Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[soapfan770]

RE: On Alan & Alex’s history I believe Alex was supposed to be the older of the two but I could see it being easily flipped-flopped, here’s what I could find on Spaulding family history in my notes:

 

Who is Susan Piper and why is Donald [R. Schwartz, PhD] waiting for her return?

She was Tony and Annabelle Reardon's chain-smoking real estate agent. (I remember Donald posting a rather intriguing description of her once; perhaps he saved it?) [SA]

[Here's a note from Donald.] Susan was played by Carrie Nye, who is Dick Cavett's real-life wife. Susan was ugly and lecherous -- long stringy dirty grey/blond hair, she SMOKED -- always taking LONG drags on the cigarette, had an old southern accent, not pretty at all -- and she was EVIL! all of these being WONDERFULLY portrayed -- and making a FABULOUS character who I miss very much... she met her demise by falling into into a lava pit in Barbados (but since they NEVER FOUND THE BODY, there's still hope!).

[And from Dale, a summary of Susan Piper's plot.] The characters involved in this heinous story were: Tony and Annabelle Reardon, Jim Reardon and Hillary Bauer, Fletcher Reade and Claire Ramsey,Susan Piper and her sidekick John Young, and Piper's mysterious "boss", whose face we never saw. Tony and Annabelle bought a cottage through Piper Realty, but it was mistakenly sold by a realtor employed there. In reality, Piper was being paid by a mysterious man to take care of the cottage and to make sure that no one went near it. So Piper set out to terrorize Tony and Annabelle at every turn to get the cottage back.

Meanwhile, Annabelle was having psychic visions and feeling cold spots in the house. There was lots of weird stuff going on, like secret rooms hidden behind the paneling, strange Caribbean voodoo artifacts, and a painting that cried real tears. Finally, Annabelle realized that sometime in the past, a murder had taken place in the cottage. She had dreams about a black man and a little black girl who was screaming. (I'm not making this up!!)

Jim, Hillary, Fletcher, and Claire gradually got drawn into the mystery because of Piper's wicked dealings. Piper, who didn't know who her boss" was, was also trying to find out the cottage's secret so she could blackmail him.She tried to frighten Tony and Annabelle out of the cottage by sending them a bomb in a music box, but Hillary wound up dead after she toyed with the box. The key to the whole mystery was some papers hidden inside an old doll,which proved who Piper's "boss" was.

Eventually, everyone ended up in Barbados, where Piper tried to kill them all. Jim fell in love with Annabelle and Tony was jealous. Fletcher and Claire were set adrift in a boat in a storm, but they survived. Piper kidnapped Jim and Annabelle and Tony came to their rescue. Piper met her presumed demise when she fell into a pit of lava (or something like that.)

After Piper's "death", everyone gathered at a sugar plantation where they met Victoria Tamerlaine and her aged mother Sharina, who lived with (surprise!!) Piper's mysterious boss. Fletcher, ace reporter that he is, guessed the truth and brought Alex to Barbados, where she immediately recognized Piper's boss as her dead father Brandon, and she promptly fainted dead away on the spot.

 

The story: 40 years before, Brandon had an affair with Sharina, and they had a child, Victoria. Knowing that society would never accept their mixed-race marriage, Brandon planned to move Sharina and Victoria from the cottage to Barbados. But Brandon's wife found out about the affair,and came to the cottage with a gun. She had just given birth to Alan (so Alex IS older!!), and she was very weak. She tried to shoot Sharina, but Sharina's brother Conrad took the bullet as little Victoria screamed. Conrad died on the floor of the cottage, while Brandon's wife (I think Penelope was her name) collapsed after the shooting and died shortly thereafter. Brandon whisked Sharina and Victoria away to Barbados, promising to join them when he could. Later he faked his death (Ha!) and hired Piper to look after the cottage.

 

After this story was told, Brandon

and Sharina died on the same day, and Alex and Victoria vowed to be sisters forever. Alex left and we have not heard Victoria's name since.

 

This story was lame because it cheated: Brandon died on camera in a nursing home a few years earlier, as Lucille Wexler watched.

 

First they made us think Amanda was Brandon's daughter, then they revealed that she was Alan's daughter, and now they're saying she's Brandon's daughter again? What's the deal?

Let me tell you, it's not pretty. Amanda was raised by crazy Lucille Wexler, who was Brandon Spaulding's one-time mistress. Lucille always believed that Amanda was Brandon's child by another liaison, but on his deathbed, he revealed to her that Amanda was really Alan's daughter, by a woman named Jane Marie Stafford. Jane Marie had worked in the Spaulding home as a teen, and she & the teen-age Alan had a love affair. But Jane Marie never told Alan she was pregnant, and Brandon took care of everything.

