Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[Forever8]

And not to mention that Holly also had a niece Emily too that could've added to the dynamic too. 

[Khan]

IIRC, Ken was a red herring suspect in the Nursery Rhyme Stalker story; and I think there might have been some scenes, too, where he encountered trouble getting work on account of his past; but, yeah, I don't think Barbara Esensten and James Harmon Brown knew what to do with him beyond that.

[zanereed]

Absolutely. Thinking back to 1998, even if Berjer had retired from acting, it would have been interesting to have Barbara die off camera,  and suddenly Holly learns that Barbara wants to be buried in Springfield. This results in having Ken, Emily, and Andy all return to Springfield for her funeral. Holly and Blake immediately find themselves surrounded by family - Holly having to look after two brothers for different reasons, Emily figuring out how to engage with her perhaps-estranged family (maybe Janet purposely kept Emily away from them), and Blake dealing with relatives she barely knows. It would have been fun to see if Blake would identify with "Uncle Andy" based on her past behavior (again, depending on who that would have cast as Andy).

[Khan]

That's how *I* wrote it in my GL fanfic.  Years after leaving Springfield, I wrote, Janet married a San Francisco-based FBI agent, who later legally adopted Emily, and who would inspire Emily to work for the agency as well.  That way, I figured, you'd have built-in conflict if/when she and Ken were reunited, as Emily would regard her stepfather (still alive, as was Janet) as her "real" father, and Ken would always feel guilty that another man got to fill that role in his daughter's life.

Of course, *my* hope would be that Ken and Emily WOULD bond, eventually; and that both he and her stepdad would walk her down the aisle at her wedding (...to Rick Bauer).

[Paul Raven]

Nov 1983

'Guiiding Light’ axes Hope as 'old guard’ is written off By JON-MICHAEL REED NEW YORK —

It happened without warning She was in Springfield one day securing a divorce and then on to New York the next. It has to rate as one of the quickest exits by a major soap character in quite a while And one of the sloppiest The lady In question is Hope Bauer Spaulding played by Elvera Roussel on “Guiding Light"

A few years ago when the show began rating among the top three or four daytime soaps Miss Spaulding was enmeshed in a "juicy” love quadrangle with Alan Spaulding and Rita and Ed Bauer. That particular story was largely credited with renewing viewer interest in the three-decade-old serial. A succession of writers and producers diminished the importance of three of the characters (The actress who played Rita had the foresight to move out of her own volition before she could be “wasted”)

But none of them seemed to have  pursued an apparent goal of ridding 'GL' of its former character image other than the current regime. Miss Spaulding is merely the latest casualty of what must be a plan to beget a new "GL" with story focus moved from familiar core characters to recently introduced ones. What's left of the “old guard” receives storyline scraps. Like many other soaps these days continuity familiarity and family ties have become dirty phrases.

The show's leading man Philip Spaulding Marler as attractive and good as he is as played by Grant Aleksander doesn’t have a family (his father and daddy's lady love were shipped out two months ago) The only other young folk on the show with any familial ties to long-running characters — Rick Bauer and Kelly Nelson — may as well be fatherless and uncleless respectively.

There isn't an evident bond to link them to the past There is no sense of succeeding generations which is one of the strongest viewer-responsive aspects of soapdom. On “GL” lately the prime stories have involved people who are not merely unrelated to the show’s core but who are virtually strangers. The mystery of Annabelle Sims' traumas was excruciatingly drawn-out but the problem wasn’t just a laggardly paced story. The problem was compounded by the fact that the audience didn't know this lady. How can' one empathize with a soap character who has no past or links to people already established?

The resolution which supposedly affected almost every Springfield resident with the name of Bauer Reardon Chamberlain or Lewis seemed tagged on as an afterthought. An essentially Intriguing story lost its impetus by disavowing time-honored soap opera principles The newcomers are taking over the town. Even Nola and Quint who only a year ago were at an exciting story forefront have lost their luster. Miss Roussel remains optimistic however “After five years it's time to go to move on I loved everybody on the show but in a way 1 feel a sense of relief" she says.

[vetsoapfan]

Jon-Michael Reed's obvious vexation at TPTB's destructive decimation of a once-fine show permeates his critique.

All the gratuitous changes infuriated longtime fans, and ended up crippling The Guiding Light in the long run.

[zanereed]

To think, that was just in 1983. One year later, and the canvas would look even more different...and not for the better, IMHO.

