Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[DeeVee]

Thanks everyone for the kind words of welcome!

LOL, I admit I love when soap women vanquish soap men, too.

 

I've been watching these recently uploaded episodes and have wondered this for DECADES. It made zero sense to me that he married Jennifer and not the oh, so willing Amanda. I think one of the uploaded episodes might of answered it: Amanda told Jennifer she was leaving her stock in Spaulding to Jennifer. Maybe the plan was to kill Amanda and then Jennifer so he could get the stock? Still seems it would have made more sense to have him marry Amanda and get her to change her will in his favor. Possibly they were trying to find a way to keep Jennifer in a major story once the paternity storyline was over.

[alwaysAMC]

Oh my goodness!  Haha - three thoughts:

1) Vanessa was SO waspy back then!  Way more than she is in the 90s.  Her southern drawl is much more pronounced too.  The longer hair suits her.  I think I would have preferred this Vanessa over the more mature/robotic version I'm watching right now.

2) LOL at how much she despises the Reardon's and vows to get them all 'out of her hair', yet just 12 years later she's engaged to one and is the shared mother of one (basically).  

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3) What in the world is that GL opening?!?  I've never seen it before.  It was so funny going from waspy Vanessa to this loud 80s disco/action-adventure opening.  

[P.J.]

Well, that makes sense. I do know at one point, Mark almost poisons Amanda. I thought it was more along the lines of Jennifer being the easier patsy, since Amanda would've had both Alan and Ross looking out for her interests.

teehee--

1) I love Vanessa's hair here (even if in this particular eppy it's oddly molded to her hat.) And from '89-'92, when it's very Princess Di-ish. Sometime in '93 it gets too short (sigh, that damn pixie...)

2) Vanessa also becomes Maureen's best friend, which you would not guess from this era. Although honestly, getting Nola, Tony and Bea out of town improved her estimation of the Reardons 1000 fold.

3) ugh...that trash disco opening. And this is the arguably better version of that. The first one features Josh staring lustfully at some girl's ankle. (which I've never figured out...) And I literally hate that pic of Vanessa/Tony that they stuck with. 

The flashing cop light always reminds me of Hawaii 5-0 (the original series).

Edited April 8 by P.J.

[Gatecrashers]

That would only work if they revealed that Michelle was biologically Fletcher's child.

[DRW50]

@P.J. Thanks. I see that's Megan McTavish with Amanda at the start. Odd knowing she was among those who recast Amanda (although P&G might have insisted the show go with a younger model).

I guess this is Warren's first episode, or close. I see he's trying to be more butch here compared to later on when he was queening out with India and Alex. 

Thanks for the answers about Trish and Vanessa.

IIRC, the woman Josh is drooling over is Nola. I can't remember the episode, but there's one where Nola, after she can't go through with marrying Floyd, dresses up to go to the disco, I guess to try to catch a rich man. It's cut so oddly in the opening you'd think they are two different shots, but they aren't.

Can't remember if they ever had any serious interaction after that, other than group scenes I guess.

All of Tony's shots in this opening (the cup and the kick) annoy the hell out of me. Somebody should have put a foot in his ass. 

Edited April 8 by DRW50

[Mitch64]

Well, remember, she is screwing Tony too, a funny scene has Bea walking in while Van is doing her "fur coat but naked underneath thing" (and really Van ,what if you got caught in a car accident...) I never understood why Nola of all people didnt bring that up when she was nudging Van in 95.

Van was so much more fun then she was when she became town Matron. While I don't think Reva orginal recipe fundamentally changed GL on her own, Long's obsession with her nullified both Van (for her vixen role) and Nola (for the fun loving live wire) and that didn't need to happen( Van had the added issue of BevAlex coming in and becoming the business aristocratic ice queen.) Nola and Van I can see as Frenemies...the first to call the other out but hell to pay if anyone else messes with the other, but I never saw Van giving Reva the time of day, despite what they wrote.

I wish they had Van reexamine her life after her dumb disease goes into remission and return to some of her old ways, kicking Matt our to the street, and loosing the matron hair and clothes, rejoining Spaulding and kicking Alan's butt.

The disco...Josh was a "woman killer" when he first came on, Nola was preggers but went with Gracie to the SF disco despite that and Josh was coming on to her. She has a funny line when some guy she is not into comes on to her..."Im pregnant" and her runs away!

 

 

[Khan]

"Wait a sec, that's Ben Murphy," lol!!