 

Jane Marie left town and changed her name to Jennifer. She later married a man named Walter Richards, who died in a car accident in 1980, as they were driving through Springfield. Jennifer & daughter Morgan stayed in town. Lucille, who had been been searching for Jane Marie, finally recognized her in Jennifer. The truth came out, shocking Amanda to the core, and she miscarried the baby she was carrying.

Fast-forward to 1997. Roger learns that Alexandra has secret papers that could bring down the Spauldings. He teams up with Amanda to track them down. The "papers" turn out to be Amanda's birth certificate, which shows her parents to be Brandon Spaulding and Jennifer Richards. Amanda is once again shocked to the core & drives Alexandra out of town for keeping this secret for so many years.

 

This latest development raises several questions. How could the teen-age Jane Marie have slept with yucky old Brandon when she had the virile young Alan? If she was sleeping with both of them, how can anyone be sure who the father is without a DNA test? And, most important, why is the mother's name on the birth certificate "Jennifer Richards" when this was a name that Jane Marie Stafford took years after giving birth? A writer's slip, apparently, since if it was deliberate, Alan should have caught the error immediately and pronounced the birth certificate a fake. But maybe he prefers to keep the truth to himself, and Amanda's paternity will be switched once again somewhere down the road.

[cassadine1991]

I don’t get why they didn’t bring Victoria to Springfield. There could’ve been more Spauldings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Changing Amanda’s paternity was really unnecessary and makes no sense

[Mitch]

Agreed..but it does give a kind or reason for Alex being out of character nasty to Amanda on her return. Yes, Amanda voted against Alex's pet project, but Bev Alex was shown to have a friendly relationship when Amanda came back for a Christmas Episode..and BevAlex was always supportive of other women (besides Reva and India) to be that angry towards another women...

 

I do think that from the backstory Brandon COULD have been Amanda's father..(I would have had him rape Jennifer which fits his character...) but the birth certificate was dumb and sloppy..and what could have been a good story was screwed up..(not to mention Poser being so young..) with sloppy writing and no follow through...(Alex would never have run, she would have stayed and fought..) Amanda who was shown to want Alan's approval..suddenly had the upper hand.. having Roger egg her on..would have been great..(kicking Alex and Alan out of the mansion,etc.)

[DRW50]

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No dates on these, but the second episode seems to be older as they mention Labor Day coming up. The first short clip carries on immediately from the 9/2/86 episode Soaps Past put up last month.

 

You can always see the resemblance between John Bolger and Jerry ver Dorn. And both so stunning. 

 

I just find Calla completely draining as a character. I wonder if that's why she didn't stay around. I can't remember what secret she is hiding about Jessie's birth (weren't there rumors the show was going to reveal Lillian was Jessie's mother?).

 

The show seems so unfocused at this point. You have some strong individual scenes, like the one where Roxy talks to Johnny about the difference between loving someone and being in love with them, yet so many confusing and difficult to care about storylines. 

 

The show seemed to be attempting a couple-oriented focus at this point, but I don't have much investment in those couples. Fletcher and Maeve are alright...and Peter Simon and Ellen Parker already have an easy chemistry, even though they'd just started working together. I always thought they worked together well, which meant the show having Ed repeatedly cheat on her made him look even worse. 

 

[Mitch]

Calla had herpes...that was the big secret. I remember the hilarious scene of Jessie reading her medical report (Cedars had the worst patient privacy policies on earth) and the zoom in to "Herpes" and she ran out into the street and may have been hit by a car (or the audience was hoping that) and maybe she just went running around SF until boring Simon caught up to her.  Calla was just one of those extra characters not needed on the show, like the whole Sampson crowd with the record company that stayed too long ..again, if they needed someone in that age range to pair with Ross, why not recast Hope??? Especially with Alan returning.

[DRW50]

 

Thanks. Oh I think I remember hearing about the herpes, I wondered if this was more. I guess not. Who comes up with that as a major storyline? They used to parody this in the educational shorts on MST3K. Your description sounds hilarious. Why was Jessie running out on the street? Did she think she had herpes too? 

 

I agree with you about Hope, and those extra characters. Jackson or whatever his name is - always just there, and in this episode, with the same frightening mullet Valene had on Knots Landing around this time. Liz Taylor raised a child to be more stylish than that. I think even SOD asked why he was always there doing nothing.

[victoria foxton]

@DRW50 GL tried for most of 1986 to make Simon & Jessie into a big super couple.  One of the few good things Manetta /Anderson did was getting rid of them. And i actually liked Simon. But not with BLAND Jessie. I loved Billy Ocean's  When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going playing in the background. Never knew that Vanessa interacted with Simon. Calla was so unlikable. Just can't stand that Herpes ridden bitch. Meave was always BLAND. Did like her friendship with India. Kristi Ferrell was really good in her scenes. I strongly doubt medical exams to become a Doctor are taken this way

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 Was this retconned later? With Claire taking the exam. I'm confused.

