Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[DRW50]

There is some fanfic that mostly focuses on a few characters or couples, rather than the whole community, on various fic warehouse type sites, like fanfic.net or Archive of Our Own. There was a broader community fic post-GL, I think sponsored by P&G and which may have just had a few writers, that ran for several years online or on Twitter, that fans could vote on or interact with, I think. That was discontinued. I'm not sure if it was archived. 

There may also be some stories in the fic archives here, but I haven't checked.

Many years ago, around the mid '90s, there was a day to day fic online called Follyworld that had much of the cast at the time. I have no idea if that was archived.

Thanks for the photo @Alan And they all went on to decent careers post-GL. Lisa did a lot for people.

Staab was very good on PC. She just didn't have a role to play on GL. @Soaplovers explains it well. My guess is she was retooled as a Beth replacement because Judi Evans was leaving. The problem, as GL would later learn when they recast Beth, was that it wasn't the writing that made Beth loved by a lot of fans - it was Judi Evans.

Saddling Jessie with the much older, and frankly, strange Simon did not help, although the actors certainly clicked offcamera for a few years.

Edited April 14 by DRW50

[Soaplovers]

Jessie and Calla could have worked if they'd kept the original dynamic and backstory of the characters.  Calla was very cold and manipulative.. especially when she was guilting Lillian about helping her with Beth when they were penniless.

Once Long left the writing team, Calla became just a love interest of Ross' and sucking up to Alexandra as her personal assistant... while Jessie was paired with Simon (which I recall even the actors that played Simon and Jessie were surprised about because it happened randomly).   

Staab, as shown later, was quite capable of playing a grey character.. but since this was the start of her acting career.. she probably didn't have the confidence nor instincts to apply layers to the character.

Follyworld!  I had completely forgot about that fan fic series, which was created by a Fletcher/Holly fan originally in order to give them story/airtime that the show wasn't giving them.  If I recall, the fan fic writers wrote some interesting stuff for Holly, Fletcher, Beth, Nick, Phillip, and even Tangie had an interesting story arc.

I believe that the owner of the website welcomed freelance writers, but it's been so many years that I don't recall if that memory is accurate or not.

[DRW50]

This was in the peak of the web soap format - ATWT had one briefly (also by fans), and then you had original concepts like The Spot, East Village, SF Blend, Gay Daze, etc. I remember a chapter where Fletcher or someone went to talk with Reva at Towers, who was on the piano bar, singing. The type of thing they had stopped doing with Reva on her return but was a fun part of her initial run. 

You could tell whoever wrote it genuinely loved the show.

Edited April 14 by DRW50

[Contessa Donatella]

Hey, Annette & welcome!

This is the link to the start of my favorite GL themed fanfic, although it is an Otalia story. 

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5023417/1/The-Courtship-Of-Emma-s-Mother

And, this is a link derived from a search on this page of fan fiction, search words are "Guiding Light".

https://www.fanfiction.net/search/?keywords=Guiding+Light&ready=1&type=story

Good luck & have a blast! 

[DeeVee]

I remember reading an interview with Stewart where he complained that the women they were putting him with weren't young enough. (I think this was when he was paired with Trish, who was supposed to be around the same age as Hope). I'm going on memory, but I'm pretty sure he said he had suggested to TPTB that they pair him with Trudy, played by Amy Steel. She was a teen character who was friends with Morgan and dating Tim.

Something I'm really glad they never took him up on.

[Spoon]

DS was at GL at the wrong time.  The writers would go crazy with May-December type romances later on.  

[P.J.]

I could forgive Rebecca Staab for being green (even though I've never seen her be interesting in much of anything, tbh). I couldn't exactly forgive Lisby Larson for being uninteresting in the role of Calla. Maybe if Alan had been around, that dynamic could've created some kind of rootability for the character. But pairing her with Ross just made her look ever so much more like a heartless bitch. You really wondered what Ross ever saw in her. 

[Paul Raven]

My memory (may be completely wrong) is that Don Stewart felt Trish was too young for Mike.

Let's hope someone can track down an interview.

[P.J.]

Lezlie Dalton was only four years younger than Geraldine. I would've thought Don would've seen the value in being the family patriarch, but who knows.

I know I cited Lillian as someone who stuck around longer than necessary, but I think Tina understood her role and stayed in her lane. 

[chrisml]

I thought Tina Sloan was underapprciated. She got the criticism for the affair, but she did excellent work during her cancer storyline but it was overlooked because of what happened with Maureen. I wish she had more to do overall. She had so much more to offer. 

I didn't see Judi Evans as Beth, so for me Beth Chamberlain is Beth. I've seen a few scenes with Judi Evans as Beth and it's usually when she's around Michael Wilding's Jackson. The scenes don't do either actor much credit.

[Contessa Donatella]

There are clips of her that she won the Emmy with. She is amazing in them.

[P.J.]

Yeah, to get the full scope of Judi's work, you need to watch 1983 Beth. Even by the summer of '84 (with Lujack) she gets super chipper, which is kind of jarring after watching her scenes around Beth's rape.

Chamberlain is like Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. I can deal with her from '89-'91. I recognize that Beth. Her late 90's return---nope. That Beth might as well be an entirely different character. 

[Contessa Donatella]

Can we spell Lorelei?

 

[DRW50]

I think Chamberlain's first run was more consistent and competent but I don't think she had the warmth the part needed. Her second run, the writing was a mess, often terrible, but I think it tapped more into Chamberlain's range. 

[P.J.]

NO...lol.

Personally, I don't either. I think they would've recasted, had the late '90's writers not decided to make Beth the unhinged spoiler for Phillip/Harley.  And it just got progressively worse from there.