Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[Contessa Donatella]

Sometimes being around y'all just gives me warm, fuzzy feelings. 

Anecdotally, we've got JFP, McTrash, Margaret DePriest, Leah Laiman, who else? 

[Contessa Donatella]

Viewing Episodes

Simply click on this link to view the episodes - https://bit.ly/4i9lUwM. Navigate to the folder, and on the video file, either right-click (for computer/laptop users) or long tap (for mobile users), and choose "Open in new Tab".

If the video file still won't play after this, it may need to be downloaded and played using a different application, such as VLC.

[There is more on the how-to page.]

Edited Saturday at 10:15 PM by Contessa Donatella

[DeeVee]

Wasn't HTSAM sacrificed so they would have room in the lineup to expand Another World? If so, how ironic.

WHAAAAT? I'm so glad I was tapped out of GL during this period.

When Marland was putting together his young adult crew there was lots of chem testing going on. They tested out Tony and Josh with almost anyone who wore a skirt who wasn't related to them. Josh and Nola briefly flirted while Nola was pregnant.

[P.J.]

According to an SOD recap, Josh made a pass at Vanessa when he first moseyed to town. But I've never seen it personally, and it would've been when Anna Stuart was in the role, so I'm not sure it counts.

But yeah, neither Josh or Tony was letting the grass grow beneath their feet, so to speak, from '81-'83.

[DRW50]

nm

Edited Saturday at 10:41 PM by DRW50

[cassadine1991]

Is Pam Long retired???

[Contessa Donatella]

Its Endiversary is 4-18-1975.

AW Mon., Jan. 6, 1975 3-4 1 hr show began

AW Mon., Mar. 5, 1979 2:30-4 1 hr to 90 min.

AW Mon., Aug. 4, 1980 2-3 bk to 1 hr.

So, as you can see, NO. 

 

March 5th week is really interesting. (1979)

AW 1st 90 min. show. John Randolph died.

GL Roger raped Holly.

OLTL Karen Wolek took the stand, in a trial. 

[Paul Raven]

HTSAM followed AW at 3.30 where it failed to hold onto AW's rating. When AW expanded HTSAM was moved to 1.30 up against ATWT. Then a few months later DOOL expanded and took over the 1.30 slot eliminating ATWT from the line-up.

So I would say YES. Moving HTSAM to 1.30 was the death knell for an already failing soap.

[DRW50]

Speaking of Constance Towers, she would have been a good Alex recast after Beverlee left, but I don't think Constance ever did any East Coast soaps.

I wonder when this would have been with Kelly. Marland seemed very determined to show us Kelly only loved Morgan. Maybe after Marland was gone? I'm not sure who he would have been sleeping with...Hillary?  

I haven't watched all of early/mid '80s GL, or even close, but I do remember a number of scenes from that period being in the 50th anniversary special to show us sexy times - Rita and Alan on the beach, Vanessa dropping her fur coat, and then India and Philip, half-naked, kissing in his office. 

The show did seem more overheated around 84-85 than what would happen after. That may be down to AIDS, but I remember some very sexually forward scenes on ATWT around 1987 and 1988 with pairings like Holden/Emily and Lily/Dusty. I think this is just something GL chose to move away from. Who was even meant to be a sexually forward character on GL at this time? Blake? 

By the time of most of the 1981 and 1982 GL episodes I've been able to see, any sex appeal seems to be at a low ebb. In some ways the show almost seems anti-sex in a way that reminds me of today's culture. Vanessa bounces between men and is seen as a pathetic bitch by all around her. Josh, being a hotshot recording figure from LA, was clearly meant to be a player, but he was just presented as cold and creepy. Tony and Katie had a fling, but instead of being seen as fun it all seemed a little sad, because we were meant to be reminded of what a good heart Tony had and he was just waiting for the right woman, and so on. Then there's Mark/Amanda, which was meant to be some kind of forbidden passion, not presenting onscreen (not helped by Mark Pinter never being an actor I'd say generated heavy sex appeal, maybe aside from some moments with Kim Rhodes on AW). 

As @DeeVee said, the show's handling of sexuality under the Dobsons does seem more layered and mature to me. This could be down to the Moral Majority or chasing GH or other causes...I think it may just be that the Dobsons trusted viewers and allowed for more nuance. Not as much time spent telling us how to feel and what to think.

I haven't seen all of the pairing, but for a story that was meant to change Ross to the core (he had already changed somewhat due to his fondness for Eve, but Carrie is the one who truly put him on the righteous track), his own role does seem passive. They jogged and had some light banter, and... seemingly not a whole lot else. 

[Gatecrashers]

Thanks, Contessa!

[robbwolff]

@P.J. The Tynans weren't around very long. I think they showed up in December 1982 when L. Virginia Browne and Gene Palumbo were head writers. Helen was a nurse at Cedars. And Clay was her teenage son. Helen was recurring, while Clay was a contract character. Clay was definitely not in Vanessa's orbit. I recollect that he was part of the scene with the newly SORAS-ed Rick and Phillip. Clay may have been involved with the story involving Bert, Phillip, and Rick befriending Martin Bruhner, a terminally ill patient at Cedars. I know Phillip was an orderly and Mr. Bruhner was tutoring Rick, but I seem to recall that Clay was involved in this storyline, too. Perhaps he was an orderly, too. That happened during the period when the Cullitons and Gary Tomlin were interim head writers. Clay disappeared around May 1983 when Richard Culliton and Pamela Long's work started airing. Helen lasted a bit longer. 

[P.J.]

Thanks! Maybe I'll try and pay more attention to the Martin the German teacher storyline when I go through early '83-ish. It's just a bit bizarre that what I read was so damn specific. Someone got their wires crossed somewhere.

[P.J.]

I don't think Kelly and Hillary slept together. He friend-zoned her. I think the only other woman he ever slept with on the show was Claire.

'87-'88...I guess Sonni/Solita was having plenty of sex, but yeah, I think the AIDS epidemic kind of cooled things off, characters no longer just slinging it around. Harley came on pregnant, Dinah wasn't having sex, and I wouldn't have called Elizabeth Dennehy's Blake a vixen. Meredith had slept with Phillip once, but otherwise the show was filled (or filling) with good girls like Jessie, Dinah and Chelsea. 

I'm not sure I'd call '82 anti-sex...but other than Quint/Nola, it seemed anti-romance. Ed/Mo are together, but I wouldn't call them chemistry magnets. Ross' wife is murderous one-third of the time, Vanessa is either pathetically needy or a stalker, Amanda does the dirty in her mother's bed, but *yawn*, and Evie simply thinks about Ben and makes moon eyes.

[Contessa Donatella]

You're very welcome!

[DeeVee]

O.K., I'm going to say it. I did not have a way to articulate it back then, but I do now:

Carrie was Marland's Manic Pixie Dream Girl. She was there to teach Ross to embrace life and not care so much about the things that mattered to him before: becoming rich and successful. She got him to jog and eat healthy and toss his lawyer suits in favor of turtleneck sweaters and safari jackets. That's how you knew he was "loosening up." She had an almost insanely positive attitude. Ross would order her an orange juice and she would act like it was the greatest thing anyone had ever done for her.

I have loved Jane Elliot in practically every other role she has played, but found her cringy in this one.

As someone pointed out earlier, this was a personality she developed to protect herself from all the terrible things that happened to the original Carrie when her husband killed himself. But why Ross didn't run screaming in the other direction, I'll never know.