Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[NothinButAttitude]

 

That's nice to know that Rauch and Labine asked them back. I do think that Labine could've possibly written for Nola--her quirkiness and all. 

 

I think SB could've been a good Cassie had it been early, gritty, scrappy Cassie again as @victoria foxton pointed out. I couldn't digest the drip of a person they made Cassie when Nicole Forrestor played her. 

[dc11786]

 

By the time Hurst arrived, it didn't really matter. The show had already transitioned to the Peapack model. When Grant Alexander returned and Coop died, I tried to watch the show, and the show was horribly produced. Not only did it look bad, but I remember they were playing some overly upbeat melody as Buzz snotted all of over Coop's dead body. And Coop and Beth's affair? WTF?

 

When Hurst was promoted, the show at least had some sense of plotting. I don't remember Kriezman including much plot into his stories.

 

I agree that the Coopers were my least favorite family, but they were the only whole family around for most of the final decade without needing to build them up. I think Kriezman tried early on to make the Bauers work with continuing the Michelle amnesia angle, having Beth and Rick fall into an affair, and attempting to bring back Ed Bauer for the Sebastian/Santa Domingo plot. Wheeler needed to support him more by hiring an actor to play, recasting Michelle with a stronger dramatic actress, and finding someone age appropriate for Paul Anthony Stewart.

 

 

I came in on the tail end of Jenna and Buzz when Holly was terrorizing the mothers of Springfield and Jeffrey had returned. People blamed Lillian for Mo's death, but Holly was downright liable for Jenna's.

 

Driscoll was a nice actor, but I never cared for Coop. I thought the romance with Lizzie was a waste of time.

 

Frank was fine until they decided that Olivia should share Frank and Buzz. To go from men like Bill and Josh Lewis and Alan and Phillip Spaulding to Frank and Buzz Cooper. Yikes!

 

 

GusH was as bad as Manny, if not worse.

 

What they put Robert Newman and Kim Zimmer through those last couple of years was criminal. Reva and Jeffrey, Josh the priest, Josh and Cassie. So many bad ideas, one after another, after another.

 

 

But someone needed to be an ongoing nemesis in the Jonathan and Tammy saga. Who better than Tammy's own mother?

 

 

GL couldn't afford Sarah Brown unless she agreed to be paid in Bible scriptures.

 

 

I think plopping Nola down without either build up would have been equally disastrous. I think there would need to have been build up of the Bauers first or bringing in Bridget via either Dylan or Peter would have been necessary. Otherwise, Stacey's main ties would be to Nancy St. Alban's Michelle (if she was even still around) or Company. 

 

 

I liked Edmund when he was given darker material to play. I actually liked Edmund and Cassie as a couple, but I think they would have eventually run their course and I would have then dumped Edmund. I thought make him the heavy in the Shayne / Marina / Mallet / Dinah Lee story was more convenient than well thought out.

[NothinButAttitude]

 

1. Then who would you have suggested to take over as Michelle? 
2. Holly was partially liable for Jenna's death, but it was a mistake. Had Jenna been upfront about Jeffrey from the start, she wouldn't've caused everything, which resulted in both their deaths. 
3. I enjoyed Coop, and thought Driscoll was a fine actor. I just think that he needed a good leading lady. Ava nor Ashlee were it. I liked him with Beth b/c it was scandalous and messy to watch Beth bed her ex-foe, Harley's, baby brother. Harley's presence was so needed during the climax of their affair and fallout. I wish they would've recast Harley after Beth Ehlers left. 
4. I understood Olivia being attracted to Frank b/c he was a stark contrast from the previous men she been with. He was more earthier and down to earth. I think if written right, they could've been something big. Adding Buzz was just disgusting. Olivia liked older men (Alan), but I don't see how my girl would settle for that simp (Buzz). 
5. Y'all are gonna leave my Manny alone! GusH could've never be as great as them!
6. Reva & Josh should've never gotten divorced the last time. IMO, they should've stayed together to the bitter end and their stories should've been shifted to Dylan, Marah, Shayne, and Jonathan, who all should've been brought back permanently. 
7. Sarah Brown went to DAYS and they've been working with a shoestring budget since about 2010. GL could've afforded her then if they wanted too. Plus, GL still had a budget in 2005, which is when LW left the role. 
8. I agree that Edmund was good when he had dark material, which (IMO) was during the San Cristobal arc. After that arc ended, Edmund became too slapstick and mustache twirling for me. Yes, he and Cassie were a good couple, but I could never forget how Edmund did Cassie, hence why I couldn't toss my full support around them. Edmund returning the final time with a retcon daughter who died offscreen was just stupid. I didn't care for her at all. I just wish that if they were gonna bring Edmund back, it was to serve as an interloper for Cassie's latest romance, which I wish was with Frank. I always wanted Frank to find love and possibly with Cassie. It would've been interesting to see Olivia react to her ex and business partner shacking up. I'd like to think that Olivia wouldn't've taken it lightly.

[Soapsuds]

Sarah Brown was overrated and I hated her on ATWT.

[NothinButAttitude]

 

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I hated her character on ATWT, but I think she's a capable actress when she has a role with fire in it. I stand firmly behind my suggestion that she would've been a great Cassie recast had Cassie reverted back to her gritty ways the first 2 years she was on the show. 

[Soapsuds]

I was excited for her debut but was so disappointed. Maybe Goutman and Co. had a part in her failure but I thought she stunk.

[NothinButAttitude]

 

I knew the story was gonna be a dud from the start when they named her Julia AND paired her with Jack. It didn't help either that she tried keeping him from Carly. 

[Soapsuds]

Yeah I thought naming her Julia was stupid. I wish they hadn't wasted her on Jack and Carly cause we know that was a no no in ATWT soap world.

