Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[~bl~]

This wouldn't work for a 12-part miniseries. For something that long the cast should be about a dozen people in major roles. If you'd just do the part with Zach and James, and Spaulding-Lewis that would be enough story. It felt like fan service that if anyone was omitted that people would be upset, so nearly every character that was on the show in the last few months (or their kids) was mentioned.

[John]

i could see the canned soaps being revived as a 100 episode,30 min, 4 or 5 day a week (20 or 25 weeks) run every year with cliffhangers

Edited March 25, 2015 by John

[zanereed]

I wanted to follow up and ask what Maureen Garrett's wishes were.

[saynotoursoap]

Maureen tired of Holly being victimized. She wanted Holly to become stronger, take charge of her life. Leaving was probably for the best as Marland never would have written Holly with the strength she was bestowed by Pam Long and team Curlee.

[Soaplovers]

Yes...I remember Garrett saying she would have stayed if Holly was shown getting stronger after the roger ordeal.

I'm surprised Maryland had trouble writing such complex characters like Rita, holly, and Jackie. I think the only reason Nola was so fleshed out was due to Lisa brown more so then the writing itself

I know the actress who played katie said she regretted staying after the dobsons left as well.

Hence why I think Pam long and Marland would have worked well since she was great with emotion and heart...and he was good with plotting.

[Mitch]

That was always my dream team in my head Marland and Long, just for the reasons you stated. Plus Long would bring her characters down to earth as Marlands, no matter if they were blue collar or upper crust, all talked the same. I wonder if Long is still writing? Despite what she did to the Bauers (which I believe was out of her hands) and her intro of the Coopers (and that is just because I hated Justin Deas' scenery chewing Buzz Cooper which she had no hand in...(I can imagine Marland being horrified at Buzz...) Plus, as I have said before, Long didn''t shy away from sex, Marland was a prude and his love scenes were as cold as hell.

[antmunoz]

No. This is urban legend. The audience hoped and assumed that Rita would return pregnant, although I can't recall if she'd slept with both Alan and Ed in a short period of time (definitely with Ed).

And then Rita never returned.

[InLoveWithSoaps]

There was speculation Cyrus could be Rita's son if I remember correctly. That would have been an interesting way to tie him into the show's history. But then again after the way Sebastian bombed, I'm not sure they would have done another long-lost son of classic characters. I wonder whether they would have brought him back had the show gone on another few years. Jamey's ideas for a reboot are fine enough (outside the BJ, really?), but as other people have said, there's too many characters and personally I found all of it too business stories-driven. My personal wish would be to see P&G do something for the 80th anniversary, some sort of a 13 episode reunion, they have the budget don't they but I doubt they'll bother doing anything. Also the demand is likely not big enough. Something written by Pam Long could be good.

[Khan]

I might be down for a GL reboot that updates the original story of Rev. Ruthledge and his church in Five Points.

[DRW50]

Agreed, although I think you could also include Trudy Bauer and her kids, grandkids, greatgrandkids.

[LoyaltoAMC]

I think by 1979/1980, P&G were looking to at the amazing numbers the ABC soaps, especially GH, were doing and looked to leverage some of that formula, with more simplistic and OTT plots, comedic characters, action/adventure, and the focus on young, pretty actors. At that time point, I don't think TPTB were interested on focusing on the more complex characters that the Dobsons had written for and/or introduced.

[DRW50]

Is this Deborah May?

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[DRW50]

I have seen some commercials on Youtube from an episode that aired in September or November of 1978. I think someone said it was around the time Rita and Ed married. I don't remember seeing this episode on the DVD sets, or on Youtube. Does anyone have it?

[slick jones]

That is Deborah May.

[DRW50]

March 1974 Afternoon TV