Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[cassadine1991]

Didn't one of the actresses who played Wanda Webb Wolek on OLTL play Bea Reardon?

[vetsoapfan]

 

But I have always felt Jed Allan would have been a good Mike. Attractive, affable, strong, a good actor, and popular within the daytime community. He was a weird choice for Edward Quartermaine, but he would have been a good for for Mike Bauer, IMHO.

 

 

 

 

She continued the story with Amanda and Mark Evans as well, and added pathos to it. She had Nola experience one of her movie fantasies, this time based on Mata Hari. She had warm, touching scenes between the characters (Bert and Hillary talked about Bill and their interpersonal relationships, Sara and Mike discussed the value of enduring friendships, Vanessa confessed to Henry about her longstanding insecurities in life). It was all so great,  character-driven, and very TGL-y.

 

 

 

 

I do not think Long wrote well for Vanessa or Nola overall. She gave them a few cute scenes now and again but did not seem to know how to handle them in the long run.  The actresses said as much in later interviews. But of course, everyone has his own take on what he sees on screen, and what I dislike other viewers may adore. To each his own.

[slick jones]

Lee Lawson was Wanda for a short period.

[vetsoapfan]

 

Yes, and...ugh. Marilyn Chris was one of a kind and could not be replaced.

[slick jones]

She was the only one that could do Wanda justice. Loved MC on OLTL

 

[vetsoapfan]

 

Nola's friend Gracie left Springfield to work for Joan Bennett (!!!) as her stylist. 

 

It's a shame you did not see more of PFS's work. I followed her from soap to soap. She was always great...except for her peculiar, stilted material on  RYAN'S HOPE. It just did not work. Everything felt unnatural and forced, and although there were some good scenes, some good moments, during her tenure, most of what she work was not effective for that particular show. Her DAYS was brilliant, however.

[NothinButAttitude]

 

I think it was Long that did cause a shift in their relationship. They became a bit warmer I think during her time. Tony, in general, became a bit warmer under Long. He was a damn unbearable brute under Marland. I can't stand many of the scenes of him talking down to Nola. Sometimes, I wish she would've socked his ass. Thank God that Greg Beecroft was f-cking hot & charismatic b/c I would've totally hated Tony if it weren't for those 2 factors. 

 

I didn't know that Beecroft quit GL. That sucks. I always heard from viewers around that time that the Reardons (minus Maureen) were edged out until Chelsea popped up in '87. 

 

 

She did somewhat declaw both women. They didn't have their normal spunk under Long. Vanessa became overshadowed by Reva, the newest minx on the block, and Nola was simply made a housewife. 

 

I know many people loathed Vanessa's pill addiction/post-partum story but I found it endearing. I think the most she did give to Vanessa was b/c he was an extension to Billy, who was an extension of Reva, and all roads lead to Reva at that point. 

[DRW50]

In the long run what she did to Vanessa was important as nothing of the Vanessa of her first few years was sustainable. I do think that Vanessa's second run was much much stronger - I don't know if it's because, like Maureen Garrett, Maeve had grown as an actress and was more mature and complex, or if it was just a more solid characterization. What I've seen of Vanessa's first run often seems somewhat formless, or empty, even when they gave her the Dinah story. 

[DAMfan]

I loved Donna and Ginger.

[robbwolff]

Yep. I was just going to say the same thing. Long declawed both Vanessa and Nola. I loved the rivalry between the two of them. Their cat fight over wearing the same dress at Nola and Quinton's engagement party is a classic. But, very quickly, Long neutered Vanessa through her relationship with Billy. Once Reva arrived in the fall of 1983, she indeed overshadowed Nola and Vanessa. By the following year, Vanessa was hooked on tranquilizers and a totally different character in many respects.

According to an interview I read with Kozak, she indeed quit Guiding Light. Her two-year contract was up and she decided to leave to try film and primetime TV. She was through with soaps at that point but accepted the role on Santa Barbara to get herself to California.

 

Bea stuck around Springfield through the fall of 1985. I think she left around the time of Lujack's death -- around November or December 1985. So Long was still writing the show at that time. I remember reading about the character's exit in the weekly soap recaps that appeared in my local newspaper. Sheri Anderson and Joe Manetta reintroduced Bea in the fall of 1986 around the time Chelsea was introduced. Long dropped the character in 1987 or 1988.

[zanereed]

 

I agree - Jed Allan would definitely have been a good Mike Bauer. I still think if Peter Simon hadn't left the show in 1984, Kobe and Long might have sent Mike off the canvas for a bit and had him come back at Christmas in 1984 played by a new actor. There would have been fan outcry, of course, but I could see Jed Allan winning viewers over quickly.

 

I wish I still had some of PFS's episodes to watch. As you stated, she was very good a character interaction, plus the fact that she brought up Bill Bauer in conversation was a plus. I always wondered if PFS had a germ of an idea to bring Bill Bauer back, which then L Virgina Browne used for the Annabelle/Eli Simms storyline (that killed off Bill Bauer for good).

[DRW50]

@zanereed I saw this a few days ago and decided to make a clip of it as I thought you might like it (if you've already seen it my apologies...)

 

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[All My Shadows]

I've been watching a good bit of classic GL from throughout the late 70s through the early 90s, which is something I've never really done that often in the past, and I'm truly enjoying seeing characters I've always read about but never actually saw plus just understanding the show's different eras.

One ep that I've ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS heard about and have seen people discuss in great detail here (with complete transcriptions) is Maureen confronting Ed about his affair with Lillian. What an amazing hour of television, and now I finally see why the firing of Ellen Parker is still seen as one of soap opera's biggest mistakes. The comparisons to Charita Bauer are spot-on - Maureen confronting Ed had a lot of the same fire as Bert confronting Bill's mistress back in 1966. It's insane that JFP thought it would be a good idea to get rid of her.

I've also watched a few from 1977-1979, and dare I say it, I think I might actually prefer GL of this era over ATWT. GL's focus was already shifting to newer characters/families, but GL seemed to go more gradually (yet willingly) into the new direction. ATWT held out until 1980-1981, and it was a complete shock to the system.

[DRW50]

 

So much of ATWT from this period is MIA, but what I have seen mostly suggested a lot of aimlessness, although I think it was still decent until the Dobsons came in in 1980.

[robbwolff]

 

I'm really curious as to who wrote the Annabelle storyline. Browne claims that Guiding Light used her bible until late 1983 though she left the show by late March/early April. Annabelle was actually introduced in April 1983, the period where Carolyn DeMoney Culliton and Gary Tomlin were serving as interim head writers. And the story with the mysterious photo kicked off when Pamela Long Hammer and Richard Culliton arrived in May.