Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[dc11786]

Barbara Rodell ended up on "The Secret Storm" as Jill shortly after leaving "Another World." A couple of the papers commented how Lee had just been killed off and Rodell was assuming the role of Jill. I want to say she took over in late July 1969. 

[cassadine1991]

Didn't Kathy's daughter Robin run into traffic?

[DRW50]

 

Yes. 

[vetsoapfan]

 

Rodell was on TSS for three years after leaving AW...until her character on that show, Jill Clayborne, was killed off it a plane crash.

 

Girl needed to stick to travelling by foot, LOL.

[DRW50]

She also "died" on ATWT via a car crash. 

 

It's hard to believe that those 1979/80 clips on Youtube are all we have of her work on soaps.

[vetsoapfan]

 

And the 1968 ep of AW, in which Lee attends Lenore's wedding.

[DRW50]

@vetsoapfan here's the Lynne Adams interview.

 

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[vetsoapfan]

Thanks, Carl. As a viewer, all I can say is I found Rodell's portrayal of Leslie to be both warmer and more likeable to Adams'. 

 

To equate Leslie's sense of morality to "stupidity" does not ingratiate Miss Adams to me, either.

 

BTW, when Adams replaced Jada Rowland as Amy Ames on TSS from 1971 to 1973, I found her version of Amy to be much less likeable and warm as well.

[DRW50]

 

I always wondered how fans must have felt considering Jada had grown up on the show. At least she came back at the end.

 

I can't remember if anyone ever mentioned before that the show almost killed off Rick (I guess Freddie in those days). Imagine how different things would have been if they had.

[vetsoapfan]

 

Considering JR had literally grown up as Amy, replacing her was not a good idea. The show was a mess at the end, but at least we had the real Amy to see it out.

 

Killing off Frederick would have been a major mistake, as the Bauers never produced that many children to begin with, and we needed some to develop into the next generation. For decades, TGL should have tried to expand, not deplete, the core clan.

[Soaplovers]

I liked that Irna Phillips would kill off popular characters because she knew that in real life, people die without warning.  I do think she killed off Kathy in the late 50s because she'd grown tired of writing for her (and the girl had been married two or three times already).. Ironically, she felt the same way about her daughter Robin in the late 60s as well.

 

The difference was that there was always a replacement/back up in place before she killed off a popular character.  So while I applaud the show for having the guts to kill Mo off in early 1993, the show didn't have a back up for her to replace the void she left (the closest character to come to mind was Abby... man, I still recall when she flipped out when her attacker got off scott free and he mouthed a threat to her and she shot him in cold blood in the court room... the show had a slight ratings bump that week I recall)

[Mitch]

ATWT WAS awful back in the early 80s..not coming to terms with their own damn matriarch Nancy and just mentioning her now and then...(at least they didnt kill her off) letting Rodell go on her bday...(and Joyce just kind of came by and told Lisa she was moving back to San Fran..at least make her go nuts and kidnap Lisa..) at the same time they wrote Grant Coleman off...by not even writing him off, he just quit appearing..weird time on that show.

 

[vetsoapfan]

 

That's the point: people do die in real life, and a character passing away on a soap opera can make for a powerful (if devastating story), but TPTB must look at the canvas and choose very carefully whom they wish to eliminate and how they might later fill the void left by that axed character. By 1993, there were very few Bauers left on the canvas, and NO OTHER CHARACTER who could be groomed to fill the void left by killing off Mo. We had no Hope Bauer, no Meta Bauer, no Leslie Bauer, no Trudy Bauer, etc., to stay on the show long-term and compensate. Trying to do TGL without a Bauer matriarch was, to me, like trying to continue Downton Abbey without Maggie Smith or All in the Family without Carroll O'Connor, or Gunsmoke without James Arness. Those shows would lose an essential component and throw the chemistry off balance. TGL got a few weeks of great drama and performances from this ill-advised story, but suffered far more in the long run.

[amybrickwallace]

I thought all the times Jada Rowland left TSS (but always came back), it was her decision to leave. Does anyone know for sure?

[vetsoapfan]

 

Yes, she kept quitting (she was bored, she wanted to try other roles, etc.) but kept agreeing to return later on. Thank heavens, because she really was the show's cornerstone. Soooooo many actors came and went in other significant roles. Ames family members seemed to look different year by year. There were seven  Susans, six Jerrys, four Peters, six Pauls, etc. It really damaged the show.