This opening from Guiding Light 

Would win the Emmy for Outstanding Title Design - BEATING

One Life To Live's new title design

and Loving's new title design

Did you agree with Emmy voters awarding Guiding Light outstanding title design? Or would you have voted for OLTL or Loving's new title design?

1 hour ago, TheyStartedOnSoaps said:

This is an article from 10 years ago (my apologizes if it has already been posted) - but interview with Jordan Clarke - who was working as handyman once Guiding Light went off the air

https://www.buzzfeed.com/davidkushner/my-handyman-my-soap-star

Y'know, I'd heard about the article, but I'd never read it. So thanks! I'd never read an interview with him. Or at least that I can remember. I'd always assumed he avoided publicity.

Given that OLTL and Loving's virtually look the same, of course I'd vote for Guiding Light. it's arguably GL's most iconic opening. (Even if I love "My Guiding Light", just a hair more.)

I wish more of 1976-1979 would surface. Cindy Pickett said early Jackie was written as a rich bitch. In the synopsis from that time Sara is often asking Justin how he could marry someone like that. I wonder how long that lasted? Jackie seemed to be beloved by everyone by 1977 except maybe Mike's secretary. 

I remember on a GL anniversary show they showed a clip of Justin & Jackie as a flashback to their marriage. Justin was upset with Jackie when she claimed she aborted their baby. I wonder if that episode the flashback was taken from exists in it's entirety? 

 

32 minutes ago, SoapDope78 said:

I wish more of 1976-1979 would surface. Cindy Pickett said early Jackie was written as a rich bitch. In the synopsis from that time Sara is often asking Justin how he could marry someone like that. I wonder how long that lasted? Jackie seemed to be beloved by everyone by 1977 except maybe Mike's secretary. 

I almost wish they had written her this way again when Carrie Mowery played the part. She was very brittle and might have worked as a bitch. Cindy Pickett just had so much heart in the role, maybe the Dobsons picked up on that. By the time of what is available to us, she is a long-suffering heroine in the grand old soap style, almost to the point of parody if not for Cindy's incisive work. 

Um, was there anything good about Marcy Walker's 1993-95 stint as Tangie Hill on Guiding Light?  A certain Facebook friend of mine has told me that he enjoyed seeing Marcy on GL even though the actress herself has admitted that the stint didn't turn out so well.

9 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

I almost wish they had written her this way again when Carrie Mowery played the part. She was very brittle and might have worked as a bitch. Cindy Pickett just had so much heart in the role, maybe the Dobsons picked up on that. By the time of what is available to us, she is a long-suffering heroine in the grand old soap style, almost to the point of parody if not for Cindy's incisive work. 

If you put down on paper all the things Jackie did, she absolutely comes off as a horrible, selfish bitch:

Lied to Justin she had an abortion. (Yes, Justin was a rotten bastard, having sex with another woman, I think in Jackie's bed, IIRC. But still).

Secretely had Phillip overseas and gave him to the Spauldings.

Knew Alan was swapping his and Elizabeth's dead baby with hers.

Since she knew exactly where her son was, she wormed her way into the Spaulding's lives, befriending Elizabeth so she could be near Phillip. Befriending the woman, mind you, who she knew had been lied to about Phillip's origins.

When Alan and Elizabeth's marriage ended, she went after Alan, because she was certain he would gain custody of Phillip--over her "dear" friend Elizabeth, who was desperately trying to keep her child.

She married Alan without loving him. (Yeah, Alan deserved that, too, but still).

When Alan lost custody of Phillip, she would have left him if she hadn't been pregnant.

When Alan smeared Mike to Phillip so much that Elizabeth's relationship with him exacerbated a genetic heart problem Phillip had--to the point where Phillip almost DIED--she still did not tell anyone the truth about Phillip. Including her father and Justin--his doctors.

When Alan and Hope were rescued from the island, she gave him a lot of sh!t about him and Hope, even though she couldn't haved cared less about him or staying married to him. (Although, yes, she was genuinely concerned for Hope).

Yes, yes, Alan was a COMPLETE ASS while he was married to Jackie. The worst incident that I saw was when she told him their child could have a severe heart problem if it was a boy, and he snottily told her he couldn't father a defective child. (UGH. One of the many reasons I'm convinced the Dobsons had a darker trajectory planned for Alan and Hope. The "redeemed by love" thing was totally Marland).

The one admirable thing about her during their marriage was how she shut him down every time he tried to control her the way he controlled Elizabeth.

But the fact remains that she used him AND Elizabeth, lied to Justin, lied to Phillip, lied to her friend Mike who was madly in love with Elizabeth.

Through all of this, Jackie somehow did not come out as awful as she sounds on paper. That was all Pickett. Somehow, some way, she made you feel that she was doing what she was doing for understandable reasons. 

Pickett left soon after Marland came in. I think it's pretty well-known that he didn't like Lezlie Dalton (Elizabeth) and wanted to eventually get rid of her. That's why I think he never let this story get as messy as it should have become.

