Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[duchess]

I've already said that clone!Reva was when the show lost me as a fan, but I really need to say how much I hated everything about San Cristohell. I tuned out the show so completely at that point that I don't know a single detail of the mob story arc. I saw a few scenes of it at some point but I have no idea what happened.

[Soaplovers]

The mob story was the lesser of two evils for me. It was at least based in Springfield and had a bigger potential for integration with the canvas then San Cristobal did.

However, after the first months of the mob story...it became an island story..effectively isolating Michelle (a bauer) from the rest of the canvas for the most part.

[cassadine1991]

Didn't Marah also be part of that story with Michelle?

[vetsoapfan]

You are blessed. For the show to veer so far from its roots, giving us Rev. Ruthledge at its inception, and a mob "priest" towards its end, was revolting.

Although, I must say, the moment I knew the show was really dead was when they had a shoot-out in the Bauer kitchen.

[duchess]

Does anyody know of or have a good timeline of the last several years of the show? Just one that outlines which general storylines happened when. The last decade of the show is a blur for me and now I'm really curious.

[Paul Raven]

Re the ratings. I think the numbers did go up during the climax of the clone story so it was regarded as a success from that point of view.But overall the ratings for the year were down.

[amybrickwallace]

Take it with a grain of salt, but Kim Zimmer says in her memoir that 2004 was the beginning of the end for GL. She has plenty to say about Peapack, the handheld cameras, and especially her fights with Ellen Wheeler.

[DRW50]

GL was hollowed out years before 2004. It may have been the end for her but as a fan, I'd already left for good until the last year.

[Mitch]

LOL as Reva the portly sex goddess! I actually liked it that they showed a middle aged woman with a little meat on her as being able to attract guys. I could take that over Harley, the shreiking twig as a love interest. And we all know Reva knew how to please a man in a way which had nothing to do with her weight if you know what I mean and I am sure you do!

The only problem I had with it is that I wish someone would have said something to Josh or Island Stud or whomever..maybe India when she returned "Well, Reva is certainly looking HEALTHY these days" and for Josh and Reva to just laugh and Josh saying "She keeps me warm at night darling!"

But I agree, Reva eating the show was too much. And I did like the mob as dumb as it was, over San Cristoble which was like a bad ABC soap from the 80s fell into SF and had nothing to do with what was going on. It was so dissociated with the show later writers could have made it Springfield's favorite soap "San Cristobel" and act as it was never real.

[duchess]

'

I would've loved this! I didn't mind Reva being, um, curvier? at all. India would've been the perfect one to try to be snarky about it.

I guess I was so accustomed to GL going thru phases where it was The Reva Shayne Show (® the mid/late 80s) that it didn't bother me as much. I expected it. They didn't really have another larger than life heroine on deck, no matter how they tried to turn Harley into one.

Edited July 20, 2015 by duchess

[~bl~]

In 2004, GL stopped spending money on things. That's also when Zimmer got her new contract, which didn't include any sort of raise. It was also when the last executive producer of the show was hired. That's perhaps why she also said 2004 as shade towards that individual.

[Michael]

As popular as Reva had been in the 80s, I think there was some kind of weird network/P&G/show decision in the late 90s where they went, "Who's the Erica Kane/Marlena Evans of this show?" and crammed Reva/KZ into that role. It was so blatant and awkward. I thought KZ did a lot of great work, and she actually fit very well in the Peapack version of the show as this down-home kind of gal, but all the high-concept, "she's so sexy" stuff struck me as such an attempt to do what was working on other shows.

[amybrickwallace]

I had a bit of a chuckle when KZ wrote how whenever she would march up to Ellen Wheeler's office to complain about something, everyone working on the floor would vanish!!

[Mitch]

LOL, Eileen Fulton would say the same thing when she was in contract negotiations with Bunim, she said as soon as she got off the elevator she would hear office doors slamming shut (oh those PG divas!) Would love to see a joint interview with Fulton and Zimmer and their experiences...I think it would be hilarious especially if booze was involved.

I think of all the vets who made the tranistion to Peapack, Reva worked the best as it got her down to her earthy humanity. No 80s shoulder pads or big hair or being cloned. Sure, they could have fixed her up more but she looked like high living Reva would look at that age. Its too bad they waited until the last episodes to have Reva grow up totally and feel comfortable on her own and just be okay being Reva. I think a Reva like that woudl make a good matriarch for the show..since no Bauers were around I think Reva and Josh and Vanessa and (curve ball, I would have her not with Billy but Ross which would piss the Bloss people off.) as the other tentpoles of GL. I don't include the kids of the show as they looked good despite no makeup...everyone else but a couple of people just looked like hell.

I think the absolute moment when I just knew that GL would never come back was pre Peapack and that was the "Wacky Wed." episode where Harley became a super hero "The Guidling Light." and it WASNT a dream episode! It was worse then the clone which at least had a minscule connection to reality and had SOME good scenes. The SF I grew up with had a super hero, all to show off BE's abs!

[amybrickwallace]

Didn't they make a comic book of that? Was Paul Rauch EP then? That sounds like a storyline that would be played out under his watch.