Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[Contessa Donatella]

Beth Ehlers thanked Beth Chamberlain by name from the mic saying she was THE BEST person to be in a triangle with. 

Generally speaking I loved Judi's Beth but then also strongly liked BethC's Beth but I did not like the whole Lorelei stage!!! 

[P.J.]

Robert Newman gets the short end of the stick, as Josh is usually stuck being an [!@#$%^&*] until the chick he's with goes cray-cray and Reva becomes the better alternative. 

Reva was also married to Josh's brother Billy.

You said it better than I did. 

While I didn't know Brandon had died on-screen previous to this, it was just odd that they'd made such a huge deal about him already being dead the summer before, yet now he's just hanging around in white linen in the islands, not giving a fig about his family and friends. To me, Brandon was always the spectre hanging over the family that explained their lack of conscience. 

Long at times used history very well--or at least knew how to mine it for story effectively. The Fishing Trip and Dylan are probably the best examples of that. I don't think she came up with Dinah, but I could be wrong.

[P.J.]

I think it was Most Irresistible Couple. I'm pretty sure ATWT's Jack and Carly were up for it to, and I felt gypped that they lost.

[Soaplovers]

Phillip/Harley made more sense as friends (as they were portrayed to be during the Pam Long era).. and I could even buy them being a short-term couple.. but end game they were not.

Didn't GA say he thought it out of character that he would choose Harley over Beth.. or that he would leave Beth/Lizzie back in AZ in order for him to chase a vendetta?  I know that when Beth Chamberlain came back as Beth in late 1997, she was told instantly that the writing would be slanted toward Phillip/Harley.. which surprised her as well.

When the Lorelei story came up, it actually made all of her out there/out of character behavior Beth displayed from 1997/1998 through the early/mid 00s make sense.  I liked that the final months of the show, Beth became more like Beth of old so at least the show ended on a positive for her character.

[P.J.]

In the "things you miss while FFing" category---that 'ho Lillian Raines wanted Ed to keep the affair up and sneak around? Flippin' WHAT THE HELL? Mo should've cut the bitch.

[alwaysAMC]

Hahaha are you doing a '93 rewatch??

Wow - so Reva was married to the father and his two sons. I guess I can't be surprised with GL and the citizens of SF. I'm currently watching Dinah and Blake, who are both each other's stepmothers AND stepdaughters... you have Alan-Michael who date Dinah, married Blake, and then married both sisters Harley and Lucy... I could go on and go.  Someone, maybe you, told me very early on that GL is very incestuous and I 100% see it now haha.

[Contessa Donatella]

Checked. Favorite New Couple & they beat out AW Cindy & Grant and ATWT Peter Parros & Lauren Martin

[Paul Raven]

As requested by @P.J. the 1976 summary from Daytime Serial Newsletter. This was the Dobsons. I will be posting it in parts, as it quite lengthy.

The Guiding Light premiered forty years ago on radio and now, after successfully having moved to television in the mid-fifties, it continues to chronicle the lives of the Bauer family of Springfield. Bertha (Bert) Bauer, the matriarch and guiding. force behind the family,has proved to be a source of strength and good counsel to all her friends and acquaintances as well as her own sons. 
Michael, her older son, an attorney, recently married Leslie, who was formerly married to his brother,Ed, with whom she has a son, Freddie. Michael’s daughter Hope has always felt close to Leslie, but a recent conflict with Mike over her relationship with an older college professor has strained Hope’s relations with her father.