Elizabeth should have been FURIOUS at Jackie for the years of lies. Instead, she decides to give Phillip to Justin and Jackie. I mean, COME ON. (Even more ridiculous: Alan eventually agreed to it! The guy who got indirectly involved in a murder trying to gain custody of Phillip!)

Jackie, who was once an intriguing, complex character, changed profoundly. It wasn't Mowery's fault. Like most other female characters in Marland's world, she became deeply neurotic, almost an hysteric, both during the Diane Ballard murder story and the Carrie multiple personality story.

It's just INSANE that he killed her off before the truth about Phillip came out. For all the bashing we've been doing about the Kobe regime, one of the things they did absolutely correctly was the way they handled the Phillip reveal, including how angry he was over no one telling him before Jackie died.

Well, Rita also sounds like a horrible person on paper. Both Cindy and Lenore made it work, somehow.

We do criticize Long and Kobe a lot. But they did do some things right. I loved the introduction of Billy and Mindy, the Four Muskeeters, the romance of the summer of '83.

I agree that Pickett sold Jackie as a very complex woman that you still rooted for even though she lied and manipulated the situation with Phillip. I was interested in the direction they briefly headed to in late 1979 with Jackie having feelings for Mike and wanting to cook for him at her new apartment, desiring to join him on his ski trip calling him frequently on the phone etc...A Jackie/Mike/Elizabeth triangle would have been intriguing. 

I don't understand Marland's supposed hatred for Lezlie Dalton and the Elizabeth character. I read somewhere that he said when he found out he was taking over, he wanted her gone asap. He also hated that entire storyline about Phillip and wanted to rush to put it to bed. The storyline was a letdown with Pickett leaving before finishing it out. I was shocked she popped up in an episode as late as June 1980 (If I remember correctly) after being offscreen for quite a while. 

I never heard about Marland's dislike of Elizabeth/Lezlie before. I just assumed she left when her contract was up and they didn't want to recast so Elizabeth had to be written off.

As for Cindy she got time off in 79 to star in the moovie Night Games directed by Roger Vadim. I recall SOD and Afternoon Tv did stories about it, But it flopped.

How was Jackie written out while Cindy filmed the movie?

GL accommodated her taking time off and there didn't seem to be any rancour on either side.

When did Cindy actually leave? That June 1980 appearance seems to show she was happy to pop back in to serve the storyline.

And I remember seeing Jackie with the cropped blonde hair and how unusual that was for soaps at the time. 

Edited October 12Oct 12 by Paul Raven

5 minutes ago, Paul Raven said:

I never heard about Marland's dislike of Elizabeth/Lezlie before. I just assumed she left when her contract was up and they didn't want to recast so Elizabeth had to be written off.

As for Cindy she got time off in 79 to star in the moovie Night Games directed by Roger Vadim. I recall SOD and Afternoon Tv did stories about it, But it flopped.

How was Jackie written out while Cindy filmed the movie?

GL accommodated her taking time off and there didn't seem to be any rancour on either side.

When did Cindy actually leave? That June 1980 appearance seems to show she was happy to pop back in to serve the storyline.

And I remember seeing Jackie with the cropped blonde hair and how unusual that was for soaps at the time. 

Jackie was off screen for a period in late 79. When she returned everyone kept saying they were happy to have her back. I think she kept saying she was back for good. She then showed Elizabeth her new apartment (new set) when she dropped by and Jackie mentioned she had invited Mike as her first dinner guest. Elizabeth was a bit surprised. She and Mike had dinner, and she flirted with him a bit.

There is a gap in episodes into 1980. Was Jackie offscreen for another long period in early 1980?

Via recaps, June '80 seems to have Jackie and Justin coincidentally meeting in London. They switch hotel rooms, and when Elizabeth calls Justin, Jackie answers. 

Carrie Mowrey's first airdate seems to be in late July. The first episode I caught with her is dated July 25.

Edited October 12Oct 12 by P.J.

1 hour ago, P.J. said:

Via recaps, June '80 seems to have Jackie and Justin coincidentally meeting in London. They switch hotel rooms, and when Elizabeth calls Justin, Jackie answers. 

Carrie Mowrey's first airdate seems to be in late July. The first episode I caught with her is dated July 25.

Thanks for the info. I wasn't sure when Pickett last appeared before Mowrey took over. The scatter of episodes from the early part 1980 that are available on youtube does not feature Jackie

I remember an interview with Pickett and a few years ago talking about her time on GL. Apparently, she must have kept up with the show for a while after she departed because she stated the actress they replaced her with looked nothing like her and that her character of Jackie died in a crash. 

10 hours ago, TheyStartedOnSoaps said:

This opening from Guiding Light 

Would win the Emmy for Outstanding Title Design - BEATING

One Life To Live's new title design

and Loving's new title design

Did you agree with Emmy voters awarding Guiding Light outstanding title design? Or would you have voted for OLTL or Loving's new title design?

Out of those 3 - 100% agree that GL should win. But, AMC's early 90s opening will always be the best!  

I wonder if Cindy would have returned to GL if asked for a Jackie return story, at least by the time her primetime career had cooled off. Not that GL cared...