First post here... So I have recently been working my way through various famous storylines from soaps on You Tube (GH - BJ's heart, Karen and Jagger, Stone and Robin; AW 1990-1992; and a few others). I watched GL while I was in college because it was on at 10am so it didn't conflict with GH (my gateway soap) and that was around 1999.

 

Anyway, I just watched Maureen's death, then remembered that I loved Holly, Blake and Ross when I watched in the late 90s/early 00s and went back to watch them from SS's time onward. HOLY MOLY I just had no idea that Guiding Light was that good! I honestly think the early 90s on GL was the best soap I have ever seen. Better than Labine's GH or Marland's ATWT (seen lots of it on You Tube). It's written so much more intelligently than the others, the dialog was practically poetry at points! 

 

Side note, I watched Maureen's death before I ever saw the character in anything else and it took like one or two scenes of her with Michelle or Blake and I was already sad she was about to die.

On 4/14/2017 at 5:43 PM, Khan said:

You know...I watched some of Jill Lorie Hurst's work...and it was okay.  But the show had become so painful to watch, I have a feeling viewers tend to praise her work, however faintly, because ANY thing would have been an improvement.

Yea, I never thought Hurst's work was THAT great. She WAS better then what came before but yes, anything would be better. And she was proud of saying that the frreakin' Coopers were her favorite family, as they were like a warm blanket to her? Really, loud spitting Buzz, boring Frank, strident Harley and dimbulb Marina??? REALLY???

2 hours ago, Mitch said:

Yea, I never thought Hurst's work was THAT great. She WAS better then what came before but yes, anything would be better. And she was proud of saying that the frreakin' Coopers were her favorite family, as they were like a warm blanket to her? Really, loud spitting Buzz, boring Frank, strident Harley and dimbulb Marina??? REALLY???

 

This was my main gripe with many of the show's head writers in the last decade of the show. It's like they all were obsessed with the Coopers and thought they were the greatest things since sliced bread while all the other families in Springfield were expendable. Mainly the Bauers. Still criminal how the Bauers were reduced to nothingness in the show's final years. 

Once Nadine was killed off the Cooper became nonexistent. The Coopers became very annoying and irritating. Frank was boring from the beginning.

4 minutes ago, Soapsuds said:

Once Nadine was killed off the Cooper became nonexistent. The Coopers became very annoying and irritating. Frank was boring from the beginning.

 

Frank was the one I didn't mind b/c at least he stayed playing his position, which was to be a supporting character. 

 

I didn't mind Lucy, but it did p*ss me off when they tossed Alan Michael in her orbit b/c they feared how fans would react to Gilly and Alan Michael.  

 

Harley was my favorite but learning of Beth Ehlers backstage antics tarnished the character for me. Plus, I never was a Gus/Harley fan. Gus annoyed me to no end, & Harley was annoying around him. Harley's best pairing was always Phillip if you ask me...

 

I adored Coop. I just hate how they paired him in two sh*tty romances back to back--that boring drip Ava & vile Ashlee. I did enjoy him and Beth, and I hated when they killed him off. 

 

Never cared for Buzz except for when he was with Jenna, and that was b/c I loved Jenna. I grew tired of Justin Deas' excessive screaming in scenes. I can still remember holding my ears in pain when Buzz learned Nadine was dead. Deas was so over the top with that scene...

I also heard of Beth's antics...terrible..

 

Justin Deas acting got worse with age....hated Buzz towards the end

 

I hated Harley and Gus together. Never cared for them. I would always ff their scenes.

One Thing I wish the show had done was bring back India for a visit again before the show ended...with Philip back from the dead...beth/Alan having a child together....imagine the sarcasm coming from India.  She and Philip had a fun banter...and man could she get under Beth's skin lol

I agree with NBA  about Frank.   Frank Cooper was always a supporting character, the town cop. Dicopolous was mostly a background actor that put in his years doing just that. It didn't hurt that he was a great looking guy.