Ed married Holly Norris last year but has just learned from her that their infant —daughter, Christina, is not his child but Roger Thorpe’s. Roger, who is deeply in love with nurse Peggy Fletcher, hopes the truth about Christina can be concealed, as he fears he could lose Peggy for good.
Holly’s mother, Barbara, has recently married Roger’s father Adam and has no idea of the truth about Christina.
Drs. Sara McIntyre and Joe Werner find their marriage is better than ever since orphaned T.J. became their foster child, and they are relieved that he is not the missing son of Cedars patient Ann Jeffers, who is searching for the child her estranged husband took out of town when she ran off with another man.
Nurse Rita Stapleton, newly arrived in Springfield, aware of Ed’s personal upheaval, is solicitously offering him friendship and a shoulder to lean on.
Dr. Ed Bauer has stunned the Bauer family by separating from his wife, Holly, soon after the recovery of their infant daughter, Christina, from pneumonia. Holly, exhausted by the baby’s illness and her own growing guilt feelings, has confessed to Ed that Christina is Roger Thorpe’s child, not his. Ed, learning that Peggy Fletcher has accepted Roger’s proposal,tells Roger to tell Peggy the truth before he does.
Rita Stapleton, R.N., is taken aback when she meets Peggy’s fiancé, as she knew Roger when he worked in the oil fields in Texas. At the time, Rita was private nurse to wealthy oilman Mr. Granger.
Roger, under pressure from Ed, realizes he can’t marry Peggy without telling her the whole truth. Somehow finding the courage, he tells her everything and begs for her forgiveness. As he feared, Peggy, stunned, breaks their engagement. Despite Ed’s later assurances that his own marriage was shaky before Roger, Peggy can’t forgive him; there’s no trust left.
Holly, who has filed for divorce, goes to Peggy, explaining that she cared for Roger more than he ever cared for her, that she knew Roger loved Peggy from the moment he met her and became a better person for just knowing her. She assures Peggy that there has been nothing between them for a long time now.
Leslie Bauer has returned to college to add personal fulfillment to her life as a housewife and mother. Her husband, attorney Mike Bauer, has undertaken a search for Ann Jeffers’s son Jimmy, whom she abandoned when she ran off with another man years ago. Jimmy’s father, Spence Jeffers, was a quick tempered drunk who cheated on Ann repeatedly. Mike offers Ann a job in his office, to help her meet the costs of the investigation. Spence and Jimmy’s trail seems to end in Alaska.
Mike seems to resent Leslie’s involvement with school, and she is upset by his long hours and absences on the Jeffers case. Ann, realizing Leslie’s feelings, apologizes to her for causing Mike’s absences and tells Leslie how lucky she is to be married to a man like Mike. 

Ed, unable to do neurosurgery after being wounded in the arm last year, decides to go ahead with highrisk nerve-root-resection surgery, despite the fifty-percent chance of total paralysis. In the operating room, Dr. Steve Jackson finds an excessive amount of scar tissue and refuses to continue the surgery, fearing that healthy nerve roots could be severed accidentally. Dr. Jackson closes, over young Dr. Tim Ryan’s objections, and later tells Tim his arrogance is becoming a detriment to his medical career at Cedars Hospital. Ed’s friends and family are upset at his reaction to this disappointment. His assignment as Chief of Staff wasn’t as fulfilling as surgery, and he now realizes that will no longer be part of his life. Rita Stapleton tries to cheer Ed by bringing groceries and consolation, but Ed’s depression isn’t lifting. His mother, Bert. Bauer,fears that Ed, a former alcoholic, may start drinking again. | 

When Roger tells Peggy he’s leaving Springfield —for the sake of everyone he has hurt, Peggy, realizing also the suffering of her son Billy, who had grown to love Roger, tells Roger that even though it hurts to know about Christina, it hurts more to be without him. They agree to try again and plan to marry immediately.

Barbara Thorpe, Holly’s mother, stumbles upon a manuscript written by her son Andy and, putting the pieces together, realizes that the story of a young woman whose child is not her husband’s is about Holly. Holly makes her mother promise not to tell anyone, which puts a tremendous strain upon her, as Barbara is married to Roger’s father, Adam Thorpe. Barbara is unable to tell Adam why she’s suddenly suffering migraine headaches and constant depression. |
Despite Rita’s increasing attempts to reach him, Ed continues to sink further into his depression, until finally she tells him he isn’t half the man she thought —he was. Stunned into taking a good look at what he’s become, Ed admits he’s destroying himself and shows up the next morning at his office ready for work.
Dr. Tim Ryan has become annoyed at the number of dates Rita has broken to be with Ed, and upon learning he’s up for chief resident, he rushes to share the news with her, only to find she’s entertaining Ed for dinner. Tim leaves angrily but later returns to apologize and propose marriage to Rita. She politely turns him down and suggests they no longer see each other, for his sake. Tim bitterly accuses her of using him.
Under pressure from Adam to explain her strange depression, Barbara finally tells Adam the whole story.She informs him that Roger and Peggy are not welcome in her home. Home from his honeymoon, Roger learns from his father that Barbara knows the truth and has told him. Roger can tell his father only that he regrets what happened and he is a changed man
now. He hopes his father can one day forgive him. Adam later tells Barbara she’s put the entire blame on Roger and hasn’t considered Holly’s guilt in the matter, adding, “I can accept the truth, why can’t you?”
Feeling that it’s best for everyone involved, Roger prepares to resign as manager at the Metro Restaurant and take Billy and Peggy out of town. Peggy bolsters his confidence by telling him they’ll stay and fight this out together.
Tim, upset by Rita’s attitude and rejection, is letting his emotions affect his work. When Ed, unaware that Rita is the reason, warns Tim that his recent lack of efficiency may lose him the senior resident appointment, Tim smarts at his rival’s being his superior. Tim takes stock of the situation and resolves to put personal problems aside and concentrate on his career.
More to come...

