Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[chrisml]

Sometimes, you have to cut your losses when something is not working out. When you lose two thirds of a story, it's time to tell a different story. It was not that compelling a story anyway and it was already annoying viewers. Did viewers care about Eve? I don't remember viewers caring even though Edson got an Emmy nomination. Then JFP and the writers saddled Crampton with that ridiculous triangle with Lando where everyone knew how it would turn out so it was just killing time. I don't understand the need to have a controlling Alex wanting to be obsessed with Nick. What was the need to have that storyline?? I really don't understand so much of what happened on GL from 1993 onwards.

 

[alwaysAMC]

I'm up to Nov. 9, 1995.

I'm still really enjoying GL and continue to watch multiple episodes a day!  I know this wasn't a golden era in the eyes of older, loyal fans, but man this is really making me happy and engaged.  

As I assumed it would be, the Brent/Marion storyline is very entertaining.  Are there flaws?  Sure, but it still keeps me tuned in every day, and when the story isn't featured that day, I feel slightly down about it.  Right now, Lucy just found out she's HIV neg after her third test.  This time, Brent broke into the hospital and got to the actual blood samples himself to fake the results, however Reva (!) walked in on him when she was hiding from Rick and Brent lost his mind on her.  The two major storylines happening finally collide, even if for a few days, and I was so happy to see that.  Brent scared the crap out of Reva and threatened her life.  She escaped and ran to Alan for safety and he's now investigating who it could have been.  Reva made Brent drop positive blood samples on his shoes and he's starting to get concerned that he is now HIV positive. 

Reva woke up in Goshen in July and it is November and she still hasn't been seen by anyone in Springfield, but at least she's there.  If I were a viewer in 1995, I have to believe I would be so annoyed that it's been 5 long months (plus 3 months before that during "Ghost Reva") and she's STILL not been seen.  I'm really tired of her running around in a nun's outfit in the hospital and hiding in the shadows.  At least she now has her memory back (somehow), so we're getting close, but it's tiring.

Amanda is interesting so far.  She's playing it cool and sultry, which is a nice contrast to the Dinah character.  This of course is pissing off Blake which is fun.  Vanessa has a pretty visceral reaction to her, so I'm curious what that backstory is and why they don't like each other.  

Dinah and Roger are just a mess and I'm still not tired of it yet, surprisingly.  Right now, Roger is trying to find Hart, but Hart just showed up to town and is watching them for now.  I'm excited to see how this storyline turns out because I know this will bring Bridget back into the mix, who hasn't had much to do in a few months.  The actor playing Hart is handsome!

Speaking of handsome, I never really had a thing for Rick Bauer, but he and Annie just went to Mexico to get a divorce and he was shirtless that entire week and wow - now I have a thing for Rick Bauer

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.  Abigail is now in Cedars and pouting about needing to find Rick, and she just found him during Halloween (creepy scene btw).  Will Abigail always be deaf?  I don't know how long she's on the show, but she's a contract player per the ending credits, and I just can't see a long-term future for her if she can't talk or read lips.  She doesn't know ASL and only can speak to her Amish family through their "made up sign language", which btw is so cringe.

Alan Spaulding just sucks.  He's trying everything in his power to keep Reva away from her kids and it's disgusting.  He's so selfish and off-putting in this storyline.  He lacks empathy and humor like Roger has, which is why I really like Roger.  Roger reminds me of AMC's Adam Chandler or David Hayward.

I'm still sad that many characters are barely used - like Gil!  In the 9 months I've watched so far, she's averaging 3-4 episodes a month, such a shame.  Holly/Fletcher have been pretty MIA since their July wedding (only sad bc of Holly).  Nick was barely used post-Mindy until he just met Susan, but that's a bit of a bore.  Ed isn't used much anymore post-Eve except to give Rick advice.  Lillian is only background in the hospital unless she's giving Annie advice.  Nola, Bridget and David aren't really used much lately except a random day in the boarding house to play referee to Vanessa/Matt/Dinah.  I've only seen Hampton like 6-7 times in 9 months.  Oh but I still LOVE the Towers set and wish I could have been there back in the day haha.

Oh and I got to see/meet HB!  He appeared in the carousel house to give Josh advice about Annie for a day.  He seemed to be a sweet father.

Anyway, I'll keep trucking along and enjoying  

[DRW50]

The treatment of Eve was strange, because she had a big introduction, yet was also treated as disposable. Then when there was a clear point where the character could have been written out, she was redeemed and stayed for a further year and a half. They seemed to just be throwing everything at Nick but didn't care about doing the work. Your idea for Eve/Nick sounds much better than what we got. 

I suppose Ed being at a loss as a character around this time helped Eve stay.

I did care about Eve. I have a feeling I'm one of the few who did.

