Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[Bill Bauer]

 

 

I suspect Alan doesn't know the true meaning of that phrase. 

[victoria foxton]

For such a ''big fan''. Alan is so ignorant.

[Aback]

I thought so too...

[Faulkner]

Just circling back to Marcy Walker’s stint on GL. Here’s MW on Regis (RIP) and Kathie Lee in 1994 to promote the role. Reege struggles to pronounce “Tangie” (“Is it Tangy?”) and Kathie asks, “Is it short for Tangerine?”

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[DRW50]

 

The odd part is I half-thought it was short for Tangerine.

[Soaplovers]

Seeing how Marcy Walker was in real life...I'm still boggled why the GL writers struggled to come up with a character for her.  She was funny, self deprecating, and perceptive....easy traits to have infused into Tangie.

 

Liza was a snooty bad girl while Eden was the traditional heroine...so I feel Tangie could have been a sarcastic anti heroine.  Alas, it wasn't to be.

[Manny]

I see that in the last year they had a character named Christina on the show.

And I know that Blake has not used her "Christina" name for a while, but was there ever discussions back in the day about this when this new Christina appeared? I am just curious, because it struck me as odd when I saw it the other day. And yes, I am aware that more than 1 person can be named Christina, but just usually you don't have people with same name on the show at the same time..

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[Manny]

I have another question for the historians

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I see that GL changed locations from Five Points to Shelby Flats to Springfield.

 

How was this done? Did characters move or did they just mention casually the new name of the town?

Does anyone know when the changes happened?

 

Thank you!

[DRW50]

 

If you mean among fans, I'm sure there were. If you mean on the show, probably not. I think one of the only people who ever used her real name was Roger (didn't he call her "Chrissy"?).

 

I think the Five Points to Selby Flats move happened via flood, and the move to Springfield happened for Bill's career. I may be wrong though.

[Manny]

Yes, I think Roger did call her Chrissy. I thought others used that name more when she was a kid and that she became Blake only when she was SORASed. Obviously, this was only my assumption

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Thanks for the reply. Oh, interesting. Flood is an interesting way to change locations. In regards to Springfield move, I wonder how they explained multiple characters moving to a different city just because Bill changed his job. Or was it just the Bauers that moved and then all the other characters stayed behind while Springfield brought on new characters? Do you happen to know which year this happened?

EDIT: I found more info on wikipedia, I don't know how I did not see this before when I was googling this earlier today. haha Thanks anyway

Edited August 25, 2020 by Manny

[DRW50]

 

Everyone called her Christina/Chrissy when she was a child. Blake was a name she used as a disguise when she came back as an adult, and she kept it. Everyone called her Blake aside from Roger. I can't remember if Ed may have slipped a few times. 

[Bill Bauer]

 

 

I've never read anything about a flood. The move from Five Points to Selby Flats happened after Rev. Ruthledge died. His adopted son Ned brought Rev. Ruthledge's friendship lamp to his best friend in seminary, Rev. Charles Matthews, who was living in Selby Flats. Thus, the locale switched. By that time, most of the original characters had been written out and, I believe (though I could very well be wrong about the timing) that the transition happened in 1946 when The Guiding Light was off the air for a little bit. So, when they returned, it was just a whole new setting and cast of characters with the only thing really surviving from the previous story being the friendship lamp. The only characters (I think) who transitioned to Selby Flats (Ned didn't stick around) was Claire Marshall and her new husband Jonathan MacNeil and maybe a couple of characters who were in their orbit. I'm not sure about that but the story during that time period was mostly focused on them. The Ruthledges and the Kranskys had been written out. The exact years are a little fuzzy because I've read that Rev. Ruthledge died in WW2 (he was an army chaplain) but Ned didn't take his friendship lamp to Selby Flats until 1946 which was a year after the war ended. Maybe it just took him a year to get around to it? I think they just had Jonathan and Claire move to Selby Flats perhaps a new job in a hospital for Jonathan. But the transition was smoother and more realistic than the transition from Selby Flats to Springfield. In that transition, the entire cast practically moved together to Springfield. I would like to know the answer to that one as that move was always more mysterious. I've never read anything about it being about Bill getting a new job. I did read, I believe, something about Paul Fletcher getting transferred to a new hospital in Springfield. Why the Bauers went with him, I don't know. They may not have even tried to explain it. Perhaps they just started referring to their town as Springfield. That would have been 1966, I believe. Although the cast was not that large at that time, it would be less implausible that everyone would follow Paul out to Springfield than it would be in later years but it's still implausible and I wonder how they explained it (if they did at all). The history books are pretty silent on the subject on the move to Springfield. I would assume that Paul got the job in Springfield, moved with Robin and Johnny and then told Bill about a job so the Bauers moved there too. I don't know. At that point, the Bauers and the Fletchers made up most of the cast. There was probably an exit/entrance for peripheral characters . Just speculation. 

 

Personally, I didn't like the locale changes. I wish they would have just left it Five Points. I was partial to that town. 

[Mitch]

The only person I know who called her that outside of Roger was oddly enough Joan Collin's Alex, and it was more derisive.  I don't have a problem with two characters of the same name being on a show...if the characters have history and are needed..like John Dixon and John Edlridge (though only to kill him off) But that characters was such a throw away character and I think she was just created because Wheeler had a thing for chipper,  rather vacant cute young girls (not sexually, but casting them) like the Marina actress.

[heffer]

 

I always found it weird that Ed didn't realize or at least had a suspicion that Blake was the same person that he raised as a daughter when she first came back to town. Being that the writers supposedly didn't always mean for Blake to be Chrissy, I wonder what the timeline was for the change.

Edited August 25, 2020 by heffer

[Forever8]

Alan Locher will welcome the Simon family to his YouTube show, The Locher Room. Join Peter (ex-Ed, GUIDING LIGHT, et al), his wife, Courtney Simon (ex-Kathy, SEARCH FOR TOMORROW, et al, and a Daytime Emmy Award-winning former scribe for ALL MY CHILDREN, SANTA BARBARA and other soaps), and their daughter, Kate Hall, who is currently a member of GH’s writing team, for the interview on Wednesday September 2, at 3 p.m. ET, 

https://www.soapoperadigest.com/content/guiding-light-alum-and-family-virtual-interview/