25 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

They should have just killed Morgan off instead of recasting, as Vigard WAS the character, although Jennifer Cooke improved once Marland left.

I assume you've heard this, but speaking of GL cultural touchstones, Kristen Vigard always reminds me of my favorite movie songs - written by Elvis Costello, sung by KV, and lip-synced on screen.  From Grace of my Heat, an under-rated roman à clef about Carole King.

IIRC, Jon Michael Reed, the soap columnist, wrote when Ms Vigard was later fired from OLTL that she had great difficulty maintaining professionalism and learning her lines.  But, she had a heck of a set of pipes.

Edited October 28Oct 28 by j swift

10 minutes ago, DeeVee said:

No, I have not seen it. Thanks! 

Ugh, little Christina being at Alan and Hope's wedding adds another layer of ick to Alan and Blake's hook-up years later.

I saw their wedding. Maybe not when it first aired, but definitely in a flashback, possibly after Roger was married to Holly. I think Fran Meyers was pregnant at the time and had to hold a huge bouquet in front of her to hide her belly.

Something Alan-Michael clearly took after with Marina, although that was even worse...

I guess this is the end result of just writing for your increasingly small pool of new viewers.

Thanks for the extra details about the wedding.

10 minutes ago, j swift said:

I assume you've heard this, but speaking of GL cultural touchstones, Kristen Vigard always reminds me of my favorite movie songs - written by Elvis Costello, sung by KV, and lip-synced on screen.  From Grace of my Heat, an under-rated roman à clef about Carole King.

IIRC, Jon Michael Reed, the soap columnist, wrote when Ms Vigard was later fired from OLTL that she had great difficulty maintaining professionalism and learning her lines.  But, she had a heck of a set of pipes.

Thank you. I've heard about that film for years but haven't seen it. 

I did hear about her facing the same issues on OLTL, sadly.

KV re-wore the wedding dress on the cover of People Magazine

18 hours ago, j swift said:

I assume you've heard this, but speaking of GL cultural touchstones, Kristen Vigard always reminds me of my favorite movie songs - written by Elvis Costello, sung by KV, and lip-synced on screen.  From Grace of my Heat, an under-rated roman à clef about Carole King.

Another factoid about Vigard is she was in the musical Annie on Broadway. She was a working actress/singer from a very young age. I saw her interviewed about the Annie experience in a documentary about the young girls who were in the show. Mostly it was about how difficult it was for children that young to work on a Broadway show.

At least some problems she had later on probably stemmed from that. I think we talked before about how the soap magazines were really hard on her; saying she was a terrible actress, etc. But there's no denying she and JWS were very popular.

Honestly, most teen actors thrust into major storylines at this time were usually pretty green. We make fun of older actors playing teens, but IMO it's preferable because they can handle the challenges better. That's probably why people like JWS and Lisa Brown were more successful in the long run. 

1 hour ago, j swift said:

KV re-wore the wedding dress on the cover of People Magazine

Case in point about green teen actors. Genie eventually grew into a decent actress, but all three of these young ladies were thrust into the spotlight with little experience and many times it showed.

Hmm, I would not have ever called Morgan "torrid," LOL. But they had to sell magazines, I suppose. 

19 hours ago, DeeVee said:

Kurt and Mindy had an insanely fancy wedding, but it didn't have much drama).

Excuses me??? You didn't find Lujacks video with the Infinity Rings shoot up exciting? I mean, nothing could have made Kurt exciting, except if he was in my bed naked...(hey I was in college, we were the same age..) 

Oh, that made me think of Billy's trial, when they pulled out the Infinity video and Billy jumped like a dog to shoot Kyle and Malloy's...acting...as he flared his nostrils and screamed.."Love me brother" had all of us howling in the Student Lounge...

I never like Josh after the Clone..it was creepy, sick and pervey, and a good excuse for Reva to leave his ass and hook up with hunky, gay island muscle boy.  I never understood how anyone could have thought otherwise of that freak show..that made Roger and Alan look like princes. 

Vigard always looked like an underage, underfed boy to me..which grossed me out on Kelly (who come on, who didn't know JWS was gay back then..) I remember their love scene in the stream with steroid muscles over he skinny frame and her teeth were chattering and I just felt sorry for her. 

Edited October 28Oct 28 by Mitch64

It's my understanding that the January 18, 2003, edition of TV Guide had an article by Michael Logan entitled "A Capitol Idea."  It was about the late John Conboy becoming executive producer of Guiding Light, was it not?

1 hour ago, Mitch64 said:

Excuses me??? You didn't find Lujacks video with the Infinity Rings shoot up exciting? 

Well, this is embarrassing. I completely forgot that was during the wedding. And I watched that only a few months ago. My mind must have blocked it out. 😂

1 hour ago, Mitch64 said:

I remember their love scene in the stream with steroid muscles over he skinny frame and her teeth were chattering and I just felt sorry for her. 

This is why I tend to have more sympathy for Vigard than the soap mags had back then. Soaps made very young girls play these kinds of scenes when they weren't ready to deal with them yet. Genie Francis talked about that very candidly in interviews.

23 minutes ago, DeeVee said:

Well, this is embarrassing. I completely forgot that was during the wedding. And I watched that only a few months ago. My mind must have blocked it out. 😂

This is why I tend to have more sympathy for Vigard than the soap mags had back then. Soaps made very young girls play these kinds of scenes when they weren't ready to deal with them yet. Genie Francis talked about that very candidly in interviews.