Edited May 8 by Paul Raven

[DRW50]

Thanks @Paul Raven 

They should have brought Billy back in the early '90s for more drama with Hart and Blake. Maybe Blake would have gotten involved with him to try to ruin him in Roger's eyes, but realize under his sweet nature, Billy was a player himself.

[DeeVee]

This is AWESOME, thank you for taking the time to post this!

My first thought:

My memory is a lot better than I thought it was, LOL!

The first episode I clearly remember watching had a scene of Ed confronting Holly about Christina's paternity. He lamented how wonderful things had been over Christmas, so looks like I started watching the show early 1976.

The only thing puzzling me is where is Evie? I thought she was around BEFORE Rita got involved with Tim, but maybe that's one gap in my memory. It makes Rita look slightly better--in that case, she didn't seduce Tim knowing her sister had a crush on him.

[Mitch64]

Thanks, interesting and so believable (no Lonatrat or Clones...)Instead of the Lewis family he should have made the Oil family Granger...even if the audience didn't remember that one off character it would have been interesting to tie it into the fictional GL world.

[Soaplovers]

I think Evie came in mid 1976 after Rita broke up with Tim because she realized she was leading him on.  And Evie became upset with Rita because she didn't tell her that she had previously dated Tim before she came to town.

[GL Oldtimer]

What an interesting read @Paul Raven. Thank you so much for posting it.

Annette

[Paul Raven]

And now Guiding Light continues...

Mike, following a new lead, finds a man in Redding,California, who claims to be Clint Pearson, but Mike is sure he is Spence Jeffers, especially when Pearson threatens Mike if he doesn’t stop the investigation. Mike returns with Ann, who identifies Pearson as Jeffers. Pearson has just married a woman who owns a restaurant with him. Realizing that he can’t deny his identity to Ann, Jeffers tells her that Jimmy died in Alaska over a year ago. Ann is devastated, but Mike feels Jeffers is lying about this too. When they can find no record of Jimmy’s death, Ann’s hope is restored. 
Desperate to keep his new wife, Mae, from learning about his shady past, Jeffers comes to Springfield and offers Ann “the truth” about Jimmy in exchange for a quick divorce and no bigamy charges. When Ann assumes that this means’ Jimmy is alive. Jeffers tells her no, but he didn’t report the boy’s death because they were fishing in a remote area and there was no one around for days after the accident.
Mike and Leslie decide to plan for a child of their own. When Mike tells Leslie he’s up for the post of County Commissioner and he wants to take her on an exotic vacation, she delightedly informs him that she’s the happiest and luckiest woman in the world, because she belongs to him!
Later, while Leslie is out, Jeffers arrives at the Bauers’, drunk. Ann arrives, and Spence tries to bribe her to drop the bigamy charge. Mike and Jeffers fight, and Mike is knocked out. Scared and cornered, Jeffers charges out, and as he speeds out of the driveway, Ann hears a terrible scream. Leaving Mike, still unconscious, Ann finds that Leslie has been struck down
by Jeffers’s car, and Jeffers has disappeared. Ann summons an ambulance for Mike and Leslie.
Mike, regaining consciousness, is told about his wife. The Bauer family and friends gather to pray while Leslie is in surgery. When she finally comes out of the anesthesia, Mike is allowed in to see her. She tells him again of her love for him and for her son, Freddy (by Ed Bauer, her first husband). Not more than a few seconds after Mike leaves her side, Leslie’s heart stops beating. Dr. Joe Werner tries frantically for over twenty minutes to revive her, but, as he and Ed knew from the first, nothing could have saved Leslie.
On the day of the funeral—ironically, also the day of their anniversary—Mike receives a package by messenger: a card from Leslie, reading “Happy Anniversary, Darling,’ and the gift, a watch engraved “Love Always, Leslie 6-18-76.” Mike then realizes that he hadn’t even bought a gift for her.
When, as they are to leave for Leslie’s funeral,Barbara tells Holly she doesn’t want to go with Peggy and Roger, Holly angrily attacks her mother for using Leslie’s funeral as another excuse to show her hatred of Roger. As Holly accuses her of selfishness in not accepting the situation, as everyone else has, Barbara begins to see she is ruining her own life and her marriage with her self-pity and blind bitterness. Barbara swallows her pride and apologizes to Roger.
A few days later, Mike reinvolves himself in the search for Jeffers and Jimmy. Mike informs Ann of a possible lead, a place called Hagen’s Lane, and when Ann disappears the following day, Mike suspects she’s gone there herself and follows her. Ann finds Jeffers there, drunk and in possession of a shotgun. When Mike arrives, Jeffers shoots him in the leg and prepares to escape to Canada after dark. During the waiting hours Mike appeals to Jeffers’s conscience. He assures Jeffers he knows that the killing he was involved  in Alaska was an accident, as was Leslie’s death. Seeing Jeffers wavering between fright and remorse, Mike describes what lies ahead for Jeffers: a life of running, more mistakes, more regrets. Mike
promises that Jeffers will get a fair trial if he turns himself in. He tells him he is a good man with rotten luck. Jeffers cannot believe Mike is doing this; after all, he must be bitter about Leslie. Mike doesn’t deny his bitterness, but explains that for his wife’s sake he must help Jeffers pay his debt to society. The man in Alaska was twenty-three years old; Leslie was twentyseven. They are dead, their chance at life gone, but no one can help them now. Jeffers will lose ten years or so of his life in prison, but he must do it. Jeffers weakens. He slumps over a table, crying, “I’m so tired of running.” He then admits that Jimmy is alive and
living with relatives and, already showing his penitence, helps Mike to the car.

