Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[Aback]

Can someone fill me in on Ghost Reva?

I remember her resurfacing as Rebecca when Alan was saved in an Amish village but nothing prior to that.

[Mitch]

Before that happened...Zimmer, had a bag of cronies who she would instruct to write letters to GL to bring Reva back. The show was limping along at that time after Maureen's death and the departure of both McKinsey, the girl who played Mindy and the writers like Curlee. The show had shifted to be the Buzz Cooper show and it was a mess, so I am sure that JFP was pressured to bring back some of the past popular characters. In a way only JFP could do...to comply and screw over the execs, she brought back Reva, but only as a ghost. She didn't want to have Zimmer back full time as she was rightly concerned that Reva would eat the show again...(little known fact, one of the reason's Long left the show was that she wanted to bring Reva back as a "ghost," during Christams to talk only to Marah..the execs didnt want to do that oddball storyline and they didnt want to close the door on Reva's return..) So Reva comes back but only Josh can see her..which would have been fine as it could have been a figment of his imagination but then Annie could see her and Nadine (in a ridiculous storyline which was a precurser to one of Reva's ) was suddenly psychic, and she could sense Reva, though she didnt know it was Reva. Anyway, the story went on far too long and they finally ended actually right as Laibson took over (he was the one who brought Zimmer back full time) when we had Reva have a ridiculous conversation with God, where she wanted to go back instead of going to heaven...and in a funny scene that kind of made fun of the storyline...Reva is at heaven's gate but then turns around and is wearing a red dress and says, "Im going BACK!" and we see her wake up out of a coma in Goshen. So she wasnt really a ghost but a spirit leaving her body to watch over Josh and it was never mentioned again (except for Annie, when she first sees Reva goes up behind her to touch her to see if she is real this time.)

[DRW50]

She also tried to manipulate Annie into breaking up with Josh (when she was a ghost).

I'd forgotten Nadine was involved.

[EricMontreal22]

Ah, so ghost Reva is the storyline soap books call "astral projection Reva?"

[DRW50]

I think that may have been the time travel story.

[Aback]

Thanks, Mitch... what an awful, contrived mess that sounds

[KMan101]

Man, the 'Ghost Reva' story sounds horrendous. I thought San Cristobal, the clone and walking through a painting were bad. Boy Reva had some stinkers. The show tried way too hard to keep Reva as the main focus and it shows with so many awful storylines. I agree with everyone who said it became more balanced with her in the last year or so. It felt like it was more of an ensemble again, even if nothing really happened.

[DRW50]

If anyone wants to see the ghost story for themselves I linked the start of it above - if you can find the search function on their channel and put in "Rebecca", I think that may give you all the clips.

There was a little scene toward the end of the show where Reva was helping Billy and Vanessa with their wedding and trying not to show how sad she was (as Jeffrey had recently "died"). That was one of those moments Zimmer underplayed. She hammed it up as Reva at times, but she was always surprising and gave some wonderful performances.

[DRW50]

The Alan-Michael/Lucy wedding episodes from May 1996, also featuring Philip's return. There's some Fletcher/Holly baby stuff too, and the [!@#$%^&*] with Roger/Dinah that made me stop watching a few months after this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ho7F1_dsKeE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3cODgiTfPQ

[NothinButAttitude]

CarlD2, you didn't like the Roger & Dinah pairing? IMO, I thought it was good, classic soap for Roger to seduce and marry his rivals' (Ross & Vanessa) daughter. Now Dinah & Hart started to drug Roger then the story went too far me, and I was over it.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

That story just presented Roger as stupid and foolish, something he never intentionally was.

I didn't start to really like Dinah until Rauch came aboard.

Edited June 8, 2013 by Y&RWorldTurner

[DRW50]

The initial idea of Dinah as the bad girl with Roger was OK, although a little of WM Dinah went a long way for me. It was when he raped her and they started the drugging stories that I hated it, because they ruined so much of Roger's complexity. Then when Dinah and Hart started drugging him and Bridget was thrown under the bus, I hit my limit.

I enjoyed Dinah more when Rauch came in.

[robbwolff]

Wait. Roger raped Dinah? I don't recall that.

[DRW50]

There was a scene sometime in spring 1996 where Dinah was trying to keep something from Roger, and she didn't really want to have sex with him, which he seemed to know, but she went along anyway, to try to keep everything calm. I think she burned the mattress after they were done.

[katie_9918]

I remember that. I'm not sure I'd classify it as harshly as rape, because we don't know that Roger wouldn't have put a stop to it if Dinah had had second thoughts (she really seduced him to keep him from finding out about... something).

Obviously, Dinah didn't really want to, but she considered having sex with Roger as the lesser of two evils.