Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[danfling]

On Search for Tomorrow, Mr. Simon played Scott.   When I was watching the show, he learned that he was the son of Doug Martin, met Laurie (who had a son and a grandmother), and married her.

 

I think that he met Courtney Simon on the show, and they fell in love and married.  This was after I had started watching A World Apart and, later, Split Second.

 

Ellie (Billie Lou Watt) was his relative, but I forget how.  Vera Allen (Another World) played his grandmother.

Edited January 17, 2020 by danfling

[zanereed]

 

From what I've learned, Hulswit was apparently critical of Marland's writing, or at least commented on the writing in some way that made Marland less than happy with Hulswit. Allegedly Marland had Potter replace Hulswit in 1981.

[jam6242]

This is an article about Mart's firing.

 

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[vetsoapfan]

 

This is what a real soap should be.

 

A sense of community, with all sorts of characters and their stories intertwining with each other.

 

A plethora of "plates spinning" in the air: various plots, subplots, and character moments on display.

 

Multi-dimensional characters colored in shades of gray. There's not one character I'd rush to eliminate.

 

Adults having actual conversations that draw you in.

 

Characters who are written as INTELLIGENT.

 

MOVEMENT. 

 

No cartoon plots, low-brow camp or sci fi in sight.

 

Older people with (gasp!) lives of their own.

 

Ahhh, the good old days. We have nothing like this on daytime TV anymore.

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[vetsoapfan]

 

Simon was not this morose and listless on Search for Tomorrow, but his Ed Bauer was irritatingly hang-dog and lethargic. He certainly was not a "younger, sexier" version of Ed, regardless of what TPTB claimed they wanted. Hulswit was adorable: cuddly, sweet, charismatic, with a hot temper underneath; in short, exactly what the character of Ed should have been. He was well positioned to grow into the new patriarch of the Bauer family. All that was lost when the show cut him loose. Douglas Marland was so obnoxious to refer to Hulswit as a "dodo" whom Lenore Kasdorf did not want to work with. After Simon left the first time, TGL should have jumped at the chance to rehire MH. Instead, they cast an even MORE inappropriate actor in Richard Van Fleet. EEEK!

 

 

Yep, Simon was dour as Ed from the time he started.

 

 

I thought he was great on SFT, where he had a lot more energy, LOL. He worked well with Morgan Fairchild. (I'll never forget their screaming fight, when she went hurling through a plate-glass door.)

 

 

I agree about bringing back Mike. I wanted him to return, married to either Elizabeth Spaulding or Pat Randolph. The thought of Mike Bauer with Marj Dusay makes me cringe, however.

 

 

[Franko]

Bringing back Pat Randolph on GL would have been genius. It's not like AW or NBC was doing anything with her.

[vetsoapfan]

 

And Mike and Pat had been involved in Bay City, back in the 1960s, so there was history between them. After Maureen died, having a beloved Bauer matriarch in Springfield, in the form of Pat, would have filled a great void.

[DRW50]

@jam6242 thank you for that article. I'm trying to figure out which changes didn't happen:

 

- Joe Bradley was killed off, rather than just disappearing quietly 

 

- wasn't Tim recast one more time and would still occasionally pop up through the end of Marland's run?

 

- Did Ben ever rape Amanda? I know he wasn't recast. 

 

When was Steven Jackson's last appearance anyway? I always forget.

 

While I have to admit to being fond of Eve, and of Janet Grey's nuanced performances, I still don't know quite how she managed to last another year and a half.

[vetsoapfan]

 

Yes, Joe Bradley was killed off, which I always considered a mistake. The actor was great and the character was deliciously sleazy. I would have kept him around for years.

 

Tim was recast with a fourth actor named Nigel Reed, who lasted until 1982, if I recall, but he remained backburnered. I couldn't understand how Reed had even gotten hired. He was not right for the role. He was sort of...icky, like Adam Brewster on One Life to Live.

 

I do not recall Ben raping Amanda.

 

Morgan and Kelly mentioned that Steve Jackson was invited to their wedding, but he disappeared without warning or explanation in 1981. In a ludicrous scene a few years later, Kelly asked Ed if he remembered who Steve Jackson was. Duh. The writers were ignorant of history, but Ed would have remembered his father-in-law and his son's grandfather, so Kelly came off as an idiot.

