Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[DeliaIrisFan]

I have to add that Maureen Garrett deserves particular credit for being able to take Holly on that journey without a recast. Holly at her most bitter was a revelation. Seeing Holly and Blake reconcile when Curlee, et al were still writing again on YouTube recently was touching (again, I don't know if I could completely buy SS's Blake as sincere in thoe scenes) but part of me wishes they had kept Holly and Blake at odds but found ways to force them to deal with each other. What I saw of Holly and Blake during Blake's phase of repeatedly cheating on Ross in the mid-late '90s, it almost seemed like second-rate Erica and Mona.

If they had to do that skeevy twins-by-different-fathers story, Holly could have served as a Greek chorus if she caught onto Blake just as Blake found out about Holly's latest indiscretion with Roger, and they had to help keep each other's secrets:

Holly: I think I need my headache pills. Is this even medically possible?

Blake: Well I Googled it [when did Google come to be?] and apparently it is.

Holly: Well, I never dreamed I'd feel sorry for you, Blake, but here I thought I was at my wit's end when I turned up pregnant with you. To think, I could have been carrying twins: one Roger's, and the other, Ed's. They didn't even have DNA testing then, so nobody would have even believed me...until you started whoring around, and the other one was the pillar of the community.

[DRW50]

I don't think Blake/Holly conflict would have worked as well with Keifer, as she was more vulnerable than Sherry.

Holly just had no identity once she married Fletcher and got pregnant. She probably would have lost her identity anyway, because of what was changing on GL, but that was the time it happened.

They hinted at one point during the Blake/Ben story that Holly might try to make a play for Ross, but that never happened.

[DRW50]

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[DRW50]

I guess it's my old Vanessa/Billy feelings flaring up again but I don't remember being quite this weirded out by Vanessa/Fletcher the first time around. He's just way too clingy.

[DRW50]

Commenting to myself, again - I'd forgotten that Hart was supposed to be very intelligent, loved classic literature, was a dreamer, etc. That character severely changed every time they recast him.

[Khan]

Harry Eggart, who directed the classic "Hall of Mirrors" sequence featuring Roger and Rita, has directed a production of Joseph Kesserling's "Arsenic and Old Lace" at the Provincetown Theater.

http://www.provincetowntheater.org/

What a shame to hear he has retired, though. The PGP soaps, and especially GUIDING LIGHT, boasted some of the best directors in daytime; and now, very few, if any, are still working in this industry. Most (John Pasquin, John Whitesell) have transitioned into (mediocre) TV shows and films; others (Eggart, Bruce S. Barry) have stopped working.

Edited November 15, 2012 by Khan

[danfling]

Emily Squires, who wrote both Sesame Street and Guiding Light, has died.

[DRW50]

So she was there in the mid-80s. That was such a time of turnover.

[robbwolff]

I had the good fortune of being in a writing class with Harry on Cape Cod back in the summer of 2005. What a nice guy! He was workshopping a novel involving a soap opera. The man is one talented scribe! The instructor (author Bill Mann) and I had a great time talking with Harry about Kelly and Nola, and Charita Bauer.

[soapfan770]

Vanessa and Fletcher are such an odd pairing...I hate when Vanessa is written as weak too. I think Fletcher and Vanessa paired up around the same time Vanessa was sexually assaulted in the park by a mentally ill man and decided to not press charges wanting to keep it secret and avoid attention. Then when it was exposed her assaulter got a lot of sympathy to his past and Vanessa ended up dumping Fletcher on their wedding day. I think the assaulter finally went to jail but it was just a strange story and I enjoy Vanessa more when had to tangle with Billy, Ross, Alan, Roger etc. than stories like this, or her endless comas and dying, Matt/Beth etc.

Out of all the women Fletcher romanced(everyone but Reva it seems) I think the only one I liked was his relationship with McKinsey's Alex.

[DRW50]

Are you sure about that Vanessa story? I thought she had the sexual harassment story with that Barclay guy.

Did I block the other one out? I must have, for my own sake.

[soapfan770]

Oh its the same one I got the details mixed up while posting about something else lol but it was with the Jack Kiley character who she tried to date and the he repeated tried to harass and attack her and in the middle of all of it Fletcher saved her life. It's been so long but I didn't like the story.

Edited November 25, 2012 by soapfan770

[Paul Raven]

The one and only Rita Stapleton Bauer (Lenore Kasdorf) in 1978

[DRW50]

I think she looked better with the longer hair (and better makeup).

[Khan]

Same. I love Lenore Kasdorf's hair whenever it's longer.