Even odder: she's playing a prostitute whom Amanda helps to get out of "the life," which is ironic when you think about how MMT brought her back. 

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[Mitch64]

Ha..I never thought of that!!! I wonder if McTrash had a thing out for Brown and Tylo on how horrible she wrote them. From her book outline, she is obviously someone who never forgets a slight and likes to use her writing for revenge.

God, I wish she had wrote a cameo for herself, to see her squeeze into those tight pleather pants at that age!

[alwaysAMC]

I'm up to August 8, 1995 and two legacy characters have made their return!  How exciting, I wasn't expecting this. 

1. Hawk is back and I've figured out he's Reva's father, but more importably, it's Gil Rogers!  What a pleasant surprise, as I loved him on AMC as Ray Gardner.  I can see him being Reva's father too, given their personalities.  Speaking of Reva, her Goshen Amish storyline started a week or so ago and it's so ridiculously campy.  There are so many scenes of her bathing and washing herself, VERY slowly and weirdly erotically I may add for an Amish setting.  The bowl of water she uses is making her have flashbacks to her "death" and drowning.  I don't really get why water now, after 5 years, is triggering flashbacks, but whatever.  Her slow Amish accent is LOL too, so ridiculous.  On his way to find Brent Lawrence's sister in Gary, IN, I find it very strange/convenient that Buzz happened to break down right in Goshen at Reva's little cabin.  Out of all the houses he could stumble upon in all of IL and IN, he finds Reva's door. 

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2. Nola!  I've seen mentions of Nola on this thread lately and she just showed up to the boarding house today.  She's interacting with Bridgett and just met Peter, and isn't too happy to hear that Vanessa is co-mother.  Bridgett asked how Quint is, which is another name I've seen here lately, and Nola mentioned he's out hunting with the kids.  So Nola is Bridgett and Matt's aunt and Sean and Maureen's sister, right?  It's a bit odd they didn't bring Sean and Nola back together, but they brought Sean on first for a couple months and now Nola after he already left.  Were the siblings close at all?  Is Quint tied to any established family or current characters?

I just got through Alan's court trial over his involvement in the Brent Lawrence/Spaulding Enterprises 'cook the books and try to get Alan-Michael booted' scheme.  Which btw, it was very icky that Alan and Alex barely cared about Lucy being raped and was willing to protect and pay off Brent to get what they wanted.  Anyway, the judge left him off (weird), but that entire storyline emphasized just how weird Alex/Alan's relationship is.  She is so obsessive and dependent on his attention, and borderline wants Alan to be single and hers forever.  There was a dream sequence where Alex played lawyer, judge, and bailiff, grilling Tangie on the stand, and while Marj did a great job with the material, it was just weird because she was so upset that Tangie and Alan were together. 

 

[chrisml]

I had no idea that Robin Stasser had wanted to play Alexandra after McKinsey left the role. I wonder if that played into the animosity that Strasser had for JFP when JFP went to OLTL. Michael Logan reporter this bit of info in his column. There's also information about the shooting at the Vietnam Veterans memorial. 

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[wonderwoman1951]

the stern and black era didn’t begin until february 1996 — at the suggestion of cbs president, leslie moonves — months after john valente replaced laurie caso  in may 1995  

in june 1994, ‘world turns was still dealing with the sudden death of douglas marland in 1993. 

[Spoon]

Quint is Vanessa's half brother, Henry's son and Dinah and little Bill's uncle.  Quint is why Vanessa and Nola were enemies back in the day.  I think being a Daddy's girl she was jealous that Henry adored Nola and treated her like another daughter.

 

Sean Reardon never appeared on screen until the year that you're watching and that's it for him.  The Reardons also had another sister  mentioned that never came on-screen.

 

Edited April 8 by Spoon
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[chrisml]

I have a few Michael Logan columns lated to GL. One is Nancy Curlee talking about Maureen's death. The other is where he gives the best of 1992. I was surprised to see he chose AW as the best soap of 1992.

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[Contessa Donatella]

Well, that definitely doesn't work when you get to Anna Stuart returning as Donna Love.  I am sure most fans were delighted with her return. 

 

[Spoon]

It still ticks me off that they never SORAS'd Anastasia "Stacey" Chamberlain and they totally dropped the ball on Anthony James- not calling him J.  Stacey's bio father was Floyd Parker, did we know what his prison sentence was?  It was murder, so probably a decent length.