1 hour ago, Soapsuds said:

I also heard of Beth's antics...terrible..

 

Justin Deas acting got worse with age....hated Buzz towards the end

 

I hated Harley and Gus together. Never cared for them. I would always ff their scenes.

 

Gus & Harley were just too righteous for me. Gus was OK early on as a prick but the second he became preachy, I was over it. 

 

Just now, slick jones said:

I agree with NBA  about Frank.   Frank Cooper was always a supporting character, the town cop. Dicopolous was mostly a background actor that put in his years doing just that. It didn't hurt that he was a great looking guy.

 

That's what I miss with soaps--those supporting characters that knew their place. I did want Frank to be tossed in Cassie's orbit though. It would've been so much better than having her chase Josh, who was obvious still in love with Reva. 

 

1 hour ago, Soaplovers said:

One Thing I wish the show had done was bring back India for a visit again before the show ended...with Philip back from the dead...beth/Alan having a child together....imagine the sarcasm coming from India.  She and Philip had a fun banter...and man could she get under Beth's skin lol

 

I wish they would've brought India back too to terrorize Alex one last time, and to pawn her daughter, Dorrie, off on a young Spaulding man much like India did with Phillip decades before. It would've been funny to see Alex fret over India being in her family again. 

After LW left, Cassie should have , too  I never accepted NuCassie in the part.

 

Honestly, the San Christobel story drove me to only reading synopses, and I'd tune in once in a while, but it just wasn't GL to me.

20 minutes ago, slick jones said:

After LW left, Cassie should have , too  I never accepted NuCassie in the part.

 

Honestly, the San Christobel story drove me to only reading synopses, and I'd tune in once in a while, but it just wasn't GL to me.

 

I think that GL should've snagged Sarah Brown and replaced LW as Cassie. Zimmer & Brown would've been fire. SB should've never been on ATWT. IMO, she was put on the wrong P&G soap. 

 

And y'all are gonna leave my San Cristobal story alone! 

I wouldn't have minded seeing Sarah Brown on GL, although I'm not sure I wouldn't have cast her as Nola's daughter, Stacey, instead.

3 hours ago, Nothin'ButAttitude said:

 

I think that GL should've snagged Sarah Brown and replaced LW as Cassie. Zimmer & Brown would've been fire. SB should've never been on ATWT. IMO, she was put on the wrong P&G soap. 

 

And y'all are gonna leave my San Cristobal story alone! 

SB could've easily played the scrappy survivor side of Cassie's personality. I hated San Cristobal and dopey and bland King Richard. 2 good things came out of San Cristobal Edmund & Olivia.

Edited April 19, 20178 yr by victoria foxton

18 minutes ago, Khan said:

I wouldn't have minded seeing Sarah Brown on GL, although I'm not sure I wouldn't have cast her as Nola's daughter, Stacey, instead.

 

That would've been a good casting choice, but I doubt any of the writers from the last ten years even knew who poor Nola was. If it wasn't Reva & Harley, they didn't care. 

 

9 minutes ago, victoria foxton said:

SB could've easily played the scrappy survivor side of Cassie's personality. I hated San Cristobal and dopey and bland King Richard. 2 good things came out of San Cristobal Edmund & Olivia.

 

I loved Richard! 

 

I enjoyed Edmund too but he was too slapstick. 

 

I'm sorry but I hated how they made Olivia into an insta-lesbian. I missed man eating, plotting and scheming Olivia. 

10 minutes ago, Nothin'ButAttitude said:

 

That would've been a good casting choice, but I doubt any of the writers from the last ten years even knew who poor Nola was. If it wasn't Reva & Harley, they didn't care. 

 

I think Rauch and the Labines asked her and maybe Michael Tylo to return for the Mary/Mae Marisi storyline, as she was supposed to be Stacey, but they declined due to the way Rauch had treated them. 

 

I was a huge fan of Sarah Brown as Carly but it never seemed to come together on her other soaps. I'm not sure it would have been any different here.