Guiding Light Discussion Thread

[Contessa Donatella]

Made me laugh, also wondering. And, not used to P&G having so much power. But, they did with  ATWT & GL, just not so much at NBC with AW.

[DRW50]

America is a deeply anti-Semitic country today, let alone in 1990. There's a reason soaps only had a handful of Jewish characters, even less in major roles.

[victoria foxton]

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Edited October 24, 2022 by victoria foxton

[Contessa Donatella]

That is freaking fascinating! Wonderful find, VF!

[bboy875]

From what I remember and I could be a bit off, but I think Harley started working for Mindy and she sent Harley to NY to meet with Matt, but she got stuck in a blizzard, so she stayed with Matt as he celebrated Hanukkah. I didn't hear about it being definite but I assumed they planned to pair the 2 as Robert Newman announced he was leaving so Josh and Harley were headed for a breakup 

[j swift]

One of the oddest tidbit about Pam Long's time on GL that I recall from our review of SOD news from the early 1990's is that her exit interview was actually done by her fiance.

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Edited October 25, 2022 by j swift

[FrenchFan]

From the Daytime Newsletter Serial (August 1978):

My favorite soap opera story of all time was the story of Leslie and Michael on "The Guiding Light". I've noticed this past year that when a story line concludes irreversably, you have when asked, told the story in full as a momento for people who will miss it most. Could you do this for the Leslie and Michael story — I would appreciate it very much. —Jennifer Hutchinson, Peoria, Ill.

Michael Bauer had already had a brief and tragic marriage as well as a bittersweet love affair before Leslie Jackson came into the lives of the Bauer family. Mike had married Julie Conrad, who was carrying his child, but Julie was an unstable young woman and died in an institution by suicide while their daughter Hope was still a baby. Mike felt he could best determine what direction his life should take if he left Springfield and went to Bay City (setting of "Another World") where he arranged to temporarily step in for John Randolph in his law firm. John, confined to a wheelchair with Meuniere's Syndrom, was deeply grateful to this young lawyer and went out of his way to befriend this newcomer. John's teenaged daughter Lee frequently babysat for Hope, apparently out of a desire to help, but in reality, because she had developed a strong crush on Mike and dreamed of marrying him. Pat Randolph, John's wife and Lee's step-mother, deeply appreciated the help Mike provided in the family legal matters and in keeping John's spirits boosted while the question of his recovery remained unanswered. Pat found herself confiding in Mike her depression over the situation and turned to him for comfort and friendship. But Mike's feelings grew beyond that, and soon after, Pat's did as well. But one afternoon Lee happened to see them in the park and overheard enough to realize what was happening. Feeling betrayed and furious at Pat, Lee tormented her stepmother with threats of exposure and became a rebellious, bitter member ot the angry generation, flirting with the unsavory people in the drug scene who would ultimately be responsible for her death a few years later. Realizing the pain and difficulty the situation was causing Pat, Mike made the decision to leave Bay City and return home to Springfield. 

During this time Dr. Steve Jackson and his daughter Leslie had become close to Mike's widowed mother Bert and his brother Ed. Bill Bauer's death had been traumatic to Ed and he had, like his late father, turned to alcohol. This could have ruined his surgical career but Dr. Jackson took him in hand, finding in Ed the son he had never had. To further make Ed his son, Steve encouraged Leslie and Ed to marry. They did, but because of parental pressure rather than real love and the marriage began to fail from the beginning. Michael and Leslie began to fall in love almost as soon as he returned but their feelings of guilt kept them apart. However, Ed, who was now drinking heavily again, left Springfield and began an affair with another woman, Janet Mason. This justified her own situation to Leslie and she confessed her love for Michael to Ed, hoping for her freedom and the chance to marry Mike. But Ed was now contrite and eager to rebuild his career and his life in Springfield. He begged her to take him back and give him another chance. Leslie's guilt and Steve's pressure were stronger than her resolve to end this bad marriage and she gave in. For a very short while it seemed successful and Leslie even became pregnant, but she later knew it could never work and filed for divorce, not even waiting for the baby to be horn. Her son was named Freddie, for Papa Bauer. 

