during the late 1970s and the 1980s. Somewhere during the 1990s I became a less regular viewer, but still checked in occassionally until the end of the show's run.

It's been amazing rewatching episodes on YT. It's nice to confirm the good stuff is a good as I remembered (and the not so good stuff is, well, you know...)

Anyway, looking forward to taking part in the conversation!

Welcome - happy you're here!!  LOL at your mom's viewing habits, sounds like my younger grandma back in the day haha. 

Edited April 7Apr 7 by alwaysAMC

1 hour ago, DeeVee said:

Hi, popping in to introduce myself. I have been lurking as a guest for a little while. I LOVE the discussion here! Was stunned to find out people are still talking about even the vintage era of soaps. I guess YT is keeping them alive.

I started watching soaps as early as the 1960s, mainly because my mom watched them. (Except for Dark Shadows, that was totally a me thing). Over the decades I've probably watched almost every soap at one time or another, even oldies that have been gone for a while, like The Secret Storm, Somerset, and Love of Life.

My mom's soap viewing was very much dictated by whichever male actor she had a crush on at any given moment. We started watching GL during the early part of the Dobsons era because she had a huge crush on Michael Zaslow. I was a fairly consistent viewer during the late 1970s and the 1980s. Somewhere during the 1990s I became a less regular viewer, but still checked in occassionally until the end of the show's run.

It's been amazing rewatching episodes on YT. It's nice to confirm the good stuff is a good as I remembered (and the not so good stuff is, well, you know...)

Anyway, looking forward to taking part in the conversation!

Welcome. I always list the soaps I have not seen because that's a shorter list. 

1 hour ago, chrisml said:

Did JFP, Rauch or Conboy really understand most of the shows they produced? Conboy has the look of SB down, but the characters lost IQ points. Rauch took away everything that made SB and GL special and unique.  I remember Liz Keifer saying something in a Locher interview about Rauch always wanting to see the underbelly of everything. He never wanted to see the good of anything. JFP wasted so much money to turn AW into a copy of ER. That awful opening that copied ER's. Not an original thought just copy copy copy. She then redid the Maureen/Ed/Lillian story with Sharlene/John/Felicia. While I think Conboy has more talent than Wheeler (and I think he could put together a decent GL episode), he didn't get GL either and he did damage to the cast. It's funny how even Locher calls Conboy out for being terrible for GL and Locher is usually on the fence for most things.

Then, of course, you have people like me who name ConWest as the absolute worst of the worst. Have you ever tried to track down Weston's "writing" before this? And, of course, I knew the first soap journo to interview her &  say that she didn't even know how to "act" like a writer. Then, we know what her ideas were for characters. Add in that they did the whole Carruthers storyline to give a friend a job. 

21 hours ago, NothinButAttitude said:

Thank you! I always wondered when it occurred. 

I have some fuzzy memory of it, I don't know how, I should've been in school, lol. Rita Lloyd scared the crap out of me.

Hormones never dictated which shows my mother watched.  In fact, I'm not even sure she HAD hormones anymore after she had me.

The truth is, Mama Khan's more the "It blowed up real good!" type.  The more explosions, and the more women creating those explosions in order to kick some doofus guy's ass, the better.

Edited April 8Apr 8 by Khan

20 hours ago, alwaysAMC said:

 

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.  

That's one of those things that you didn't realize would change so fundamentally. 

As much as I complain, I watched GL through the '90's. Admittedly, being able to skip through (or over) episodes is really nice, but even if I couldn't, it wouldn't be as horrible as trying to watch soaps now live. 

Just now, P.J. said:

As much as I complain, I watched GL through the '90's. 

I tried.  I really tried.  But I threw in the towel, twice: once, in '95; and the second, in '98 or '99.  After that, I'd still watch, but sporadically, and never for any substantial amount of time.

10 hours ago, Soaplovers said:

In regards to the Reardons, I could have bought that they were Irish and Protestant if Marland had bothered to build/mention their backstory where their ancestors fled Ireland because they were a religious minority and came to America to avoid religious persecution.  Both Ireland and North Ireland have a decent Protestant population (and I know this because my paternal ancestors were Irish protestant and my maternal ancestors were Irish Catholic).