Tim makes a last-ditch attempt to win Rita back and, failing, goes out to get drunk. He later shows up again, asking her help in sobering up, as he’s been called back to Cedars for an emergency. Infuriated by Tim’s late arrival, Steve threatens to fire him. Realizing |that it’s her fault, Rita asks Ed to reconsider, not to harm Tim’s career because of her. Ed takes this into
consideration and gives Tim until September to prove he’s worthy of the senior residency.

Pam ‘Chandler, who became infatuated with Tim after he saved her and her daughter Samantha when Pam developed toxemia late in her pregnancy, has come to realize that Tim doesn’t see her that way. She informs Peggy that David, Samantha’s father, has written her and she’s leaving Springfield to live near him. There may be a chance for a marriage after all.

Roger is upset that his new family is living in cramped quarters because he’s obligated to pay Holly back a loan she made to save his skin last year. Roger | calls on Rita and reminds her that she promised him a share of her inheritance from her rich employer inTexas. Rita claims she can’t give him anything now-her mother is ill and medical expenses are mounting.
Mrs. Stapleton is suffering from frequent fainting spells, and Ed is treating her.

Bert plans a joint birthday party for Ed and Christina, hoping to get Ed and Holly together to talk. Just as they do, as he blames himself for neglecting her and she regrets ever becoming involved with Roger, Ed is summoned to Rita’s home. Her mother has passed
out again. Holly now realizes she wants to stop the divorce, but won’t do it without Ed’s approval. She leaves a message with the answering service to have him call. Rita, knowing the divorce is almost final, steps up her involvement with Ed and Freddy, and when the service calls Ed at her house, she “forgets” to tell him. From Bert Ed learns that Holly has been trying to reach him, and he arranges to talk to her the next day at work (she’s now Steven Jackon’s secretary), but Mrs.Stapleton becomes critical and ed is in surgery all morning.When Mike later stops by to inform Holly the divorce has gone through she maintains her composure until he is gone, then breaks down in tears, sobbing, “No! No!”
Ed later learns from Rita that Holly’s call came to her, but, she explains, she forgot in the worry over her mother. When Ed tells Holly of Rita’s “oversight,” she doesn’t tell him why she was trying to reach him.
Rita now volunteers to help Ed study for his neurosurgery medical board. Her assistance is helpful, and he’s grateful. Holly is hurt at seeing how cleverly Rita is insinuating herself into Ed’s life.
Tim, having buckled down and proven himself,wins the senior residency, and takes Rita’s younger sister, Evie, to dinner to celebrate.

More to come...
 

[P.J.]

'92. I was looking for when Vanessa called Billy a sonofabitch. Then I got sucked into '92 and got rewarded by finding Vanessa and Mo getting sloshed. (3/6/92, I believe). Then the Blackout...lol, and just kept falling down the rabbit hole. This is lateOct/earlyNov. I couldn't believe my ears! 

Reva's marriage to Billy was before they came to town. But yeah...

Maybe it was Harley and Gus that CarJack lost to later. thanks!

Thanks @Paul Raven  this is a fascinating read. 

Edited May 9 by P.J.