Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[rlj]

I actually liked Matt and Beth.

Janey Gret is really pretty and Stephen Yates is yummy, I understand they (Ben and Eve)were a popular couple in their day.

Didnt like the Mob or San Cristobal stories either.

[Mitch]

I liked the "idea," behind Matt and Beth. I never liked Mattessa and think that Van would be bored to death with her young hunk after the sex thing wore off. I do like that at that time they had Van go back to Spaulding and get back her "Ummpph," I liked that they had her go up against Vicki, and Alan, and can see why they would use her in that capacity instead of Alex (once again, love Marj, hated Marj's Alex.) MK makes a much better icy bitch then a loving matriarch sighing away in her rose garden. I think that after they killed Mo off the show was desperatley tyring to find a woman in that age range to fill that role and since MG wasnt the type they tried to shoehorn MK into it.

Beth needed to be redeemed after they make her the spoiler in the Phillip Harley and Matt was the type of laid back hot guy she needed. However, they continued on with the selfish bitchy Beth and had it all be about age, and calling Vanessa old and have her question her sexuality and age..which Van would never have done, she would just smash Beth under her heel!(of course, I would never have given Van the miracle baby..I would love for one soap opera woman to say, "You know, I had enough kids, I am done now, and by the way, forget about the marriage thing, I did it and am tired of it.")

The Mob was another good "idea," SF had become awfully upper middle class with the Reardons all assimilated or gone, and the Coopers the same, and with Buzzard winning the lottery . The show needed an "outsider," family to come in and stir things up and having a hispanic family was a good idea. Also having a less then sweet matriach was a good idea, but Carmen was a cartoon, where she should have been a morally ambivalent woman who, while wanting to ascend into SF society, also resented the people who were already there. Simply having some shady ties to organized crime or something less then legit would have been fine, maybe her husband was a mobster who was killed, and she was trying to legitimize the family. Having her hate Chelle but using the Bauer name and ties to the rest of the families would have been more interesting then what we got.

[Mitch]

LOVED Sonni/Solita...lol..Sonni smacking Reva with those pictures..wonder if that was a choice on Forbes part as Zimmer looked kind of surprised. Also, funny that Reva and her goofy brother had the same exact hair do! I never liked that guy.

[soapfan770]

Haven't had time to post in the classic soap threads much lately however I'm posting here the highlights of the 2nd half of 1997 that was published in 1/7/98 Soap News, some of it very interesting to read:

[soapfan770]

PS did you guys know Paul Rauch once tried to nab Michelle Stafford as a recast Annie there in 1998? No lie, I'll be posting the story later...

[DRW50]

Frances Foster

They were right to not do a Matt/Dinah pairing, even though they tried several times. It would have just been trashy, although at least it may have caused them to abandon Vanessa/Matt (yay!).

I didn't remember that Zaslow was still undiagnosed (or at least to the public) by mid-97. I still remember first hearing the change in his voice, and worrying, wondering what it was, and thinking, after a few weeks, that hey, maybe it was getting better, and then...ugh, it hurts to think about. I still can't believe what happened.

[jam6242]

I thought I was the only one who hated all that health food stuff Carrie used to talk about all the time. Used to get so sick of her and Ross sitting around eating yogurt all the time. And I thought Carrie was too milquetoast for Ross. I did like crazy Carrie though!

[jam6242]

Loved these, especially the Lisa Brown scenes. I remember the scenes at the hospital, I thought for certain Nola had gone through with the abortion. Poor Floyd, he was a nice guy but I was so happy when Nola later ditched him at the altar. Lisa is one of my all-time favorite soap actresses, and Nola is near the top of my favorite soap characters.

Edited November 15, 2011 by jam6242

[DRW50]

Lynn Deerfield has passed away. I'm so sorry we never got to see her work as Holly. I remember Maureen Garrett talking about how Lynn would sometimes show up early in her run as Holly, just to watch taping, and Maureen would wonder if she was being replaced. But it sounds like Lynn had a very full life away from GL.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/obituaries/former-guiding-light-star-lynn-deerfield-dies/article_dd767e24-b52f-54fb-83bb-474afacd83bc.html

[saynotoursoap]

Lynn was sublime as Holly. I loved her throaty voice and seductiveness. This is purely hearsay, but I had a friend who knew Lynn and her husband Bill, and according to her, Lynn was very keen to continue on GL. Allegedly, she vacated the role at her husband's command. I always thought that she probably regretted leaving, as her interpretation of Holly was so interesting. Lynn's characterization was quite different from Maureen Garrett's. It took the longest time for Maureen to win me over. Ironically, I would have to admit that Maureen is probably my favorite actress from the series, but I never quite forgot Lynn either. How sad that we have lost her at such a young age.

[DRW50]

What was Lynn's interpretation like? I know Holly was a very neurotic character from the start.

I wish that some of her work was out there.

[SFK]

That beautiful picture of her reminds me of Jennifer Garner.

[DRW50]

I posted this in the recast thread a few months ago.

[DRW50]

The bathtub scene in this is creepy as hell. I'm surprised that got past the censors.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIxt5Zr8p5o

[Paul Raven]

In January 66 John Boruff joined Agnes Nixon as headwriter.He had been playing Henry Benedict on GL.This was when Agnes took over AW,so she must have stayed on at GL for a while also.

Theodore and Mathilde Ferro became headwriters in May 67.