Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[Vee]

I just loved Brooke Adams in Body Snatchers and Days of Heaven. As her sister says she probably does more theater now but I wish she still did more film. I believe she's still happily married to Tony Shalhoub.

[amybrickwallace]

 

Yup, since 1992. Brooke also appeared several times on Monk, most memorably as the frazzled flight attendant in the flying episode.

[All My Shadows]

I've been really committed to learning more about GL over the last month or so, and I rewatched those summer 1966 episodes this week after not having seen them in several years. Watching them now with a better understanding of the stories that came before and after, I desperately hope that one day more of them will show up.

I'm not sure if people truly realize how complex and unique the Bert/Bill relationship was. Bert had eyes only for Bill forever and ever, but he was depicted as a loser time and time again and in so many different ways. Even in the earliest TV episodes, it's always about Bert supporting Bill as he "tries" to make himself a better man. Fast forward to 15 years later, and she's still as loyal as ever to a man who is decidedly unhappy with her. It's crazy, because I always noticed a sense of sadness in Bert in episodes from the late 70s and early 80s, and now it makes sense. I bet when Bill was presumed dead in 1969, her whole world came crashing down. Even with two grown-up sons who were devoted to her, nothing was like holding on to the hope that one day Bill would lose his demons and just be happily married to her. When he died, so did that hope.

IIRC, the verdict on Bill's back from the dead story in the late 70s is that it sucked, but if they'd kept him around to further explore his marriage to Bert and how much it had damaged her as a person, it could have been fantastic. We're so used to older couples on soaps being tentpoles. To have them on as an example of what years and years of a toxic relationship can do to two people would have been too good. Then, had Bill stuck around even longer, having him mourn her death and all of his mistakes would have been huge. But alas, they were moving full steam ahead in a new direction.

[MichaelGL]

What a wonderful and in depth observation of Bert and Bill's marriage. +1

[vetsoapfan]

 

Good analysis of the Bert/Bill dynamic. How many 1966 episodes are currently available on youtube? And have you listened to all the 1950 radio episodes concerning the death of Meta's son, and her subsequent murder trial? They are really good. 

 

When Bill returned in 1977, I was hoping TPTB had brought him back to explore this relationship, but everything just fizzled out. When they brought Bill back AGAIN in the early 1980s, I was really anxious to see Bill reunited with his family and have all the dynamics between him and Bert, him and Ed, etc., explored...but TIIC killed him off as a plot point in an asinine story. New viewers did not care, I'm sure, but I was aghast and infuriated. (Similarly, I was furious when Y&R brought Liz Foster back that last time, just to kill her off as part of a stupid story point.)

[amybrickwallace]

Is it true that even Jada Rowland played Leslie Jackson Bauer briefly at some point?

[All My Shadows]

There are 16 episodes from 1966 on YT. Each one is divided into 2 parts. I've started those radio episodes once or twice and enjoyed them but could never make a routine schedule to listen all the way through. I'm going to probably start using them to help me get through my cardio in the gym. It's crazy to watch that one ep from two weeks into the show's TV run and hear how the actors and actresses still performed and enunciated for radio.

[John]

That was Kathryn Hays

[Paul Raven]

Jada played Susan Stewart on ATWT for a while.

[amybrickwallace]

Thanks, I knew about both of those. I read someplace that Jada had played Leslie briefly. It would have had to have been pre-1976, when she joined TD.

[zanereed]

 

I, too, recommend listening to the 1950 GL Radio Episodes either via YT or via archive.org. Not only are the episodes focused around the death of Chuckie and Meta killing Ted, but also the beginning of Bill Bauer's alcoholism.

 

I thought it was a brilliant idea to bring back Bill Bauer from the dead back in 1977. The Dobsons were so focused on the Bauers as the core family that it made sense to help shake things up a bit by bringing back Bill. Where the biggest issue sprang from, however, was the audience not accepting Bill having (seemingly) voluntarily abandoned Bert for Simone a decade earlier (technically 8 years real time, but I think TGL stated he had been presumed dead for 10 years). That Bill could knowingly deceive his original family for so long (Papa Bauer having died while Bill was living with Simone in Canada) didn't sit well with viewers. Someone posted an article in this very thread awhile back from 1978 which I believe said that Ed Bryce (Bill) opted to leave because the story wasn't going well. I think it was a shame, as they had Simone on for such a brief period. Had Bill and Simone stayed, there could have been so much played out between Bill/Bert/Simone/Mike/Ed/Hillary - heck, even Steve Jackson could have been included (Did anyone really believe he and Bert were just "friends" during the 1970's? 

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).

 

...and don't get me started on Bill Bauer's return in 1983 simply being used as a prop to push forward the Eli Simms storyline...UGH.

[Khan]

Fortunately, though, something good came out of Bill Bauer's back-from-the-dead story, and her name was Hillary.  It says aplenty that viewers took to her (and that even Bert came to regard her as a member of the family) despite the awkward circumstances surrounding her arrival.

[All My Shadows]

 

I seem to recall reading this at some point, too. I want to say that she'd played the role either immediately before or after Barbara Rodell did and not for long. I don't know off hand when JR was/wasn't playing Amy, so I'm not sure if the years line up correctly.

 

The background story for Bill's return was DUMB. AS. HELL. and I hated it when they told a similar story when Jesse came back from the dead on AMC. If a man willingly lets his family think he's dead so that he can live on some other woman and play house with her, then he ain't sh!t and he can stay dead.

This is me wishing soaps would stick with the families they already have, but did they ever try to introduce any other members of the Jackson family? It sucks that they had a good, unique vet like Stefan Schnabel around and they let the character just die off. Did they bring in anyone from Sara's family? I'm just annoyed with how it seems like at the beginning of each decade, the show scrapped a ton of characters and kept adding and adding and adding. Especially in the 80s. HERE COME THE REARDONS!!! HERE COMES THE LEWISES!!! HERE COME THE COOPERS!!! Why?

[vetsoapfan]

 

There are only 16 eps of TGL on youtube, from the summer of 1966? Many are missing. I know of at least 29 from that summer. Many SFTs exist from the same period.

 

There is a CD that is floating around among collectors which contains 90 radio eps of TGL from 1950, and along with those 90, there are  many more out there too. I believe many of these are available online.

 

If I find treasure chests of any of this stuff around the web, I'll give you a heads up.

 

Zanereed, the show was brilliant back in 1950, with very good, literate scripts which dealt with  adult themes. No wonder the audience was glued to the radio.

 

I'm sure that the audience in 1977 was peeved that Bill had allowed the Bauers to believe he had been dead for a decade, but psychologically, I could see Bill doing it. He saw himself as a failure and was wont to escape into alcohol and affairs when times got tough. This was just another, more extreme case of him running away from a family whom he could not live up to. There could have been YEARS of potential story there.

 

The fact that the careless Pamela K. Long and Gail Kobe killed off a legacy character, one who had originated on radio, was EGREGIOUS. I'm still mad about it.

[Soaplovers]

Even good writers like Pam Long and Douglas Marland make errors.... Marland didn't really write a lot of the Dobson characters well (Katie, Amanda, Rita, etc) and he killed off an effective villainess (Diane Ballard) for a murder mystery and some of the characters he created (Vanessa, Tony) really flourished once Pam Long took over. 

 

I had wished Pam Long had just decided to have Hillary leave town so that she could have been bought back later instead of killed off (to think of how wonderful the Roger/Holly/Ed/Maureen stuff in 1988/1989 would have been enriched more if Hillary had been around).