Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[P.J.]

LOL...who has time for college? They only went to half a semester, which wasn't really a problem for Mindy, Phillip or Beth. But no wonder Rick became known as Dr Death. 

[Mitch64]

I thought it was weird, as it would be more relatable for young viewers to see college students..or maybe they think young people have a fantasy of being "adults" but not really? Mindy could have had her dumb model storyline while still being in college, Beth could have been there, Rick in med school (though I realize a whole med school thing would take too long) but Bolger's Phillip didn't look like he has been in college in ten years, unless he was the humpy professor everyone was in love with.

 

[P.J.]

@Mitch64 especially since they had kind of set up a college "scene" with Annabelle being a teacher and later Quint. But no, they shoved them right into full fledged adult behavior like marriage and babies, murder charges, blackmail, etc etc.

[DeeVee]

I liked them, too, and was really disappointed it never went anywhere. The whole art theft story was ridiculous, but they had a nice chemistry.

Certainly nicer than Alan with Christine. With her, he looked like the funny uncle.

The worst thing they did to Bolger, IMO, was having Phillip write that DREADFUL novel and dramatizing it while he wrote it. GAG, that has to be in the running for one of their worst storylines that didn't involve wacky things like clones or time travel.

Soaps rarely do school storylines, or don't do them for very long. Not the case so much in the early days of soaps, but after GH took off in the late 70s other soaps took their lead and would catapult teens/young adults into adult stories right away. That's one reason Phillip and Mindy ended up with so many ex-spouses--they started getting married really young. They shipped Dina and Cameron off really fast after high school and stuck Alan Michael in a marriage storyline with Harley. Did he EVER go to college? I don't think so.

It may also partly explain why Quint and Annabelle had to go, beyond TPTB wanting to do a cast sweep. Teaching is not a profession that plays well on a soap. Quint definitely had to quit being Indiana Jones, because that wore thin really fast, but they didn't do him favors by making him a professor. If they wanted to keep him, they should have done what they did with Amanda (who was in another dead-end soap job, concert pianist)--have him work at Spaulding as one of the major stockholders.

[DRW50]

Sometimes I forget Mindy had been married four times in the space of a decade. Those are Erica Kane numbers. 

[P.J.]

As others (I think) have said, Long just didn't get Nola and Quint. I guess it would've been hard to write them into adventure type stories with two kids, but they just fell off the map after AJ's birth. (or even the wedding/honeymoon)

Long would've had to rewrite something, because Alex forced the Chamberlains out of Spaulding in the fall of '84. Not that she couldn't have just ignored it and written Quint and Henry being involved at the firm. I swear there was some plot point she just literally ignored that surprised me, but as I'm floating around between years, I can't recall what it was. lol

Has anyone found the first day of the Kyle/Lewis dinner party up in English? After he took over Lewis Oil, Kyle arranged a dinner party. All hell breaks loose--Mindy admits to shooting Kyle, Vanessa remembers Reva's accident, and Billy and Reva get into a screaming match and she tells HB that Billy blackmailed her out of her Lewis shares. The last three minutes (or so) of the episode are up, where Kyle tells the assembled that HB's his father. And the next episode picks up with Sally entering the fray. Y'all know I'm dying to hear Billy and Reva go at it. As dicey as '85 is, I love it anytime when Billy isn't Reva's bitch.

 

Edited May 18 by P.J.

[chrisml]

Having seen what Long did with Mason and Julia on SB, I can't see Long ever being able to write a fun/lightweight story for Nola and Quint. 

[P.J.]

Given the weird fantasies/out of town barn trips she does for Reva/Kyle, I can't see it either. (Not to mention Kyle's obsessive talking to paintings, or Billy's nightmares.)

[Mitch64]

She could have easily tied them into the Cottage Mystery...(they could have easily explained going on adventures with Bea, babysitting) The house that Tony and Annabelle lived in could have been the coachhouse of the property that Qualo and Henry live in, or at the very least Nola would have been totally in on ghosts and secrets of her brother's house. But they kind of just sat around for months. 

The clip of Van and Billy's impromptu wedding shows how sidelined Nola and Quint became...Nola isn't even around butting in on them getting married, its all Reva (though it is a more interesting Reva where Mindy and her or going at it and insulting each other..THAT Reva was fun.) 

I loved it when those two would go at it. Somehow they could have resurrected that antogonistic relationship and not have Billy worshing at the throne of Reva.  When they brought JC back on recurring they should have had him at least warn Annie about Jeva pulling her down..."Darlin' I love my brother, but when he has ole Reva in his sites he will drop any woman to try to win her back...and then he will get bored with her...she's like booze is to me and you...he hates it but he needs it..get out while you can!"