Edited April 24 by DRW50

[DRW50]

Thank you for keeping your reviews going. 

You've now seen HB's final appearance. Larry Gates was a wonderful presence - I'm surprised when I realize he was only on the show for a little over a decade as he was there when I started watching and it felt like he was there forever. 

The issues with airtime won't be getting any better, sadly.

I don't want to spoil too much for you, but Abi eventually gets a cochlear implant. 

I watched some of the Halloween episode a few years ago and it definitely was very disturbing. The Abigail POV is something I don't remember getting very often from the show, or other soaps.

I'd totally forgotten about Reva and Brent interacting, and his HIV scare. At the time I did think it was a deserved comeuppance for him - looking back I can see where it was kind of gross.

Michael O'Leary did have a thing for looking hot in shirtless dramatic scenes at random times. If you are still watching in 2000 you'll get another one.

 

[Kane]

Abby becomes a speaking character and stays on the show until about 2000. She's one of my favorite characters of this era and I find her evolution over her first couple of years very compelling. Quite a bit of that will happen in 1996.

 

I'm currently in July '97 and can report that Holly/Fletcher will remain MIA, that Nola will be criminally underused (although I know that she has a story coming up), and that Bridget gets quite a bit of story in 1996 but it's terrible and leaves you wondering who had it out for Melissa Hayden behind the scenes because of how insultingly Bridget is treated.

[DRW50]

I finally found my copy of the GL episode that ends with the Jessie (Rebecca Staab) and puppet beauty shot, which is one of my all-time favorite beauty shots just because it is so out of the norm compared to most beauty shots. Here's the whole sequence, which in of itself is a little bizarre, including open-mouthed kissing between Rebecca and Shawn Thompson that does not fit the nature of the relationship (you can tell they were together at this point, or soon would be), and what seems like open-mouthed kissing between Rebecca and puppet.

I also kind of love that India asks her to come talk immediately, which Jessie agrees to, and then the next shot of her is just leisurely drinking coffee and playing with the moose.

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Edited April 24 by DRW50

[alwaysAMC]

I'm glad you enjoy them!  It makes my watch even more fun after chatting to others about what I'm watching in real time.  

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Sad to hear that was HB's final performance, but I feel lucky to have seen it.  

Yes, that POV with the dizzy camera and hospital patients/workers staring into the camera in their costumes was creepy.  It felt like watching someone's POV in a modest haunted house.  The silence made it eerie.  It was the Nov 1 episode, so day after Halloween for anyone interested.

The HIV storyline isn't aging well IMO.  On one hand I applaud it for the awareness and bringing real life people with HIV into the story to show they can still live a fulfilled life, but on the other hand it seems like this scary 'you're going to die' disease that will ruin your life forever.  You've got Marion who is so casual about it, clearly doesn't care about ruining Lucy's life with the disease, but then is scared about having a few drops of positive blood on his shoe like its the boogyman. Then you have Lucy and all the Coopers celebrating her final negative test like she's been saved from disaster.  It's a bit of a mind-F with the pendulum thoughts it takes, especially watching in 2025.

I know!  Michael hits the gym and it shows  I was really surprised to see what was behind that doctor's coat.

Very interesting about Abigail, thank you!  I'm now optimistic about watching her storyline play out. 

Sad to hear about Bridget. I really like the actress and her character.

[Contessa Donatella]

My beloved NY P&G soaps, all 3, were in trouble from 1995 on. I know I am boring saying this over & over. But it doesn't seem to matter.

[alwaysAMC]

Well I judged a book by its cover!  I saw this and expected corny and cringe, but I found it sweet and fun!  What a first date!

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  They seem like a cute couple.  What Spaulding is this and who is he related to (Alan/Alex?)?

[Mitch64]

Ha..its like Mel...she's a doctor..oh no, she is ALSO a lawyer! I thought it was dumb to hook Rick up with another doc anyway, she should have always been a lawyer, and a very aggressive one to offset Rick being a mensch. I think she should have been very opposed to the Santos family as all of their crimes (which is soft soaped here, what the hell did they actually do) would have directly affected the poor and people of color in SF, and not the white elites that make up the show. But of course, too deep for Rauchie's GL.

And the freezing in time I meant that for both actors to play the characters, they had to have been frozen in time..though I think we just take it as a soap things that Amanda didn't age in 15 years and looked younger then her younger brothers.  If they made clone doc Jim and paired him with Amanda there would have been the great soap staple of the ready to help doctor hooking up with the cynical vixen. Though Jim Reardon as originally written was the cynical Reardon so they would have that in common...and of course, I would dump the dumber then hell clone.

