Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[Khan]

 

Possibly.  But it would have taken a lot of work, and I mean A LOT.  As I've said on multiple occasions, so much of GL's core, its most valuable characters and families, had been broken down and sold for scrap that their cancellation was, in fact, a mercy killing.  I hated to see GL "die," especially in that condition, but OTOH, it seemed as cruel to prolong its life any further.

[DramatistDreamer]

 

 

I definitely think that the soaps should have changed their business model across the board.

Only, I think that, instead of wrestling with the networks, they should have banded together and invested in a dedicated platform that would have allowed them more freedom to invest in good quality storytelling.

 

Hulu was started by networks that banded together to push back against the growing influence of You Tube/Google.  CBS eventually pulled their programming and it took awhile but Hulu is producing critically acclaimed original programming.

 

If the soap production companies would have banded together, they could've pulled off something like this. AOL,  Soap Classics and TOLN each, at various times either streamed or produced soaps to varying degrees of success-- they almost pulled this off but failed because I honestly think one entity could never accomplish this alone, it would take a concerted effort by a consortium to make such a venture successful.

Also, it would take time and patience, which because many soap fans feel they've been hard done in the past, don't seem to have a lot of patience, especially when it involves change and/or technology.

 

I  hate that the mention of digital filming technique has become synonymous with Peapack with soap fans.  What Wheeler did was poor technique. Period. I've personally shot film on digital as a student and even on a low budget, it looked a helluva a lot better than Peakpack-style.

Edited January 27, 2018 by DramatistDreamer

[cassadine1991]

Wheeler should not have been hired as EP

[Mitch]

Well, also Wheeler tried to imitate "The Hills," (do you remember that show..no, didnt think so, but it was a "hit" with young demos and soaps are at their worst when coping fads...) and had the shaky cam..etc.  I remember a scene of freaking Jeffery on the phone..was shot from in between two tree braches and a shaky cam...I thought..."Oh good, someone is stalking Jeffie and is going to kill him ," but no...it was how Wheelie decided to film it!

 

[Faulkner]

Wheeler’s production model was poorly executed, but it was probably the only thing that kept the show on the air those last few years.

 

It’s just tough to imagine a world in which a lot of these dead shows survived unless they were re-imagined to the point that they were no longer recognizable as soaps as we defined them years ago. Technology and social change caught a lot of industries off guard, but only in the past few years has anyone thought to future-proof their products. Daytime soaps unfortunately missed the boat. A lot of the budget bloat from the late-‘70s and early-‘80s came back to bite these shows hard when the Luke/Laura bubble burst, and the networks had trained their audiences to expect a certain thing. And the problem is bigger than soaps. It’s the media industry and advertising, period. Again, we were lucky to have these shows as long as we did and at such a high quality during their heyday.

 

 

[Paul Raven]

A Soap Opera Mainstay Is Moonlighting as Singer

JOHN S. WILSONJAN. 8, 1973

•  

“I spend the afternoon with your wife,” Don Stewart tells, the men in his audience at th& Rainbow Grill, where he is currently singing. Chances are he is right because Mr. Stewart has been appearing in the longrunning television soap opera “Guiding Light” for four years, five afternoons a week. Before that he understudied Robert Goulet in “Camelot.”

The act Mr. Stewart is doing, at the Rainbow Grill reflects both activities. There is a dis tinct flavor of daytime television in the way he involves the audience in his performances—wandering among the tables, shaking hands, chatting with people, asking for help in removing his tic (and getting it), even luring a woman up to the handstand to use her as a foil for a song. And there are definite overtones of Goulet in his ringing singing voice and his determined display of charm.

Mr. Stewart has chosen a varied program, including the folkish strains of “Green, Green Grass of Home,” a rocking version of “The Games People Play,” a lively medley from the twenties (sung while wearing a spangled straw boater) and a song on which he can let out all the dramatic and vocal stops, “This Is My Life.”

He touches most of the usual bases for an act of this type, uses the usual songs and sings them in the usual style. He does everything very capably, yet leaves almost no sense of personal identification. The only clue that there may be a real Don Stewart behind the polished facade is a brief satirical hit based on soap opera, which lightly blends his acting and singing talents.

[cassadine1991]

Did Beth Chamberlain briefly return as Beth in 1994 or was there no gap between her 1991 exit and 1997 return?

[DRW50]

 

There was no gap.

[cassadine1991]

Thank you 

[Soaplovers]

I knew the show was going down the tubes when they brought Beth back in late 1997 and had her acting so out of character.. even with the show trying to provide reasons for the change.. it still didn't make sense.  And there was an interview with BC at the time where she mentioned the show told her right off the bat that they were going to make the audience root for Philip/Harley with Beth as the vengeful third party... when I think that the triangle could have been interesting had the show written Beth in character.. and had the audience conflicted over who Philip should be with (his first love vs his current love).  

 

Seeing how BC played the character in her first stint, it was obvious that she was being directed to act bizarre with the wierd acting tics when she came back in 1997.  In later years, she eliminated most of those acting tics and played the character much closer to how she played Beth in her original stint... which was close to how Beth was truly written.  Oddly, I was also thrown during Lizzie's rebellious years how Beth mentioned how like her she was.. and seeing how KT played Mindy in 1983.. Lizzie was more like a young Mindy then a young Beth.

[watson71]

 

When the show moved to the new production model, GL should have hired an EP with plenty of experience to oversee the new production model as it was something never done on daytime before.  Wheeler was inexperienced, but TPTB probably kept her because her salary as EP was probably low as  compared to Paul Rauch or John Conboy.

[j swift]

I disagree.  I think the outdoor production stuff in a limited setting was interesting and far more evocative of the the UK soaps than The Hills.  However,  I think they should have just cancelled GL and let her experiment with her own show.

 

For me, as an 80's viewer, it was too jarring to see Reva, a woman who came to town with a trunk full of turbans and personal maid, start to live in a cabin in the suburbs.

 

To be a bit reductive, the late 90's and early 00's were filled with writers and producers who would have been better off starting with a clean slate rather than trying to make a soap into something it wasn't.  Soap fans are forgiving and stars move from show to show.  If Ellen Wheeler or David Kriezman were allowed to create a show from scratch, experiment with the setting and cast soap veterans it may have been more successful.  Yet, as the saying goes, if my aunt had a smeckle she'd be my uncle..... and if networks were willing to let creative people produce content in daytime then we would have more than four soaps. 

[zanereed]

 

Thanks for posting that, Paul. I remember also reading that Stewart was going to record an album in the early 1970's, but I guess that never materialized.

 

My grandparents saw Stewart live when he was touring the midwest in the early 1980's, and said he put on a heck of a show. They even got me an autographed picture of him for me, but I lost it years ago in a move.

 

In a word, "No", as long as P & G owned it.

 

Proctor and Gamble wanted out of the soap business as far back as when they first cancelled "Another World" in 1999 - it just took them another decade to finally succeed in putting the nail in the coffin for all of their soaps. TGL had no chance of surviving, and I'm surprised that it lasted as long as it did without good writing and a good EP to steer the ship.

 

Perhaps if CBS owned the show, they might have tried harder to either retool it or figure out some way to breathe new life into it other than a sh*tty production model that P & G let happen. But, who knows? All I can say is that P & G did not care about the show at all during the 2000's.

[vetsoapfan]

 

And God knows, CBS might have provided dictates to the show that were as bad or worse than P&G's. Exhibit A: the Secret Storm.

[kalbir]

Not sure if it's been mentioned here yet, but Melina Kanakaredes is part of the cast of the new Fox medical drama, The Resident.