Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[DeeVee]

It is four decades ago, so I absolutely could be remembering it incorrectly. I'd be curious to see the interview, too. My memories of Stewart's interviews are of him complaining about a lot of things. Perhaps I'm being unfair to him. 

I guess they thought because of the many traumas Beth had suffered they could get away with some of the stuff they wrote for her during that period. It was really difficult to watch sometimes.

[Contessa Donatella]

Earthquake, mudslide. Lorelei, progressively worsehell yeah

 

[P.J.]

When you have Beth less well-adjusted than Blake, your writers got issues.

[GL Oldtimer]

Thank you to all of those that shared Fan Fiction links with me. I truly appreciate it.

I used to read a lot of One Life to Live Fan Fiction and I was always impressed at some of the storylines fans came up with. Truly some remarkable writing.

Annette

 

 

[Mitch64]

As others said, all of those actors have done fairly well away from GL..so Brown had something to do with it. I just wish they had kept her on recurring as Nola at Company...(and never let Company and the BH get stunk up with Coopers..) while she did that.

You could get away with Beth withdrawing and becoming colder, if the rest of the characters mentioned it...(Van only did once, and they painter her as the old hag jealous. ) I can see Beth chaging after Phillip leaves her and she has the abusive relationship with Carl, but they jumped around so often, bitch, vixen, heroine, victim...it made no sense. A Beth with alters....(I can see her having an alter kill professor Blackburn to protect "Beth") would have made sense and explain some of the craziness, and Chamberine would have done great with that...but Loralee never made sense...Sloane always sites that as a dumb plot..."She has the same mole my daughter has...I wouldn't know she was the same..." ) and it all went over the top during of course, Wheeler when Beth kidnaps Alan and Gus and beats them with a table leg..(not that I wasn't rooting her on) and Alan thinks it Loreli but it is just Beth...who leaves them to die with no repercussions.

I thought Chamberlin would have made a good Amanda recast..a cold, icy one with a streak of sexuality. I would think the new soap would bring her back as an icy matriarch. 

[DRW50]

I totally missed that storyline...and then somehow she ends up in bed with Coop. 

She would have made a decent Amanda recast, now that you mention it. Or Morgan.

[chrisml]

Tidbits from (re)watching some of the Locher interviews and this is probably old hat for most of you:

Maeve Kinkead obviously preferred Wendy Moniz as Dinah.  While she was gracious about her, she did not seem to care for Gina Tognoni's Dinah. She made a comment that they changed the writing of Dinah to suit Tognoni. 

I wonder if Elizabeth Dennehy were fired because she didn't enjoy playing Blake. She couldn't think of one storyline she had fun with. She particularly disliked the masked Roger nonsense. She said she could not make sense of most of what she was given because it changed constantly but she tried her best to make it work. During the Zaslow tribute episode, Dennehy was the only one to call out Fiona Hutchison for being extremely annoying (not her fault but still..) with her tech issues which I appreciated.

James Harmon Brown claims he wanted to tell the ALS story but was not allowed. Millee Taggart told him he should have just slipped the storyline in anyway. JHB says Rauch was in support of telling the ALS for Roger but then the women at the Zaslow tribute episode bristle at his name. They mention Rauch saying "we know how this storyline will end" comment which indicates he didn't support the storyline.  Fiona Hutchison was first person to notice something was wrong with MZ. Watching the women (Simms, Dennehy, Garrett, Keifer) and his daughter watch his Emmy win was incredibly moving. 

 

Edited April 15 by chrisml

[DRW50]

Thanks. There wasn't a ton of discussion here about the interviews beyond people saying Locher sucked so it's new to me. 

Moniz's Dinah was never well-written, but I can see where Maeve may have felt closer to her.

[Contessa Donatella]

The quote I heard associated with Paul Rauch was, "Now, we all know this is not gonna happen & we all know why." And, my very strong impression was that, no, they didn't know why not to do it. 