[NothinButAttitude]

 

Again, I just think that P&G slapped her on the wrong show. 

 

I'm racking my mind who she could've played (legacy character-wise) that would've helped meshed her into the canvas more. Maybe Don & Mary's daughter? Or possibly a SORASed Dani? Possibly a Nikki Munson recast? 

 

I just think out of the P&G shows, GL would be more up her speed. 

[dc11786]

 

1. Regarding Michelle, I don't think Wheeler would have hired anyone with any background in soap opera. I didn't hate Nancy St. Alban the way some did, but, if you were to have the Bauers as a major dramatic force, another actress would have been needed. If I had to choose someone, I would have wanted someone like Robyn Griggs (ex-Maggie, AW).

 

3. Typical of the Wheeler era, needing characters to make a story have dramatic impact, but not casting someone. Again, I liked Driscoll, but I wonder what it would have been like if they had cast him as Jonathan rather than allowing Pelphrey to sign on for only two years.

 

4. I just didn't see the dramatic potential in Olivia / Frank. Your point is noted, but I can't see Olivia being satisfied with Frank. To a lesser extent, Olivia had that with Bill, a genuinely good guy who put her first, . Frank was more blue-collar than her typical guy, but Olivia was drawn to power. I think I would have less problems with Olivia and Natalia if Olivia had fallen for some powerful businesswoman who was looking to take on Olivia in the boardroom and the bedroom.

 

5. I think Manny had run its course, but I would have liked to see them work together as a divorced couple to raise their children. I thought the potential of an affair between Blake and Danny was fascinating and would have reinvigorated someone like Blake. I really liked Tony and Michelle as an obstacle for Danny and Michelle, but I would have liked to see the writers try other things with both characters before reuniting them as a couple.

 

6. Keeping Reva and Josh front and center without Marah, Shayne, Jonathan, and Sandy was foolish. Instead, the show decided it needed to be the Jonathan show.

 

7. I'm aware of DAYS' budget, but I think the shows used their money differently in terms of contractual guarantees and recurring cast members. Brown was on DAYS during a period where very few recurring players were used and contractual guarantees were low (Matt Ashford, anyone?) The show couldn't afford to keep Jerry ver Dorn under contract, but they really had the money for Sarah Brown? Also, when Brown agreed to do DAYS, only four soaps were left (well AMC and OLTL were cancelled but hadn't aired their final episodes yet).

 

8. I liked Edmund and Cassie because of what he had done to Cassie. I think these two damaged people trying to overcome what Edmund had done to Cassie specifically was fascinating. I think juxtaposing Cassie / Edmund and Jonathan / Tammy would have enhanced both stories because of Edmund's role in Jonathan's abandonment and the death of Cassie and Richard's child. I felt the Lara angle was an attempt to reestablish Edmund as the heavy in the story, but it lacked impacted because no one knew Lara.

 

 

[NothinButAttitude]

 

- Was Robyn Griggs still acting then? Would she even opt to do a P&G soap again after word that she and AW came to a bad ending over rumors of her ties to John Wayne Bobbit? 

 

- I never took Bill as an earthy character. Bill still had power (thanks to his last name), which I feel puts him in the category with the men with power that Olivia was drawn to. And I just wish they would've left Olivia as a straight women b/c it was an insult to the LGBTQ community to watch that drivel that was Otalia. I grew tired of watching them pet each other and profess their love while everyone else had sex. It was obvious they did this pairing to gain attention, but never took things further. 

 

- I would've preferred Michelle to have been the one to step out the marriage and preferably with Bill. I'm a MANNY fans but I would've been OK with them divorcing. I was a logical enough MANNY fan that I realize couples need to be broken for individual characters to grow and explore other things. It was plenty of time to reunite them before the end. 

 

- Sorry but I doubt Sarah Brown would be asking anywhere near what JVD's salary was. JVD was at GL for decades. And I've never believed that GL got rid of JVD for budgetary reasons. I've always believed it strictly had to do with story. Those hacks just had no idea what to do with Ross and preferred their own creations over a long time character we cared for. 

 

- Again, I couldn't get behind Edmund/Cassie. They had chemistry but he drugged her and locked her in tower almost killing her. I just can't get past that...

[Khan]

 

I feel that's because they all expected her "name value" within the soap community to be enough to lure in viewers.  But the truth is, as...problematic as the stuff Bob Guza wrote for her at GH was, it was still more nuanced than anything ATWT, B&B or DAYS threw her way.

[NothinButAttitude]

 

We can at least give ATWT some partial credit for trying.

 

I feel like B&B nor DAYS even tried with her. I felt like Agnes (on B&B) and Madison (on DAYS) had tons of potential and it was squashed b/c the writers didn't even try. 

[Khan]

 

Meg Snyder.  Just saying.

 

Exactly.  It's almost like what happened, according to Christopher Schemering, when ABC lured Denise Alexander away from DAYS, where she'd been portraying the popular Susan Martin.  In one of his books (forget which one), Schemering says GH's then-producer Jeff Young objected not to ABC's hiring Alexander but to hiring her without having a developed character in mind beforehand.  Subsequently, Alexander's Lesley apparently languished on the show until Doug Marland came in and wrote the Laura/David Hamilton story for her and Genie Francis.

[Khan]

 

If GL had cast John Driscoll as Jonathan rather than as Coop, then Jonathan would have ended up the same way on the show AS Coop: wallpaper, and then dead.  (Sorry, but I think there's a reason why Driscoll ended up returning to his home state and joining the Nat'l Guard.)

 

And at the risk of incurring everyone's wrath: I would have killed off Michelle Bauer -- BUT her death would have served as the catalyst to bring back Ed and possibly Mike (who would have investigated his niece's death in a mob hit and helped bring the killers to justice).