Guiding Light discussion thread

[Skylover]

 

Thanks!

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[vetsoapfan]

 

Look for the 1950 radio eps about Meta Bauer's murder trial, and any 1966 eps you can find (there may be 25-30) on youtube. They are great. Maureen Bauer's death is on YT as well. All worth your time.

[Skylover]

 

Brilliant thanks, I love learning about the history of soap!

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[vetsoapfan]

 

Feel free to ask me anything you want. I've watched soaps for several decades.

[Skylover]

Thanks @vetsoapfan. Are you surprised that General Hospital, Days of Our Lives, B&B and Y&R have outlived TGL and ATWT?

[vetsoapfan]

Incompetent and unfathomable decisions by TPTB at all the networks have been a problem since the 1980s, so I cannot honestly say I am surprised by what soaps have endured and what soaps have been cancelled. Both the cancellations and the renewals have often seemed arbitrary to me, so nothing seems to shock me anymore. I just shake my head at the stupidity of it all. What DOES still surprise me (and I know it should not, by this time), is how the same hack writers and producers keep getting shuttled around from one soap to another, even though they have extensive track records of failure.

[All My Shadows]

I'm not as well-versed on GL's history and character as I am on some of the other soaps. In fact, it was only recently that I'd really spent a substantial amount of time studying it, which is funny because it was one of the first soaps I ever watched.

I'd echo vetsoapfan and say the show's two biggest eras of change were the late 1940s with the arrival of the Bauers and then the early/mid 1980s with the arrival of the Shaynes and Lewises (and, later, the Coopers). GL was strictly about the Bauer family in its various forms throughout the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s: originally Papa Bauer's children Bill and Meta with their spouses then Bill's wife Bert and their sons Ed and Mike, who had wives and dramas of their own. Bert wasn't your classic soap matriarch, serving cookies and coffee and sage advice to everyone. She was pushy and bossy, and Bill cheated on her, and her voice was shrill, and she didn't take any sh!t from anyone, but she was beloved until the day she died and continues to be.

The Spauldings were introduced in the late 1970s but did not take over the show, partly because it was going through an expansion from 30-minute episodes to 60-minute episodes. It wasn't until the Shaynes and Lewises joined that the Bauers began to be sidelined. By the 1990s, it was clear that they were no longer the main family as most of them were gone and not many attempts were made to bring any back.

It's hard for me to compare GL with ATWT since they've always been a package deal in my mind. You just don't think of one without thinking of the other, but if I had to make a statement, I'd say ATWT was more consistent in its focus. Its characters also seemed to be more straight-laced, its families more functional than dysfunctional, which is what you saw on GL. The Bauers, from the earliest days, yelled at each other. When the sons grew up, they fought each other and wanted to fight their dad. Bill and Bert had recurring marital problems for years. Meta always seemed like a sad woman. Meanwhile, on ATWT, the Hughes family had all of the warmth and good feelings that you'd expect from a nuclear family. There were conflicts, and Nancy wasn't easy to deal with, but she and Chris were solid. The siblings got along for the most part. At the end of the day, you could say ATWT was the Hughes family vs. the world whereas GL was the Bauer family vs. themselves.

DAYS is a completely different type of soap. Same general set-up with the family focus, but the word I've seen used often to describe its first 10-15 years is "psychosexual." You had Tom and Alice the parents, but most of the characters were younger, and their romances were more intimately portrayed. Then, of course, in the 1980s, it became a children's show.

I'm personally not surprised because each soap is the marquee soap of its respective network and has been for at least 30 years. B&B benefits from being so closely linked to Y&R and its reputation for being popular around the world (and from being a half-hour soap). At any given moment since the 1990s, if you asked a person what soaps would be the last one standing on each of the networks, they would've told you GH, DAYS, and Y&R. I just don't think many people figured the rest would all leave the airwaves in just a four-year time frame.

[Skylover]

 

Interesting. The UK soap producers are the same. I wish the US soaps never went to 1 hour. I think it eventually ruined them. 6 eps per week for the UK ones is bad too. I hope they don't carry on increasing their output.

 

 

She seems fascinating. From the 50s clips I've seen she definitely comes across quite a fiery lady. From comments it seems she might have mellowed a bit later on. I really like Papa Bauer from the clips I've seen. Mark Hulswit's Ed was handsome. I often worry about the future of soaps. I don't want Neighbours to go anywhere.

 

 

[Skylover]

Just saw this. I wonder if this interview was just after she found out the show was getting cancelled. She keeps crying lol.

 

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[vetsoapfan]

 

Great post! I agree with everything!

 

I was fully prepared to chuckle at Zimmer's histrionics, but then (I must admit), I kept bursting into tears every time she did! TGL can still make me cry, even in memory.

[BuckyB12]

The Zimmer interview is from 2006, just a fragment of the full 2 1/2 hours she spoke, for the Academy of American Television.

https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/interviews/kim-zimmer

 

There aren't a lot of soap related interviews there, but the ones I've seen are pretty good. (and I choked up too when KZ talked about Charita Bauer)

 

I remember being annoyed too when Meta talked about Rev. Ruthledge, since the Bauers never lived in Five Points (they came in when the show was set in Selby Flats, before the eventual move to Springfield). But of course I would forgive Mary Stuart for anything! Her casting as Meta, and the few more years we had her, was probably the last thing I really enjoyed about GL.

[Vee]

Kim's autobiography is pretty candid, if sanitized in a few places. I recommend it.

 

The thing about GL is creatively it felt dead to me long before it was cancelled. The budget was basically nil and they were shooting outside in horrible conditions. Search the word "Peapack" on this forum and you'll learn plenty. It was a mercy killing to me. And it is sad, because yes, it was a legendary television institution and it didn't have to be that way. But no one in television had regarded it as anything but a forgotten relic for many years. You could revive GL well, much as All My Children got revived on Hulu, with a fairly similar return to its classic tone. It probably will never happen, but it's a shame what became of it. I felt it was almost completely irrelevant by the time it died, and that to me was very sad.

Edited January 28, 2019 by Vee

[DRW50]

 

Procter & Gamble, who made ATWT and GL, wanted their soaps dead from the late '90s on. It's amazing they lasted as long as they did.

[Skylover]

 

Why did they want that?

 

[DRW50]

 

I guess they thought it wasn't making enough money anymore.