Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[victoria foxton]

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[Asb23]

Regarding the flash drive...I’m trying to find that out, too. I’m willing to pay. Please let me kow if you find anything out.

[cassadine1991]

Would Barbara Crampton have made a better Tina than Krista Tesreau?

[victoria foxton]

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[BetterForgotten]

Since Buzz has been mentioned a lot lately, someone asked Patrick Mulcahey about the character and his creation on Twitter. Seems like Mulchaey had a lot of personal connection to the character and used him to work out some of his own father issues.

 

He also said that at SB and GL, there wasn't a big firewall between the actors and the writers like there was at other shows, so he got to work with actors and the production staff to really hone-in on characters better.

 

 

[DRW50]

 

Probably not. Michael Malone did not understand Tina. 

[Forever8]

An Evergreen comment from the episodes/clips I've seen of that era.

[Xxbluxx]

 

careful with this guys! I’ve seen several reviews on fraud about this guy when selling the dvds and flash drives. 
 

I was looking for information on why the channel got deleted and this was everywhere.   People stating they paid him money and never got anything. 
 

just be careful about sending money.

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[DeliaIrisFan]

So I was waiting to post this until I got all the way through to the end of the Who Shot Roger? story on YouTube, but now...

 

I was struck by a scene between Henry and Billy just before Billy and Vanessa's wedding, and not just because nearly every scene with William Roerick was a gem.  Billy was insisting that he was going to stay sober, and Henry was dubious that Billy wouldn't find some way to mess up again and hurt Vanessa.  They almost seemed to already be foreshadowing Billy falling off the wagon and trying to kill Roger, even though Jordan Clarke was still on the show.  I had always assumed that wouldn't have happened had Clarke not left so suddenly, but it crossed my mind a few times rewatching the early '90s episodes that maybe the writers really were playing the long game to lay the groundwork for one of the show's patriarchs becoming an attempted murderer all along.

 

For example: when Billy almost strangled Roger at Hamp's restaurant after finding out Mindy had an affair with Roger.  I guess as an adolescent in the '80s and '90s, I was so numb to graphic depictions of violence on-screen that it didn't really register, but that Roger/Billy scene was fairly disturbing, particularly for a soap.  And it was surprising rewatching as an adult that none of the other characters were that taken aback by how out of control Billy was, when so much else about the writing and storytelling at the time made Springfield feel like a living, breathing, interconnected community.  (If memory serves, the next morning Billy was threatening to sue Vanessa for custody of Bill because she went home with some guy.)

 

Maybe that was the point all along...that the whole town contributed to Billy's downfall by turning a blind eye to those kinds of violent outbursts for all those years?  I was particularly hoping to see Roger and Ed's fight at the country club to compare how that was handled, although if memory serves, Ed didn't hurt Roger nearly as bad as Billy had.  (And, at the risk of posting this outside of the politics thread, Ed presumably didn't own a gun...)  Does anyone else think the show would have "gone there" with Billy if they had any other choice?

[DeliaIrisFan]

 

I love Patrick Mulcahey and his work on GL in particular, and I liked Buzz's character back in the '90s, but...

 

I had never seen Buzz's very first episodes until YouTube, and of course it's impossible to watch that now without it being influenced by my opinions about Jill Farren Phelps's subsequent work, but it really seemed like overkill.  And especially jarring coming right after Maureen's death—talk about armchair-Freudian interpretations, the theme of the show for a while there was essentially "Mommy's dead and the the absent Daddy from hell is in charge now."

 

Buzz also could have had the story PM described without taking over the whole show.  I liked Buzz/Jenna from what I saw in later months/years, but did JD really need to be thrust into a(nother) story with one of the show's leading ladies right off the bat?  I know Jenna had Daddy issues of her own, and my teen self had a complete crush on Michael Zaslow in the '90s so I'm not being ageist, but at times it was just too much watching her make herself miserable because Buzz and Roger weren't paying enough attention to her.  At least she could have told them both to go to hell and hooked up with Henry, and had some happiness.

I also have to question how many cast members got to call writers and complain around this time—probably not just anyone who'd joined the show less than a year ago.  Could Beverlee McKinsey?  Or Ellen Parker?

[redontop4]

 

Yes, JFP was looking for a splash to counter L&L's return. A Martinez has said she approached him around this time to join GL, but he had a new baby and didn't want to leave LA. I suspect (bot no proof) that JFP had him in mind to play Detective Cutter, who debuted in October 1993. Cutter was a creation of the writers' to replace permanently-honeymooning cops Harley & Mallet and went forward with Scott Hoxby in the role. But still wanting her big splash, JFP moved down the list and asked Marcy Walker to join GL with no character or story in place. In interviews from around that time, even MW says she didn't know much about the character. Turns out no one did for too long although I'm surprised MW's good friend, Patrick Mulcahey, who knew her from even before their SB days, didn't give her character more definition.

 

Mark Derwin, in one of the recent quarantine interviews, said that JFP asked him and Beth Ehlers to stay in 1993 specifically because L&L were returning to GH. But he and BE were determined to head west. So JFP hatched another plan. You can't really blame her, and she was using the connections she had to stay competitive with a resurgent GH. The wrinkle, of course, is that Kim Zimmer was unemployed in '93 and wanted back on GL, but JFP fought it and won. Reva's return probably would have solved everything and kept GL competitive. But JFP was pleased with post-Reva GL and had other ideas.

Edited July 26, 2020 by redontop4
typo

[DramatistDreamer]

 

Good point.  Why didn't he?

[Soaplovers]

 

He was too busy working out his daddy issues with the Buzz character is my theory 

[FrenchBug82]

 

We know she hated how vindictive Alexandra had turned in the last year of her run with the Mindy storyline and that played some minor part in her deciding it was time for her to retire.
The question, though, is did she ever say something? She had interviewed many times that she was not interested in influencing the writing on any show she has been on. Her job was acting whatever is written for one and her acting was just her job, for two. 
Would it have influenced the writing if she had said something? I dunno but I doubt it. They didn't listen to her asking for a lighter schedule so I doubt they would have listened to the substance of the writing.

[DRW50]

I think this is Nancy St. Alban?

 

(this ad is annoying as hell)

 

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