Michael, meanwhile, who believed he'd lost Leslie for good, married Charlotte Waring, a beautiful but scheming young woman who took good advantage of his rebound vulnerability. She managed to convince Mike she'd be the wife he needed and the mother Hope deserved; but once married, she revealed her true colors, treating Hope badly and using Mike to her own advantage. Leslie found herself lonely and lost after her divorce and soon married Stanley Norris, a wealthy and influential tycoon who had two children virtually Leslie's own age. Leslie felt she would benefit from marriage to a man who was beyond youthful insecurities and Freddie would have the security of a father and a normal home. But normalcy was not what Leslie found in her marriage. Her husband's stepchildren hated him, the result of his embittered ex-wife Barbara's vendetta against him for di-orcing her. Stanley's son, Ken, ironically married Janet Mason, Ed's former lover, and his daughter Holly was infatuated with Roger Thorpe, a young man who was in love with Janet and tried to come between her and Ken. Then Stanley was murdered and to her horror, Leslie found herself on trial for her life. Mike, who had come to his senses and had left Charlotte, defended Leslie and she was acquitted when the real killer, the mother of Stanley's secretary who felt he "did her daughter wrong," was caught. But Leslie considered Mike still married, even though separated, and wouldn't see him. However, when Charlotte's ex-husband badly wounded Mike in an attempt to kill Charlotte, Leslie couldn't stop herself from rushing to his side, and they knew they had to be married. But Charlotte wouldn't cooperate. Desperate to remain the wife of a prominent attorney, Charlotte went so far as to lie on the witness stand in open court. She swore she and Mike were not separated; that she was at this moment carrying his child! The judge, however, saw her for what she was and granted the divorce. But Steve Jackson believed Charlotte and desperately tried to stop Leslie from marrying Mike. When it appeared that he would fail, the anxiety brought on a heart attack, accomplishing what he had not been able to do; Leslie couldn't risk killing her father by bringing on another attack. Eventually, however, Steve came around and gave them his blessing. They were married at the Bauer home and the future seemed radiant. But another bombshell fell - this in the person of a mysterious woman from Europe, Mrs. Madeleine Ballinger, who turned out to be Leslie's mother! Years younger than Steve, she had run off with another man leaving Leslie, an infant, with Steve. The boat she had planned to take sank and she was reported dead. Now, however, she told Steve, maturity had changed her values and she convinced him to back her London Boutique with suggestions of a future together. But Mike discovered the money was not for her shop but for expensive psychiatric care for her lover. Furious at losing the money Victoria fired a parting shot — that Steve was not Leslie's father. Steve reluctantly admitted to Leslie that this was true but that he had always loved her as a daughter and felt in his heart that she was his. At first Leslie felt betrayed and resented Steve, with eventually her love for him overcame her contusion and their relationship was repaired. Leslie and Michael had a wonderful marriage. Not that it was "perfect," it was too realistic to be that. They had to cope with Hope's emerging womanhood, complicated by her affair with an older man, one of her professors; with Leslie's decision to go back to college, an involvement Mike felt was too much for a wife and mother; with Mike's close involvement with Ann Jeffers, a woman who had abandoned her son when she left his drinking, cheating father, and was now looking for the child and working for Mike to defray the cost of this investigation. But all of this could be taken in stride. They had all the love, all the trust, all the respect and concern for each other to weather any difficulty. But Ann Jeffers' husband, running away trom a confrontation with Mike, ran Leslie down with his car and she died, senselessly and suddenly, leaving her husband and her son with unconsolable grief but with memories of unlimited love. 
 

[TEdgeofNight]

Pam Long has had a couple of WTF moments/interviews. Despite being credited as Pamela Long Hammer during her first headwriting stint on GL, she later claimed that she was never married to Jay Hammer. And during GL's final week on the air, she gave an interview where she said that she wasn't the one who wrote Reva's post partum depression story that lead to Reva driving off the bridge and Kim Zimmer exiting the show in the summer of 1990. Pam was credited as headwriter into early 1991. 

[Contessa Donatella]

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LQwA: GL: Pam Long had someone specific in mind for Reva Shayne, not KZ, a redhead, who was it? LQwA: A:  I believe we have a winner, I mean, an answer: Carla Borelli played Reena on TEXAS & she turned Reva down because she was too much like Reena. Pam played Ashley & then wrote on the show. 

[Sapounopera]

I also believe that Pam Long wanted Carla Borelli to play Joanna (who later became Reva).

[Contessa Donatella]

I don't know anything about Joanna. Who is she? I do know that Reva & Reena were somewhat alike as characters and of course, they sound alike. When Kim revealed that she had not been first choice, it was quite a surprise!

[Sapounopera]

Billy's ex-wife was originally named Joanna. 

[Contessa Donatella]

Oh, okay, so Reva knew Joanna? Did she die?

[Paul Raven]

The Reva character was originally named Joanna.

[Contessa Donatella]

Okay. I was getting a bit confused there for a minute!

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Thnx for the save.