Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[Khan]

And of course, there's also the allegation that Potter called Marland a "faggot."

[BetterForgotten]

Potter seemed to get along well with Bridget and Jerome Dobson - and I don't think you can get more "eccentric" than those two.

 

And if I'm honest, I would rank the Dobson's GL work over Marland's. 

[watson71]

 

Potter was a very capable producer.  When he was at The Doctors, the show had high ratings and won a Best Show Emmy, same goes for Guiding Light.  P&G transferred him back to Another World in the Spring of 1983 and he took the mess that Paul Rauch left him with and whipped the show into shape pretty quickly.  His AW from mid 83-1984, like his version of The Doctors and GL was engaging and entertaining.  He retired at the end of 1984. I wish he would have stayed longer at AW- the show would become a convoluted mess under the next producer, Stephen Schenkel.

[kalbir]

Thank you for posting this. Even though I wasn't watching GL live at that time, I was so happy when Michael Zaslow got his long-awaited for Lead Actor Daytime Emmy. He really should have won more than one Lead Actor Daytime Emmy. His work in the early 1990s was amazing to watch and I'm so glad I got to see his best work either live or online. He wasn't nominated in 1991 but should have been for the Acapulco episodes, and I also think he was robbed in 1992 for the country club episodes and 1993 for the episode where Roger confesses to Holly that he still loves her. Michael's 1992 Lead Actor nomination was also GL's first in the Lead Actor category. Is there any truth to the rumor that someone at P&G messed up Michael's 1992 and/or 1993 submissions thus the losses. 

 

[BetterForgotten]

For all her faults, JFP knew how to get her actors nominated for and sometimes win Emmy's, lol. 

[Soaplovers]

I recall when Denise Pence made her mini YouTube vids years ago..she described the Dobson's as more collaborative..while Marland seemed a micromanager and rigid.  And while he plotted good stories, his micro managing the script writers showed.  I often found some of episodes kind of tedious when he head wrote.  It was stilted and not natural some of the words and interactions.  On a show like ATWT..it seemed to fit the show....but GL was a more emotional show...and going from the Dobsons to Marland was seamless except for the dialogue.

 

When I watch a Pam Long episode..there is an energy and warmth that I find lacking under Marland.   

[Aback]

 

[BetterForgotten]

Patrick Mulcahey also described working with the Dobson's and Marland in similar terms. He said the Dobson's gave their scriptwriters a lot of creative liberties at Santa Barbara as long as they stuck within the very "loose" parameters of their outlines.  Often he'd get notes from Bridget and Jerry that said, "do whatever the hell you want here" when it came to the dialogue. He also loved working with Marland, but said Marland wrote so much of the show himself and wanted to be thoroughly involved in every aspect. 

 

He hated Agnes Nixon's micromanagement style at Loving though - he called her a "school marm" that gave useless/ridiculous notes. 

 

I guess it's no wonder why things quickly went south between Marland and Nixon at Loving...

Edited May 14, 2020 by BetterForgotten

[Mitch]

I forget that MH won for Best Younger Performer over even Buffy herself! A year or so later Bridget was chasing back after Hart and thinking about plastic surgery to compete with Dinah.  I wonder how pairing Bridget with Rick would have gone..Abby was only a few years older..

 

Interesting comments about Marland and the Dobsons and Potter. I am more interested in the BTS stuff then how the Carmen actress is doing during Covid.

 

 

[Aback]

 

ROTFL! Mitch, I think I've read your comments for the longest time (maybe on MediaDomain? Soapy Syrens? it was some old forum, somewhere) and you've always cracked me up. I always look forward to your posts. Speaking of Marland, I think that it was you that once commented on how he came across as sexually prudish on his shows or something. One definitely needs to have an active sexual life to write these shows IMHO

 

 

 

[BetterForgotten]

Potter is definitely not without talent. I definitely think he did a lot to gracefully "contemporize" GL. Arguably, GL was the first of the old P&G soaps to really take on a more contemporary format and look in the mid/late 70's and I think Potter was a big part of that.

 

If you compare that to Mary Ellis-Bunim's forced contemporization of SFT and latter ATWT, I'd say Potter was a more successful in every regard to get a soap that's often looked at as your "grandma's soap" into the modern world at that time. 

[titan1978]

Preach.  Especially when we have people willing to spill-  Mulcahey seems eager, I bet a few pointed questions could get Martha to let loose too on Goutman and P&G.
 

And add me to the list that think Marland’s writing is exceptional while also being dry. It lacks emotion.  I wonder if he had spent less time micromanaging and more time mentoring what could have been.  Nobody was as in-control as Bill Bell.  And yet he also collaborated and trained successors- PFS on DAYS and Alden on Y&R.

 

The older I have gotten, the more I notice the better scripted shows.  I grew up watching GH in the 1980’s, and they had a cast that brought the scripts to life within a plot driven framework.  They improvised, they reworked things with Monty- always to bring character to the mostly plot driven show.  But when you watch something like the early 1990’s on GL, you really notice the dazzling scripts.
 

[Mitch]

Thanks! And yes, I think Marland was a terrible prude and is one of those writers who could make sex..unsexy!! His characters were too damn serious all the time and even his family scenes were devoid of warmth ( I grew up in farmland and I have never seen such a cold sad sack farm family in my life!) His first year or two were great but after that...

I much preferred Long/Curlee even if their structure was off and they didn't honor history as well.

 

Marland was either sexless in real life or one of those uptight prudey people who are NUTS about it in secret!

 

[Faulkner]

As much as Michael Zaslow was underappreciated aside from his much-deserved win, Beverlee McKinsey was not once even nominated for playing Alex after being nominated four times in a row for playing Iris on AW. Talk about absurdity. Friggin’ Marj got nominated for playing Alex.
 

I guess they put all their eggs in the Kim Zimmer basket, which paid off with three Emmys from 1985-90.

Edited May 14, 2020 by Faulkner

[BetterForgotten]

I think Bev mentioned she stopped putting herself up for consideration after her losses at AW. She definitely should have been nominated and won for her work in the early 90's.

 

Maureen Garrett also not having one is a great travesty.