[TheyStartedOnSoaps]

Elizabeth Dennehy was fired because Pam Long didn't feel she was the right fit for Blake. It was also during this time that Betty Rea caught Sherry Stringfield at an actor showcase her college SUNY Purchase put on. Rea was so impressed that she went straight to the brass and insisted they hire Stringfield. Telling them if there is no female character coming up, create one. Rea felt Stringfield was that good, and the show needed to sign her to a contract pronto, while they had the chance

So it was perfect timing that Long wanted Dennehy out and Rea wanted Stringfield to be hired for any female role coming up.

Footnote to this story, when Michael Zaslow became ill and started his Zas Angels charity, Elizabeth Dennehy showed up to offer support at one event. She straight up to Maureen Garrett and said "Hi Mom!"

[P.J.]

Thanks! I've only watched a few myself, in part because I'm never sure they're worth the time, and of Locher. I always mean to watch the one with Maeve, Ellen, Tina and Rachel, just because it would cover Maureen's death.

I'm not surprised Maeve would've connected more with Wendy Moniz. They worked more together. While Maeve was on more than I remembered those last couple of years, she'd be gone for long stretches, and then show up at the end of Dinah's failed plots.

[Mitch64]

I didn't get that, I saw Maeve say all the Dinah's were so different from each other that they changed the writing. The rumor was that Maeve did NOT like Moniz...and that was part of the reason she went to slightly recurring in 95...( Moniz had supposedly backstage problems with screwing Hart, etc.) I would put it somewhere in between, Maeve probably like Moniz well enough but was fed up with the writing where Van had to take the punches of the writing..and most likely annoyed with Moniz unprofessionalism...) I personally liked the writing for Gina's version of Dinah, despite the weakness of the overall writing and I think Gina played Dinah less fragile and more like a girl raised in the carney.

 

I thought the quote was, "We all know how this will end." meaning , there is no mystery in it...(as if there was mystery in the clone, etc.) None of the ladies seemed to like Rauchie, so I would love to have had Kimmer on that episode. 

[Contessa Donatella]

AGREED! Gina T is one person I'd like to see cast in some good show, preferably one that I watch. I'm fairly critical of writing, too, but I don't remember having a problem with GT's Dinah Doings. Trying to think, was there an orphan boy from the Balkans where everything was just too pat? And, I do have some reservations because I gather that she participates in an online prayer group & they are regularly praying for the right part to come her way. Within some common sense boundaries I think people should practice their faith however works best for them but personally it's not a thing I would do. 

Which sounds like what the OP posted. Each sounds plausible. & they are weirdly similar, too.  In the version of events I heard he said, "We all know this isn't going to happen & we know why." because the writers were busily crafting a story where Holly would re-enter his life & end up taking his final journey with him so his primary motivation was to say, STOP. 

[chrisml]

I went back and listened just to make sure I got it right. Kinkead said, "Wendy was extraordinary in that role I felt. The writers glommed onto that mother/daughter thing. They were all wonderful. Gina as well but Gina's they shaped the character differently by the time Gina played it."  I don't know of any rumor about Kinkead/Moniz, but I do know that Kinkead/Rauch supposedly did not get along. Others on this thread more knowledgeable than I am have talked about it.

Speaking of Judi Evans, here she is playing Scrabble with her Days co-star Peggy McCay. It's from 1988.

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[DeeVee]

Wasn't part of it also that Blake was not originally conceived to be Christina (Roger and Holly's daughter)? I seem to recall that in the beginning Blake had some kind of secret. She was always on the phone with someone but it seemed like she was talking to someone younger than herself. And then when they decided to bring back Zaslow, certainly Stringfield looked more like she could be Roger and Holly's kid.

Maybe this is wishful thinking because I hate to think they had Alan and Blake sleep together knowing all the time she was the little girl who used to live next door to him. Watching that scene many years later knowing she would turn out to be Christina was a tad traumatic for me. 

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Anyway, I liked Dennehy, I felt at the time she got a dirty deal, but it's hard to argue against Stringfield. She was very believable as Roger's progeny.