Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[DRW50]

 

That's an odd mix for the cast shots. I think I see the last Tim recast. I thought he was also gone by this time. 

[DRW50]

 

Most of them didn't seem to want to go. Some of the firings, like Tom O'Rourke, will forever puzzle me. It's as if someone at P&G saw a greenlight to plow through the cast for shiny new objects...not having the common sense to see that most of these objects would not stay long-term and that many fans would not support or accept these choices. GL was very lucky to stay on the air. 

 

I will never get past how eerie it is to see Jerry ver Dorn doing the goodbye for Charita Bauer. The man had been on the show for 5 years yet he was the senior cast member! Insane. And if viewers, and presumably cast and crew, had not taken Jerry into their hearts so quickly, he likely would have been gone too. 

[Mona Kane Croft]

 

Is it possible this is the wrong opening credits for this episode?  Maybe someone just edited it into the video?  Is there a GL expert here, who can verify all those characters were still on the show in 1982?

[DRW50]

 

I wonder if they were just slow to update the credits (although you'd think it would have been easy to change out a few shots).

[Mona Kane Croft]

 

Funny, but I don't remember ever seeing Sara or Jennifer in the disco-opening before.  

[DRW50]

 

And they're in them until at least March 1983. I guess these must have been stock credits they didn't want to bother changing...

 

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[Mona Kane Croft]

 

Looks like Mike Bauer has been removed from this one.  Does anyone know approximately when Sara and Jennifer left the show?  

 

[VanessaReardon]

You’re right - you control your keyboard. Glad you’re not letting anyone control it for you even though some will try. 

My records show Millette Alexander’s last episode as 12/24/82 and Geraldine Court’s last episode as 2/4/83. Mike Bauer was in the opening you referenced above. He didn’t leave until 1984. 

Edited May 3, 2020 by VanessaReardon

[Mona Kane Croft]

 

Thank you for the information.  Do you know if Sara was written out, or did she just stop appearing?  Was Sara still important in the storylines up until she left?  Or had she been minimized?

Edited May 3, 2020 by Neil Johnson

[soapfan770]

Been looking for Annie’s fantasy starting at 22:30 for the longest as all I remembered was a pregnant Reva LOL Watros is on fire here:

 

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[MichaelGL]

I can only confirm with the last question that Sara indeed had been minimized on the show for her last year or so. Not sure how she was written out though.

[Soaplovers]

What stories were left to tell with Sara?  All I could have seen her contribute in 1983 and thereafter was as the resident therapist.  She probably would have counseled Beth after the rape, and Reva plus roxie...but what else was left to tell of Sara?

[watson71]

 

According to this newspaper article dated January 15, 1983 Millette Alexander decided to leave the show of her own accord.  Interesting that Giancarlo Esposito (currently Moff Gideon on The Mandalorian) was cast on the show at the time as Clay Tynan and that Micki Grant who played John Randolph's secretary Peggy Nolan for much of the 60s and early 70s on Another World was playing his mother Ms. Tynan.  Was GL planning on making the Tynans a new African-American family on GL and they got lost in the shuffle in the change of headwriters?  

 

 

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[vetsoapfan]

 

Sara remained on the show through Pat Falken Smith's excellent-but-brief tenure as head writer in 1982, and was written out by subsequent scribes during the cast massacre of the early 1980s.

 

 

Most of the vets were fired and did not leave voluntarily. Peter Simon (Ed) recalled that on his final day of taping, Tom O'Rourke (Justin) ranted and raved his entire way out of the building.

[Mona Kane Croft]

 

I still find it hard to believe that both Mike and Hope Bauer were written off the show around 1984, and none of the subsequent writers thought it might be a good idea to bring either of them back to town.  The Bauers were such an interesting flawed core-family, surely they would have been wonderful to write for.  They weren't perfect like the Hughes or the Matthews.   

Edited May 3, 2020 by Neil Johnson