[AMCOLTLLover]

1983 was the year I started GL. I started with April or May. It was when Kelly and that blonde girl got divorced. I forgot her name.

Amanda left and Billy and Mindy got introduced!

But what really hooked me was the Anabelle Simms mystery and I thought the transition of the old characters out and the new ones in happened quiet alright. Annabelle’s story included all family’s of the show and I was really intrigued by it.

The Spaulding - Bradley-Beth drama was amazingly done.

i loved 1983

[vetsoapfan]

Right. By 1984, the venerable, stable and classy The Guiding Light was no more. Overrun with often-irrelevant and/or abrasive newbies, and featuring low-brow, far-fetched fantasy and "camp" plots, the next several years saw the light dim significantly.
 

[Soaplovers]

I liked the Beth/Mindy/Rick/Phillip story, plus the introduction of Alexandra & India.

1984 still had some of the elements of the traditional GL and the Bauer's were still the anchor of the show during that year.

I actually think 1985 was when the show stopped being the GL of yesteryear in many ways (Reardon's were all but gone by mid 1985, while the Bauer's weren't as frontburner as they were before).

[zanereed]

I didn't necessarily have issues with 1983. Phillip finally found out that Justin Marler was his biological father after being on TGL for 7 years (real time), and I felt the reveal was written well. However, there was never a true impact of that reveal because Justin was written out of the show shortly thereafter. Meaning, there were no real ramifications for Justin/Phillip/Alan, and that story in itself could have lasted for years.

I also didn't mind the Eli/Annabelle Sims story, but it wasn't a great send-off for Bill Bauer, a true legacy character since the TV show debuted in 1952. I didn't question the retcon of Bill Bauer knowing Henry and Brandon, as Bill was in Public Relations, so he could have well been a rep for both men and their respective businesses in the past. However, Bill's death seemed pointless after the storyline concluded. I wondered with Bill finally dead, that some romantic storyline would be given to Bert. I know Pam Long intended for HB and Bert to be romantically involved the following year, which had to be scrapped due to Charita's health and eventual passing.

My real issue was a year later, when Springfield's legacy cast had essentially been gutted by Kobe. By the end of September of 1984, Ed Bauer, Katie Parker, and Ross Marler were the only legacy characters left on the canvas, and the person playing Ed by that point was the second recast in three years. Granted, not all was the fault of Long and Kobe. Don Stewart was fired for not wanting to play out the proposed Alexandra/Mike/Lillian love triangle, and Peter Simon wanted out after three years. I still think killing off Hillary for storyline purposes was not a great choice, however. I suppose Kobe and Long believed that as long as they had Charita around as their anchor (and Kobe definitely wanted to keep writing for Charita, from what I've read), that any changes they made would be eventually be smoothed over...?

Regardless, I never watched TGL intently after 1984. I came back occasionally after Chris Bernau returned as Alan in 1986, but was never invested again until Maureen Garrett and Michael Zaslow returned in 1989, and that eventually wore off after 1993 (after the death of Maureen).

 

[j swift]

Hillary was not my favorite character because she was always a bit of a butt-in-ski.  She was clearly the third choice for most of her romantic partners including Kelly, Floyd, Jim and Fletcher.  She also lacked the sex appeal of most of her female rivals like Nola, Katie, and Morgan. 

In fact, I have a theory that Marcia Clarke must have had a sexy headshot which is why casting agents from both GL and OLTL cast her in such vixen-esque role as Hillary and Tina.  But, once she appeared on screen there was very little spark (no pun intended given that Hillary died in an explosion)

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[zanereed]

Actually, that's true, but I guess I never saw the character of Hillary as "vixen-esque" (to be honest, I never saw Clarke as a good Tina recast, either). I liked the Bauer brothers actually having a sister, though, and I thought Clarke had a good rapport with Charita Bauer (even though she wasn't Bert's actual daughter). I don't remember much of Linda McCullough in the role of Hillary, but maybe a Hillary recast would have worked moving forward.

[victoria foxton]

I liked Hillary. She could be a gossip and a  butt-in-ski. She was never Jim or Fletcher's third choice. Fletcher and Hillary liked each other. And enjoyed a flirtation of sorts. Which sadly never went anywhere. But they were never a couple/lovers.

Edited February 2, 2022 by victoria foxton

[Khan]

Yeah, I liked Hillary, too, and I thought killing her off was a bad move on TPTB's part.  Maybe she wasn't a vixen or a stone babe, but she was a steadying presence for long-time viewers who missed the rest of the Bauer clan.