Guiding Light discussion thread

[Soapsuds]

I told Alan to ask Carolyn about her time on ATWT. He acted like he knew already what to ask. I doubt he knew she was on ATWT although he pretended to know.

 

Someone mentioned that Morgan was Marland creation and once he left she was fired and most of the rest of his creations.

 

 

Edited June 9, 2021 by Soapsuds

[Soapsuds]

Here is the link for it!

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[Mitch]

Ha..yes, weird. I remember her (I believe it was her..)going to one of the GL Fan Club Events and saying she met the Mel actress who was nice...but she didn't know who she played??? I mean, I HATED Buzz, the Santos and anything San Crud but I knew who those people were in relation to the story...reminds me of when they killed Richard a fan almost got hit by a car as she was so distracted he was leaving, or Della, who was this HUGE Gush fan and would disparage anyone else's opinion on their domination of the show and the changes and would tell people "real" fans would shut up, who almost threw herself off a cliff when Gus died..and "Ill NEVER watch this show again!" (scary that I remember all these people but damn if I can remember someone's birhtday!0

 

Well, he did give Charita a back handed compliment that when she went from the "star" of the show, to the worried Mom and Grandma to everyone's supportive mother figure,  who takes coats, she committed to it. Obviously not realizing we all thought of her as the star to the show and that being support and not being kidnapped and chewing scenery everyday does not lessen your impact. I don't know how Nadine's death was more important then Mo's (and while I felt the character was a useless copy of later Nola, I thought the death was disgusting) but again, he, like Marland was so tied into that family as an ideal replacement of his own (maybe) he has a different view.

[DRW50]

 

That sounds like him...

 

Kristen was fired about 7 or 8 months before Marland left and then Morgan the character outlasted him by 6-7 months - I'm not sure if Jennifer Cooke wanted to leave or was let go.

[victoria foxton]

Alan is just so inept. She stubbornly refuses to do any research. His mother was a fan. Alan clearly has never been. And it totally shows. She just did PR for some of them. Back in the 1800's. As she constantly reminds us. She's started as a bloody mess. She remains a bloody mess. She's clearly doing it for the money. I wonder how much YouTube pays her?

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Edited June 9, 2021 by victoria foxton

[John]

Thought I read Cooke was also fired when they wrote Morgan out

[Dan]

 

Dear God, is that an unpleasant blast from the past, lol. I remember Della, but dont think she ever roamed over here. There were, however, a couple of those trolls that made there way over here. The the-current-show-is-so-great-you-should-only-say-positive-things kind of fan. Those people can get bent. 

Edited June 10, 2021 by Dan

[wonderwoman1951]

wanted to note the passing of douglas cramer.  a supervising producer in the late 1950 for both ‘world turns (where he work closely with irna phillips) and gl, his is not a name familiar to a lot of soap fans, but it was he, in the early 1960s, who recognized that serials belonged on primetime as well as daytime. 

 

this is a link to his obit in the hollywood reporter

 

also check out interview for the television academy’s oral history

[slick jones]

In what year did Reva travel through the painting?   Was that 2001?

[~bl~]

The painting plot was in late 2001. 
 

I had heard of Douglas Cramer due to his ties with Aaron Spelling though had no idea he worked at P&G.

[Sapounopera]

http://thomasorourkeactor.blogspot.com/2018/05/the-guiding-light-memories.html

[vetsoapfan]

 

Lesley Ann Monroe was one of those characters whom I loathed to the point of being unable to watch her on screen. I had to FF through all her scenes. I couldn't stand the actress' take on Laura on ATWT, either, but at least I was SUPPOSED to dislike her, LOL.

 

Yes, KV was fired from both TGL and OLTL. The gossip was that she was unprofessional at TGL, didn't always study her lines, showed up late, etc. The problem was, as you say, she had something special. Her replacements on both shows were absolutely dreadful, and it really showed how unique Kristen had been.

 

 

Yikes. People like that (and they exist in all areas of fandom) strike me as being somewhat limited intellectually, and lacking a firm grip on reality. I try to ignore them as much as possible. If all my favorite actors and characters are written off my shows, I am wont to lose interest and stop watching too, but getting so hysterical is (as you say) weird.

 

 

 

I took those remarks to mean that Mulcahey was acknowledging Bert Bauer's shifting place on the canvas. She did go from being a lead in the 1950s and 1960s, to a supporting player in the 1970s and 1980s...but NEVER phoned in her performances or slacked off, no matter what material she was given by TPTB. I agree with you, however, that to longtime viewers, Charita Bauer was always the heart of the show; the hub of the wheel. Once she was gone, TGL did not feel like TGL anymore. 

 

Nadine's death was both gratuitous and vile, and I certainly would not have allowed it to happen, but to me, Maureen's death was so much more significant because she had become the new matriarch of the Bauer family. At the time of Mo's death, we had no Meta and no Hope, so Maureen was basically it. I did not believe the show could survive after losing Bert, but then to slaughter the "replacement" matriarch, for no valid reason, was simply one of the worst blunders in soap operas' history. 

 

 

At the time, it was reported that she was let go. If you recall, Gail Kobe and TPTB were firing the vast majority of actors who had predated them. I did not really mind losing Cooke, to be honest, as she was tepid and uninteresting in the role.

Edited June 14, 2021 by vetsoapfan

[DRW50]

 

Thanks. That makes sense, as Kathleen Cullen and Geraldine Court were let go around the same period. 

 

I always find the concept of the Richards women and their relationships more interesting than what we got onscreen. There's something very wan about the way Marland wrote for his central characters at GL - you have very serious, angst-ridden people with no real inner life, with panto baddies like Josh or Vanessa (or Nola before they made the character a heroine) on the other side. Vigard is the one who made Morgan feel more real to me. 

 

I will say that I do think Cullen was able to give Amanda more of an inner life when the Dobsons were writing the show.

 

I've also heard some here say that Pat Falken Smith wrote well for Amanda. 

Edited June 14, 2021 by DRW50

[victoria foxton]

Totally agree with your assessment Carl. I loved the way KV played Morgan. JC was so BLAND. JC does get better towards the end of her run. She had good chemistry with Phillip. From what little i've seen of Mark Evans. I didn't find him to compelling. The whole Mona Enright/Rebecca Cartwright saga was extremely convoluted.

Edited June 14, 2021 by victoria foxton

[FrenchBug82]

A reminder of something I preach on every thread about every show: whenever we criticize casting and recasting choices of producers, headwriters, etc, we NEED to keep in mind there is a LOT we don't know about and some human resources decisions are made like they would be in any other business. It is not always the quality of the underlying work that makes someone unacceptable to keep around.

We understandably often talk about those casting choices and firings as if it always came down to whether they were good actors and whether the writer wanted to write for them. But there are plenty of other things that came at play and I bet most apparently puzzling casting decisions could easily be explained if we had the full picture of what goes on BTS.