Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[ChickenNuggetz92]

I'm super late to the party but I just found out about Bandstandmike's YouTube takedown! 

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 I had half a mind to archive them but I never got around to it. I'm so sad.

 

I haven't really followed GL but it was a goldmine of Cynthia Watros as Annie and the Maureen Bauer death story.

 

Now I'm contemplating opening up a vault for GL episodes, like I have with Y&R + B&B. Hopefully between all of us we can recover much of that collection and perhaps get Mike motivated again to upload there instead.

[Stitches0210]

 

My theory is that bandstandmike may have had more episodes of Guiding Light than what was OK with whoever had the power to take it down.

 

Some say copyright.

 

I say money.

 

If there is more money that can be made by something—and someone feels they are potentially cheated out of making more money—then action will get taken.

[Asb23]

Yes! I don’t know of your other vaults since I don’t watch those showed but yes that what we need - a classic GL vault. Please do it. I used to have stuff on tape but I moved (downsized) not too long ago and the old VHS tapes were a casualty of that. Also, I hadn’t had an desire to revisit my former love of GL until the Locher Room reunions and the lockdown. Now I’m “obsessed” with finding full episodes. Cobbling episodes together here and there on YouTube has become a challenge without Bandstandmike’s orderly videos.

Edited August 30, 2020 by Asb23

[BetterForgotten]

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[DRW50]

Nia Long Made in America interview, new to Youtube.

 

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[zanereed]

 

Because Mart Hulswit apparently didn't look like the leading man part to TPTB. However, Mart would have had much better chemistry with both Michael Zaslow and Maureen Garrett, due to their history together throughout the mid to late 1970's. It's a shame, as Hulswit *could* actually emote more than just a pursed lip - he was warm but had a temper when pushed.

[vetsoapfan]

 

Hulswit was an excellent Ed. Replacing him with a morose, listless and reserved Peter Simon was a major mistake. Simon was excellent on SFT and even ATWT, but his interpretation of Ed left a lot to be desired, particularly when you compared him to the warm-but-sometimes-fiery Ed Bauer as played by Hulswit.

 

TPTB claimed they replaced Hulswit because they wanted a younger, sexier Ed, which was absurd. Viewers do not need every actor on the soaps to be a hunk. (That being said, I personally found Mart Hulswit to be adorable.) Indeed, part of the appeal soap patriarchs and matriarchs have is that they look and "feel" like our own parents and grandparents. After Mike and Bert Bauer were gone, Ed became the family patriarch, and I don't believe anyone in the audience would have had trouble with him looking like one.

 

Did anyone reject Bert Bauer for being chubby? Lila Quartermaine for being in a wheelchair? Katherine Chancellor for having a weathered face? On the contrary; viewers adored them all and were fiercely protective of them, regardless of their age and physical appearance. 

 

The audience is not as shallow as TPTB imagines.

 

 

Edited September 2, 2020 by vetsoapfan

[Soaplovers]

 

Peter Simon talked about being cast as Ed...and all he said was that he was asked in the spring of 1981 to not work because there was a role for him..and didn't even tell him what the role would be.  He ended up not starting as Ed till months later.

 

He said what he heard was that the head writer wanted someone younger and less likely to adlib... and Peter Simon said 'and they hired me?'

 

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They spilled some nice tea.

Edited September 2, 2020 by Soaplovers

[Jkcdsm75]

I get why Mart H was replaced in 1981 but for some reason I can never get this answered.  
 

why was he never brought back ever again?  Peter Simon left several times. We had Robert gentry in there.  
 

with roger and holly on the canvas why wouldn’t they have at some point asked Mart back? There has to be a reason because as time passed less of those who fired him were even around.  And don stewart eventually visited as Mike despite leaving on bad terms ... 

[victoria foxton]

The Simon family was great. Courtney didn't like writing for GH's Luke and Sonny. I can't blame the lady.

[Mitch]

 

That is why I think its sad what TPTB and O'leary himself turned Rick into..some looser goofball and O'Leary leaned into that playing his..uh. "comedy" and mugging for the cameras.  I actually was okay with O'leary getting chubby and older..(though it looks like he tried something with his face ) while GA and BC alternately looked like they didnt age (or in the BC's case got hotter..) Rick was someone like the rest of us, who got older and ...well fatter...(its why I loved Zimmer not going on a crazy diet...Reva should have had all her good living catch up to her) and was relatable.  They should have tied up Ed and Holly's story..(do a three month arc they get together,,marry leave town and return for big events) and moved Ross to patriarch role and Rick as the town shoulder to cry (okay...town matriarch) who is everyone good natured friend,  and a perfect opportunity to do so as town doctor.  He wouldnt even need a female partner...(I thought MOL had chemistry with KT and the Abby actress and that was it in terms of women.)

 

Its kind of nice to see "normal" looking people on your soap.

 

[All My Shadows]

I absolutely LOVE Mart Hulswit's overemotional Ed, and as I continue to make my way through early 80s GL, I'm really interested in seeing the difference when Peter Simon replaces him.

 

MH's Ed really matches up well with the very little I've seen of Robert Gentry's Ed. I have to say, just based on two short clips, I feel like RG's Ed would have been my all-time favorite.

Re: Mart being a hunk. Honestly, every picture I've seen of him from the early 70s and also for Papa's funeral, I'd say he was pretty sexy. Not so much later on, but it happens. It kinda reminds me of Michael E. Knight's changes through the years.

Edited September 3, 2020 by All My Shadows

[KMan101]

 

Please do! I'm so mad we lost his channel (and others). It's so frustrating.

[victoria foxton]

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[vetsoapfan]

 

Douglas Marland clearly had a personal beef with Hulswit, and was uncharacteristically obnoxious in the press about the actor. He mocked Hulswit for being a "dodo," and claimed that Lenore Kasdorf loathed working with him. How rude. 

 

 

Sadly, O'Leary was not as funny as he might have imagined, and his Rick Bauer became more of an irritant than a viable romantic lead or patriarch. He had very little chemistry with most women he was paired with and his mugging made me impatient. His best chemistry was with GA in their early years together. I would have replaced Rick with Tuc Watkins, who could actually be amusing on-screen AND function as a sexy leading man. (And for the record, I would NEVER have written out Ed and Holly. They eventually became the only remaining links to the "real" TGL of the past. They'd be eliminated over my dead body, LOL.)

 

 

Robert Gentry was also excellent as Ed, and played the character's inner conflicts with gusto. Watching the show live as I did back then, I was disappointed when Gentry left, but Hulswit quickly won me over. Both actors could convey varying emotions with ease. Both actors were handsome and interesting to watch. The problem I had with Simon was that he was so listless and passive in the role. Ed no longer had the passion and fire that had always made him INTERESTING. Simon's Version was simply colorless. No wonder he faded into the background under writers who neither knew nor cared about the character's historical importance to the show and its core.

 

 

I've always wondered about this too. After Simon quit the first time, Marland was gone, so it would have been the perfect opportunity to rehire Hulswit. Instead, the show went with Richard Van Fleet, who was a worse recast than Simon. Totally wrong for the part. Shudder. When TGL later rehired Robert Gentry to assume the role, I was hoping for a resurgence in the character's importance, but the show barely used Gentry and then dropped him from the canvas, only to hire Simon again. God only knows what goes on in the minds of TPTB. If Hulswit was the one who declined returning to the show, I would understand and accept that, but I have never heard that they even asked him back.