[DeeVee]

There's also the soap opera conundrum: once characters get everything they want, they tend to stagnate. Nola got everything she wanted. One of the things that was really interesting about her was that tremendous need for things out of her grasp. Once that was resolved, there wasn't much left for her to play. Maybe Long could have found something to replace that, but since she wasn't created by Long, she probably preferred to focus on the needy character she created: Reva.

They were still significant stockholders. They could have punched back. Vanessa forced to team with the brother she resents. I can see it working.

[P.J.]

I can forgive them not writing a lot for Quint/Nola at Van and Billy's first wedding, given that Lisa was hugely pregnant and the other story going on was Tony's medical crisis. But yeah---Nola and Quint barely even speak to Van for that last year-plus. Not even after little Billy's born (although Nola and Van do have a nice scene, which is one of the few that they're just nice to each other) or the fallout of Van's addiction, and they flippin' leave when Billy's in a coma or right after being in one)  Even Henry goes to story Siberia. They gave them a big, new set and the promise of some Billy/Van/Nola/Quint family squabblin'--and NADA. 

How COOL would it have been to see Nola side with Van and put Reva in her place? But no...NOLAROBICS. RME.

Reva really needed someone outside of Josh to tell her like it was. Instead, Billy's head cheerleader. And Jon's calling him "uncle Billy", which just about made me gag.

[P.J.]

True enough, and Tony and Annabelle suffer the same problem. And the people Quint and Nola had interacted with were gone--Kelly, Morgan, Helena, Mrs Renfield---even Van's been transplanted to the Lewis enclave.

Nola's curiosity could've been used somehow, but after Reva's arrival it seems like Long is obsessed with selling that woman to the audience. 

As originally written--no, the Chamberlains weren't stockholders anymore.  But any story where Quint and Vanessa teamed up, realizing that Alex had played them, and found some loophole to get back in to restore Henry's legacy would've been welcome. As much as I like India--Spaulding gets weird in '85 with Alex, Phillip, India and Warren fighting amongst themselves.

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Edited May 18 by P.J.

[Mitch64]

Interesting..this is more then likely why I found Reva 2.0 boring and annoying..she had everything she wanted...now what else is there but some outside evil person or clones? It also might have been one of the reasons McTavish had Quint have an affair..it made Nola loose her Prince. But unfortunately they didn't do anything with it but made Nola a sad sack whiner. I wish they had her write a book..of course, some tell all which would make everyone pissed at her, especially Van.

 

Long was desperate to sideline Van into the Lewis hole. They had Van working at Spaulding again in 85 around the time Alan came back. I would love to have had Henry and Van tired of Alex dragging some nobody blond guy and trying to install him as a Spaulding, and fight to get their part of the company back. They could have used Ross to help them and of course, Billy would be p*ssed off that Van wasn't sitting at home and her old sharpness comes out. 

[kalbir]

I wonder if Maeve Kinkead had beef with Pamela Long. Remember Maeve didn't thank Pamela Long in her Emmy speech but thanked Douglas Marland for creating Vanessa and Nancy Curlee for giving Vanessa new life. To me it seemed Pamela Long diminished Vanessa in favor of her creations Reva and Alexandra.

[DRW50]

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Grant says he's still close to or in touch with Robert Newman, Michael O'Leary, Beth Chamberlin, Justin Deas, Ron Raines. He also says he's still close to Phil Macgregor, the Rick recast he came into the show with. He talks a bit about what Phil does now (he and his partner do flower arrangements), and how unhappy he was when Phil was fired, but he quickly got over it because of Michael.

He's very diplomatic about worst storylines - his best story was the original Four Musketeers. He is also diplomatic about his 2004 firing, but says they were already in contact with him trying to bring him back a month (I think he said it was a month) after he left, which confused him.  

He also said he became friends with Gianni Versace when he was modeling in Italy in the early '80s, to the point of Gianni even going to his apartment after Grant returned to the states to give him some of his modeling photos.

There's a little video cameo from Gabriele Calindri, who I think dubbed Grant in the Santieri broadcasts. 

A fan asks him about the Peapack production model (he did not like it although he knew it was down to budget reasons). 

At about 50 minutes into this they talk about Paul Rauch trying hard up to his death to bring back Guiding Light. I had not ever heard much about this or I had forgotten about it. Had you? Grant says there have been a number of attempts to bring GL back, but P&G won't give up the rights. 

He mentions that after he left AMC he started being mentored for the director program and did some directing. He said it was and wasn't what he thought it would be, very challenging, he wishes he'd started earlier. 

He says he was in Home Depot when Ron Raines called him to say GL had been canceled. He initially thought it was an April Fool's Day joke. They all knew the show was in danger but knowing and happening are two different things.

Edited May 19 by DRW50