LOL...there's a Christmas episode where everyone is at the same church---the WASP Chamberlains, Catholic Reardons, probably Lutheran Bauers---and it's just funny. Like, people, please---couldn't they have gathered at the hospital chapel?

7 hours ago, DRW50 said:

@P.J. You probably already saw this but there are some fun Vanessa scenes. Maeve's performance here is interesting to me - she was never just OTT as Vanessa even in the bitchiest plot mover days, but it feels like a bridge to her later work, even if there's still a foot in the past (like her repeatedly calling Trish "darling" in that society circuit way - I wonder if they ever considered each other genuine friends). I laughed when she said young women only marry older men for money. How prophetic. Mike White would have had a field day with her character arc. 

Someone in the comments mentioned expecting to see Diane sashay in and how they had quit for a while after her murder. The office does lack a great deal of spark without her. So much earnestness. Still, at least one Marland touch is gone (Trish and Alan did not throw stones at Vanessa as she ran out of the room).

Jennifer Cooke ad improved as Morgan by this point...still not great, but they were writing to her strengths - more direct, less of the ingenue. I wonder if they had any plans to put her back with Kelly or if they were done done. Jennifer may have already chosen to leave by this point, I'm not sure. I rarely see Kelly in 1983 or 1984 episodes, although admittedly, I am not exactly looking for him. Something about the character puts me off.

Jennifer must have been one of the biggest sad sacks in GL history. Poor Geraldine Court. Morgan shutting down her trying to use her delusional marriage as a yardstick for other couples was satisfying.

LOL...I am delighted !!  You know I love me some bitchy Vanessa!! I hadn't seen this in English. And as much as I love seeing the German episodes, there is NOTHING like Maeve's voice dripping in sarcasm. Vanessa and Trish were friends---but it feels like we're missing some key explanation why. All I've ever really gathered from what's up is that they were sorority sisters. (It seems like that was a popular way to bring anyone rich to Springfield--"oh, they know Vanessa" for a while.) Their relationship seems less one-sided once Billy comes to town.

Spaulding really got gutted after Diane's murder, that's for sure.

It's not that I dislike Jennifer---but geez, is she dull. I never figured out why Mark married her. Wouldn't marrying Amanda made more sense to his revenge plot?

38 minutes ago, Khan said:

I tried.  I really tried.  But I threw in the towel, twice: once, in '95; and the second, in '98 or '99.  After that, I'd still watch, but sporadically, and never for any substantial amount of time.

well, the mid-late 90's were a challenge, both for GL and ATWT. My interest waned after '00, and while San Cristobal/Santoses didn't exactly break me, I think Maryanne Carruthers did. Those last 4-5 years were just sad.

@DRW50  whoopee! look what I found! One of my favorite Vanessa eppys. Now, please God, let them have the next eppy. This is around mid-May, around when Mindy and Billy show up. 

 

 

32 minutes ago, P.J. said:

the mid-late 90's were a challenge, both for GL and ATWT. 

The aftermath of OJ. Then again, both shows were not in a good place creatively in June 1994.

On 4/5/2025 at 11:51 PM, chrisml said:

She wanted to be the white knight who saved Guiding Light, but why reinvent the wheel, trying to turn the show into something it was never meant to be? In my opinion, it was a losing proposition to buck the formula that had been successful

Like Pam Long did when she created Reva and completely reinvented the show?

33 minutes ago, kalbir said:

The aftermath of OJ. Then again, both shows were not in a good place creatively in June 1994.

Ugh...ATWT's Stern and Black era. 

2 minutes ago, Gatecrashers said:

Like Pam Long did when she created Reva and completely reinvented the show?

 Kim Zimmer wrote this about Ellen Wheeler: "She wanted to be the white knight who saved Guiding Light, but why reinvent the wheel, trying to turn the show into something it was never meant to be? In my opinion, it was a losing proposition to buck the formula that had been successful." I did not. I just wanted to point this out in case  people get confused.