That is one of the most fascinating points in GL's history. I LOVED Long/Kobe's original take on GL and it showed in the ratings...what happened with the abrupt change in direction? I am not even talking about the Bauers but the Reardons, Van becoming a sorry sap housefrau (sorry, I could never like Billy and Van after that) the influx of MORE family for Reva (Reva was best as a lone wolf scrapping her life together) tying a family to Lillian, who I liked but lets face it, was not the most intersting peroson and Calla and Jessie were even duller, and the general change of tone from an kind of sunny soap to everyone being cynical and amoral (ALL of Kyle's weirdness was hand waved..I mean really Kyle, paitings o the Lewis family, they aint THAT interesting...)

I never knew why they threw Rick and Mindy up...it should have been Rick in that big wedding...(not that I am so gung ho on every couple getting married, but if you are going to make a big deal about something, it should have been at least someone we know...) Well, yes, I do, they had to have another Shayne and they thought if they tied her to Rick people would care..I liked Roxie and they could have done more for her but...they immediatley reverted Mindy to her bitchy princess ways so down home Roxie could get with Rick..even though what originally attracted him to Mindy was her benign bitchiness.

Mindy did mention Kurt when Will tried to kill her and she went into a coma and *may* have visited the afterlife, and she saw her grandmother and Kurt but NOT Beth (the tip off that Beth was alive.)

[Mitch64]

That was the problem..the show had nothing else going on..even Reva's return is just there (sorry Kimmer, MADD, Rauchie and the gang of housefraus who wrote in whenever Reva was not in one scene,, her hey day ended when she went off the bridge..she just became another charater...) The end of Marion all the energy leaves and McLaiby falls apart...Lonatrat? The twins by two dads, an Angel? Alan going nuts because a vixen long in the tooth dumps him? Buzz chewing the scenery like never before???

Oleary was a piece of ass back in the day, and when they wrote Rick correctly, as a nice guy who makes mistakes but wants to help everyone, he is really good. When they give him too much drama, let him mug, make him a looser or have him pine away they screw it up.

[DeeVee]

I believe you're talking about Simon?

Simon insinuated himself into Alex's life and claimed Brandon Spaulding was his father. She believed it. I still don't know how he fooled her for as long as he did. 

He was not a Spaulding. However, it was later revealed that he was Lujack's half brother, so they had a connection that way. 

Also, Jim and Alan have a very contentious backstory because of the way Alan wanted to exploit his research. So he likely would not be inclined to associate with a Spaulding. But those damn hormones...

Me, neither. They should have had a long-term love story like Philip and Beth. Perhaps getting involved with others but always realizing they were meant for each other. Very missed opportunity. 

[alwaysAMC]

I knew I shouldn't have trusted him, that puppet was too charming. 

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[Speed Racer]

Thanks J.P. for your info re: Evie and blindness.  Your memory is astounding!

Regarding Warren, Locke and Alex.....looking back, it seems rather obvious that Eric Luvonoczek (also a cash hungry cad) would have made an excellent pseudo follow-up to Warren Andrews.  Whoever it was portraying Eric was wonderful in that six-month role in early 1992.  And it is through Eric that Alexandra's Bohemian period and mindset could have been told.  AND, it wouldn't have been at all a stretch to learn that Eric and Bess knew each other quite well via Brandon.  (Wheelchair-bound Bess was great, too.)   THAT should have been Dusay's first storyline in September 1993.  A story that affects a soon-to-return Alan, too.  Hell, you could have Eric romance then blackmail Lillian, forcing Lillian to get a big stack of cash from Alexandra, only to hand it over to Eric.  With Roger looking on in astonishment.

OR, maybe even better, have Eric be the mastermind behind a set up a Ponzi scheme that snatches significant cash from half of Springfield.  Money that's lost forever.  Has there ever been a Ponzi storyline on ANY soap?  If not, why the hell not?

To add to the strangeness - Eve Guthrie was on the show for three years, yet we never knew anything about her family.  What were the names of HER parents?  Any siblings?  Aunts or uncles?  Where did she grow up?  Not even a mention.  Nothing.

It's not surprising viewers were non-committal to the character or to Edson herself.

Yet both the character and actress had their fans.  I'm another viewer who liked both.

[Speed Racer]

Shout out to alwaysAMC-

I'm liking your write-ups and your interest in the show!  Keep 'em coming.

As several have pointed out, you very much need to watch early 1990s GL.  (You like Roger and Bridget in 1995?!  Boy, are you missing out!  Go back in time.) 

I recommend you start August/Sept 1989 to get a foothold, then watch all the way through the end of 1994.  1989 was an okay year (not great, but better than the awful 1986-1988 period).  GL really starts clicking in March/April 1990, with noticeable story and dialogue improvement happening in rather rapid fashion.  The change for the better is an interesting and tangible watch, almost inspiring.

As you are a first-time viewer, I'd love to get your comments and observations of that era as well.