Edited January 9, 2021 by victoria foxton

[soapfan770]

 

He later was absolutely dreadful on Dallas as that art museum owner Lucy fell head over heels for, he obviously fell far from the tree as far as talent was concerned. 
 

I agree those 1986 GL eps are very unfocused and seem to be a mishmash of everything. Was this Ryder’s tenure?

 

Something I wanted to touch base on with a 1990 episode @Soapsuds had shared was while it was interesting to see some of the fallout from the Dana Jones & Looney Rae Rooney story, I kind of hated the show had styled  Sherry Stingfield’s Blake look like she was 35 years old or something. Just awful.

[Mitch]

LOL..yes, SS was styled so old. I know EVERYONE loves her as Blake, but I found her campy and her pairing with AM especially with RH..she looked like a lumberjack compared to him. 

 

Vanessa was SO wimpy during this time, going back to Long defusing her right after she married Billy, which made no sense, what made them fun was Van constantly slapping the crap out of Billy and him trying to tame her shrew. They would have made a great, fractious bickering couple, driving each other crazy but loving each other. I love how they made her "Oh, I was so worried about you," while wearing that dowdy nightgown..so NOT Van, she had more spunk with Matt even.

[DRW50]

 

Once they started moving Blake more away from the corporate life I thought they let Sherry become younger, but yes, she was often matronly and very ill-paired with Alan-Michael. 

 

I guess this isn't long before Jordan Clarke left the show for a few years. I know they have Alan planning to marry Vanessa for her shares while being in love with Reva - it's really just Vanessa as a plot device. I wonder if this is why Maeve chose to leave for about a year. 

 

The scene with Calla is interesting as she seems to be fishing for info and trying to manipulate, but it feels more like Maeve trying to add life to the scene than coherent writing. 

 

Looking at the credits it seemed to be Ellen Barrett and Mary Ryan Munisteri. I didn't think Ryder was gone by this point but I guess he was. 

 

(Barrett was, what, from SFT...?)

 

Poor Lucy always fell for bland men - or gay ones. 

 

Apparently it was, yes, with Claire. I remember even at the time some fans being confused about the retcon and finding the whole thing absurd and pointless. The only highlight was when Abby walked in on Claire and Rick "in bed," blasted Claire for her obvious lies, and then told Rick she was leaving him for other reasons anyway. 

 

Rebecca Staab is a good actress, but Jessie is just a non-role. GL never really had much luck with the ingenues. 

 

Sierra and Craig should have put a DMCA on them for Billy Ocean songs.

 

Simon is an interesting character, at times, but, even though I know the actor was straight, the character always reads as gay to me. That Simon/India pairing must have been like the Randee Heller/Billy Crystal conversion pairing on Soap.

[Mitch]

I think I remember at that time that Maeve said she was decided to leave just as they were giving her interesting things. I think her boredom of what Van had become helped make her decision but I think the over riding one was her kids? Agreed that Van is a plot device..it should have been Hope back in Alan's life and then Reva being the "back alley girl" that he was in lust with.  Van deserved her own stories, but I think they had a hard time fitting her in...Mo had the good wife role, Reva the temptress, Alex the cut shark business woman that Van previously had. When Maeve returned after Rauch I wanted her to move into the Alex role and take on Alan and Annie over Spaulding, and for that to cause problems with Matt, not that she was..old.

[DRW50]

 

So maybe she did like the stuff with Alan. I guess working with Chris Bernau must have been a plus. 

 

I think the problem with Vanessa for most of these years was she couldn't go back to being a vixen, but they wouldn't let her be an equal to Billy because the Lewis stories were all about machismo and only Reva was allowed to be her own person in their orbit. Vanessa was treated like a more muted Sue Ellen. She did have the Dinah story, but it doesn't entirely feel like it's about her. And there were other women on the show like India who were filling a complicated antiheroine role. She was boxed in.

 

In the early '90s, Vanessa managed to get some fire back while still being respectable, but then that faded with Matessa. I think your ideas would have worked well for her - and Matt could have felt like he was still her toyboy, not really part of her world, etc.

Edited January 9, 2021 by DRW50

[Bill Bauer]

 

 

It was syphilis. Not that it matters much. 

Edited January 9, 2021 by Bill Bauer

[titan1978]

I agree they often styled Sherry to look much older than she was.  She looked younger on ER several years later!

 

But part of that ended once she had those much more flattering hairstyles/color towards the latter part of her run.

 

Sherry’s Blake is one of my favorite soap bitches of all time.  She’s so much fun in scenes with Alexandra.  And Holly for that matter.

[Asb23]

Sherry and Beth Ehlers are only a year apart in age and when I see scenes now between the two from the late 80’s/early 90’s, Harley looks her age and Blake looks like a 40 year old business woman.