Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[DeeVee]

Oops, sorry about that. I'm awful with remembering names, LOL. Thanks for sharing the picture!

[Contessa Donatella]

Happy to oblige. Names can defeat me.

[DRW50]

Garrett's Holly seems so different in her return stint than what I've seen of her original work as Holly, but that may just be down to Holly later having a sheen over her neuroses. I know some have said Deerfield's Holly was even more neurotic. 

I remember the story Garrett told of how Deerfield would show up and watch her for a while after she took over the role. Deerfield supposedly did not want to leave GL and only did so because of her husband. 

I think Tim left with some woman named Pam. Another we will likely never see. That whole period seems like a big transition before the Dobsons lock in on core characters.

Robin returning as Hope could have been interesting. I wonder if she was already typecast as a bitch by this point, thanks to GH. Or maybe she wouldn't have wanted a long East Coast stint anyway (her RH stint was short-term).

Thanks for transcribing the interview. I've seen a few of theirs but haven't watched in full.

I guess this could have worked if they had claimed what they seemed to be setting up at the end of the story - that he had had a complete breakdown due to being abused as a child. I'm not saying it was the best idea but it certainly wasn't any worse than anything else on GL at that point. 

Still, I think even if it hurt his career, he made the right decision for himself. He's still around, he looks healthy. And he has a great story people can remember him by.

I'm glad I wasn't wrong about Wolf briefly playing Marian (sort of). I have forgotten so much yet that's what I remember...

Edited May 3 by DRW50

[DeeVee]

PAM!! YES!!! You have jogged my memory. She worked at Cedars. She's mentioned in a write-up of Tim's history in the show. It says she was a nurse, but I seem to remember she was a secretary at Cedars, working for either Ed or Sarah. (It's almost 50 years ago, so I definitely could be wrong).

I'm certain she was an unwed mother. I recall reading an interview with the actress, Maureen Silliman (I looked it up, that's her correct name, LOL). She started on the show just before the Dobsons started writing it. She was shocked to get a script that said her character had been pregnant since she hit town. I remember a scene where she told Tim she was going to leave SF for a better job for her daughter's sake (really, I think she was upset he was serious about Rita). I don't remember them getting married and leaving town, but according to "Who's Who in Springfield" that's how the characters were written out.

Mattson did All My Children for several years, so she might have been persuadable.

Here's an interesting factoid I recently learned on these message boards: Elvera Roussel was in the running to play Delia on RH when the show first hit the air. How wild is it that Mattson played Delia for a while? (Though from what I saw of her performance, she was miscast). It's hard to know if Roussel would have been a good Delia. You'd think she would have been better suited to playing Faith Coleridge, but who knows? She didn't get to show a whole lot of range as Hope.

Edited May 3 by DeeVee

[DRW50]

AMC was about a decade later so things may have changed by then, although maybe they never approached her anyway. She joined Santa Barbara in 1985, when they didn't seem interested in bringing back Hope. SB ended in late 1992, so JFP could have asked her back, but I doubt she did. For as much as JFP clearly had some use for Rick Hearst given that she hired him on GH and kept him around as often as she could, I don't think she ever used Alan-Michael well.

I can't see Elvera as Delia, but she could have worked well as Faith - she had a glimpse of a strong personality alongside warmth, which only one Faith ever managed (Catherine Hicks).

Edited May 3 by DRW50

[Paul Raven]

Those Soap Central profiles have a lot of incorrect info. According to SOD summaries and the Daytime Newsletter of the time,Tim left town for a new job and Pam reunited with the father of her baby and also departed Springfield.They did not marry.

[DRW50]

I've already asked this before, recently, but can anyone who watched those years more closely tell me if anything said about Jessie and Simon at the end of their profiles is accurate (about them marrying, naming a baby after Brandon/Lujack, etc.)?

[Paul Raven]

French fan summary

Rusty took over Simon's job at Lewis Trucking after Simon transferred to Lewis Oil's North Carolina office to live near Jessie and Calla.

I doubt they would bother following up a story for offscreen characters eg marriage and a baby.

[DRW50]

Thanks. I know Marland did that type of thing sometimes but it's less likely with these characters. I don't even remember Alex ever mentioning him.

[DeeVee]

Thank you for clearing that up. I wasn't watching GL regularly yet at that point, but seems to me I should have remembered the big wedding after Leslie's death (which I do remember) described in the profile.

Is there a web archive of SOD summaries, or are referring to your own personal collection?

[Mitch64]

That era is so weird...they made a big deal out of all three of those characters and then they just..disappeared! Not that I am complaining.

We talk about the bad out of character writing for Alex under JFP..but this was one example that may have led them to write her being so obsessive with Nick.  WHY would Alex accept Flock of Seagulls guy as her brother? They had her in one scene (setting up the Alan return) complain that Alan abandoned her...she blackmailed him into leaving town and she had been angry at him for helping Brandon with Lujack and also using Spaulding for that dumb dreaming death thing. Endless scenes of her with Simon, I can't believe Bev wasn't bored to death! I would also add Pam writing the scene where she lets Ms. Sally die in front of her to protect Alan and  the writing for Alex could be screwy even before JFP.

[P.J.]

And in case anyone is confused; Rusty was hired by HB to work undercover and infiltrate some gang sabotaging Lewis. 

[P.J.]

I also never understood Alex's friendship with Sonni or keeping the secret of Marah's paternity. 

Not exactly heartbroken about Ms. Sally being ushered to the Hereafter.

[Mitch64]

ANYTHING to get her off the screen..she COULD have been interesting if she and Van had a few face offs..(there was a mild one of her going back to work...but I wanted something meatier "Bitch, I am Vanessa Chamberlain and I don't take advice from someone who followed the..career path you did!"

I did like Alex's outright disdain for her.

[Soaplovers]

I know there was one brief scene in the summer of 1989 where Lillian did mention Calla.. but in relation to her past relationship to Ross and it was to Roger while he was a patient at Cedars.  I think he was trying to pump her for information on Ross.. and for some reason, Calla's name came up.  

I could see perhaps Beth mentioning that her mother Lillian was visiting Calla.. but not exactly giving any sort of details as to the going ons in Calla's life off screen.