Guiding Light discussion thread

[Skylover]

 

It's so sad. And all we have left are a load of crappy reality and gameshows

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[Mitch]

 

Zimmer IS Reva..sometimes she annoys the f*ck out of you and other times you love the hell out of her...here I love the hell out of her!  I lover her Charita comments and I think she did a great job of channeling Charita for the anniversary show, she had the zest, and the outgoing warmth of Charita down pat.  Again, would love to sit down with Kimmer with a bottle of wine and let her rip!!!

 

The thing is, Peapack would have been the perfect time to get back to the show being about family....the format cried out to the return of that as there was nothing else the budget could stand. But Wheeler kept throwing in jewel thieves and secret agent Jeffie chasing after Eddie who had a double...it would all have been dumb in the old format but it looked even more ridiculous in a real town setting.

 

Edited January 29, 2019 by Mitch
adding to

[Skylover]

Are there any interviews with old cast members like Charita Bauer? Can't find any anywhere

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[vetsoapfan]

 

I was able to justify Meta's talking about Rev. Ruthledge by remembering that none of us knew everything that had happened to the Bauers before they were introduced on TGL in 1948, or everything about Rev. Ruthledge's history pre-1937. It's possible that Rev. Ruthledge had been sent around to do missionary work in various states/communities (including Selby Flats) before settling down in the church of Five Points. Because it was not blatantly impossible for the reverend to have met Papa, Mama and young Meta before we, the audience, met any one them, I gave TGL a pass about the Meta/Rev. Ruthledge link.

 

The original "guiding light" was Rev. Ruthledge's Friendship Lamp, which he always displayed in his window to guide all the lost souls to his door. After he left the show, his lamp passed into different hands, and eventually stopped being mentioned or seen. I think the last time I saw it on-screen was when Rev. Keeler was appearing in the 1950s. I have at least one episode from that decade with the lamp featured. In my fantasies, I thought that a nice way to end TGL would have been if the Friendship Lamp had turned up again and been gifted to the Bauer family, in acknowledgement of the friendship Rev. Ruthledge had shared with Papa Bauer before we knew either of them (as referenced in some newly-discovered, vintage diaries that Ruthledge had kept from the 1930s.). The Friendship Lamp shining through the window of the Bauer kitchen would have been the perfect way to tie together the series' 72-year history. Alas, TPTB in the show's last decades never seemed interested in history.

Edited February 8, 2019 by vetsoapfan

[victoria foxton]

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[zanereed]

 

Agreed. I too, gave the writers a pass on the Meta/Bauers/Rev. Ruthledge connection exactly for the reasons you stated, @vetsoapfan.

 

Side question - did Irna decide to kill off Reverend Ruthledge when Arthur Peterson Jr. decided to leave the show so that the character of Reverend Ruthledge had no chance to ever return (because Irna wasn't happy that Arthur wanted to leave the show)? I remember reading that somewhere, perhaps in either "A 50th Anniversary Celebration" or "The Complete Family Album"?

Edited February 11, 2019 by zanereed

[vetsoapfan]

 

 

Killing off Rev. Ruthledge because she was vexed by Arthur Peterson quitting the show sounds like classic Irna Phillips, LOL, but if the actor really was determined to leave, the writer would have had little choice but to replace his character with another man of God, to continue on with the show's central theme at that time. If Rev. Ruthledge had remained alive, but simply never heard again, I'll bet the audience would have resisted any other character being placed in his shoes. It makes sense to me that Irna would have killed him off just so she could transfer the "guiding light" mantle to another minister, without any leftover Ruthledge baggage lingering in the audience's mind.

 

I am grateful for all the radio and TV episodes that have survived from 1950 onward, but I would kill to listen to material from the 1930s and '40s with Rev. Ruthledge. 

 

Do ANY of Peterson's episodes still exist?

Edited February 11, 2019 by vetsoapfan

[chrisml]

Here is Michael Logan writing about the fallout from Ellen Parker's firing.

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I didn't know where to put this one, but it's Logan's best of 1992 list. I figured I would put it here since McKinsey, Hayden, Simon, Breen (although for another soap) and Parker are mentioned. 

Edited February 11, 2019 by chrisml

[zanereed]

 

@vetsoapfan - I can think of at least three that are supposed to exist:

 

1. 1940/07/17: Reverend Ruthledge chats with Ellis Smith ("Mr. Nobody from Nowhere") who has been blinded.

2. 1940 (unknown exact date): Ellen, the Ruthledge's housekeeper, is upset and wants to leave the parsonage. She speaks with Reverend Ruthledge and then leaves. Mrs. Martin later comes in and she and Reverend Ruthledge talk about Ellen and also about Ellis Smith who was, at that time, going through surgery to correct his blindness.

3. 1944/06/07: D-Day episode (Reverend Ruthledge sermon).

 

There are probably more, but these are the only ones I have notes on that are supposed to feature Reverend Ruthledge.

[Faulkner]

That’s so cool, thanks. I’d love to see his other Best and Worst of the Year columns from that era. I used to wait for them with such anticipation. I didn’t realize he had selected AW as Best Soap that year, as 1992 was a great year for Y&R and GL too. (It’s sad that TVG doesn’t have an online archive, but that magazine has changed hands so many times over the years and is now a relic of a pre-EPG era.)

[chrisml]

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[vetsoapfan]

 

 

Cool. Thank you, my friend. I do not think I have any of those in my collection (unless I have forgotten about episodes which I acquired decades ago), but I will now scour both my personal collection and the internet for them.

 

If you just happen to know their whereabouts on the web, please let me know.

 

I appreciate the assistance. Preserving soap history is important!

 

 

Edited February 12, 2019 by vetsoapfan

[DramatistDreamer]

Oh wow, I had totally forgotten about how Maureen Bauer's funeral was written. 

So much hagiography has been written about how the story provided Emmy material for the actors but people tend to forget that the funeral itself didn't exist and that the fallout of Mo's death was actually contained between mostly Ed and Lillian-- such a shame for a character that was slated for matriarch status.  The Reardon's were all but cut off from the onscreen grieving process.  

I remember being upset, Ellen Parker was the only Maureen I knew at the point (Over the years, I've seen gone back and watched Ellen Dolan in the role and thought she was fantastic, better than her portrayal of Margo Hughes, imo) and Bridget was trapped in some attic.

Reading that Logan article brought it back with even more context.

[Darn]

I maintain it's the characters who don't have a rabid fanbase, with people sending letters and launching campaigns to get them featured more, that keep a soap going. Catering to the psychos who harass TPTB to show more Manny or Richard or whoever is what has killed daytime because even with Edmund/Jeffrey/Cyrus (???) featured every [!@#$%^&*] day PEOPLE WERE TURNING AWAY IN DROVES.

 

It's those stalwart characters who you know will still be around in some incarnation is what keeps people coming back over the years. And that doesn't even apply entirely to Maureen but she still at her relatively young age she filled a similar role in the show. You can't take these characters for granted and daytime does so so often.

 

God, if all we wanted to see every day was a bunch of Todd Mannings running around causing havoc we'd turn on the news.

[vetsoapfan]

 

Or put videos of Trump on a loop in our web browsers. :(