Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[Khan]

I think I've said this before, but I've often wished GL had asked Lynne Adams to make a brief return as Leslie's ghost, possibly to help her son, "Freddy," through some crisis in his personal or professional life.

[Soaplovers]

 

Was Rodell the same actress that played the largely unbalanced Joyce on ATWT?  If so, it's interesting that she played two distinctly different characters that ended up being popular (Leslie because she was the heroine.. and Joyce because she kind of was giving Lisa a taste of her own medicine LOL)

 

 

[Khan]

 

Yep.

 

Man, I wish they had never written off Joyce.  I, for one, would have LOVED to have seen her in the '80's and '90's.

[DRW50]

 

And when they let poor Barbara Rodell go in 1980 it was on her birthday.

 

They really were awful at ATWT in the early '80s...

 

Wow. I didn't know that.

[vetsoapfan]

 

Yes, Rodell played Leslie Bauer on TGL and Joyce Colman on ATWT. She also played the enormously popular Lee Randolph on Another World in the late 1960s. No matter what role she played, the audience seemed to adore her.

 

Does everybody know that Kathryn Hays (Kim Hughes, ATWT) also played Leslie on TGL, in 1971?

[DRW50]

 

I did. I guess it didn't work out but I wish we could see some of Hays' work in the role.

 

Lee was the one who died via a car accident/acid trip, right? How did you feel about that? I wonder if it was Rodell's choice to leave. 

[amybrickwallace]

 

From what I read, Lee was high on LSD and crashed her car. I don't know if it was Rodell's choice to leave or not. She was actually the second actress to play Lee. Gaye Huston originated the role in 1964 and played it until 1967, which is when Rodell stepped in. She stayed until Lee was killed off in 1969.

 

http://www.anotherworldhomepage.com/1lee.html

[vetsoapfan]

 

Yes, Lee was having hallucinations while driving, and when she died, I was so pissed. I adored that character.

 

At least the special effects were good during her hallucination scenes. The director superimposed visions in front of her on the road, and it was quite chilling to watch.

[DRW50]

 

I think Lee had been given LSD and it affected her from then on - I think she even broke up with the man she loved because she felt that the trips would destroy her life and wanted better for him. While this does happen in life (I've read about various musicians whose mental states were never the same after being spiked or after dropping acid) it seems so horrific a way to write out a character.

[vetsoapfan]

 

Lee was dating Sam Lucas, Ada's brother, and they were deeply in love, but she broke up with him "for his own good," and Sam married Lahoma Vane who had held a torch for him for a long time. After Lee died, Sam and Lahoma moved to Somerset for a few years, and then after Lahoma left him, Sam returned to Bay City alone. I suppose it was because of all the changes in writers and producers during those years, but I do not recall Sam ever even mentioning Lee again, not even with Lee's father, John Randolph. Once, when Harding Lemay was the head writer, John's other daughter Marianne (then a young woman) asked her mother, Pat, why John never spoke of Lee AT ALL. Pat replied that it was still too devastating for him to do so. The psychology of that was valid for me. As Aunt Liz mentioned (referencing her own son, Bill's, death), "There are some things you never really get over."

 

But killing Lee off in such a fashion was certainly grisly, and I did like that story at all.

[DRW50]

This may be the most cringeworthy, desperate thing I have ever seen on television.

 

Please register in order to view this content

 

Andy Cohen is lucky that Matt Bomer and hubby presumably aren't the vengeful types...although with someone like Andy the best vengeance would probably be making him think you're interested in him and then never, ever contacting him again. 

[Franko]

I don't just need Andy to be out (of whatever influence or social cred he had/has), I need him to get the memo already!

[j swift]

 

I follow a vintage soap magazine Tumblr and just this weekend there was a story from one of the magazine about Lee's death and Rodell's exit.  In the story, they mention that Ms Rodell had recently gotten married and this was the reason given for her leaving the show.  However, the article was about how mad audiences get when a favorite character is killed off.  It is a reminder of what a different time it must have been to watch the soaps when there were no spoilers and every character's death was a surprise.

[DRW50]

 

Definitely. As shown on GL about a decade earlier with Kathy's death. That must have been especially horrifying (pushed into oncoming traffic...).

[amybrickwallace]

Irna Phillips sure came up with a lot of bizarre on-screen deaths, didn't she? Some of them came out of real-life grudges. I don't think I would have wanted to work for her. 😨😨😨😨😨