Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[Contessa Donatella]

 

I think he can sing both Broadway and opera.

 

Robert Newman can sing Broadway, too. He did Annie and they say he WAS Warbucks.

 

 

And, GL has had such great casting directors over the past 20 years! All the back to Betty Rea & forward to Ron Decina. We were so lucky that our casting director found Tom Pelphrey at a New Jersey college.

 

 

When it comes to Marley & Vicky Love/Hudsons, I was always Wheeler, Heche, NOT Jensen. Besides Jensen cost the show so much & would not do both roles. I was watching an AW Reunion on SOAPnet recently. And, Kale Brown said that with Wheeler you could never tell who you were acting with. They would look down at her feet to tell. Marley stood pigeon-toed, with her feet pointed in toward each other. Vicky stood with her feet pointed out. Then they knew who was who.

 

 

Wonder why they get stuck like that.

 

Well, people were put on recurring or were asked to take 15% pay cuts in 2004, right?

 

Only Zimmer refused to do so. Which was odd.

 

I loved Otalia & Jammy & new show music & new show themes. I didn't like 4 deaths. I was sick of the doppelganger! They had no business bringing Bradley Cole back as Jeffrey O'Neill! The very last thing I liked about Prince Richard was that Cassie read the Mary Oliver poem "Wild Geese" at his funeral. Favorite poem!

 

[KMan101]

 

I think one of the last straws for me was being stuck with Jeffrey. Lord!!! ugh. I didn't mind Richard and felt it was a natural end (and another of Cassie's men croaked, it was fitting).

 

Yeah in 2004 everyone bailed. Maureen Garrett, Peter Simon, Jerry verDorn, Grant Aleksander, Laura Wright (which was fine by me, Laura/Cassie grated on me) ... if you really look at it, the show was becoming gutted for years, sadly. (And then I believe O'Leary, Chamberlin, Kiefer and others were all dumped to recurring; but Maeve Kinkead came back)

 

It's funny, but now in 2019, most actors are more than willing. It's kind of sad they jumped ship but who could blame them? They still had options in the soap world. 

 

Also on a different tangent, what happened to Beth Ehlers and Harley? She's SO enjoyable to watch in her early years. My God, it's night and day.

 

Betty Rea was a fantastic casting direction. Some misses, but even the greats have a few missteps.

 

I miss when real thought went into a recast. Jensen Buchanan, looks wise, I can see why they cast her (that and probably other reasons) and they made an effort to direct her to be like Anne's Vicky. She still sucked as an actress, IMO, but I miss when they at least tried to "get it right" ... so many end up becoming miscast when the direction is lost and the writing suffers. But a great actor should overcome that I suppose ...

 

I wasn't a Jammy fan, but I get why folks were. 

 

GL had such potential. I miss it a lot.

Edited October 20, 2019 by KMan101

[Contessa Donatella]

I miss GL so much & I have friends who were on the GL team & they hurt for the  loss of it!

 

They did everything to try to get Peter Simon back. They wanted him as a Bauer so bad. They even tried to get Courtney Simon, his wife, to help them get him back. They wanted him for the Sebastian story. And, to bring Maureen back, too, of course. But, someone, either Paul Rauch or John Conboy had pissed Peter off something royal and he just wasn't in the mode or the mood to give in, at least not till the very very end when he did.

 

Glad we agree about Jeffrey!

[Soaplovers]

To me... I think Philip and Beth plus Josh/Reva shouldn't have ended up together at the end... both couples were toxic and dysfunctional... and neither couple truly dealt with those dysfunctional tendencies.  Josh always felt he was superior to Reva.. and Reva always felt inferior to Josh.... while Philip had this need to control and baby Beth while Beth sometimes gave into that and sometimes didn't.  I would have preferred for at least Beth to have finally found contentment with herself, her life and her kids while keeping Philip in her life as a friend and co-parent only.

[Contessa Donatella]

 

I thought "Always" was just overdone at the end.

 

And, Beth had been with Alan ... and then he died.

 

And, Harley was gone.

 

Otalia was solid.

 

Jonathan was going to do an okay job of parenting Sarah.

 

Bill & Lizzie were going to be a pair.

 

Buzz & Lillian were going to be a pair.

 

Vanessa & Billy were going to be a pair.

 

 

[kalbir]

 

 

 

To think that Justin Deas might not have been the original choice for Buzz yet JFP got him hired and he earned a supporting actor Daytime Emmy in his first year,  a lead actor win his second year, and a second lead actor win two years later.

 

Maybe JFP tried to get one of her friends cast as Alan but CBS/P&G overrode her.

Edited October 21, 2019 by kalbir

[Contessa Donatella]

Okay. Rebecca Budig was the Michelle after Miner. Nancy St. Alban was Michelle Bauer Santos. Budig apparently has very powerful parents.

[Contessa Donatella]

 

Does anyone know who else was considered for Buzz? And, was the pairing of Fiona Hutchison with him always tip-top? I saw her not long ago & she was working with kids. They had big plans for something that I think will be Christmas-time.

[Contessa Donatella]

Did you see the clip I posted?

[glatwt]

Yes thanks so much!

[Contessa Donatella]

You're very welcome! Great clip of Nadine in heaven.

[Mitch]

 

I do think that Collin's stint was the nail in the coffin for Dusay's Alex. They actually wrote her like the Alex of her intro into SF...smart, savvy, funny and could be lethal if crossed..Dusay came back and two weeks in she was throwing a chair in the police station.  Though my favorite Marj scene was during the dumb drugging of Alan story and Marj turned around to kick a passed out Alan on the floor!!!

[BetterForgotten]

God, Marj could be such a hot damn mess, lol. 

[Sapounopera]

 

Terry Lester was offered the part.

[EllenP]

OMG yes. I am flashing back to her first couple of days back as Alex immediately post Joan Collins. It was such a weird over the top performance even for Marj! She started to tone it down a bit after a few days and she was good for a few months before Ellen Weston took Alex’s story into clown town.