Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[kalbir]

I am intrigued by the thought of Roger and Annie in each other's orbits. I haven't deep dived into November 1994-April 1997 to see if Michael Zaslow and Cynthia Watros interacted with each other.

[P.J.]

If I understand the credits correctly, yes, he is the scriptwriter on that episode.

[alwaysAMC]

Ahh - thank you!  I didn't realize Sean was only a blip in GL history.  

Nola's second episode had really nice scenes with Henry and she admitted that she and Quint are separated and he is now with a 23-year old.  I've noticed that GL likes to pair people with big age gaps haha.

 

 

Wow - so Ed and Lillian were sleeping together?  And this was his third affair?  Ed was a dog!  He and Lillian seem like really sweet people in 1995, and good friends at the hospital.  I'm guessing Lillian may not have been popular in Springfield or with the fans if she helped drive Mo to her death.  

[Contessa Donatella]

Things Patrick Mulcahey said to me about GL

Spent a lot of apprentice time with Douglas at GL.

(He always said Douglas, never Doug.)

Allen Potter fired Jane Elliot & he & Douglas had this huge falling out over it.

In this one scene Mike Bauer was chasing Alan Spaulding on horseback & a helicopter dipped down & saved Alan. P&G pitched this lame idea that instead it was a blue Mercedes not a helicopter.

Nola - Kelly - Floyd - Morgan, these were his Emmy material people.

Patrick was Douglas's protege & Douglas was his mentor.

Douglas was a terrible liar but he morphed into this great storyteller.

Douglas asked his niece Tracy, what would be the most romantic thing to happen? She said, "The cutest boy would notice me & only me."

John Wesley Shipp was very tight with Douglas.

GL: I understand staying away & I understand coming back but I don't understand getting from one to the other.

Nancy Curlee & Douglas  - not much in common.

Ross's election night dream.

Ed & Ross conversation, that was mine.

Rachel Miner & Bryan Buffington & Ben Reade: that they actually did the scene that I wrote especially for them!

Lisa Brown & Maeve Kincaid.

Voices in your head? YES

Melissa Hayden!

He said he is not optimistic about broadcast soaps when they are off of network goodies.

Streaming! The future.

You do what you think is right.

[alwaysAMC]

Mid-August '95:

So 3 new characters have popped up, making 5 within a single week with Nola and Hawk.  We have Susan Bates, who is HIV+ and just got a job at Spaulding; Abby with Reva in Goshen; and then Marcus arrived as Dinah's best friend from Paris.  He seems fun and is a new dynamic/companion needed at this point in Dinah's storyline.  

I don't know if this is a new EP decision or new HW McTavish's, but 5 new characters brought in and we also lost 4 all within ~2 months:  Eve, Mindy, Skunk, Carroll.  That is some wild turnover in a short period of time.

[Contessa Donatella]

Ed slid by, never paid. Lillian, OY, Mo's "friend", she paid.  She felt guilty, ED NO!!!

 

[DRW50]

They were never on the level of Phil and Tara as they were younger and their going out on a date was presented more as kids growing up than a building block for the future. Unfortunately, once they recast Michelle (with an actress who looked too old and was just cold and dreary), they ruined what could have been. Bryan Buffinton stayed a few more years but looked out of place with a Michelle who looked twice his age and barely shared scenes with him. He was then recast twice, neither time all that great. I don't think Bryan was that great an actor either (most child actors aren't as they age), but still, I wish they'd kept him on over who we got.

If Joie Lenz had stayed in the part, or if they had found a proper recast for Bill, they could have had potential. As it was, when the show tried Michelle/Bill in 2002, it fell flat, two dull actors with no chemistry.

Ed and Lillian had a hookup in the car during a blackout, as she was upset over having breast cancer. JFP loved to have characters [!@#$%^&*] in cars during times of stress - she redid this whole story on AW a few years later, the only difference being that no one died (except some viewers). I have always wondered if the show planned to pair them off if not for extreme backlash. It's amazing that Lillian even stayed on as she had no real place in storyline for almost 5 years, until her daughter Beth returned. I heard a rumor once that Tina Sloan stayed so long because she was very wealthy and never asked for much money. I can believe it. 

I don't even remember Skunk. 

Carroll was mostly just a placeholder for Nadine anyway. 

Edited April 9 by DRW50

[Spoon]

Despite that Nancy St Alban was such a drip as Michelle, I was so excited to see them finally hook up and was devastated when TPTB caved in to the MANNYacs.  It all worked out eventually because Cosgrove's Bill had much better chemistry with Lizzie later on.

[DRW50]

He did have decent chemistry with Emme Rylan. I thought he had decent chemistry with Beth Chamberlin and Crystal Chappell too (although I wasn't really watching then); I just wish the character hadn't felt so generic.