 

I believe Evie lasted until 1983. After Pat Falken Smith was fired (idiot PTB!) Helena Manzi asked Justin how Eve was doing, and he casually mentioned she had already moved away to be with Ben.

 

The 1980s were not the best years for TGL and its continuity.

[DRW50]

 

Someone once said there was a scene of Eve and Ross dancing at a ball and she told Ross she was leaving, but I wonder if that was fancruft. 

 

I agree about Joe. He had such an oiliness about him yet the actor was also very charismatic and attractive. 

 

Do you think Andy ever would've worked as 'the new Roger'?

 

I've seen that Tim in a few of the 1982 episodes floating around - namely those unintentionally hilarious scenes of Josh and Vanessa being Mean and Wicked at the karate class, I agree he had a weird vibe. They would have been better off bringing in a new character. 

 

That scene with Kelly and Ed sounds ridiculous. It seems like when they fired so many people in front of the camera they also got rid of many behind the scenes who could help with continuity and with respect for viewers. GL is a show that seems so generic and ashamed of its past so often from this point on. 

 

I never can be a fair judge of Marland's GL writing as I've seen too little of it, but something just never quite clicks for me. It just feels too cold, especially when you don't have the newer actors who can add heart to the material, the way that, say, Kirsten Vigard did as Morgan.

Edited January 19, 2020 by DRW50

[jam6242]

Unfortunately, Ben did rape Amanda.  This synopsis was from the first week of Oct. 1981, so this occurred that week, or the last week of September.  

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[DRW50]

Thanks. Ugh that sounds awful. And it really taints the character. I know there is no "type" of rapist but nothing I have ever seen of him suggests he would rape a woman. Didn't someone once say Yates was unhappy or complained about his writing after he left? If so I can see why now.

[vetsoapfan]

 

If there was a scene of Evie dancing with Ross and telling him she was leaving town, I missed it. Around that time I was hyper sensitive about characters being discarded from the show, so I think I would have remembered it, but you never know. I did not remember Ben forcing himself on Amanda either. maybe I just blocked it out because it was gratuitous and against the grain of the character. Yuck.

 

With the actor they chose, I don't think Andy would have been viable as "the new Roger," just because the performer was capable but not particularly compelling, and the character was not as nuanced. Michael Zaslow brought levels of pain, torment, antagonism, sexuality and vulnerability to Roger which would have been impossible to emulate. As a short-term villain, Andy would have worked, but he did not strike me as having ongoing staying power.

 

Except for Pat Falken Smith and Millie Taggart and Carolyn Culliton, the writers of the show from the 1980s onward seemed to know little about the show's rich history, and cared about it even less. It's a shame because TGL's strength came from its consistent storytelling and ties to generations of the Bauer family.

 

Kristen Vigard may have been flaky and unreliable IRL, but she exuded a certain spark on screen that was alluring. You wanted to watch her even when the character was being annoying. Same with Kevin Bacon as TJ. Their replacements, Jennifer Cooke and Nigel Reed tanked in comparison. In the 1980s, the show became cold and brittle, and was damaged by weak writing, the casting aside of history, and the introduction of many irrelevant, pointless characters.

 

 

Sigh, Thanks for posting that, so we have clarification.

 

 

I've never heard anything about Yates' reaction to that awful plot, but I do remember Peter Simon talking about Tom O'Rourke ranting and raving in disgust as he left the building after he was fired, LOL.

[jam6242]

Definitely seems out of character.  Ben always seemed very gentle.  Trying to remember if this was when Amanda was wearing big bows in her hair and acting like a young girl.

[DRW50]

 

I think it was also after she'd withdrawn after having a miscarriage, which just makes it even more gross to me. 

 

And this is right before the Mark Evans story, right? It's strange we go from a marital rape story to Amanda being in a love triangle with her mother. I guess you could say Marland was trying to tear down all of Amanda's support systems, but I wish they'd tried to strengthen the character instead. When Kathleen Cullen briefly returned in 1987 she was able to play the stronger side of the role.

 

That cracks me up.

 

I've never understood his firing at all. I'd say it's ageism, but they brought in several characters in his age range, with much less to offer.