The insane thing is in its last year or two ATWT was still doing this with Mick Hazen in bed with Meredith Hagner when he was underage, although I don't think it was anywhere near the level of what Genie or Kristen had to play.

1 hour ago, FlyRightOrchestraGuy said:

It's my understanding that the January 18, 2003, edition of TV Guide had an article by Michael Logan entitled "A Capitol Idea."  It was about the late John Conboy becoming executive producer of Guiding Light, was it not?

Yes.

1 hour ago, DeeVee said:

We make fun of older actors playing teens, but IMO it's preferable because they can handle the challenges better. That's probably why people like JWS and Lisa Brown were more successful in the long run. 

I guess Kelly was meant to be mid 20s anyway. I can never remember if Nola is meant to be the same age as Morgan. 

I do wish we'd gotten to see how Marland's plans for Morgan/Kelly/Nola would have played out as what we got onscreen makes them a taller sell. Even if Nola did reform, it's hard for me to imagine them eventually becoming a real couple.

On 10/27/2025 at 12:44 PM, alwaysAMC said:

So wait, did they officially name her Dolly, or maybe I haven't gotten to that part yet?  This entire period from March to June '97, so far, hasn't mentioned that name. Or maybe the public just gave her that name considering Dolly the sheep had happened around that time?

At some point, they try and pass her off as Reva's cousin Dolly. Just numbingly stupid.

 

22 hours ago, j swift said:

 

And, I have to stick up for Morgan's wedding gown. 

It wasn't Morgan's gown I was cringing at, it was Hope's. Vigard looks beautiful and delicate in that gown. Maybe I'd have a different opinion (or at least a less harsh one) if I saw Hope moving in that dress. But it's the difference between wearing a dress and the dress wearing you. Elvera looks like one of those dolls your grandma crocheted to sit on a made bed.

1 minute ago, P.J. said:

It wasn't Morgan's gown I was cringing at, it was Hope's. Vigard looks beautiful and delicate in that gown. Maybe I'd have a different opinion (or at least a less harsh one) if I saw Hope moving in that dress. But it's the difference between wearing a dress and the dress wearing you. Elvera looks like one of those dolls your grandma crocheted to sit on a made bed.

As the wise man once said, "totally, dude."

On 10/27/2025 at 9:22 PM, Khan said:

If ever a description of someone's wedding summed up the subsequent marriage....

Hearing it was shot over three days, I now know why Vanessa wasn't at that wedding, even though she was dating Ed. I wouldn't take a pregnant woman out on a three day location shoot either. Certainly not to wander dirt paths over tree roots.

1 hour ago, DRW50 said:

I guess Kelly was meant to be mid 20s anyway. I can never remember if Nola is meant to be the same age as Morgan.

I can't remember if they ever mentioned if Nola finished high school. If she did, I would assume she was a year or two older than her. I can't see a girl Morgan's age (when she first came on the show) becoming that friendly with someone much older than that. 

1 hour ago, DRW50 said:

I do wish we'd gotten to see how Marland's plans for Morgan/Kelly/Nola would have played out as what we got onscreen makes them a taller sell. Even if Nola did reform, it's hard for me to imagine them eventually becoming a real couple.

Honestly? I had a hard time imagining Nola and Quint as a couple when he first arrived on the scene, and somehow it worked. So who knows? Maybe that would have worked, too.

2 hours ago, DRW50 said:

The insane thing is in its last year or two ATWT was still doing this with Mick Hazen in bed with Meredith Hagner when he was underage, although I don't think it was anywhere near the level of what Genie or Kristen had to play.

Yes.

I guess Kelly was meant to be mid 20s anyway. I can never remember if Nola is meant to be the same age as Morgan. 

I do wish we'd gotten to see how Marland's plans for Morgan/Kelly/Nola would have played out as what we got onscreen makes them a taller sell. Even if Nola did reform, it's hard for me to imagine them eventually becoming a real couple.

Honestly, I remember being so disgusted at Parker/Liberty. Not because it was anything approaching remotely suggestive. But because I knew Mick was 15 and Meredith was 21.

Nola was older than Morgan. Morgan was still in high school when she came to Springfield. Nola was out of school.

 

Genie Francis looks 30 in that TV guide cover.

Ironically, in that clip, I like Maeve's wedding dress the best. As stunning as Reva's dress is---it doesn't fit her personality. Reva would've worn something much more body conscious and glamourous. 

And shout out to GL's most iconic scenes---Van and Nola's cat fight.

Edited October 29Oct 29 by P.J.

45 minutes ago, j swift said:

As the wise man once said, "totally, dude."

And watching that wedding segment, it seems to be a mistake they make repeatedly. Eleni had two wedding dresses that looked like they threw every tablecloth in the studio over her and stitched them together. There's big skirts and puffy sleeves a-plenty.

Oh, and about that '92 show (which I can't really stand)...they had access to those clips in '92. That they only made the effort in a prime time special was a choice. ATWT was doing stuff like that years before. The clips they used in the thirtieth anniversary show was a treat for the fans. Yet a year earlier, the best GL can do is random photos for Bert's tribute.

Edited October 29Oct 29 by P.J.