[chrisml]

And in her interview with Alan Locher, Nancy Curlee makes it clear it was not her idea to kill off Maureen and she did not like the idea. She also says she wishes she had found a way to keep Maureen alive while everyone thought she was alive. I guess she was being a team player by making excuses. This is JFP's M.O. She comes up with a shocking dramatic moment but then never thinks about the fallout or longterm story. As DRW50 pointed out, she told this exact storyline  on AW. Twice actually. The Lillian/Ed/Maureen affair story with Sharlene/John/Felicia that viewers hated (including the car motif) although Anna Holbrook did win an Emmy so there's that. And then she killed off Alice Barrett to supposedly give Stephen Schnetzer more to do and he promptly had nothing to do. Ed/Eve was not worth killing off Maureen for.  Now, I'm wondering if Sam and Nora on OLTL had their affair in a car. Probably not, but it would be hilarious if they did.

I still would love to know what happened with Robin Strasser and GL. It was the right move as she would have been a disastrous Alexandra. 

[Contessa Donatella]

 

[alwaysAMC]

LOL at the bolded part.  That's interesting, Lillian has brought up a few times her breast cancer scare, but she's definitely just been a very background/support character in 1995.  She doesn't seem to have any family on the scene, nor connected to any characters outside of just being a friendly nurse that everyone seems to know.

Skunk was this "bad boy" biker guy that Bridgett met and started dating briefly.  She started staying out late and was hiding the fact that she had Peter from him.  Matt and David gave her a hard time for becoming a reckless mom, and one night she didn't get home until the next morning after partying all night, and that's when Peter was 'missing' and no one could find him.  Dinah was about to allow Viktor to kidnap him, but chose to save Peter and allow herself to be kidnapped instead.  But then very quickly after that, Skunk left town and the story just dropped out of nowhere.  I noticed a handful of stories like that sort of just dropped out of nowhere - Skunk/Bridgett, Mindy/Cutter romantic pairing and his computer training, Carroll/Nadine...

[DRW50]

She will also have a bit of interaction with Hawk (when Hawk first showed up in the mid/late '80s they were almost married, believe it or not), and Alex, although that friendship is one that feels a little contrived.

I'm glad you have enjoyed Hawk so far. A ridiculous role, in many ways, but Gil Rogers always played him brilliantly. A shame they never brought Sarah, his wife, back at this point. My favorite thing about Hawk was that he always called Reva, "Sister."

Thanks. I thought he may have been tied to Bridget, but I thought I may have been getting mixed up because IIRC Melissa Hayden played a character on GH with a similar name. 

Sadly, McTavish runs Bridget through the gutter.

Speaking of Tina Sloan - sorry if this was already mentioned and I just forgot - I had no idea she'd written a series of novels, including one just last year.

Books - Tina Sloan

Edited April 9 by DRW50

[Contessa Donatella]

BTW, in case it's not clear, of course it wasn't Curlee's idea to kill Mo. We know it came out of one of JFP's focus groups. She did her thing with focus groups both here with Mo & at AW with Frankie Frame, although that started out to be killing Donna Love but fans thwarted JFP about that so she asked one of her focus groups to decide between Frankie & Paulina. And, that's how that happened.

When Olivia & Bill were together I found the couple to be so sexy. They'd lounge around on the bed every evening & it really worked. Bill to me played by Danny Cosgrove did not seem at all generic. No, his Bill was really hot.   

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[Mitch64]

I think Parker even said," After all those cups of coffee, your writing me out NOW?" i.e. just when there is something interesting to do...(and JFP well knew this.)  I think that having Mo leave Ed, move in and take over the BH and take in Bridget when she is preggers...maybe she wouldn't know who the father is and either not hide Bridget of actually do so for a bit, and then adopt Peter herself so Bridget can have a life but always be close to Peter.  Ed has to suffer everyone knowing and actually telling him this time he is sh*t, even Ross and Rick ("Grandma would be so angry right now" ) and then he does all he can to try to get back with her.. and adopts Peter himself then not knowing its Roger's grandson. The the custody can be between Ed, Mo vs. Roger..with Mo seeing Roger's side also, but know he can't raise a kid. Anyway, I would have Mo stand up and take her life and then Ed can see, as Curlee said, "What its like when friends dont stop byw with a caserole.")

I still wish they had Nola find out about Ed and Lilian and for her to go on a rampage against both...leading Ed to finally show the audience his guilt over Mo's death, but not before we got Nola to berate him and hopefully slap the crap out of Lillian, hopefully in the middle of the Bauer kitchen.

Speaking of, I would have brought Nola back as a best selling writer of "romantic adventures" which of course, would all star a plucky girl from the wrong side of the tracks, (maybe she would come back to write a book on Mo, doing some digging finds out about Ed the horn dog) with Gracie Middleton being her assistant... Gracie would once again be Ethel to Nola's Lucy, going undercover as a maid for the Spauldings to snoop on them for new material.

Edited April 9 by Mitch64